Our nation can achieve its progress when the rural sector is uplifted as they constitute the major percentage of population. The progress should be achieved in several means, that is, infrastructure, electrification of villages, mechanization etc. The problem faced by villages of many states is that grid connectivity needed in centralized generation cum distribution system is either not feasible or is not cost effective. Several renewable sources of energy available in nature can be effectively used to serve different applications in rural sector like power generation, cooking, irrigation and water heating. Indian Government has come forward with new schemes and funding assistance in implementing such projects in both national as well as state levels. This paper presents the different technologies that can be adopted for improving the life of the rural sector.


The organic cation in the title compound, C24H32N4 2+·2Cl−·3H2O, is situated on an inversion centre. The cations, anions and water molecules are linked via N—H⋯O, N—H⋯Cl, O—H⋯O and O—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds and C—H⋯π interactions, forming a three-dimensional framework.


Objective: To identify factors associated with the metabolic control in patients with Diabetes Mellitus Type 2. Diabetes Program. Tarapoto EsSalud - II Hospital from July - November 2016.
Materials and methods: Basic Research, type a descriptive level - relational, non-experimental and cross-sectional design. The population, 595 patients with DM2. The sample 86 patients and clinical histories. The information was collected by survey, anthropometric measurement and laboratory tests, the data were analyzed with the SPSS 24 software, measures used: percentages, averages, standard deviation confidence interval, the p-value, OR.
Results: Female 51.2%; mean age 61.4 years, level of education, 39.5% secondary urban area 95.3%, average time of diagnosis 14.9 years, 58.1% have had the disease for more than 10 years, 75.6% are not adherent to the treatment, 44.2% used oral antidiabetic agents, do not attend educational workshops 55.8%, does not comply with the 51.2 % diet, physical activity 54.7%, 34.9% have high blood pressure and dyslipidemia, 88.4% Non-smoker.
The 72.1% poor metabolic control as glycosylated hemoglobin and 53.5% according to the basal glycemia; have good control with respect to: CT 58.1%, HDL-c 50% male and 29.5% female, 46% LDL-c and triglycerides 50%; 70.5% of women poor control for HDL-c and 54% of patients for LDL-c, 81.4% good control for SBP and 80.2 % for PAD, nutritional status (BMI) 65.1% poor control, 61.9% of men and 86.4% of women poor control according to abdominal circumference.
The poor metabolic control was associated with the time of disease (OR = 4.2 IC 1.542 - 11.439 p-0.004) and the type of pharmacological treatment (OR = 0.34 - 0.465 0.126 IC p-0,001).
CONCLUSION: The 72.1% have poor metabolic control and was associated with the time of disease > 10 years and with the type of pharmacological treatment (is a protective factor).


253 Despite advancements in the treatment of acute pancreatitis, early treatment remains a challenge, as mortality can reach up to 30% in severe cases. The Atlanta Classification for assessing the severity of acute pancreatitis was revised by international consensus in 2012. A critical aspect of pancreatitis treatment is the appropriate management of pancreatic fluid collections (PFCs). Acute pancreatitis-associated PFCs are classified as acute peripancreatic fluid collection, pancreatic pseudocyst (PP), acute necrotic collection (ANC), and walled-off necrosis (WON), based on the duration and presence or absence of necrosis. Particularly, disconnected pancreatic duct syndrome (DPDS) is linked with complications accompanied by ANC and WON, and characterized by stricture and discontinuity of pancreatic duct (PD) in PD injury. However, the guidelines for management of DPDS are not well established. The 2013 the International Association of Pancreatology (IAP)/the American Pancreatic Association (APA) evidence-based guidelines suggested an intervention (either radiological, endoscopic, or surgical) if pain or obstruction is present in DPDS with sterile necrotizing pancreatitis, but there was no recommendation for the optimal timing of PD stenting. However, the 2013 American College of Gastroenterology guideline, and the 2015 revised Japanese guideline mentioned the role of PD stent for preventing post endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) pancreatitis. In the 2018 American Gastroenterological Association Institute guideline, the indication for ERCP only deals with acute biliary pancreatitis with no guidance on the timing of PD stenting. A study conducted by Xu et al. demonstrated the importance of PD stenting in acute pancreatitis-associated PFCs. The study included a total of 108 patients treated for acute pancreatitis-associated PFCs between September 2011 and October 2017. ERCP was performed on 74 patients (68.5%) with suspected PD injury by magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) before PFCs drainage. PD stent was placed in 53 (72%) of 74 patients for treatment and in 19 (26%) patients for prophylaxis. In their case, PD cannulation failed in 2 (3%) patients. Using multivariate logistic regression analysis the authors reported that, "after adjusting for the presence of PD leak, PFC type, necrosectomy, and enteral feeding, PD stenting was almost five times (odds ratio [OR], 4.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.5–12.2) more likely to achieve resolution within 90 days (p=0.0069)". As 53 (49%) out of the 108 patients received PD stenting for therapeutic purposes and the incidence of PD injury was found to be similar to that in previous studies on acute pancreatitis-associated PFCs, PD stenting can be considered as one of the important treatment strategies for acute pancreatitis-associated PFCs. COMMENTARY


Abstract Soliton amplification in inhomogeneous systems is investigated in this paper. The variable coefficient nonlinear Schrödinger equation, which describes the propagation of solitons in inhomogeneous optical waveguides, is studied analytically. The analytic soliton solution is derived via the Hirota method. According to the soliton solution obtained, the soliton is amplified while the corresponding parameters are chosen properly. Furthermore, the physical effects affecting soliton amplification are discussed. The results of this paper will be valuable to improve the quality of optical amplification and integrate the optical devices.


Based on the review of current studies of mature industry in China, the research evolution of mature industry in China could be divided into three stages: preparatory stage, starting stage, and development stage, among which each has different research focuses and features. The author then makes an objective evaluation of the achievements and limitations regarding mature industry studies and looks into the major orientations of mature industry studies.


This paper analyzes the characteristics and patterns of the distributions of the desired speeds by collecting data of the vehicles and the drivers from 3 roads. It is pointed out that the desired speeds were influenced in different degrees by the speed limit, the age of the drivers, the performance of the vehicle, the characteristics of traffic flow, and the weather. The results indicate that the desired speed was based mainly on the speed limit, however, in the case of good road conditions with low speed limits; drivers still tend to drive with higher speed. With the decline in the speed limit, the impact of vehicle performance becomes smaller, while the driver's individual psychological condition and technological skills will give a greater impact on choosing driving speed. Meanwhile, based on the correlation between the speed limit and the desired speed, the step-wise regression model is developed.


Forward current-voltage characteristics, reverse current recovery and post-injection voltage decay are measured for high voltage 4H-SiC p+non+-diodes. The effects of both minority carrier lifetime in diode no-base and injection coefficient of p+-emitter are investigated with respect to device performance at high injection levels.


adolescence and early adult life. The cultural role of older people has also been stressed by other writers. Peter Laslett in his recent book urges older people to re-engage within the cultural and educational sphere, seeing them as standard bearers for cultural values which may be neglected in the second age. We may therefore be on the verge of the kind of public debate which Cumming and Henry wished to instigate in the 1960s about the significance and role of older people within society. Their own answer now appears inadequate. It lacked a longitudinal, and also a cross-cultural and historical perspective. Whatever one may think of the details of Gutmann's theory, he is certainly to be applauded for emphasising the necessity of collecting psychological data about ageing from other societies. Historical material is also important. We can learn much from examining the emergence of different ideas about ageing. The disengagement idea itself is not new. It is clearly expressed for instance in early Hindu writings. An excellent scholarly treatment of the subject of ageing in the Indian tradition has recently been published. The author demonstrates how deeply troubled as well as interested Indian tradition has been concerning ageing. Disengagement is a central theme in the solutions provided. Again, as with Cumming and Henry and with Gutmann, this is not disengagement for its own sake, but for reengagement to the tasks of self-realisation.


The argument of this paper proceeds in four steps. In the first part it recapitulates that representation is a multifaceted concept, closely related to issues of accountability and responsiveness, which does not lend itself easily to develop practical rules for appropriately and directly representing EU citizens. A second part deals with the problem that democracy has not been a legal or normative concept which determined the early stages of European integration. However, since the signing of the Maastricht treaty we have witnessed a series of genuine attempts to go beyond regulatory matters and to create a political system with democratic credentials, protection of individual rights and means of political participation. Some of these have taken the shape of constitutional reform, not always successful, others came in the guise of more modest steps of institutional change. Thirdly, the impact of such practical reforms is demonstrated, especially the design of electoral rules and related aspects of the construction of a transnational political community. A final section addresses the thorny question whether the European Union should become a more politicized system, providing an assessment of the virtues and possible pitfalls of politicization.


