Introduction and Objective: In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced higher education institutions including ISPITS to switch to distance learning (DL). This study aims to assess this experience according to teachers' appreciation Tetouan ISPITS (ISPITS-T) and identify its limitations. Methods: The study is based on a digital questionnaire administered online to 21 ISPITS-T teachers who taught distance education courses from 16/03/20 to 09/06/2020.It consists of multiple-choice questions, a Likert scale and open-ended questions on the perception of (DL) during confinement; Information and Communication Technologies in Education (ICTE); constraints of the (DL) as well as Suggestions and Benefits. Results: The results show that half of teachers (53%) have already taught remotely, and that (DL) is useful (60%) or even very useful (32%) during confinement. However, (63%) teachers prefer hybrid teaching (Combination of face-to-face and distance learning) and consider it more useful. All teachers (100%), have already received related training in (ICTE), the majority (84%) is formed on e-learning platform (Moodle and Classroom). Among the constraints encountered, problems of Internet connection and motivation of students (63%), others (43%) claim software problems (Platform, Site, Application...) The benefits of (DL) advanced by teachers (89%) are self-learning, followed by availability of educational content (53%) and improvement of teacher-student interaction (26%). Conclusion: Efforts remain to be made; the establishment of a structured accompaniment program targeted on the needs of clinical training and on the needs of teachers in this direction is essential.


With good reason, several scholars have challenged the exaltation of long-distance trade as a prime mover in the rise of civilization. However, in dismissing the economic importance of long-distance exchange in the development of Maya civilization, Marcus (1983) has moved too far in the opposite direction.


The article deals with the ideas of humanization of education process in general and at school. The concepts of "humanization" and "democratization of education" in domestic education are described. It is stressed that in modern conditions, the idea of humanizing education carries an element of novelty, since it is aimed at a qualitative change in the entire education system, which for many decades has functioned on the principles of imperative and sociocentric approaches, Two sides of humanization are defined in the article. The educational infrastructure of Zaporizhzhia region is shown. . In a survey of 70 school directors and 120 deputy school directors, 70% of them note that they are working on the problem of humanizing the educational institution and are interested in helping to provide methods and technologies that contribute to the humanization of the educational process at school. The main principle of working with teachers in the context of the humanistic transformations of school is described in the conclusion.


Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Patients with massive PE have a high mortality rate, with two of every three deaths occurring in the first hour. The mainstay of treatment for PE is anticoagulation. However, when the patient is in extremis, intravenous lysis of the clot is indicated. Recently, mechanical fragmentation with or without pharmacologic thrombolysis has been shown to have a role in therapy for patients with massive PE, as well as in those patients who have a contraindication to anticoagulation. We discuss our experience with mechanical fragmentation in the treatment of PE and review the literature.


We describe a prototype ontology-driven information system (ODIS) that exploits what we call Portion of Reality (POR) representations. The system takes both sensor data and natural language text as inputs and composes on this basis logically structured POR assertions. The goal of our prototype is to represent both natural language and sensor data within a single framework that, in addition to axiomatic reasoning, directly supports computations and is capable of discovering and representing new kinds of situations and thematic roles, (e.g., roles such as agent, patient and instrument), based on new compositions of existing representations. We applied our prototype in an intelligence analysis use case to test the hypothesis that a framework of this sort can produce usefully structured information from combined natural language and sensor data inputs. We further tested our hypothesis by adding an enhanced US Air Force ontology framework to our ODIS in order to (1) process a collection of sensor data, intel reports, and mission plans; (2) build composite POR representations from these data; and (3) machine analyze the fused results to infer mission threats.


In this paper we discuss our approach to learning classification rules from data. We sketch out two modules ofour architecture, namely LINNEO+ and GAR.LINNEO+, which is a knowledge acquisition tool for ill-structured domains automatically generating classes from examples that incrementally works with an unsupervised strategy. LINNEO+'s output, a representation of the conceptual structure of the domain in terms of classes, is the input to GAR that is used to generate a set of classification rules for the original training sel. GAR can generate both conjuctive and disjunctive rules. Herein we present an application of these techniques to data obtained from a real wastewater treatment plant in order to help the construction of a rule base. This rule will be used for a knowledge-based system that aims to supervise the whole process.


Seasonal populations of the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) and the velvetbean caterpillar, Anticarsia gemmatalis Hubner were surveyed during 1975-77 at Gainesville, Sanford, Bradenton, and Homestead, Florida. S. frugiperda was most abundant at Homestead during the spring and fall, and tended to be more numerous at the other locations during the summer and fall. A. gemmatalis larvae were present on soybeans at Homestead during all except 3 months of the study; populations peaked in the fall at all 4 sites.


The article consists of an introduction and comments to a number of reviews written by Petr Petrovich Potemkin, on the occasion of the tour by Diaghilev's troupe that took place in Paris in May 1913, and became one of the most significant events in Russian culture. This is followed by a reprint of three such reviews, commenting respectively on the three performances the troupe gave in the French capital: 'Games. The poem in dance', 'The Rite of Spring', 'The Tragedy of Salome'. These texts initially appeared in the Russian newspaper in Paris, and were never reprinted. Their reprint here serves not only as an illustration of the exceptionally fine style of Potemkin's theatrical journalism and his nuanced appreciation for the new art, but also shows him as its refined theoretician. The reviews are furnished with extensive commentary by Oleg Dmitriev.


The topic the title is Military Market - An Exclusive Club or Major Market Opportunity? I think it really depends on your specific product. I know a lot of people view the military as being an exclusive club. I think some of the people who have had the opportunity to see Morely Safer and the 60 Minutes crew come into their office and talk to them about $600 toilet seat really wish they weren't members of that exclusive club. But I have worked in the military area, where I am kind of complementing what Dr. Ionson had to present earlier, except I am kind of on the other side of the fence. I have been a defense contractor for 11 years, so I have a little bit different point of view than the government does. But a lot of what I am saying tends to be a near-term market kind of approach rather than a longer-term sort of product development kind of information. But there certainly is, you are right, a lot of money in the government. This year's military budget is about $290 billion dollars, on the order of $80 billion of that goes into buying things. So there is a lot of money out there. What I am going to be talking about today is how much of that money goes into lasers. I am going to try to quantify it and also give a little bit of a qualitative estimate of where the trends are going, what is going to be the next lasers to be bought.


Genetic algorithm(GA) is used to optimize the initial values of BP neural network,and GA-BP neural network is applied in the seabed classification.Using the backscatter data from multibeam echo sounder,the improved BP neural network is used to identify all kinds of seabed sediment types,such as rock,gravel,sand,fine sand and mud on the study area.Comparing the classification precisions between GA-BP and BP,the experiment results indicate that the GA-BP neural network approach is effective and reliable in the acoustic seabed classification.


The surface sensitive laser technique second harmonic generation has been utilized to probe the adsorption of p-tolualdehyde (TA) at the ice/vacuum interface. The non-Langmurian adsorption behavior can be explained by a model in which the TA initially adsorbs as a weakly bound precursor species that is highly mobile and eventually settles to form a more strongly bound species. The relative sticking coefficient for p-tolualdehyde on the ice surface was found to be 40% smaller than that on a NaCl crystal.


The paper will discuss the technical problems experienced by coastal States when considering and preparing claims to an extended continental shelf in accordance with Article 76 and Annex II to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.The initial requirement to ascertain whether the State has the possibility of claiming a extended continental shelf and if so the securing of the political will to make provision for the technical process required to bring it to fruition will be discussed followed by the technical pitfalls that await an unwary State in the desk top study procedure.The paper will then discuss the data gathering phase and the subsequent processing and assessment of the data and the possible technical difficulties that may be encountered.Finally the paper will outline the vexed question of claims on ridges, focusing on what a ridge actually is within the wording of Article 76. The differences, if any between an "oceanic" ridge and a "submarine" ridge and possible claim solutions that may be considered by the claiming State. The lack of guidance from the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) concerning this issue will also be highlighted.


Marketers have long recognized that, despite calls to protect the environment, we live in a disposable society, in which the adoption of sustainable initiatives is low. Taking a consumer's perspective, this study uses an extension of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to investigate the drivers of sustainable behavioral intentions using a cross-section of 511 Australians aged 18 years and older. Two models were tested, one using the 3 original TPB constructs and the other using the extended version of TPB, with the latter model justifying the inclusion of internal ethics and moral intensity. We encourage marketers to work together to encourage sustainable practices that have a long-term benefit to the planet and to increase consumers' knowledge and appeal to their motivations, particularly their internal ethics.


Citation: Syed SS, Souryal AO, Adhikari EH, Anyaehie KB, Shin JH, et al. (2023) Cesarean Delivery in Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Dependent COVID-19 Parturients: A Case Report. Obstet Gynecol Cases Rev 10:239. doi.org/10.23937/2377-9004/1410239 Accepted: April 11, 2023: Published: April 13, 2023 Copyright: © 2023 Syed SS, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.


Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of "Jianpihuashitang Decoction" and Chinese herbal medicine "Qingchangshuan" in the treatment of chronic ulcerative colitis.Methods Ninety subjects were randomized into two groups treatment group in which 60 cases were treated with "Jianpihuashitang Decoction" and "Qingchangshuan";control group in which another 30 cases were treated with "Jianpihuashitang Decoction".The clinical efficacy,clinical symptom score,fibercolonscopy score were observed before and after treatment.Results The total effective rate was 95.0% in treatment group and 76.7% in control group(P 0.05).Conclusion It is showed that "Jianpihuashitang Decoction" and Chinese herbal medicine "Qingchangshuan" has positive effect on chronic ulcerative colitis.


