Recently, there is increased concern that radiocolloids may act as a rapid transport mechanism for the release of radionuclides from high-level waste repositories. The role of colloids is, however, controversial because the necessary data and assessment methodology have been limited. Evidence is accumulating to indicate that colloids are an important consideration in the geological disposal of nuclear waste. To quantitatively assess the role of colloids, the TRACR3D transport code has been enhanced by the addition of the population balance equations. This new version of the code can simulate the migration of colloids through combinations of porous/fractured, unsaturated, geologic media. The code was tested against the experimental laboratory column data of Avogadro et al. in order to compare the code results to both experimental data and an analytical solution. Next, a low-level radioactive waste site was investigated to explore whether colloid migration could account for the unusually rapid and long transport of plutonium and americium observed at a low-level waste site. Both plutonium and americium migrated 30 meters through unsaturated volcanic tuff. The nature and modeling of radiocolloids are discussed along with site simulation results from the TRACR3D code. 20 references.


Recent threats of bioterrorism, outbreaks of previously unknown infectious diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the reemergence of diseases like the Avian Influenza are very real and have caused serious concerns not only for the world-at-large, but also for many authorities. This is an even greater concern for the forensic community as they are generally ill-equipped to deal with highly infectious pathogens due to chronic under funding and administrative constraints. The cost for building a Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) facility is exorbitant; such a facility is also very expensive to operate and maintain. Given the state of funding for most Forensic Centers and Medical Examiner Facilities in the world, having a high containment BSL-4 facility just to carry out autopsy work is highly unlikely. In the course of dealing with the SARS outbreak in Singapore in 2003, the Centre for Forensic Medicine (CFM) of the Health Sciences Authority, together with its strategic partner, Acre Engineering, developed an innovative solution that would meet the requirements set out for a BSL-4 Mobile Autopsy Facility. This was completed at a fraction of the cost and in less than half the time spent building such a facility de novo. This paper therefore sets out to present an innovative solution to meet the need for an autopsy facility equipped to BSL-4 standards that can be mobilized and deployed at short notice to conduct autopsies on highly infectious cases at distant locations. In particular, it addresses the engineering and facilities components of the solution.


Observations from the ISEE satellite have recently revealed interesting electrostatic bursts that are apparently hook-induced emissions stimulated by the combined action of a coherent whistler-mode wave and a simultaneously observed electron beam with an energy range of the order of 1 keV (Reinleitner et al., 1982). In order to seek a plausible generation mechanism and interpret this nonlinear phenomenon a computer simulation study was carried out. The code used is a 2½-D electromagnetic particle code (EM2 code) following nonlinear motions of more than a half million particles in the 128 × 128 grid space under the self-consistent fields. The results show an interesting two-beam jetting as a result of a trapping and subsequent detrapping process, yielding a strong electrostatic emission with k vector parallel to the external magnetic field. The nonlinear evolutions of the wave spectra and of particle distribution functions and their phase-space behavior are discussed in connection with the observed ES bursts.


EFIE is used to obtain the strict and accurate radiation pattern, when the wire antenna is placed near a large conductor. In the solving process, the fast multipole method (FMM) is used to perform the matrixvector products and accelerate the resolution of the linear system. Numerical computing tests show that the FMM, which combines the Preconditioned Conjugate Gradients (PCG) method and the Fast Fourier Transform(FFT) and postiteration, is a most effective technique for solving the largescale EM problems.


Guided by the wish to briefly, clearly and completely introduce to the world the history, archaeology, art, tradition and the natural beauty of the Monuments and Sites of the Toplica District of Serbia, that great writers such as Evliya Çelebi and Felix Kanitz have described in their works, we, as a part of the multidisciplinary research team, have digitized them in the Catalogue of Cultural Monuments. In this paper we are presenting the obtained results, as well as the problems that were encountered in this process. Since there is no national strategy and standards dedicated to the issue of the digital preservation of cultural heritage, we have given the proposal for the process of digitization of any Monuments and Sites, in order to preserve and store the existing data, as well as leave the possibility for their future updates. We will also try to answer at the questions which, at first glance, might seem trivial: is there a need for digital preservation of Monuments and Sites, who do we preserve them for, who are the "stakeholders" of digitization, etc? Comparing to the national and world contributions in this field, our approach proved to be functional, efficient and significant.


Long-duration space missions require advanced life support (ALS) systems that can regenerate air, water and food. These ALS systems need complex control strategies that can maintain stable system performance and balance resources with small margins and minimal buffers. In this paper we will describe the ALS control task in detail and give some examples of previous control solutions. Then we will look at how machine learning techniques can help create a more adaptive ALS control system. We will examine reinforcement learning and genetic algorithms and their relationship to optimizing resource utilization in an ALS system. Finally, we will present an innovative multistep genetic algorithm that generates control strategies that perform much better than traditional reinforcement learning or traditional genetic algorithms.


The term "complex" is sometimes abused and misused in the field of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). This is because "complex" is first of all a relative rather than a truly absolute term: what is difficult for one interventionalist may not be so for another. Essentially, what you know how to do is easy, and what you don't is complex. Shigeru Saito, while accepting the Geoffrey O. Hartzler Master Clinical Operator Award at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics conference 2019, asked about his zen attitude during complex PCI cases, said: "My secret? I never do anything I cannot do and I always do something I can do".


AbstractThe growth of social media (SM) use is evident in the middle age and older adults, and its association with mental well-being remains unclear. This study used data from the third wave of the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States to examine SM use and its association with depression to answer whether the presence of past year depressive episode can be predicted from SM contact. This study surveyed 3,294 adults ages 35 and above about their frequency of SM use to contact friends or family and depression. SM use was assessed by self-reported time with eight responses, ranging from 1= "several times a day" to 8= "never or hardly ever." Depression was assessed using self-report of past 12 months' depressive episode. Logistic regressions were performed. The weighted sample was 54.9% female and 89.5% White. Accounting for baseline depression and other important potential confounders, this study did not demonstrate that frequency of social media use to contact friends and family predict depressive episodes, as opposed to other studies done on a young adult cohort. Results were robust to all sensitivity analyses. SM use is not associated with increased depression. Given the proliferation of SM, further studies should look at the possibility of social media use in offering middle age and older adults a medium to connect and engage, develop a sense of community and possibly offset the risk of depression and isolation.


1. IS THERE A CONCEPT OF EUROPEAN COPYRIGHT LAW? HISTORY, EVOLUTION, POLICIES AND POLITICS AND THE ACQUIS COMMUNAUTAIRE I. The evolution of copyright law within the European Union 1.02 1. The relationship between Copyright and Primary EC Law (1957–1987) 1.03 2. The harmonisation of copyright law within the European Community (1987–2004) 1.07 3. The increasing role of the ECJ since 2004 1.11 II. The achievement of a European copyright law? 1.14 1. The assessment of the acquis communautaire 1.14 2. From European common copyright principles to a genuine European copyright law 1.19 III. Conclusion 1.23


Different kinds of surfactants were selected by orthogonal design in this paper. The result showed that sodium dodecyl sulfate has a good performance as the flow rate of gas water is 200 L/h and the dissolved pressure is 0.24 MPa under alkaline condition, the removal efficiency of Cu2+ and Ni2+ were 93.50% and 92.15%. On that basis, tThe effects of concentration of surfactant, pH value, flow rate of gas water and amount of Al(SO4) 3 wasere studied withby single factor experiments, and the best removal process was determined.It is found The result showed that as the concentration of surfactant is 15mg/L,pH is 11,the dissolved pressure is 0.24Mpa, amount of Al(SO4)3 is 15mg/L,the removal efficiency of Cu2+ and Ni2+ can reach 92.46% and 93.14%.


Data converters, i.e., analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and digital-to-analog converters (DACs), are interface circuits between the analog and digital domains. They are used in, e.g., digital au ...


Avoiding delays in cancer diagnosis is important to clinicians and patients alike, and can improve survival. Many individuals with urinary tract


How the periodic developments that led to the modern transformational stages in the Ottoman Empire came about and how it was developed by whom and in what environment is of greater importance. Those who manage public diplomacy in Ottoman modernization have taken some reformist steps and decided that they should be particularly concerned about those who are in distress. However, these actions, which have been the primary goal of the liberation of the state, have not been understood by the people and have been ignorant. It has been seen that the breakdown of the continuous process has reduced the wellbeing of the modern transformational movements and in this sense the demands of the society and the bureaucracy have not seemed to respond to each other at large


The article is an historical evaluation of the short period of the vandal presence in Spain during the first decades of the Vth century A.D. (409-429). Due to that chronological circunstance - the Vandals were phisically living in Baetica during 20 years - it is worthless to try to find any special evidence of their impact neither in the material culture or in the administrative or power structure of Roman Spain. Nevertheless the vandals showed, as Hydatius' Chronicle attest, a strong military capacity organizing military raids to other terriories of the Peninsula (including the Baleric Islands) in order to take control of them. But suddenly, and without any explicit or clear reason (at least never mentioned in the ancient sources), they crossed to Africa in 429. The eventual reason for that surprising decision is discussed in the article in which I take into consideration the different interpretations given by the current scholarship.


