This article presents a full end-to-end pipeline for Arabic Dialect Identification (ADI) using intonation patterns and acoustic representations. Recent approaches to language and dialect identification use linguistic-aware deep architectures that are able to capture phonetic differences amongst languages and dialects. Specifically, in ADI tasks, different combinations of linguistic features and acoustic representations have been successful with deep learning models. The approach presented in this article uses intonation patterns and hybrid residual and bidirectional LSTM networks to learn acoustic embeddings with no additional linguistic information. Results of the experiments show that intonation patterns for Arabic dialects provide sufficient information to achieve state-of-the-art results on the VarDial 17 ADI dataset, outperforming single-feature systems. The pipeline presented is robust to data sparsity, in contrast to other deep learning approaches that require large quantities of data. We conjecture on the importance of sufficient information as a criterion for optimality in a deep learning ADI task, and more generally, its application to acoustic modeling problems. Small intonation patterns, when sufficient in an information-theoretic sense, allow deep learning architectures to learn more accurate speech representations.


Jatropha Curcas is a very useful plant that can be used as a bio fuel for diesel engines replacing the coal. In Indonesia, there are few plantation that plant Jatropha Curcas. But there is so limited farmers that understand in detail about the disease of Jatropha Curcas and it may cause a big loss during harvesting when the disease occured with no further action. An expert system can help the farmers to identify the lant diseases of Jatropha Curcas. The objective of this research is to compare several identification and classification methods, such as Decision Tree, K-Nearest Neighbor and its modification. The comparison is based on the accuracy. Modified K-Nearest Neighbor method given the best accuracy result that is 67.74%.


Abstract Absolute intensities have been measured over the whole twilight at an angle of elevation of 20° in an attempt to derive quantitative data on dust concentrations in the mesosphere. With the aid of model computations based on single scattering we have been able to separate the effects of cloud and haze at the sunset point, ozone absorption, the airglow, multiple scattering and mesospheric dust in a series of 93 twilight recordings. The effect of ozone absorption on green, orange and red wavelengths is readily interpretable in terms of simple atmospheric models, and can be used as a remarkably accurate measure of the total ozone amount. Profiles of turbidity are derived up to 65 km and indicate significant quantities of dust at every level. A maximum concentration is commonly observed near 20 km, and corresponds quantitatively to that found by direct sampling by Junge and his colleagues. Above 30 km the dust mixing ratio is constant at about 25 per cent of its value at 15 km. This concentration is v...


This research aimed to find out the difficulties faced by the English teachers in Vocational High Schools in designing a lesson plan (RPP) based on KTSP. It employed a descriptive quantitative method. The population of this research was 23 respondents, from all teachers which have followed KTSP training. The sample was taken by using total sampling techniques. To collect the data, the researcher used the questionnaire. It was consist of 37 questions that it was divided into 9 aspects in a lesson plan namely; standard of competence, basic competence, indicator, the aims of learning, teaching material, the methods/techniques, the steps of learning activity, the tools/sources of material, and evaluation. It used the percentage formula and weighted mean formula to analyze data. The result of the research showed that there were not any significant difficulties in designing a lesson plan (RPP) based on KTSP faced by the English teachers in Vocational High Schools because all aspects were in sometimes/moderate predicate. It indicated that in designing a lesson plan (RPP) based on KTSP was not significant difficult. Beside that, according to the result above, the most difficult aspects were none aspect because it also with sometimes predicate. It indicated that the English teachers in Vocational High School did not find any significant difficulties in writing all aspects of the lesson plan.


One would like to think that dancers hold positive attitudes toward many forms of dance, not just their own. Maybe this is a reason why researchers have not been interested in studying the attitudes of dancers toward dance. However, there have always been conflicts (e.g., which teachers, dancers, dance schools, dance genres should be supported by grants and awards) among dancers in Finland, thus Finnish dance-policy groups have held discussions about improving cooperation both among dancers representing different dance forms and between dancers and artists in other fields. As a result the Dance Council of Finland was founded in 1980 as an organization with board members from various art dance organizations, folk dance organizations and the Finnish Dance Sport Association. The aims of the Dance Council were, among others, to increase cohesion among dancers and to improve the public perception, appreciation and funding of dance. The Dance Council initiated a dance magazine, Tanssi (Dance). However, according to Laine (1991), who was chair of the Dance Council and director of the Finnish National Ballet, the process was problematic and slow.


This paper has based an interview with an Iraq Middle-aged adult female to gain her experience at how she completed an online course in Iraq. The paper presents findings from a case study which explored insights of her experience in online English programme in Iraq. The research questions focused on why Middle-aged adult learners could carry on and complete the programme, what factors supported her completion of the programme, and which conditions seemed to slow down the process. Findings from the interviews suggest that interaction in the learning, accessibility of the programme and encouragement from others were some of the factors that facilitated the completion of the programme. However, multiple roles for female students, technology related problems and disappointment were some of the major challenges for completion of the programme. Keywords : online course; Middle-aged; adult learning; interviews .


Uremia is the terminal outcome of all kinds of nephropathy. Renal transplantation is the best solution in the treatments of uremia. However, due to different individual immune histocompatibility, different types of rejection may occur after transplantation which would severely affect the life quality of recipients and the function of transplant kidney. So, biological markers with high specificity and sensitivity are clinically called to indicate the risk of rejections at early phase. In that case, physicians can change their treatments so as to protect transplants. In recent years, more and more researches on this field have been carried out.


Introduction 25 Laboratory Methods 26 Densitometry 27 Hydrodensitometry (Underwater Weighing) 27 Air Displacement Plethysmography 28 Imaging Techniques 29 DEXA 29 Computed Tomography (CT) 31 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) 32 Ultrasound 33 Field Methods 33 Body Mass Index 34 Circumferences 35 Skinfolds 36 Bioelectrical Impedance 37 Energy Balance 38 Summary 40 References 41


To research the evolution of unsteady flow in centrifugal pump under transient condition, and to investigate the mechanism of transient effects by analyzing the unsteady flow in centrifugal, the unsteady flow in a centrifugal pump during rapid starting period was simulated by using of sliding mesh method.The model including whole circulation pipeline and pump was established. The unsteady flow evolution in the pump was analyzed when the impeller started from stationary to maximum speed,and the effects of different pipeline resistance were evaluated.The suitability of numerical method for three dimensional transient flow solving was discussed.The numerical results of transient performances by unsteady flow analysis were similar to the test results.The established methods and results make the basis for the diagnosis and optimization of under flow in the centrifugal pump during transient operation.


The school head plays a vital role in school, education and learning processes. A well-informed school leader with a vision will work hard to find a solution to the many challenges or problems that their school faces. This study focuses on the digital competency of school principals in the Cabanatuan City Division during the first quarter of the 2020–21 school year. Profiles of school principals included variables such as age, gender, years of service, position and educational attainment. The Jeong-Bae Son questionnaire was modified and used in this study to assess the digital competency of school principals. According to the findings, school leaders from various backgrounds are digitally competent. That their competence was beneficial to the school and the entire school community, and that it was very important in carrying out the duties of a school principal. As recommended by this study, school principals should expand their digital competency training and skill set. As a result, they must continue to develop provisions that will provide teachers with opportunities to improve their digital technology skills.


Chirp ultra-wideband has the advantages such as peak to average power ratio close to 1,strong ranging positioning capability,and it can effectively solve the problems of traditional UWB technology such as large PAPR,short transmission distance.One of the key technology in this communication system is to design Chirp UWB signal.This paper proposed a high performance Chirp UWB signal generator method,by using the FPGA(field-programmable gate array) to control of DDS(direct digital synthesizer) chip AD9956 produced low-frequency Chirp signal,and then combined it with phase-locked loop(PLL) technology to implement the bandwidth expansion,thus gained Chirp UWB signal.Experiments show that the design of Chirp UWB signal source has the advantages such as simple structure,scalablity,programmability high performance,and practicality.


Aquatic ecologists are puzzled to explain the variety of dynamics shown by planktonic ecosystem. Explaining phytoplankton bloom phenomenon (increase in phytoplankton abundance) is a fascinating issue both for the theoreticians and experimentalists. Various explanations have been given for the occurrence and nonoccurrence of monospecies and multispecies planktonic bloom. Still the issue remains controversial and partially understood. Sometimes different experiments on phytoplankton zooplankton interaction show contradictory results. For example, some experiments show that phytoplanktonzooplankton interaction is lost and populations become prone to extinction through high amplitude oscillations with increasing supply of nutrient (paradox of enrichment). In contrary, some experiments report that the Daphnia-algae (predator-prey) interaction does not show any nutrient-enriched cycle. Based on different observations, we propose a phytoplankton-zooplankton (prey-predator) model that incorporates zooplankton's selectivity and phytoplankton's nutritional effects in an explicit way and reveal the planktonic dynamics. Our study demonstrates that phytoplankton-zooplankton interaction in pelagic ecosystem is very complicated and the system dynamics, including bloom phenomenon, strongly depends on the selective predation of zooplankton and the nutritional value of phytoplankton. Our study supports some existing hypothesis like decoupling at plant-animal interface may occur due to strong fish predation on zooplankton. In addition, we show that decoupling of food chain may also occur under low to intermediate nutrient inflow if zooplankton feeds on phytoplankton having lower nutritional value. We also demonstrate that paradox of enrichment is unlikely to occur if predator feeds on low nutritious prey and most likely to occur if predator preferentially consumes high nutritious prey.