Introduction: Pregnancy can stimulate a mother's immune response to produce antibody to blood group antigens of fetal RBCs. Fetal RBCs with different blood group entering maternal blood circulation during pregnancy may stimulate maternal immune response. Maternal IgG anti-fetal RBCs can cross placenta to sensitize and destroy fetal RBCs causing hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN). Presently, screening of ABO, Rh typing and unexpected alloantibodies in pregnant women are routine tests for antenatal women. Therefore, the researchers were interested in studying the frequency of unexpected alloantibodies in pregnant women attending antenatal care at Sriphat Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University. Objectives: To determine the frequency of ABO, Rh typing and unexpected alloantibodies in pregnant women attending antenatal care of Sriphat Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University. Materials and methods: A total of 300 pregnant women attending antenatal care were tested for ABO, Rh typing and antibody screening. Antibody identification and autoantibody were performed on positive screening results. Results: ABO phenotyping revealed blood group O, B, A, and AB were 50%, 28%, 18.67%, and 3.33%, respectively. All samples were Rh positive. Positive antibody screening of anti-Lea and anti-Leb were found in two samples. Both were not autoantibody. These two antibodies showed 2+ agglutination at room temperature, 37 oC and anti-human globulin phases as were found in antibody screening. Conclusions: Anti-Lewis antibodies of both IgG and IgM were detected in this study. The IgG form may cause HDFN. Screening of alloantibodies in pregnant women, thus be helpful in monitoring one who is at risk of HDFN. Moreover, it is helpful for doctor to diagnose and plan for supportive care of HDFN.


We appreciate the interest of Dr Aazami on our work on coronary blood flow in patients with or without sinuses of Valsalva [1]. The new vascular prosthesis used in our patients was without doubt designed and promoted for its advantages in facilitating the surgical procedure and in reducing the tension on the coronary ostia anastomoses as clearly described in our previous articles [2,3] and its use has never been indicated for its possible prompting effects on coronary blood flow. Similarly, other possible implications, like the better expected longevity of stented bio-prosthesis as suggested by Dr Aazani or the better wash out at the base of the valve prosthesis, have been always considered as theoretical speculations [3]. With a similar approach we tried to speculate on the possible benefits, if present, of the sinuses of Valsalva on coronary blood flow. As a matter of fact, the use of this new Dacron graft offered us the possibility of a good experimental model to investigate if the sinuses of Valsalva might play a role in regulating the coronary blood flow or if their function is merely to regulate the opening and closing of the aortic valve. Regarding to the specific questions we would like to point out:


A tensioner (10) for a safety belt, comprising a gas generator (17), a gas generator (17) with a belt winding shaft (12) connecting the channel (16), one in the channel (16) displaceably arranged power transmission means (19, 25) for driving the belt winding shaft (12) due to activation of the gas generator (17), and in the channel (16) slidably disposed piston member (21) comprising a dimensionally stable spherical body (25) and, connected to the base body flexible sealing elements (22a; 22b) characterized in that the sealing element (22a) of a coating of the basic body (25) is formed.


Fully automated welding, including autogenous orbital welding, is the fastest growing segment of the welding industry. In fact, industry experts estimate 30 per cent: of all welding will be fully automated by 2020. As a result, many current manual weld operators may very well be expected to learn fully automated orbital welding, while new recruits to the field will likely have to be proficient in advanced welding techniques.


We demonstrate an RSOA-based WDM-PON using a spectrally distorted 622-Mbps Sub-carrier Multiplexing (SCM) signal at 1200-MHz for downstream and a 622-Mbps Non Return to Zero (NRZ) signal for upstream. Even though the overall transmission bandwidth for the SCM signal with transceivers originally for 1.25-Gbps is only 810-MHz, a clear eye opening can be obtained using a spectral predistortion technique to compensate the signal quality deterioration above 810-MHz. With the predistorter, downstream signal sensitivity is improved up to 1.4-dB, leading to a wider range of the optical modulation index of the downstream SCM signal.


SaveUSA encourages low- and moderate-income people to set aside money from their tax refund for savings by awarding a 50 percent match to successful savers. After 42 months, the program had sustained its earlier effects, increasing both the percentage of individuals with nonretirement savings and the average amount of savings.


The current state of pharmaceutical development of porphyrin-type macrocycles in medicine is highlighted. Currently, several porphyrinoid-based drugs are under various stages of development as phototherapeutic agents, X-ray radiation enhancers and boron neutron capture agents. These compounds represent a burgeoning class of pharmacological agents that are potentially useful in an array of treatment areas.


Climate-warming experiments in tundra require an accurate and repeatable technique for temperature increase, as temperatures are low and vegetation often heterogeneous. However, remote locations have constrained most studies to using uncontrolled, passive enclosures. Here we present an improved prototype of our Free Air Temperature Increase (FATI) system, an apparatus to elevate vegetation temperature in the open field by electronically modulated infrared irradiation. Three modifications are introduced to enhance precision and repeatability: (1) noncontact sensing of canopy temperature (Tcanopy) with semiconductors, (2) an optimizing device to attune individual FATI-units, and (3) high-speed data logging. Performance tests in the High Arctic tundra of northeast Greenland during autumn 1998 demonstrated more reproducible warming compared with the original system: average increments of canopy temperature (ATcanopy) obtained in different patches of vegetation varied no more than 0.16?C. Most fluctuation in ATcanopy was also eliminated, with instantaneous values within ?0.5?C of the target increment of +2.5?C for at least 87% of the time. Average warming in the upper


Background: Excessive activation of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) has been found in several inflammatory diseases. Previous studies have shown that acetylcholine (ACh) reduced the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and decreased tissue damage. Therefore, this study was designed to explore the potential effects and mechanisms of ACh on MMP-9 production and cell migration in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation in RAW264.7 cells. Methods: MMP-9 expression and activity were induced by LPS in RAW264.7 cells, and examined by real-time PCR, western blotting and gelatin zymography, respectively. ELISA was used to determine the changes in MMP-9 secretion among the groups. Macrophage migration was evaluated using transwell migration assay. Knockdown of a7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (a7 nAChR) expression was performed using siRNA transfection. Results: Pre-treatment with ACh inhibited LPS-induced MMP-9 production and macrophage migration in RAW264.7 cells. These effects were abolished by the a7 nAChR antagonist methyllycaconitine (MLA) and a7 nAChR siRNA. The a7 nAChR agonist PNU282987 was found to have an effect similar to that of ACh. Moreover, ACh enhanced the expression of JAK2 and STAT3, and the JAK2 inhibitor AG490 and the STAT3 inhibitor static restored the effect of ACh. Meanwhile, ACh decreased the phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of NF-κB, and this effect was abrogated in the presence of MLA. In addition, the JAK2 and STAT3 inhibitor abolished the inhibitory effects of ACh on phosphorylation of NF-κB. Conclusions: Activation of a7 nAChR by ACh inhibited LPS-induced MMP-9 production and macrophage migration through the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway. These results provide novel insights into the anti-inflammatory effects and mechanisms of ACh.


During the operation of monopulse radar, the high-resolution range profiles (HRRPs) of multiple targets may be overlapped, which will reduce the target recognition performance. In this study, a novel multi-target recognition method is proposed based on prior-independent density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (PI-DBSCAN) algorithm. In the training phase, various features of training samples are extracted, among which the distribution of strong range cells is utilised to obtain the parameters of PI-DBSCAN algorithm while the others are used to train the support vector machine (SVM) classifier. In the test phase, PI-DBSCAN algorithm is exploited at the radial distance-azimuth plane to segment the test multi-target HRRP. Afterward, the features of the segmented HRRPs are extracted and fed to the SVM classifier to be recognised. The proposed method has no constraint on the target motion and does not need to set any parameters manually, which benefits its application. The experiment results of real measured data show that the proposed method is robust against noise and the increasing target HRRP overlap ratio comparing with traditional methods.


Objective To observe the expression of survivin and Aurora B in human pancreatic cancer BXPC3 cells after the treatment of sulindac and to explore the potential mechanism. Methods MTr assay was used to determine the effect of sulindac on the proliferation of the BXPC3 cells. RT-PCR was used to detect the expression of mRNA level of survivin and Aurora B, western blot was used to detect protein expression of survivin and Aurora B Thr-232. Cell cycle and apoptosis were detected by flow eytometry (FCM). Results The BXPC3 cells were inhibited by sulindac in a dose and time-dependent manner; the expression of mRNA of survivin and Aurora B were both significantly decreased from 1.5644 and 0.6554 to 0. 4372 and 0.1132 (P< 0.01), the expression of survivin protein and the phosphorylation of Aurora B Thr-232 were also decreased from 1.2735 and 0.4680 to 0.2126 and 0.2546 (P<0.01); the proportion of cells in the G0/G1 phase was increased from (56.65±1.93)% to (70.58±3.21)% (P<0.01). Conclusions Sulindac had inhibitory effects on the growth of BXPC3 cells, the possible mechanism was via decreasing the expression of survivin which depressed the activity of Aurora B, then the CPC was influenced. The most of the cells were blocked in the G0/G1 phase, and the cells' mitosis was inhibited.

Key words:
Pancreatic neoplasms;  Sulindac;  Cell cycle;  Survivin;  Aurora B;  Chromosomal passenger complex


With the development of new energy sources, more and more isolated islands are interconnected to grid through MMC. However, isolated islands systems are easily influenced by harmonic disturbances. The analytical analysis of the harmonic transfer characteristics between AC/DC side of the Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) is of great significance for understanding the harmonic issues and stability analysis. In this paper, the quantitative analysis method of the harmonics on the DC-side excited by the AC-side harmonics of MMC is presented in this paper. First, the influence of harmonics on MMC electric system and control system is analyzed. Second, the equivalent MMC harmonic transfer model is established based on the average switching function. Finally, the analytical expression of DC-side harmonic transferred from AC-side is derived. A 232-level simulation model was built in MATLAB/Simulink. The accuracy and validity of the proposed analytical expression were verified by comparing the simulation results with the analytical results.


Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey. CONTENTS Abstract 1 Introduction 2 Purpose 2 Method and scope 2 Description of Sinclair Inlet 6 Hydrography 6 Climate 6 Data-collection program 6 Water current 12 Acoustic Doppler current profiler 12 Geoprobe-EMCM-13 Wind 13 Water level 13 Suspended sediment 13 Bottom sediment 14 Time-series data processing and analysis 14 Wind data 14 Acoustic Doppler current profiler data 15 Geoprobe data 15 Electromagnetic current meters 16 Light-emitting diode (LED) transmissometers 16 Optical backscatter sensors 16 Application of data logger analog-to-digital (A/D) calibrations 16 Observed winds, tides, currents, and sediment17 Currents 23 Observed currents 23 Harmonic analyses 35 Residual circulation pattern 43 Salinity and temperature 51 Bottom sediment 59 Suspended sediment 63 Bottom boundary layer and sediment resuspension 69 Near-bed velocity profile 69 B asic equations 70 Computation of parameters for estimating bottom shear stress 70 Drag coefficients for use with velocities measured with ADCPs 74 Bed skin friction 75 Estimation of critical shear stress 78 Comparison of bed skin friction with critical shear stress 79 Summary and conclusions 80 References 82 Appendix A.~Harmonic analyses of current-velocity data 84 Appendix B. Harmonic analysis of water-level data 137 in FIGURES 1. Map showing location of Sinclair Inlet and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Washington 3 2. Map of Sinclair Inlet, Washington, showing locations of acoustic Doppler current profiler, Geoprobe, wind, and tide stations 4 3. Diagram of Acoustic Doppler current profiler 8 4. Hourly currents measured at the east station with the accoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) at 1.9 meters above the bed and with an electromagnetic current meter on the Geoprobe at 1.2 meters above the bed 25 9-14. Graphs showing samples of current velocity vectors near bottom, middle, and near surface measured with acoustic Doppler current profiler: 9. East station during the winter deployment period 26 10. Center station during the winter deployment period 27 11. West station during the winter deployment period 28 12. East station during the summer deployment period 29 13. Center station during the summer deployment period 30 14. West station during the summer deployment period 31 15. Graphs showing hourly burst-average current velocity vectors measured with current meters on the Geoprobe at indicated distances above the bed 32 16-20. Graphs showing various parameters as functions of distance above the bottom at the east, center, …


А пеw mathematical model оf sugar crystallization process have bееп developed in
Moscow Food Industry Institute. The structuгe оf the model is shown, and the mathematical
expressions, which show the functions between the parameters of the vacuum-pan crystallization
аге described. The model сап bе used fог computer calculations оf the process.


The increasing use of power electronics based loads in recent years has resulted in the generation of harmonic and reactive currents to the common point of coupling at which the loads are connected to. Besides the commonly used passive filters, active power filters (APFs) are gaining interest lately in canceling the reactive and harmonic currents from the nonlinear loads to ensure that the resulting total current drawn from the main incoming supply is sinusoidal. This paper presents a non-conventional inverter topology known as the Modular Structured Multilevel Inverter (MSMI) as an active power filter. With the MSMI, the harmonic content generated by the APF can be reduced as it can produce more levels of voltage than conventional inverters. Additionally, it can reduce the voltage and current ratings of the power devices used while providing the convenience for future expansion in order to achieve higher power ratings for the APF system. A Unified Constant-Frequency Integration (UCI) control technique is adopted for the MSMI APF which features constant switching frequency operation and simple analog circuitry. To demonstrate the capability of the proposed APF system, simulation results of a single-phase MSMI APF with UCI controller is presented and its performance analyzed.


This issue of AAPI Nexus is the first of two devoted to AAPI work and employment issues. Three articles related to the "glass ceiling" are slated for publication in early 2006. The majority of the articles in the present issue focus on other kinds of barriers and problems. For the vast majority of AAPIs, as for all Americans, the primary determinant of financial wellbeing is earnings from employment. In the United States, the social status of one's family, economic forces, and institutional factors play fundamental roles in shaping fortunes. Human capital, the combination of formal education and on-the-job experience, affects productivity, which, in turn, plays some role in determining wages and earnings. Outcomes, however, do not rest solely on merit. Indeed, for many minorities, racial discrimination remains a potent barrier. For minorities who are immigrants, there are additional cultural and linguistic hurdles to decent employment. Given these multiple dimensions, it is not surprising that the labor-m...


In order to determine the noise reduction requirements of exterior construction for a proposed dispensary building at a Naval Air Station, measurements were made of peak noise levels and spectra of various aircraft operations flying near and over the site. The results of these measurements were significantly different from levels calculated using the CNR methodology. The differences appear to be related to the manner in which training missions are flown at military bases. Reliance on CNR data alone for noise reduction analysis at military bases can be misleading. To aid the architect in design and layout of the building, a series of guidelines was proposed. These guidelines related background noise criteria, speech communication distances within different spaces, and degree of acoustical privacy desired. Four allowable levels of intrusive noise were established, relating to these evaluations. The resulting allowable intrusive noise and the measured exterior noise exposure were then used to determine the n...


200 INTRODUCTION Lipoid proteinosis (LP) or Urbach–Wiethe's disease is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by deposition of hyaline in the skin, mucosa, upper respiratory tract and internal viscera(1). Classic manifestations include skin scarring and plaques, beaded eyelid papules and laryngeal infiltration that causes hoarseness, which is usually the first symptom during early childhood(2).Other clinical features that include abnormal dentition, seizures, airway obstruction, and corneal opacities are also reported(3). Histological findings include a capacious deposition of hyaline material around the capillaries, sweat coils, and in the thickened papillary dermis, which periodic acid-schiff (PAS) positive. The etiology of LP is currently unknown but the prognosis is often good. Recent molecular genetic studies demonstrate mutations in the extracellular matrix protein 1 (ECM 1) gene that is located on chromosome 1q21(4). Currently, no curative treatment is available for this disease.


Personal information and personality profiles, using the Cattell 16 PF, were collected from 93 sportsmen and sportswomen. Players involved in team (volleyball) and in individual (squash) sports were represented. Athletes were at a high level of competition (those selected for training at State level) and an average level. Discriminant analysis indicated significant differences in personality characteristics between squash and volleyball players and between high- and average-level competitors. Differences on a larger number of personality dimensions as a function of type of sport were also noted when analyses were carried out on the State (high) level competitors only.


Abstract. We show the existence and stability of frozen splay states as well as temporally chaotic splay states in a coupled sine circle map lattice system using analytic and numerical techniques. The splay states are observed for very low values of the nonlinearity parameter, i.e., for circle maps which deviate very slightly from the shift map case. We also observe that, depending on the parameters of the system, the splay states bifurcate to mixed or chimera splay states, consisting of a mixture of splay and synchronised states, together with kinks in the phases of some of the maps and then to a globally synchronised state. We estimate the parameter regions where these pure states and the mixed states are seen. We also briefly show that similar spatial splay structures can exist in experimentally realisable systems like Josephson junction arrays and Hartley-like oscillator arrays.


This paper analyzes problems of oil leakage and electric discharge of U and V phase of 500 kV Chuanshan No.2 main transformer in process of power cut.By checking,it discovers there is oil oozing at the root of U phase lead,the grounding cooper bushing of the lead is slightly blocked and there is oil leaking around V phase.Analysis indicates faults of end screens of U and V phase high voltage bushing are respectively resulted from bad grounding caused by improper testing operation and bad touch caused by loose lead.By further oil chromatogram testing,no alkyne gas is found which leads to the conclusion that there is no electric discharge happening inside the bushing and electric discharge is limited to the end of the lead.It finally draws a conclusion that bad grounding of the end screen of U and V phase high voltage bushing is the main reason for causing discharge to suspended potential over the grounding while electric discharge is only limited to the end of lead and there is no fault inside the bushing.Bu changing the end screen and grounding way from spring metal sleeve grounding to direct hard-sired way,it is able to remove faults.


Background: Generally Tertiary Care Centres are usually located in cities and functioning with many health care professionals to cater good quality of services to the needy people who are contacting as the first level contact in emergency situations are usually comes to the casualty or emergency department. Niloufer hospital is state apex institute for mothers and children care always busy in providing health care services needy people of the society. Objectives: To find the Patients Perceptions on Promptness of services to the patients who comes to the casualty and also some demographic associations with time delay. Methodology: This was a hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted at Niloufer Hospital among different patients who attended the emergency department to take necessary health care during the period from March 2017 to August 2017. During the study period we interviewed 186 child patients attendees (mothers & fathers) and collected information from them. Importance of the study was explained to the participants and informed consent was taken from the patient attendants as the child is minor. Predesigned and pretested study questionnaire was filled and observations were recorded. After completion of the data collection from the patients, data was entered in MS excel and analysed using necessary statistical tests like simple proportions and chi square tests were applied. Results: In the study participants, 51% were males and 49% were females. Out of 186 study participants, 76.3% (142/186) patient mothers were literates and 23.7% (44/186) were illiterates. About 135/186 individuals were receiving the treatment and care immediately or less than a minute time, 21 were getting within 2-5 minutes time, 17 were getting 5-10 minutes time and lastly 13 were getting treatment and health care service after 10 minutes time. In the study population, about 24.1% were participants were giving opinion on doctors as strongly agree and 48.9% were giving agree opinion and altogether 73% were accepting as good services. Conclusions: Based on the study results, literacy rate among children mothers was good and there was no much delay in catering services including treatment by the doctors and patient care takers response towards perception about housekeeping department services was altogether only 60.7% were accepting as good service.


