Weaves and Colours of Lithuanian Folk Skirts Fabrics

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Eglė KUMPIKAITĖ

2013-09-01

Full Text Available In the article weaves and colours of Lithuanian folk skirts fabrics are analysed. The investigation objects are the skirts from funds of three Lithuanian Museums: 258 skirts from National M. K. Čiurlionis Museum of Art, 85 skirts from Lithuanian Open Air Museum and 16 skirts from A. and A. Tamošaitis gallery “Židinys”. Distribution of skirts fabrics according to weaves was estimated, and it shows, that fabrics of plain weave are most widespread (53 %, combined and twill weaves are less popular (19 % and 18 %, respectively. The weaves of fabrics are determined during investigation and plans of weave were made proposing recommendations for manufacturing of similar fabrics. Also distribution of colours and number of colours in the fabrics were analysed. The biggest number of colours is in fabrics of simple weaves (plain and twill, and the most characteristic are green, red, black and blue colours. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.19.3.5240

On the development of past habitual from iterative in Lithuanian

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Jurgis Pakerys

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Lithuanian has regular past habitual forms with the suffix -dav-, which can be explained as an originally iterative suffix -dau- restricted to the past tense (Fraenkel 1936. Dialectal and Old Lithuanian, in addition to -dav-, also feature habituals with the suffixes -lav- and -dlav-, which could have followed the same path of development (Fraenkel 1936, as evidenced by a number of diverse languages (Bybee et al. 1994. Using an electronic edition of Lietuvių kalbos žodynas (The Dictionary of Lithuanian as the data source, a limited number of possible iteratives with -dau- and other related suffixes were found, which has led to two main conclusions. (1 Habituals were restricted to the past tense before the appearance of the first written Lithuanian texts (mid-16th c. and the present and the infinitive stems went out of use. If this had not been the case, more corresponding verbal formations should have remained. (2 Iteratives with the habitual-to-be suffixes had to be productive to some extent in the dialects, which grammaticalized them as past habituals. If these formations had been productive in all dialects of Lithuanian, more iteratives should have been found in the areas that did not grammaticalize them as past habituals. It is also suggested that the form-frequency correspondence principle (Haspelmath 2008, 2014, 2017 should have operated in the formation of the Lithuanian habitual. Longer suffixes were chosen to mark habitual situations as a less frequent subtype of iterative situations and habitual forms were restricted to the past tense because habituality is one of the default (more frequent readings of the present and hence the habituals in the past tend to be marked explicitly (Bybee et al. 1994.

DISCOURSES AND DEPICTIONS OF HOLOCAUST EDUCATION IN LITHUANIAN HISTORY TEXTBOOKS (1992-2012

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AKVILĖ NAUDŽIŪNIENĖ

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The topic of the Holocaust is a relatively new issue in Lithuanian historical education – only with the regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1990 did Lithuanians have a chance include the Holocaust theme into the main school curriculum. Of course, its development through the first two decades have not been steady and even – in the beginning of the creation of the new educational system the Holocaust did not receive so much attention as in later years with the relation to integration with the European Union (2004 and development of historical studies on the Holocaust within the Lithuanian academic community. This article aims to analyse the representation of the Holocaust in Lithuanian educational system during the first two decades after Lithuania regained its independence. So the main basis of empirical data will be all history textbooks for Lithuanian school education (from the 5th grade to the last, 12th grade published in the period of 1992-2012, and educational programmes presented by the State`s Ministry of Education and Science. In order to objectively evaluate the Lithuanian situation regarding Holocaust education the article will discuss and compare the main trends of Holocaust education development in neighbouring countries, which also suffered from Holocaust and could not freely speak about the issue during the Communist regime.

World tendences of civil aviation development and the enlargement of the Lithuanian civil aviation

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J. Butkevičius

2006-06-01

Full Text Available The article deals with global trends in civil aviation, such as: liberalisation of aviation market, globalisation of airlines, privatisation of airlines and invasion of low cost airlines into the market. Also the influence of these trends on the Lithuanian civil aviation activities has been defined. The Lithuanian civil aviation activities have been analysed: activities of international airports, passenger and cargo carriers, passenger routes and passenger flows, transportation market and airplane fleet. The problems of the Lithuanian civil aviation activities have been identified and suggestions for the development of the Lithuanian civil aviation activities have been proposed.

Pecularities of French Pronoun on Usage in Lithuanian Scientific Discourse

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Lina Dubikaltytė-Raugalienė

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Scientists studying personal identifiers in French scientific discourse incorporate the personal indefinite pronoun “on” into the paradigm. The semantics of the pronoun depends on the genre of scientific discourse. The pronoun “on” can acquire four meanings denoting or including the author. The current paper, based on two databases of native French and Lithuanian authors’ articles, aims at comparing the tendencies of the pronoun “on” usage and its functions in scientific discourse. The analyses has shown that the Lithuanian authors use the personal pronoun almost twice less frequently to mark an author or authors’ denotative or inclusive meaning. In the articles of Lithuanian authors, the pronoun “on” performs fewer pragmatic functions than in scientific discourse of French authors.

"Sunrise" and "Sunset" of Lithuanian Agencies

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Vitalis NAKROŠIS

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Based on the transformative approach, the NPM and post-NPM models this article explains the proliferation, autonomy, control and innovative behavior of Lithuanian agencies and other public sector organizations in the 1990-2010 period. While the expansion of governmental functions during Lithuania’s transition to democracy and its accession to the EU brought agencification in 1990-2004, the adoption of government-wide organizational reforms during the economic crisis marked the start of de-agencification in 2009- 2010. The degree of autonomy and control of the Lithuanian public sector organizations is largely explained by their legal basis and political salience of their tasks. Finally, in line with the post-NPM model, structural capacities and participation in networks have a strong impact on innovative behavior of these organizations.

Liquidity Risk and its Management in Lithuanian Banking System

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Erika Bareikaitė

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Banks are the main part of financial sector in each economy and strength of banking system becomes vital for ensuringfavourable economic stability and growth. Recent failure of two commercial banks in Lithuania showed that managershaven’t evaluated liquidity risk or haven’t dealt with it properly. The tasks of the paper are to investigate Lithuanian banksposition towards liquidity risk, analyse what kind of management tools banks use for ensuring favourable position towardsliquidity and to explore the liquidity influence to profitability in Lithuanian banking sector. The article examines liquidity andits management processes in Lithuanian banking sector. Description of liquidity importance is presented. Liquidity risk and itsmeasurement as well as the ways of managing the above mentioned risk is analysed in the article. In order to analyse the relationshipbetween liquidity risk and profitability of banks, analysis of scientific literature, research synthesis and generalizationshave been made.

On Quality Intensification Expression Means in German And Lithuanian

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Ernesta Račienė

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the analysis of German Adjectives’ derivational means, which intensify the meaning of quality, and which are compared with functional equivalents in Lithuanian. The intensification of quality is treated as the functional semantic category, implemented in various language levels. This semantics may be expressed morphologically, by lexical and syntactic means, as well as by stress and intonation. The German language has many first components of compound adjectives, representing the intensification of quality, such as: stock-, blitz-, hoch-, brand-, grund-, etc. The rendering function of this semantics is typical of German adjectives prefixes erz-, ur- as well as prefixes of foreign origin super-, ultra-, extra-, mega-, hyper-, top-. In the Lithuanian language, the intensifying meaning of quality is realized by syntactic com-pounds, while on the morphological level it can be conveyed by diminutive suffixes. The paper presents the comparison of German and Lithuanian quality intensification expression means in order to highlight typological similarities and differences.

Acculturation and adaptation among Lithuanian workers in Norway (a case study)

OpenAIRE

Kmite, Liuda Jr

2011-01-01

Migration and intercultural relations In a new culture, migrants experience acculturation. Through acculturation migrants may choose which acculturation strategy to use. In 2010, emigration from Lithuania increased four times. Lithuanians account for several per cent of all migrants in Norway. The study aims to assess the acculturation strategies which Lithuanian workers in Rogaland area (Norway) adopt.

A net presentation of Lithuanian sentences containing verbal forms with the grammatical suffix -dav-

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Danuta Roszko

2014-09-01

Full Text Available A net presentation of Lithuanian sentences containing verbal forms with the grammatical suffix -dav- In the article the authors make an attempt to present the meaning of Lithuanian sentences containing verbal forms with the grammatical suffix -dav- (the so-called iterative past tense forms by means of Petri nets. The authors gradually develop the net to such complexity that it makes it possible to avoid interpretative similarities to other Lithuanian verbal forms.

The development of Corporate social responsibility in Lithuanian food industry

OpenAIRE

Navickas, Valentinas; Kontautienė, Rima

2014-01-01

The authors of the article analyze the development of corporate social responsibility in Lithuanian food industry. By emphasize the importance of food industry as one of the largest manufacturing group in Lithuania and its strong impact and high dependence on the economy, the environment and on society, implementation of principles and practice of corporate social responsibility is of high relevance for this sector. The paper deals with the main indicators of Lithuanian food industry in...

Customer satisfaction with mobile operators’ services in Lithuanian rural areas

OpenAIRE

Pilelienė, Lina; Grigaliūnaitė, Viktorija

2017-01-01

In tough competitive conditions of Lithuanian mobile services market, customer satisfaction becomes one of the most important factors for customer retention and attraction. Lithuanian mobile market can be described as being in a maturity stage of its life-cycle: the prices and services of different mobile operators are quite similar. However, the network coverage and signal strength differs – main differences can be observed in rural areas of the country. Therefore, the scientific...

THE CLITICS IN STANDARD LITHUANIAN

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Asta Kazlauskienė

2015-04-01

Full Text Available A Lithuanian word is quite an autonomous prosodic unit. Nevertheless, in some cases a word loses stress, connects to an adjacent word, and becomes a part of a succeeding or preceding word. The aim of this research is to establish and describe the prosodic autonomy of the Lithuanian language word and its determinants. The database for this analysis consists of some audio recordings of novels, which were used in this study (11 h 20 min, 22 speakers. A computational programme was designed by Prof. Dr. G. Raškinis. The empirical data showed that the words with clitics comprise about ¼ of all the words. The data analysis suggests that the word autonomy depends on many factors: phonetic structure (monosyllabic words often lose their stress, morphological features (uninflected parts of speech, especially prepositions, often do not have a stress, the structure of a sentence (a potential clitic can get a stress in an elliptic sentence, pragmatic intentions (a word with a phrase stress will get a lexical stress, and the pressure of the rhythm (a potential clitic can keep stress due to the succeeding unstressed syllable. The latter factor is important for the rhythm of the speech for two reasons. First, a clitic can eliminate a stress clash, which might be formed if both words had stresses. Second, if clitic is connected to the word with a first stressed syllable, the second syllable would become stressed. Such word is articulated easier than the word which begins with a stressed syllable. However, the rhythm does not have a major impact on the word autonomy in the Lithuanian language. The phonetic structure and morphological features have the most significant influence on the prosodic autonomy of a word.