In tarantula breeding, it takes a long time to wait for the tarantula to reach adulthood. If it have entered adulthood, we can distinguish the sex of the tarantula. In this study, a system was built which could predict the reproduction apparatus of the tarantula based on the parameters, a value that was determined according to the size of the tarantula. Based on several studies using the K-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN) which is an algorithm to classify these objects, also Single Decision Threshold method. We apply calculations based on learning data that are the closest distance to the object, and then will be proven using the rapidminer tool. The final result that will be obtained in the form of a prediction of the reproduction apparatus of the tarantula is the sex of male, female and unsex, with the accuracy rate is 96.35%. Index Term—Tarantula, Prediction; KNN; Single Decision Threshold;


Social problem solving has been regarded as the major trigger of entrepreneurial opportunity in new venture development. This is because social problems are all over the world which range from extreme poverty, hunger, poor sanitation, poor education, unemployment, violence, crime and drug abuse (Dees, 1998a; Nicholls, 2006; M. Rivera-Santos, Holt, Littlewood, & Kolk, 2015; Santos, 2012). Social entrepreneurship is paramount in present day as it renders help to the under-privilege since the world is full of unprecedented calamities that create problems and entrepreneurship activities itself have impacted so much in the areas of job creation and economic growth which are widely recognized across the world (Kritikos, 2014; Valliere& Peterson, 2009). Individuals have come up with alternative innovative approaches in dealing with community challenges (Bacq & Lumpkin, 2014; Doherty et al., 2014; Michael Frese & Gielnik, 2014; Miguel Rivera-Santos, Holt, Littlewood, & Kolk, 2015). They have provided basic needs like access to clean water, food, clothing, shelter and have employed the disadvantaged/ socially excluded people in their community.


Introduction:the article is devoted to the disclosure of the current directions for the im-plementation of the legal policy of the Russian Federation, taking into account the strategic pri-orities, goals and objectives identified by the international community to ensure the progressivesustainable development of society in view of the emergence of new threats and challengesinthe context of globalization. Within the framework of modern legal policy, a significant roleisgiven to the prevention of delinquent behavior, the development of legal culture and the neu-tralization of the factors that determine legal nihilism, by improving the methods and meansoflegal influence, increasing the role of the socio-cultural and information-value functionsoflaw.Materials and methods:the identification of key areas for the implementation at the na-tional level of legal policy to improve the forms and means of legal influence is based on thestudy of the provisions identified by the international community in the Concept of sustainabledevelopment of society for the period up to2030, the legal doctrine and materials of official sta-tistics, based on the use sets of general scientific, private scientific and special methods, includ-ing formal legal, comparative legal, cybernetic and other methods of legal knowledge.The results of the study:identified the social and negative consequences of globalizationatthe domestic and international levels, associated with the emergence of new threats; the roleofthe state, law enforcement agencies, non-governmental institutions and civil society institu-tions in improving the quality of the regulatory and protective, compensatory and restorative,sociocultural, information-oriented direction of legal influence on public relations in ordertoensure the security of man, society and the state is determined.Findings and conclusions:Conclusions and conclusion: in order to achieve at the na-tional level the goals and objectives outlined by the world community in the Conceptofsustainable development of society in the context of improving measures of legal influence,it isnecessary to consolidate the administrative and other resources of the subjects of imple-mentation of both legal and general social functions of law, contributing to the implementationofsystematic, consistent and coordinated legislative and organizational and practical measuresaimed at improving the efficiency of law-making and law enforcement activities by introducinga "leading method"into the mechanism of legal regulation in the field of economic, social andpolitical and legal development of a person, society and the state.


With the scaling of technology, the computing industry is experiencing a shift from multi-core to many-core architectures. However, traditional metallic-based on-chip interconnects may not scale to support many-core architectures due to high power dissipation, and increased communication latency. Attention has recently shifted to emerging technologies such as silicon-photonics and wireless interconnects to implement future on-chip communications. Although emerging technologies show promising results for power-efficient, low-latency, and scalable on-chip interconnects, the use of single technology may not be sufficient to scale future architectures. In this paper, we extend the heterogeneous architecture Optical-Wireless Network-on-Chip (OWN [1]) to Reconfigurable Optical-Wireless Network-on-Chip (R-OWN) by introducing run-time reconfigurable wireless channels. Like OWN, R-OWN is designed such that one-hop photonic interconnect is used up to 64 cores (called a cluster) and communication beyond a cluster is one-hop wireless to limit the network diameter to a maximum of three hops. The photonic bandwidth is efficiently shared using time division multiplexing (TDM) while the wireless bandwidth is shared using frequency division multiplexing (FDM). By exploiting the heterogeneity of two emerging technologies, we reduce the energy/bit, improve performance via reconfiguration, and thereby improve the sustainability of NoCs and CMPs. We propose a preliminary assessment of implementing heterogeneous technologies with the router microarchitecture. Further, we also discuss the design of horn antenna for implementing the wireless channels. Our results indicate that R-OWN improves the performance (throughput and latency) by 15 percent when compared to OWN while consuming 7 percent more energy than OWN. Further, OWN and R-OWN improve energy-efficiency by 54-61 percent when compared to WCube and CMesh architectures, respectively. It should be noted that both OWN and R-OWN require less area than state-of-the-art wired, wireless, and optical on-chip networks.


Dr. V. Dimitra Pyrialakou joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at West Virginia University as an Assistant Professor in August 2016. She received her Diploma in Civil Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, in 2011 and in 2016 she earned a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Purdue University. Dr. Pyrialakou has worked on several projects involving public (mass) transportation, airport operations, and transportation planning and evaluation. Her current research focuses on sustainable planning and evaluation of public and rail transportation systems. Dr. Pyrialakou started working in the area of engineering education at Purdue University when she taught Introduction to Transportation Engineering in spring 2016. She currently explores topics related to undergraduate STEM education improvement, including connecting teaching, research, and practice; student retention in engineering; recruitment and retention of underrepresented students in engineering; and holistic engineering. Dr. Pyrialakou also teaches courses on transportation engineering, transportation/urban planning, and civil engineering/transportation data analysis.


This paper discusses the influence of the production parameters on the moisture related comfort characteristics of the compression garments that differ according to the tension applied during the production and elastane count. Correlation analysis, two sided independent t-test analysis and ANOVA tests were applied to analyze the relationship between the production parameters and comfort characteristics which are absorption, vertical and transfer wicking and drying. It was found that tension and elastane composition affect the comfort characteristics by changing the porosity, thickness and the pathways within the fabric.


The study was conducted in Chandpur district of Bangladesh to assess the status of pond, supply and tube-well water quality parameters and identify water collection and distribution system. Twelve water quality parameters namely; pH, TDS, TS, SS, DO, COD, BOD, conductivity, hardness, chloride, arsenic and iron were analyzed according to standard laboratory method. The mean value of pH, TDS, TS, SS, DO, COD, BOD, conductivity, hardness and chloride for pond water of all upazilas were 7.41, 169 mg/l, 193.26 mg/l, 32.85 mg/l, 5.56 mg/l, 79.07 mg/l, 36.28 mg/l, 335.18 μs/cm, 86.15 ppm and 34.57 mg/l respectively. The mean value of pH, TDS, TS, SS, DO, COD, BOD, conductivity, hardness, chloride, iron, and arsenic for tube well water of all upazilas were 8.01, 111.81 mg/l, 122.36 mg/l, 5.58 mg/l, 46.98 mg/l, 14.81 mg/l, 249.17 μs/cm, 131.23 ppm 108.09 mg/l, 0.55mg/l and 0.078 mg/l respectively. The mean value of pH, TDS, TS, SS, DO, COD, BOD, conductivity, hardness, chloride and iron for supply water of all upazilas were 7.8, 133.42 mg/l, 155.03 mg/l, 6.19 mg/l, 66.56 mg/l, 17.13 mg/l, 248.19 μs/cm, 126.07 ppm 167.6 mg/l and 0.65 mg/l respectively. Study revealed that pond water quality was suitable in terms of pH, DO, TDS, TS, SS, chloride and hardness and not suitable in terms of COD, BOD and conductivity for different productive uses. Tube well water quality was in desired level in terms of pH, DO, TDS, TS, SS, chloride, iron and hardness and not suitable in terms of COD, BOD, conductivity, and arsenic for different productive uses. Supply water quality was in acceptable limits in terms of pH, TDS, TS, SS, chloride, iron and hardness and crossed acceptable limit in terms of COD, BOD, conductivity, and DO for different productive uses. It was found that all the parameters vary significantly with the types of water. Water quality management program should be initiated under supervision of government to maintain the acceptable limit and proper water supply scheme should be followed for effective water collection and distribution system.


. Experimental data on the content of total polyphenols and rutin in promising feijoa varieties selected by the Subtropical Scientific Center (Sochi, Russia) are presented. The performed analysis did not reveal a correlation between the content of rutin and polyphenols (r = 0.40), as well as a relationship between the time of fruit ripening and the amount of phenolic compounds in them. The compared varieties differ significantly in the content of polyphenols (LSD=5.67) and rutin (LSD=1.5). The results obtained revealed promising varieties with a high content of polyphenols that can be used for breeding work as sources of valuable traits and as functional food products with antioxidant activity. The highest polyphenolic content was found in fruits of cv. Dachnaja (41.16 mg/100 g of raw weight). The highest content of rutin was found in fruits of cv. Dagomysskaja (42.1 mg/100 g of raw weight), cv. Dachnaja (38.4 mg/100 g) and control cv. Superba (36.8 mg/100 g). The minimum level of synthesis of flavonoid compounds was found in the ShV-07 form. Since the factor of genotypic features of varieties is essential in the accumulation of phenolic compounds, it became possible to select an assortment characterized by an optimal content of phenolic compounds.


A personalized search engine has been playing an increasingly vital role in today's web search engines.  Many systems are already using these services. However, these proposed paper deals with the personalized web systems.User profiles supported philosophy thus manufacturing linguistics applications with made to order services.The primary step of the approach is to extract the selections from internet documents and constructing relevant concepts. The planned approach integrates linguistics info into internet usage mining personalization process.