The development of network technology and multimedia technology has promoted the development of the integration, digitalization and individualization of communication technology, and has realized multiple functions based on wireless channel network, including voice, data and image. On the basis of classification by Support Vector Machine (SVM), this paper has proposed a low bit-rate coding method for segmenting the Regions of Interest (ROI) of objects through reasonably selecting initial class center and dynamically adjusting the number of categories, and designs its 3-dimension model method. In low bit-rate coding, the ROI is coded first using SPIHT algorithm, and then the background or the regions insensitive are coded using H.264 code, analyzing the experimental data and designing the structure, we can get the relation among related parameters under conditions of different permanent-magnet thickness and air gaps. It is proved that this method can achieve a better recognition effect, greatly improve the coding efficiency and satisfy the visual effects of human eyes, which can provide criteria in theory and application for designing on new driving principle, control system. DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/telkomnika.v11i10.3463 Full Text: PDF


High performance intake silencer with low pressure drop are developed for a household oxygen generator. First, the acoustic power of the target oxygen generator are experimentally evaluated according to ISO code. Then, the transmission loss of and the flow characteristics inside the existing intake silencer are predicted and analyzed. On a basis of these results, two intake silencers are proposed, which are designed to induce the swirling flow inside the intake silencer and thus to reduce the flow loss. The predicted TL and the pressure drop for these two new silencers are compared to the existing one, which shows that the proposed ones have higher TL as well as low pressure drop. The reason for these improvements are explained by investigating the flow characteristics of the new silencers in detail.


— Computation of reliability function of a coherent system is a di ffi cult task especially when the system's con fi guration is complex. Hence, sometimes, we should simply work with some ap-proximations, as bounds reliability. The computation of these bounds has been widely studied in the case of coherent systems with independent and identically distributed (i.i.d


Aim: The objectives of the study were to determine whether thiazolidinedione (TZD) use is associated with an increased risk of fracture in men and women with type 2 diabetes mellitus and to compare the effects of pioglitazone and rosiglitazone.


The commonly accepted theory of the origin of granite is that, in view of indications that it had been subjected to great pressure, it was formed deep in the earth's crust in a molten state, and, after consolidating, thrust up through it, or exposed at the surface by denudation. This theory is not altogether satisfactory, being equivalent to an assertion that a stately building was first constructed and its foundation laid afterwards. Like some other unsatisfactory theories, it has been so often reiterated that it is tacitly assented to as authoritative, on the principle, we suppose, that what everybody says must be true. There are existing conditions analogous to those under which the trappean rocks were formed, as illustrated by modern submarine and subaërial erupted rocks; but the conditions under which primitive granite originated are not now represented in any part of the world.


Does the Fourth Industrial Revolution pose an existential threat to librarianship? No, it does not. Not any more than any other technological innovation (information systems, personal computers, the Internet, e-readers, Google, Google Scholar) did. However, what is very likely is that the technologies that emerge from this era will slowly (but surely) lead to profound changes in how libraries operate. Those libraries that fail to understand or embrace these technologies may, in fact, be left behind. So, we must, as always, stay abreast of trends in emerging technologies and what the literature (i.e., articles in this journal) propose as ideas for adopting (and adapting) them to better serve our patrons. With this column, my aim is to briefly discuss what the fourth industrial revolution is and its relevance within our profession.


We present a high-rate projective measurement-based approach for controlling non-unitary evolution of a quantum chain of interacting spins. In this approach, we demonstrate that local measurement of a single external spin coupled to the chain can produce a spin polaron, which remains stable after the end of the measurement. This stability results from the fact that the Hilbert space of the chain contains a subspace of non-decaying states, stable during the nonunitary evolution. These states determine the resulting final state of the chain and long-term shape of the polaron. In addition to formation of the spin polarons, the presented measurement protocol can be used for distillation of non-decaying states from an initial superposition or mixture.


The invention relates to the field of doors and windows, and particularly relates to a rollback screen window with an adjustable size. The rollback screen window comprises a screen box (1), a screen window frame (2), a bottom brace and a gauze, wherein the bottom brace comprises a bottom brace main body (3), one end of the gauze is connected with the screen box (1), the other end of the gauze is connected with the bottom brace main body (3), the screen box (1) also comprises a first seal cover (11), the bottom brace also comprises an adjusting device connected to the bottom brace main body (3), the adjusting device comprises a connecting part (6) connected to the bottom brace main body (3) and an adjusting part (7) connected to the connecting part (6), the bottom brace is also provided with a fixed device, and the fixed device can be fixed on the bottom of the screen window frame (2). The length and width of the rollback screen window can be adjusted. The rollback screen window is convenient to install and high in efficiency.


The Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) commonly uses a silane chemical sealer on new bridge decks to reduce the penetration of external chemicals and help extend the life of the bridge. Currently, it is unknown how long these sealers are effective, and if these sealers can be reapplied to existing concrete after the silane has stopped performing. In this project the research team will evaluate the effectiveness of silane coatings of bridge decks at different ages through laboratory and non-destructive field techniques to determine their effective life. Methods to reapply the silanes to mature concrete will also be investigated. The tasks for this project are: literature review; establish laboratory procedures to evaluate silane performance; investigate non-destructive field techniques to evaluate silane performance; determine the effectiveness of silanes for in-service bridge decks; investigate methods of reapplication on the silanes to mature concrete; and create a final report.


1 1.0 INTRODUCTION 2 1.1 Objectives of Study 2 1.2 Introduction to the Shoreline Modeling System .2 1.3 Site Discussion 3 2.0 GENESIS 6 2.1 Assumptions and Limitations 7 2.2 GENESIS Grid System 8 2.3 Governing Equation of Shoreline Change 10 2.4 Calculation of Sand Transport Rates 12 2.5 Internal Wave Transformation Model. 15 2.6 Numerical Solution Scheme 22 2.7 Lateral Boundary Conditions 24 3.0 RCPWAVE 26 3.1 Wave Transformation Equations 27 3.2 Solution Scheme 28 3.3 Categorizing Wave Input. 29 3.4 Linking GENESIS and RCPWAVE 30 3.5 Computational Stability 32 4.0 DATA REQUIREMENTS FOR INVESTIGATION 33 4.1 Shoreline Positions 33 4.2 Active Berm Height, Depth of Closure, and Grain Size .38 4.3 Wave Climate 38 4.4 Bathymetry 43 4.5 Nearshore Reference Line .46 4.6 Altered Nearshore Bathymetry .48 4.7 Structures Present in the Model Reach 51 4.8 Boundary Conditions 53 4.9 Transport Parameters 54 5.0 RCPWAVE RESULTS FOR UNALTERED BATHYMETRy 56 5.1 Approaching Wave Directions 59 5.2 Approaching Wave Heights 61 5.3 Discussion ofRCPWAVE Results 6i iv 6.0 CALIBRATION AND VERIFICATION OF GENESIS 63 6.1 Calibration through Predicted Shoreline Positions 64 6.2 Verification Through Predicted Shoreline Positions 67 6.3 Examination ofPredicted Sediment Transport Rates 70 6.4 Discussion of Calibration and Verification Efforts 72 7.0 PREDICTED EFFECTS OF ALTERED NEARSHORE BATHYMETRy 73 7.1 Approaching Wave Directions 73 7.2 Approaching Wave Heights 75 7.3 Predicted Shoreline Positions 77 7.4 Sediment Transport Rates 79 7.5 Discussion ofEffects ofAltered Bathymetry 81 8.0 CONCLUSIONS 82 8.1 Collection and Assembly ofData 82 8.2 Calibration and Verification Efforts 83 8.3 Investigation into the Effects of Altered Nearshore Bathymetry 83 REFERENCES 85 VITA 88


China's entry into WTO calls for many changes in the economic field.Strengthening the function of law consultants in enterprises is one of them,which is just discussed in the paper.


To promote rural revitalization under the premise of fully considering the ecological risk factors of land consolidation, this study takes A County in Shaanxi Province as a case study and introduces Self-Organizing Feature Map (SOFM) neural network and Internet of Things (IoT) technology to partition the land. In this study, a comprehensive index system is constructed based on IoT technology, and the relevant factors are quantitatively analyzed from the perspective of land consolidation ecological risk. Then, the land consolidation project area's attribute and geographic space domains are used as the input of the SOFM neural network to reveal the distribution and influence degree of each factor in the area and determine the zoning pattern of land consolidation in A County. The results show that the rural revitalization land zoning pattern of land consolidation in A County, Shaanxi Province, is divided into four land consolidation areas. Firstly, the priority remediation area soon covers 27 administrative villages with a total area of 28090 hm2, accounting for 32.75%. Secondly, the moderate renovation area is soon classified into 37 administrative villages, with a total area of 15986 hm2, equivalent to 18.55%. In the medium term, the land-saving renovation area covers 39 administrative villages with a total area of 19686 hm2, accounting for 22.75% of the total area. Finally, in the long-term restricted remediation area, 37 administrative villages are divided, with a total area of 22081 hm2, accounting for 25.67% of the total area. These data results provide a quantitative basis for land consolidation planning in this area to achieve the goal of rural land revitalization in different time ranges. This study is significant for implementing land consolidation projects in rural revitalization and provides a valuable reference for developing other similar areas.


This work highlights the use of the digital inspiration application in mathematics classes as a pedagogical tool, as an explanatory/demonstrative instrument of the concepts and elements of geometric solids in the 6th grade classes, at the Professora Maura de Medeiros Bezerra Municipal School – Macau/RN. The purpose of this application was to expand the possibilities of learning in the Hybrid format in the pandemic period as an inverted classroom methodology.


BACKGROUND When tension at a cutaneous defect is too great for primary closure or causes distortion of surrounding anatomy, transposition flaps provide a useful reconstruction option. OBJECTIVE To review the tissue biomechanics of the rhombic, bilobed, and trilobed transposition flaps. MATERIALS AND METHODS A systematic evaluation of a cutaneous defect is provided to guide a logical approach to the design and execution of transposition flaps. RESULTS Applying key principles to the design and execution of transposition flaps results in reliable outcomes. CONCLUSION Carefully designed and executed rhombic, bilobed, and trilobed transposition flaps provide an excellent reconstruction option when tension at a cutaneous defect is too great for primary closure.