THE STRUCTURE OF MORPHEMES OF LITHUANIAN VERBS

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Asta Kazlauskienė

2013-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of this research was to establish and describe the most important phonemic patterns of Lithuanian verb morphemes. The investigation was based on a corpus of 30,000 verb types (verbs and their forms. All words in the corpus were stressed and phonetically transcribed. A computer program was developed to extract statistics out of this corpus. The results indicate that monosyllabic morphemes dominate in Lithuanian. They comprise 97%, 99%, 98%, and 97% of all verb roots, prefixes, derivational suffixes, and endings respectively. Inflectional suffixes and the reflexive affix are exclusively monosyllabic. Pronominal inflection endings are either disyllabic (97% or trisyllabic. There is a high variety of vowelconsonant patterns among verbs: the verb root is represented by 91 patterns, prefixes by 8 patterns, derivational suffixes by 18 patterns, inflectional suffixes by 7 patterns, inflectional endings by 9 patterns, endings of pronominal participles by 7 patterns, and the reflexive affix by 3 different patterns. The consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC pattern appeared to be the most frequent among verb roots (45%, the CV pattern was the most frequent among prefixes (59%, the VC pattern was the most frequent among derivational suffixes (46%, and V pattern was the most frequent among inflectional endings of Lithuanian verbs (76%. In many cases, the root of a verb contains both initial and final consonants (82%. Because of this and because of the tendency to avoid hiatus in Lithuanian, the root can be adjoined by vowel-final prefixes and vowel-initial suffixes or inflectional endings. This appears to be the case, as prefixes are mostly open (80%, and both derivational suffixes (90% and all inflectional endings begin with vowels. Inflectional suffixes do not follow this regularity. Only one-third of them start with a vowel. The hypothesis that the phonemic structure of a verb root might determine the corresponding patterns of its adjoining affixes seems

Attitude of Lithuanian residents to confidentiality of adolescent sexual and reproductive health care

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jaruseviciene, Lina; Lazarus, Jeff; Zaborskis, Apolinaras

2011-01-01

To assess the attitudes of Lithuanian residents towards the protection of confidentiality in the sexual and reproductive health care of adolescents.......To assess the attitudes of Lithuanian residents towards the protection of confidentiality in the sexual and reproductive health care of adolescents....

The main provisions of the Lithuanian National Energy Strategy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miskinis, V.; Galinis, A.

2006-01-01

The aim of this paper is to set out findings from analysis of the Lithuanian economy and energy sector development and to discuss the main provisions of the draft of the updated National Energy Strategy. The paper presents a short description of tendencies in the Lithuanian economy and energy sector during transition to a free market economy. A significant reduction of final and primary energy intensity in Lithuania is confirmed by analysis based on data published in the recent national and international publications. Positive changes in the energy sector, favourable for implementation of market economy, are discussed. The methodology applied for analysis of the energy sector development and for preparation of the National Energy Strategy is presented. Strategic objectives of the Lithuanian energy sector, the measures to provide for a higher energy security and guidelines for the energy sector development are presented as well. The main provisions in the draft of the updated National Energy Strategy are established taking into consideration the obligations of Lithuania presented in the Treaty of Accession to the EU, the EU directives and other international documents. (author)

Wide-band slow-wave systems simulation and applications

CERN Document Server

Staras, Stanislovas

2012-01-01

The field of electromagnetics has seen considerable advances in recent years, based on the wide applications of numerical methods for investigating electromagnetic fields, microwaves, and other devices. Wide-Band Slow-Wave Systems: Simulation and Applications presents new technical solutions and research results for the analysis, synthesis, and design of slow-wave structures for modern electronic devices with super-wide pass-bands. It makes available, for the first time in English, significant research from the past 20 years that was previously published only in Russian and Lithuanian. The aut

Lithuanian Publisher’s Needs for Training

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Arūnas Gudinavičius

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The survey on the training and professional development needs of Lithuanian publishers was designed and conducted. The pilot research showed that publishers in Lithuania have an interest in professional training. According to the results, the need for training among the employees of Lithuanian publishing houses depends on the previous training experience: the more training courses the employee had before, the greater need for training he/she expresses. 82% of publishing house employees from four different fields agreed and strongly agreed on the need for training. Very few employees would like to pay for training by themselves. The identified need for training appears to reflect the nature of the problems encountered in the publishing field in Lithuania: Copyright, Law & Rights is the most wanted training topic among managing directors. The list of preferred topics for training can be used as the grounds for creating a supply of publishing training courses.

Tendencies in translation of sport terms from English into Lithuanian

OpenAIRE

Trakšelis, Arnoldas

2018-01-01

Novelty of the topic – this topic is relatively new because there is no Lithuanian author who has analysed the translation of sport terms from English into Lithuanian in particular. Only some works produced by foreign writers can be found in which the translation of a specific sport branch is analysed more briefly. Relevancy of the topic – sport was started thousands of years BCE and along came a related terminology. During the years the terms of popular sport branches were translated fro...

Comparative study of the qualitative features of the Lithuanian and Latvian monophthongs

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Juris Grigorjevs

2015-09-01

Full Text Available In the present article, a comparative study of the spectral characteristics and distinctive qualitative features of monophthongs of the contemporary Baltic Standard languages pronounced in isolation is described. On the one hand vowels pronounced in isolation do not represent a pronunciation in everyday speech, while on the other hand their production is probably the closest to the acoustic and auditory monophthong targets determined by our mental prototypes. This type of production represents natural hyper-articulation and differs from production of the cardinal vowels. Lithuanian and Latvian monophthongs have been studied and compared using the same methods and equipment that permit a reliable comparison of phonetic inventories (quality similarities and differences of both languages. For this paper recordings of six native Lithuanian and six native Latvian male informants (having faultless articulation were used (1944 items were selected and analyzed in total. All informants are speakers of standard language. In this study the standard language is considered as a standardized language (generally the most formal version of the language used for the needs of public life and culture. Reviewing interrelations between vowels of a single language (Lithuanian or Latvian, the mean data acquired in this study is compared with the data of some previous studies. To compare the general tendencies of the relations between Lithuanian and corresponding Latvian long and short monophthongs pronounced in isolation more precisely, the following acoustic parameters (numeric values were calculated: acuteness (graveness, flatness, compactness, and tenseness. The results of the present study confirm the general tendency that qualitative characteristics of the Lithuanian long and corresponding short vowels differ to a great extent. However the quality of Latvian monophthongs produced in isolation varies very little and statistical analysis of the spectral

“Natural coordination” and the origin of the Lithuanian conjunction beĩ ‘and’.

OpenAIRE

Norbert Ostrowski

2018-01-01

Productivity of the Lithuanian conjunction beĩ ‘and’, marker of so called „natural coordination”, is strictly connected to the area of Lithuania Minor (former East Prussia). Lithuanian beĩ comes from conflation of the common Baltic conjunction bè ‘and’ and an additive particle ir ‘also’. The conflated form *beir has been further reduced to beĩ in accordance with Lithuanian phonotactic rules that do not tolerate group VRR (V = Vocal, R = Resonant). There are some traces that suggest that Lithu...

Lithuanian mammal fauna review

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Linas Balciauskas

1996-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Data on Lithuania mammal fauna are presented. From 78 mammal species recorded in Lithuania, 7 were seen only in the 17-18th centuries, two species are extinct. Recent Lithuanian mammal fauna contains 68 species. Five of them are observed occasionally. 63 mammal species are permant inhabitants, 18 included in the Red Data Book, mostly bats and dormice. 8 mammal species were introduced or reintroduced. Population tendencies of game animals are also considered.

Input of Lithuanian science into nuclear safety improvement, coordination of technical support organizations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maksimovas, G.

1999-01-01

VATESI in its activities is very much supported by Lithuanian scientific and technical organizations which are doing expertise of safety analyses of Ignalina NPP. Description of these organizations is presented. Broad international cooperation and assistance programs is underway helping Lithuanians scientific organizations to build own capacity in making nuclear safety research

The historical aspects and current issues of the development of Russian-Lithuanian economic relations

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Kretinin Gennady

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This article focuses on development of Russian-Lithuanian economic ties. The research and practical significance of this study lies in the identification of the sources of modern Russian-Lithuanian economic cooperation and the prospects of future mutually beneficial economic relations. The first attempt at establishing economic relations was made in 1919. However, young Lithuanian Republic gravitated towards the West, severing ties with the Russian market. However, the initiatives of Lithuanian authorities did not result in successful state building, and the economic situation remained unchanged. The USSR leadership made an effort to improve the living conditions in post-war Lithuania. There were some mistakes made in the relations with the local population that resulted in Lithuanians’ resistance to sovietisation. However, in the conditions of post-war restoration of national economy and acute deficit of material and human resources, the Soviet leadership managed not only to reform and develop a socialistic economy in Lithuania but also to turn it into an industrial republic with developed agriculture and modern manufacturing facilities, whose major industries manufactured products used in nuclear and space technologies, aviation and navigation. The research shows that the post-Soviet period led to a dramatic change in Russian-Lithuanian economic relations; however, these relations retained potential for future development.

Lithuanian way of reforms to electricity market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bacauskas, A.

2002-01-01

Lithuania has inherited a structure of the energy industry, which originally has been developed not for the country, as an independent state, but according to the provisions of the former USSR energy policy, covering energy demand of whole region, including the Baltic countries, Belarus and the Kaliningrad region of Russia. The Lithuanian power system is interconnected by high voltage power lines and operates in parallel with Latvian, Estonian, Russian and Belarus power systems. During twelve years of independence the power sector passed significant changes from a vertically integrated monopoly to some separate power companies and meets EU requirements to an internal electricity market. The main issues of reforms: transparency of costs, commercial relations in power sector, fulfilment of the Electricity Directive 96/92/EU. The Lithuanian electricity market is small and inefficient. Current reforms of a power sector are directed to create the common Baltic electricity market. (author)

Surface-Wave Pulse Routing around Sharp Right Angles

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Z.; Xu, H.; Gao, F.; Zhang, Y.; Luo, Y.; Zhang, B.