The in vitro cytotoxic effects of newly synthesized copper (II) glycinate complex were investigated in two gastric cancer cell lines of SNU484 and SNU638 cells. The complex inhibited the growth and decreased the viability of both gastric cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner. Gastric cancer cells treated with the complex exhibited the features of apoptosis, as demonstrated by fragmentation of chromosomal DNA, activation of caspase-3-like enzyme, and cleavage of poly[ADP-ribose] polymerase (PARP). With the treatment of copper (II) glycinate complex, the active form of caspase-3 was observed in SNU484 cells, but not in SNU638 cells, indicating that an alternative pathway of apoptosis might have been triggered in SNU638 cells. In conclusion, copper (II) glycinate complex induces apoptosis of SNU484 and SNU638 gastric cancer cells, and it is suggested that novel copper (II) glycinate complex is highly active against human gastric cancer cells.


The quantitative description of diffraction started with Fresnel, who introduced the interference effect to Huygens' principle where diffracted waves are expressed by an integral of secondary wavelets over an opening in an opaque screen. Although this diffraction formula is an approximate one, it has given precise estimation of waves diffracted by the opening. Most diffraction phenomena arise from 3‐D objects. However, attempts to apply the diffraction theory to 3‐D objects are unsuccessful since, in these cases, the region for integration of secondary wavelets cannot be determined clearly. In order to explain the diffraction by polyhedrons, a hypothetical observer is assumed at an observation point and the Huygens–Fresnel principle is extended to a space seen by the observer virtually. In this virtual space the observer can see real images and mirror images through facets of the polyhedron and every point in real and mirror images is considered as a center of the secondary wavelets. The new representatio...


Samuel A. Custer, born October 31, 1818, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, had, for some forty years prior to the journey which he described in his letter published below, farmed in Fulton County and then in Cass County, Indiana, and operated a brickyard near Logansport. In 1880 he sold the brickyard and used his new-found leisure by setting out alone to see the western United States and to visit his brother in-law, Colonel David P. Jenkins of Spokane Falls, Washington Territory. To make a western trip was not unusual in the 1880's. Many a farmer and small businessman scouted the country for good land or business opportunities, but the writing of a de tailed report was unusual, and, as is customary with all such annals of ordinary folk, its preservation was mere chance. Men and women who aspire to or attain distinction often en deavor to preserve diaries, photographs, and other personal documents. On the other hand, farmers, mechanics, and small burghers are often enveloped in oblivion because their records do not immediately seem worth saving. The letter of Samuel A. Custer, which is in the Crew Papers, an unpublished collec tion of family papers, now in the possession of Arthur R. Hogue, gives an account of a middle-aged, well-to-do, but other wise undistinguished small businessman who traveled through the West in 1880. He noted the means of transportation used, his impression of the towns he visited, the amusements he en gaged in, and such things as had more than ordinary appeal. Undoubtedly Mrs. Elizabeth H. Crew, the "Sisternlaw" addressed in Custer's letter, should have the credit for its pres ervation, along with some two hundred other interesting items. Elizabeth Crew, the youngest daughter of Israel and Elizabeth Horseman Jenkins, was born January 7, 1821. On December 28, 1837, she married Jesse B. Crew, a Quaker of Mt. Pleasant, Ohio. After his death, July 30, 1865, Elizabeth moved to Short Creek, Harrison County, Ohio, where she lived until her death


This article introduces the working principle and features of electromagnetic flowmeter.It also describes the common troubles of ADMAGAE electromagnetic flowmeter during application in chemical industry.


The Numismatic Cabinet new facilities optimices the conditions of keeping the collections and improves the way of working with the cultural goods. The design is influ- enced by the main functions developed by the Department and by the fact that the vault is situated inside the Cabinet. The special arquitectural conditions of this area condicionated significantly how the space has been redesigned.


We consider a statistical model-based approach to the segmentation of magnetic resonance (MR) images with bias field correction. The proposed method of penalized maximum likelihood is implemented via the expectationconditional maximization (ECM) algorithm, using an approximation to the E-step based on a fractional weight version of the iterated conditional modes (ICM) algorithm. A Markov random field (MRF) is adopted to model the spatial dependence between neighouring voxels. The approach is illustrated using some simulated and real MR data.


Children with a good physical fi tness affect to their ability to perform physical activities and well-being of children in the future. Previous studies found that environmental and lifestyle patterns have different effects on physical fi tness.This study to compare physical fitness among girls in child welfare and school children aged 7-9 years. Participants were 47 females of child welfare and 42 females of school children. Participants in this study receive a questionnaire, body mass index measurement and physical fi tness test. It found that sit & reach and standing broad jump test in school children were lower than child welfare. Sessions of sit-up 30 seconds and time of run 50 meter sprint test in school children were higher than child welfare. In conclusion, girls in child welfare have good physical fitness in fl exibility and muscular strength. School children have good physical fitness in endurance of abdominal muscle and speed. Therefore all children should be developed for appropriate physical fitness to enhance proper development and prevent health problems in the future. Key words: Physical fitness, Child welfare, Physical activity


Members of social groups tend to develop their sense of collective identity on the basis of two kinds of perceptions: perceptions of shared attributes within the group, and perceptions of the difference between these attributes and those of other social groups.1 Images of identity and difference, irrespective of whether they are inherent, imagined, or acquired, serve as the glue that bonds individuals into an imagined social whole. They also serve as the foundations of a sense of exceptionalism, which is pivotal in the formation and molding of religious, ethnic, and national communities, and often serve the latter for years thereafter. The British people, for example, prided themselves in the seventeenth century for being exceptionally rational and scientific, and the Americans still believe today that they are inspired by an exceptional idealist creed.2 A sense of exceptionalism may also serve collectives, the modern nationstate included, in other instrumental ways. When married to power, a notion of exceptionalism may generate aggression and violence. National communities


The effect of thinning treatments on wood quality in an artificial plantation of Japanese larch was determined by measuring the annual ring width, ring density by soft X−ray densitom-etry, and dynamic Young's modulus of logs. Ninety-eight 40−41−year-old sample trees from 5 examina-tion plots of different thinning rates (at 0%−50% thinning from full stocking) were examined. Four to 5 years after the experimental setup, the effect of thinning treatment was observed by analysis of vari-ance and multiple comparison


According to the survey,there is a certain degree of disharmony between teachers and students in universities,which results from various factors,such as the impact of the confused multiple values and the lack of humane care in school management system.Both teachers and students should be responsible for this.To solve this problem,what we should do is to purify the social atmosphere,advocate respect for teachers,strengthen the humanity of university management,purify the university cultures,and improve teachers 'quality.Only in this way can the educational effects be improved.


: Fabric quality plays a crucial role in modern textile industry processes. How to detect fabric defects quickly and effectively has become the main research goal of researchers. The You Only Look Once (YOLO) series of networks have maintained a dominant position in the field of target detection. However, detecting small-scale objects, such as tiny targets in fabric defects, is still a very challenging task for the YOLOv4 network. To address this challenge, this paper proposed an improved YOLOv4 target detection algorithm: using a combined data augmentation method to expand the dataset and improve the robustness of the algorithm, obtaining the anchors suitable for fabric defect detection by using the k-means algorithm to cluster the ground truth box of the dataset, adding a new prediction layer in yolo_head in order to have a better effect on tiny target detection, integrating a convolutional block attention module into the backbone feature extraction network, and innovatively replacing the CIOU loss function with the CEIOU loss function to achieve accurate classification and localization of defects. Experimental results show that compared with the original YOLOv4 algorithm, the detection accuracy of the improved YOLOv4 algorithm for tiny targets has been greatly increased, the AP value of tiny target detection has increased by 12%, and the overall mean average precision (mAP) has increased by 3%. The prediction results of the proposed algorithm can provide enterprises with more accurate defect positioning, reduce the defect rate of fabric products, and improve their economic effect. the CBL module and upsampling. The fused features will have richer semantic information, and then the feature layer will be downsampled and then passed down and fused with other feature layers. Finally, the feature layer of 104 × 104 will be output to yolo_head for prediction. Strengthening the network's detection ability for extremely tiny targets, and improving the overall performance of the network for defect detection.


Objective
To investigate the effects of gemfibrozil, fenobrate, and bezafibrate on the macrovascular events.

Methods
We collected all prospective, randomized control clinical trials comparing the effects of 3 fibrates (fenofibrate, bezafibrate, and gemfibrozil) with placebo or blank controls with macrovascular end points reported from CCTR (Issue 4, 2011), MEDLINE (1950-2011), and EMBASE (1950-2011). Data collection and quality evaluation have been done by two reviewers, independently. Meta Analyst beta 3.13 had been used for statistical analysis.

Results
This study included 11 randomized control clinical trials. Compared with placebo or blank control, none of gemfibrozil, fenofibrate or bezafibrate decreased the risk of all cause mortality or stroke incidence (all cause mortality, RR 0.985, 95%CI 0.830 to 1.169; RR 1.023, 95%CI 0.905 to 1.155; RR 0.948, 95%CI 0.837 to 1.073, respectively; stroke incidence, RR 0.765, 95%CI 0.548 to 1.067; RR 0.865, 95%CI 0.646 to 1.158; RR 1.056, 95%CI 0.772 to 1.081, respectively). All three fibrates could significantly decrease the risk of non-fatal myocardial infarction (RR 0.776, 95%CI 0.646 to 0.931; RR 0.833, 95%CI 0.717 to 0.968; RR 0.752, 95%CI 0.591 to 0.958, respectively). Compared with placebo, gemifibrozil and fenofibrate could significantly decrease 10%-20% risk of all cardiovascular events, and no significant difference was found in cancer incidence and mortality.

Conclusion
Fibrates could reduce the risk of non-fatal myocardial infarction but not all-cause mortality or stroke.