With smaller and denser transistors, the physical flow of electrons may inhibit the performance of the device over time by forming voids and cracks at interconnects due to Electro-Migration (EM). Circuit designs that fail to meet EM specifications may lead to catastrophic failures and SI/PI performance degradation. One way of mitigating EM is to use multiple vias between layers of copper traces to reduce the current crowding effect. However, the quantities of vias may affect the current density and current redistribution inside critical joints. Current studies mainly focus on predicting the EM time-to-failure (TTF) based on the empirical Black's equation. However, this method may not give enough insights about void formation and crack propagation and reflects the current redistribution that could impact the TTF. In this study, we compared the EM lifetime of Ball Grid Array (BGA) test vehicles with different structural designs and developed a methodology to consider the diffusion of atoms in solder joints based on Multiphysics field migration to study the current redistribution influence of vias. Moreover, crack propagation was also simulated to understand the failure mechanism. BGA traces without vias and with 8 vias are stressed under 5A, 7A, and 9A at 150C to compare the EM performance. Moreover, each test structure is manufactured with two different surface finishes: A and B. Based on the experimental results, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulations based on Atom Flux Divergence (AFD) were performed to compare with the experiment results. It was found that the current crowding effect could be significantly reduced by 8 vias compared to daisy chained traces. The study shows better EM resistance with 8 and 4 vias than no-via traces and helps predict the EM life of different structures to provide guidance for design optimization


Technological process of rotary heating furnace is introduced.Structure,hardware and software composition of automatic control system are presented.Tube rounds tracking function and application of Rssql in tracking system of rotary heating furnace are described in detail.A large amount of data stored in control system need to be transmitted between control system and enterprise database system interactively,thus,Rssql and Oracle database were adopted to collect,record and transmit data in realtime.As a result,a lot of programming time was saved,operation ability was better,and it has practical significance.


Segmental and total body surface areas were determined by planimetry on paper tracings of the dissected skins of 9 male and 11 female cadavers. Of 9 anthropometrically based prediction formulae, 7 gave surface areas not significantly different from the values obtained by dissection. It was concluded that many formulae adequately predict body surface area and the continued use of the popular DuBois and DuBois formula is recommended. The basal metabolic rate in animals was long thought to depend on surface area, an idea originating with Sarrus and Rameaux (1839) and given the status of a law by Rubner (1883). This relationship led to a number of methods of estimating human body surface area, a measurement that has been described as "probably the most difficult of all anthropometric procedures" (Sendroy, 1961). It is now clear that body heat production is not governed by surface area (Kleiber, 1975) and other, more appropriate, parameters of body size such as lean body mass, have been suggested as references for wholebody metabolism (Durnin, 1959). Despite this, the estimation of surface area has many current applications. In clinical medicine body surface area is used for normalizing metabolic function test values and for the determination of appropriate drug dosage (Crawford et al. 1950; Gehan and George, 1970; Hennes et al. 1977; Campbell, 1978; Evans et al. 1979; Siber et al. 1979; Battler et al. 1980), especially in the fields of anesthesiology (Feingold, 1979; Dohi et al. 1979) and gastroenterology (Lavigne et al. 1978). Other disciplines using surface area estimation are hydrodynamics (Myashita and Tsunoda, 1978; Clarys, 1978), applied physiology (Graig and Dvorak, 1969; Nadel et al. 1974; Holmer and Bergh, 1974; Farkas, 1978) and body modelling (Dempster, 1955; Hanavan, 1964; McHenry and Naab, 1966; Clauser et al. 1969; Shanebrook and Jaszczak, 1974). 'Department of Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada 2Instituut voor Morfologie Experimentele Anatomie, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium Human Biology , September 1984 , Vol. 56, No. 3, pp. 475-488. © Wayne State University Press, 1984 This content downloaded from 188.8.131.52 on Sun, 31 Jul 2016 05:03:49 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 476 A. D. Martin, D. T. Drinkwater, J. P. Clarys Techniques for the estimation of surface area fall into two general categories: first, the direct methods such as skin dissection or the glueing of paper onto the body and second, indirect methods utilizing formulae based on selected anthropometric parameters. This paper examines a number of representative formulae and compares surface areas predicted by them to surface areas determined by planimetry on tracings of the dissected skins of 10 female and 7 male cadavers measured during the course of the Brussels Cadaver Analysis Study. Basis of the Indirect Methods If we assume a geometrical similarity system wherein bodies of similar shape have volumes proportional to the cube of any linear dimension, and surface areas proportional to the square of any linear dimension, and we further assume constant density, then weight (W) is proportional to volume (V), and body surface area (SA) is proportional to the two-thirds power of weight. 1 That is:


In the first part of the paper we provide a brief summary of the statistical approach that has emerged as the paradigm for evaluating employment programs in the United States. We discuss the role that longitudinal data and methods play in this approach. In the second part of the paper we take on a more challenging task, motivated by the view that the appropriate statistical methods used for evaluation purposes should be tailored to the institutional context in which the program operates. We discuss three directions in which the U.S. evaluation paradigm should be developed if it has to be applied to a labour market context such as the one prevailing in Italy: (I) shifting the attention away from repeatable outcomes, such as earnings or repeated spells of unemployment, which characterize the U.S. approach and provide the basis for the use of longitudinal methods: because of the characteristics of the Italian labour market, very few meaningful repeatable outcomes can be found to evaluate the success of employment programs; (II) broadening the range of programs to be evaluated, with respect to the U.S. practice of focusing evaluations on training programs targeted to disadvantaged individuals; (III) broadening the objectives of the evaluation, from an emphasis on absolute effectiveness, to other types of evaluation questions, such as the effectiveness of service providers, and the issue of the adverse effects of interventions.


An on –farm study of haemoparasites of third pregnant and puerperal cows was undertaken in settled herds in Zaria (latitude 11o 08\'N), Northern Nigeria. Trypanosoma vivax infection was found in prepartum cows in two (22.2%) of the herds. An affected dam in one of the herds was delivered of a calf that was infected with T. vivax within the first three days of life, indicating transplacental transmission of the infection. However, the calf did not show any clinical signs of the disease. This is probably the first on – farm transplacental transmission of this economically significant protozoan haemoparasite in the area. The finding further underscores the need for ore efforts directed at the control of the disease in Nigeria. Keywords : Farm, Transplacental, Trypanosoma vivax , Calf Nigerian Veterinary Journal Vol. 27 (3) 2006 pp. 95-98


Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) is an extranodal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) confined to the brain, leptomeninges, eyes, or spinal cord. Primary NHL of the cranium with extra- and intracranial extension without systemic or skeletal manifestation in an immunocompetent patient is extremely rare. The prognosis of PCNSL is inferior to that of other NHL subtype. We describe a case of 49-year-old woman presented with occipital headache for 1 month, without any deficits. Imaging showed extradural mass lesion in the posterior fossa based at the trocula with minimal inner bony table changes mimicking primary bony tumor, meningioma, lymphoproliferative disorder, or metastatic tumor. We operated upon this patient, and histopathology was suggestive of B-cell NHL. On further evaluation, there was no systemic involvement. The patient was planned for radiotherapy followed by six cycles of chemotherapy with rituximab and bendamustine. There are case reports of cranial vault lymphomas involving frontoparietal/temporal region. So far, no posterior fossa extradural lesion reported till now.


Knife-coating can confer new properties on different textile substrates efficiently by integrating various compounds into the coating paste. Graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) is one of the most used elements for the functionalization of fabrics in recent years, providing electrical and thermal conductivity to fabrics, later used to develop products such as sensors or heated garments. This paper reports thermoelectrically conductive textiles fabrication through knife-coating of cellulosic fabrics with a GNP load from 0.4 to 2 wt% within an acrylic coating paste. The fabric doped with the highest GNP content reaches a temperature increase of 100°C in few seconds. Besides, it is found out that the thermographic images obtained during the electrical voltage application provide maps of irregularities in the dispersion of conductive particles of the coating and defects produced throughout their useful life. Therefore, the application of a low voltage on the coated fabrics allows fast and effective heating by Joule's effect, whose thermographic images, in turn, can be used as structural maps to check the quality of the GNP doped coating. The temperature values and the heating rate obtained make these fabrics suitable for heating devices, anti-ice and de-ice systems, and protective equipment, which would be of great interest for industrial applications.


Over the past 2 years, the COVID-19 pandemic has placed an immense burden on the healthcare system as a whole (Docea et al., 2020). The field of oncology has been especially burdened (Schrag et al., 2020), as cancer centers urgently developed and implemented guidelines of care (Richards et al., 2020) to protect an exceptionally vulnerable patient population (Zhang et al., 2020). These ever-evolving guidelines increased strain and responsibility on hospital staff, oftentimes resulting in moral distress. Moral distress is defined as the psychological feelings that occur when one knows the ethical and right course of action, but cannot carry it out due to institutional or other constraints (Jameton, 1993). Pandemic-induced moral distress is widely documented among nurses (Rosa et al., 2020; Smallwood et al., 2021; Lake et al., 2022; Spilg et al., 2022), physicians (Patterson et al., 2021; Rimmer, 2021; Smallwood et al., 2021; Spilg et al., 2022), allied health professionals (Patterson et al., 2021; Smallwood et al., 2021; Spilg et al., 2022), and social workers (Golightley and Holloway, 2020; Guan et al., 2021), but the moral distress faced by clinical research staff has yet to be explored. The purpose of this editorial is to highlight the moral challenges faced by clinical research staff [e.g., Clinical Research Coordinators (CRCs)] as they carry out their job responsibilities, such as facilitating informed consent, collecting data, and communicating with distressed participants on a regular basis.


With the increasing importance of models in software development, many activities such as transformation, verification and composition are becoming crucial in the field of Model Driven Engineering (MDE). Our main objective is to propose a model-driven approach to compose design models. This approach is applied to the VUML profile that allows to analyse/design a system on the basis of functional points of view. In this paper we first describe a transformation-based composition process and then we specify transformations as a collection of QVT-Core rules implemented in ATL. The proposal is illustrated by a simple example.