2018-04-01

Surface-plasmon polaritons (SPPs), or localized electromagnetic surface waves propagating on a metal-dielectric interface, are deemed promising information carriers for future subwavelength terahertz and optical photonic circuitry. However, surface waves fundamentally suffer from scattering loss when encountering sharp corners in routing and interconnection of photonic signals. Previous approaches enabling scattering-free surface-wave guidance around sharp corners are limited to either volumetric waveguide environments or extremely narrow bandwidth, being unable to guide a surface-wave pulse (SPP wave packet) on an on-chip platform. Here, in a surface-wave band-gap crystal implemented on a single metal surface, we demonstrate in time-domain routing a surface-wave pulse around multiple sharp right angles without perceptible scattering. Our work not only offers a solution to on-chip surface-wave pulse routing along an arbitrary path, but it also provides spatiotemporal information on the interplay between surface-wave pulses and sharp corners, both of which are desirable in developing high-performance large-scale integrated photonic circuits.

Lithuanian Metrics as a Source on the History of the Turkic States of Eastern Europe »

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V.V. Trepavlov

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Lithuanian Metrica contains a lot of information on the Turkic khanates of Eastern Europe of the 15th–16th centuries. It consists mainly of documents related to foreign relations of the Polish-Lithuanian State and covers its contacts primarily with the Crimean Yurt. In Lithuanian Metrica can be also found valuable information about the Great Horde and the Nogai Horde. Information reflecting contacts of Vilna and Cracow with Kazan and Astrakhan khanates is also presented in metrica although very fragmentary. The Polish-Lithuanian State inherited policy of Vilnius rulers in relation to the khans. This policy emerged in the era of the weakening and disintegration of the Golden Horde during the reign of the Grand Dukes Algirdas and, especially, Vytautas and was expressed in the form of patronage of deposed Tokhtamysh and his children. Later it continued in contacts with the Crimean Girays and (until the beginning of the 16th century with the khans of Great Horde. In respect of the Golden Horde, the documents of Lithuanian Metrica contain separate memories of participants of diplomatic correspondence concerning order that once existed in this State. In general, such memories occur both as references to the deeds and decrees of the former Horde’s “tsars” justifying the legitimacy of the current policies, and as norms of relations adopted at the time, presented as a model to be followed by descendants. The memory of the Horde-Lithuanian relations of the 13th – the first half of the 15th centuries are reflected in the materials of Lithuanian Metrica in the form of an equally abstract references to the relationship that existed in the times of ancestors. Tatar and Polish-Lithuanian side constantly referred to the relationship of the “brotherhood”, i.e. status equality, which were established between the Grand Duke Algirdas and Vitautas and king Casimierz on the one hand, and the Horde khans on the other. The documents contained in

ESOTERIC IN CONTEMPORARY LITHUANIAN PROSE

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Ieva Naikienė

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This article focuses on esotericism in contemporary Lithuanian prose. For the revelation of this topic, Donaldas Kajokas’ novel Ežeras ir kiti jį lydintys asmenys (The Lake and Other Escort Members, 2003 and Jurga Ivanauskaitė’s novel Placebas (Placebo, 2012 have been chosen. The analysed writings reveal the point of view of contemporary Lithuanian writers about esoteric beliefs. In this article, esotericism is related with persons’ feelings but is excluded from occult and parapsychology fields such as alchemy, cabbala, Tarot, etc. This work focuses on the idea that an individual, who has only a few senses, cannot reach actuality. On the other hand, the possibility of acquiring those senses is not rejected. In addition, obtaining those senses would help to reach higher, over-sensational worlds and in that way to discover personal correlation with forms of multiple personal identities. This article establishes an idea that awareness of higher worlds/spheres unlocks the possibilities of revealing the main core of human (as micro-cosmos and the Universe (as macro-cosmos. The possibility to perceive oneself as a micro-cosmos discloses not only personal identity, but also the value of Other’s entity and inevitable entities stratifying.

EVALUATION OF LITHUANIAN CONSUMERS’ ATTITUDES TO GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD

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Ingrida Lukošiut&#

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The aim of this investigation is to present the results obtained during the survey of Lithuanian consumers in order to identify their attitudes towards food with genetically modified organisms (GMO. Investigating the consumers approach to genetically modified (GM food, the following were considered: consumers’ opinions on GMO were analyzed, their knowledge about the presence of food containing GMO on the Lithuanian market, the mandatory GM food labelling, the behavior to a transgenic product while shopping, as well as consumers’ willingness to purchase such products. Data were gathered through a survey of 1000 Lithuanian residents. The empirical results indicated that the majority of the respondents’ attitudes towards food containing GMO are negative. The older consumers with less income are more against GM food compared to younger, wealthier households. 72% of consumers know that if the food contains GMO it must be indicated on the label. However, many consumers who oppose GMO do not try to avoid paying attention to the components of the product listed on its label. Only about a quarter of consumers while buying a product look for such information. This indicates that consumers are not really interested in whether or not the product contains GMO

Country Report: Citizenship Education: Lithuanian Mapping

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Irena Zaleskene

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Some theoretical concepts of globalisation and citizenship are discussed in the article as well as changing role of citizenship education in transforming Lithuanian Society. The author points out that many problems in contemporary Lithuanian society arise from the fact that the relationship between individuals and the state is changing fundamentally. The state should broaden “positive” choices and support an individual by ensuring principles of equality in basic human rights and access to opportunities. On the other hand, an individual has to take the responsibility for his/her own life becoming a decisive factor in choosing personal life style and in building up civic community. In this respect, it is expected that Citizenship Education would lay an important role in educating competence and attitudes towards own responsibilities, in educating mental and practical skills for positive civic participation. Current status and new approaches of citizenship education in Lithuania are presented in the light of international developments. The article concludes that changing role of citizenship education has significant implications for professional development of teachers and for the national teacher training system as a whole.

The View of Lithuanian Statehood Held by the Polish Underground during 1939-1944

OpenAIRE

Bubnys, Arūnas

2006-01-01

The article investigates the attitudes of Polish underground actors towards the statehood of Lithuania, its territorial integrity, and Lithuanian-Polish relations during the World War II. The author draws the conclusion that Polish underground political structures expressed a hostile and prejudiced attitude towards Lithuania. All the blame and responsibility for bad mutual relations is put on Lithuania and Lithuanians. Polish underground actors living in Vilnija were extremely hostile towards...

Lithuanian Investors' Behaviour During Financial Crisis

OpenAIRE

Bikas, Egidijus; Kavaliauskas, Andrius

2010-01-01

Based on research of academic literature, this article analyses Lithuanian investors' behaviour during financial crisis. The article summarizes the newest finance science subjects, theories of behavioural finance, and works of various scientists, in order to find cognitive and emotional investors' deviations from rational behaviour, and also to better understand and explain how emotions and environment valuation mistakes influence investors and their decision-making. Emotional nature of inves...

FPGA-Based Implementation of Lithuanian Isolated Word Recognition Algorithm

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Tomyslav Sledevič

2013-05-01

Full Text Available The paper describes the FPGA-based implementation of Lithuanian isolated word recognition algorithm. FPGA is selected for parallel process implementation using VHDL to ensure fast signal processing at low rate clock signal. Cepstrum analysis was applied to features extraction in voice. The dynamic time warping algorithm was used to compare the vectors of cepstrum coefficients. A library of 100 words features was created and stored in the internal FPGA BRAM memory. Experimental testing with speaker dependent records demonstrated the recognition rate of 94%. The recognition rate of 58% was achieved for speaker-independent records. Calculation of cepstrum coefficients lasted for 8.52 ms at 50 MHz clock, while 100 DTWs took 66.56 ms at 25 MHz clock.Article in Lithuanian

Sickly Americans, Kindly Portuguese, and Lithuanian Couch Potatoes.

Science.gov (United States)

Bracey, Gerald W.

2000-01-01

Of 27 countries in a World Health Organization survey, American children report the most physical complaints, Portuguese children are most kind to one another, and Lithuanians watch more TV. U.S. and Czech teens are great dieters. Northern Irish, Scottish, and Finnish youngsters love computer games. (MLH)

Information disclosure in corporate social responsibility reports. The case of Lithuanian companies

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Sviesa Leitoniene

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Though the phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR is closely scrutinized in studies of both Lithuanian and foreign scholars, the problem is the quality of social information disclosed in social re-sponsibility reports. The objective of this article is to analyse the quality of disclosed information in CRS reports of Lithuanian companies. The characteristics of quality of information were comparability, relia-bility, objectivity and sustainability. The research demonstrated that in Lithuania, CSR reports provide unreliable information, which is only partly comparable and objective, however, relatively sustainable.

Information disclosure in corporate social responsibility reports. The case of Lithuanian companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sviesa Leitoniene

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Though the phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR is closely scrutinized in studies of both Lithuanian and foreign scholars, the problem is the quality of social information disclosed in social re- sponsibility reports. The objective of this article is to analyse the quality of disclosed information in CRS reports of Lithuanian companies. The characteristics of quality of information were comparability, relia- bility, objectivity and sustainability. The research demonstrated that in Lithuania, CSR reports provide unreliable information, which is only partly comparable and objective, however, relatively sustainable.

Letter Frequency Analysis of Lithuanian and Other Languages Using the Latin Alphabet

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Gintautas Grigas

2015-12-01

Full Text Available It is important to evaluate specificities of alphabets, particularly the letter frequencies while designing keyboards, analyzing texts, designing games based on alphabets, and doing some text mining. In order to adequately compare lettter frequences of Lithuanian language to other languages in the Internet space, Wikipedia source was selected which content is common to different languages. The method of letter frequency jumps is used. The main attention is paid to the analysis of letter frequencies at the boundary between native letters and foreign letters used in Lithuanian and other languages.

Stochastic programming framework for Lithuanian pension payout modelling

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Audrius Kabašinskas

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The paper provides a scientific approach to the problem of selecting a pension fund by taking into account some specific characteristics of the Lithuanian Republic (LR pension accumulation system. The decision making model, which can be used to plan a long-term pension accrual of the Lithuanian Republic (LR citizens, in an optimal way is presented. This model focuses on factors that influence the sustainability of the pension system selection under macroeconomic, social and demographic uncertainty. The model is formalized as a single stage stochastic optimization problem where the long-term optimal strategy can be obtained based on the possible scenarios generated for a particular participant. Stochastic programming methods allow including the pension fund rebalancing moment and direction of investment, and taking into account possible changes of personal income, changes of society and the global financial market. The collection of methods used to generate scenario trees was found useful to solve strategic planning problems.

The translation of idioms in children’s cartoons: A comparative analysis of English dialogues and Lithuanian subtitles

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Ligita Judickaitė-Pašvenskienė

2014-04-01

Full Text Available The article is focused on the translation of English idioms in the Lithuanian subtitles of children’s cartoons. The aims of the article are to find out whether the element of meaning or the composition of meaning and form gets preference in the Lithuanian translation; to present the perception and use of the term idiom in English and Lithuanian; and to show the processes which take place during the translation of English idioms containing proper nouns. The article is a case study and refers to the analysis of five children’s cartoons.