Key words:
Fibrates; Fenofibrate; Bezafibrate; Gemfibrozil; Systematic review


For every space mission, there are challenges with the launch site/field operations process that are addressed too late in the development cycle. This potentially causes schedule delays, cost overruns, and adds risk to the mission success. This paper will discuss how a single interface, representing the payload at the launch site in all phases of development, will mitigate risk, and minimize or even alleviate potential problems later on. Experience has shown that a single interface between the project and the launch site allows for issues to be worked in a timely manner and bridges the gap between two diverse cultures.


The highly conserved Notch gene is activated by mutation in more than half of human T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cases. The Notch protein is a transmembrane receptor which, upon binding of its ligand, is cleaved in a series of proteolytic steps releasing the intracellular portion (ICN) to translocate to the nucleus where it acts as a transcriptional activator for target genes such as HES1, Deltex, preTalpha, and c-Myc. To better understand the mechanism by which Notch causes leukemogenesis, microarray gene expression profiling experiments where conducted on five human Notch signaling-dependent T-ALL cell lines which where either mock-treated or treated with a gamma-secretase inhibitor (GSI) to prevent the release of Notch from the membrane. The Polycomb Group gene PCGF5 was identified as one of the genes most strongly downregulated upon Notch inhibition. This regulation was subsequently confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR in both human and mouse leukemia cell lines. Our interest in this gene was encouraged by its homology to the well-known oncogene Bmi-1, which acts to modify chromatin and silence expression of several genes including the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors p16 and p19ARF within the CDKN2a locus. Interestingly, we found that inhibition of Notch signaling by GSI treatment in both human and mouse leukemia cells resulted in an increase of both p16 and p19ARF at the mRNA and protein levels. This suggested that Notch may be responsible for maintaining expression of a transcriptional repressor that suppresses p16 and p19ARF. We hypothesize that PCGF5 may be acting in a manner analogous to Bmi-1 in this cellular context and thus mediating p16/p19ARF repression. Studies to test this hypothesis are currently in progress. To further investigate the role of PCGF5 in hematopoiesis, mouse bone marrow progenitors were transduced with retrovirus to express PCGF5 constitutively and transplanted into lethally irradiated recipients. Our results show long term reconstitution by PCGF5-expressing cells with as yet no evidence of PCGF5-induced hematopoeitic malignancy in a small cohort up to 6 months post-transplant. However, we did observe cells expressing high levels of PCGF5 to be skewed toward myeloid lineages, while mid-level expressing cells develop efficiently into lymphocytes. We detected no defects in B cell maturation; however, PCGF5-expressing T cell numbers were significantly lower than controls in the peripheral blood and spleen of recipient animals. Consistent with this observation, fetal thymic organ culture of PCGF5-transduced fetal liver hematopoietic progenitors showed accumulation in the early double negative thymocyte stages. Additionally, we found PCGF5-expressing B and T lymphocytes to be larger than control cells, and preliminary data suggests these cells may be arrested in G2/M phase of the cell cycle. Biochemical studies are also in progress to assess participation of PCGF5 in the Polycomb Repressive Complex PRC-1 and its effect on chromatin structure. In sum, these preliminary data suggest enforced PCGF5 expression, though not oncogenic, alters normal lymphoid/myeloid fate selection by hematopoietic progenitors and may affect lymphoid cell size by altering cell cycle progression.


Background Emerging adulthood (ages 19 to 25 years) is a developmental phase that is marked by increased mental health conditions, especially depression and anxiety. A growing body of work indicates that digital peer emotional support has positive implications for the psychological functioning of emerging adults. There is burgeoning interest among health care professionals, educational stakeholders, and policy makers in understanding the implementation and clinical effectiveness, as well as the associated mechanism of change, of digital peer support as an intervention. Objective This randomized controlled trial (RCT) examined the effectiveness of a digital peer support intervention over a digital platform—Acceset—for emerging adult psychological well-being with 3 primary aims. First, we evaluated the implementation effectiveness of digital peer support training for individuals providing support (befrienders) and of the digital platform for peer support. Second, we assessed the clinical outcomes of digital peer support in terms of the intervening effect on emerging adult psychological well-being. Third, we investigated the mechanism of change linking the digital peer support intervention to emerging adult psychological well-being. Methods This RCT involving 100 emerging adults from the National University of Singapore follows the published protocol for this trial. Results This RCT found effectiveness in digital peer support training—specifically, befrienders' peer support responses demonstrating significantly higher post- than pretraining scores in selfhood (posttraining score: mean 62.83, SD 10.18, and SE 1.72; pretraining score: mean 54.86, SD 7.32, and SE 1.24; t34=3.88; P<.001). The digital peer support intervention demonstrated clinical effectiveness in enhancing selfhood, compassion, and mindfulness and lowering depressive and anxiety symptoms among seekers in the intervention group after the intervention (mean 7.15, SD 5.14; SE 0.88) than among seekers in the waitlist control group before the intervention (mean 11.75, SD 6.72; SE 0.89; t89=3.44; P<.001). The effect of the intervention on seekers' psychological well-being was sustained beyond the period of the intervention. The mechanism of change revealed that seekers' engagement with the intervention had both immediate and prospective implications for their psychological well-being. Conclusions This RCT of a digital peer support intervention for emerging adult psychological well-being harnesses the interventional potential of 4 components of psychological well-being and elucidated a mechanism of change. By incorporating and validating the digital features and process of a peer support platform, our RCT provides the parameters and conditions for deploying an effective and novel digital peer support intervention for emerging adult psychological well-being in real-world settings. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05083676; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05083676


We investigate the capability of the WRF/Chem model in the simulation of some criteria air pollutants, during a major air pollution episode between 16 and 21 December 2017. In this study, by employing the EDGAR-HTAP_v2 global emissions data in the WRF/Chem model, we evaluate the simulations of the surface mixing ratios of NO2, SO2, and CO. The RADM2 chemical mechanism with MADE-SORGAM aerosol scheme has been used as the chemical option of the WRF/Chem model, to simulate the meteorology-chemistry interactions. The variations of the time series of the pollutants and the comparisons of the results in Tehran with the measurement data showed that although the WRF/Chem simulations in Tehran presented considerable over-estimations, but the model's performance with regard to the time variations of the concentrations of the gaseous agents over the polluted episode is acceptable, and therefore, could be considered in the operational air quality systems. Since emission data are not available for many metropolitan areas over Iran, the HTAP_v2 global dataset could be used as the emissions data with reliable accuracy for the numerical air quality models.


Introducao: In many remote areas, volunteers give immediate care when professional help will be delayed. Community First Responders (CFRs) are trained volunteers equipped with airways, oxygen and a defibrillator. They are called when an ambulance is requested, and they usually arrive quickly. They are asked to give handover reports to clinicians, but these are usually uninformative or too late to be useful. Objetivos: To establish whether technology can be used to improve clinical management by CFRs. To establish whether automatically generated handover reports can improve communication between CFRs and clinicians. Metodologia ou Descricao da Experiencia: Prototype development, testing and evaluation. Resultados: This is a project in progress. We have developed a working prototype involving an Android tablet PC linked via Bluetooth to a pulse oximeter and a respiratory rate monitor. A user interface allows the CFR to observe the patient's vital signs and allows input of observational data and a record of actions taken. A Natural Language Generation algorithm integrates the physiological data with the recording by the CFR to generate a handover report. The system seems to be robust in terms of signal stability and a small scale evaluation by ambulance clinicians suggests that the handover reports are informative. Conclusao ou Hipoteses: Digital technology may be useful in assisting trained volunteers to deliver immediate care and in generating good quality handover reports in emergency situations. Field trials are ongoing.


High temperature conduction heating reduced the fungal growth and prevented the spoilage of freshly harvested high moisture rough rice leading to its safe temporary storage. Heat treatments resulting in fungal mortality levels equal to 90% and higher were found to be satisfactory for general use. Finally, a relationship was developed for estimating the safe storage periods of heattreated high moisture rough rice based on its moisture content and fungal mortality level achieved with various heat treatments.


Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival rates have been shown to be lower than cardiac arrest survival rates occurring in the hospital setting. Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can significantly improve survival. PumpStart, a community service-learning program developed by medical students, was formed to increase education on compression-only CPR to local high school students and foster leadership and mentorship skills in participating medical students. 1-hr sessions were administered at local high schools throughout the metro—Boston area. A single semester "pilot" phase and "first-year" implementation phase were reviewed. Anonymous pre-/postassessment surveys were completed by participants. Medical students also completed surveys assessing their comfort in teaching CPR. Surveys over both pilot semester and first year phases were reviewed. Participants reported significant improvements in CPR technique and confidence in acquired skills for both the pilot semester (31% vs. 82%, p < .05) and first year implementation (33% vs. 86%, p < .05). Medical students reported significantly higher confidence levels regarding abilities to answer questions about CPR, serving as mentors, and facilitating training sessions for new medical students after participating in PumpStart (p < .05). PumpStart was successful in providing CPR awareness to high school students, as well as the opportunity to learn about teaching and mentoring for medical students. Such a program can be easily reproduced by other health care organizations with the goal to increase opportunities for bystander CPR and improving OHCA survival rates nationally.


Microalgae are widely studied as a promising solution for the challenges raised by the sustainable development. Monitoring these kind of cultures is a hard task due to the cost of the physical sensors and the lack of reliable ones for some biochemical variables, especially for the online measurement of biomass concentration. This paper proposes an observer for the biomass concentration based on the online measurement of the dissolved oxygen in the culture. An Hybrid Observer is developed, by the combination of a Kalman filter and an asymptotic observer. The performance and tuning of the Hybrid observer is discussed and highlighted in simulation in the case of a continuous culture of the microalgae C. reinhardtii, performed in a closed photobioreactor.


