In crop breeding, the selection for yield is made complex because of the quantitative and polygenic nature of the character. This study was undertaken to assess character association and show the contribution of various yield contributing characters in some maize varieties through the help of correlation and path coefficient analyses in order to identify appropriate plant characters for selection to improve maize grain yield. Seventeen maize varieties were sown in a randomized complete block design with three replications in a humid environment of Port Harcourt, Nigeria in 2018 under rainfed condition. Data were recorded for days to 50% anthesis, days to 50% silking, anthesis-silking interval, plant height (cm) and ear height (cm), number of plants per plot, number of plants harvested, number of ears harvested, moisture content (%), field weight (kg), and grain yield (t ha-1). Results showed number of plants per plot, number of plants harvested, number of ears harvested and field weight correlated positively and significantly both phenotypically and genotypically with grain yield. Path coefficient analysis at the genotypic level also revealed field weight and days to 50% anthesis as the characters exerting the highest positive direct effect on grain yield. Therefore, maize grain yield could be improved through indirect selection for these characters.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to culture and identify neural stem cells from mouse embryos in vitro using a modified method and provide a basis for further study of the biology of neural stem cells under hypoxia.

METHODS
The cells were isolated mechanically from the front cortex of fetal Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice on embryonic day 14. They were passaged by mechanical dissociation and enzymatic digestion. The neurospheres were identified by immunofluorescent staining of nestin. Cell differentiation was induced by 1% fetal bovine serum and then the cells were identified by immunohistochemistry of β-tubulin III and GFAP.

RESULTS
The cells obtained from the front cortex of fetal ICR mice had the capacity of forming neurospheres which showed nestin immunoreactive positivity. After being induced by 1% fetal bovine serum, the cells were differentiated into β-tubulin III-positive cells and GFAP-positive cells.

CONCLUSIONS
Using mechanical dissociation of primary cells and mechanical dissociation with enzymatic digestion of primary cells, the NSCs from the front cortex of mouse embryos can be obtained.


Disclosed herein are methods, compositions, and tools for repairing joint surface repair materials and for repairing joint surfaces. Joint surface repairs can be customized or highly selectable by the patient and are addressed to provide optimal fit and function. In order to improve the speed, accuracy and simplicity of performing full or partial arthroplasty, the surgical instrument is designed to be customizable or highly selectable by the patient. A first template, at least one surface for mating the first surface of the joint, said surface being a mirror image of a part or all of the first surface; A first template including at least one guide for directing movement of the instrument and at least one surgical instrument relative to said guide and one of the anatomical and biomechanical axes; In contrast, an arthroplasty system is provided that includes a connection for cross-referencing.


Abstract Testicular degeneration in 16 dairy and beef bulls was associated with, glomerular zone hypertrophy of the adrenal cortex. In some of the animals the kidneys were damaged, and the changes found in the adrenal suggested that kidney damage was also present in the other animals. High estrogen excretion (four bulls) and nodular interstitial tumors in the testes (three bulls) suggested that sex steroid hormone secretion was abnormal in many of them. The quality of the semen was improved in one animal following adrenalectomy but was not changed in two others.


Price competition has become a universal commercial phenomenon nowadays. This paper considers a dynamic Bertrand price game model, in which enterprises have heterogeneous expectations. By the stability theory of the dynamic behavior of the Bertrand price game model, the instability of the boundary equilibrium point and the stability condition of the internal equilibrium point are obtained. Furthermore, bifurcation diagram, basin of attraction, and critical curve are introduced to investigate the dynamic behavior of this game. Numerical analysis shows that the change of model parameters in a dynamic system has a significant impact on the stability of the system and can even lead to complex dynamic behaviors in the evolution of the entire economic system. This kind of complex dynamic behavior will cause certain damage to the stability of the whole economic system, causing the market to fall into a chaotic state, which is manifested as a kind of market disorder competition, which is very unfavorable to the stability of the economic system. Therefore, the chaotic behavior of the dynamical system is controlled by time-delay feedback control and the numerical analysis shows that the effective control of the dynamical system can be unstable behavior and the rapid recovery of the market can be stable and orderly.


X‐linked adrenoleukodystrophy (X‐ALD) is characterized biochemically by decreased ability of cells to activate (via very‐long‐chain acyl–coenzyme A synthetase [VLCS]) and subsequently degrade very‐long‐chain fatty acids in peroxisomes. It is noteworthy that the gene defective in X‐ALD encodes ALDP, a peroxisomal membrane protein unrelated to VLCS. We cloned human VLCS (hVLCS) and found that peroxisomes from X‐ALD fibroblasts contained immunoreactive hVLCS, refuting the earlier hypothesis that ALDP is required to anchor VLCS to the peroxisomal membrane. Furthermore, hVLCS was topographically oriented facing the peroxisomal matrix in both control and X‐ALD fibroblasts, contradicting the alternative hypothesis that ALDP is required to translocate VLCS into peroxisomes. However, overexpression of both hVLCS and ALDP in X‐ALD fibroblasts synergistically increased very‐long‐chain fatty acid β‐oxidation, indicating that these proteins interact functionally.


To provide theoretical basis for the protection of D.luodianense and its application in the desertification control,the soil physic-chemical properties of different microhabitats of D.luodianense was studied thought routine sample collection and lab analysis.The results showed that the soil in the distribution area of D.luodianense was medium loam and heavy loam,the soil pH was of weak alkali.The soil moisture content at the foot slope was higher than at the upper slope in all kinds of microhabitats.At the same slope,the soil moisture content in stone crevice was the highest,the next were stone ditch,stone slot,stone cavern and soil surface.The nutrient level at the foot slope was higher than at the upper slope in all kinds of microhabitats.At the upper slope,the organic matter of soil,hydrolysis-nitrogen and rapid available potassium in stone crevice were the highest,and the content of available phosphorus in stone slot was the highest.At the foot slope,the contents of soil organic matter,hydrolysis-nitrogen and available phosphorus in stone slot were the highest,and the content of rapid available potassium in stone crevice was the highest.


This article examines to what extent intellectual property rights can be used to obtain a monopoly in shapes, containers and other commonplace articles in view of the recent House of Lords decision in Reckitt & Coleman Products Ltd.


During the period of living at the Huanhua Stream bank in Sichuan,Du Fu created a large number of significant and profound poems concerning homesickness,and achieved the "poetic inhabitation." He was also the first person who put forward the word "nostalgia" in his works in Chinese literature history.Thus it is beyond doubt that Du Fu is the master as well as the founder of Chinese nostalgic literature.


We investigate the spin evolution of the unusual magnetic CV AE Aqr. As a prototype for a potentially large population of CVs subject to a thermally unstable phase of mass transfer, understanding its future is crucial. We present a new definition of the magnetospheric radius in terms of the white dwarf's spin period, and use this along with numerical simulations to follow the spin evolution of AE Aqr. We also present preliminary SPH results suggesting the existence of a stable propeller state. These results highlight the complexity of mCVs and may provide am improved understanding of the evolution of all types of CVs.


[Objective]To evaluate the effect of the implementation of TB control strategies in Tai'an city from 1998 to 2007,provide scientific basis for further development of tuberculosis prevention and control strategies.[Methods]Data of TB control and prevention from 1998 to 2007 in Tai'an city were analyzed.[Results]107 141 suspected TB patients visited the Center from 1998 to 2007,with an average annual examination rate of suspected persons of 1.98 ‰.The sputum examination rate was 29.91% during their first visit with smear-positive rate of 41.32%,showing an upward trend year by year(P0.01).17 729 active TB patients were registered from 1998-2007,with an average annual registration rate of 32.72/100 000,of which an annual average registration rate was 24.45/100 000 and 19.81/100 000 in smear-positive patients and new smear positive patients.Of the registration rate of new smear positive patients,28.70/100 000 of them were male and 10.50/100 000 of them were female(P0.01).It was.1.07/100 000,17.78/100 000,19.78/100 000,14.21/100 000,24.16/100 000,33.50/100 000 and 47.65/100 000 in the people aged from 0 to 14,15 to 24,25 to 34,35 to 44,45 to 54,55 to 64 and over 65(P0.01).10 735 new smear positive TB cases were treated in 10 years.The cure rate was 95.59%,the mortality rate was 0.82%.[Conclusion]The registration rate of new active tuberculosis patients was going up year after year from 1998-2007 in Tai'an city,but the attendance rate is well below national requirements.


Objective To investigate the effect and safety of ordinary heparin injected by micro-injection pump for acute cerebral infarction.Methods 186 cases of cerebral infarction patients were randomly divided into micro-injection pump unfractionated heparin group and the control group.All patients were treated with dehydrating agent,neuroprotective agents,aspirin,and so on.Unfractionated heparin were injected by micro-injection pump (4.25~8.50 U/min).Clinical neurological defect and safety of heparin injected by micro-injection pump were compared between two groups.Results Significantly efficiency and total efficiency of treatment group were better than control group (43.3% vs 21.2%,P0.001;93.4% vs 54.6%,P0.001),neurological functional scores of treatment group (10.80±4.02 Vs 15.20±3.43,P0.01) were significantly lower than that of control group.There were no bleeding complications occurred.Conclusions Injection of unfractionated heparin by micro-injection pump is safe and can improve neurological function of patients with acute cerebral infarction.