The potential antidiabetic activity of ethyl acetate extract of the leaves of Lagerstroemia speciosa (LSL) was investigated by α‐amylase and α‐glucosidase inhibition assay. Six pentacyclic triterpenes (oleanolic acid, arjunolic acid, asiatic acid, maslinic acid, corosolic acid and 23‐hydroxyursolic acid) were isolated from LSL. Their structures were determined by spectroscopic analysis and their α‐glycosidase and α‐amylase inhibitory activities were investigated. They exhibited no or weak inhibitory activity against α‐amylase and middle α‐glucosidase inhibitory activities. Corosolic acid, which shows best bioactivity against α‐glucosidase (IC50 = 3.53 µg/mL), contributes most to the α‐glucosidase inhibitory activity of EtOAc extract. The kinetics of inhibition of corosolic acid was also discussed. Results from this study might provide the scientific evidence for LSL for the treatment of diabetes in traditional medicine. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Challenges for primary health care related with the state of health of rural inhabitants For the last twenty five years in the Polish countryside, there have been observed significant changes in the socio-economic sphere, which result in the inhibition of urbanization processes and the reduction of the number of farmers. Alongside, farmers' work has become less and less manual. However, there have been constant disparities, unfavorable for the rural population, in the education level and obtained income. The state of health of people living in rural areas has not been recently diagnosed and views on this issue are based on the estimated data or studies involving small groups of the population. However, these studies indicate increasing number of obese people and people with lipid disorders in rural areas, which may result in the near future in the increasing number of patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Moreover, in the years to come, the future of PH care in rural areas seems to be far from promising, as family medicine faces the prospect of growing number of retiring physicians and declining of those who wish to enter the specialization. Unless systemic measures are taken the state of health of rural population can be significantly degraded.


i ns i mportant. The qual i ty of l i fe of pat i ents and the i r relat i ves, who cont i nue the i r home care process, also ga i ns i mportance. W i th all th i s process, cancer pat i ents exper i ence many problems related to rad i o- therapy, chemotherapy and surg i cal treatment outs i de the hosp i tal. It can exper i ence problems such as pa i n, fat i gue, nausea and vom i t i ng, decreased appet i te, anorex i a, we i ght loss, oral mucos i t i s, r i sk of i n-fect i on, nutr i t i onal and sleep problems. The concept of home care con- t i nues to be up-to-date as all these problems d i rectly affect the treatment process, qual i ty of l i fe, mortal i ty and morb i d i ty rates of can- cer pat i ents and the i r relat i ves. Accord i ngly, i t i s necessary to evaluate and resolve the problems faced by cancer pat i ents and careg i vers i n the home env i ronment w i th i n the framework of home care.


We present a new method, identical in its predictions to the Luneburg–Kline method, for the calculation of differential cross sections of sound geometrically reflected from impedance cylinders in inverse integer powers of ka. The method employs Watson transformation and saddle‐point integration techniques and allows easier evaluation of higher‐order terms than the Luneburg–Kline method, as demonstrated. This is a crucial improvement, as it enables us to determine exactly the number of terms to be retained for the best value for cross section.


IN the days when 'appeasement' was already showing itself as suicidal, I was writing the last words of the fifth volume of my Five Centuries of Religion. Regarding the actual explosion as certain, I hastened to complete this and send one copy of the Ms. to Chicago for safe storage during the war. For the fourth volume, describing in detail the monks' food and dress, reading and writing, labor and other occupations, I had long since collected materials which Professor G. R. Potter of Sheffield, my friend and former pupil, has generously undertaken to see through the press if necessary. This fifth volume, however, could not be thus left to friendly help. The whole point of it lies in the exhaustive and symmetrical exposition of those forces which, in all countries of Europe, led monasticism on to the Renaissance and the Reformation. In past volumes, I have repeatedly expressed my judgment that 'the Religious Orders have been among the main forces of European civilization; at certain times and in certain places they may have been the greatest of all civilizing forces." But the historian's most important task is to trace how the pioneers of one generation became the laggards of a later age. We need therefore to collect evidence from as many different dates and places as possible, and do all we can to carry these threads onwards abreast, just as they lead forward to that double Revolution of the sixteenth century on which our modern civilization is based, whether for good or for evil. That Revolution itself cannot be fairly judged unless we make up our minds whether society has gained or lost by the disestablishment and disendowment of men who possessed such an enormous proportion of all the real property in Europe, with corresponding privileges and immunities. This I have tried to answer in a volume of 69 chapters, too bulky to hope for publication while this war lasts. Therefore I seize this opportunity of presenting briefly my main results, in order to lay down clearly certain lines, hitherto most strangely neglected, which can no longer be ignored if we are ever to come anywhere near to general agreement upon this most important question. Dean Colet of St Paul's and St Thomas More may guide us here. Each, at one time or another, faced the idea of enclosing himself in a monastery, and each turned deliberately away. Colet, paradoxically, looked towards Italy and Germany for soul's ease, and not towards his own England, where Church life, on the average, was more regular than on the Continent.2 But Colet was not a man to content himself with mere average excellence; and he saw that the best could be found, here and there, in crudest contrast with the worst. Precisely because Continental monachism had sunk, as a whole, below the English standard-and, in some cases, almost incredibly far below therefore here and there in Italy and the German Empire fervid reforms had been kindled by the natural process of


Objective To screen the related genes for nontoxic nodular goiter(NTNG) and to explore the pathogenic mechanism of NTNG. Methods Total RNA was extracted and purified from thyroid tissues of NTNG cases and normal cases. The cDNAs retro-tran-scribed from RNA were labeled with Cy5 and Cy3 fluorescence as probes. The probes were hybridized with gene chip. The chip was scanned and the acquired imaging was analyzed. Parts of these genes were analyzed and identified by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction(FQ-PCR). Results Of the 48 genes with altered expressions, 36 genes were up-regulated and 12 genes were down-regulated. The results identified by FQ-PCR consistent with those of gene chip. Conclusion Marked difference exists in gene expression in thyroid tissues of NTNG patients and normal thyroid tissues, showing the complex alterations of gene expression underlying the development of NTNG. The obtained genes are mainly related with extracellular matrix, cytokine, signal transduction and so on. The identification of specific genes is helpful for early diagnosis and treatment of NTNG.


An experimental model of protein calorie malnutrition (PCM) was created in young rhesus monkeys. Ulnar and tibial nerves from six monkeys with PCM, six rehabilitated and 12 control monkeys were studied for lipid composition and activity of myelin marker enzyme. Total lipids, myelin marker lipids and activity of myelin marker enzyme, 2′, 3′‐cyclic nucleotide 3′ ‐ phosphohydrolase were decreased, while esterified cholesterol and free fatty acids were increased in PCM as compared to controls. There was partial recovery in myelin marker lipids and complete restoration of other lipids on nutritional rehabilitation.


THE AUTHORS PROVIDED MODERN INFORMATION ON THE BASIC NONINVASIVEMETHODS TO ASSESS THE INFLAMMATORY PROCESS IN THE INTESTINE INCROHN'S DISEASE AND COLITIS GRAVIS. THE RESEARCHERS THOROUGHLYDESCRIBED THE OPPORTUNITIES AND LIMITATIONS FOR THE USE OF FAECALCALPROTECTIN AS A MARKER OF THE INFLAMMATORY ENTERIC DISEASES.IMPORTANCE OF THIS MARKER FOR THE DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSTICS OFTHE INFLAMMATORY AND FUNCTIONAL ENTERIC DISEASES HAS BEENSHOWN.KEY WORDS: MARKERS OF THE ENTERIC INFLAMMATION, FAECAL CALPROTECTIN, INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASES, COLITIS GRAVIS,СROHN'S DISEASE.


Objective To investigate the characteristics and vitality of amniotic membrane(AM)soaked in VitC solution,so as to provide evidence for reasonable use of amniotic membrane transplant in eyes induced by alkali burn.Methods Fresh AM and preserved AM of one month were soaked in VitC solution respectively and a slit lamp microscope,immunohistochemical method combining with image analysis system were used to investigate the changes on the expression of growth factors(EGF,B-FGF,VEGF).Results No significant difference was found in general physical characteristics,tissue characteristics and vitality of part cell factors between the soaked AM and AM,P0.05.Conclusion AM soaked in VitC can be applied in transplantation treatment conveniently and securely in alkali burnt eyes.


An accelerator for multiply charged ions with a terminal voltage of 320 kV has been developed. A pulsed cold cathode P.I.G. ion source with titanium cathodes and side extraction is immersed in a magnetic field, to analyze and focus the beam into the entrance aperture of the post accelerating column. Matrix calculations of the ion optics are given. After the accelerator the beam can be focussed with an electrostatic triplet into a gascell. The charge exchanged beam is analyzed in a magnet provided with several exit gates for the respective charge states.


The tradeoff between bias and variance is a well-known problem in machine learning, since algorithms are expected to achieve a reduced training error without going into overfitting. In Genetic Fuzzy Systems (GFSs), overfitting is usually avoided through the control of the number of rules and/or the number of labels. However, in many machine learning approaches, variance is reduced through the use of a validation set. Inspired by this idea, we propose in this paper an Instance Selection (IS) algorithm for regression problems called Class Conditional Instance Selection for Regression (CCISR) which is based on CCIS [1]. The output of CCISR is used in a GFS to obtain Rule Bases with a low variance, as the rules are generated with an ad hoc data driven method guided by the selected instances, but the error is still measured with the full training dataset. The combined system has been tested over 12 publicly available datasets, and results were compared with other GFSs. Our approach is capable of achieving a reduction in the number of rules while maintaining a good accuracy.