This study examines the abilities of xanthines to alter contractile and cyclic nucleotide responses to isoproterenol or bethanecol in left atria isolated from rabbits. Two of the xanthines studied (1-methyl-3-isobutyl-8-methoxymethylxanthine, and 1-methyl-3-isobutyl-8- t -butylxanthine) inhibited cyclic GMP hydrolysis more potently than cyclic AMP hydrolysis; another xanthine, theophylline, was equipotent at inhibiting the hydrolysis of the two cyclic nucleotides. All of the xanthines studied comparably potentiated contractile and cyclic AMP responses to isoproterenol (10 -8 M), regardless of their potencies to inhibit cyclic GMP hydrolysis. These data indicate that cyclic GMP is not antiadrenergic. The selective inhibitor, 1-methyl-3-isobutyl-8-methoxymethylxanthine, at a concentration that elevated cyclic GMP content to a level that was 3-fold above that observed with bethanecol alone, failed to depress contractile force, alter cardiodepressant effects of bethanecol, or alter atrial cyclic GMP content in the presence of this choline ester. These results demonstrate that the inhibition of cyclic GMP phosphodiesterase neither produces negative inotropic effects nor enhances the cardiodepressant effects of cholinergic agents.


Two main algorithms in lossless data compression area, LZ78 and LZ77, were studied to derive the improved algorithm, HLZ, presented here in detail. HLZ is a hybrid algorithm based on LZ77 and LZ78. When coding, if the input string reaches the end of matching in the dictionary, it is not coded immediately, but is matched with the context of the look\|aside buffer. If the matched length in the buffer is shorter than that in the dictionary, the string is encoded with LZ78, otherwise it is encoded with LZ77. When decoding, a list structure is maintained to link terms in the dictionary with the same leading letter, reducing greatly the of time for seeking the longest matching term in the dictionary. The experimental results show that the computation and storage costs of HLZ are similar to that of LZ77 and a little higher than those of LZ78, but that HLZ has better global and local adaptivity as well as higher compression ratio.


BACKGROUND–Dementia and depression are both common disorders of the elderly. It may be difficult to differentiate dementia from depression, and the two conditions commonly coexist. Understanding the relationship between the two disorders is critically important for diagnosis and optimal management of older patients with cognitive impairment and mood changes. REVIEW SUMMARY–Depression may produce cognitive impairment. This cognitive decline, known as the dementia syndrome of depression (DOD), usually is reversed by treatment of the depressive disorder. However, some patients with DOD develop dementia in the following few years. Depression might be a risk factor for Alzheimer disease (AD) or a harbinger of its occurrence. It also may co-occur with AD. Patients with AD and depression differ biologically from those without mood changes. Neuroimaging studies in patients with depression and AD show impaired metabolism in the frontal lobes. Depression exaggerates the functional impairment, decreases quality of life, and increases caregiver distress of patients with AD. In patients presenting with dementia and depression, metabolic imbalances and toxic side effects of drugs should be ruled out. Depression in dementia is treatable with appropriate antidepressant therapy. CONCLUSIONS–Depression and dementia are closely related. Depression can precede, be a risk factor for, or coexist as a part of the clinical presentation of dementia. There are syndrome-specific histopathologic and neurochemical changes in the brains of patients with depression and AD. Depression in dementia is treatable. Treatment of mood changes may help improve functional activity, reduce caregiver distress, and enhance the quality of life of patients.


This two-part paper presents a new approach to predictive analysis for social processes. Part I identifies a class of social processes, called positive externality processes, which are both important and difficult to predict, and introduces a multi-scale, stochastic hybrid system modeling framework for these systems. In Part II of the paper we develop a systems theory-based, computationally tractable approach to predictive analysis for these systems. Among other capabilities, this analytic methodology enables assessment of process predictability, identification of measurables which have predictive power, discovery of reliable early indicators for events of interest, and robust, scalable prediction. The potential of the proposed approach is illustrated through case studies involving online markets, social movements, and protest behavior.


A novel Schiff base ligand salicylidenehydrazinocarboxylate(HL) and its copper complex were synthesized and their structures were characterized by elemental analysis,molar conductivity,UV and IR spectrum analysis,fluorescence spectrometric analysis and electrochemical method,respectively.Experimental results showed that the CuL complex had five-membered and six-membered rings containing two M—O,and one M—N bonds and that the ligand was of a multidentate one.The interaction of the CuL complex with DNA was studied with fluorescence spectrometry and electrochemical method.The results indicated that CuL complex interacted with DNA by intercalation with a binding constant of 3.40×105 L·mol-1.It was also found that the characteristics of fluorescence spectrum of dsDNA-CuL complex was quite different from that of ssDNA-CuL complex,thus the CuL complex can be used as a probe to discriminate dsDNA and ssDNA.


Impulse buying plays an essential role in consumer buying behavior as nearly ninety percent of consumers at least occasionally engage in impulse buying. Moreover, it accounts for a massive volume of products sold across categories and prices. Therefore, it clearly creates selling opportunities, and subsequently is a crucial source of revenue and profit. Thailand is the biggest color cosmetics market in Southeast Asian countries, and Thai consumers are now more image-conscious and willing to invest in beauty products. Currently, mass color cosmetics are mostly available through self-selection stores where customers purchase inexpensive or mid-priced cosmetics items in a self-service environment, which encourages customer to engage in impulse buying. Despite significant interest among marketing academicians and practitioners, most previous impulse buying-related studies primarily focused only on its antecedents; few addressed its consequences, and a great deal of them were conducted in western countries, especially in low-involvement shopping environments. Hence, this study aims to identify the in-store marketing stimuli of impulse buying behavior, as well as its potential consequences, in terms of cognitive dissonance, the level of satisfaction, and the post-purchase behavioral intentions of mass color cosmetics at self-selection stores in Bangkok. This study utilized a two-stage process, where Stage one involved qualitative research by conducting 21 in-depth interviews with mass color cosmetics consumers to gain insights into their impulse buying behavior. Stage two involved quantitative research by conducting a person-administered survey with 900 female low-to-middle income consumers who were 18 to 45 years old, and purchased mass color cosmetics at selfselection stores in Bangkok within the last thirty days. In total, 780 respondents remained, which represented 87 percent of the response rate. The data analysis of structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that music, the salesperson and the acceptance of a credit card significantly and respectively influenced impulse buying. Even though impulse buying did not have an impact on cognitive dissonance, it had a positive direct impact on the level of satisfaction, which further positively influenced the post-purchase behavioral intention to repurchase, cross-buy and spread positive word-of-mouth. Moreover, product performance positively influenced the level of satisfaction. In addition, cognitive dissonance was positively influenced by post-purchase information and attractive alternatives, while it was negatively influenced by purchase involvement and product performance. Regarding its potential theoretical implications, this study provided a fuller theoretical understanding of the mechanisms of impulse buying by incorporating both influential factors and potential consequences. Furthermore, it illustrated the relative importance of in-store marketing stimuli, and the findings were thus of pragmatic value for marketing practitioners as a reference in planning resource allocation as well as providing guidelines in developing compelling marketing strategies that create impulsive selling opportunities. Moreover, this study revealed that the level of satisfaction could be reduced by cognitive dissonance, and thus suggested that companies should actively participate in customer dissonance reduction processes by utilizing after-sale communication campaigns to help customers maintain their positive attitude towards the product. Lastly, it was revealed how impulse buying influenced the level of satisfaction, which further motivated positive post-purchase behavioral intentions.


To ensure the long-term on-orbit working stability of on-board computer system,and meet the different characteristics of such analog parts as sensors,DAC and so on,the reliability design schemes are proposed.In analog input channel,the combination software filter is applied to obtain more credible data as possible,and median voting circuit module is adopted in output channel to gain accurate outputs.The two schemes have been applied and improved in the experimental prototype.The simulation and verification results show that the proposed schemes can satisfy the needs of system reliability primarily,and can also meet the limit of mass,power waste,etc required by satellite.


The invention relates to a method for analyzing the motion of a body (14) within a rotatably mounted drum (2) which is driven by a drive motor (5), by driving the drum (2) of the body (14) in an interior (10) of the drum (2) is moved, and wherein by means of a sensor device (9) sensor data to the internal space (10) of the drum (2) provided and for analyzing the movement to a computing device (6) are transmitted, wherein by means of the computing device of the interior (10) of the drum (2) is monitored over time (6) is detected based on the sensor data of the body (14) in the interior (10) of the drum (2) and in at least two dimensions (e.g. x, y,) and that a through the body (14) in at least two dimensions (x, y, z) of the interior (10) distance (20) by means of the computing device (6) is determined and the motion based on the distance traveled (20) is analyzed.


Localization accuracy of stationary acoustic objects is reduced as people grow older. While it is known that this reduction can be caused by many age-related declines in the peripheral sensory system, at central cortical levels as well as in cognitive processes, it is not known how much localization performance is influenced by concurrent congruent and/or incongruent spatial information from a different sensory system, e.g., vision. In the present study we examined localization accuracy of young and old adults to acoustic stimuli that were presented simultaneously to a visual stimulus that was either spatially congruent or spatially disparate (by ±5°/±10°/±15°) in acoustic free field. The acoustic reference position was presented at frontal (9°), para-frontal (30°), and lateral (64°) positions. To infer how strongly the visual cue interacted with the auditory stimulus a unification task was examined. Here, acoustic and visual stimulus combinations were the same as in the localization task. Participants were instructed to indicate whenever both visual and acoustic information matched in terms of their spatial position. Localization accuracy was not influenced by the visual cue in young adults, but the influence of the visual distractor was strong in old adults, i.e., visual bias was strong. These observations were supported by the unification task where old adults had increased perception of congruent audio–visual directions at all reference positions and even at very large disparities (e.g., ±15°). Conclusively, concurrent information from different sensory systems highly influences auditory localization accuracy in older adults, supporting the notion that multisensory integration is enhanced in older adults.