As one of the most feasible large scale energy storage technology of electrical energy, vanadium redox flow battery has been combined with non-continuous renewable power sources such as solar or wind power. In the VFB, the electrolyte is one of the most important components. It is not only the conductor of the ions but also the energy-store medium. The research on thermodynamics of the electrolyte will be of great value to having an adequate understanding of the nature of the electrolyte for providing clues to optimize the overall performance of the VFB. The conductivities of aqueous solution V(Ⅴ) sulfuric acid with various molalities are measured in the temperature range of 278.15~318.15 K. The conductivities of V(Ⅴ) +H2SO4+H2O ternary system was analyzed and the conductivities binary system V(Ⅴ) aqueous solution was obtained by extrapolation, the effects of concentration and temperature on the ionic limiting molar conductivity, stocks radius, the transport number, diffusion coefficient and conductance activation energy were studied and discussed.


Modern mixed-signal ASIC designs, such as SerDes, require co-development of analog and digital subsystems that interact in increasingly complex ways. The challenges of today's silicon processes, as well as advancing performance targets, escalate analog design complexity. This, in turn, increases analog design time and introduces design cycle uncertainty. Moreover, analog design tends to lag digital design, which impedes digital validation and delays top-level mixed-signal validation. For most mixed-signal designs, system models are used for architecture definition and design space exploration. In fact, analog specifications are derived from some form of system-level design exploration. Hence, the system models already embody the required analog functionality, configurability, and performance. We show that, with proper structuring, the system models can be used to automatically generate SystemVerilog models for analog components. Paired with netlistable pin definitions and synthesizable digital functionality, the core analog functionality from the system model can be used to construct run-time-configurable SystemVerilog analog models. The availability of these automatically generated analog system models enables a shift-left of the validation effort to earlier in the workflow, such as during design exploration. This shift is accomplished by automating SystemVerilog model generation, while also allowing initial SystemVerilog models to be based on the architectural or design exploration models from which design specifications are derived. Furthermore, as the analog design evolves, and circuit simulation data becomes available, the system models can be refined and updated to match simulated analog behavior. This automation opens a path for re-generating updated SystemVerilog models throughout the project lifecycle: as the analog and digital designs evolve, implementation issues are addressed, and system-level design trade-offs are made and convergence is achieved. The paper uses a common SerDes analog block, a continuous-time linear equalizer (CTLE), to demonstrate the proposed workflow. We begin with a white-board CTLE design, which is initially based on the 802.3ck reference COM receiver [1,2] CTLE specification. The COM-based CTLE model is augmented with a CTLE start-up digital calibration engine and the required digital control logic. The system model-to-SystemVerilog model export


Highly distressed cancer patients often do not use psycho‐oncological services (POS). Research on predictors of POS uptake has mainly focused on patient‐related variables and less on communication variables, so we examined the link between patient‐oncologist communication (ie, talking about psychosocial distress, providing detailed information, and recommending POS) and POS uptake.


The author examines in the article the question of the organization of interconnected studying Russian language and national culture at school with the help of development module of lingual culture competence (DMLCC) and offers one of the options to develop a module that was used in the experimental studies. DMLCC is understood by the author as providing skills formation of culture-oriented research of schoolchildren, ethnocultural obtaining information in the course of the study of language material in the aspect of culture competence and understanding of ethnic and cultural information in a variety of design forms of didactic system. Being correlated with program themes in the Russian language, DMLCC allows organic integration into the educational process that allows the teacher solving particular problems, along with the module associated with the search for cultural information common to the lessons of the Russian language educational and training objectives. In methodological substantiation of the module goals, objectives and conditions that optimize carrying out of design of research activity of schoolchildren, as well as the principles underlying the development of lessons of research: scientific principle, the principle of linking theory to practice, the principle of systematic and consistent principle of the anthropocentric understanding of linguistic material and the principle of axiological orientation are included. The author refers to the important issues related to technology development of DMLCC, as methodological criteria for the selection of didactic material and methods of its methodological adaptation to the goals and objectives of DMLCC. Motivating the selection of language material for didactic bases of research, the author identifies three components: informative, aimed at mastering extralinguistic knowledge of national culture; axiological, related to the necessity of mastering value-semantic content of the studied fragments of culture and communicative stylistic ones, focused on understanding figurative, emotive and expressive qualities of the Russian language. The authors conclude that DMLCC allows creating a complete image of a specific context and culture to perceive its value meanings.


Empty Sella Syndrome (ESS) is a condition where the pituitary gland is partially or totally absent from the pituitary fossa. It can be asymptotic c in most cases and found accidentally in imaging studies of brain. In symptomatic cases it presents with endocrine abnormalities due to pituitary damage, e.g.visual defect from compression of optic chiasma, neuropsychiatric symptoms, benign intracranial hypertension, CSF leakage from the nose, and headache.


– Instead of using general food choice motives, this study adopts more specific attitudes – i.e. health consciousness and environmental attitudes – to predict the consumer's attitude toward organic foods. The main objective of the paper is to test the hypothesis whether health consciousness and environmental attitudes influence the consumer's attitude toward organic foods through an individual's healthy lifestyle., – Data were collected in Taiwan by means of a national self‐administered consumer questionnaire survey in this study. A series of regression models are used to detect how the mediating role of the healthy lifestyle construct plays in the relationships between the determinant factors (i.e. health consciousness and environmental attitudes) and the consumer's attitude toward organic foods., – The results are consistent with previous studies, which assert that concern for one's health and for the environment are the two most commonly stated motives for purchasing organic foods, with the former exceeding the latter in importance. In addition, the healthy lifestyle indeed exerts effective mediating effects on the positive relationships between health consciousness and environmental attitudes and the consumer's attitude toward organic foods. Therefore, a healthy lifestyle should be advocated to render the consumer's attitude toward organic foods more positive., – Based on the findings, the selection of advertising messages, social interaction and so forth should revolve around the issues of health consciousness, environmental attitudes, and healthy lifestyle in the future., – This study is one of the first to examine the mediating effect of a healthy lifestyle that bears on organic foods. The empirical findings from this study are expected to benefit the continued development of the organic sector in Taiwan's food industry.


Variants resistant to 2‐deoxy‐D‐glucose have been isolated from a clonal line of pig kidney cells by serial cultivation in the presence of inhibitor. Hexokinase activity may be affected directly in this system, since the oxidation of glucose to 6‐phosphogluconate by extracts from sensitive and resistant cells is blocked by the addition of 2‐deoxy‐glucose to the reaction mixture. This blockage was removed by the addition of glucose‐6‐phosphate to the system, but not by ATP. Resistant cells were found to accumulate significantly less 2‐deoxyglucose‐6‐phosphate than sensitive cells. The rate of phosphorylation of 2‐deoxyglucose, however, was higher in extracts from the resistant line. Alkaline phosphatase does not account for the reduced level of 2‐deoxyglucose‐6‐phosphate since this enzyme is not detectable in sensitive or resistant pig kidney cells. Increased acid phosphatase activity was observed in resistant cells, but extracts with high acid phosphatase activity proved incapable of hydrolyzing either 2‐deoxyglucose‐6‐phosphate or glucose‐6‐phosphate. In comparative growth studies, cells resistant to 2‐deoxyglucose proliferated more extensively than sensitive cells in a low glucose nutrient. They removed glucose more effectively from this medium, and were less stimulated by the addition of intermediates from the tricarboxylic acid cycle. The evidence suggests that resistance to 2‐deoxyglucose in the cells under study may be based on the ability of the resistant cells to proliferate at concentrations of glucose too low to support the growth of sensitive cells.