Spectroscopic methods are being applied to understand the physical nature of laboratory flames and discharges, and the conditions prevailing in astrophysical sources. With this objective, there has been a number of studies of the intensity distribution of the band systems of diatomic molecules. For a quantitative interpretation of the measured intensities it is necessary to employ a potential function which adequately describes the molecular electronic state. The interatomic potential is expressed in various empirical forms. Of these, the Morse function (Morse 1929) is widely employed as it provides a convenient analytical expression for the potential. However, it has been found that the Morse model cannot represent adequately many an electronic state. Morse function, therefore, requires to be examined before adopting for any molecular state. One can construct the true potential energy curve using the experimental energy levels and compare with the Morse model.


The electron g factor in an InAs-inserted-channel In0.53Ga0.47As/In0.52Al0.48As heterostructure is studied by measuring the angle dependence of magnetotransport properties. The gate voltage dependence of the g factor is obtained from the coincidence method. The g-factor values are surprisingly smaller than the g-factor value of bulk InAs, and close to the bare g-factor value of In0.53Ga0.47As. A large change in the g factor is observed by applying the gate voltage. The gate voltage dependence is not simply explained by the energy dependence of the g factor.


How the anti-clotting system (wing anti-icing system) used on Boeing 737-300 aircraft studied in this research. Wing anti-icing system is used to stabilize the engine performance and prevent ice buildup on aircraft wings as well as preventing over-heat on the wings of airplanes. Component - the component used in the wing anti-icing system is the air distribution pipes (supply duct), shutoff valve (valve), thermal switches, control, and indicator lights. Temperature is the temperature of 1250C which is a reference flame or death of wing anti-icing system this. In keecenderungan angle exceeds 320, the valve will be closed automatically. The dominant heat transfer occurs are conduction heat transfer.


This is a 40-year-old woman with an 18-yearhistory of migraine without aura that has beenchronic for 6 years. She has failed or been intolerantto numerous preventive medications, including topi-ramate and onabotulinum toxin even though she doesnot have medication overuse. She did become head-ache free after a 5-day intravenous regimen of dihy-droergotamine,but then the headaches returned overseveral months to their prior frequency.Questions:Might she respond to preventive treat-ment with methylergonovine?What is the mechanismof action, pharmacokinetics, and dosing? Whatadverse events are associated with use? Is methyler-gonovine effective for cluster headache prevention?


An electric front derailleur includes a base member, a chain guide, a first link member, a second link member and an electric driving unit. The base member includes a mounting portion to be operatively mounted to a bicycle frame. The chain guide is movable with respect to the base member. The first link member movably connects the chain guide to the base member. The first link member is at least partially aligned with the chain guide in a lateral direction with the electric front derailleur in an installed position. The second link member movably connects the chain guide to the base member. The second link member is at least partially aligned with the chain guide in the lateral direction with the electric front derailleur in the installed position. The electric driving unit is operatively coupled to the chain guide to move the chain guide with respect to the base member.


Part 1 From small groups to large - the impact of hunting, farming, and cities: the impact of early people on their environment, Richard Klein the impact of food production - short-term strategies and long-term consequences, Charles Redman the epidemiology of civilization, Mark N. Cohen. Part 2 The industrial era - new societies, new technologies, new problems: the revolution in the family and the world we have made, David Levine pollution and the emergence of industrial America, Martin Melosi the coal question revisited - British energy prices and technology in long-term perspective, G.N. von Tunzelmann. Part 3 The environment goes global - issues of the late 20th century: global greenhouse effect - principles and human-induced causes, Ralph Cicerone world forest watch, Roberto Pereira da Cunha global water resources - the coming crisis, Peter Gleick. Part 4 Designing the future - coping with the crises: tropical forests and the future of the human species, James D. Nations what we can learn from the amoeba, Jon H. Gibbons creating an international process to address greenhouse warming - the integration of technology, economics and politics, William Nitze.


Radiation treatments are in continuous evolution and the use of increasingly advanced technologies enables personalized treatments. According to this, the work presented is focused on the 3D computed reconstruction of segmented CT images taken from an anthropomorphic phantom (RANDO phantom) using unstructured meshes. This phantom model is used to simulate dose distribution during a beam irradiation with Monte Carlo code.


This is the revised version of a paper originally presented to the conference "Africa, New Powers, Old Powers" organised by the University of Bologna and the Working Group on "Europe and Transitions in (Southern) Africa" of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) at the University of Bologna, 4 and 5 May 2017.


A unified synthetic strategy has been developed for the total synthesis of the dendrodolide family, employing Jorgensen asymmetric epoxidation, Keck allylation, Brown allylation, Yamaguchi esterification, and ring-closing metathesis as key reactions.


The conformation of T14 peptide,the N-terminal fragment of trichosanthin (TOS) small domain,in DMSO(MS14),H2O(HO14),50%methanol(ME14)or 50 hexafluoroisopropanol (FP14) solutions was determined by ̄1H NMR. From NOE constraints, coupling constants and H/D exchange rates,the secondary structure and hydrophobic region were located and characterized, and the dihedral angle φ and probability of helical formation were also calculated. In HO14,the sequence Ser0-Ile17 is relatively ordered and strongly hydrophobic,which is deduced to be a helix-like metastable structure,while the SALSKQ sequence of MS14 tends to form an α-helical structure.Furthermor,hexafluoroisopropanol (HFP)improves the stability of the α-helix.In summary,effects of the four solvents,H2O,DMSO,MeOH and HFP, on the secondary structure formation of the peptide are compared.


The high-density plasma nitriding at 673 K and 623 K was employed to make 10% of nitrogen supersaturation on AISI316 base austenitic stainless steels. The processing parameters and nitrogen-hydrogen gas flow ratio were optimized to increase the yield of N2+ ion and NH-radical for efficient nitriding. The nitrided AISI316 specimens were prepared for multidimensional analysis to describe the fundamental features of low-temperature plasma nitriding. First, macroscopic evaluation revealed that nitrogen supersaturation induced the γ-lattice expansion and the higher nitrogen content than 4% of mass in depth. The mesoscopic analysis describes the holding temperature and initial grain-size effects on the microstructure changes. Plastic straining, grain-size refinement, and nitrogen zone-boundary diffusion processes advance with nitrogen supersaturation to drive the inner nitriding behavior. The microscopic analysis explains the microstructure refinement, the two-phase structuring, and the microstructure modification. Through this multi-dimensional analysis, the essential characteristics of the low-temperature plasma nitriding of 316 austenitic stainless steels were precisely understood to extend the engineering treatise on the bulk nitrogen stainless steels for surface modification and treatment of stainless steels by nitriding. This plasma nitriding was applied to strengthen and harden the AISI316 wire surfaces toward its application on surgery wires.


BACKGROUND
The strength and direction of the associations between inflammation and coagulation biomarkers with kidney disease onset and progression remain unclear, especially in a population-based setting.

STUDY DESIGN
Prospective observational study.

SETTING & PARTICIPANTS
4,966 participants from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) with a cystatin C-based estimate of glomerular filtration rate (eGFR(cys)) >60 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and at least one follow-up measurement of kidney function. All participants were free of cardiovascular disease at entry.

PREDICTOR
We evaluated the associations of C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin 6 (IL-6), fibrinogen, factor VIII, and d-dimer levels with kidney function decrease.

OUTCOMES & MEASUREMENTS
Kidney function decrease was assessed primarily by repeated measurements of eGFR(cys) over 5 years. Rapid decrease in kidney function was defined as eGFR decrease >3 mL/min/1.73 m(2) per year. Incident low eGFR was defined as the onset of eGFR(cys) <60 mL/min/1.73 m(2) at any follow-up examination and eGFR(cys) decrease ≥1 mL/min/1.73 m(2) per year.

RESULTS
Mean age was 60 years, 39% were white, 52% were women, and 11% had diabetes. Mean eGFR(cys) was 96 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and 7% had albuminuria. Median follow-up was 4.77 years. Higher factor VIII levels (per 1 standard deviation [SD] of biomarker) had the strongest association with kidney function decrease (β = -0.25; 95% CI, -0.38 to -0.12; P < 0.001), followed by IL-6 (β = -0.16; 95% CI, -0.29 to -0.03; P = 0.01), CRP (β = -0.09; 95% CI, -0.22 to 0.03; P = 0.1), and fibrinogen levels (β = -0.09; 95% CI, -0.22 to 0.04; P = 0.2). Each 1-SD higher concentration of IL-6 (OR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.07-1.23), factor VIII (OR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.03-1.18), and CRP (OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.02-1.16) at baseline was associated significantly with rapid kidney function decrease. Only IL-6 level was associated significantly with incident low eGFR (OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 1.00-1.19).

LIMITATIONS
Observational study design and absence of measured GFR.

CONCLUSIONS
Inflammation and coagulation biomarkers are associated with decreasing kidney function in ambulatory adults without established cardiovascular disease or chronic kidney disease.


Despite significant contributions to various aspects of cybersecurity, cyber-attacks remain on the unfortunate rise. Increasingly, internationally recognized entities such as the National Science Foundation and National Science & Technology Council have noted Artificial Intelligence can help analyze billions of log files, Dark Web data, malware, and other data sources to help execute fundamental cybersecurity tasks. Our objective for the 1st Workshop on Artificial Intelligence-enabled Cybersecurity Analytics (half-day; co-located with ACM KDD) was to gather academic and practitioners to contribute recent work pertaining to AI-enabled cybersecurity analytics. We composed an outstanding, inter-disciplinary Program Committee with significant expertise in various aspects of AI-enabled Cybersecurity Analytics to evaluate the submitted work. Significant contributions to the half-day workshop were made in the areas of CTI, vulnerability assessment, and malware analysis.