The present study to investigated that the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal root colonization and spore population in some medicinal at Yellanahalli hills, valley view of Nilgiris, Udhagamandalam, Tamilnadu, India.Root and rhizosphere soil samples were collected during the month of August, 2017 - March, 2018 Soil pHwas to be recorded. From the study results revealed that totally 25 plant species belonging to 13 families were recorded root colonization and rhizosphere spore population. A totally 12 Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal species belonging to 7 genera and 2 different Orders were isolated and identified. The maximum sporepopulation was found in the rhizosphere soil samples of Justicia procumbens (380 /100 g of soil) which belongs to the family Acanthaceae and the lowest spore population was observed in the Crotalarieae juncea(102 / 100 g of soil) belongs to Fabaceae. Among these plant species the highest 81% AM fungal infection wasfound in roots of Solanum nigrum belongs to the family Solanaceae While the lowest 23 % AM fungal association was found in the root of Verbascum thapsus belongs to Scrophulariaceae.


Periodic' ex:amination of patients after potentially curative treatment for breast cancer is routine practice. The objectives of such follow up are 1) surveillance for cancer recurrence 2) monitoring for toxicities related to therapy 3) maximizing overall health and quality of life for cancer survivors. However, recent literatures suggest that routine intensive follow up studies for asymptomatic breast cancer patients after primary treatments, showed no survival benefit. Also, there is controversy between aggressive and minimal policy for breast cancer patients follow up after primary treatment still exist. We administrated a mailed survey to The Korea Breast Cancer Society (KBCS) members (N-136, 1996) to study the methods of preoperative evaluatiou aud post-treatment follow up, as practicing in Korea and determine whether an accepted standard exists, or whether difference in practice occurred, base on physicians factors (years of physician experience, age of physician, number of breast cancer treated annually, practice type). The survey response yield was 45.59% (62/136), and mean age of the respondents was 43.7 years (range 33-67). There was roughly equal distribution of respondents by region (capital/noncapital area: 27/31), and practice type (university hospital/general hospital: 37/21). The average practice in breast disease treatment of respondents (most of them were surgeon: N-57) was 8 years, and breast-conserving rate of respondents in 1996 was 21.02%. The considerable factors in follow up practice were 1) stage, 2) symptoms, 3) age, 4) operation methods, 5) demand of patient, 6) education level of patient in orders. Most frequently used tests for initial work up and base line follow up study for breast cancer patient were history, physical examination, mammography, breast US, chest X-ray, bone scan, FNA, open biopsy, CBC/ ESR, SMA, CEA, CA15-3 and history, physical examination, mammography, breast US, chest X-ray, bone scan, FNA, open biopsy, CBC/ESR, SMA, CEA, CA15-3, respectively. In this study, we proposed the model of breast cancer follow up which is practicing among the KBCS members and also we concluded as follows This follow up model is more aggressive than other foreign cancer center follow up protocol 2) The KBCS members survey for non-breast cancer second malignancy less frequently than others 3) It seems to need concensus conference for Korean guideline model of breast cancer fo!low up. (Korean J of Breast Cancer 1998;1:273~281)


This paper presents the comparative study of miniaturization of Wilkinson power divider along with higher harmonics suppressed. The circuit is designed at 2.4 GHz keeping in mind of wireless applications. Comparison is being made with respect to SWR, size, insertion loss with respect to the change in the length of the line. The miniaturization of the power divider is realized with capacitive loading which is being realized in the form of distributed element and not through lumped capacitor. Open circuited stub is being used for the capacitive loading. Reduction of transmission line segment from λ/4 to λ/12 is being analyzed with respect to SWR, insertion loss and percentage of bandwidth utilization. Power divider is realized on FR4 dielectric substrate (constant =4.5, height =1.5mm) and the simulations are performed using Genesys and ADS. The proposed power divider exhibits 40% size reduction, insertion loss not exceeding 0.7 dB and providing return loss better than +30 dB with the good isolation between the output ports and not reducing percentage of bandwidth utilization below 75.


Introduction: Aging process causes malfunction of the nervous system and cognitive disturbances, including memory, learning, language skills and attention deficits. In the other hand, being in confined and restricted environments make these elderly persons deprived of their normal sensory stimulations that can cause many unwanted perceptual and cognitive consequences. Multi-sensory stimulation by arousing the reticular activating system has known positive effects on brain functions. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of Multi-Sensory stimulation on elderly people's memories living in Nursing homes in


International Organizations require guidelines for dealing with Technology Based Risk. This paper presents a framework for the role of technology in crises--Crisis Compliance-the use of technology to predict crises, to prevent them from occurring, and to prevail over the ones that do occur and extends it to international organizations and industries. This framework is applied to the disaster at Fukushima and it explores the Japanese government's role in deploying nuclear technology, responding to the immediate crisis, and coordinating the massive ongoing cleanup effort. Five characteristics of the crisis emerge: 1) "Design Basis" versus "Beyond Design Basis" Risks-what risks are "built-in" to nuclear technologies versus those that are "outside the box," 2) Deterministic versus Stochastic Risks-risks whose impact is immediately visible versus those risks whose effect are only visible long term, 3) Physical and Geographical Scope-the degree to which the risk can be physically isolated, 4) Contained versus Cascading Disasters-disasters of one particular type versus those that evolve into other forms of disasters, and 5) Internal versus External Locus of Controlindustry's ability to regulate itself versus the need for independent regulatory agencies. Application of this framework to other technology based crises provides further examples of how an understanding of these characteristics can provide insight into dealing with international Technology Based Risk in the future.


Traditional potentiostat designs often focus on high accuracy using high precision discrete components and often involve a limited number of discrete electrodes. Modern medicine and biological research require the use of high-density biosensor arrays to gain a better understanding of cellular communication in biological systems. Such applications involves hundreds or thousands of electrodes on a single silicon substrate. Each set of electrodes is supported by an independent group of circuits to allow real-time, multichannel detection and characterization of bio-signals. This paper presents a low power, offset-calibrated potentiostat design in a commercial 0.18um CMOS process for use in single-chip biosensor array applications to generate high resolution chemical images. The design uses a reusable on-chip calibration circuit to reduce amplifier offset error, with 40.3 μW of power consumption and a total silicon area of .02 mm2.


Owing to growing concern for cheap and alternative source of animal feeds, the use of microorganisms capable of breaking down feather keratin for the utilization of feather as protein feed was investigated. Eight (8) bacterial isolates from chicken feather-waste dump were screened for feather degradation by growing them with feathers as their primary source of carbon, nitrogen and energy. One of the isolates designed as D4 was characterized and selected for further studies based on its superior keratinolytic activity. The time course of study on bacterial growth and feather hydrolysis in liquid culture medium having raw feather as sole source of carbon and nitrogen was followed by measuring the release of free amino nitrogen (FAN), total nonprotein nitrogen (TNPN), and medium optical density. Growth, TNPN, and FAN were influenced by feather particle size, pH and medium feather concentration. Maximum growth, FAN and TNPN occurred at 6 –7% (w/v) medium feather concentration. The feather particle size diameter of ≤90µM and pH of 10.0 gave the optimum growth, yield of TNPN and FAN in the fermentation medium. These tests indicated that chicken feathers can be used in the local production of amino acid concentrate based on the isolate and also improve feather- based protein feeds for animal nutrition.


'The purposes of this program are to design and construct a mass spectrometer for the analysis of high temperature condensed phase materials, and to use this instrument to investigate the high temperature chemistry of waste form materials. Individual mass spectrometric techniques can provide windows through which to view selected properties of materials at high temperatures, but information from several sources must be combined to obtain the larger picture. This instrument is designed to provide several types of interlaced mass spectrometric analyses from a single specimen, eliminating the uncertainties associated with combining data from several different samples analyzed in different instruments. The features that are being combined in this instrument are: (1) miniaturized sample mounting and control of sample temperature to 1,300 C; (2) electron impact (EI) ionization of volatilized neutrals; (3) surface ionization, positive and negative ions; (4) secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), positive and negative ions; (5) ultrahigh vacuum combined with sputtering to allow surface analyses to be related to bulk composition; (6) a single mass analyzer able to sequentially analyze ions from each of the ionization modes. These features will allow the following types of information to be obtained: (1) Atomic and molecular species vaporizing from the surface, both neutral and ionic. Neutrals will predominate in almost all systems, but the positive and negative ions which do volatize give valuable insights into the condensed phase chemistry. (2) SIMS interrogation of the surface composition, with ions sputtered from the surface analyzed by mass spectrometry. A high intensity sputter ion gun will be used to clean the surface, while a lower intensity ion gun will be used for the SIMS analysis. The ultrahigh vacuum will allow the surface to be maintained in a clean configuration until the analysis can be completed. This in turn gives information concerning the bulk composition of the material. (3) This information is obtained as a function of temperature from a single sample, so the interpretation of events will be more straight forward than merging data from different instruments. There currently are two instruments operating in the laboratory that perform these functions; one for SIMS and surface ionization on high temperature samples, and the other for EI and surface ionization. These have provided valuable insights into the properties of materials at high temperatures, but there is uncertainty from the perspective that all analyses cannot be performed on the same sample and from the fact that neither can guarantee a clean surface.'


Epoxy resin has been widely used in many fields because of it's good comprehensive mechanical properties and excellent adhesion. But the epoxy resin has highly crosslinking density and largly internal stress after curing,leading to brittlness,poor fatigue resistance and poor impacting toughness,and their applications are subject to certain restrictions. This paper reviewed the theories and methods for synthesis of high elastic epoxy resin.


The task of improving the fault tolerance and survivability of electric drives is relevant of modern dangerous manufactures like nuclear, military, chemistry or medicine as a part of technical objects often used difficult system of electric drives mechanisms. Algorithms of fault tolerant control of induction motor electric drive in phase loss operate mode with scalar and vector control for different positions current vectors with non-sinusoidal currents are reviewed. A comparative analysis of recovery algorithms based on simulation is shown.