High strength polyurethane foam compositions and discloses a method of making the same. In one aspect, the present invention polyurethane foams, including strength enhancing additive comprising one or more polycarbonate polyols derived from the copolymerization of CO In one aspect, the method of the present invention, the step of replacing by one or more polycarbonate polyols derived part of the polyether polyol in the B side of the foam formulation, from the copolymerization of CO .FIELD 1


Abstract Several authors have suggested how literature may be used to study the relationships between people and place. The article focusses upon the literary image of Scotland's geography. Of particular concern is an examination of the past geography of Scotland as it is presented through a range of literature and expressed in the Scots, Gaelic, or English language. It is argued that Scottish literature can provide important insights into the varied geography of that country, but that attention must also be paid to Scotland's literary traditions and linguistic history.


Until quite recently it was customary for the Lord Mayor to go on Sundays in state to one or other of the City churches. On these occasions the Lord Mayor was accompanied by the sheriffs and officials of the Corporation, and escorted by the mace-bearer and sword-bearer, the latter wearing the cap of maintenance, and carrying the state sword. It was usual for the alderman of the ward to be present with any other aldermen that pleased to come, and as many aldermen as came brought with them their ward beadles, carrying the ward maces.


Wealth in Australia is becoming heavily concentrated among a tiny, super-wealthy elite. Manifestations of this inequality include signs of obscene wealth and extreme poverty. Governments are struggling to tackle this problem. But could philanthropy be part of the solution? The altruistic behaviour of some of Australia's wealthy is being promoted as a feasible way to solve national and international problems. There is a view that philanthropy from super-wealthy individuals, rather than government policy, will be the force that changes the world for the better. But, in Australia, this seems unlikely.


FIELD: chemistry. SUBSTANCE: invention relates to immunology and biotechnology. Described are versions of the humanised antibody CD45RO/RB which carry a light and a heavy strand. Versions of the following are disclosed: isolated polynucleotide, coding antibody, expression vector containing a polynucleotide and host cells containing the expression vector. Described also is use of the antibody to treat and/or prevent various diseases, including as a component of a pharmaceutical composition. EFFECT: invention provides antibodies identified as CD45RO and CD45RB, which can find use in medicine. 9 cl, 14 dwg, 2 tbl, 13 ex


The problems offered to consider in this article show the role and importance of banking statistics improvement and its dependence on the specificity of the Altai. Modern banking statistics based on the canons of the Central Bank of Russia results in un-ediquate estimation of credit and monetary relations on the regional level. To regulate money circulation, activities of commercial banks, analysis of finances, making prognosis estimation it is necessary to consider concrete regional situation. At the same time it is also very important to perfect methods and methodology of calculating statistic characteristics. There is no common method of approach to the calculation of monetary circulation today. More than that, even expediency of such calculation on the regional level is fully denied. Though retrospective analysis of activities in the sphere of monetary circulation, current well-timed estimation of the situation is needed to effectively use the mechanism of credit and monetary regulation. The number of present characteristics is not simply great, some of them contradict the results of others.


Recent work has shown that recurrent neural networks (RNNs) can implicitly capture and exploit hierarchical information when trained to solve common natural language processing tasks (Blevins et al., 2018) such as language modeling (Linzen et al., 2016; Gulordava et al., 2018) and neural machine translation (Shi et al., 2016). In contrast, the ability to model structured data with non-recurrent neural networks has received little attention despite their success in many NLP tasks (Gehring et al., 2017; Vaswani et al., 2017). In this work, we compare the two architectures—recurrent versus non-recurrent—with respect to their ability to model hierarchical structure and find that recurrency is indeed important for this purpose. The code and data used in our experiments is available at https://github.com/ ketranm/fan_vs_rnn


A Wangaratta father of three has told of being trapped in the mangled wreckage of his truck but only being able to record a farewell message to his family on his phone because he crashed in a mobile black spot.


In order to obtain informations concerning the dry matter production and extraction of nutrients by the fruits of the varieties 'Ohio Beauty' and 'Brasil', a trial was conducted on a Latossol Vermelho Escuro-Orto (USTOX) at Buri , State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The fruits were collected from trees grafted on 'Doucin' being 1-2; 3-4; 4-5, and 6-7 years old. Chemical analysis were run on the fruits for: N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, B, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, and Mo; as well for the dry mat ter production. The main conclusions are as follows: a) differences were observed on dry matter production of fruits by the two varieties at the different stages of growth; b) differences were observed on exportation of nutrients between the two varieties concerning the fruit growth period- the nutrient exportation by the fruits obeyed following order: K>N>P>S>Ca>Mg>Fe>B > Cu > Mn > Zn > Mo.


Microholograms significantly smaller than the diffraction limit are demonstrated in a photopolymer system with uniformly distributed inhibitor. This subdiffraction performance affords both increased storage density and increased readout signal via suppression of out-of-focus exposure. A model of the micron-scale reaction kinetics of the system is presented, and parameter values are derived experimentally.


At the same testing temperature,the deviations for repeated rapid permeation testing results of the same specimen keep less than 5%.Accordingly,it is derived that effect of surface treatment on chloride diffusion in concrete can be analyzed using comparative rapid permeation tests of concrete specimens before and after surface treatment with the same specimen.Diffusivity of saturated concretes surface-treated without and with epoxy resin was studied by rapid permeation test,while capillary absorption of non-saturated concrete specimens during wetting was determined by water absorption test.Effect of epoxy resin on diffusivity and capillary absorption has been compared with those of organo-silicone,polymer-cement-based waterproof coating or combination of two or three above materials.For saturated concrete,epoxy resin can reduce dramatically the diffusivity of chloride ions,with better effect than organo-silicone and waterproof coating.Capillary absorption and its induced chloride ion transport of non-saturated concrete during wetting are also decreased after surface-treatment with epoxy silicone,slightly higher than those with organo-silicone and significantlysly lower than those treated with waterproof coating.


Keratinolytic microorganisms have a great importance in feather waste degradation and its use for improvement oflivestock feed and production of protein hydrolysates. Annually several thousand tons of feather wastes are discharged into the surrounding environment as a by-product of commercial poultry processing. Microorganisms could minimize regulatory problems of uncontrolled accumulation of waste feathers. This residue is almost pure keratin, which is not easily degradable by common proteolytic enzymes.


Abstract In a recent paper, we have introduced new sets of Sheffer and Brenke polynomial sequences based on higher order Bell numbers. In this paper, by using a more compact notation, we show another family of exponential polynomials belonging to the Sheffer class, called, for shortness, Sheffer–Bell polynomials. Furthermore, we introduce a set of logarithmic numbers, which are the counterpart of Bell numbers and their extensions.


Ircinianin (2), a new furano-sesterterpenetertronic acid, has been isolated from a marine sponge of the genus Ircinia. Structure 2 has been established by X-ray diffraction methods.


AbstractThe following sections are included:Potential Inventory ManipulationDiscretionary Models and HypothesesDiscretionary accruals: the modified DJ modelDiscretionary day's inventoryAssumptions and HypothesesAssumptionsHypothesis 1: discretionary accruals (DA/S)Null hypothesis 1Hypothesis 2: discretionary day's inventory change (DΔINV/S or DΔINV/C)Null hypothesis 2Data and Day's InventoryDataDay's inventory: descriptive statisticsResultsComparison of the positive ΔCFO Group with the negative ΔCFO Group in the discretionary accrualsComparison of the positive ΔCFO Group with the negative ΔCFO Group in the discretionary day's inventory change based on salesComparison of a positive ΔCFO Group with a negative ΔCFO Group in the discretionary day's inventory change based on cost of goods soldConclusionAcknowledgmentReferences


-Using previous cranial evidence, this paper considers the Micronesian and the Poly nesian populations in terms of their position within the diversity of East Asian populations and meaning for the history of the so-called Mongoloid peoples.


In this paper, we present the current implementation and applications of two super-resolution algorithms, called Super-Resolution Variable-Pixel Linear Reconstruction (SRVPLR) and Super-Resolution with Additive-Substitutive Wavelets (SRASW). Each of them combines a set of undersampled lower resolution images in order to obtain a super- resolution product with a significantly improved limiting spatial resolution. We show their current implementation for remote sensing and astronomical images with some applications to several data sets. These examples show that the algorithms provide substantial improvement in limiting spatial resolution for both simulated and real data sets without significantly altering the multispectral content of the input low-resolution images, without amplifying the noise, and with very few artifacts.