This chapter presents a research study that examines the antecedents to voting intention with regard to the use of computer-based, online voting systems. The research is based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model. Subjects from two different age groups (18-to-25 and 60+ years) in the United States are surveyed to determine the factors affecting their intent to use online voting systems. The results indicate that performance expectancy, social influence, and computer anxiety are factors affecting the intent to use online voting. Significant differences were found between the young adults (18-to-25) and seniors (60+ years) study groups on all four independent variables as well as on intent to use online voting. For young adults performance expectancy, social influence, and computer anxiety are significant factors affecting the intent to use online voting, while for senior citizens, performance expectancy and computer anxiety are significant factors. Ease of use was not a significant indicator of intent to use online voting for either group. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61520-933-0.ch009


The invention relates to the technical field of a thermoplastic elastomer material, in particular to a dynamic vulcanization halogen-free flame retardant silicon rubber/polyolefin thermoplastic elastomer and a preparation method thereof. The dynamic vulcanization halogen-free flame retardant silicon rubber/polyolefin thermoplastic elastomer comprises the following components in parts by weight: 100 parts of silicon rubber, 50-100 parts of polyolefin, 10-50 parts of white carbon black, 100-200 parts of halogen-free flame retardant, 1-5 parts of bulking agent, 1-2 parts of antioxidant, 1-3 parts of cross linking agent, 1-5 parts of hydroxyl silicone oil and 0.5-1 part of silane coupling agent. The thermoplastic elastomer can be widely applied to fields of automobiles, electronic and electrical engineering, cables and wires, medical equipment, architectural decoration and the like, not only contains no halogen and is environmentally friendly, but also has good flame retardant effect, and the oxygen index of the thermoplastic elastomer can reach up to 38.


Nanostructure reinforced nitride ceramics play an important role in the family of structural ceramics. In this study, large scale of one-dimensional (1D) β-sialon nanostructures and β-sialon-β-Si3N4 composite powders were synthesized simultaneously via a reduction nitridation process by using powders of silicon, aluminum, and silica as raw materials. X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM/HRTEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used to characterize the phase composition, morphology, and microstructure of the as-obtained products. As a result, large scale of 1D β-sialon nanostructures can be prepared at 1600 °C. The diameter of the as-prepared nanowires in the range of 80 to 170 nm can be tailored by the addition of aluminum. The growth of 1D β-sialon nanostructures is achieved by a vapor-solid (VS) mechanism. Photoluminescence (PL) of the 1D β-sialon nanostructures was characterized which exhibit violet/blue emission peaks, making it have the potential to be applied in optoelectronic nanodevices. Besides, nitride ceramic composite powders including β-Si3N4 and β-sialon with in situ formed β-sialon nanowires were also achieved. The phase transformation behavior and the thermodynamical analysis of the ceramic composite powders were also studied by characterizing the phase composition of the products synthesized at different temperature. The as-grown β-sialon nanowires and the composite powders have great potential to be applied in nanostructure reinforced structural ceramics.


Abstract The synthesis of a new stationary phase containing a Co(III) amino complex bonded to silica gel, and its use for separating a series of phospholipids by HPLC is described. The selectivity of this support was compared to that of a weak anionic exchanger, and was also examined as a function of the organic content of the mobile phase.


Cognitive load and emotional states may impact the cognitive learning process. Detection of reliable emotions and cognitive load would benefit the design of the emotional intelligent mobility system for visually impaired peoples (VIPs). Application of learning process using electroencephalography (EEG) offers novel and promising approaches to measure cognitive load and emotional states. EEG is used to identify the physiological index that can lead to detecting cognitive load and emotions which can help to explore the knowledge of learning processes. Basically, EEG is a record of ongoing electrical signals to represent the human brain activity due to external and internal stimuli. Therefore, in this study EEG signals are captured from participants with nine different degrees of sight loss people. EEG signals are then used to measure various cognitive load and emotional states to evaluate cognitive learning process for the VIPs. To support the argument of cognitive learning process, the complexity of the tasks in terms of cognitive load and emotional states are quantified considering diverse factors by extracting features from various well-established metrics such as permutation entropy, event related synchronization/desynchronization, arousal, and valence when VIPs are navigating unfamiliar indoor environments. A classification accuracy of door is 86.67% which is achieved by the proposed model. It has almost 10% of improvement compared to another state-of the-art method who have used same dataset. Moreover, we have achieved 10% and 1% more accuracy in the corridor and open space conditions compared to the existing method. Experimental results also demonstrated that learning process is significantly improved considering wide range of obstacles when they are navigating indoor environments.


We propose a method for the capture of high dynamic range (HDR), multispectral (MS), polarimetric (Pol) images of indoor scenes using a liquid crystal tunable filter (LCTF). We have included the adaptive exposure estimation (AEE) method to fully automatize the capturing process. We also propose a pre-processing method which can be applied for the registration of HDR images after they are already built as the result of combining different low dynamic range (LDR) images. This method is applied to ensure a correct alignment of the different polarization HDR images for each spectral band. We have focused our efforts in two main applications: object segmentation and classification into metal and dielectric classes. We have simplified the segmentation using mean shift combined with cluster averaging and region merging techniques. We compare the performance of our segmentation with that of Ncut and Watershed methods. 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This letter proposes a narrowband interference-plus-noise covariance matrix (INCM) based beamformer, which is robust with sensor position errors for linear array. First, using the subspace fitting and subspace orthogonality techniques, we estimate a set of angle-related bases for the signal-plus-interference subspace (SIS) by solving a joint optimization problem. Second, we obtain the bases transition matrix between the estimated angle-related bases and the orthogonal bases consisting of the dominant eigenvectors of the sample covariance matrix (SCM). The SCM can be expressed as a function of the angle-related bases and the bases transition matrix. We construct the INCM directly from the SIS by eliminating the component of the desired signal from the angle-related bases. Simulations and experimental results show that the proposed beamformer outperforms other tested beamformers in the presence of sensor position errors.


This paper deals with a new way for designing external fixators applied in traumatology and orthopaedics. These fixators can be applied in the treatment of open and unstable fractures or for lengthening human or animal bones etc. The new design is based on the development of Ilizarov and other techniques (i.e. shape and weight optimalization based on composite materials, application of smart materials, nanotechnology, low x-ray absorption, antibacterial protection, patient's comfort, reduction in the duration of the surgical treatment, and cost). Keywords—biomechanics, design, external fixators, new materials, traumatology


There are many different kinds of rare diseases, of which most are with serious, complicated, and non-specific symptoms, and great difficulties exist in both diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases. In the era of genomic medicine, with the extensive application of next-generation sequencing technology and in-depth research of gene therapy, the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases has ushered in a new turn. The next-generation sequencing technology enables high-throughput detection, assists in clinically efficient phenotypic assessment and disease diagnosis and promotes research on the pathogenesis and treatment of rare diseases; gene therapy technology continues to improve, and drugs are successively acquired, which brings the hope for cure to patients with rare diseases. This article will provide a brief overview of the advances and challenges of the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases in the era of genomic medicine.

Key words:
Rare disease; Genomic medicine; Next generation sequencing; Orphan drug; Gene therapy


As a fine‐grained power gating method for achieving greater power savings, our approach takes advantage of the finite state machine with a datapath (FSMD) characteristic which shows sequential idleness among subcircuits. In an FSMD‐based power gating, while only an active subcircuit is expected to be turned on, more subcircuits should be activated due to the power overhead. To reduce the number of missed opportunities for power savings, we deactivated some of the turned‐on subcircuits by slowing the FSMD down and predicting its behavior. Our microprocessor experiments showed that the power savings are close to the upper bound.


Informatization is the greatest changes and challenges to higher education,which need transform education ideal,curriculum model and talented training purpose.Talented person need to have information processing,innovation sense and lifelong learning ability.The course model chose by teachers should focus on efficiency and results,which handling the contradiction between enlarged information knowledge and limited time,narrowing the gap between education model and talent training in the information society.Based on innovation of education ideal and practices of curriculum model,we adopted "updated IR reporter" model in the course of Contemporary International Relations in Yanshan university.There are many steps in the class,including setting agenda,presentation,discussion and evaluation.The model aims to cultivate students' lifelong learning ability by problem-based model,develop cooperation conscious by discussion,develop students' confidence and creativity.