Objective To investigate the clinical features of silent myocardial ischemia(SMI) in elderly patients with coronary heart disease(CHD) and the unfavorable prognostic factors for recurrent heart events,such as acute myocardial infarction(AMI) or sudden cardiac death(SCD).Methods A total of 216 elderly CHD patients with SMI were followed up for 2-7(mean 5.01) years.The clinical features,including age,gender,systemic hypertension,diabetes mellitus,hyperlipidemia,smoking,history of myocardial infarction,complex ventricular arrhythmia attack,left ventricular hypertrophy,frequency and ischemia duration of SMI,and degree of ST segment depression,as well as Holtor′s parameters,were recorded.The occurrence of AMI and SCD were also noted.Results There were 27 patients who sufferred AMI or SCD at the end of follow-up.The accumulative incidence of recurrent heart events was 14.54% during 7-year follow-up.Cox multivariable regression analysis showed that age,left ventricular hypertrophy,history of myocardial infarction,and hyperlipidemia were independent risk factors for recurrent heart events.Conclusion It would be helpful to improve the prognosis of elderly CHD patients with SMI to remove or alleviate these negative prognostic factors.


In order to understand the Fuqing Bay surface sediments,heavy metals pollution status and its potential ecological hazards,as well as heavy metals and organic matter content in the correlation,we investigated Fuqing Bay surface sediments,heavy metals and organic matter content from June to August in 2009,and used single factor index method,and Hakanson potential ecological risk index to evaluate comprehensively.The results showed that,Fuqing Bay surface sediments of Cu,Pb,Cd,Hg,As and organic matters,the average content were 17.4 × 10-6,31.7 × 10-6,0.058 × 10-6,0.079 × 10-6,8.90 × 10-6 and 1.31%,which were consistent with a type of marine sediment quality standards that means it has good quality.A positive correlation of heavy metals,especially a positive correlation with organic matter was obvious.Heavy metal single factor index in decreasing order was: Pb(1.27)As(0.59)Cu(0.58)Hg(0.40)Cd(0.12),heavy metal pollution index was 2.96 for the low-pollution level;individual potential ecological risk of heavy metals parameters were Hg(15.8)Pb(6.35)As(5.94)Cd(3.48)Cu(2.91),the potential ecological risk index(RI) was 34.5,which indicated that Fuqing Bay existed a low potential ecological risk.


Abstract A generic method to build Boolean sliding mode controllers for switching systems, addressed by a previous contribution, basically formulates the synthesis problem as a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMI) defining the parameters of commutation hyperplanes which all intersect on a prescribed sliding manifold. Yet it cannot guarantee the existence of a sliding motion from any initial condition, since it only ensures a local attractivity of the sliding manifold with respect to state trajectories. Aiming at improving this method, the present paper introduces some additional LMI constraints, which eliminate from the admissible solutions the sets of commutation hyperplanes that some state trajectories possibly never intersect. Algorithmic aspects are also considered for the resolution. The efficiency of the proposed step is illustrated by its application to a multilevel power converter.


Ultra-deep water BOP (Blowout Preventer) operation poses numerous challenges in obtaining accurate knowledge of current system integrity and component condition- a salient example is the difficulty of verifying closure of the pipe and shearing rams during and after well control events. Ascertaining the integrity of these functions is currently based on a manual volume measurement performed with a stop watch. Advances in sensor technology now permit more accurate methods of BOP condition monitoring. Fiber optic sensing technology and particularly fiber optic strain gauges have evolved to a point where we can derive a good representation of what is happening inside a BOP by installing sensors on the outside shell. Function signatures can be baselined to establish thresholds that indicate successful function activation. Based on this knowledge base, signal variation over time can then be utilized to assess degradation of these functions and subsequent failure to function. Monitoring the BOP from the outside has the advantage of gathering data through a system that can be interfaced with risk based integrity management software and/or a smart monitoring system that analyzes BOP control redundancies without the requirement of interfacing with OEM control systems. The paper will present the results of ongoing work on a fully instrumented 13-½" 10,000 psi pipe ram. Instrumentation includes commonly used pressure transducers, accelerometers, flow meters, and optical strain gauges. Correlation will be presented between flow, pressure, acceleration signatures and the fiber optic strain gauge's response as it relates to functional verification and component level degradation trending.


There has been an increasing interest in reducing running costs and environmental stress in many analytical laboratories using gas chromatograph-mass spectrometers in the fields of food, forensic, life science, environment, and the like. To respond such interest, we have developed two technologies for lower power and carrier gas consumption: "Advanced Scanning Speed Protocol" (ASSP TM ) necessary for the Fast-GC/MS method and "Ecology Mode" for saving energy in analysis standby mode. The analysis of organic acids in urine for evaluation showed that the use of the Fast-GC/MS with ASSP TM reduced helium gas by 90 percent and power by 66 percent, compared with our previous model, while retaining performance for analysis. An evaluation test in analysis standby mode confirmed that the instrument with the Ecology Mode reduced carrier gas and power consumption, by 60 percent and 36.5 percent, respectively. These results demonstrate that our GCMS-QP2010 Ultra has environmentally friendly features and ensures lower running costs.


Discusses the newly emerged international standard for electronic directories. The author sets the background and rationale for the emergence of the directory standards; briefly describes the idealised structure of directory systems; discusses some opportunities for applying a specific directory system; and highlights some of the aspects which clearly require further refinement before being built into products.


Using Aston-made special design polarizing grating, we have implemented a stretch-pulse mode locked erbium fiber laser. The laser has a simple and efficient all-fiber configuration with 90 fs output pulse duration and1.68 nJ pulse energy.


The yields of crosslinking and scission reaction by irradiation in air (electron beam from a linear electron accelerator) of a pilot-plant produced styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer (SBS) have been estimated using sol measurement. The results are comparable with published data obtained on gamma-irradiated SBS (in vacuum and/or in an inert gas). The quasi-equilibrium stress-strain behaviour of the networks prepared by irradiation of SBS triblock polymers has been measured at l20°C (sufficiently high above the softening range of styrene domains). The obtained results were treated using theoretical relationships and the radiation yield of crosslinking Gc was then estimated by an alternative way. The obtained yield value of crosslinking is lower than the value determined from the sol measurement but the difference is not critical.


We report the bending strain and low frequency vibration characteristics of few-layers graphene-coated excessively tilted fiber grating (ExTFG), which enhanced the mechanical characteristics at the expense of sensitivity. The experimental results show that, in the curvature range of 0~0.5 m-1, bending strain sensitivities of transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes based on wavelength variation are -2.78 nm/m-1 and -1.49 nm/m-1, respectively, and those based on intensity variation are -0.11 dB/m-1 and -0.24 dB/m-1, respectively. For the low frequency vibration, the maximum acceleration sensitivities of TE and TM modes at 3dB points are STE=46.64 mv/g and STM=73.84 mv/g, respectively, which also the larger than those of other wavelength positions. The proposed graphene-coated ExTFG may endow potential application prospects in optical fiber strain, torsion and vibration sensors.


There are common features between the two social sciences of sociology and ethnology as well as different ones. Especially the sociology of small groups or some urban studies as those of the Chicago school resemble very much to an ethnological approach, inspite of that fundamental difference concerning the perspectivistic attitude : The sociologist always keeps in mind the general and global development of human society, whereas the ethnologist searchs for pecularities, local differences and unique cultural profiles. This interest continues when exotic and isolated societies in the research field give way to combined, acculturated and mixed scenarios. When here the sociological studies search for the general trends of urbanization, world enculturation and ways towards civil society, the ethnological perspective isolates not only the traditionally looking features but also the creative combinations of cultural elements. The strange composed culture is the object of present day ethnology, whereas the epistemological goal of changing perspectives - from etic to emic view and back - has not changed. This core identity of ethnological research remains with all its implications of patience and empathy, even if complex societies require multiple methods and polyphonic presentations.


Extradossed Cable-stayed Bridge is both cable-stayed Bridge and Continuous rigid frame bridge mechanics feature, Beam is the main force components, cable is supplement.This article combined with a single tower and single cable plane Extradossed cable-stayed bridge in Yunnan, use different creep calculation models and analysis deflection caused by creep effects. The results showing that deflection caused by creep effect is smaller than the same span continuous rigid frame bridge, the value is about 2cm. On the other hand the deflection is increasing with ambient humidity decreases, therefore in the dry environment the calculation model is relatively large in the pre-camber. In the choice of RC creep model is significant in the dry areas.


A highly efficient subcarrier modulation technique, suppressed clock pulse duration modulation (SCPDM) has been developed that outperforms narrow-band frequency modulation in very noisy channels. Developed primarily for hard limiting satellite repeaters, the technique utilizes a phase-shift key (PSK) carrier and phase-lock demodulators. The SCPDM technique is shown to be extremely useful and cost effective where the overall objective is to obtain maximum traffic rather than toll quality voice communication. Design considerations are discussed and test data from a typical hardware implementation are presented.


In this paper, the Universal Immune System Simulator (UISS) framework is sketched, showing some of its applications for successfully modeling and simulating multiple immune system related pathologies.