Background: Cytogenetic evaluation using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) at the time of diagnosis is essential for initial risk stratification in multiple myeloma. The presence of specific cytogenetic abnormalities is known to confer a poor prognosis, less is known about the cumulative effect of multiple cytogenetic high-risk abnormalities. We aimed to evaluate the prognostic implications of the presence of multiple cytogenetic high-risk abnormalities at the time of diagnosis. Methods: We studied 226 patients who were diagnosed with multiple myeloma between July 2004 and July 2014 at Mayo Clinic Rochester, underwent FISH evaluation within six months of diagnosis, and presented with cytogenetic high-risk abnormalities. High-risk cytogenetics were defined as t(4;14), t(14;16), t(14;20), del(17p), or gain(1q). Bone marrow aspirates were evaluated for deletions, monosomies, trisomies, and tetrasomies using chromosome- or centromere-specific FISH probes. IGH rearrangements were evaluated using an IGH break-apart probe and evaluating up to five potential partners (FGFR3, CCND1, CCND3, MAF, and MAFB). Kaplan-Meier overall survival estimates were calculated and the log-rank test was used to compare overall survival in patients with single and multiple cytogenetic high-risk abnormalities. A multivariable-adjusted Cox regression model was used to assess the effect of multiple cytogenetic high-risk abnormalities on overall survival adjusting for age, sex, and Revised International Staging System (R-ISS) stage. P-values below 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: The median age at diagnosis was 65 years (32 - 90), 129 (57%) of the patients were male. The median overall survival was 3.5 years (3.1 - 4.9) for the entire cohort (n = 226), 4.0 years (3.3 - 5.1) for those with one cytogenetic high-risk abnormality (n = 182, 80%), and 2.6 years (1.7 - 3.1) for those with two cytogenetic high-risk abnormalities (n = 44, 20%). There were no patients with more than two cytogenetic high-risk abnormalities. Ninety-eight patients (45%) had a high-risk translocation, 77 (35%) had del(17p), 39 (18%) had a high-risk translocation plus del(17p), and 5 (2%) had gain(1q) plus either a high-risk translocation or del(17p). Figure 1 shows the Kaplan-Meier overall survival estimates stratified by the number of cytogenetic high-risk abnormalities (n = 226). The presence of two cytogenetic high-risk abnormalities (compared to one) was of prognostic significance after adjusting for age, sex, and R-ISS stage (HR 2.01, 95% CI 1.27 - 3.19, p = 0.003, n = 205). Conclusions: Approximately one in five patients with newly diagnosed high-risk multiple myeloma presented with two high-risk abnormalities at the time of diagnosis. These patients experienced inferior overall survival suggesting a cumulative effect of multiple cytogenetic high-risk abnormalities. The relatively low number of observed gain(1q) was likely related to the fact that not all patients were evaluated for that abnormality. Therefore the presented hazard ratio represents a conservative effect estimate and may underestimate the true effect. Disclosures Dispenzieri:GSK: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Jannsen: Research Funding; Alnylam: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Takeda: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Prothena: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; pfizer: Research Funding. Kapoor:Takeda: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Amgen: Research Funding. Kumar:Janssen: Consultancy, Research Funding; BMS: Consultancy; AbbVie: Research Funding; Millennium: Consultancy, Research Funding; Onyx: Consultancy, Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Sanofi: Consultancy, Research Funding; Skyline: Honoraria, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Array BioPharma: Consultancy, Research Funding; Noxxon Pharma: Consultancy, Research Funding; Kesios: Consultancy; Glycomimetics: Consultancy.


The invention relates to a method for detecting the loose and vibration of stator groove wedge of large generator, which comprises: a, using controllable activator to generate exciting force to hit the tested groove wedge, to vibrate the groove wedge; b, using sonic sensor and displacement sensor to transform the sonic wave radiated by groove wedge and the vibration displacement into sonic electric signal and displacement signal; c, digitalizing the tested sonic electric signal and the displacement electric signal; d, the data processing module based on the fixing type of tested groove wedge extracts out the characteristic amount of sonic wave signal and displacement signal, to be compared with preset threshold valve, to obtain the state of tested groove wedge. The invention can support variable groove wedge fixing structure, to detect the loose of large generator quickly; and it uses software to control activated vibration, to set the activated wave shape of each grove wedge. And it can real-time detect the state of groove wedge and analyze the history data. The invention has high automatic degree, with friend interface.


This paper introduces the concept of elementary observers for nonlinear systems. In the case of single input bilinear systems we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of such observers. Both linear and bilinear error dynamic cases are investigated. A complete characterization of the observation space is done within the tools of the geometric framework.<<ETX>>


Tunnel field effect transistors (TFETs) are generating considerable interest in switching applications due to their steep-subthreshold slope achieved by the quantum mechanical tunneling as a switching mechanism. However, all TFET structures currently in vogue based on Si, Ge or III–V materials have not been able to satisfy the other stringent requirements like higher on current (I ON) and low cost of fabrication. We, in this paper, report a cost-effective, organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 material-based DG–DL TFET (labeled as MAPbI3–DG–DL TFET hereinafter) which has been shown to adapt to the advantages of the double gate (DG) and doping less (DL) technique for better electrostatic control and low thermal budget respectively. In simulations conducted using Silvaco Atlas tool at room temperature and supply voltage of 1 V on the proposed device structure, we have been able to achieve subthreshold swing of 27.33 mV decade−1, cut-off frequency of 0.268 THz and switching ratio of 1.85 × 1011. Detailed explanations of the results provided in the paper tend to establish that MAPbI3–DG–DL TFET could be a suitable candidate for low-power and high-speed logic applications.


An extremely hollow profile of carbon impurity (denoted as an 'impurity hole') is observed associated with an increase in the ion temperature gradient after an impurity injection in the Large Helical Device. The central carbon density drops to 0.3% of the plasma density due to a strong outward convection driven by the ion temperature gradient, while an inward convection is predicted by neoclassical theory. Transport analysis gives a low diffusion coefficient of 0.4 m2 s−1 and an outward convection velocity of 3 m s−1 at half of the minor radius.


Trust and distrust are separate and distinct constructs and they can coexist. However, distrust in team has been researched less than has trust, and few researches have been done on the dynamics of ambivalence of trust and distrust within innovative team and the relation with innovative team performance. Most of the trust-related research appears to position trust as a variable that has direct (main) effects on work group process and performance. But there are still some researchers argue that trust could operate on group performance indirectly through a moderating role. Following Dirks, we will analyze whether trust/distrust will moderate the relationship between constructive controversy and team innovation. In other words, trust increases the likelihood that determinants of constructive controversy will actually result in favorable innovation; distrust decreases the likelihood.


Summary form only given. As structures in integrated microelectronic devices become smaller, there is a need for passivation and interconnection layers that exhibit controllable stress and have good reflow properties at reduced temperatures in order to stay within thermal budgets. One possibility for this material is germanium-silicon oxides, or germanosilicates. Germanosilicate films have been deposited at 200/spl deg/C by Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition utilizing germane, silane, oxygen, and argon in an inductively-coupled plasma generated by twin coils in a horizontal reactor tube. Film composition was varied by altering the germane to silane ratio at constant total flow. Solubility tests in boiling water indicate that the films are stable above 50% SiO/sub 2/. Compositional analysis was performed by Electron Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), and was found to be linear with hydride input percentages. Variable Angle Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (VASE) indicates that the index of refraction is roughly linear, although lower than the ideal from bulk samples in all cases. Stress levels were characterized by a single-beam laser cantilever system with the oxides deposited on bare silicon wafers. Results indicate that stress levels are on the order of 10/sup 8/ dynes/cm/sup 2/ for the entire range of germanosilicate films, compressive at pure SiO/sub 2/ and tensile for films of 10% GeO/sub 2/ and higher.


A 67-year-old woman was admitted after 10 days of diarrhea, without fever or blood, with no improvement despite taking antidiarrheals. She had a one-year history of dermatomyositis treated with steroids. On physical examination, the abdomen was soft, distended and tender, with normal bowel sounds. She had cushingoid features. Several stool specimen …


Cellular automata (CA) theory is a very rich and useful model of a discrete dynamical system that focuses on their local information relying on the neighboring cells to produce CA global behaviors. Although the main structure of CA is a discrete special model, the global behaviors at many iterative times and on big scales can be close to nearly a continuous system. The mathematical points of the basic model imply the computable values of the mathematical structure of CA. After modeling the CA structure, an important problem is to be able to move forwards and backwards on CA to understand their behaviors in more elegant ways. This happens in the possible case if CA is a reversible one. In this paper, we investigate the structure and the reversibility cases of two-dimensional (2D) finite, linear, and triangular von Neumann CA with periodic boundary case. It is considered on ternary field [Formula: see text] (i.e. 3-state). We obtain the transition rule matrices for each special case. It is known that the reversibility cases of 2D CA is generally a very challenging problem. For given special triangular information (transition) rule matrices, we prove which triangular linear 2D von Neumann CA is reversible or not. In other words, the reversibility problem of 2D triangular, linear von Neumann CA with periodic boundary is resolved completely over ternary field. However, the general transition rule matrices are also presented to establish the reversibility cases of these special 3-states CA. Since the main CA structures are sufficiently simple to investigate in mathematical ways and also very complex for obtaining chaotic models, we believe that these new types of CA can be found in many different real life applications in special cases e.g. mathematical modeling, theoretical biology and chemistry, DNA research, image science, textile design, etc. in the near future.


The Maksyutov Complex consists of two juxtaposed lithotectonic units—Unit #1 of probable Late Proterozoic formation age, and Unit #2, apparently generated in Cambro-Ordovician time. The eclogite-facies metamorphism of Unit #1 occurred prior to 370-380 Ma, when this unit was subjected to blueschist-facies overprinting. Unit #2 displays the effects of a somewhat similar blueschist- or high-pressure greenschist-facies recrystallization, indicating that it may have been metamorphosed contemporaneously with Unit #1. Our field work and geochemical studies have focused on the Sakmara River area. Preliminary conclusions are as follows: (1) Unit #1 was subjected to metamorphic temperatures of 620 ± 70° C and minimum pressures of 1.5 GPa, or 2.7 GPa if the previously reported interpretation of coesite pseudomorphs from similar rocks exposed near the village of Shubino, 75 km to the south (Chesnokov and Popov, 1965), is correct. Peak metamorphic pressures would have reached at least 3.2 GPa if blocky graphite descri...