Recently Michael Struwe [S] and Gerhard Huisken [Hu2] have independently derived monotonicity formulas for the Harmonic Map heat flow on a Euclidean domain and for the Mean Curvature flow of a hypersurface in Euclidean space. In this paper we show how to generalize these results to the case of flows on a general compact manifold, and we also give the analogous monotonicity formula for the Yang-Mills heat flow. The key ingredient is a matrix Harnack estimate for positive solutions to the scalar heat equation given in [H]. In [GrH] the authors show how to use the monotonicity formula to prove that rapidly forming singularities in the Harmonic Map heat flow are asymptotic to homothetically shrinking solitons; similar results may be expected in other cases, as Huisken does in [Hu2] for the Mean Curvature flow in Euclidean space. We only obtain strict monotonicity for a special class of metrics, but in general there is an error term which is small enough to give the same effect. (Chen Yummei and Michael Struwe [CS] give a different approach to the error on manifolds.) The special class of metrics are those which are Ricci parallel (so that DiRjk = 0) and have weakly positive sectional curvature (so that RijkiViWjVkWt > 0 for all vectors V and W). This holds for example if M is flat or a sphere or a complex projective space, or a product of such, or a quotient of a product by a finite free group of isometries. In each case we consider a solution to our parabolic equation on a compact manifold M for some finite time interval 0 < t < T, and we let k be any


With the explosive increasing of web image data, image annotation has become a critical research issue for image semantic index and search. In this work, we propose a novel model, termed as multi-view semi-supervised learning (MVSSL), for robust image annotation task. Specifically, we exploit both labeled images and unlabeled images to uncover the intrinsic data structural information. Meanwhile, to comprehensively describe an individual datum, we take advantage of the correlated and complemental information derived from multiple facets of image data (i.e., multiple views or features). We devise a robust pair-wise constraint on outcomes of different views to achieve annotation consistency. Furthermore, we integrate a robust classifier learning component via l2,1 loss, which can provide effective noise identification power during the learning process. Finally, we devise an efficient iterative algorithm to solve the optimization problem in MVSSL. We conduct extensive experiments on the NUS-WIDE dataset, and the results illustrate that our proposed approach is promising for large scale web image annotation task.


This paper presents a formulation of excavation tasks and behaviors using finite state machines (FSM). A robotic excavation goal is achieved through several excavation tasks, while a task is completed through sequences of excavation behaviors, which are carries out by an ordered application of primitive, machine executable excavation actions. Both tasks and behaviors are specified by finite state machines that define all feasible sequences of behaviors or actions. The behavior selection for state transitions in a task FSM is achieved through situation assessment and behavior arbitration. For a behavior FSM, a method of terminating a behavior execution based on the activation levels of its actions is proposed. Since it is almost impossible to infer the exact status of bucket/environment interaction from force/torque data, excavation actions are specified using fuzzy logic rules acquired from human experience and heuristics. Experimental results have indicated that the proposed formulation has lead to a more efficient execution of excavation tasks than the authors' previous formulation.


Background: 1990 U.S. Census data reveal that nearly 14 million people in the United States have poor to no English language skills, limiting their access to health care. Purpose: This study evaluated the effect of language barriers on quality of patient care, a resident's ability to learn and teach, and also the effect on length of workday and daily stress. Methods: Data were collected from a 25‐item standardized questionnaire. We used a 5‐point Likert scale ranging from 1 (very significant) to 5 (no influence). Data were cross‐tabulated with biographical attributes of residents and were tested for significance. Results: Language barriers had significant negative impact on quality of patient care, lengthened resident workday (average 52 min), and increased daily stress. With bedside teaching encounters, residents reported compensating by shifting the focus to issues not requiring patient participation. Language barriers had significant negative influence on the resident's ability to role model (i.e., dem...


A number of Australian cases and the leading English case Allcard v Skinner are discussed to illustrate the operation of the doctrine of undue spiritual influence and the concerns relevant to the particular context of religious faith. It is important to employ sensitivity in applying 'ordinary motives' test for presumed undue influence and be well informed of the beliefs and practices of minority religious groups involved.


Indonesia is a country with the largest geothermal potential in the world. The potential of this geothermal sources is scattered from Sumatera, Java, Sulawesi, Bali, Maluku and Nusa Tenggara. Tulehu is one of geothermal prospect area in Maluku with appearance several surface manifestations such as hot springs, warm springs, and steaming ground. Remote sensing technology can be used to identify lineaments that interpreted as surface structures before doing a direct survey especially geophysical survey in the field. This research uses free Landsat 8 OLI imagery, downloaded from www.earthexplorer.usgs.gov and processed by band combination technique with manual observation. The result of this research shows that the main direction of the lineaments developed in Tulehu geothermal prospect area is Northwest-Southeast and Southwest-Northeast. The result also finds that the lineaments are correlated to the appearance of several surface manifestations. The recommendation of the geophysical survey should be focused on Southeast area.


This paper proposes an IoT-based alert system regarding health based on data of Air Quality Index, humidity and temperature. The system utilize sensors to collect real-time data on air pollutants, such as carbon monoxide(co), nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter(PM10 and PM2.5), or temperature and humidity from selected location. Real-time data will be updated to cloud using Things Speak IoT platform. Real-time data of selected parameters had been collected from Varanasi City for one week and for one day. This proposed IoT based system Fuzzy logic is used to give alert on the basis of quality of Temperature, Humidity and Air Quality Based on these data fuzzy logic condition are prepared and alert will be generated. The system can provide timely alerts and recommendation for different age of people. Preventive actions can be taken based on suggestions generated by automated system. In on going era of falling environmental condition this proposed automated system will help elderly people, small kids and susceptible people to keep them healthy as proven by mathematical model.


This paper presents an optimum design process and operational analysis of a permanent magnet-assisted synchronous reluctance motor (PMASynRM) as a low-cost and highly efficient consumed magnet material machine. The motor's topology is based on inserting partial permanent magnetic materials into flux barriers of an original synchronous reluctance motor (SynRM) that implicitly increase the difference between the machine's inductances, thereby increasing output torque. The procedure of rotor design as the main contribution of this paper is carefully illustrated. The rectangular shape of the flux barriers was found to achieve cost reduction and improve productivity. The impact of the permanent magnet added to the rectangular flux barriers and how it decreases the q-axis flux are described. For analytical studies, the optimum structure of a sample machine for high-power application is designed through the 2D finite element method in a Maxwell environment. For the sample machine, it is shown that the optimum number of flux barriers, optimum insulation ratio, and optimum width of permanent magnets in order to maintain the rating level of output and minimize the ripple are 4, 0.375, and 30 mm, respectively. In addition to demonstrating the operation of the motor with and without permanent magnet material, the performance of the hybrid motor is evaluated with two different permanent magnet materials, ferrite and NdFeB. Simulation results show that despite a negligible rise of ripple torque, the PMASynRM is able to achieve a higher output torque than the original SynRM with a low amount of permanent magnet material.


moothed particle hydrodynamics,as a total Lagrangian meshfree numerical simulation method,can solve large deformation problems under dynamic loading.Mechanics model and discrete formula were presented.Numerical simulation of shaped charge jet forming process with a certain cone angle was studied.The study shows that SPH is a valid method to simulate transient dynamics problems,such as exploding,shaped charge jet,and so on,but some numerical flaws,like numerical fracture and tensile instability,will coexist.


This paper investigates the potential for using the freezing-points of high-purity metals for direct temperature calibration, on site and at low cost. These freezing-points are primary calibration points in the International Temperature Scale (ITS-90). It has been found that small amounts of high-purity metals can be obtained in the marketplace cheaply. Experiments were carried out by driving a constant current through a resistance temperature detector (RTD) immersed in a sample of a pure metal and measuring the voltage across it as it transited from liquid to solid. The voltage was found to be constant for a time, as expected, due to the release of latent heat by the metal as it froze, keeping the temperature constant. These voltage values can then be equated to the temperature of the metal's freezing-point.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how a critical realist paradigmatic stance and its associated research methodology can contribute to supply‐chain research by providing explanations for specific supply‐chain‐ and logistics‐related dynamic phenomena.Design/methodology/approach – Initially, the case for a critical realist research paradigm is made, and then a retroductive pluralistic research methodology is used for demonstrating its application. Starting from an observation in the distribution part of a seasonal goods supply chain, ethnographic‐like field research suggested deeper social structures as being responsible for the events observed. The operation of event‐generating mechanisms related to these structures was matched to existing behavioural theories using dynamic modelling and simulation.Findings – The adoption of the critical realist perspective and its pluralistic research methodology can bring into surface the root causes of, and explain, complex supply chain phenomena. In the pa...