While motor-system abnormalities are the defining features of PD, cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms are of major importance.1,2⇓ Disturbances in mood and motivation, such as depression, apathy, anxiety, impulsivity, and mood lability, are particularly common. These behavior changes can be seen early in the course of PD and may antedate motor dysfunction, providing empirical evidence for an "organic" rather than reactive etiology. Postmortem and in vivo biochemical as well as neuroimaging studies lend support to this hypothesis, with mesolimbic dopamine and serotonin abnormalities and fronto-limbic dysfunction demonstrated in affected patient subgroups.3

Neuropsychiatric symptoms can also begin later in the illness suggesting that additional factors, acting in concert with ongoing neurodegenerative changes, are important in their etiology. These factors include progressive and fluctuating motor symptoms, medication side effects, premorbid personality traits, psychosocial stressors, and the presence of medical, neurologic, and psychiatric comorbidity.4 It is not yet clear how these factors interact or which are most critical, a fact underscored by the absence of neurobehavioral signs in many patients with seemingly comparable disease features and risk factors.

Nonetheless, most neuropsychiatric syndromes are usually attributed to selective dysfunction of specific prefrontal and limbic cortical-striatal-thalamic pathways.5 This conceptual approach directly parallels strategies used to delineate physiologic and biochemic abnormalities mediating motor symptoms.6 Classic lesion-deficit studies support such links, with onset of depression, mania, …


A U.S.-Swedish research team has shown that the two types of estrogen receptors act differently depending on what ligand they bind and which transcription factor they interact with in DNA sequences that contain estrogen-regulated genes. The new findings represent "a very exciting discovery," says molecular biologist Suzanne A. W. Fuqua, an associate professor of medical oncology at the University of Texas, San Antonio. The findings provide clues to the paradoxical action of the antitumor agent tamoxifen in breast and uterine tissue, as well as insight into the action of a second antitumor agent, raloxifene. Furthermore, the study predicts that one of the estrogen receptors plays an important role in bone growth [ Science , 277 , 1508 (1997)]. Estrogen is known to stimulate the growth of certain cancers. Both tamoxifen and raloxifene have been dubbed antiestrogens because they inhibit estrogen specifically controlled by either ERE or AP-1 is turned on. At ERE sites, estrogens bound to either of ...


Georgia Tech Research Institute is developing under IRAD funds a small unmanned aircraft system (SUAS) testbed for advanced RF sensor data collection and post-collection algorithm evaluation and fusion of multi-INT ISR sensor suites. The GAUSS testbed is reconfigurable to test STAP algorithms, multistatic and MIMO operation among multiple flying SUAS platforms, interferometric applications of crossplatform coherence, waveform diversity modulations other than traditional radar modulations, software agile radar, and sensor fusion. The initial configuration of GAUSS consists of an 8-phase-center (8 channels) X-band GMTI radar, a SIGINT DF system, and a gimbaled stabilized camera ball. The eight phase centers can be driven by independent digital 1 Gsps arbitrary waveform generators for true waveform diversity programming. This presentation will present the capabilities of GAUSS and future plans for collaborative missions in the ISR community.


Abstract : This Appendix describes the instrumentation of the HARD PAN I series of high explosive tests conducted near Trading Post, Kansas in the period October 1974 to December 1975. The HARD PAN series consisted of a total of 17 events, four of which were major tests. The first two major events (HP I-1 and HP I-2A) were separated from the final two major events (HP I-2B and HP I-3) by several sets of calibration events (SCAL, ICAL, HBL and SICAL) to aid in the final design of the main event (HP I-3). With the exception of two of the calibration events extensive instrumentation was employed to measure ground and structure motions, oil stress, structure/medium stresses, structural strains, and blast pressure. The Appendix is in eight parts and each, except for Part 8, addresses an individual major event or a set of similar calibration events. Part 8 is concerned with instrumentation topics generally common to all of the tests.


Abstract : The office of Vice President of the United States is not a position to which many aspire. The Vice Presidency is mentioned just five times in the Constitution, with duties limited to serving as President of the Senate and to being the emergency successor to the President. Until the latter half of the twentieth century, service as Vice President usually marked the unheralded end of a political career. Since World War II the role of the Vice President has gradually assumed greater significance both politically and bureaucratically. Several Vice Presidents, including - Nixon, Mondale, Bush and even the much-maligned Quayle - have played substantive roles during their time in office, taking on special projects and/or providing advice to the President. The latest in this line of activist Vice Presidents is Al Gore. However, Gore has taken the role to new heights, extending the model that was there to its ultimate degree. Although Gore's specific list of duties may not be unprecedented, he likely has more influence with the President than any of his predecessors did during their terms in office. One area in which Gore has proven highly influential is the making of national security policy. Gore has been able to reach selectively into important areas of foreign policy, performing tasks that in other administrations were reserved strictly for the Secretary of State. In a recent piece written for the Presidential Studies Quarterly, Paul Kengor states that Vice President Gore has, at times. filled the traditional roles of the President, the Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor. This unprecedented national security policy influence is the result of three unique and convergent factors a foreign policy leadership vacuum, Gore's own capabilities, and most significantly, the creation of a new bureaucratic entity, the Binational Commission, to manage the conduct of foreign relations with key nation-states.


Pulmonary artery (PA) aneurysms (PAAs) are rare and infrequently diagnosed. Deterling and Clagett1 discovered 8 cases of PAAs in 109 571 consecutive postmortem examinations. PAAs generally occurred in a younger age group than aortic aneurysms with an equal sex incidence.2 Eighty-nine percent of all PAAs were located in the main PA, whereas only 11% were located in the pulmonary branches.3 When affecting the PA branches, PAAs in the left PA were more common than in the right PA.1

An aneurysm is defined as a focal dilatation of a blood vessel involving all 3 layers of the vessel wall. Pseudoaneurysms, on the other hand, do not involve all layers of the arterial wall but possess a higher risk of rupture. In computed tomography, the upper limit for adults of the main PA diameter is 29 mm, and the upper limit of the interlobar PA is 17 mm.4 Therefore, Nguyen et al5 describe a PAA as a focal dilatation of the PA beyond its maximal normal caliber. In contrast, Brown and Plotnick6 define a PAA as a PA with a diameter exceeding 40 mm, distinguishing between an ectasia of the PA and a true PAA. However, both definitions do not relate the PAA threshold to body dimensions or to the diameters of other vessels.

In our center, the upper limit of the main PA diameter (29 mm) was defined as a PAA. In case of a PAA in children, the PAA size was compared with the normal values according to the method of Kampmann et al.7 In high-risk patients, the diameter of the PAA was indexed to the body weight according to patients presenting with an aneurysm of the aorta.

Various origins of PAA have been described, allowing us to differentiate among congenital causes, …


Most engineering products are made up of assembled parts and some of these parts are mechanicaly joined. In order to predict accurately the strenght and reliability, or any other structural characteristic of the joints it is important to know the contact condition between them. Hertz first made a satisfactory analysis for the contact problem of two elastic bodies. A lot of research effort is currently focussed on the development of modern numerical algorithms for analysis of contact problems. There are several improvements in attempts to solve the general contact problem using the finite element computations with penalty method or Lagrange multiplier methods. In this paper, we presented the augmented Lagrangian approach to contact problems involving contact with friction. The description will be given in the following maner. The variational inequalityes of the frictional contact problem are linearized and solved by finite element incremental procedure. The contact cylinder with rigid plate is examined as ilustrative example. The results have been compared with Hertz solutions for contacts with and without friction.


Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) is a promising language describing the Service Oriented Software (SOS) orchestrations in form of Business Processes (BP), but it lacks of a sound formal semantic, which hinders the formal analysis and verification of business processes specified in it. Formal methods, like Petri Nets, may provide a means to analyse WS-BPEL processes, evaluating its performance, detecting weaknesses and errors in the process model already at design-time. This article addresses quality of SOS orchestrations created using the WS-BPEL and a framework "SOASPE" for transformation of WS-BPEL into Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets is proposed to analise the performance and throughput of SOS, based on the execution of orchestrated processes.


Shock wave lithotripsy (SWL) has radically changed treatment of stone disease and appears to be the first option for the majority of patients. Since the 1980s technical developments have made modern lithotripsy devices more comfortable, side effects were significantly reduced and fragmentation efficiency was improved. In clinical lithotripsy, the practitioner has control over generator voltage (kV), energy density (mJ/mm 2 ), peak pressure (MPa), rate of shock wave administration, number of shock waves and the type of lithotripter. However, technical improvements in shock wave technology have mainly been made with an eye on providing user convenience and multifunctionality, rather than a mechanistic understanding of stone comminution and side effects, most importantly tissue injury. Although numerous basic research studies have been performed, the parameters determining the extent of renal injury have yet to be fully clarified. This review analyses the impact of focal size and distribution of shock wave fields on the performance of lithotripters and reviews the results of ex-vivo and in-vivo studies concerning this topic.


Background/Objectives: With the growth in complexity and volume of medical data, an extensive set of information currently available in various forms related to diseases and its symptoms. Mechanisms are necessary to extract rules and patterns from these massive set of data. Identification and extraction of hidden patterns and rules in this massive data set certainly help us to understand about diseases progression facts. Methods: Machine learning provides an automatic way to uncover the patterns from data set and it will be helpful to health care professionals in order to provide precision medicine to their patients. Artificial Neural Network is a popular machine learning technique used for classification tasks in medical diagnosis for diseases detection. It is an eminent field of computer science which can be applied to the health care sector quite efficiently. In this study, Multi-Layer Feed Forward Neural Network has been applied to the dermatology dataset downloaded from UCI repository site to classify the dermatology diseases. Findings: Artificial Neural Network with back propagation algorithm produces the optimum results for classification and prediction problems. It also possesses the ability of generalization and applicable to real world problem. Applications: The experiment will be extended by applying on other types of diseases datasets and an automated diagnostic and advisory system with neural network integration definitely helps in diseases prediction problem.