Evaluation of leadership competencies of executives in Lithuanian public health institutions.

Science.gov (United States)

Stankūnas, Mindaugas; Sauliūnė, Skirmantė; Smith, Tony; Avery, Mark; Šumskas, Linas; Czabanowska, Katarzyna

2012-01-01

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE. Lithuanian and international public health experts emphasize the importance of leadership in public health. The aim of this study was to explore the self-assessed level of leadership competencies of executives in Lithuanian public health institutions. MATERIAL AND METHODS. Data were collected in a cross-sectional survey of executives of Lithuanian public health institutions in 2010. The total number of returned questionnaires was 55 (response rate, 58.5%). Respondents were asked about their competencies in leadership, teamwork, communication, and conflict management. The evaluation was carried out by analyzing the answers provided in the survey, which used a 5-point rating scale. In addition, the Belbin Team-Role Self-Perception Inventory and the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument were used. RESULTS. The results showed that respondents were reserved or limited in their individual capacities through this evaluation of their leadership competencies. The mean score was 3.47 (SD, 0.71). Skills in competency areas of communication, teamwork, and conflict management were scored higher (3.73 [SD, 0.67], 3.73 [SD, 0.62], and 3.53 [SD, 0.63], respectively). Most of executives preferred to choose action-oriented roles (76.2%). The most common role was "implementer" (69.1%). "Avoiding" (52.7%) was the most common conflict solving strategy. The results showed that 89.1% of executives wanted to improve teamwork; 83.6%, leadership competencies; 81.8%, communication; and 80.0%, conflict management. CONCLUSIONS. The study results suggest that the executives of Lithuanian public health institutions evaluate their leadership competencies moderately. These results indicate the value of leadership training for public health executives.

Lithuanian women actively participate in WIN

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Medeliene, D.

1999-01-01

WIN (Women in Nuclear) now has 900 members from 43 countries. Lithuanian women working at different institutions related with nuclear energy joined this international organization three years ago. Most of these women are working at the Ignalina NPP. It was women employed at the plant who became the first members of the national WIN team. The team has recently grown considerably. The new members are also mostly from the Ignalina NPP (author)

Barriers to cancer pain management in danish and lithuanian patients treated in pain and palliative care units

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jacobsen, Ramune; Samsanaviciene, Jurgita; Liubarskiene, Zita

2014-01-01

-related barriers to cancer pain management in patient samples from Denmark and Lithuania. Thirty-three Danish and 30 Lithuanian patients responded to, respectively, Danish and Lithuanian versions of the Brief Pain Inventory pain scale, the Barriers Questionnaire II, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale...

The Visual and the mythical-poetic interpretations of sky luminaries in Lithuanian traditional textiles

OpenAIRE

Tumėnas, Vytautas

2008-01-01

This paper analyses some interconnected aspects of Lithuanian folk astronomy. The same mythical-poetic images linking sky luminaries, things in the natural world, and mythological beings as well as human beings are present in Lithuanian mythical-poetic folklore and in the names of textile ornamentations. Their semiotic net generally comprises flowers, plants, wild and domestic animals, celestial luminaries and mythical people as well as human beings and their artefacts. The investigation of i...

Evaluation of the Impact of the EU Structural Support on the Competitiveness of Lithuanian Economics

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Rita Remeikiene

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Increasing amounts of the EU structural support in Lithuania require theoretical and practical research to disclose the determinants that have a significant impact on the competitiveness of Lithuanian economics. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the impact of the EU structural support on the competitiveness of Lithuanian economics. The methods of the research include systematic and comparative analysis of the scientific literature, expert evaluation and linear regression. The research disclosed the main determinants of country’s competitiveness. The results have revealed that EU structural support has the most significant impact on Lithuanian engineering and technological infrastructure. The impact of the support on country’s macroeconomic, scientific and social environment can also be considered as significant. The EU structural support has medium strong impact on education and business environment conditions in Lithuania. It has been established that, in the field of business advancement, Lithuanian should be rated as medium competitive. Hence, the increase in country’s competitiveness by employing EU structural funds should be treated as one of priority aims. In addition, responsible authorities should perform with higher efficiency seeking for higher competitiveness of the country.

Prevalence and severity of dental caries among 18-year-old Lithuanian adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Žemaitienė, Miglė; Grigalauskienė, Rūta; Vasiliauskienė, Ingrida; Saldūnaitė, Kristina; Razmienė, Jaunė; Slabšinskienė, Eglė

2016-01-01

The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence and severity of dental caries among 18-year-old Lithuanian adolescents and to disclose possible differences in the prevalence and severity of dental caries related to gender, urbanization, and different county. A total of 1063 18-year-old adolescents attending school, 427 boys and 636 girls from 10 Lithuanian counties including urban and rural areas, were included in the cross-sectional study on dental caries. The method of multistage cluster sampling was used. The dental examination was performed according to the methodology of oral status evaluation recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO). The prevalence of dental caries, DMFT score, Significant Caries Index, and dental care index were determined. The overall prevalence of dental caries among 18-year-old Lithuanian adolescents was 78.3%. The study population had a mean DMFT score of 2.93 [SD, 2.81]. Considering the gender, a higher DMFT score was observed among girls than boys (3.03 [SD, 2.88] versus 2.73 [SD, 2.71]) and in rural than urban areas (3.02 [SD, 2.98] versus 2.89 [SD, 2.73]). The Significant Caries Index and the dental care index among 18-year-old adolescents were 6.14 and 62.3%, respectively. This study showed a relatively high prevalence of dental caries. The existing differences of caries experience between the urban and the rural areas as well as between the counties could be influenced by the socioeconomic differences in the country. Copyright © 2016 The Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier Urban & Partner Sp. z o.o. All rights reserved.

THE RHET ORIC OF TRAVEL: PERSUASION TOOLS IN THE LITHUANIAN TRAVEL LITERATURE

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Gabrielė Gibavičienė

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Rhetoric which in the context of this research is seen not only as a structure of text but also as a structure of thought is presented in the article as a new universal way of researching Lithuanian travel literature discourse. Three popular Lithuanian travel books are chosen for this research – Kelionė į Jeruzalę (Journey to Jerusalem, 1601 by Mikalojus Kristupas Radvila Našlaitėlis, Svečiuose pas 40 tautų (At the Company of 40 Nations, 1935–1936 by Matas Šalčius, and Sapnuoju, kad einu (Dreaming the Path, 2014 by Jokūbas Vilius Tūras. The article presents the research of three persuasion tools ethos, logos and pathos in Lithuanian travel literature and how they are involved in successful communication process. The article reveals exactly how trusting the author and presenting actual traveller’s experience is connected with stimulating audience’s emotions and what part in this process is taken by the journey itself. The article also analyses how the enthymeme is involved in achieving persuasion and how it captures traveller’s views, communication guidelines and common features of different travel texts.

The Development of the Standard Lithuanian Language: Ecolinguistic Approach

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Vaida Buivydienė

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The theory of standard languages is closely linked with the standardization policy and prevailing ideology. The language ideology comprises its value, experience and convictions related to language usage and its dis - course being influenced at institutional, local and global levels. Recently, in the last decades, foreign linguists have linked the theories of the development of standard lan- guages and their ideologies with an ecolinguistic approach towards language standardization phenomena. The article is based on Einar Haugen ’s theory about the development of standard languages and ecolinguistic statements and presents the stages of developing the standard language as well as the factors having an influ - ence on them. In conclusion, a strong political and social impact has been made on the development of the standard Lithuanian language. The stages of the progress of the standard Lithuanian language have rapidly changed each other, some have been held very close to one another and some still have been taken part.

Evaluation of the Impact of Outsourcing on the Performance of Lithuanian Electricity Industry

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Ligita Gasparėnienė

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The article is aimed at evaluation of the impact of outsourcing on the performance of Lithuanian electricity industry. Research methods include systematic analysis of the scientific literature and expert evaluation. Theoretical analysis of the literature has enabled to identify the most significant outsourcing determinants, which have the impact on the performance of electricity industry, and the main outsourcing-related risks for the companies operating in this industry. The results of the empirical research have revealed the effects of various outsourcing determinants on the performance of Lithuanian electricity industry as well as negative outcomes of outsourcing application in the researched industry.

Time trends in social differences in nutrition habits of a Lithuanian population: 1994-2010

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Kriaucioniene Vilma

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background During the post-communist transition period, political, economic, and social changes affected the lifestyles of the Lithuanian population, including their nutritional habits. However, people of lower socio-economic position were more vulnerable to these changes. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the trends in selected food habits of the Lithuanian adult population by their level of education and place of residence from 1994 to 2010. Methods The data were obtained from nine biannual cross-sectional postal surveys of Lithuanian health behaviours, beginning in 1994. Each survey used a randomly selected nationally representative sample of 3000 inhabitants aged 20-64 drawn from the population register. In total, 7358 men and 9796 women participated in these surveys. Questions about food consumption were included within all health behaviour questionnaires. Results During the transition period, use of vegetable oil in cooking and the frequency of consumption of fresh vegetables increased, use of butter on bread decreased, and the proportion of women drinking high-fat milk declined. Lithuanians with higher education reported more frequent use of vegetable oil in cooking as well as daily consumption of fresh vegetables than those with a lower level of education. Consumption of high-fat milk was inversely associated with educational background. In addition, the proportion of persons spreading butter on bread increased with higher education level. The greatest urban-rural difference was observed in high-fat milk consumption. The increase in the use of vegetable oil in cooking, and the reduction of spreading butter on bread was more evident among less educated and rural inhabitants. Meanwhile, a greater proportion of the rural population, compared to urban, reduced their use of butter on bread. Daily consumption of fresh vegetables increased most among highly educated Lithuanians. Conclusions The data from our study indicate

Assessment of the Knowledge Acquisition Process in Lithuanian Insurance Sector

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Jurgita Raudeliūnienė

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Under the development of favourable globalization conditions, the demand for and importance of knowledge in the insurance sector are rapidly growing, which is characterized by the variety of insurance services and offered products as well as by a permanent change in efforts to efficiently meet the needs of society. Therefore, knowledge is becoming a unique factor that leads to the increased exclusivity of the organization in this particular sector when the recently acquired knowledge helps the employees of the company with efficiently performing work activities and creating for consumer advantages that can be hardly imitated by other insurance organizations. However, the process of knowledge acquisition will be worthless without efficient instruments for assessing the procedures leading to obtaining the necessary knowledge on demand and time. Every insurance organization in Lithuania tries to acquire the necessary knowledge on time in the most convenient way; however, researchers and business representatives feel a lack of tools for assessing and improving the knowledge acquisition process. According to scientific literature, a lack of complexity evaluating the knowledge acquisition process creates a precondition for developing instruments for the assessment of this process. The object of research is the evaluation of the knowledge acquisition process in the organizations of Lithuanian insurance sector. The goal of the article is to offer an integrated instrument of the knowledge acquisition process for the organization working in Lithuanian insurance sector. To achieve this goal, the following tasks have been implemented: the analysis of the theoretical aspects of the factors and methods of the knowledge acquisition process; the establishment of the factors specific to organizations in Lithuanian insurance sector for the purposes of assessing the knowledge acquisition process; the identification of the problematic areas of the knowledge