As the authors of this informative and instructive paper state, their study is in no way comprehensive. Many readers will wish to examine additional measures and relationships. The authors have been kind enough to supply this reader with a table of the storm rainfall data on which they based their analyses, and have thus enabled him to present two additional relationships.

In Figure 7 of this discussion are plotted points, each representing by its abscissa the mean rainfall of the 55 stations for one of the 71 storms, and by its ordinate the range between the smallest and largest rainfall amounts received among the 55 stations, for the same storm. It may be observed that with most of the storms, the range exceeds the mean. If it is assumed, with 55 stations, that the standard deviation is between 20 and 25 per cent of the range, then the coefficient of variation may be estimated to have a value of about 0.3. There seems little doubt that in more rugged portions of the United States, even with non-thunderstorm precipitation, there would be greater areal variability of precipitation.


With finite element (FE) simulation, we study the buckling behavior of double-wall carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) under axial compression. In the FE models, linear beam elements and nonlinear spring elements are used to simulate the complex structures and the Van der Waals' force between non-bond atoms from different layers is considered by the Lennard-Jones potential function. The effect of aspect ratio of DWCNTs and double-atoms vacancy on the buckling modes and the critical buckling strains are investigated. The computational results indicate that with the increase of aspect ratio, the critical buckling strains will decrease. For both armchair and zigzag DWCNTs, the critical buckling strains are generally larger than those of the single-wall carbon nanotubes with the same chirality as the external layers and those of the same structures without Van der Waals' force. For defective DWCNTs, the buckling strains of each order decrease by a maximum amplitude of 32.3%.


Spin-cast small π-conjugated molecules exhibit poor molecular order because of rapid evaporation of the solvent, resulting in low charge-carrier mobility. Herein, we present simple ultraviolet (UV)...


Ralph Martire is executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. Martire states that the budget for Illinois is an issue of great concern. Sustainable funding for essential services is in question. He will share what the current fiscal climate really is in Illinois and what the possible solutions are to move Illinois to sustainable fiscal health. In February, 2011, Martire was appointed to serve on the U.S. Department of Education Equity and Excellence Commission. He is a distinguished lecturer on public policy and is a regular columnist on education, fiscal, and economic policy for the State Journal-Register and Daily Herald. As a member of the River Forest SD 90 Board of Education, he brings unique knowledge to his presentation to both board members and superintendents. Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Illinois Association of School Boards


By using an extra delay line the tuning range of SAW delay line oscillators can be at least doubled. Replacing the amplifier and AGC circuitry with a limiter extends the tuning range even more and decreases the sensitivity to disturbing signals. >


Solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a main extrinsic factor for skin aging, which causes impairment of skin integrity through the induction of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), such as MMP‐1. Thynus quinquecostatus extracts are considered as potent anti‐photoaging agents due to including various active ingredients. To identify anti‐photoaging agents, in the present study, we examined preventing effect of thymol essential oil from Thynus quinquecostatus extracts on UV‐induced skin photo‐damage. First, we determined that the treatment concentration of without cytotoxicity on thymol by MTT assay in HaCaT cells. Next, we examined the attenuation of antiaging activity that the determined of MMP‐1 gene and protein expression levels in UVB‐induced keratinocyte. As a result, it was confirmed that the thymol and Thynus quinquecostatus extracts dramatically decreased UVB‐induced expression of MMP‐1 in a dose‐dependent manner. Our data showed that thymol and Thynus quinquecostatus extracts significantly attenuated UV‐induced phosphorylation of mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling components ERK1/2, JNK1/2, and p38 proteins. This result suggests that the ERK1/2 kinase pathways likely contribute to the inhibitory effects of thymol and Thynus quinquecostatus extracts on UV‐induced MMP‐1 production in human keratinocytes. Taken together, our findings suggest that tymole essential oil from Thynus quinquecostatus extracts is a protective agent for skin anti‐photoaging through the prevention of UV‐induced MMP‐1 production.


Most people living downstream of Kenya's capital use water from Nairobi River System. To evaluate surface water quality in Nairobi County, water samples were collected from ten different locations in Nairobi River System (NRS) during the dry and wet seasons. The total dissolved solids (TDS) and temperature were determined on site using a portable meter-EC 300A.Water turbidity was determined with the help of a portable turbidity meter (SGZ -B) while the concentration of trace metals (chromium, copper, iron, manganese, lead and zinc) was determined using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. TDS increased from upstream to downstream. The most downstream end of  NRS  considered  was  at  the  Eastern  bypass,  where  dry  and  wet  seasons  TDS  was  3040  mg/l  and  840  mg/l, respectively. For fresh water, the US EPA limits TDS at 500 mg/L, which was exceeded during both seasons. Normal water  temperature  was  observed.  Turbidity  increased  from  upstream  to  downstream,  reaching  a  maximum  dry season value of 250 NTU at the Eastern  bypass. Most heavy metals exceed the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) limits for domestic and agricultural water. With exception of iron, the concentration of metals was highest during the  dry  season.  Ngong  River  had  the  highest  concentration  of  lead  (0.6 -0.9  mg/l)  and  chromium  (0.5-1.7  mg/l). Ngong  and  Nairobi  tributaries  had  approximately  the  same  levels  of  copper,  manganese  and  iron.  This  study concludes that surface water in Nairobi has excessive levels of organic matter and heavy metals which are likely to affect the quality of Athi River, a major source of water in Machakos and Makueni Counties. It is recommended that deliberate efforts should be made to stop discharging untreated effluents into Nairobi River System as this can have serious effects on food safety and human health. Key words: Nairobi River, wet and dry season, physico-chemical parameters, heavy metal


Many countries have signed the declaration of VISION 2020: The Right to Sight and have established national committees for the prevention of blindness. However, some governments still need to be convinced to allocate the resources needed to achieve the objectives of VISION 2020. In planning advocacy aimed at governments, one has to choose those facts and arguments that will be most likely to convince them to act. One approach is to use studies that show the economic benefits of VISION 2020. For example, for each US dollar spent on eye care and on the prevention of vision loss, there is a fivedollar return to the community.1 In addition, it is estimated that VISION 2020 – if successful – will provide a global saving of US $223 billion over 20 years.2 The Gambia provides a key example. This low-income African country has demonstrated that an eye care programme based on the principles and recommendations of VISION 2020 can give an economic rate of return of 10% over a ten-year period (1986–1996).3 Another approach to advocacy aimed at governments is to focus on the relationship between VISION 2020 and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the United Nations' action plan to lift the world's population out of extreme poverty, and its consequences, by 2015. Worldwide, governments of lowand middle-income countries are under enormous pressure to achieve the MDGs. Demonstrating to governments that a commitment to VISION 2020 will help them achieve these goals, rather than divert resources away from them, can be a way to convince governments to become more actively involved in the prevention of blindness and to allocate the necessary financial resources. Indeed, seven of the eight MDGs depend on measures linked to the implementation of VISION 2020. This means that progress towards the goals of VISION 2020 will also help governments to achieve the MDG objectives – a win-win situation. In most countries, the first step in translating the MDG targets into action involves drawing up Poverty Reduction Strategy papers (PRSPs). This is how each country tailors the MDGs to its circumstances, sets its priorities, and involves key individuals and organisations in civil society and the corporate sector. Understanding the process of drawing up PRSPs at the national level, and finding ways to include prevention of blindness in these plans, is an essential step in linking VISION 2020 to the MDGs. What follows is adapted from the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) publication 'Blindness, poverty and development – the impact of VISION 2020 on the Millennium Development Goals'.4 We hope that the facts given here will help you to persuade your government to commit the resources needed to support VISION 2020.


Development of body- and bio-sensor network opens a new horizon of healthcare especially to measure the vital physical signs of personnel for diseases diagnosis and patient monitoring. And the cloud computing technology is enabling patient monitoring service dynamically scalable and ubiquitously accessible. Physical and mental health, both are important for the existence of human being with happiness and smartness. The success of mental health monitoring system depends on real life data accusation from patient with mental diseases and some historical data about patients and also his predecessors. This paper proposes a ubiquitous mental state monitoring system on cloud environment. In this system, patient's real-time vital diseases symptoms are collected through body sensor network (BSN) and then analyzed the collected data on the healthcare agent of cloud including patient's historical repository of diseases, habits and rehabilitations. Here, we model the mental statuses of patients as the discrete set of states of hidden Markov model (HMM) and BSNs data with clouds facts as the observations of HMM. Finally, we use Viterbi, a machine learning algorithm to generate the most probable mental state sequence of the patients. By deploying this method on mental patients dataset, we validate the proposal.


adults is often passionately championed, when, if ever, may we expect something definitive from the science side of "the art and science of helping adults learn"? Regrettably, Henry avoids such questions. Had he wrestled with those or their cousins, and thus been both annalist and analyst, he would have helped justify the "must read" accolade in the anonymous Preface. Still, given Knowles' Olympian stature, it is well within bounds to say that Henry has offered the field an imperfect but necessary book.


A detailed, well‐dated record of pollen and sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) for the period 15 000–9500 cal a bp describes changes at Lake Bolshoye Shchuchye in the Polar Ural Mountains, located far east of the classical Lateglacial sites in western Europe. Arctic tundra rapidly changed to lusher vegetation, possibly including both dwarf (Betula nana) and tree birch (B. pubescens), dated in our record to take place 14 565 cal a bp, coincident with the onset of the Bølling in western Europe; this was paralleled by increased summer temperatures. A striking feature is an early decline in Betula pollen and sedaDNA reads 300 years before the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) in western Europe. Given the solid site chronology, this could indicate that the YD cooling started in Siberia and propagated westwards, or that the vegetation reacted to the inter‐Allerød cooling at 13 100 cal a bp and did not recover during the late Allerød. During the YD, increases in steppe taxa such as Artemisia and Chenopodiaceae suggest drier conditions. At the onset of the Holocene, the vegetation around the lake reacted fast to the warmer conditions, as seen in the increase of arboreal taxa, especially Betula, and a decrease in herbs such as Artemisia and Cyperaceae.