The evolution of "Nen" had four stages: the aearance stage in the re-Qin days to Sui and Tang dynasties,the develoment stage in Tang and Song Dynasties,the shrinkage stage in Yuan,Ming and Qing Dynasties and the change stage in modern and contemorary eriod.In each stage,its usage,grammar and word formation ower all exerienced and changed a lot.The external cause is the hybrid of the highbrow and oular culture,after the olitical,economic,cultural gradually oening of the the Tang and Song Dynasties.The internal cause of those changes was the internal adjustment of Chinese word meaning system.The aroriate attributes of "Nen" should be defined as time eriod.That is,it was an ordinary word before the Vernacular movement and a dialectal word after the vernacular took lace of the classical writing style.


Objective To assess the inhibitory effect of gallium nitrate, cisplatin and their combination on proliferation and apoptosis of gastric cancer(BGC823) cells. Methods The BGC823 cells were cultured and treated with gallium nitrate, cisplatin or their combination. Apoptosis and proliferation of BGC823 cells were detected by flow cytometry and MTT assay, respectively. Results MTT assay and flow cytmetry showed that gallium nitrate inhibited the proliferation of BGC823 cells in a time- and dosedependent manner. Small dose of combined gallium nitrate and cisplatin could greatly increase the inhibitory effect of cisplatin on the proliferation and apoptosis of BGC823 cells. The inhibition rate of combined gallium nitrate and cisplatin was 70.0%, 71.4% and 72.3% at 24 h, 48 h and 72 h, respectively. Conclusion The effect of gallium nitrate and cisplatin on proliferation and apoptosis of BGC823 cells is not significantly different and can thus provide a new approach to the drug treatment of gastric cancer and to the preparation of anti-tumor drugs.


The accuracy and completeness of a digital map plays a critical role in determining the quality of most location-based services. Unfortunately, road networks change frequently. Consequently, we study the issue of automatic map update in this paper. We propose a system called COBWEB which takes all the unmatched trajectories as input and generates the missing road segments with both the geometry properties and topology features well preserved. We conduct a comprehensive experimental study via real trajectory data generated by roughly 15,000 taxis in Singapore within a 5-month period. Compared with existing work, COBWEB demonstrates a better and more stable performance and a stronger resilience to various sampling rates and data sizes.


A vibration alarm to protect a valuable item, e.g. briefcase or mobile telephone, has a motion sensor 26 and a receiver 21 which receives signals from a transmitter 1. When a vibration is detected by sensor 26 the power supply 27 is activated causing the transmitter and receiver to communicate. If the transmitter-receiver distance exceeds a permitted range a control switch 23 closes and an alarm circuit 24 drives an alarm module 25. The alarm module produces a low volume audible alarm, which subsequently becomes louder and finally a high voltage is discharged to prevent unauthorised movement of the valuable item. However, if the distance is within the permitted range and/or the vibration subsequently ceases for at least a predetermined time the alarm condition will be discontinued.


We consider a four-dimensional space–time symmetry which is a nontrivial extension of the Poincare algebra, different from supersymmetry and not contradicting a priori the well-known no-go theorems. We investigate some field theoretical aspects of this new symmetry and construct invariant actions for noninteracting fermion and noninteracting boson multiplets. In the case of the bosonic multiplet, where two-form fields appear naturally, we find that this symmetry is compatible with a local U(1) gauge symmetry, only when the latter is gauge fixed by a 't Hooft–Feynman term.


Knowing the relationship between ocean wave characteristics and radar returns is important in interpreting the data from scatterometers and altimeters. This paper describes a new method of characterizing this relationship using the methods of cross-track interferometry in a stationary instrument. The authors' method uses a real aperture interferometer on a platform with a vertical baseline to infer the wave height at each point. This instrument will be coupled with altimeters and scatterometers to study the relationship between the shape of the waves and the backscatter to each type of instrument in a future tower experiment. The authors describe the interferometric instrument and analyze it through numerical simulations.


The introduction of advanced endoscopic techniques has facilitated significant growth in the field of endoscopic skull base surgery (SBS). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of endoscopic SBS on the clinical practice patterns of the American Rhinologic Society (ARS) membership.


A one-year retrospective study was undertaken to ascertain the incidence of poisoning deaths in and around Chitradurga district of Karnataka state, which were autopsied at District Government Hospital, Chitradurga. Out of 343 autopsies conducted, 73 were deaths due to poisoning. The commonest age group of affected victims was 21–30 years. Males outnumbered females in a ratio of 1.8:1. The most commonly used poison was an organo-phosphorus compound. Most of the cases were suicidal in nature and maximum were from rural population.


PurposeThe study aims to examine the relationship between organizational career development (OCD) and employee retention (ER) with job satisfaction (JS) and organizational engagement as the mediating variables and employee empowerment (EE) as moderating variable between the relationship of OCD and JS.Design/methodology/approachA total of 422 respondents – employees working in information technology (IT) company in India – were collected and subjected to analysis through structural equation modelling (SEM).FindingsThere is a positive relationship between OCD and ER, where JS and organizational engagement acts as mediating variables. The study also shows the existence of moderating impact of EE in the relationship between OCD and JS.Originality/valueThe contribution of the study comes from establishing the role played by JS, organizational engagement and EE in the relationship between OCD and ER.


In this article we address the question whether or not the votes for anti-immigrant parties can be considered as protest votes. We define protest votes by the motives underlying electoral choices, building on earlier research done by Tillie (1995) and Van der Eijk & Franklin (1996). That research showed that ideological proximity and party size are the best predictors of party preference. On this basis we designed a typology of motives for party choice and how these motives would manifest themselves empirically. Analyzing the 1994 elections for the European Parliament for seven political systems we show that anti-immigrant parties attract no more protest votes than other parties do, with only one exception: the Dutch Centrumdemocraten. Voting for anti-immigrant parties is largely motivated by ideological and pragmatic considerations, just like voting for other parties. In addition, (negative) attitudes towards immigrants have a stronger effect on preferences for anti-immigrant parties than on preference for other parties. Social cleavages and attitudes towards European unification are of minor importance as determinants of preferences for anti-immigrant parties. The overall conclusion is that a rational choice model of electoral behavior has strong explanatory power for party preferences in general, but also for the support for anti-immigrant parties in particular.


The present invention provides a control interface fully digital power module comprising a power circuit (1), the drive module (3) consisting of full-controlled semiconductor switching device, the AC side current detection module (4), DC voltage detection module (2), a microcontroller (7), programmable logic devices (5), a digital communication interface module (8), the auxiliary power supply (6), all the functional modules and the power circuit are enclosed within a housing. The power module of the present invention has a compact size, and the integration of the internal control means and the corresponding software, with a very high degree of integration. The present invention may be used for various power converters and inverters.


Objective:To study the effects of different concentrations of nonylphenol(NP) on the structure and function of the thyroid gland in rats.Methods:Forty healthy 4-week-old SD rats were randomly divided into 4 groups,each group comprised of 5 male and 5 female rats.The treated rats were administered different doses of NP(40 mg/kg,80 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg) by pouring stomach.The changes in serum hormones,histopathology and histochemistry results were examined after 15 days of treatment.Results:The hyperplastic thyroid structure was observed in all groups.The activity of succinic dehydrogenase(SDH) was increased obviously in dose dependent.The serum levels of FT3 and FT4 decreased gradually,and the serum level of thyrotropin(TSH) increased gradually in NP groups,compared with those of control(P 0.05).There were significant differences in serum levels of TSH,FT3 and FT4 between 40 mg/kg,80 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg of NP groups(P 0.05),but no significant differences between 80 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg NP groups(P 0.05).Conclusion:Nonylphenol could cause hypothyroidism in rats.


The stability of the movement for which the IAOS stands has been subjected to a crucial test during the last five years. Its steady growth and remarkably rapid development in new directions – some of a far more ambitious character than any previously undertaken by the organised farmers – afford yet another proof of the superiority of co-operative organisation under conditions of stress. The societies have not only held together, but have also improved their buildings and equipment as well as their business methods, and have increased their output to an extent greater than during any other period. 1


The building group is the basis for the maintenance and operation of the city. The rapid recovery of community building group (CBG) can effectively reduce economic losses caused by earthquakes. There is service function interdependence among the buildings, and the impact of this interdependence on the postdisaster recovery of CBG is not clear. In order to improve the postdisaster recovery efficiency of CBG and explore the impact of service function dependence among buildings on postdisaster recovery, this paper integrates the recovery time (RT) and functionality loss (FL) of individual buildings and proposes two multi‐objective optimization recovery models suitable for CBG: the postearthquake recovery optimization model of CBG and the postearthquake recovery optimization model of CBG considering the service function interdependence among buildings. In these models, building RT, building FL, CBG resilience, and building recovery resources are considered, and the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm‐Ⅱ is used to solve the models to obtain the optimal restoration scheduling of CBG. At the same time, through a case, this paper analyzes the impact of the interdependence of service function among buildings and recovery resources on the recovery scheduling and resilience of CBG. This method can provide a basis for pre‐earthquake disaster risk reduction planning and significantly improves the postdisaster recovery efficiency of CBG.