Employment of Lithuanian Statistical Data Into Tax-Benefit Micro-Simulation Models

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Viginta Ivaškaitė-Tamošiūnė

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In this study, we aim to assess the “best fit” of the existing Lithuanian micro-datasets for constructing a national micro-simulation model. Specifically, we compare and evaluate the potential of two (state level representative micro-data surveys in terms of their potential to simulate Lithuanian (direct taxes, social contributions and social benefits. Both selected datasets contain rich information on the socio-economic and demographical conditions of the country: the Household Budget Survey (HBS for the years 2004 and 2005 and the European Community Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC in Lithuania for the year 2005. The selected databases offer the most comprehensive range of income and other socio-demographic attributes, needed for simulation of tax and contributions’ payers/amounts and benefits’ recipients/amounts. The evaluation of the dataset capacity to simulate these measures is done by a comparative statistical analysis. Among the comparative categories are definitions (of households, incomes, survey collection modes, level of aggregation of various variables, demographic and incomes variables and corresponding numbers (amounts. The comparative analysis of the HBS and EU-SILC datasets shows, that despite embedded differences and shortages regarding simulation capacities of both surveys, these datasets contain valuable and sufficient information for the purpose of simulation of Lithuanian tax-benefit policies. In general a conclusion could be drawn, that HBS offers higher possibilities of simulating the Lithuanian tax-benefit system. This dataset contains more detailed national income categories (i.e. recipients of maternity/paternity insurance, diverse pensions, etc.— information on which is not available in the EU-SILC. The latter dataset does not contain national policy system specific components, but offer information on income aggregates, such all old-age pensions, social exclusion benefits, etc

Difficulties in emotion regulation and risky driving among Lithuanian drivers.

Science.gov (United States)

Šeibokaitė, Laura; Endriulaitienė, Auksė; Sullman, Mark J M; Markšaitytė, Rasa; Žardeckaitė-Matulaitienė, Kristina

2017-10-03

Risky driving is a common cause of traffic accidents and injuries. However, there is no clear evidence of how difficulties in emotion regulation contribute to risky driving behavior, particularly in small post-Soviet countries. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between difficulties in emotion regulation and self-reported risky driving behavior in a sample of Lithuanian drivers. A total of 246 nonprofessional Lithuanian drivers participated in a cross-sectional survey. Difficulties in emotion regulation were assessed using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz and Roemer 2004), and risky driving behavior was assessed using the Manchester Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ; Lajunen et al. 2004). Males scored higher than females in aggressive violations and ordinary violations. Females scored higher for the nonacceptance of emotional responses, whereas males had more difficulties with emotional awareness than females. More difficulties in emotion regulation were positively correlated with driving errors, lapses, aggressive violations, and ordinary violations for both males and females. Structural equation modeling showed that difficulties in emotion regulation explained aggressive and ordinary violations more clearly than lapses and errors. When controlling for interactions among the distinct regulation difficulties, difficulties with impulse control and difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior predicted risky driving. Furthermore, nonacceptance of emotional responses and limited access to emotion regulation strategies were related to less violations and more driving errors. Emotion regulation difficulties were associated with the self-reported risky driving behaviors of Lithuanian drivers. This provides useful hints for improving driver training programs in order to prevent traffic injuries.

The Financing and Personnel of the Lithuanian Army

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Jokubauskas Vytautas

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In 2014, at the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine and Russia‘s aggression against this neighboring country, Lithuania became concerned about the strengthening of its military capabilities, augmenting the National Defense System (NDS budget by almost 50% in two years. This may be considered unprecedented, if seen against the background of the presidential elections and those to the European Parliament, the fiscal discipline, the introduction of euro, as well as Russia‘s economic sanctions, the political decision in the course of 2014 on increasing the defense assignation by 130 million litas and in 2015 the increase by planned additional 356 million litas. This article analyzes two closely related problems of the Lithuanian NDS capabilities. First of all, changes in the NDS financing are explored in the context of permanent agreements of Lithuanian political parties concerning the allocation of 2% of the GDP for defense. This is followed by the discussion of the issues of military personnel staffing and training of the reserve as well as future challenges. This research contributes to the assessment of the critical NDS financing and staffing not only within academic circles but particularly among politicians and society in general. Additionally, it contributes to the awareness of the problems the army encountered in seeking to implement the objective set for it: to ensure the military security of the state. In the presence of the emerging threats in the region, this is of particularly great significance to the demilitarized and pacifist society of Lithuania. The article aims at identifying financing and personnel planning problems throughout a quarter of the century, ranging from the restoration of the Army of the Republic of Lithuania to 2014 inclusively. At the same time, the study encourages a discussion by the academic community on issues of the military security of the Lithuanian State and provides analyses as well as possible

Psychometric Properties of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS in a Lithuanian-speaking population

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Augustinas Rotomskis

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Research suggests that intolerance of uncertainty may be important in understanding worry and may play a key role in the etiology and maintenance of worry. Intolerance of uncertainty is measured using the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS, which has been shown to be reliable and valid in many studies. The aim of the present study was to develop a Lithuanian version of this instrument. 228 university students completed the scale. The Lithuanian version of the IUS was found to have good psychometric properties. The IUS showed high internal consistency and good test-retest reliability over a five-week period, and good convergent and divergent validity when assessed with measures of trait anxiety, situational anxiety, and depression. Factor analysis indicated that the IUS has a two-factor structure that represents the beliefs that “uncertainty about the future is unfair” and that “uncertainty has negative behavioral and self-referent implications”. In conclusion, it was found that the Lithuanian version of the IUS is a sound scale for assessing intolerance of uncertainty.

SHARP User Manual

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu, Y. Q. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Shemon, E. R. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Thomas, J. W. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Mahadevan, Vijay S. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Rahaman, Ronald O. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Solberg, Jerome [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2016-03-31

SHARP is an advanced modeling and simulation toolkit for the analysis of nuclear reactors. It is comprised of several components including physical modeling tools, tools to integrate the physics codes for multi-physics analyses, and a set of tools to couple the codes within the MOAB framework. Physics modules currently include the neutronics code PROTEUS, the thermal-hydraulics code Nek5000, and the structural mechanics code Diablo. This manual focuses on performing multi-physics calculations with the SHARP ToolKit. Manuals for the three individual physics modules are available with the SHARP distribution to help the user to either carry out the primary multi-physics calculation with basic knowledge or perform further advanced development with in-depth knowledge of these codes. This manual provides step-by-step instructions on employing SHARP, including how to download and install the code, how to build the drivers for a test case, how to perform a calculation and how to visualize the results. Since SHARP has some specific library and environment dependencies, it is highly recommended that the user read this manual prior to installing SHARP. Verification tests cases are included to check proper installation of each module. It is suggested that the new user should first follow the step-by-step instructions provided for a test problem in this manual to understand the basic procedure of using SHARP before using SHARP for his/her own analysis. Both reference output and scripts are provided along with the test cases in order to verify correct installation and execution of the SHARP package. At the end of this manual, detailed instructions are provided on how to create a new test case so that user can perform novel multi-physics calculations with SHARP. Frequently asked questions are listed at the end of this manual to help the user to troubleshoot issues.

SHARP User Manual

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, Y. Q.; Shemon, E. R.; Thomas, J. W.; Mahadevan, Vijay S.; Rahaman, Ronald O.; Solberg, Jerome

2016-01-01

SHARP is an advanced modeling and simulation toolkit for the analysis of nuclear reactors. It is comprised of several components including physical modeling tools, tools to integrate the physics codes for multi-physics analyses, and a set of tools to couple the codes within the MOAB framework. Physics modules currently include the neutronics code PROTEUS, the thermal-hydraulics code Nek5000, and the structural mechanics code Diablo. This manual focuses on performing multi-physics calculations with the SHARP ToolKit. Manuals for the three individual physics modules are available with the SHARP distribution to help the user to either carry out the primary multi-physics calculation with basic knowledge or perform further advanced development with in-depth knowledge of these codes. This manual provides step-by-step instructions on employing SHARP, including how to download and install the code, how to build the drivers for a test case, how to perform a calculation and how to visualize the results. Since SHARP has some specific library and environment dependencies, it is highly recommended that the user read this manual prior to installing SHARP. Verification tests cases are included to check proper installation of each module. It is suggested that the new user should first follow the step-by-step instructions provided for a test problem in this manual to understand the basic procedure of using SHARP before using SHARP for his/her own analysis. Both reference output and scripts are provided along with the test cases in order to verify correct installation and execution of the SHARP package. At the end of this manual, detailed instructions are provided on how to create a new test case so that user can perform novel multi-physics calculations with SHARP. Frequently asked questions are listed at the end of this manual to help the user to troubleshoot issues.

Employment of Lithuanian Statistical Data Into Tax-Benefit Micro-Simulation Models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Viginta Ivaškaitė-Tamošiūnė

2012-07-01

Full Text Available In this study, we aim to assess the “best fit” of the existing Lithuanian micro-datasets for constructing a national micro-simulation model. Specifically, we compare and evaluate the potential of two (state level representative micro-data surveys in terms of their potential to simulate Lithuanian (direct taxes, social contributions and social benefits. Both selected datasets contain rich information on the socio-economic and demographical conditions of the country: the Household Budget Survey (HBS for the years 2004 and 2005 and the European Community Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC in Lithuania for the year 2005. The selected databases offer the most comprehensive range of income and other socio-demographic attributes, needed for simulation of tax and contributions’ payers/amounts and benefits’ recipients/amounts. The evaluation of the dataset capacity to simulate these measures is done by a comparative statistical analysis. Among the comparative categories are definitions (of households, incomes, survey collection modes, level of aggregation of various variables, demographic and incomes variables and corresponding numbers (amounts.The comparative analysis of the HBS and EU-SILC datasets shows, that despite embedded differences and shortages regarding simulation capacities of both surveys, these datasets contain valuable and sufficient information for the purpose of simulation of Lithuanian tax-benefit policies.In general a conclusion could be drawn, that HBS offers higher possibilities of simulating the Lithuanian tax-benefit system. This dataset contains more detailed national income categories (i.e. recipients of maternity/paternity insurance, diverse pensions, etc.— information on which is not available in the EU-SILC. The latter dataset does not contain national policy system specific components, but offer information on income aggregates, such all old-age pensions, social exclusion benefits, etc. Additionally

Measuring systemic performance of the Lithuanian government

OpenAIRE

Nakrošis, Vitalis

2008-01-01

This paper seeks assessing the dynamics of Lithuania's governmental perfor­mance and comparing it to other countries. It draws on a simple logical model, linking the inputs of the government to its outputs and outcomes. It was found that performance of the Lithuanian government is average and even poor, if compared with the EU aver­age or such countries as Estonia and Ireland. This is despite the fact the public mode of production is rather expensive in Lithuania and the number of public empl...