Through the Spiral of Silence framework, this study examines the online opinion climate effect on individual willingness to post messages in forums, using a 2 × 2 experiment manipulating website source (mainstream news/ideologically homogeneous activist group) and opinion congruency (minority/majority opinion). Individuals' willingness to post was affected only by their opinion congruency with those expressed in forums. Analysis revealed instances of individuals "speaking up" as compared to "speaking out." Other deterrents to willingness to post were also uncovered.


The soft magnetic composites (SMC) are new soft magnetic materials produced by a powder metallurgy process which can be used for 60 Hz applications. The SMC are interesting for the realization of electromagnetic components used in lighting applications where the current and voltage THD is relatively high. The isotropy of the SMC magnetic and thermal properties can be used to design new structures of inductors and electromagnetic ballasts with high power to weight ratio. In structures with cylindrical symmetry, EMI and audible hum can be reduced. The design of a low frequency inductor used for the passive power factor correction of a lamp ballast system demonstrates the advantages of the SMC. These materials are an interesting alternative technology for lighting system components in terms of efficiency improvement and minimization of the size, weight, and audible hum.


We demonstrate a multi-spectral polarization sensitive mid-infrared photodetector utilizing surface-patterned plasmonic resonators. This design provides a responsivity enhancement of up to 5x while adding only one lithography step to current focal plane array processing.


This article explores the way in which the Spanish Civil War has been traditionally shaped in the collective mem ory as a Manichean conflict fought between two well-defined sides, the Republicans and the Nationalists, in order to demythologise this common representation in contemporary Spanish society. According to the rece nt interest shown by Spanish population for recovering its national past , I consider the civil war as a "site of memory" that needs to be periodic ally relived in order to satisfy the changing needs of each generation. Ther efore, this article aims at reviewing the legacy of the civil war from an un usual approach, a literary contribution can provide an alternative pe rc ption of this struggle: George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia (1938 ). In this way, Orwell's memories are analysed in order to understa nd the civil war as the beginning of a social revolution, which was cru shed not only by fascist forces, but also by the policy exerted by the Sovie t Union in Spain by means of the communist party. In conclusion, Orwell 's contribution is not only interpreted as an homage to the ordinary peopl who fought in order to create a new social order, but also to Georges O rwell, who led to posterity one of the most moving testimonies of the Spanish Social Revolution, an episode completely removed from Span ish memory .


Neuhold [1] developed a software for children to practice additions and subtractions, including tools to analyze the learner produced data to better understand this learning process and help teachers in finding appropriate measures to eliminate mistakes. Following this example we investigated in second language vocabulary acquisition (cf. [2, 3, 4]) and developed a functional prototype of an English vocabulary trainer in the field of learning analytics (LA), which aims at assessing learners' vocabulary competence to support teachers in decisions on appropriate interventions. The software prototype is mainly based on the lexical approach to language teaching (cf. [2, 5, 3]), our own teaching experiences and especially theories on the mental lexicon (cf. [2, 6]) were used for the realization of various analysis tools. Our working prototype points out how learning analytics can help to improve language learning in future


The completion phase of an oil field development is characterized by increased water cutting of well production, reservoir and bottom-hole pressures decline, growth of high molecular weight (HMW) components content in crude oil. These aspects make field operations more hazardous as they lead to formation of asphaltene-paraffin-resin deposition (APRD) on borehole walls and equipment. The impact of HMW components in crude oil and water-cut on pressure and temperature conditions of APRD and on its rate needs detailed study. This paper presents some results of the analysis of oil paraffin saturation point depending on asphaltene-resin substances (ARS) content under reservoir conditions. Dependence of the rate of APRD on a cold well walls and resin substances content in oil is studied. The results of experiments with low-resin and high-paraffin crude oil show that asphaltenes and resins in oil dispersion


An investigation is reported in which computer-simulation studies were used to assess the need to apply corrections to the estimates of mean and variance from grouped data such as are obtained when fibre-diameter measurements are made by projection microscope; these estimates are usually regarded as biased. The studies reported here confirm that this so but that the bias is variable, apparently at random.


In this study, we present proof of concept for an x-ray detector. The hybrid device consists of a synthetic single crystal diamond in mechanical contact with a piezoelectric lithium niobate surface acoustic wave (SAW) delay line. Upon x-ray irradiation, the diamond crystal experiences a change in conductivity, which, in turn, very sensitively influences the SAW transmission on the delay line. This change in SAW attenuation is directly used to monitor the x-ray beam intensity. The SAW attenuation shows a monotonic variation with dose rate D in the studied range between 100 and 1800 μGy/s. While the response time leaves room for further improvement, the SAW detection principle offers the unique possibility for wireless remote powering and sensing.


Citar como: Pech-Ciau BA, Lima-Martínez EA, Espinosa-Cruz GA, Pacho-Aguilar CR, Huchim-Lara O, Alejos-Gómez RA. Fractura de cadera en el adulto mayor: epidemiología y costos de la atención. Acta Ortop Mex. 2021; 35(4): 341-347. https://dx.doi.org/10.35366/103314 ABSTRACT. Introduction: The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology and to estimate the direct medical costs of hip fracture among elderly patients in Mexico. Material and methods: An observational, cross sectional and retrospective study was undertaken. Hospital discharge and surgical procedures for the period 20132018 were the databases used for the analysis, and obtained from General Directorate of Health Information. Variables included were sex, federal entity, age, year of discharge, and fracture type according to the CIE-10; and also, the supplies needed for the surgical procedures. Results: A total of 16,829 patients with hip fracture were discharge, 69% were women, and the mean for age was 79 years old and for the hospital stay length was nine days. The most frequent fracture type was the femur neck with 77% and the average medical costs was USD$45,122,228.00. Conclusion: Falling risks increase with age, especially in patients among 80-89 years of age, hence, is expected that this type of pathology increases in the following years. The medical costs for treatment of hip fracture represents an economic impact on health services. For that reason, the implementation of prevention strategies, risk of falling for example, is the one of most effi cient approach.


High-precision localization has drawn more and more attention in recent research of intelligent vehicle systems and autonomous robot navigation technology. In most methods, the approaches are only effective in some specific situations. In other words, these methods can only perform well with obvious features, like tall building walls, road curbs, etc. In this paper, a novel framework for precise localization of autonomous vehicle applying to different scenes especially some typical urban environments is proposed. The main procedures of this method include mapping and localization. During mapping process, inertial measurement unit, odometry, and high-precision GPS are fused together with the data sensed by LIDAR, a high-precision map that could provide global position and pose is generated using rolling window. When localizing, live laser data align with the prior-map. A particle filter based point cloud matching method is utilized here. Based on this, a hierarchical localizing method is proposed, which is more accurate and faster than the original matching method. With this method, the sampling guided by proposal density is propagated upward every hierarchy. Besides that, some accelerating algorithms are utilized to make this approach real time. Finally, decimeter-level localization is achieved in different environments, which is proven by some experiments.


The use of turbo codes is proposed for high-rate data services in third generation wireless communication systems. Bit-true models are mandatory for hardware and software implementations. In this paper we present to the best of our knowledge the first investigation of a combined bit-width optimization of input data and internal data for an 8-state turbo-decoder based on parameters relevant for UMTS. Simulation results for AWGN and Rayleigh fading channels show that performance degradation can be held below 0.11 dB using a 4-bit input data quantization.


International safety standards demand that each person involved in the lock-out process must apply an effective and individual lock on all possible power sources connected to electrical equipment prior to commencing work on said equipment. This paper investigates methods for accomplishing such a lockout when the source is an adjustable speed drive. Both alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) sources will be examined. An example typical of an older DC paper mill application is also presented.


This paper presents a high accuracy combination algorithm for solving the first kind of nonlinear Abel integral equations.To avoid solving ill-posed problems,the authors transform the first kind Abel integral equation to the second kind Volterra integral equation with continuous kernel and the right term expressed by weakly singular integral,and get a high accuracy approach of the kernel and the right term with using the modified mid-point rectangular and the modified trapezoidal quadrature formula. Combined with solving non-linear equation,two quadrature algorithms are made up for solving the first kind of nonlinear Abel integral equations,which have accuracy order O(h~(a+1)) and asymptotic expansion of the errors.Moreover,the authors obtain an approximate solution with a higher accuracy order O(h~2) by means of combination algorithm.At last the numerical results show that it consistent with theoretical analysis.


We screened a phage library of Rickettsia typhi with a polyclonal antiserum to clone genes which encode immunogenic proteins of R. typhi. Among several clones obtained, one clone codes for a 466‐amino‐acid protein similar to the heat‐shock protein, HtrA. The deduced rickettsial HtrA contains a putative signal peptide sequence at the N‐terminus, a serine protease‐like domain, and two PDZ domains. The recombinant protein of rickettsial HtrA reacted with sera from patients with murine typhus and tsutsugamushi disease. We suggest that this gene and its recombinant protein would be valuable for the immunologic diagnosis of rickettsial diseases.