The paper presents an experiment of teaching Java-based concurrency using a robot simulator. The computer programming education is a challenging task, especially when non-computer science students are taught complex programming concepts. Recently, great deals of simplified programming languages, environments and simulating software have been proposed to support teaching and self-learning different programming techniques. But still, there is no solution facilitating effective teaching in the domain of concurrent programming in the Java language. In this paper we present our original concept of exercises using a robot simulator to teach Java-based concurrency. The simulator seems to be a good solution facilitating the education of concurrent programming, as actions performed in real-time by the simulator allow students to quickly identify their mistakes.


The editors of the Journal of Forensic Economics have kindly invited us to continue writing "The Literature Corner," a feature that appeared in each of the last four issues of the now-defunct Litigation Economics Review. Our objective in the Lit Corner is to provide an annotated listing of recent publications that are likely to be of interest to forensic economists who estimate economic damages in personal injury, wrongful death and employment law cases. The articles described have appeared in the non-forensic economics literature, which, because of time constraints, may not be regularly read by many of us. To appear on our list, an article must have some relevance to the practical work of forensic economists. The articles summarized below come from recent publications, though we follow no hard-and-fast rules about dates of publication. This list is somewhat longer than those in previous Lit Corners because of the time that has elapsed since the last one was prepared. Note that our descriptions are necessarily brief and are meant to give a taste for the main thrust of each article, but they cannot convey all the richness and detail of the articles themselves. We have also tried to continue to provide occasional nuggets of incredible hilarity of the type that have characterized past Lit Corners. As always, we welcome any suggestions about this feature. In this issue we highlight articles on crime, disability and health, discrimination, earnings, education, employment, fringe benefits, occupations, older workers, retirement, self-employment, time use, value of life/happiness, worker displacement and younger workers.


Survival analysis majors mainly on estimation of time taken before an event of interest takes place. Time taken before an event of interest takes place is a random process that takes shape overtime. Stochastic processes theory is therefore very crucial in analysis of survival data. The study employed markov chain theory in developing a simple stochastic stomach cancer model. The model is depicted with a state diagram and a stochastic matrix. The model was applied to stomach cancer data obtained from Meru Hospice. Transition probability theory was used in determining transition probabilities. The entries of the stochastic matrix T were estimated using the Aalen-Johansen estimators. The time taken for all the people under the study to transit to death was estimated using the limiting matrix.


: This study was conducted in order to formulate a modification of standard substrate for laboratory bioassays (OECD protocol number 218: "Sediment water chironomid toxicity test using spiked sediment"), with as few constituents as possible, yet enabling the highest larval survival of model organism: Chironomus tentans (Chironomidae, Diptera). Laboratory experiment consisted of two bioassays: first with substrate mixture of two and more ingredients tested: standard OECD substrate, standard substrate with medical clay, peat + clay, peat + sand, clay + sand; second with every ingredient individually tested: coarse sand, fine sand, peat, clay and no substrate. Highest larval survival was observed in sand + peat (≈85%) and coarse sand substrate (≈82%), whilst clay + peat and peat substrate caused the highest larval mortality (≈65% and 46% respectively). No larvae survived in treatment without any substrata, indicating the absolute necessity and importance of substrate presence for


Despite the tremendous progress in the development of scientific knowledge, the understanding of the causes of poverty and inequality, and the role of politics and governance in addressing modern challenges, issues such as social inclusion, poverty, marginalization and despair continue to be a reality across the world - and most often impact Indigenous Peoples. At the Margins of Globalization explores how Indigenous Peoples are affected by globalization, and the culture of individual choice without responsibility that it promotes, while addressing what can be done about it. Though international trade and investment agreements are unlikely to go away, the inclusion of Indigenous rights provisions has made a positive difference. This book explains how these provisions operate and how to build from their limited success.


I have to confess, I didn't understand the question at the time. A year later, I am starting to. I was an eager new general practitioner and member of a research team investigating how the internet might influence patients' use of primary care, and we had just begun offering free internet access at our deprived inner city practice. I had filled the waiting room with posters advertising the service, and a member of staff was on hand to guide newcomers through the web. With our new PC and a cup of coffee, we would help …


We leverage data-driven model discovery methods to determine the governing equations for the emergent behavior of heterogeneous networked dynamical systems. Specifically, we consider networks of coupled nonlinear oscillators whose collective behaviour approaches a limit cycle. Stable limit-cycles are of interest in many biological applications as they model self-sustained oscillations (e.g. heart beats, chemical oscillations, neurons firing, circadian rhythm). For systems that display relaxation oscillations, our method automatically detects boundary (time) layer structures in the dynamics, fitting inner and outer solutions and matching them in a data-driven manner. We demonstrate the method on well-studied systems: the Rayleigh Oscillator and the Van der Pol Oscillator. We then apply the mathematical framework to discovering low-dimensional dynamics in networks of semi-synchronized Kuramoto, Rayleigh, Rossler, and Fitzhugh-Nagumo oscillators, as well as heterogeneous combinations thereof. We also provide a numerical exploration of the dimension of collective network dynamics as a function of several network parameters, showing that the discovery of coarse-grained variables and dynamics can be accomplished with the proposed architecture.


Geographic Information Systems GIS have become prominent technology, widely adopted in diverse domains. Their online availability through the web and internet technologies has reinforced that. On the other hand, Open Source platforms provide all the instruments necessary to build-up a web solution for a GIS that can be completely used interactively. In this paper, we will introduce the concept of online GIS and the available solutions, especially those which are open source. For the 'Static Map' solution, we propose a new organisation of images, based on the spatial indexes. In order to speed-up the search and to optimise the images' retrieval, we propose a modification of the research algorithm using a proposed selection criterion and navigation modes. Finally, we implemented the organisation through the development of a tourist sites' online GIS of the west region of Algiers, Algeria.


At the stage of higher education popularization,the difficulty in employment for college graduates has become a common social phenomenon.Following that,the problem of dishonesty has invaded the market of college graduates' employment,and it is becoming more and more serious.This paper ponders on this phenomenon,analyzes its cause and then offers some solution to the problem.


Tuberculous peritonitis is one of the most common extrapulmonary tuberculosis. The presenting signs and symptoms, together with the carbohydrate antigen (CA) 125 status and imaging findings may resemble the primary peritoneal carcinoma or ovarian carcinoma. We herein report a case on a 71-year-old woman who is presented with abdominal distension, abdominal pain, nausea, anorexia. Abdomino-pelvic computed tomography scans reveal large amounts of ascites and mottled omentum with diffuse nodular masses, and the serum CA 125 level is elevated. The initial clinical diagnosis is the primary peritoneal carcinoma, but the final histological diagnosis confirms the tuberculous peritonitis. Thus, we discuss the differential diagnosis of tuberculous peritonitis from primary peritoneal carcinoma and also the problems especially found in old aged patients. In conclusion, although the elderly patients are suspected with malignancy, we should keep in mind the possibility of curable diseases and perform laparoscopic biopsy during the early stage aggressively.


The book titled Field Methods for Microbiological Water Quality Testing in Emergencies to provide concise notes and procedures for Health Workers and relief personnel in emergencies on how to cary out simple microbiological water quality testings where there is no functional laboratory and no power supply to prepare the regent and incubate the water sample to determine the level of contamination of drinking water source.the book contain flowchart in how to carry out the procedure using the human body heat to incubate the bacteria using available rapid testing materials li9ke petrifim and colilert procedures instead on depending on conventional incubator equipment that require power supply and functional laboratory and high level of training and professionalism


'Rio Verde' cabbage seeds were incorporated into a germination mix (Pro-Mix) and direct seeded into a Rockdale soil at the University of Florida's Tropical Research and Education Center on 17 Dec 1987. The soil was fumigated with Terr-O-Gas (75% methyl bromide, 25% chloropicrin; 220 lb/acre) and covered with blue plastic mulch on 25 Nov 1987; the mulch was perforated on 15 Dec. Plants were spaced 1 ft apart within rows and 30 inches apart between rows on 72-ineh-center beds. Plants were sprinkler irrigated twice/wk (0.75-1.00 inches/acre). Treatments were replicated 4 times in a randomized complete block design. Treatment plots were 4 rows (2 beds) by 40 ft long. A 10-ft-long section of untreated plants separated replicates; treatments within a replicate were separated by one untreated bed and a 6-ft alleyway. Applications were made on ten dates: 14, 21, and 27 Jan; 3, 10, 17, and 24 Feb; and 2, 9, and 16 Mar, using a tractor-mounted single-bed boom sprayer that operated at 250 psi and delivered 100 gal/acre through 5 D-4, #24 disk-type cone nozzles at 3 mph. Plyac (38 ml/gal) was added to each treatment to improve spray coverage and persistence. An ultraviolet light protectant adjuvant was added to 1 treatment (EG2038). The center 30 plants of the two middle rows of each treatment plot were seeded with BAW first instars (10/plant) on 11 Jan. The number of small, medium, and large DBM larvae and pupae, and the number of small, medium, and large BAW larvae were recorded on 8 plants per replicate, 32 plants per treatment, on 11 dates. Foliage injury was rated on 8 plants per replicate, 32 plants per treatment on 3 dates, 4, 10, and 18 Mar, and on 24 plants per replicate, 96 plants per treatment at harvest (22 Mar), using a 1-6 scale (1, no apparent insect feeding to 6, severe damage to head and wrapper leaves). Percentages of marketable heads were determined based on ratings ≤3.


The aim of this article is to reflect on marginalised hybrid identity in the novel Stella Manhat‑ tan (1985) by the Brazilian writer Silviano Santiago. The question of identity is discussed in relation to the issues of artistic creation in postmodernity and the political situation during the Brazilian military regime. The article draws on some key concepts in Santiago's essayistic work, such as "amphibious literature", "the postmodern narrator", "the astute homosexual" or "the space in‑between".