CONSTRUCTING SERVICE DISCOURSES IN LITHUANIAN FAMILY SOCIAL WORK

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Roberta Motiečienė

2016-09-01

Full Text Available In this paper, family social work is constructed through the analysis of social service discourses from the social workers’ perspective. Recent research shows how social workers are dealing with complex and fluid issues, as well as the societal uncertainty in their work with families (e.g., Spratt, 2009; Menéndez et al., 2015. Based on earlier studies, it is vital to analyse family social work in different contextual settings. Societal, political and organisational contexts affect the preconditions of social work, but social work also needs to operate within structures (e.g., Pohjola et al., 2014. This paper provides insights into the Lithuanian family social work. The focus is on what kinds of features construct Socialinis darbas su šeima Roberta Motiečienė, Merja Laitinen 12 family social work by analysing social workers’ discourses. This analysis continues the research of Eidukevičiūtė (2013, who analysed family social work practices in transitional Lithuanian society. This researcher aimed to deepen the knowledge about child protection services in Lithuania, the father’s role in child care and the mother’s performance in it. According to Eidukevičiūtė (2013, social workers are still struggling in the field of family social work. This study continues the research tradition in the field of family social work, paying attention to the different contextual settings where family social work is conducted. The Lithuanian government has stated that family policy is a key component of its mandate where (Social Report, 2014. The Council of Social Work plays a very important role in providing guidance on how to implement the government’s policy in the field of family social work. The European Commission Council (2015 provides recommendations for the implementation of the 2015 National Reform Programme, which should concentrate on the people (30% of the total population who are at risk of poverty. The council recommends working on

Sharpening Sharpe Ratios

OpenAIRE

William N. Goetzmann; Jonathan E. Ingersoll Jr.; Matthew I. Spiegel; Ivo Welch

2002-01-01

It is now well known that the Sharpe ratio and other related reward-to-risk measures may be manipulated with option-like strategies. In this paper we derive the general conditions for achieving the maximum expected Sharpe ratio. We derive static rules for achieving the maximum Sharpe ratio with two or more options, as well as a continuum of derivative contracts. The optimal strategy has a truncated right tail and a fat left tail. We also derive dynamic rules for increasing the Sharpe ratio. O...

The colours in Lithuanian and French proverbs

OpenAIRE

Kosova, Svetlana; Klanauskaitė, Paula

2015-01-01

The aim of the article is a comparison of Lithuanian and French proverbs by choosing the names of colours as the main aspect. This is to some extent a new way of analysing proverbs with colour as the key word. Seven main aspects of proverbs are mentioned in the article supported by an analysis and comparison of proverbs in both languages. Two different dictionaries have been used for the research: K. Grigas, L. Kudirkienė, R. Kašetienė, G. Radvilas ir D. Zaikauskienė Lietuvių P...

The Analysis of Development in Lithuanian Economy and Business

OpenAIRE

Jakutis, Algirdas

2006-01-01

In this article development tendencies of Lithuanian economy and business are analyzed. The paper examines the most important causes of gross domestic product changes since restoration of Lithuania's independence. Processes of privatization, their influence on business are analyzed. A brief analysis of development trends of small and medium-sized business in presented. Business development process is analyzed, technological indicators suggested. The article considers business financing issues...

Implementation of CLIL in Lithuanian Secondary Schools: a Case Study

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Vilma Bijeikienė

2015-06-01

Full Text Available In view of the existing research into the implementation of CLIL in Lithuania, it can be claimed that this wellestablished and globally applied teaching and learning methodology has already had some due appreciation in Lithuanian secondary schools. Nevertheless, there still exist numerous obstacles to the broader and more intensive application of CLIL which is strongly lagging behind in comparison to many other countries in Europe and world-wide. The present study aims at exploring the rich experience in CLIL implementation accumulated by Šiauliai Didždvario gymnasium and examining their multifaceted CLIL module which could be an important source of knowledge and practical know-how for other Lithuanian secondary education institutions planning to start implementing CLIL. The research follows a synthesis of qualitative and quantitative methodology including interviews with CLIL teachers, students and school administration. The study results in a SWOT analysis of implementing CLIL in Lithuania on the basis of CLIL practices at Šiauliai Didždvario gymnasium and sets forth some guidelines for its further advancement.

A Note on the Lithuanian 2nd Sg. Ending "-ai."

Science.gov (United States)

Schmalstieg, William R.

1980-01-01

Discusses an attempt by Chr. S. Stang to establish a proto-Lithuanian present paradigm for the verb "megti" (to like), questioning the existence of the second singular form "-ai." Argues that the few examples of this form, all from a single Bible translation source, afford shaky support for its existence. (Executive Office of the AABS, 231 Miller…

Relation between traumatic experience and post-traumatic symptomatics in Lithuanian Afghanistan war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder

OpenAIRE

Domanskaitė Gota, Vėjūnė; Gailienė, Danutė; Kazlauskas, Evaldas

2009-01-01

The aim of this paper is to assess what potential traumatic life-events and experiences are related to PTSD in the Lithuanian Afghanistan war veterans (N = 174). [...]. The following variables were investigated: demographics, traumatic life-events or conditions, PTSD and sub-clinical level of PTSD.The Lithuanian Afghanistan war veterans with PTSD and sub-clinical level of PTSD reported significantly more lifetime traumatic events and conditions. The average number of traumatic events per man ...

SHARP Multiphysics Tutorials

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yu, Y. Q. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Shemon, E. R. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Mahadevan, Vijay S. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Rahaman, Ronald O. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

2016-02-29

SHARP, developed under the NEAMS Reactor Product Line, is an advanced modeling and simulation toolkit for the analysis of advanced nuclear reactors. SHARP is comprised of three physics modules currently including neutronics, thermal hydraulics, and structural mechanics. SHARP empowers designers to produce accurate results for modeling physical phenomena that have been identified as important for nuclear reactor analysis. SHARP can use existing physics codes and take advantage of existing infrastructure capabilities in the MOAB framework and the coupling driver/solver library, the Coupled Physics Environment (CouPE), which utilizes the widely used, scalable PETSc library. This report aims at identifying the coupled-physics simulation capability of SHARP by introducing the demonstration example called sahex in advance of the SHARP release expected by Mar 2016. sahex consists of 6 fuel pins with cladding, 1 control rod, sodium coolant and an outer duct wall that encloses all the other components. This example is carefully chosen to demonstrate the proof of concept for solving more complex demonstration examples such as EBR II assembly and ABTR full core. The workflow of preparing the input files, running the case and analyzing the results is demonstrated in this report. Moreover, an extension of the sahex model called sahex_core, which adds six homogenized neighboring assemblies to the full heterogeneous sahex model, is presented to test homogenization capabilities in both Nek5000 and PROTEUS. Some primary information on the configuration and build aspects for the SHARP toolkit, which includes capability to auto-download dependencies and configure/install with optimal flags in an architecture-aware fashion, is also covered by this report. A step-by-step instruction is provided to help users to create their cases. Details on these processes will be provided in the SHARP user manual that will accompany the first release.

SHARP Multiphysics Tutorials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu, Y. Q.; Shemon, E. R.; Mahadevan, Vijay S.; Rahaman, Ronald O.

2016-01-01

SHARP, developed under the NEAMS Reactor Product Line, is an advanced modeling and simulation toolkit for the analysis of advanced nuclear reactors. SHARP is comprised of three physics modules currently including neutronics, thermal hydraulics, and structural mechanics. SHARP empowers designers to produce accurate results for modeling physical phenomena that have been identified as important for nuclear reactor analysis. SHARP can use existing physics codes and take advantage of existing infrastructure capabilities in the MOAB framework and the coupling driver/solver library, the Coupled Physics Environment (CouPE), which utilizes the widely used, scalable PETSc library. This report aims at identifying the coupled-physics simulation capability of SHARP by introducing the demonstration example called sahex in advance of the SHARP release expected by Mar 2016. sahex consists of 6 fuel pins with cladding, 1 control rod, sodium coolant and an outer duct wall that encloses all the other components. This example is carefully chosen to demonstrate the proof of concept for solving more complex demonstration examples such as EBR II assembly and ABTR full core. The workflow of preparing the input files, running the case and analyzing the results is demonstrated in this report. Moreover, an extension of the sahex model called sahex c ore, which adds six homogenized neighboring assemblies to the full heterogeneous sahex model, is presented to test homogenization capabilities in both Nek5000 and PROTEUS. Some primary information on the configuration and build aspects for the SHARP toolkit, which includes capability to auto-download dependencies and configure/install with optimal flags in an architecture-aware fashion, is also covered by this report. A step-by-step instruction is provided to help users to create their cases. Details on these processes will be provided in the SHARP user manual that will accompany the first release.

Changing role of management accounting : Lithuanian experience case studies

OpenAIRE

Valančienė, Loreta; Gimžauskienė, Edita

2007-01-01

Concepts and methods used in management accounting are similar all over the world. However, national studies suggest that a variable environment of organization has a direct impact on changes in management accounting. The aim of the article was to show how the role of management accounting changed in Lithuanian organizations after the implementation of systems for activity based cost management (ABCM) and balanced scorecard (BSC). The study results obtained suggest that the role of management...

Authorship attribution and author profiling of Lithuanian literary texts

OpenAIRE

Kapočiūtė-Dzikienė, Jurgita; Utka, Andrius; Šarkutė, Ligita

2015-01-01

In this work we are solving authorship attribution and author profiling tasks (by focusing on the age and gender dimensions) for the Lithuanian language. This paper reports the first results on literary texts, which we compared to the results, previously obtained with different functional styles and language types (i.e., parliamentary transcripts and forum posts). Using the Naïve Bayes Multinomial and Support Vector Machine methods we investigated an impact of...