This article computes a household level social vulnerability index (HSVI) for eleven villages in Henan Province, China. The study is mixed-methods, as the authors use a combination of expert and lay judgment for variable selection, a household level survey as a primary data collection tool, and a principle components analysis (PCA) for the purposes of data reduction. While the development of a household level social vulnerability index is a novel contribution to the literature because of the lack of household focus within vulnerability indicators literature, the article has several conceptual and methodological shortcomings that must be resolved prior to publication.


The present world is fast changing from industrial world to information world. It requires speedy, accurate, ready and reliable information. A large amount of information is being generated every moment. Information has become a strategic raw material and a dominating factor in decision making and execution. Information is and will be a primordial need for each individual in this world. Information is regarded as "Life blood of society" and vital resource for national development.


Strain-induced deformations in graphene are predicted to give rise to large pseudomagnetic fields. We examine theoretically the case of gas-inflated bubbles to determine whether signatures of such fields are present in the local density of states. Sharp-edged bubbles are found to induce Friedel-type oscillations which can envelope pseudo-Landau level features in certain regions of the bubble. However, bubbles which minimise interference effects are also unsuitable for pseudo-Landau level formation due to more spatially varying field profiles.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of programmed materials with adjunct listening examples on the vocal development of children's choruses. A programmed text was designed, tested, and revised in several pilot studies that constituted Phase 1. The text, developed by means of the systems approach model, was effective as measured by pretest-to-posttest gains by all subjects in summative and formative pilot testings. Phase 2 of the study was an experimental design to determine the amount of methods and materials presented in the text that could be implemented by practicing teachers. Forty music teachers and their respective choruses served as subjects and were divided into two groups: a no-contact control and an experimental group. Judges' ratings of the performances were used as the main variable to match groups; other variables included length of rehearsal, grade levels, and size of the chorus. All choruses were tape recorded singing "The Star-Spangled Banner." Teachers in the experimental group were given copies of the programmed materials and allotted a 10-week interval to implement materials of their choice during rehearsals. The posttest taping utilized the same song and another of the teacher's choice. Results of data analysis indicated that there was no significant difference in the overall choral sound between groups. Written posttests did indicate a significant gain by teachers in the experimental group of knowledge contained in the text. It was concluded that the lack of significance may have been attributed to an inability to transfer concepts from the text to the rehearsal setting.


A phonon dispersion curve of Si is calculated using the microscopic theory of dielectric screening. The electron energies and wave functions are calculated from a crystal pseudopotential which is self-consistent with the electron-ion pseudopotential. For the polarizability matrix a continued fraction expansion including the zeroth and first moment is used. The first moment is treated as a constant. The results are sensitive to both the self-consistency condition and the closure approximation.


: The reproductive biology of 2 Melilotus species was studied . The species are characterized by specificity in the number of flowers in the inflorescence and ovules in the ovary; dynamics of flower opening; potential and actual seed productivity. Potential seed production of Melilotus albus and Melilotus officinalis is much higher than the actual seed production. Productivity index was 14-26%. Reasons for the reduction of seed production are: sterilization of the ovules before pollination, due to both genetic and physiological factors; part of the flowers remain unpollinated and thus fertile ovules – unfertilized; destruction of fertile fertilized ovules caused by genetic factors different types of melilot.


decompression. Another possible explanation includes induction of nitric oxide synthase by sildenafil, stimulating further cGMP-mediated vasodilation,5 permitting lymphatic dilatation and enhanced lymphatic drainage; endothelial nitric oxide synthase has also been shown to mediate lymphangiogenesis.6 Novel effects of sildenafil on LM tissue should also be considered. A lack of PDE5 expression in LM endothelium in our study suggests that sildenafil is likely to produce decompression of LM via indirect effects on adjacent smooth muscle. We propose that sildenafil may mediate relaxation of perivascular smooth muscle in LM tissue, allowing decompression of dilated lymphatic spaces; additional studies to elucidate specific physiologic effects of sildenafil in LM are warranted.


NdBa2Cu3O7-δ (NBCO) is a potential superconducting material for application as thin films because of its transition temperatures as high as 94 K as well as the smooth surface and excellent epitaxial quality. This study illustrates the application of the support vector regression (SVR) approach in modeling and predicting the transition temperature (Tc) of NBCO thin films fabricated via pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The model was trained and tested based on an experimental data set comprised of three depositing parameters, the pressure (p), temperature (T) and laser energy (E). The results reveal that the mean absolute error (0.22 K) achieved by leave-one-out cross validation test of SVR is smaller than that (0.68 K) achieved by multivariable nonlinear regression (MNR). An available maximum Tc (92.0 K) deposited at an optimal condition for NBCO films is predicted by using the established SVR model. This investigation suggests that SVR may be a promising and practical methodology to accurately estimate the ...


"Sansheng Education"and"career education for university students"are two courses appearing in universities recent years and they have different characteristics of property and system of content.Judging from the aim of the education,career education shows the nature to discover the meaning of life,realize the value of life and pursue happy life.Furthermore,judging from the content of the education,career education is the necessary part of "Sansheng Education".Therefore,the content of life and survival education should be shown to strengthen the effectiveness of"career education for university students".


RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) is the most popular commercial website to evaluate instructors, and houses a wealth of student-generated information in the form of ratings and reviews. This study investigated whether general chemistry students who use RMP were different from other students, and their reasons to use and contribute to the site. A pool of 398 students were surveyed. The survey gathered demographic information, patterns and frequency of use, and information to characterise participants in terms of their learning/grade orientation. Data analysis included descriptive and inferential statistics and the application of mixture models (latent class analysis and latent profile analysis). There were no significant differences between contributors and non-contributors in terms of gender, major, year status, grade point average, course load, previous chemistry grade and learning/grade orientation. Findings for this sample do not support the common assumption that students use RMP to shop for easy instructors. Instructor helpfulness, clarity and overall rating were reported as important aspects to visit the site. Findings agree with literature reports and support the use of RMP as supplemental data to inform assessment of instruction at the general chemistry programme level. Programmes in other disciplines can adapt the methods presented to assess the suitability of RMP data-sets for similar purposes.


Endomorphin-1and endomorphin-2 are opioid tetrapeptides, which are isolated from bovine and human brain and have high affinity and selectivity to central μ-opioid receptors. In the digestive tract, opioidlike drugs inhibit peristalsis and induce constipation. In this study, we analyzed the effects of newly synthesized endomorphin-2 analogs – Deoxycholic-Tyr-Pro-Phe(pCl)-Phe-OH and Deoxycholic-Tyr-ProPhe(pF)-Phe-OH, on longitudinal muscle preparations from the guineapig ileum (GPI). The both analogs used alone slightly affect spontaneous contractility of longitudinal muscle, but they significantly reduce acetylcholine-induced contractility. The use of µ-opioid receptor antagonist – naloxone increase the inhibitory effects on acetylcholine-stimulated contractility of GPI. Further research is necessary to explain this interaction.


Statins are currently the most widely used drug class for the management of dyslipidemia. Their benefits for both primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality are well established. With the increasingly widespread use of statins, questions have been raised about a potential link between statin use and new onset type II diabetes. Evidence for this association was further strengthened by a recent study using data from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), which reported an increased risk of diabetes with statin use in postmenopausal women. This article will provide an overview of the study findings and discuss implications for clinical practice.


We present and discuss certain global bifurcations involving the interaction of one- and two-dimensional invariant manifolds of steady and periodic solutions of the Kuramoto–Sivashinsky equation. Numerical bifurcation calculations, dimensionality reduction using approximate inertial manifolds/forms, as well as approximation and visualization of invariant manifolds are combined in order to characterize what we term the "Oseberg transition".


PURPOSE: An apparatus and a method for cleaning a substrate is provided to uniformly and stably clean a substrate, to save resources, and to reduce waste. CONSTITUTION: When the substrate is cleaned by using an ammonium fluoride aqueous solution or a mixed solution of an ammonium fluoride aqueous solution and hydrofluoric acid as a cleaning liquid, with the passage of time during the use of the cleaning liquid, the cleaning liquid is added with at least one selected from water, ammonia, ammonia water, and an ammonium fluoride aqueous solution. A necessary amount of the additives corresponding to the passage of time is calculated on the basis of measured data to control the cleaning liquid. Alternatively, the component concentrations during cleaning are calculated, and the additives can be supplied corresponding to the obtained results.


We study a one patch model using Ricker's equation, xn+l = xner-xn, r ~ 0. We reproduce some results that Hastings ( 1993) obtained by coupling two discrete time logistic equations. Multiple attractors could occur with dispersion where there is only one attractor without dispersion. The boundary of the basins of attraction of the attractors can be fractal in nature. This makes prediction of the asymptotic behavior of most initial conditions difficult to analyze. Furthermore, we study the same model using Ricker's equation. We show that the qualitative nature of the results for a system of difference equations with dispersion depends on the form of the local dynamics.


Abstract Background: This study investigates the role of figures of speech in the process of conceptual change in the physics classroom. Purpose: Its objectives are to examine what teachers and students perceive to be the advantages in using figures of speech in teaching physics concepts, what they perceive to be the challenges in using them, and how teachers use these in their classrooms to minimize the challenges faced. Sample We chose a purposive sample of 95 students and nine teachers of physics, in four schools in Lebanon. Design and methods: A mixed-method approach was used. Interviews were conducted with physics teachers; questionnaires were distributed to students, and non-participant classroom observations were carried out. Results: Teachers viewed figures of speech as a tool that helps them transmit abstract physics concepts to students in a simpler and concrete way. Questionnaires and non-participant observations revealed several examples of figures of speech used and the positive responses of students towards them. Conclusions: The study suggests several ways to overcome the drawbacks. This study highlights the urgent need for all stakeholders to work collaboratively to include figures of speech in the curriculum to enhance the process of conceptual change in the physics classroom.