Simple Summary Mosquitoes are the deadliest insects alive due to the transmission of pathogens that cause diseases. Plant essential oils are considered an alternative to synthetic repellents for controlling mosquitoes. We have investigated the repellent and larvicidal activity of six plant essential oils against adult female mosquitos and the larvae of yellow fever mosquitos, Aedes aegypti. The essential oils extracted from Mentha longifolia, Zanthoxylum armatum, Erigeron bonariensis, and E. canadensis have the potential to manage Ae. aegypti at the larval stage. Moreover, M. longifolia, E. canadensis, E. bonariensis, and Salsola imbricata essential oils exhibited prolonged mosquito-repellent activity against adult female Ae. Aegypti; these oils might be used to develop formulations that are efficient and cost-effective as mosquito repellents without harming humans and the environment. Abstract Bio-degradable and eco-friendly essential oils (EOs) extracted from Mentha longifolia, Salsola imbricata, Erigeron bonariensis, E. canadensis, Ailanthus altissima, and Zanthoxylum armatum were investigated for their repellent and larvicidal potential against Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The EOs of M. longifolia, S. imbricata, E. bonariensis, E. canadensis, A. altissima, and Z. armatum exhibited 99.0%, 96.8%, 40.2%, 41.7%, 29.1%, and 13.2% repellency against mosquitoes at a tested dose of 33.3 μg/cm2, respectively. In time span bioassays, the EOs of M. longifolia, S. imbricata, E. bonariensis, and E. canadensis showed more than 40% repellency for 60 min at a tested dose of 330 μg/cm2. Larvicidal bioassays revealed that larvae of Ae. aegypti were the most susceptible to M. longifolia (LC50, 39.3 mg/L), E. bonariensis (LC50, 26.0 mg/L), E. canadensis (LC50, 35.7 mg/L), and Z. armatum (LC50, 35.9 mg/L) EOs upon 48 h exposure. The most abundant constituents in the EOs of M. longifolia, S. imbricata, E. bonariensis, E. canadensis and A. altissima were piperitone oxide (45.5%), carvone (39.9%), matricaria ester (43.1%), (31.7%) and eugenol (24.4%), respectively. Our study demonstrates that EOs of M. longifolia, S. imbricata, E. bonariensis, and E. canadensis might be used to control Ae. aegypti mosquitoes without harming humans or the environment.


It happens frequently in astronomy that the introduction of a new instrument leads to the discovery of new phenomena or of unsuspected celestial objects.^ Problems the solution of which could not previously be achieved may thus find their elucidation. The introduction of the telescope and, two centuries later, of the spectroscope ushered in modern astronomy. More recently, the construction of large reflectors like the 60-inch and the 100-inch telescopes of the Mount Wilson Observatory resulted in the recognition of the character of extragalactic nebulae as vast stellar systems. Objects at distances previously undreamed of can now be investigated, and already the most impressive result may be discerned in its outlines, namely that the physical aspects of all celestial objects exhibit a remarkable uniformity. Perhaps the most important astronomical innovation of the past decade is the Schmidt telescope. Among the results obtained with this sky-camera the discovery of many supernovae is perhaps best known, but other problems have also been brought nearer their solution through its use. Among these problems the investigations on the structure of clusters of nebulae are of special interest. Some of the problems involved were discussed in this magazine a few years ago, and a brief review of the results obtained in the meantime is in order. Clusters of nebulae are not new to astronomers. From the investigations of Messier and of the Herschels, it followed that remarkable groups of nebulae exist, such as the great nebula in Andromeda with its two companions, and the far larger group in Virgo, as well as the remarkable cloud of nebulae which extends through the constellations of Andromeda, Pegasus, Pisces, and Perseus. These clouds are given a prominent place in Humboldt's Cosmos. During the past decades and especially through


Objective:To evaluate the malignant transformation of oral lichen planus(OLP).Methods:The malignant transformation of oral lichen planus was investigated between 1995 and 2002.The symptoms,the location of lesions,clinical history and histopathological feathers were carefully recorded.Results:5 cases had concurrent or subsequent oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC),1 case developed verrucous carcinoma in the lower lip,3 patients were epithelial dysplasia histopathologically. In addition,7 patients were in an area of pre-existing OLP,1 in other site, in 1 case the diagnosis of OLP and SCC was synchronous.The malignant transformation occurred most frequently in the erosive and atrophic forms of OLP,and in the buccal mucosa, tongue or gingiva.According to the criteria of diagnosis and malignant transformation of OLP we established, 4 of the 9 patients were considered to develop malignant transformation.Conclusions:These data suggest the probability of some cases of at least OLP having an intrinsic property predisposing to malignant transformation.It is necessary to follow-up the patients regularly two to four times annually and to find early signs of malignant transformation.Follow-up are particularly important in patients with erosive and atrophic OLP,especially when involving the buccal mucosa, tongue and gingiva.


Wind turbines operate under non-stationary dynamic loads to which they constantly adapt by regulating the orientation of the blades and the rotor, as well as the generator torque resulting in characteristic responses (i.e. operating regimes) over a range of operating conditions. We propose a method to classify the operating regimes from coarse resolution data recorded by the turbine supervisory controller (i.e. data from the SCADA system). It relies on design knowledge, and algorithms for dimensionality reduction and classification. High resolution acceleration measurements from a custom structural state monitoring system and a data set of several channels from the SCADA system are used for validation. Estimation of the level of damage accumulated on structural components based on the classification of operating regimes is shown as an application.


Abstract Critical speed represents the highest exercise intensity at which the oxidative phosphorylation is sufficient to satisfy the energy demand. Since the release of the advanced footwear technology in May 2017, every road record from the 5-km event to the marathon has been broken. The question arises whether this type of footwear improves critical speed and, thus, performance. The aims of this study were (i) to assess the impact of advanced footwear technology on critical speed and D′ (curvature constant of speed-time relationship) in male elite distance runners, and (ii) to analyse the interference of the weather conditions and orography on such influence. Critical speed and D′ were calculated using the linear distance-time model analysis in eleven runners through their season best performances in two distance running events (10-km and half-marathon) during the same season. Six runners were wearing advanced footwear technology during the advanced footwear technology era and not wearing this footwear during the pre-advanced footwear technology era (experimental group), and five runners were not wearing advanced footwear technology during any of both eras (control group). Critical speed improved by 3.31% in the experimental group when runners were wearing advanced footwear technology (p = 0.034; ES = 0.623), while in the control group did not change (p = 0.311; ES = 0.251). D′ remained unchanged in both groups. Weather conditions and orography remained unchanged. The use of advanced footwear technology resulted into an improved critical speed which could explain the improvement in performance with this type of footwear in recent years in elite runners.


The aim of this paper is to investigate the basic properties of car seat fabrics applied in automotive textiles. Three types of textile materials namely velvet, flock and flat woven fabrics were used in this research for investigation. These three types of fabrics are available in private cars and also cost effective in local market. Polyester fabrics were used as base fabric along with all these velvet, flock and flat woven fabrics. Polyester fabrics are stronger those provide strength to the seat fabrics where velvet and flock fabrics provide comfort to the passengers. These textile fibers have also very good comfort properties. Different types of experiments namely fiber identification, strength test, color fastness test, abrasion resistant test and bending test were carried out in accordance with the test method provided by ISO standard. Microscopic views were also taken for assessment. Color fastness properties were also investigated to know the best color values. Grey scale test method for color property testing was used for all types of color fastness tests. This research is practice based and the findings are important for the personnel employed in automotive industries and to controlling of their properties. Further research can be conducted and commercial production may be beneficial by virtue of this research.


DocuSign is advancing at a great pace for artificial intelligence and embracing a continuous shift towards developing and deploying an increasing number of deep learning models. During the development stage, developers usually build a number of deep learning models and train them using a bunch of potential hyperparameter configurations to find the best-performed one, which is called hyperparameter optimization (HPO). Such HPO jobs can run for a long time due to ever-larger models and numerous hyperparameter configurations. Furthermore, the HPO jobs at DocuSign are processed in container-based environments so that the best-performed model can be deployed and maintained in production reliably and efficiently. The workload consists of the long-running and containerized HPO jobs that can saturate the current machine learning infrastructure in DocuSign rapidly, but the key resource (e.g., GPU memory or computing unit) are not always full utilized, for example, some hyperparameter configurations may only take a fraction of the GPU memory but will occupy the entire device due to containerization. Suffering from this issue, the users may have to either wait or manually coordinate with others for the resource to run the jobs, and such HPO workloads often take an unexpectedly long time to be completed. To address this problem, we propose Relish, a system designed specifically to accelerate HPO workloads by segmenting HPO jobs and efficiently sharing GPU resources in container-based environments so that multiple containerized segmented jobs can be executed in parallel. We conduct an HPO workload based on a three-month-long trace from a multi-tenant GPU cluster of a research and development team in DocuSign to evaluate Relish, the results demonstrate that Relish can significantly improve GPU utilization and accelerate the workload through efficient multiple jobs execution.


We describe our experience on how we used the team software process (TSP/sup SM/) as a foundation for implementing a software process improvement (SPI) initiative in a small software development company. The Capability Maturity Model for software (SW-CMM/sup TM/) was chosen as the model to follow and the IDEAL model as the organizational improvement model for planning and implementing the improvement actions. The TSP to SW-CMM gap analysis and a Capability Maturity Model based assessment for internal process improvement (CBA IPI) self assessment were used to diagnose and guide the SPI efforts. In this paper, we present our findings and experiences on this SPI initiative.