Overview The Head Start Impact Study (HSIS) has shown that having access to Head Start improves children's preschool experiences and school readiness in certain areas, though few of those advantages persisting through third grade (Puma et al., 2012). Scholars and practitioners alike have wondered whether impacts might be larger or more persistent for children who participate in high quality Head Start as opposed to lower quality Head Start. In response, this report examines the vital policy question: To what extent does variation in the quality of children's Head Start experiences affect children's development? The HSIS experimental evaluation, which involved a nationally representative sample and included rich data at baseline, about programs and across several years of follow-up, provides an ideal source for analyzing the answer to this question. Further informed by experts in the field, this report uses measures of quality based on the ECERS, Arnett, and teacher reports to capture three distinct dimensions of the Head Start setting: (1) " resources, " which are the physical characteristics available in the program; (2) the " interactions " between teacher and child; and (3) children's " exposure " to academic activities in the classroom. Slightly less than three-fourths of the Head Start children in the study were in high quality classrooms for the resources and interactions quality measures, while on the exposure to academic activities measure, about one-fourth of the Head Start children were in high quality classrooms. Prior research posits that richer resources and more favorable interactions should be associated with better cognitive and social outcomes. The relationship of exposure to academic activities among children of this age is less clear, with some reason to think that too much such exposure may not necessarily benefit children. We find little evidence that quality matters to impacts of Head Start using the available quality measures from the study across two age cohorts, three quality dimensions, five outcomes, and several years. The one exception is that for 3-year-old program entrants low exposure quality, defined as less exposure to academic activities during Head Start participation, produces better behavioral impacts in the short-run than more exposure to academic activities. Even so, there is no indication that either high quality Head Start or low quality Head Start in any dimension leads to program impacts lasting into third grade. The analysis of quality makes use of the HSIS experimental evaluation design to capitalize on the fact that …


It has been ten years since Chongqing became the municipality directly under the central government.During these years,great changes take place in economy and society of Chongqing and the living level of Chongqing residents is greatly promoted.Under the new historic condition,the effect of the municipality directly under the central government should be further brought into play for building Chongqing into an economic center at upper reaches of Yangtze River.


Procedures using lithium metaborate fusion were developed for the determination of manganese in commercially available washing powders. Bulk samples were homogenized and ground to reduce particle size, fused with LiBO2 and the resulting melt was dissolved in dilute nitric acid. The method was initially compared with results obtained after nitric acid leaching. Approximately 45 samples can be prepared in a working day, making this a rapid procedure. Sub-µg g–1 detection limits were obtained by both ICP-AES and ICP-MS. Results from the acid leaching gave RSDs better than 10%; however, the lengthy procedure (several hours per sample) was dropped in favour of the more rapid fusion procedure. Experiments showed that a mean recovery of 99.5 ± 11% could be obtained. The intra-sample precision (RSD) was typically better than 1% and the inter-sample precision, demonstrated by the analysis of replicate preparations, was <8% and was limited by sampling errors. Quality control data collected over a 1 month period showed a reproducibility of 2.3%(RSD).


The invention relates to a method for defining particle and/or mineral content in real time in a mineral separation process from finely divided particle material flowing either in solid or slurry-like form, so that from the particle material, there is extracted a representative sample, which sample is then subjected to grain size analysis, on the basis of which there is calculated the element and/or mineral content of the particle material.


A governor device for electrical storage battery and in particular for a battery (0) whose voltage is a function of the state of charge and which is composed of "n" identical modules connected in series. This device has "n-1" regulation modules (7, 8) each respectively assigned to two battery modules connected in series. Each control module includes means (10 to 19) for causing the voltage across each of the two series of battery modules to which it is associated to the same value by deriving a current collected at the terminals of the one whose voltage is the strongest to lowering of this higher voltage to the present value at the terminals of the module whose voltage is the lowest.


Image interpolation is a procedure used in expanding and contracting digital images. Image interpolation is referred by various terminologies such as image scaling, image resizing, image resampling, digital zooming, image magnification or enhancement. Image interpolation is widely used in many consumer application devices such as charge-coupled device (CCD) camera, closed circuit television (CCTV), mobile phones, high definition players and endoscopes. There are two kinds of image interpolation algorithms as non-adaptive and adaptive interpolations. The non-adaptive method uses a fixed methodology to handle all source pixels throughout the interpolation operation. But the adaptive technique uses different techniques to handle source pixels during the entire interpolation process. The advantage of adaptive technique is better interpolated image, but it requires high computational cost. So to reduce the computational cost of image interpolation, nonadaptive interpolation algorithms are preferred. This survey analysis the characteristics of different non-adaptive interpolation techniques based on their peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) of interpolated image and their computational complexity. This work also explores the applicability of these techniques in real time applications. Based on the evaluation of different interpolation techniques it can be suggested that the first order polynomial convolution interpolation (FOPCI) is suitable for real time applications due to its better PSNR and its low computational complexity, and the performance of FOPCI can also be improved by using appropriate filters.


In view of performance design,structural target reliability should be suitable to the ability of countries and societies to bear the risk.The gross domestic product(GDP) per capita and the life quality index were used to quantify the ability of society to bear risk.By calculation of the GDP per capita and the life quality index of China in different typical periods,the example's structural target reliabilities agree with national power in different periods.Because economic development in whole China is not balanced,also the example's structural target reliabilities of Chinese four typical provinces were calculated.This method can obtain reasonable reliabilities of different economic conditions,and give a new reference to revising the structural reliability code.


Current coral reef health monitoring efforts rely on biodiversity data. Although cutting-edge imaging technology enables reliable and automatic collection of such data, simple RGB digital photography in combination with manual image annotation remains a popular solution. Unlike other acquisition methods, close range visible light imaging yields detailed species and surface coverage data, and requires cheaper equipment. Moreover, images acquired in the last few decades are limited to mere RGB photographs or analog VHS video, and contain important data for long term analysis. Unfortunately, manual expert labeling has become problematic due to the high volume of images and the lack of human resources available. Consequently, coral reef biodiversity data currently available is based mostly on small sample analysis. Previous automatic benthic image annotation systems have yielded unsatisfactory results compared to human performance for the same task. This is partly due to the high diversity of complex textures found in these images. We hypothesize that these complex textures require different features to be properly characterize. Motivated by the need for an improved automated benthic image annotation system, this work proposes a new approach based on a combination of multiple state-of-the art texture recognition methods. Firstly, methods to correct and enhance images will be investigated. Secondly, various state-of-the-art texture features will be used to overcome the texture diversity challenge: many statistical features, local binary patterns, textons, vector-quantized Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) using the Improved Fisher Vector (IFV) method, Deep Convolutional Activation Feature (DeCAF), amongst others. Thirdly, a multi-classifier fusion method is proposed to efficiently aggregate the information from these multiple texture representations using a score-level fusion. Fourthly, rejection will be applied to further enhance accuracy. The results on the AIMS dataset (Australian Institute of Marine Science) and MLC2008 (Moorea Labeled Corals 2008) containing respectively 75 825 and 131 260 coral texture patches show that the proposed multi-classifier fusion method outperforms any other single method for the task of benthic image labeling.


The economic reasons for attempting to reduce the drag on large ships are stated, and some present and in the future possibly applicable methods of drag reduction are reviewed. A brief discussion of the drag concept and some properties of turbulent flow that are related to drag are also given. The structure of the boundary layer turbulence is described. The drag reduction measures considered are: Polymer additives, gas bubbles, large eddy breakup devices, riblets , and the use of compliant walls. Two methods, i.e. air bubble injection and the use of large eddy breakup are seen to be promising.


The development of basic demographic indicators in the last 15-20 years shows important changes not only of the level but especially of the structures determining fertility. Natality, as 1 of the 2 basic components of population change, is a main factor in future population growth; mortality, and 2nd major component of population change, is either relatively stabilized or records much smaller dynamics. The papers of this conference provide information on the various aspects of the natality process. The opening report by Roubicek emphasizes the importance of studying fertility structures. Fialova's paper documents fertility levels in the 2nd phase of the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic. Pychtarikova analyzes fertility decline in countries with a steep decline. Presl deals with the problems of natural fertility, including qualitative problems, sterility treatment, and the moral and legal aspects of artificial fertilization. Bartasova and Matejovsky investigate socially conditioned different fertility. Dzurova describes nuptiality, divorce, and out-of-wedlock fertility trends. Wynnczuk deals with population policy and optimum population. Pavlik sums up the conference and hypothesizes about future population developments.


Background: Pneumonia can easily mimic malignancies. Pulmonary nodule finding raise concern for lung cancer. A single lung opacity less than 3 centimetres in diameter is referred to as a solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN). These nodules sometimes incidentally discovered during routine computed tomography (CT) scan of the chest in relatively asymptomatic patients. We present unusual case of pneumonia like mass with spontaneous resolution.Case: Woman, 38-year-old, with solitary pulmonary nodule which was found accidentally in the left lung upper lobe, without any respiratory symptoms in June 2021. In August 2021, a chest CT scan was done for evaluating and the solitary nodule of the left lung upper lobe had resolved spontaneously without any treatment. The patient was prepared for diagnostic bronchoscopy at Persahabatan Hospital with the findings of normal bronchi and the branches. A bronchial washing was performed on the left B1+2 segment and cytology, fungal, microorganism and molecular tuberculosis examination were performed.Discussion: Pulmonary solitary nodule in left lung upper lobe in the beginning and spontaneous resolution after 2 months evaluation without any specific treatment, consider period of pneumonia. Whenever a patient is found to have an SPN, it is essential to determine the patient's risk for malignancy. It is important to consider any pulmonary nodule to be malignant or not, and how it presents on CT Imaging.Conclusion: Pulmonary nodule may be found during pneumonia and may resolve spontaneously. The possibility of malignancy must still be considered. Awareness of condition from the history is important to help reassure patient about the disease even before diagnostic procedure was made.