Influence of streamer-to-glow transition on NO removal from a simulated diesel exhaust gas in non-thermal plasma reactor is described in this paper. A co-axial cylinder type discharge chamber was used as the pulse streamer discharge non-thermal plasma reactor which was driven by inductive energy storage pulse power generator with fast recovery diode as a semiconductor opening switch. The pulsed power generator supplies 30 kV pulse with 300 pps repetition rate. The co-axial cylinder plasma reactor consists of 1 mm diameter tungsten wire and 19 mm i.d. copper tube with 30 cm length. NO removal from the simulated gas (N2:O2=9:1, Initial NO concentration=200 ppm) increased with input energy into the reactor. The energy efficiency for NO removal was obtained to be 25 g/kWh at 30 % removal in gas flow rate of 2 L/min. However, the energy efficiency decreased to 5 g/kWh with increasing capacitance of the primary capacitor from several hundreds pF to several nF. This decrease was caused by a streamer-to-glow transition.


The population of second generation Americans (U.S. born individuals born to foreign born parents) stood at 45 million in 2015. The labor market outcomes of this large segment of the population can provide useful insights into the long-run contribution of immigration to the US labor force and economy. This study uses a longitudinal data set and makes use of detailed personal and family characteristics to study the economic assimilation of second generation immigrants. The use of longitudinal data allows us to examine the relative wage evolution of second generation immigrants in the US. The trends show that second generation immigrant adolescents begin their careers with a wage advantage over natives (third and subsequent generations of immigrants), which reduces as they age. Overall, we find female second generation immigrants to have a wages advantage of about 8 percent over natives whereas male second generation immigrants have a small or no wages advantage over native males once personal and parental characteristics are controlled for.


Privatisation has been less successful in water than in the other privatised utilities. The highly regulated regime is closer to the old nationalised industries than in gas, electricity and telecommunications. Moreover, the industry seems to be heading towards yet more regulation. What is required is more competition. There may be practical difficulties in introducing it, but a determined effort to overcome these problems would be a better use of resources than tighter regulation.


The traditional collaborative filtering approaches have been shown to suffer from two fundamental problems: data sparsity and difficulty in scalability. To address these problems, we present a novel scalable item-based collaborative filtering method by using incremental update and local link prediction. By subdividing the computations and analyzing the factors in different cases of item-to-item similarity, we design the incremental update strategies in item-based CF, which can make the recommender system more efficient and scalable. Based on the transitive structure of item similarity graph, we use the local link prediction method to find implicit candidates to alleviate the lack of neighbors in predictions and recommendations caused by the sparsity of data. The experiment results validate that our algorithm can improve the performance of traditional CF, and can increase the efficiency in recommendations.


In this paper, we aim at presenting a detailed classification of the most known authentication protocols using quantum means with calculation of quantum communication complexity. The Quantum Key Distribution protocols were basically proposed to establish secret keys that will be used later for encrypting and decrypting messages. Practically, QKD protocols are vulnerable against the men-in-middle attack. Thereby, in order to prevent masquerading any legitimate user and tampering with the communication, QKD schemes need authentication prior to communication. Many quantum authentication protocols have been proposed in the literature. Each one has a particular approach to authenticate the communicators. We attempt in the present work to introduce the various ways of quantum authentication and to classify them according to some specific criteria with a calculation of the quantum communication complexity.


© 2018 The authors and IOS Press. This article is published online with Open Access by IOS Press and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0)


Interfaces are one of the cornerstones of modularisation, and modularisation is one of the distinguishing-marks of Scania. At the same time early sharing of data is crucial for making the product development process as effective as possible. Scania don't consider themselves having the same control over the interface-related information as over other product information, hence there's a need of further investigation of the matter. Through mapping of Scania's ways of coping with interface matters today, the objective of this project is to come up with guidelines for how this work could be enhanced with current and upcoming IT-tools, work methods and organisation within Research and Development at Scania. The project aims at investigating how interfaces are defined, managed and shared today and how this should evolve.One theoretical study has been carried out in order to give the project a solid foundation and theoretical dept. Two empirical studies have been performed with respondents from Scania in one and respondents from Kockums and Syntell in the other. Both the theoretical and empirical material has then been treated and evaluated before the analysis of the material has been made and conclusions and recommendations have been worked out.The results of the interviews show that there is a vast confusion regarding the term interface, and that the meaning of the term is far from unambiguous. The interfaces exist, but they are yet to be defined, and a uniform, structured, and widely spread way of dealing with them is missing at this time. There is a demand for, and a need of defining, managing, and sharing the interfaces. There is also a great potential in doing so in order to optimize the product development process. Something that is of great importance is to make it possible to visualise the interfaces, where GEO is a good foundation and an important piece of the puzzle.Based on the analysis of the theoretical and empirical material the term interface should be defined and categorized. A clear method of how to deal with interfaces and information related to interfaces should be drawn up, and to make the visual presentation of the interfaces possible support for this need to be prepared in the CAD-environment.


The efficiency of the multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MFLMA) is improved by using the triangular interpolation instead of the commonly used Lagrange interpolation. For pth-degree interpolation, the data points used for the triangular interpolation are only $(p+2)/(2p + 2)$ of the Lagrange interpolation, while the interpolation accuracy is in the same order. Numerical results of electromagnetic scattering from conducting sphere are shown to illustrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.


Liver transplant recipients receive immunosuppressive treatment to avoid organ rejection, increasing the risk of developing de novo cancer after transplantation. We investigated the cumulative incidence of de novo cancer in a cohort of Danish liver transplant recipients. The study was a retrospective cohort study of adult liver transplant recipients transplanted at Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark, between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2019. De novo cancer was defined as cancer arising at least 30 days after liver transplantation, excluding relapses from prior cancers and donor‐derived cancers. We determined the incidence of de novo cancer in the cohort using the Aalen‐Johansen estimator, with death and retransplantation as competing risks. We included 389 liver transplant recipients and identified 47 recipients (12%) with de novo cancer after liver transplantation, including 25 recipients with non‐melanoma skin cancers. The cumulative incidences at 5 years after liver transplantation for all cancers and non‐skin cancers were 10.7% and 4.9%, respectively. De novo cancer after liver transplantation is relatively common, with the majority being non‐melanoma skin cancer. Future studies of sufficient size are needed to identify risk factors for de novo cancer after liver transplantation.


The present invention discloses a method of generating an image of art expression recognition based system, comprising the steps of: (1) acquiring images of a user's facial expression; (2) on the expression image analysis calculation, the emotional value; (3) the value of the variable to emotional by generation algorithm, to draw the image of the art. In the present invention expression recognition based system, the image of the art expression recognition obtained by the emotion value generation algorithm, implemented in transformed human facial emotion value index, generating a corresponding object image in accordance with art different emotions, change the color and image interact with each other close to the user interface of psychology, to meet customer needs.


A set of four multiwire proportional chambers with 612 wires has been constructed for an experiment on proton Compton scattering and π0 photoproduction with the 1.3 GeV electron synchrotron at Institute for Nuclear Study, University of Tokyo. It is located inside the 1 GeV/c Magnetic Spectrometer together with the wire spark chambers. Precise particle trajectories against a high background can be determined by the use of the multiwire proportional chambers. The construction of the chambers and electronics, and the performance of the system are described.


Systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients who develop pulmonary fibrosis, have an increased mortality rate1. Excessively activated fibroblasts deposit extracellular matrix (ECM), which leads to fibrosis resulting in stiffening of the tissue in both skin and lung. Currently there is no cure for fibrosis in SSc, only drugs which can slow the fibrotic process, and there is therefore, a medical need for further understanding of the pathogenesis. Fibrosis is associated with growth factors, including tumor growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) and platelet derived growth factor-ab (PDGF-ab).We investigated how TGF-β1 and PDGF-ab stimulation affected the gene and protein expression of specific collagen chains of type I, III and VI collagens in primary healthy human dermal (DF) and pulmonary fibroblasts (PF).The fibroblasts were grown in 0.4% fetal calf serum DMEM, ficoll (to produce a crowded environment) and ascorbic acid for up to 12 days. They were stimulated with TGF-β [0.01 nM], PDGF-ab [3 nM] or a combination of TGF-β [0.01 nM] and PDGF-ab [3 nM], while non-stimulated fibroblasts served as control. ECM protein formation was assessed in supernatant from day 0, 4, 8 and 12, by ELISAs which detects the N-terminal of the pro-collagen of type I and III collagen, and the C5 domain of the α3 chain of type VI collagen. Gene expression was analyzed after 4 days and the relative gene expression was calculated based on multiple reference genes2. Statistical analysis includes one-way and two-way ANOVA.TGF-β increased the gene expression of Col1α1 in DF (p<0.0001) and Col1α2, Col3α1 and Col6α3 in both DF (p<0.01, p<0.001, p<0.05, respectively) and PF (p<0.0001) compared to control. PDGF-ab showed no difference in gene expression of the DF but decreased multiple genes in PF (p<0.01). The combination of TGF-β and PDGF-ab increased the gene expression of Col1α1 in DF (p<0.01), Col3α1 in PF (p<0.0001) Col1α2 and Col6α3 in both DF (p<0.05 and p<0.01) and PF (p<0.0001) compared to control. None of the stimulations lead to an increase in the Col6α1 and Col6α2. The TGF-β induced gene expression corresponded with increased ECM formation of type I and VI collagen from day 4 (p<0.01), and type III collagen from day 8 (p<0.05) in both DF and PF. PDGF-ab stimulation led to an increased ECM formation of type I and VI collagen in both DF and PF (p<0.01), and type III collagen in DF (p<0.01). The combination stimulation with TGF-β and PDGF-ab induced a corresponding increase in both gene expression and ECM formation of type I and VI collagen in both DF and PF (p<0.01). While the combination increased the ECM formation of type III collagen in both fibroblast types, the gene expression of Col3α1 were only increased in PF (p<0.0001).This study demonstrates that TGF-β stimulation alone and in combination with PDGF-ab results in increased gene and protein expression of type I and VI collagen in both DF and PF, and additionally type III collagen in PF. However, there was a disconnect between the gene and protein expression profiles after PDGF-ab stimulation, which have to be investigated further. This study may provide new insights to the differences between fibroblast of different origin and their response to fibrotic factors.[1]McNearney, T. A. et al. Pulmonary involvement in systemic sclerosis: Associations with genetic, serologic, sociodemographic, and behavioral factors. Arthritis Care Res.57, 318–326 (2007).[2]Vandesompele, J. et al. Accurate normalization of real-time quantitative RT-PCR data by geometric averaging of multiple internal control genes. Genome Biol.3, research0034.1 (2002).Sofie Falkenløve Madsen: None declared, Pernille Juhl Employee of: Nordic Bioscience, Jannie Marie Bülow Sand Shareholder of: Nordic Bioscience, Employee of: Nordic Bioscience, Morten Karsdal Shareholder of: Nordic Bioscience, Employee of: Nordic Bioscience, Anne-Christine Bay-Jensen Shareholder of: Nordic Bioscience, Employee of: Nordic Bioscience, Christian Thudium Shareholder of: Nordic Bioscience, Employee of: Nordic Bioscience