Sugar amount analysis in food from Lithuanian food market

OpenAIRE

Gudauskaitė, Milda

2015-01-01

When taking too much simple sugar, especially sucrose, harmful health effects occur: more tooth decay occurs, the excess sugar coverts into fat, digestive system gets irritated, increase of weight, possibility in increasing of developing cancer cells, pancreatic and other misbalances in the endocrine organs. Thesis goal: to perform sugar amount analysis in Lithuanian food market Analysis methodology. Assessing the amount of sugar (g/100g) there was analyzed 147 major food la...

Istoricheskie aspekty razvitija rossijsko-litovskih jekonomicheskih otnoshenij i sovremennost' [The historical aspects and current issues of the development of Russian-Lithuanian economic relations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kretinin Gannady

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This article focuses on development of Russian-Lithuanian economic ties. The research and practical significance of this study lies in the identification of the sources of modern Russian-Lithuanian economic cooperation and the prospects of future mutually beneficial economic relations. The first attempt at establishing economic relations was made in 1919. However, young Lithuanian Republic gravitated towards the West, severing ties with the Russian market. However, the initiatives of Lithuanian authorities did not result in successful state building, and the economic situation remained unchanged. The USSR leadership made an effort to improve the living conditions in post-war Lithuania. There were some mistakes made in the relations with the local population that resulted in Lithuanians’ resistance to sovietisation. However, in the conditions of post-war restoration of national economy and acute deficit of material and human resources, the Soviet leadership managed not only to reform and develop a socialistic economy in Lithuania but also to turn it into an industrial republic with developed agriculture and modern manufacturing facilities, whose major industries manufactured products used in nuclear and space technologies, aviation and navigation. The research shows that the post-Soviet period led to a dramatic change in Russian-Lithuanian economic relations; however, these relations retained potential for future development.

Main trends of energy savings in dwelling houses for Lithuanian conditions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stankevicius, V.; Karbauskaite, J.; Dapkus, G. [Institute of Architecture and construction (Lithuania)

1995-12-31

Incentive measures for efficient consumption of energy in buildings in Lithuania, were presented. Statistics have shown that the average annual building heat losses are 350 kW/sq.m of heated area. It was estimated, that if every building was insulated according to the requirements of the Lithuanian National Building Code, the annual energy savings would be in the order of 50 to 60 percent. Essential energy saving measures with due regard to Lithuania`s current financial and technical resources were detailed. It was suggested that installing energy efficient windows would be the cheapest and most effective measure to begin energy conservation. The addition of effective insulation of external walls would be a favoured but more costly measure, especially as far as insulating existing houses is concerned. The pay-back period of adding extra insulation was also described, although this option is not of the highest priority. It was suggested that a system of special incentives, if offered by the Lithuanian government, could prove to be powerful motivators to carry out these energy saving measures. 2 tabs., 1 fig.

[Associations between mortality and alcohol consumption in Lithuanian population].

Science.gov (United States)

Grabauskas, Vilius; Prochorskas, Remigijus; Veryga, Aurelijus

2009-01-01

The objective of the study was to assess alcohol-related mortality that potentially might explain an increasing trend in overall mortality of Lithuanian population, which started after 2000 and peaked in 2005. An empiric analysis of national mortality and other statistical data as well as their international comparisons. An analysis of available data clearly indicates that a decline in mortality in 1998-2000, i.e. during the beginning of the National Programme of Health, as well as its increase in 2001 and 2005 were predominantly determined by cause-specific deaths of two groups: deaths from diseases of the circulatory system (mainly ischemic heart disease) and alcohol consumption-related deaths (liver cirrhosis, accidental poisoning by alcohol, accidents, etc.). A certain proportion of deaths, which were caused by alcohol, were wrongly assigned to the deaths from diseases of the circulatory system due to uncertainties in filling-in death certificates. By approximate estimates, at least one-quarter of increase in all-cause mortality between 2002-2004 and 2005-2007 could be explained by an increase in alcohol consumption, accounting for additional 880 deaths on average per year. In the year 2007, 12.6% (n=5760) of all deaths were somehow related to alcohol consumption. A comparative analysis demonstrated that mortality and alcohol consumption trends were going in parallel over the last decade. The systemic decline in mortality observed in Lithuania from 1995 stopped in 2000 after a decrease in alcohol taxes, which resulted in an increase in alcohol accessibility and consumption. An average annual increase in alcohol consumption over the period of 2001-2004 was 7%; it increased up to 17% in 2005 and accounted for 12% annual increase on average within 2005-2007. Negative trends in alcohol-related morbidity and mortality in Lithuanian population most notably registered in 2001 and 2005 were largely influenced by uncontrollable increase in alcohol consumption over the

Renewable energy in the Lithuanian heating sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Konstantinaviciute, Inga; Bobinaite, Viktorija; Tarvydas, Dalius; Gatautis, Ramunas

2013-01-01

The paper analyses the role of renewable energy sources (RES) in the Lithuanian heating sector and the existing support measures. RES consumption has been continuously growing in Lithuania. During the period of 2000–2009, RES used for heat production in the district heating sector increased more than 4 times. Wood and wood products have been the most widely used RES for heat production (RES-H). The lower prices were one of the main reasons which motivated district heating companies to switch fuel to biomass. At the same time subsidies, soft loans, EU Structural Funds for 2007–2013 and some fiscal measures, which are currently available for RES-H promotion, also have some impact on the increase of RES consumption. However, seeking to achieve a 23% national RES target, additional support measures are essential. A qualitative analysis based on the selected set of criteria and consultation with stakeholders showed that energy policy package for RES promotion in the Lithuanian heating sector could encompass the following measures: tax relieves (differentiated VAT and personal income tax breaks), subsidies, soft loans, standardization, support for research, development and demonstration. These measures are market-oriented and meet cost efficiency and low transaction costs criteria. - Highlights: • Existing support measures are not strongly motivating market players. • In order to meet ambitious 23% targets consistent promotion policy package is required. • The proposed package could consist of 4 instruments: tax related, soft loans, standardization and support for RD and D. • The proposed support measures are market oriented and meets cost efficiency and low transaction costs criteria. • There is no single measure that is fairly suitable to support RES-H

Periodontal status in 18-year-old Lithuanian adolescents: An epidemiological study

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Eglė Bendoraitienė

2017-01-01

Conclusions: The results of our study showed that the periodontal and oral hygiene status of 18-year-old Lithuanian population could be characterized as poor. In total, 77.1% of the study participants were found to have periodontal conditions such as gum bleeding, dental calculus, and shallow pockets. The anterior teeth of the mandible were most frequently affected.

The “Father’s Sons”: The Elite of the Kazan Khanate in the Lithuanian Metrica

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V.V. Trepavlov

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Research objective: Analysis of the phrase otetskie deti (“father’s sons” in the Register Book of the Lithuanian metrics (Lithuanian Metrica as designations of the military service class of the Kazan khanate. Research materials: The 7th Register Book of the Lithuanian Metrica, Russian chronicles, the chronicles of Kïrïmi and Ötemish-Hajji, the works of S. Herberstein, A. Kurbsky, Maciej of Miechów, Mahmud al-Kashgari, A. Olearius. Results and novelty of the research: The 7th Register Book of the Lithuanian Metrics contains a translation of a message from the Crimean khan, Muhammad Giray, to the Polish King and Lithuanian Grand Duke Sigizmund I. In this letter, there is a reiteration of the requests of the inhabitants of the Kazan Khanate addressed to Muhammad Giray to send them one of his relatives to reign over them. The Kazanians wrote that they had twenty thousand otetskie deti (“father’s sons” and countless Mordovians and Cheremisses, all of whom were ready to submit (to be “slaves” to the ruler of the Crimea. The author of the article seeks the meaning of this term and looks for a putative Turkic equivalent to the exp­ression otetskie deti as well as the reasons for the presence of the Mordovians and Cheremisses in this document. The word “otetskii” (paternal had a wide range of usages in the Russian language of the 16th century – in the State of Muscovy and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. One of its meanings was “belonging to an ancient, noble family”. The instances quoted by the author show a socio-cultural universality, which combined paternity, noble origin and elite status in a single notion. The author hypothesizes that the phrase “otetskie deti” in the Russian translation could replace the concept of “Tatars” in its social meaning, as a symbol of the military strata of the population of the Kazan khanate. Mention of the Mordovians and the Cheremisses in the Kazan message reflected the positive

Lithuanian Population Aging Factors Analysis

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Agnė Garlauskaitė

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to identify the factors that determine aging of Lithuania’s population and to assess the influence of these factors. The article shows Lithuanian population aging factors analysis, which consists of two main parts: the first describes the aging of the population and its characteristics in theoretical terms. Second part is dedicated to the assessment of trends that influence the aging population and demographic factors and also to analyse the determinants of the aging of the population of Lithuania. After analysis it is concluded in the article that the decline in the birth rate and increase in the number of emigrants compared to immigrants have the greatest impact on aging of the population, so in order to show the aging of the population, a lot of attention should be paid to management of these demographic processes.

Seasonal Trends in Lithuanian Stock Market

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Žaneta Simanavičienė

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Purpose of the article is to disentangle different calendar effects which leave efficiency holes in Lithuanian market. This paper presents and tests if commonly described seasonal patterns exist in Lithuanian stock market. Analysis of three different sections: period-of-the-year; week-of-the-month and day-of-the-week, suggests that calendar effects do exist in this market. The multitude of explanations for the seasonal effect leaves the reader confused about its primary cause(s: is it tax-loss selling, window dressing, information, bid-ask bounce, or a combination of these causes? The confusion arises, in part, because evidence has generally been presented in support of a particular hypothesis though the same evidence may be consistent with another hypothesis. Methodology/methods are logical and systemic analysis of research literature based on the comparative and generalization methods as well as statistical methods. Scientific aim of the article is the lack of arguments questioning if market prices operating system is fully effective. Novelty of the paper is to the answer to the question what seasonal anomalies are also present in the stock market of new open economy countries. Findings show that using this modified strategy investor could achieve 20.7% compounded annual growth rate versus 7.8% achieved using simply holding stocks throughout. The hypothesis asserts that returns generally will be greater following the “January effect”. There is limited amount of data for constructing robust seasonal strategies so we modified Buy and Hold strategy with simple rules of using best and worst months to show how they influence OMXV index performance. In the conclusions, empirical results using stock index returns for 2000 - 2010 support the hypothesis in Lithuaian stock market. Abnormal activity of OMXV index’s performance is found in the end of summer and throughout autumn. August is best performer of the year while October is

The Analysis of English and Lithuanian Idioms and the Problems of Their Translation

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Jelena Suchanova

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The paper considers the problems associated with comprehension and translation of idioms within the framework of the theory of linguistic relativity and the translation theories. The main statements of these theories used for explaining the difficulties of idioms’ translation from/into the English or Lithuanian language are presented. The considered problems are analysed from various perspectives. Case studies, demonstrating different nomination principles used in English and Lithuanian due to different approaches of the native speakers of these languages to the same objects or ‘pieces’ of reality are provided. The comparative analysis of English and Lithuanian idioms as the most interesting and peculiar expressions of a language, showing its unique character, is performed and the arising difficulties and the available techniques of idioms’ translation are demonstrated, taking into account the main statements of the theories of linguistic relativity and translation. Special attention is paid to idioms, whose main ideas are expressed differently in the considered languages and, therefore, present many difficulties to non-native speakers. The influence of traditions, culture, the environment and other factors on the form and contents of the idioms in each of the considered languages is also shown. The analysis performed demonstrates the effectiveness of the theory of linguistic relativity in explaining the nature and causes of the arising comprehension and translation problems, as well as its possibilities to give a translator a native speaker’s insight and help him\\her avoid some typical errors. The recommendations of how to make a translation of idioms more accurate and authentic by using the appropriate translation techniques are also given.