Some hypothesis conditions of one dimension for instability heat transfer with interior heating and thoughts are put forward in this paper based on analyzing the type of grain interior heating.With the law of thermodynamics and theory of energy balance,using mature method for reference in other field,the differential equation of heat transfer in the heap of grain is gotten,and mathematical model of temperature field is established.At the same time,the local temperature change is analyzed.The method might improve the technology of the safe storage and quality controlling of grain in our country.


Trifles is a classical one-act play written by American playwright Susan Glaspell in the early 20th century.The play reflects the awakening and rebellion of women's self-consciousness in a patriarchal society.This article applies feminist critical theory to analyze the theme of the play,which aims to reveal the repression and confinement of man-dominated society against women,and encourage women to fight for their own rights.


Apel and Habermas diverge about the possibility of an ultimate grounding for the Ethics of Discourse, which comes from Peirce's approach. For Apel, in Peirce there is a foundation project of the synthetic inferences (abduction and induction), which occur as a transcendental logic and are, simultaneously, a logic of the interpretation of signs. This logic allows a normative theory of procedures for criteria in the creation of a consensual theory of truth. According to Apel, language is the transcendent condition of all meaning and all validity, since it is implicitly pragmatic in the linkage of speech to its own success. The language, thus, requires consensus on the understanding of the signs for the interpretation about world objects, with their understanding or misunderstanding.Therefore, the argumentative thought is a pretension of validity, which strives to avoid a performative self-contradiction, becoming an a priori logic, which is applicable to the community of communication, enabling the grounding of an Ethical Normativity. Habermas sees Apel' apriorism as a return to the philosophy of the subject, and refutes the possibility of arguments without empirical tests, including the methodological ones since, even with a universal pragmatics in which the right is characterized by the impartial criterion of establishing its normativity, there is no way of guaranteeing that a moral standard cannot be amended in the future, because that norm would require a guarantee of the same life-world conditions on its establishment. Habermas rejects an ideal justificability for the arguments, refutes an aprioristic transcendental logic, confers to truth a rational acceptability and assumes an anti-skeptical fallibilism which contemplates chance and evolutionism through a moral constructivism in a continuum of learning. By refuting Apel´s apriorism, Habermas draws closer to Peirce.


. We introduce a family of Hardy spaces {ℋ 𝜚 } 𝜚∈ˆ𝐺 1 on the distinguished boundary of the quotient domain 𝔻 𝑛 ∕𝐺, where 𝐺 is a finite pseu-doreflection group acting on 𝔻 𝑛 and ˆ𝐺 1 is the set of equivalence classes of one-dimensional representations of 𝐺. We establish a uniform platform to study 𝐿 𝑝 regularity properties of the generalized Szegö projections associated to Hardy spaces ℋ 𝜚 for every 𝜚 ∈ ˆ𝐺 1 .


Although there has been a growing interest over recent years in the intergenerational transmission of Western domestic property, and specifically housing inheritance, the line of descent in this transmission has been ignored. We do not know whether domestic property goes disproportionately to the next generations(s) of men, or to women, or equally to men and women as the Western cognatic system of descent would dictate. This paper explores the line of descent through an argument proffered by two European sociologists, Delphy and Leonard. They maintain that domestic property goes disproportionately to the next generation(s) of men because of the power of patriarchy. However, neither available information, nor data from an Australian case study, confirms this claim. Indeed, there is a suggestion that domestic property goes roughly equally to the next generations of men and women. The implications of these findings are explored.


Aim: Renal transplantation has become the treatment of choice for most patients with end-stage renal disease. Renal allograft biopsy is the most important technique in diagnosis of renal transplant dysfunction. In the light of radiological imaging, we investigated histopathologic evaluation and types and incidence of complications in renal transplant patients. Material and Methods: In this retrospective study, histopathological biopsy results of patients with renal transplantation who underwent renal biopsy between January 2000 and December 2007 were evaluated in terms of the relationship between calcineurin inhibitor drug level and toxicity development. In addition, biopsy related complications were investigated. Results: In a total of 386 patients were included in the study and 843 biopsies were performed on these patients. The amount of tissue was adequate in 812 biopsies (96%), inadequate in 6 biopsies (1%) and of limited adequacy in 27 biopsies (3%) for histopathologic evaluation. Acute rejection, tubular epithelial injury and chronic allograft nephropathy were the most frequent diagnoses. Complications of the biopsies were macroscopic hematuria in 4 biopsies (0.5%), perirenal hematoma in 6 biopsies (1%), and arteriovenous fistula in 1 biopsy (0.1%). Conclusion: Renal biopsy in transplant patients to evaluate the renal allograft dysfunction is a safe method with very low incidence rate of complications.


We take an idea of Mach and postulate an absolute frame of reference, i.e. there is a state of absolute rest and motions of inertial frames of reference relative to the absolute frame can be measured. Postulate: The total angular and linear momentum of the universe are zero this is one version of Mach's principle.[?] There is an absolute frame of reference, where an absolute point of reference is given by the origin of an inertial frame with zero total momentums. Motions relative to the absolute frame can be measured there is a state of absolute rest. This can be seen as a variant of Mach's principle that local inertial frames are affected by the cosmic motion and distribution of matter. The absolute frame of reference defines a standard time. It is calculated from the temporal trajectory of absolute points of reference in the absence of gravitational effects and allows the determination of absolute simultaneity independent from inertial frames of reference. The standard time is the maximum elapsed time. Rotations and motions relative to the absolute frame can be measured. Motions can be measured, since time dilatation[?] is not relative, but always in relation to the absolute frame of reference: T ′ = T √ 1 − v 2 c2 , (1) i.e. v is the velocity compared to the absolute frame and T is the standard time. If an inertial frame is moving in the positive x-direction in the absolute reference frame, then the time of two systems moving with velocity v (measured in the inertial frame) in the positive and negative x-direction to point ±x0 (in the inertial frame) is different. This can be used to determine the velocity v of the inertial frame. References [1] E. Mach, "Die Mechanik in ihrer Entwickelung: historisch-kritisch dargestellt", 1883, Brockhaus, Leipzig.


In accordance with the high dimensional characteristics of voltage stability in power system,feature selection method can reduce dimensions effectively.This paper proposes a feature selection method for static voltage stability assessment based on overlapped probability,and constructs decision tree for the assessment.Its application in the IEEE-39 node test system has verified that the simplest combination generated by the proposed method can achieve high accuracy in the static voltage assessment.


Ischemia-reperfusion injury is a continuing challenge to vascular surgeons. Microvascular factors and mechanisms underlying edema and compartment syndrome provide a useful end point for analysis and planning of therapy. We review the pivotal role of endothelium-leukocyte interactions and of cytokines in the genesis of postischemic damage in muscle. Clinical considerations and future directions based on research and practice are presented.


Overweight and obesity affect more than one-third of the world's population. Should current trends continue, it is projected that an estimated 38% of the world's adult population will be overweight and another 20% will be obese by 2030. In the United States, projections based on recent trends forecast that nearly 50% of adults will be obese by 2030. The National Weight Control Registry is the largest prospective investigation of long-term successful weight loss maintenance (WLM). This registry includes the behavioral and psychological characteristics of >10,000 people who have lost at least 30 lb and have kept theweight off for at least 1 year. Studies from the registry have identified that a program of regular exercise is a key characteristic of individuals who have been successful with WLM. Most National Weight Control Registry subjects reported engaging in >1 hour ofmoderate-intensity physical activity per day. Population studies on long-term WLM demonstrate a positive correlation between the amount of exercise completed and the percentage of maintained weight loss. Because exercise must be ongoing to be effective, this perspective explores the importance of considering the biopsychosocial model and contextual factors when prescribing exercise for weight control as a means of enhancing exercise adherence and improving health outcomes.