Nowadays in health care, Medical image processing plays an important role for diagnosis and treatment. While capturing the medical images there may be possibility of noises in the images that may degrade the details in the images. So it becomes difficult for the doctors and therapist to diagnosis the diseases properly. Therefore it is mandatory to process and remove the noise from the medical images. MATLAB provides good noise removal techniques and filtering the images that enhances and restores the images. In this paper, different types of noises and various types of filters that are used to remove noise in the images are discussed. The most efficient techniques in removing noises in retinal images and brain MRI images and the comparison of performance of various filters that can efficiently remove or reduces the noise in the images are studied. Among all Wavelet thresholding technique provide a effective removal of noise in brain MRI images


The project "Green House System Design using IOT" uses a Arduino UNO microcontroller along with environment observing sensors and actuators, IOT module ESP01 for communication along with the Blynk Application (which shows the real time values in mobile) is used for achieving the automated system to replace the ineffective manual control. This system uses better water service to the plants. With the help of the data collected by the system and IOT analysis, the optimum climatic conditions for a particular plant growth can be understood. The work proposed here is to design an effective green house management to satisfy the need of automation and intelligent farming. The reason behind using Arduino here is in expensive, open source and consume less voltage.


Fig. 1 Routine retention regimen in young orthodontic patient. A. 8-year-old female with anterior crowding andmesially rotated maxillary first molars before treatment. B. After orthodontic leveling and space opening by molarderotation and uprighting of posterior teeth. C. Retention with thick (.030") mandibular 3-3 and thin (.0215") maxil -lary 21-12 retainers and removable plate. Patient was instructed to use Superfloss* to clean around fixed retainers.


A biosensor is a sensing device made up of a combination of a specific biological element and a transducer. The "specific biological element" recognizes a specific analyte and the changes in the biomolecule are usually converted into electrical signal (which is in turn calibrated to a certain scale) by a transducer. Aim of this survey work is to discuss the various biosensors available for different biosensing applications. Initially, the survey focuses on the basics of biosensing devices which can serve as introductory tutorial for the readers who are new to this field. Later, the survey highlights the technicalities of few biosensors in great detail. The survey ends with brief discussion on the major difficulties the biosensor research communities normally encounter.


Direct volume rendering is an important branch in scientific visualization area.It is one of the most active visualization technolo-gy.The paper describes the principle of volume rendering,analyze its key technology and algorithm.And then,introduce the conceptions of Visualization Toolkit,discuss the process about how to use VTK to realize Ray-casting algorithm.


The goal of the present study is to measure voice onset time (VOT) in the oral stop series in Omaha, a North American Indian language of the Siouan family. The question addressed is: Does acoustic analysis using modern instrumentation support that the phonetic stop categories in Omaha are voiced, voiceless unaspirated, and voiceless aspirated at bilabial, dental, and velar places of articulation as documented in Dorsey's Dhegiha language transcriptions (c. 1890) and attested by other linguists? Then, provided that for each place of articulation, three distinct groups of VOT values form, do these values correlate with VOTs for other languages which contain the three categories listed above, or to other categories of stops? Finally, how can this information be used to improve existing Omaha language revitalization programs and Omaha language lessons? Results showed that even with a variety of cross analyses, there is evidence that the purported three way contrast does consist of voiced, voiceless unaspirated, and voiceless aspirated categories in contemporary Omaha. This can be applied to the Omaha curriculum as a pronunciation guide for students and non-native speaking teachers of Omaha. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................v Chapters I. BACKGROUND........................................................................................................1 Documenting the world's speech sounds.................................................................1 Second language acquisition, speech perception, and the field linguist..................2 VOT across languages.............................................................................................4 Omaha language: documentation.............................................................................5 Omaha language: revitalization...............................................................................7 Overview..................................................................................................................8 II. HYPOTHESIS.........................................................................................................9 III. METHODS............................................................................................................10 Stimuli....................................................................................................................10 Subjects..................................................................................................................12 Data collection.......................................................................................................13 IV. RESULTS/ANALYSIS.........................................................................................14 V. DISCUSSION......................................................................................................111 Future research.....................................................................................................120 Omaha language: revitalization ..........................................................................121 APPENDIX......................................................................................................................124 REFERENCES................................................................................................................126 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank the Omaha people who will help me with my study and consent to work with me. I also thank them for their teaching the small amount of Omaha we had time for during my field work. Their input was indispensable and their patience impressive. I would like to thank my thesis committee chair Lyle Campbell, and committee members Rachel Hayes-Harb and Ardis Eschenberg for their extensive help with my drafts. I also appreciate Ardis' kindness in opening her home to me during part of my time in Nebraska. I am also extremely grateful for the advice and direction of Bob Rankin and John Koontz, Siouan linguists who volunteered their time to help answer my many questions about Omaha linguistics, as well as supplying numerous unpublished articles on the Omaha language. I thank Naomi Palosaari for lending me her recording equipment, time, and advice. I. BACKGROUND Documenting the world's speech sounds Some contention exists about the identities of certain of the world's speech sounds. The linguist's perception and the manner of documentation are two factors to consider. The IPA has attempted to reflect all possible speech sounds, but is controversial to some phonologists and phoneticians (Ladefoged 1990). The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) 'is intended to be a set of symbols for representing all the possible sounds of the world's languages' (Ladefoged 1990:550), and is a compilation of all phonemic sounds documented across languages. Furthermore, the 1990 report on the status of the IPA specifies that ''possible sounds'. . . means phonologically contrastive elements within a language, stating that 'the sounds that are represented are primarily those that distinguish one word from another.'' (Ladefoged 1990: 550). Its symbols represent 'distinctive feature combinations', but 'the Association nowhere suggests that these categories are either the sole or the best set of features for linguistic purposes' (Ladefoged 1990:550). And on the other hand, some view any observation on phonological inventories as 'an essentially impressionistic account based on a linguist's experience of a number of languages' (Maddieson 1984:1). Contention about the acoustic properties of phones, and ways to document them, exists on an individual language basis too, and is the focus of this paper. In Omaha, a three way phonemic stop contrast has been documented, which exists at bilabial, dental, 2 and velar places of articulation. The exact categories are purported to be voiced, (b, d, g), voiceless unaspirated (p, t, k), and voiceless aspirated (p, t, k). The purpose of this study is not to establish the phonemic status of these categories, but to measure voice onset time (VOT) for words containing exemplars of the attested contrast. Phonetic level transcription may not always be accurate without the aid of instrumentation beyond the linguist's own training. Even linguists with good training and good perception filter what they hear through their native phonologies and accents (Bowern 2008). The task of documentation is of course vital to the preservation and revitalization of endangered languages, but linguists have not always had—and still may not always have—access to the most precise ways of measuring acoustic values in the field, and cannot always determine minimal pairs to establish phonemes. Thus, when establishing phones in a language, whether they are phonemic or allophonic, it is important to include an acoustic analysis. Second language acquisition, speech perception, and the field linguist As mentioned previously, one motivation for the current study is the question of accuracy during phonetic documentation and transcription. Because it is possible that even trained linguists may not always accurately perceive speech sounds in the language being documented, some transcriptions may reflect perceptual errors, even when utmost care is exercised to avoid these. As Linguistic Fieldwork notes, '[the field linguist] should be familiar with basic tools for phonetic analysis, such as how to read a spectrogram. . . a well trained ear can pick up a lot of information, but . . . it is easy to be misled' (Bowern 3 2008:68). According to Ladefoged (2003), via Riney et al. (2007:94), 'any description of the phonetic structures of a language should include an account of the VOT'. Thus, the following background summarizes some research on L2 (second language) speech perception acquisition, and how this applies to adults—even trained linguists—listening to a second or foreign language. A few issues influence second language speech perception by adult learners— including field linguists. First, certain parts of the listener's first language (L1) can speed L2 perception acquisition, and other parts can get in the way of acquisition. On one hand, knowledge of L1 sound systems can hinder perception of L2 sounds. (Davidson et al. 2007; Broselow 1987) 'Interference' is defined as L1 traits carrying over to another language that one speaks (Campbell and Mixco 2007). On the other hand, negative transfer such as interference is not responsible for all learner errors. It is widely known that there is a 'subset [italics mine] of errors which are caused by transfer [from the L1]' (Broselow 1987:262). Of course, ideally trained phoneticians can more accurately discriminate between non-native speech sounds than untrained non-native speakers of languages (Abramson and Tingsabadh 1999). Positive transfer can also occur. There is evidence suggesting that even noncontrastive phones present in the L1 can speed the perception of the same speech sounds present at the phonemic level in L2, if information is accessed as a surface representation (Curtin et al. 1998). Also, the level of representation accessed by the listener can affect perception (Hayes-Harb 2007). In other words, 'it appears that L1 surface features can be lexicalized in L2 acquisition' (Curtin et al. 1998:399). So, the 4 linguist's perception of non-native phones can depend on whether she accesses the lexical level of items she hears. However, even in light of accounts of both positive and negative transfer between the L1 and the L2, it is reasonable to imagine that Dorsey and other early descriptive linguists may have made mistakes in their phonetic level transcriptions due to their perception of speech sounds, thus justifying this study's reexamin