This article continues a series of online publications on the natural science foundations of the global economy. Physical macroeconomics includes a logically consistent set of concepts supported by macroeconomic empirical evidence.

The central concept is that the economy is a social living system that increases its working potential (overall value) at the expense of primary energy consumption.

In Part VII, we discuss the physical meaning of the demand function and the range of its applicability to pricing processes. The very existence of the psychologically predetermined demand function means that the economy is a social living system. Its applicability to equilibrium pricing is rather limited – in particular, it is not applicable to global energy carriers and intellectual products.


Objective
To study the application effect of cluster nursing measures on preventing unplanned extubation of adult patients with oral cavity endotracheal intubation.

Methods
The method of historical comparison was adopted.The patients with oral cavity endotracheal intubation admitted to ICU from January to March 2014 were selected as the control group.The patients of the control group were treated with conventional nursing measure. The patients with oral cavity endotracheal intubation admitted to the same ICU from January to March 2015 were selected as the intervention group.The patients of the intervention group were given cluster nursing measure on the basis of conventional nursing measure.The incidence of unplanned extubation of the two groups was compared.

Results
The intervention group adopted the cluster nursing strategy and the incidence of unplanned extubation was 0.5 per 100 intubation days.While the control group adopted the conventional nursing measure and the incidence of unplanned extubation was 2.1 per 100 intubation days, and there was statistical significance between the two groups.

Conclusions
Cluster strategy was an ideal nursing method.The strategy can effectively reduce the incidence of unplanned extubation with correct clinical application and continuous improvement.

Key words:
Adults; Endotracheal tube; Unplanned extubation; Cluster nursing


Background and Aim: To study and compare the hemodynamic stability and duration of analgesia in spinal anaesthesia among bolus versus lower fractional doses of bupivacaine in the arachnoid block for the patients undergoing lower abdominal surgeries specifically urologic, pelvic, and lower limb surgeries. Methods: Interventional Randomized Comparative case-control study done among 70 study participants to compare analgesia with bupivacaine under subarachnoid block in patients undergoing lower abdominal surgeries. Results: To sum up, we found that the time for onset of the sensory block with a fractionated dose of bupivacaine in spinal anesthesia was significantly lesser than the time taken with a bolus dose and took a significantly longer time to regress. Conclusion: We found that patients who received a fractionated dose of bupivacaine had a faster onset of motor blockade compared


This book provides a representative survey of early and more recent concerns in cognitively inspired lexical semantics. As such, it focuses on the issue of polysemy vs. monosemy, it offers fresh perspectives on prototypicality in lexical categories, it sheds light on the development of lexical items in child language acquisition and in diachrony, and it looks at issues going beyond the individual lexical item (onomasiology, synonymy, the relationship between lexical and syntactic meaning).


Duzce Medical Journal is an international open-access periodical journal published three times a year by the Duzce University Medical Faculty. Official name of the journal is Duzce Medical Journal (Duzce Med J) in English and Düzce Tıp Fakültesi Dergisi (Düzce Tıp Fak Derg) in Turkish with an e-ISSN 1307-671X. This is the first issue of the 21st volume of the journal and this editorial was written to briefly mention the past 20 years of the journal. Duzce Medical Faculty was established in 1992 as a part of Abant Izzet Baysal University in the Duzce district of Bolu, and started its' educational activities in 1996. Duzce was declared as a province of Turkey in 1999. With the establishment of Duzce University in 2006, Abant Izzet Baysal University Duzce Medical Faculty has been continuing its' educational and academic activities as a part of Duzce University under the name of Duzce University Medical Faculty. Duzce Medical Journal had started its publication life with the title of "Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Düzce Tıp Fakültesi Dergisi (AIBU Medical Journal)" in June 1999, when Duzce Medical Faculty was a branch of Abant Izzet Baysal University (Figure 1). The first issue it was launched as a general medicine journal which published of clinical and experimental studies, technical contributions and letters to the editor. Two issues were published annually in June and December, and the articles both in Turkish and English were accepted. The first issue was 104 pages and there were eighteen articles, consisting of twelve research articles (one experimental study and eleven clinical studies), three reviews and three case reports (Table 1). In the years 1999 and 2000, the journal released two issues annually, while the annual number of issues increased to three by the year 2001. The first seven volumes of the journal were published with the name of Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Düzce Tıp Fakültesi Dergisi (AIBU Medical Journal) by the Abant Izzet Baysal University. After establishment of Duzce University and Duzce University Medical Faculty in 2006 Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Düzce Tıp Fakültesi Dergisi (AIBU Medical Journal) changed its name to "Düzce Tıp Fakültesi Dergisi (Duzce Medical Journal)" and started to publish electronically by the Duzce University Medical Faculty.


The prioritizing of the orality in writing by Southern writers reflects concerns with tradition, regionality and identity. There is a vital relationship between Southern identity and geography for Southern writers. Southern writing relies on its relation to the worlds of Southern sounds. An emphasis on talk and music continues even today with a large majority of Southern women writers. In spite of the dynamic natures of Southern culture, the particular history and culture is depicted in contemporary Southern women's writing. Eudora Welty's novel Losing Battles is a blend of how historical events and the culture of region influence the individual lives of people and how they move on telling stories about their community and tradition and above all their sense of place is reflected in the novel.


Soil microbial biomass was a most essential component in soil ecology study.It played a key role in nutrient cycle and organic matter degradation and transformation.How to accurately,rapidly and effectively determine the soil microbial biomass had drawn much attention in soil research field.There were several methods involved in soil microbial biomass determination,including direct observational method,physical method and biochemical method.This review comparably evaluated the soil microbial biomass measurements.The further key research in this area in the future was discussed.


BACKGROUND Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) is gaining acceptance as a treatment for lentigo maligna (LM) and lentigo maligna melanoma (LMM), especially with the use of melanocyte‐staining immunohistochemical (IHC) stains. In 2006, we reported our 4‐year experience with Mel‐5 immunostaining, with only one recurrence noted in 200 patients after a mean follow‐up of 38.4 months.1 OBJECTIVES We present an update regarding our 13‐year experience with the use of Mel‐5. METHODS AND MATERIALS Patients with primary or recurrent LM or LMM (n = 260) underwent MMS with Mel‐5; 174 were followed up to evaluate for recurrence, with a mean follow‐up of 34 months. The 200 patients described in the initial case series from 1999 to 2003 were also followed. RESULTS Of the 460 patients treated from January 1999 to December 2011, five recurrences were noted in four patients; one in the initial case series and four in this new, updated series, including one re‐recurrence from the initial series. One melanoma‐related death occurred in a patient intermittently lost to follow‐up. CONCLUSION MMS with Mel‐5 immunostaining continues to yield excellent results in the treatment of LM and LMM.


Abstract Resettlement of entire communities is among the more difficult tasks in planning. The problems encountered during the 1960s were such that now any initiative involving relocation requires careful justification and may be vigorously disputed by interest groups. However, emerging resource limitations increase the likelihood of the forced removal of communities located adjacent to reserves hitherto considered submarginal. This paper concerns an Australian town which is being demolished to allow expansion of an open-cut coal mine. Despite conflicts preceding resettlement, the outcome so far has been surprisingly positive. The case offers insights to those dealing with urban redevelopment and population shifts in the future.


A backstepping control design for marine vehicles was described in (Marine Control Systems: Guidance, Navigation and Control of Ships, Rigs, and Underwater Vehicles. Marine Cybernetics AS: Trondheim, Norway, 2002). Under a backstepping feedback law, global asymptotic stability of the closed‐loop system can be shown under the assumption of unlimited actuation. This paper addresses the issues that arise in the implementation of a backstepping feedback law by saturating actuators. First, for a given backstepping feedback law, an estimate of the domain of attraction is given for the resulting closed‐loop system under actuator saturation. A high gain component is then constructed and augmented to the original backstepping feedback law. This additional high gain component is shown not to shrink the estimate of the domain of attraction but to possess the ability to improve the closed‐loop response and to reject disturbance. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We present a novel approach to real-time adaptation in serious games for at-home motor learning. Our approach assesses and responds to the "flow-state" of players by tracking and classifying facial emotions in real-time using the Kinect camera. Three different approaches for stealth assessment and adaptation using performance and flow-state data are defined, along with a case-study evaluation of these approaches based on their effectiveness at maintaining positive affective interaction in a subject.


3D RRAM array suffers more serious reliability issues than 2D array due to the additional dimension involved. This paper systematically assesses the cell-location-dependent write-access (selected cells) and disturbance issues (unselected cells) for a 3D vertical RRAM array. Using a combination of experiments and simulations, a methodology is developed to enable array-level evaluation by conducting single-device measurements and without the need to fabricate a full 3D array. Based on this evaluation method, it is found that a double-sided bias (DSB) scheme improves write-disturb tolerance by a factor of 1800 and reduces write latency by 19 % under worst-case analyses.


an examination of the standard of nursing practice in the supply and administration of antimicrobials by patient group direction within two south coast NHS walk-in centres I t is widely acknowledged that resistance to antimicrobial drugs is increasing and is now a major public health concern. It is also recognised that responsible prescribing practice is an essential component in preventing further escalation of the problem. The Standing Medical Advisory Committee Report (SMAC) (1998) provides comprehensive advice to primary care clinicians on how they can contribute to the public health quest to control antimicrobial resistance by pragmatic prescribing and patient education. This advice is equally relevant for walk-in centre practitioners in their utilisation of Patient Group Directions (PGDs). PGDs have been used in the Southampton City PCT NHS walk-in centres since their inception in 2001. Ten of the PGDs enable nurses to supply and administer antibiotics or topical antimicrobials and three allow evidence-based treatment of the conditions targeted in the SMAC report: otitis media,