A novel dissolving-extraction process of Baogang tailings in the dilute sulphuric acid and then dilute hydrochloric acid was studied. The effects of reaction temperature and sulfuric acid concentration on dissolution rate of the rare earth and iron were investigated and the total amount of rare earth in the acid dissolution of Baogang tailings was determined by spectrophotometry. The leaching rate of rare earth was less than 8% and the leaching rate of iron higher than 94% in the sulfuric acid dissolution. Fe3+ in sulfuric acid dissolution was reduced to Fe2+ by industrial scrap iron. FeSO4 was extracted by ethanol at room temperature. Its purity was 98.21% and the over-all recovery rate of iron in the tailings 89.51%. The grade of REO in the dilute hydrochloric acid insoluble residue was 43.60% and their total recovery rate 78.82%. This study provides a new method for extraction and separation of rare earth and iron from Baogang tailings.


This study aimed to evaluate the Madrasati Electronic Platform (MEP) from female teachers' perspectives in public schools in Riyadh. It also investigated whether students' educational level or teachers' computer skills significantly affected teachers' views. The study applied the mixed-method approach, whereby a questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of 384 teachers, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with five teachers. Quantitative data were analyzed via appropriate statistical methods, while thematic analysis was used to interpret the interviews and comments. The quantitative and qualitative results indicated that MEP and its tools are effective and appropriate. Technical problems, internet interruptions and difficulties with evaluating students' learning represented the most common challenges. Teachers' suggestions focused on solving technical problems, increasing internet speed, providing internet incentive packages, training teachers and educating parents. The quantitative results demonstrated significant differences amongst teachers' views of the challenges in favor of elementary school teachers, and the qualitative results showed that some elementary school teachers oppose distance learning at this stage. The outcomes revealed significant differences amongst teachers with respect to their views of MEP's effectiveness and challenges stemming from their varied computer skills.


Readers may make verbatim copies of this document for noncommercial purposes by any means, provided that the above copyright notice appears on all copies. of Wisconsin–Madison. Any opinions, findings, or conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies, WCER, or cooperating institutions. This report on the SCALE Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) Case Studies line of work provides preliminary findings about SCALE activities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW-Madison). This study focuses on the structural and behavioral dynamics influencing the implementation of the four core SCALE strategies for effecting change in IHEs: (a) reform undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses; (b) promote collaboration between STEM and education departments regarding pre-service teacher education, (c) promote collaboration between IHEs and K–12 districts regarding in-service professional development; and (d) improve institutional policies and practices at the IHE level that support faculty engaged in pre-and in-service activities. Preliminary findings indicate that SCALE is making progress in each of these areas. Through the Math Masters and Immersion Unit professional development programs for K–12 math and science teachers, SCALE is engaging STEM faculty in learning and modeling inquiry-based pedagogy, which is influencing the faculty's conception of their own teaching and of K–12 issues. Through the co-construction of professional development materials and the co-facilitation of the actual professional development sessions, SCALE is introducing a new, more collaborative and mutually beneficial partnership between UW-Madison and the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD). The emerging partnership between the UW-Madison Mathematics Department and MMSD is resulting in greater faculty attention to K–12 issues and in institutional support for the continuation of the Math Masters program from both partner organizations. SCALE is also leading interdepartmental efforts to revise the pre-service math and science curriculum for elementary and middle school teacher candidates. However, the core SCALE strategies face significant barriers at UW-Madison due to institutional policies and practices that favor research over teaching and service, limit the time available for faculty to participate in SCALE activities, and exacerbate pervasive tensions between STEM and education faculty. Interview respondents frequently used a normative concept of organizational culture when explaining how these elements of the UW-Madison structural and social context either precluded or facilitated change. Upon analyzing the data, we found that this normative concept of culture does not adequately model the many different venues in which IHE policies, values, and …


A large number of connected smart objects and sensors, as well as the establishment of seamless data exchange between them, have been made possible by the Internet of Things (IoT) technology's recent rapid development. As a result, there is a high demand for platforms for data analysis and data storage, such as cloud computing and fog computing. IoT makes it possible to customize apps for older persons as well as for rapidly expanding markets that must modify their products to match the preferences of their customers. This study suggests a framework for a decision-support system and a protected health monitoring system using IoT data collected from senior residents' homes. The study intends to provide security to the users' data from the point of acquiring of the data to the relaying of the data to cloud and to the alert generation using blockchain technology. Further research should focus on key management and security, as well as the capability to easily replace lost or compromised keys.


Based on the characteristics of dredger fill soil with high water content,high compressibility,and low permeability,this paper proposes a method of vacuum preloading in combination with electroosmosis for the reinforcement of a soft soil foundation.The preliminary investigation was made into the reinforcement mechanism through a laboratory model test.The results show that electroosmosis can effectively accelerate the drainage of the soil foundation when the water content of the soil sample reaches the optimal critical value of 0.85 after the vacuum preloading at the preliminary stage.Obvious vertical and lateral deformation as well as the increase of soil strength near the electrodes can be observed when using this method to treat dredger fill soil.Therefore,for solving the problem that vacuum preloading can only used to effectively reinforce the surface soil with a thickness of about 42.8% of the reinforced depth,the proposed method can be used to reinforce both the surface and deep soils,by vacuum preloading and electroosmosis,respectively,and can thus uniformly reinforce the soil foundation in the depth direction.


While there is a growing number of methods for the acoustic or elastic characterizations of porous materials, there is only a few test procedures which are standardized. The benefits of using standards are to harmonize procedures and to reduce measurement uncertainties between laboratories. They should, moreover, give guidelines for accurate characterizations of materials and should clearly present the limits of the methods. They should also keep the door open for the development of innovative techniques which apply to current materials or new materials not covered by the already existing standards. The context of this communication is the current revision of ISO 9053 standard (measurement of the static air flow resistivity) and the future revision of ISO 10534-2 (impedance tube measurements, 2 microphone technique). Therefore the objective is to collect comments and suggestions for these revisions and to share common views about the future standards.


This study aims to explore employees' perceptions of workplace management practices (i.e. planning before workplace change, implementation process, management after workplace change) at the PTT headquarters building in Thailand. Another purpose is to examine workplace change development during COVID-19 to understand the organisation's planning and processes, which serves as a means to contribute to Facilities Management and Corporate Real Estate Management (CREM) theory. Employees' responses to workplace management practices at different stages (i.e., before, during, and after workplace change) were affected by the company's strategic direction and management approach, particularly in terms of planning and implementing workplace change development. This study demonstrates that the employee engagement and involvement process is critical during and after workplace change. A lack of process at these times can result in negative impacts, as evidenced by low satisfaction percentages in various areas, including improving the workplace based on suggestions from employees, and training employees on how to use office space when returning to the workplace. The case organisation's strategic planning in relation to crisis management, reflects the supply and demand alignment dimension and the CREM strategy of corporate real estate alignment. No existing research has appraised employees' responses in terms of the preparation and implementation of workplace change. This study provides new insights into workplace change development during COVID-19, including planning, implementation, management after the change, and the impacts on employees' perceptions.


I. THERMAL RECONSTRUCTION OF MODIFIED POLY(CHLOROTRIFLUOROETHYLENE) SURFACES H. CONTROLLED CHLORINATION OF POLYETHYLENE SURFACES SEPTEMBER 1990 ELISA M. CROSS, B.S., UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS Directed by: Dr. Thomas J. McCarthy The thermal reconstruction (80 110 °C) of surface-modified films of poly(chlorotrifluoroethylene) (PCTFE) was studied by contact angle and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The modified surfaces studied, synthesized via the reaction of PCTFE with lithium reagents, were PCTFE-TMO (containing a 10 A thick modified layer of dimethyloxazoline functionality), PCTFE-COOH (produced by hydrolysis of PCTFE-TMO), PCTFE-OH (30 A and 1100 A thick modified layers), and PCTFE-OC(0)CH3 , PCTFE-OC(0)CF3 , PCTFE-OSiMe3 , and PCTFE-OC(0)(CF2)3CF3 (produced by reaction of 30 A-modified PCTFE-OH). Two reorganization processes are evident one occurs in PCTFE-TMO and PCTFE-OH (30 A) for which changes are observed both by contact angle and XPS; migration of PCTFE units into the outer 10 A is proposed. Another process is evident in the reconstruction of PCTFE-OC(0)CH 3 and PCTFE-OH (1 150 A) for which only a contact


For retrospective news event detection (RED), the widely used agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) has a shortcoming that news stories belong to different news events are probably clustered together if they share enough common words. The reason is that AHC takes single news story as initial event at the beginning of the iteration. However, the single news story owns few event-specific features. To effectively solve this problem, we propose a two-layer text clustering approach, and apply it to RED. In the two-layer text clustering method, we first employ a recently developed algorithm named affinity propagation clustering (AP) as the first layer. Then a second feature selection on the generated clusters of AP was conducted. Finally, we adopt the usual agglomerative hierarchical clustering to generate the ultimate news events. A series of experiments were performed on two datasets to test the performance of our proposed method. And we selected the traditional AHC and the classic K-Means as comparative methods. The experimental results on the two datasets show that our approach outperforms AHC and K-Means.