Summary Fifth-year results of an uneven-aged silviculture experiment in peatland black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) in Ontario, Canada indicate that mechanized partial harvesting can maintain diameter distributions suitable for continued application of this silvicultural system. At present, uneven-aged silviculture is not practised operationally, but current regeneration treatments are creating stands with varying degrees of structural irregularity. Modelling is required to plan appropriate cutting cycles and intensities, and to forecast the growth and yield of irregular stands.


A pot experiment was conducted to study the Pb-Zn compound pollution on tobacco.The result showed that Pb-Zn compound pollution was more complicated than single heavy metal pollution.The interaction of Zn and Pb resulted in an decrease of Pb uptake and an increase of Zn uptake in roots of tobacco with the increase of Zn concentration in soil,which showed a compition effect between Pb and Zn;While Pb uptake in leaf and stalk was more complicated: when Zn concentration in soil ≤100 mg·kg-1,Pb uptake in leaf and stalk increased,which showed an additive effect;when Zn concentration in soil100 mg·kg-1,Pb uptake in leaf and stalk decreased,which showed an antagonistic effect.In addition,Zn uptake in each tissues of tobacco increased with the increase of Zn concentration in soil,but independent of Pb concentration.


DDS technology required for an effective in vivo gene transfer depends on target disease. Important features are target cell-specificity, level, duration and cell number of gene expression following in vivo application. These features are determined not only by the ability of vectors used, but also by the nature of target cells, administration route, biodistribution, and interaction with components in the body. In this presentation, we report our approaches to improve in vivo gene transfer in two target cells: hepatocytes and myocytes. Targeted delivery of pDNA to hepatocytes was achieved by using galactose as a targeting ligand, but the level of gene expression might not be high enough even after boosting the expression with fusogenic peptides. Combined use of physical stimuli could be a solution. Muscle cells are easily transfected by direct injection of viral or nonviral vectors. However, direct injection results in gene expression only in limited cells adjacent to the injection site. For treatments of muscular dystrophies, gene expression in widespread myocytes is needed. To this end, gene delivery to myocytes in the diaphragm and hind legs was examined through intravascular injection of naked pDNA.


In many Polish cities, including in Lublin, it can be observed increasing car participation in the urban traffic. A high motorization rate corresponds with a high level of economic development and quality of life. On the other hand, increased numbers of cars are a burden on the environment associated with extensive use of energy sources, local and global air pollution, and development of road networks which encroach on public space and fragment natural habitats. High motorization rate causes a lots of problems such as air pollution, noise, lack of parking spaces, road congestion, collisions etc. Currently, every third Polish residents have a car, and forecasts growth of this number. Many housing estates, particularly those arising in between 60 and 70 of the twentieth century, were designed assuming a much lower level of cars participation in traffic. Therefore, the problems associated with the presence of cars in housing estate are particulary visible.


Our knowledge of the corpus of extra-biblical and extra-rabbinical Aramaic texts has largely been the acquisition of the last seventy-five to a hundred years. Through numerous discoveries in Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Armenia, Mesopotamia, Persia and the Indus Valley we have come to know what various phases of Aramaic were like from the tenth century B.C. until roughly the eighth century A.D. This knowledge has enabled us to situate the biblical Aramaic of Ezra and Daniel in a matrix similar to that provided by extra-biblical Hebrew texts for biblical Hebrew.


Agathodesmus Silvestri, 1910 includes A. baccatus (Carl, 1926) comb. n. from New Caledonia, A. bucculentus (Jeekel, 1986) comb. n. from Queensland, Australia, and A. johnsi sp. n. and A. steeli Silvestri, 1910 (type species) from New South Wales, Australia. A. baccatus and A. bucculentus were formerly placed in Atopogonus Carl, 1926 syn. n. Th e identity of the apparently congeneric Inodesmus jamaicensis Cook, 1896 sensu Loomis, 1969 from Jamaica is still uncertain, and Inodesmus Cook, 1896 remains a nomen inquirendum.


Sustainable assessment was proposed in 2000 as an idea in higher education that focused on the contribution of assessment to learning beyond the time scale of the course. It was defined as assessment that 'meets the needs of the present and prepares students to meet their own future learning needs'. This paper reviews how it has been discussion and goes on to identify issues to be taken further. It focuses in particular to the need to relate assessment practices to the goal of sustainable assessment and how sustainable assessment can link to ideas such as self-regulation, students' making judgements about their own work and program-level assessment. This conceptual presentation contributes to the theory and practice of feedback in higher education by exploring the notion of sustainable feedback. Feedback is sustainable when students are involved in dialogues in which they use feedback from self, peers or others to develop their capacities as autonomous self-regulating learners. The aim of the presentation is to analyze and exemplify the concept of sustainable feedback. The presentation traces the conceptual origins of sustainable feedback in terms of the notion of sustainable assessment (Boud, 2000) and current thinking (e.g. Nicol, 2013) that the main purpose of feedback in higher education should be to develop students' capacities to make evaluative judgments about their own work and that of others. Classroom practices are reported which exemplify some of the potentials and challenges in implementing sustainable feedback practices. The centrality of assessment task design is a crucial parameter which is highlighted. The significance of the paper is twofold. First, it lies in its contribution to the theory of feedback in higher education through charting sustainability in feedback via links to student autonomy and self-regulation. Second, it explores practical implications for teaching, learning and assessment practice and some of the challenges which arise. analysing Located in the relation to which and how reciprocally


PURPOSE: An apparatus and system for eliminating an arc and an assembly method thereof are provided to eliminate an arc flash by improving the structure of an ablative plasma gun. CONSTITUTION: An ablative plasma gun(100) comprises a first part(106) having a first diameter(110) and a second part(108) having a second diameter(112) bigger than the first diameter. A chamber(104) is ruled by the first part and the second part. The second part is arranged at an upside of the first part. The first part and the second part are integrally formed. The ablative plasma gun further includes a first gun electrode(122) including a first end part(126) and a second gun electrode(124) including a second end part(128). The first end part and the second end part are extended to directions faced from a central axis line of the chamber.


Discrete event digital simulation software (~, GPSS, SlMSCRIPT, SIMULA) is grDioling in popularity as a tool for computer performance evaluation, particularly when modeling configurations which involve sequences, cycles~ or networks of queues. Such configurations frequently arise when simulating computer communications networks jn which qUEues at concentrators, packet switches, ~ssage processors, and host computers must be sinrulated. Computer simulation generally produces a wealth of information that may be categorized into three classes: transaction summaries cryptically appearing in the simulation log, rudimentary tables or printer plots generated at the programmer's request. and internal information such as event chains routinely discarded after execution. The less-thanastute analyst may have overlooked Some aspect of the simulation which requires an expensive and time-consuming additional run to tabulate lost data. We suggest several techniques using SAS to capture, extract, modify~ and su~rtze data from a GPSS simulation during execution which allow output d~ta to be gleaned from subsequent simulation runs with no change in the output processing program. SAS procedures are fa~ superio~ for summarizing data than GPSS functions GRAPH and REPORT, and SAS can be used to read the GPSS transaction log directly rather than storing data in G~SS tables that may be lost on ABEND. Examples illustTating the simulation interfacing techniqu~s a re pre sen ted.


We present a study of the crystal field and electronic structure in an ErNiAl intermetallic compound based on the inelastic neutron spectroscopy, magnetic susceptibility, specific heat data, and first-principles density-functional calculations. We have fully determined the lower half of the ground-state multiplet energy-level scheme in ErNiAl. Several possible sets of the crystal-field parameters have been found to describe all our experimental data. Magnetic-susceptibility data revealed a rather weak magnetocrystalline anisotropy.


Periodicaly poled LiNbO3 single crystals with antiparallel domain configurations have been successfully grown with a (010) oriented seed from a congruent melting composition with 4 mol % potassium addition using a modified Cz geometry. The experiments reported in this paper showed that the polarization antiparallel domain structure in lithium niobate crystals can be created during growth process by a direct poling technique with electric field of alternating polarity. PPLN strucutres with period length 20-100 μm were demonstrated by this method.