Immediate recall may be based on information stored as speech, or on a short-lived and more purely sensory kind of storage. The latter has often been called the "primary memory image": the visual image probably disappears within a second or so (Sperling, 1960), while the auditory image may last for as long as 3 or 4 sec. (Mackworth, 1964). The latter phenomenon is very close to the notion of "primary memory" (Waugh & Norman, 1965), although for Waugh and Norman, primary memory also is considered to include very recent items which may have been articulated at presentation. The purpose of the present work was to discover whether items ostensibly retrieved from sensory storage were as susceptible to the effects of acoustic confusability (AC) as were items ostensibly retrieved from speech


OBJECTIVE:To observe the ameliorative effect of Yixinshu capsules on the endothelial function of patients with coronary heart disease after taking this medicine for 3 months.METHODS: 150 patients with coronary heart disease were assigned to receive add-on Yixinshu capsule(3 granules /time t.i.d)(trial group) or routine therapy alone in a 2 ∶ 1 ratio for three months.The endothelial-dependent flow-mediated vasodilation(FMD) of the brachial artery,nitric oxide(NO) and endothelin-1 levels were determined in the two groups before and after treatment to evaluate the vascular endothelial function.RESULTS: Compared with before treatment,FMD improved in both groups after treatment(P 0.05),plasma NO level increased(P 0.05) whereas endothelin-1 level decreased(P 0.05).The trial group showed better improvement than in the control group in FMD,NO and endothelin-1 levels(P 0.05).CONCLUSION: The addition of Yixinshu capsules to routine therapy can significantly improve vascular endothelial function in patients with coronary heart disease.


ALGORITHMS FOR ON-LINE VERTEX ENUMERATION PROBLEM İrfan Caner KAYA M.S. in Industrial Engineering Advisor: Firdevs ULUS September 2017 Vertex enumeration problem is to enumerate all vertices of a polyhedron P which is given by intersection of finitely many halfspaces. It is a basis for many algorithms designed to solve problems from various application areas and there are many algorithms to solve these problems in the literature. On the one hand, there are iterative algorithms which solve the so called 'on-line' vertex enumeration problem in each iteration. In other words, in each iteration of these algorithms, the current polyhedron is intersected with an additional halfspace that defines P . On the other hand, there are simplex-type algorithms which takes the set off all halfspaces as its input from the beginning. One of the usages of the vertex enumeration problem is the 'Benson-type' multiobjective optimization algorithms. The aim of these algorithms is to generate or approximate the Pareto frontier (the set of nondominated points in the objective space). In each iteration of the Benson's algorithm, a polyhedron which contains the Pareto frontier is intersected with an additional halfspace in order to find a finer outer approximation. The vertex enumeration problem to be used within this algorithm has a special structure. Namely, the polyhedron to be generated is known to be unbounded with a recession cone which is equal to the positive orthant. In this thesis, we consider the 'double description method' which is a method to solve an on-line vertex enumeration problem where the starting polyhedron is bounded. (1) We generate an iterative algorithm to solve the vertex enumeration problem from the scratch where polyhedron P is allowed to be bounded or unbounded. (2) Then, we slightly modify this algorithm to be more efficient while it only works for problems where the recession cone of P is known to be iii


One-dimensional Gaussian distribution. If a random variable y is Gaus-sian and has mean µ and variance σ 2 , which we write: y ∼ Normal(µ, σ 2), or P (y) = Normal(y; µ, σ 2), (11.1) then the distribution of y is: P (y | µ, σ 2) = 1 √ 2πσ 2 exp −(y − µ) 2 /2σ 2. (11.2) [I use the symbol P for both probability densities and probabilities.] The inverse-variance τ ≡ 1/ σ 2 is sometimes called the precision of the Gaussian distribution. P (y | x, A) = 1 Z(A) exp − 1 2 (y − x) T A(y − x) , (11.3) where x is the mean of the distribution, A is the inverse of the variance–covariance matrix, and the normalizing constant is Z(A) = (det(A/2π)) −1/2 .


A brand exhibits power. The power means the ability to charge a higher price for the same products which would result in higher profit margins and ultimately a higher firm value Each firm in the industry ultimately aims to create a brand name to enhance value. There have been several approaches to value brand names which may significantly overstate or understate their value. This paper attempts to analyze the impact of a brand name with the valuation of Colgate Palmolive a branded company and JL Morrison another generic company in the Personal Care industry. The paper also determines the value of the brand name which results in higher growth and higher value for the firm owning it. The results of the study are important for a better understanding of brand value for potential higher returns in the future.


Culturally-loaded expressions are culture-specific words or phrases. A large number of such expressions have come into existence since China's reform and opening up in the late 1970s, so it is of great significance to render them into proper English for the sake of successful cultural communication between China and the West. We can have a better position to probe into the translation of them from the perspectives of intercultural communication and pragmatics, and thus expose practical translation techniques from the foreignizing and the domesticating approaches.


A recently developed finite element (FE) model was used to examine the thickness-swell, density changes, and internal stresses in oriented strandboard (OSB) panels under moisture loading. The model accounts for the nonlinear mechanical behavior of OSB and for the moisture transport through the specimen. The FE model is based on the 3-D density variation of the board. The density variation, resulting from manufacturing processes, affects the uniformity of thickness-swell in OSB and is often exacerbated by continuous sorption of moisture, which leads to potentially damaging internal stresses in the panel. The model was validated through comparison of experimental results. The use of the model is illustrated by quantifying the effects of resin content changes on thickness swell, and the examination of internal stresses and bond failures in an OSB specimen.


Methane is a potent, heat-absorbing greenhouse gas and a major contributor to human induced climate change. While there are many natural sources of methane (such as emissions from oceans and wetlands), human related activities (such as agriculture and energy production) are playing a major role in the dramatic increase of the concentration of methane in the atmosphere. So far, it has been difficult to reduce methane emissions because they are so widely produced. A group of bacteria called methanotrophs could aid in reducing methane emissions. These bacteria are able to catalyze methane to methanol, a promising biofuel. This reaction is catalyzed by an enzyme known as methane monooxygenase (MMO). However, methanotrophs require certain conditions to survive and have a low rate of reproduction, two factors which have lowered their industrial viability. By inserting the gene encoding for MMO into the chassis E. coli the growth challenges could be mitigated while also efficiently catalyzing the conversion of methane to methanol. Of the two types of MMOs, soluble MMO appears to be most viable as it is more well-documented and does not rely on copper co-factors. Thus, we would insert an engineered version of the gene for soluble MMO into E. coli. Transformed E. coli would be contained in a bioreactor from which methanol can be extracted. The objective of our design is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from human activity and to provide a source of a promising and sustainably produced biofuel.


Completely disintegrated carbonaceous mudstone, a common embankment material, has significant swelling-shrinkage behavior under cyclic wetting and drying, which often causes the instability of embankments. In this paper, the evolution of the cracks in the completely disintegrated carbonaceous mudstone subjected to cyclic wetting and drying was studied by laboratory tests. The vacuum saturation method and the drying method based on heat lamps and a fan were employed to simulate the wetting and drying processes, respectively. The image processing technique was used to treat the images of the sample surface. Afterward, various geometric parameters of the cracks appeared on the sample surface were measured, and the evolution characteristics of the cracks were analyzed. The results show that with the increase in the number of wetting and drying cycles, the number of cracks on the sample surface gradually increases. After four wetting and drying cycles, the existing cracks produce a large number of small branches, which are connected to form irregular polygonal grids. The development of the cracks in the completely disintegrated carbonaceous mudstone sample can be divided into three stages, i.e., slow development, rapid development, and stable development. Both the surface density of crack and the crack rate first increase and then tend to be stable with the increasing number of wetting and drying cycles. New cracks are mainly generated on the basis of the existing cracks, and some cracks appear to heal under cyclic wetting and drying. The early cracks are mainly developed in the directions of 0°–90° and 300°–360°, and the development rate of the cracks in the directions of 30°, 90°, 140°–150°, and 180°–270° is significantly higher than that of the cracks in other directions.


This paper introduces the concept of distributed loss model for calculation of Locational Marginal Price (LMP) in electricity markets on the basis of Optimal Power Flow (OPF). This model has also been presented to address the mismatch issue at system reference bus. The DC Optimal Power Flow (DCOPF) model has been evaluated in this paper to calculate the Locational Marginal Price (LMP). Moreover AC Optimal Power Flow (ACOPF) model has also been used for comparison purpose. But to overcome the drawback of lossless DCOPF algorithm, distributed loss based DCOPF model has been proposed and compared with other OPF techniques. IEEE 30 bus system is used in power world simulator for LMP calculation.


High phosphorus iron ore in Yunnan province possesses its specificity.It is not only hard to benefi-ciate,but also difficult to be extensively used in blast furnace ironmaking.Therefore,how to process such high phosphorus iron ores is a burning problem needed to be settled in steel companies in Yunnan province.The oxygen enrichment top-blown smelting reduction technology was introduced.Also one kind of high phosphorus iron ore was processed with oxygen enrichment top-blown smelting reduction technology.The effect of oxygen enrichment percentage and blowing rate on furnace temperature were studied.The properties of the slag were analyzed and the metallurgical effect of this technology was also discussed by measuring element percentage composition in the pig iron and slag after smelting.


We introduce a model of multiagent dynamics for self-organized motion; individuals travel at a constant speed while trying to adopt the averaged body attitude of their neighbors. The body attitudes are represented through unitary quaternions. We prove the correspondence with the model presented in [P. Degond, A. Frouvelle, and S. Merino-Aceituno, Math. Models Methods Appl. Sci., 27 (2017), pp. 1005--1049], where the body attitudes are represented by rotation matrices. Differently from this previous work, the individual-based model introduced here is based on nematic (rather than polar) alignment. From the individual-based model, the kinetic and macroscopic equations are derived. The benefit of this approach, in contrast to that of the previous one, is twofold: first, it allows for a better understanding of the macroscopic equations obtained and, second, these equations are prone to numerical studies, which is key for applications.


We report results of quantum wave packet calculations of the O(1D)+HCl(v=0,j)→ClO+H, OH+Cl, reactions for zero and nonzero total angular momentum, J, (using the centrifugal sudden approximation), and using a new fit to extensive ab initio calculations of a global potential [K. A. Peterson, S. Skokov, and J. M. Bowman, J. Chem. Phys. 111, 2445 (1999)]. Initial state-selected and cumulative reaction probabilities to form each set of products for J=0 are calculated by a direct summation of the initial state-selected reaction probabilities. We propose and test a simple energy-shifting approximation that relates the initial state-selected reaction probability for arbitrary j to the one for j=0. Extensions of standard J- and K-shifting methods are suggested and applied to both reaction channels. In doing this extension the adiabatic rotation approximation is used to determine the rotational barriers in the entrance and exit channels. The energy dependence of the reaction cross sections to form the two products ...