Energy efficiency and sustainable development have been the focus of the world's attention. In order to promote the execution of energy reduction, energy control systems, which could operate the electrical appliances, are under research at present. Before putting the energy control systems into real buildings, comfort assessment and energy consumption analysis need to be conducted but such operations require a large number of test cases to ensure the stability and effectiveness of the systems. Nevertheless, real data collection from each building is tedious and expensive; and manual test data generation may drop some important effective factors or relationships. Therefore, a tool of test data generation, which could generate large volumes of test data, is desperately needed. In this paper, we propose a neural network model to generate a large test data set for comfort assessment and energy consumption analysis. This approach is based on an existing set of real-world data, and generalizes it into a larger data set. Our analysis indicates that the proposed approach is reliable and effective.


This article deals with the possibilities of modeling and simulation in terms of crisis management. The fi rst part deals with simulations and modeling in the form of realized trainings of Integrated Rescue System (IRS) and crisis management (CM). It is focused on the most important aspects of modeling and simulation in CM conditions. In the following part, we are evaluating the selected SW modeling and simulation from the point of view of their possibilities and suitability for relation to CM. Based on expert consultation; tasks are defi ned that the SW should manage. In the last part, using the knowledge from the previous parts, the possible development in the area of SW modeling and simulation in CM is identifi ed.


High cost of feeds is a major problem to fish farming in Nigeria. In this study, the growth performance of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fed graded levels of plantain peels (PPM) as a replacement for maize was investigated. Five diets were formulated and maize meal replaced at 0 %, 25 %, 50 %, 75 % and 100 % in PPMD1, PPMD2, PPMD3, PPMD4 and PPMD5 respectively. The feeding trial lasted for 56 days. Data collected were subjected to one-way ANOVA test. Results showed that fish on control diet (PPMD1) were significantly (p > 0.05) highest in weight gain(7.34 ± 0.09g)while the least weight gain was recorded among PPMD5 fish. Similar trend was observed in specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER). Packed cell volume (PCV), Haemoglobin (HB), Red blood cell (RBC), Mean corpuscular haemoglobin cell (MCHC), and Lymphocytes (20.67 ± 0.33, 7.77 ± 0.03, 1.80 ± 0.06, 35.57 ± 0.47, and 84.00 ± 0.58 respectively) were significantly highest (p<0.05) in PPMD4. MCV was highest in PPMD1 and lowest in PPMD4. MCH was significantly higher (p<0.05) in PPMD1 and lowest in PPMD3. White blood cells (WBC) was significantly highest (p<0.05) in PPMD3 and Neutrophils was significantly highest (p<0.05) in PPMD5. It was concluded that PPM compares favorably with maize and an optimum inclusion level 25% (PPMD2).


Abstract In this paper results of a study on the crystallization behaviour of the amorphous (Fe0·7 Ni0·3)3B alloy by electrical resistivity measurement at a uniformly increasing temperature are presented. Results are also presented of measurements of phase-transition temperatures after crystallization.


Because the old coke oven to be demolished was one of coke oven group composed of two coke ovens,the difficulty of demolishing the coke oven has increased.The preparation,method and measures for demolishing the old coke oven are discussed,and the experience and lessons of demolition works are summarized.


The mode of whole Chinese teaching is necessary for Chinese teaching in junior middle school, there is the support of practice foundation and theory principle. The form is suited to psychology of student learning and basic spirit of Chinese teaching as a tool subject. As to using whole Chinese teaching in junior middle school, the base is to understand the connotation of the Chinese teaching standard issued in our country, it is the precondition of theory to get the essence and form of Chinese teaching mode, it is necessary to use a lots of form and content for working , obeying the essential theory.


The aim of the action project outlined in this article was to set up a
Professional Learning Community (PLC) in a school with teachers who
were interested in inculcating the practices and principles of Restorative
Practice in their classrooms. My intention in forming such a PLC was to
establish, explore, evaluate and maximise the use of Restorative
Practice in participants' classrooms. I wanted to investigate the impact
of such engagement on relationships, teaching practices and
approaches, and how it could offer a stimulus for whole school change.
Our investigation found that the implementation of Restorative Practice
did improve relationships. It promoted empathy and encouraged
teachers and students to work together. It developed emotional literacy
skills among the participants. Participants gained a sense of ownership
over behaviour. There was a change in approach to misbehaviour that
had a positive effect on learning and on teachers' feeling of well-being.
The evidence shows that improved relationships often had a positive
impact on the work ethic within the classroom. Teachers enjoyed
working as a solution focused community of teachers, it helped to reinvent
and enhance their best practice through the sharing of ideas.
The evidence also showed that the implementation and positive impact
of Restorative Practice is a process. It is something that requires
repeated, structured and reflective engagement, such as that offered by
our PLC.


Mollicutes are small bacteria without cell wall and about 1 Mbp genome with a low G-C content. They are responsible for diseases in many hosts, in the plant and animal kingdom. The interest of the scientific community towards these species has been recently renewed by successful first genome synthesis and transplantation experiments, with an increasing demand for efficient genetic tools. CRISPR/Cas is a programmable RNA guided nuclease that has been recently used in many applications in the field of genome engineering and genome editing. Cas9 derived from Streptococcus pyogenes (SpCas9) is the most commonly used orthologue for genome engineering. Limitations in the application of CRISPR tools are the delivery or the expression of the Cas9 protein in cells, the specificity and efficiency of cleavage and the distribution of PAM sequences in genomes. The CRISPR/Cas9 tools have recently been developed for the engineering of mycoplasma genomes cloned in yeast. Modified genomes can then be back-transplanted into a mycoplasma recipient cell to generate living bacteria. In our hands, the efficiency of the SpCas9-based method for in-yeast engineering of bacterial genome varied from 10 to 20%. In order to increase the efficiency of the tools for in-yeast engineering and develop a way to modify mycoplasma genomes directly inside bacterial cells using the CRISPR/Cas system, we started characterizing a new Cas9 derived from Mycoplasma gallisepticum. This protein is 128 amino-acid smaller than the one of S. pyogenes and belongs to the II-A subtype. The PAM sequence (NNNAAAA) is different than the one of S. pyogenes (NGG), in accordance ∗Speaker †Corresponding author: email@example.com sciencesconf.org:biosynsys2017:171261 with the low G+C content of mycoplasma genomes. Besides functionally characterizing the first natural CRISPR system in mycoplasmas, this work will provide the community a new Cas9 orthologue with smaller size and a PAMspecificity very different from the one of S. pyogenes for better delivery, expression and efficiency in organisms or organelles with low G-C content.


Increased industrial development in the Arctic has led to a rapid expansion of infrastructure in the region. Localized impacts of infrastructure on snow distribution, road dust, and snowmelt timing and duration feeds back into the coupled Arctic system causing a series of cascading effects that remain poorly understood. We quantify spatial and temporal patterns of snow-off dates in the Prudhoe Bay Oilfield, Alaska, using Sentinel-2 data. We derive the Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI) to quantify snow persistence in 2019-2020. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) were used to show linkages of vegetation and surface hydrology, in relationship to patterns of snowmelt. Newly available infrastructure data was used to analyze snowmelt patterns in relation infrastructure. Results show a relationship between snowmelt and distance to infrastructure varying by use and traffic load, and orientation relative to the prevailing wind direction (up to 1 month difference in snow-free dates). Post-snowmelt surface water area showed a strong negative correlation (up to -0.927) with distance to infrastructure. Results from field observations indicate an impact of infrastructure on winter near-surface ground temperature and snow depth. This study highlights the impact of infrastructure on a large area beyond the direct human footprint and the interconnectedness between snow-off timing, vegetation, surface hydrology, and near-surface ground temperatures.


The structure of hydraulic system for simulating lifting apparatus was proposed and calculating method was defined.Under same loads condition,the recuperating efficiency of energy was measured,and the relate conclusion was drawn,which will offer the reference for ascertaining run manner of hydraulic lifting apparatus powered by secondary controlled system.