Palaeomorphologic evolution of the western part of the Holy Cross region in Pleistocene

The collected observations (among others H. Ruszczynska-Szenajch 1966, Rozycki 1972a, Lindner 1971a, 1977a) suggest that the ice sheet of the oldest Scandinavian glaciation — of the Narevian (Gunz) Glaciation did not reach the Holy Cross region (Fig. 1 and 2). During that time, the area was in a periglacial zone with developed slope processes which formed various colluvial deposits (Czarnocki 1927, 1931, Łyczewska 1971, 1972, Filonowicz 1972, Hakenberg and Lindner 1971, Lindner 1971a, 1977a). In some of the fossil depressions, these deposits have been dissected by a valley system shown on Fig. 3 presenting a river pattern during the Podlasian Interglacial (Cromerian). The first Scandinavian ice sheet that covered the described area was the ice sheet of the older part of the South-Polish Glaciation. This period, on the ground of data from the interglacial locality at Kozi Grzbiet (Lindner and Glazek 1976, Glazek et al., 1976, 1977 a, b), is considered to be a separate glaciation (Fig. 4) called the Nidanian Glaciation (Mindel I). Till of the Nidanian Glaciation and ice-dammed lacustrine and fluvioglacial deposits of the same age are erosively cut by a valley system presented on Fig. 5. In all previous papers this system was interpreted as created by interstadial river activity (Lindner 1976c, 1976d, 1977a). The faunistic locality at Kozi Grzbiet studied recently, the interglacial features of its fauna (Kowalski 1976, Stworzewicz 1976, Mlynarski 1977, Rzebik-Kowalska 1976) and its age determined by means of FC1/P method (Glazek et al., 1977b) enables a change of this interpretation. Thus the valley system of that age may be considered to be created in the Malopolanian (Kozi Grzbiet) Interglacial, separating the South-Polish Glaciation into two individual glaciations (Fig. 2). The younger of the South-Polish glaciations was called the Sanian Glaciation (Mindel II). In the area of Poland this glaciation had its maximum extent and reached as far as the Carpathians. A differentiated petrographic composition of tills of that glaciation suggests (Czarnocki 1931, 1975, Łyczewska 1971, Rozycki 1972, Lindner 1977a) that the ice sheet must have entered the western part of the Holly Cross Mts. m two, opposite to each other, ice lobes connecting in a zone of "an ice suture" shown on Fig. 6. The erosive processes that started in a younger part of the Sanian Glaciation led to the formation of a well developed valley system in the Masovian (Holsiteinlian) Interglacial (Rozycki 1961a, b, 1964a, b, 1972a, Ruszczynska-Szenajoh 1966, Grzybowski 1972, Lindner 1971a, 1977a), presented on Fig. 7. During maximum of the Middle-Polish Glaciation, now referred to as the Odranian Glaciation, (Riss I) the Scandinavian ice sheet attempted several times to cover the described region (figs. 2, 8, 9, 10). The final retread of the ice sheet of the Odranian Glaciation during the Lublinian Interglacial (Ohe), led to intensive development of erosivedenudational and soil precesses (Fig. 2). The last Scandinavian glaciation that reached the northern margins of the Holy Cross region deposited a till of the Vartanian Glaciation (Riss II). In the area of the lower Pilica valley the till overlies loess (Fig, 2). The Eemian Interglacial in the Holy Cross region was a period of development of erosive-accumulative processes concentrating mainly in the river valleys (Hakenberg and Lindner 1971). In the upland areas, soil- -weathering processes have developed (Karaszewski et al., 1977) and depressions have been filled with organogenic deposits (Środon and Goląbowa 1956, Lindner and Ziembinska-Tworzydlo 1974). During the Vistulian (Wurm) Glaciation, the Holy Cross region was beyond the extent of the Scandinavian ice sheet, in a zone of periglacial processes. The older part of that period is connected with tripartite loess accumulation (Fig. 2) and valley accumulation (Fig. 11) while the younger part, with development of slope and dune processes.


Peaches are harvested selectively based on size and color, both peel background color and extent of blush. The background color of the fruit changes from green to yellow as chlorophyll disappears, and in many cultivars with red coloration this is hard to determine. A portable instrument that measures I AD (the index of absorbance difference between 670 and 720 nm) was used for monitoring the progression of ripening in two peach cultivars. I AD was measured at harvest in 'Oded' (an early season, fast melting flesh peach) and 'September Snow' (a late season, slow melting flesh peach). After harvest the fruits were divided into comparable lots and held at 20°C. The I AD and firmness were measured daily on a different lot. Two analytical methods were applied to the data. In the first, firmness decrease during shelf life was analyzed by nonlinear regression, using the I AD measured at harvest to determine the maturity of the fruit, and to estimate the biological shift factor (BSF) which is related to the biological age of fruit. In the second, a prediction equation for firmness was developed as a function of initial I AD , giving a table of the probability of a fruit to be less than 20 N on each day of shelf life. In both these methods the measurement of I AD at harvest could be used to separate fruit into different groups according to their rate of softening, and, therefore, potential shelf life.


The principle of constructing a multi-channel and multifunctional optical commutator is analyzed. It is shown that, the proposed principle of an optical commutator extends the functional capabilities of optical network.


This research aims to improve energy sustainability in transportation management. The case was derived from port-to-port coal transportation problem commonly faced by third-party logistic (3PL) company. During planning, they must determine which shipsets to be used and assign them to the loading/unloading berths. Each berth varies in terms of its loading/unloading speed and each shipset varies in terms of its capacity, sail speed, and fuel consumption rate. The selection of shipset impacts the auxiliary and main engine fuel consumption while the selection of berth impacts only the auxiliary engine fuel consumption. The target is to minimize the total fuel consumed by both engines for the whole shipset. We modelled the case through Multiple Vehicle Allocation Problem (MVAP) framework and proposed a heuristic algorithm to find the solutions. The heuristic algorithm is proven to be able to reach an optimal solution for small cases and near-optimal for medium to large cases.


PURPOSE: A method for manufacturing a copper interconnection of a semiconductor device is provided to make a copper interconnection surrounded by a dual diffusion blocking layer so that a copper diffusion blocking effect from the copper interconnection to a peripheral insulation layer, by sequentially forming an oxide layer and a conductive material diffusion blocking layer, and by sequentially forming a conductive material diffusion blocking layer and an aluminum oxide layer on the copper interconnection. CONSTITUTION: A substrate(1) wherein an insulation layer including a damascene pattern is prepared. An aluminum oxide layer is formed on the entire surface of the insulation layer including the damascene pattern. A conductive material diffusion blocking layer is formed on the aluminum oxide layer. Copper is deposited in the damascene pattern, and a copper interconnection(5) is formed by a chemical mechanical polishing(CMP) process.


Abstract Objective: To investigate the influence of parental physical activity on offspring's nutritional status in the 1993 Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort. Design: Birth cohort study. Setting: The main outcomes were overweight and obesity status of children. The main exposure was parental physical activity over time, measured during the 11, 15 and 18 years of age follow-ups. The exposure was operationalised as cumulative, and the most recent measure before the birth of child. We adjusted Poisson regression models with robust variance to evaluate crude and adjusted associations between parental physical activity and offspring's nutritional status. All analyses were stratified according to the sex of the parent. Participants: A total of 874 members from the 1993 Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort followed-up at 22 years of age with their first-born child were analysed. Results: Children were, on average, 3·1 years old. Crude analyses showed that the mother's cumulative physical activity measure had an indirect association with the prevalence of children's obesity. The most recent maternal physical activity measure before the birth of the child was associated with 41 % lower prevalence of obesity in children, even after adjustment for confounders. Conclusions: The most recent maternal physical activity measure was indirectly associated with the prevalence of obesity in children. No associations were found for fathers, reinforcing the hypothesis of a biological effect of maternal physical activity on offspring's nutritional status.


We consider the problem of executing parallel realtime tasks according to gang scheduling on a multicore system in the presence of shared resource interference. Specifically, we consider sets of gang-tasks with precedence constraints in the form of a DAG. We introduce the novel concept of a virtual gang: a group of parallel tasks that are scheduled together as a single entity. Employing virtual gangs allows us to tightly bound the effect of shared resource interference. It also transforms the original, complex scheduling problem into a form that can be easily implemented and is amenable to exact schedulability analysis, further reducing pessimism. We present and evaluate both optimal and heuristic methods for forming virtual gangs based on a known interference model and while respecting all precedence constraints among tasks. When precedence constraints are not considered, we also compare our approach against existing response-time analysis for globally scheduled gang-tasks, as well as general parallel tasks. The results show that our approach significantly outperforms state-of-the-art multicore schedulability analyses when shared-resource interference is considered. Even in the absence of interference, it performs better than the state-of-the-art for highly parallel tasksets.


This paper is concerned with the engineering of dependable web services. We have developed an approach based on deploying existing web services within a middleware framework so that they are fault tolerant. Our approach is independent of the services themselves and may be configured to support a range of different fault tolerance mechanisms. Central to the approach are what we call fault tolerant service containers. These 'contain' externally provided services and incorporate support for fault detection and recovery. Containers are configurable with an XML-based recovery policy model that specifies what kind of fault tolerance mechanisms may be applied to the services it contains. The container serves as a proxy so that the existence of fault tolerance can be transparent to a service client. A tool and SDK simplify the creation and deployment of the container and its policy. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of our approach and include some measurements of the overheads involved. We conclude that our container-based mechanism provides a simple, low cost approach to enhancing web service dependability.


The numerical impact modeling of some external effects on the CVC of biosensors based on AlGaN/GaN heterostructures (HEMT) was carried out. The mathematical model was created that allowed to predict the behavior of the drain current depending on condition changes on the heterostructure surface in the gate region and to start the process of directed construction optimization of the biosensors based on AlGaN/GaN HEMT with the aim of improving their performance. The calculation of the drain current of the biosensor construction was carried out to confirm the reliability of the developed mathematical model and obtained results.


This paper presents the series of ITU Rec. on videoconference, saies conditions and product development, and points out the several characteristics in the worldwide development of videoconference.