We present the results of a pilot study relating creative achievement and academic performance in introductory computer science courses. The experimental CS1 course was based on the Java-based Media Computing approach, with some deviations to emphasize concepts of object-oriented programming. Students' creative achievement was measured quantitatively using the Creative Achievement Questionnaire, a reliable and valid instrument. The study data comprises questionnaire results along with lab scores, exam scores, course grade, GPA, ethnicity, and gender for fifteen students, including four CS majors and eleven non-CS majors. No significant relationship was found between creative achievement and either GPA or course grade, although some more fine-grained relationships were discovered between creative achievement and specific kinds of assignments. A discussion of these relationships is provided, along with implications for practice and recommendations for future work.


Alternative fuels like CNG have proven advantages over gasoline in lowering emission for IC engine applications. For a CNG engine better benefits can only be derived through engine modifications. For CNG usage, it is imperative to modify and optimize the ignition and injection timing for better performance and reduced emissions. This paper presents the effect of variation of ignition and injection timing on engine performance and emissions. Experiments were performed at constant engine speed of 3000 rpm to determine the engine characteristics and emissions on a twin cylinder genset in which ignition timing was modified from baseline 336° CA to 310, 316, 326, 336, 338 and 340° CA for CNG as fuel for two different injection timings i.e. 300° CA and 270° CA, whereas 310, 316, 320 and 326° CA for HCNG as fuel for 310° CA injection timing. In term of performance, the results showed that the MBT occurred at the ignition and injection timing of 316° CA and 300° CA respectively using CNG as fuel whereas MBT occurred at the ignition and injection timing of 320° CA and 310° CA respectively using HCNG as fuel. In terms of emissions using CNG as fuel, at MBT for 300° CA and 270° CA injection timing respectively CO and HC are observed with decreasing trend whereas CO2 and NOx are in increasing trend. Using HCNG as Mohammad Abul Hasan Khan et al 84 fuel, at MBT, CO, HC, CO2, NOx are observed with similar trends as with CNG.


A gas-liquid chromatographic method for determining trace amounts of acrylonitrile in plastic containers and carbonated beverages using a nitrogen-sensitive detector and headspace injection technique is described. The method is suitable for the determination of acrylonitrile at concentrations down to 0.1 mg kg–1 in plastics and 0.005 mg kg–1 in beverages.


Species lists make up much of the historical and present-day information presented in conjunction with environmental impact assessments. Most such lists have not been analyzed to determine whether the patterns of occurrence of species are indicative of differences in water quality. Statistical procedures are proposed to determine whether patterns of species occurrence are found in the data and, if so, which samples and species appear to contribute most strongly to the observed patterns. The application of these procedures is discussed with examples.


The invention relates to a therapeutic instrument for dermovascular diseases. The dye conversion function is utilized. The utilization rate of the spectral radiation of the xenon lamp is increased. By changing the discharge current density of the xenon lamp, the spectral distribution of the radiation of the xenon lamp is changed; and by utilizing stronger near-infrared radiation, the treatment effect of deep angionosis can be enhanced. Compared with the existing photon machine used for treating angionosis at home and abroad, the treatment function is greatly increased. Compared with the dye and YAG dual-wavelength laser all-in-one machine abroad, the energy utilization rate is high, namely energy is saved, the structure is simple, and the cost is greatly reduced. Therefore, the therapeutic instrument has very high international competitiveness.


There is something to be said for this reading of history, and for its retelling in a manner that fuses accessibility, scholarliness and advocacy. Conservationists are highly sensitized to biodiversity loss, but Nicholls's focus on the atrophy of populations reminds us that even many extant species have withered to the point of ecological irrelevance. The book pulls together an imposing amount of reference material, and Nicholls gives plenty of airtime to both primary historical sources and recent relevant peer-reviewed science. The narrative suffers, however, from several ambiguities and inconsistencies, which are conveniently encapsulated in the enigmatic title. Beyond establishing an allegorical link to Milton's poem, the word 'Paradise' reveals more about the author's view of pre-European America than that of the first explorers and settlers. Nicholls spends a lot of time trying to imagine 'how exhilarating it must have been' to be a sixteenth-century naturalist and comparing his own experiences unfavourably to those 'of the first Europeans to stand on these shores.' But those first Europeans, their occasionally exuberant reports notwithstanding, spent a lot of time starving and freezing and generally being miserable; settlements repeatedly vanished without a trace, Virginia was a 'death trap' for English colonists and shipwrecked explorers died of scurvy on desolate islands. So is the use of 'Paradise' intentionally vague and a tad ironic, helping to illuminate different perspectives on nature? Probably, although I would be more confident in that interpretation if Nicholls's preference for the pre-European version of the continent were not so evident. He struggles for words to describe that world, eventually running out of modifiers and recycling them: the natural abundance of pre-European America was 'immense,' 'incalculable,' 'infinite,' 'incredible,' 'unimaginable,' 'incomprehensibly vast,' 'seemingly endless,' 'incredible' and 'unimaginable' again, and finally 'extraordinary, almost unbelievable.' No and yes. 'Extraordinary' is odd; the central thesis of the book is that this natural abundance was ordinary, and today's impoverished biota is extraordinary. But 'almost unbelievable' is true enough. As Nicholls notes several times, explorers' accounts were often exaggerated, even fabricated. It is not clear how far we can trust the reports of excitable observers who, in addition to astonishing abundance, reported 12-feet-tall moose, egg-laying porcupines and herds of 300 bears. Although sceptical of these more outlandish claims and deferring to more rigorous quantitative estimates when available, Nicholls nonetheless builds his story around images passed down by the same observers: sturgeon so plentiful that they threatened canoes, porpoises so common that they endangered bathers, sea turtles so numerous that Columbus worried about running aground on them, and counties-full of '100,000, or 1,000,000, or 100,000,000' bison. He seems willing to do this because the architects of the 'Paradise publicity campaign for the New World. . . didn't always lie about what was here' (my emphasis), but that is not a ringing endorsement. Nobody can quibble with the qualitative argument: we have many fewer bison, wolves, otters and auks than we used to. But how many fewer is a question that these explorers' accounts cannot adequately answer. The other perplexing word in the title is 'discovery'. Nobody has to tell Nicholls that white men did not discover America, the book is as much about indigenous Americans as it is about abundant wildlife, and indeed he chronicles the repeated 'discovery' by Europeans of different parts of the continent at different times. Thus, like 'Paradise', Nicholls's 'discovery' might be a thin slice of irony sandwiched between two layers of meaning, but it is hard to tell. In any case, this word choice is symptomatic of a deeper problem. A recurring motif of the book is that we may be 'grossly underestimating what nature should look like' (emphasis in original). Well, what should it look like? Nicholls has a firm opinion on this point, lamenting, for example, the inability to restore the Great Lakes 'to their state when the missionaries and coureurs of France first saw them'. This baseline is, obviously and unavoidably, arbitrary. But Nicholls seems uncomfortable acknowledging that. Instead, he repeatedly implies that there was something almost cosmically correct about 'the ecological balance that existed when Europeans arrived' and blames the loss of this balance on the pillars of 'Western philosophy': capitalism, Christianity and democracy. In contrast, Nicholls defends 'Indian philosophy' against attempts, 'fashionable in more academic circles', to over-revise the Noble Savage stereotype: 'let's not throw the baby out with the bath water'. Sure, Native Americans had mercantile instincts and were strategic, sometimes brutally so, in their manipulation of nature. 'But the point I want to make,' Nicholls writes in closing, 'is that, even if populations were reduced, they were able to bounce back'. Tell that to the Pleistocene megafauna, animals that, fortunately for Nicholls's arguments, 'predate the historical framework of this book'. Fine, but their extinctions might still have informed the theoretical framework of this book. I share Nicholls's sadness at never having had the chance to see a flock of passenger pigeons. But those who are equally sad about never having had the chance to see a mammoth have written different books about extinction, ones that emphasize human population size, technology and prey naiveté (not to mention climate change) at least as much as differences between monolithically depicted cultures.


Economic ideas for a complex climate policy regime / Dallas Burtraw & Matthew Woerman. Washington : Resources for the Future, March 2013, 25 p. (Discussion Paper 13-03) http://www.rff.org/RFF/Documents/RFF-DP-13-03.pdf The parsimony of economic theory provides general insights into an otherwise complex world. However, even the most straightforward organizing principles from theory have not often taken hold in environmental policy or in the decentralized climate policy regime that is unfolding...


According to the geological characteristics of Low electric resistance, high water saturation and abundant bottom water of Chang 2 reservoir,and research on reservoir reform intensity and scale,the applicable reform parameters for this reservoir are concluded.


An unknown input retrieving observer scheme is proposed which not only decouples unknown inputs in estimation but also gives an estimation of the decoupled input. The provided method benefits from its low computational cost as well as its less restrictive existence conditions compared to existing ones.


A class of non-Euclidean models is suggested for the behavior of elastoplastic materials containing defect structures. It is shown that the non-Euclideanness parameters are associated in a certain manner with material behavior at different structural levels of deformation. With a definite choice of the parameterization of internal energy from geometric parameters, the classical elastoplastic models are a limiting case of the model constructed.


This paper attempts to analyze the empirical relationship between carbon emission and the exports in China.Yearly data through 1988-2007 are analyzed with VECM model.The empirical evidence suggests that from 1988 to 2007,cointegration and bi-directional causalities exist between carbon emission and exports.The short-run fluctuation of export makes a positive effect on carbon emission too.These results indicate that goods exports must be an important factor accelerating China carbon emission in recent years.