The "True and fair view" concept in Lithuanian accounting regulation

OpenAIRE

Rudžionienė, Kristina; Christauskas, Česlovas

2010-01-01

The "true and fair view" concept is very popular in the professional accountants’ language. After theoretical analysis of the "true and fair view" concept it was made research how understanding of this concept was created in Lithuanian accounting regulation. The stated purpose of financial statements is taken from the United Kingdom, and is different in the particular formulation. Additionally, it is not explained anywhere what it is and how to reach it. There are not specifically defined qua...

Professional burnout and its correlates in Lithuanian neurosurgeons.

Science.gov (United States)

Pranckeviciene, Aiste; Tamasauskas, Arimantas; Deltuva, Vytenis Pranas; Bunevicius, Adomas

2016-08-01

This study aimed to evaluate prevalence and severity of professional burnout in a sample of Lithuanian neurosurgeons and to analyze its personal, interpersonal, and organizational correlates. Thirty-one out of 79 (response rate 39 %) Lithuanian neurosurgeons participated in the study. Professional burnout was evaluated using the Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey. Participants also answered questions about professional stressors, sources of professional dissatisfaction, life-style factors, sickness absenteeism/presenteeism, and professional practice. The majority of neurosurgeons were between 41 and 60 years of age (48 %), were married (97 %), had children (84 %). Most neurosurgeons had 20 or more years of professional experience (54.9 %), worked from 41 to 60 h per week (58 %), and performed up to 150 surgeries per year (77.4 %). Eight (26 %) neurosurgeons reported a high level of emotional exhaustion, five (16 %) reported high level of cynicism, and eight (26 %) reported low professional efficacy. Correlation analyses revealed that higher number of surgeries per year, more hours devoted to clinical work, opportunities for professional development, intellectual challenges at work, appreciation by the patients and prestige of the profession were related to lower level of burnout. Greater general workload, unpredictability of the work schedule, lack of necessary technical equipment, dissatisfaction with colleagues, and uncertainty about the future were related to a higher level of burnout. Burnout was reported by one-quarter of neurosurgeons who chose to participate in the study. Personal, interpersonal, and organizational factors arising while fulfilling professional duties were important correlates of neurosurgeons' burnout. Due to the moderate response rate, our results should be interpreted with caution. Larger studies evaluating burnout among European neurosurgeons are needed.

Prevalence of C282Y, H63D, and S65C mutations in hereditary HFE-hemochromatosis gene in Lithuanian population.

Science.gov (United States)

Kucinskas, Laimutis; Juzenas, Simonas; Sventoraityte, Jurgita; Cedaviciute, Ruta; Vitkauskiene, Astra; Kalibatas, Vytenis; Kondrackiene, Jurate; Kupcinskas, Limas

2012-04-01

HFE-hemochromatosis is a common autosomal recessive disease caused by HFE gene mutations and characterized as iron overload and failure of different organs. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of C282Y (c.845 G>A), H63D (c.187 C>G), and S65C (c.193A>T) alleles of HFE gene in the Lithuanian population. One thousand and eleven healthy blood donors of Lithuanian nationality were examined in four different ethnic Lithuanian regions to determine HFE gene alleles and genotype frequencies. The samples of DNA were analyzed for the presence of restriction fragment length polymorphism and validated by DNA sequencing. Among 1,011 blood donors tested, the frequency of C282Y, H63D, and S65C alleles were 2.6%, 15.9%, and 1.9%, respectively. One third of the tested subjects (n = 336) had at least one of the C282Y or H63D HFE gene mutations. The screening of Lithuanian blood donors has detected 13 (1.3%) subjects with a genotype C282Y/C282Y or C282Y/H63D responsible for the development of HFE-hemochromatosis. The prevalence of C282Y mutation was significantly higher among the inhabitants of Zemaitija (Somogitia) at the Baltic Sea area (5.9%) in comparison to the regions of continental part of Lithuania (2.4% in Dzukija, 2.3% in Aukstaitija, and 2% in Suvalkija, p HFE gene mutations in ethnic Lithuanians showed that the frequencies of H63D, C282Y, and S65C of HFE gene alleles are similar to the other North-Eastern Europeans, especially in the Baltic region (Estonia, Latvia), Poland, and part of Russia (Moscow region).

Sharps container

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Angelene M. (Inventor)

1992-01-01

This invention relates to a system for use in disposing of potentially hazardous items and more particularly a Sharps receptacle for used hypodermic needles and the like. A Sharps container is constructed from lightweight alodined nonmagnetic metal material with a cup member having an elongated tapered shape and length greater than its transverse dimensions. A magnet in the cup member provides for metal retention in the container. A nonmagnetic lid member has an opening and spring biased closure flap member. The flap member is constructed from stainless steel. A Velcro patch on the container permits selective attachment at desired locations.

Research NoteEffect of drought and fires on the quality of water in Lithuanian rivers

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G. Sakalauskiene

2003-01-01

Full Text Available In August and September 2002, concentrations of heavy metals (copper, lead, and zinc were 21-74% more than in previous years in Lithuanian rivers. Such a sudden increase in heavy metal pollution reduces the value of any water body for fishing or recreation and poses a potential risk to the environment and to human health. Droughts in the summer of 2002 led to forest and peat bog fires all over Lithuania and may have caused the increase in concentrations of heavy metals detected in Lithuanian rivers in August 2002. The fires could have changed the pH in the top layers of the soil, overcome geochemical barriers in the soil and enabled heavy metals to migrate from the soil to the groundwater and from river bottom sediments to the surface water. Keywords: heavy metals, river water quality, Lithuania

Almost sharp quantum effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arias, Alvaro; Gudder, Stan

2004-01-01

Quantum effects are represented by operators on a Hilbert space satisfying 0≤A≤I, and sharp quantum effects are represented by projection operators. We say that an effect A is almost sharp if A=PQP for projections P and Q. We give simple characterizations of almost sharp effects. We also characterize effects that can be written as longer products of projections. For generality we first work in the formalism of von Neumann algebras. We then specialize to the full operator algebra B(H) and to finite dimensional Hilbert spaces

A 38-year Summary of Raptor Banding at Hawk Ridge, Duluth, Minnesota, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Consistent banding of raptors at Hawk Ridge was initiated in 1972 and has continued for 38 years to the present. A total of 99,505 raptors or 2,619 per year have been banded at Hawk Ridge including 23 different species. The majority of birds banded were Sharp-shinned Hawks (Acci...

Lithuanian requirements for ageing management of systems and components important to safety of nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramanauskiene, A.

2000-01-01

In this paper the Lithuanian requirements for ageing management of systems and components important to safety of Ignalina nuclear power plant (two RBMK-1500 water-cooled graphite moderated channel-type power reactors) are presented

Globalization drivers and their impact on Lithuanian economic growth and development

OpenAIRE

Jatuliavičienė, Gražina; Kučinskienė, Marija

2005-01-01

The accelerating changes of business environment raise the necessity of new perception of economic development in long-term perspective and evaluation of the globalization of markets, which has been manifesting itself quite rapidly. The driving force behind the globalization processes, which are encouraged by the growing market needs and reducing trade barriers between national economies, is the global economy. Is the present-day position of Lithuanian companies, when entering the new global ...

Visualization of consumption in Lithuanian advertising graphics in the interwar year

OpenAIRE

Povilionytė, Rima

2003-01-01

During the interwar, Lithuanian advertising was mostly developed in periodic press; advertisements in periodic press became a part of everyday life for various social classes. Visual side of graphical design of advertising strongly affected consciousness of consumers, but artistic and aesthetic value of it often was treated as an instrument of achieving commercial objectives. Thus, more interesting artistic solutions were chosen in exceptional cases only. In response to the requirement of the...

Klausimų forma ir funkcijos lietuvių ir rusų vaikiškojoje kalboje. Forms and functions of interrogatives in Lithuanian and Russian motherese

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Ingrida Balčiūnienė

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The paper focuses on adult interrogatives, which appear to be among the most frequent and typical ways of communicating with young children. The main objective of the investigation is to identify and compare the variety and distribution of interrogatives in Lithuanian and Russian motherese. The analysis is based on the data of a longitudinal observation of a Lithuanian girl Monika (2;0–2;8 and a Russian boy Vanja (2;0–2;8. The transcribed corpus of conversations between children and their parents was annotated for a multipurpose automatic linguistic analysis using tools of the program CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System, MacWhinney 1991. Despite several differences (the general number of questions, and the dominant forms of indirect correction, it can be stated that interrogatives in both Russian and Lithuanian motherese are generally used for the same conversational strategies; the communicative strategies in the two languages seem to be similar or even identical. Moreover, during the observation period, the conversational strategies in both Russian and Lithuanian motherese developed in a similar way. This calls for a general conclusion that a correlation between parental conversational strategy and the type of language can be identified.

Lithuanian female physicists: Reality and plans for the future

Science.gov (United States)

Šatkovskienė, Dalia; Giriunienė, Ramutė; Ruželė, Živilė; Rutkunienė, Živilė

2013-03-01

Changes in the issue of women in physics in Lithuanian in the three years since the 3rd IUPAP International Conference on Women in Physics are discussed on the basis of statistics as well as an exploratory study recently conducted among women physicists. The situation has changed slowly since 2008. However, the study shows that women physicists more clearly understand the inequities and the need for changes, including an active European Union mainstreaming policy targeted to ensure gender equality in the sciences, which gives hope for accelerating changes. Continued plans for improving women physicists' situation in Lithuania are discussed.

A UWB Band-Pass Antenna with Triple-Notched Band Using Common Direction Rectangular Complementary Split-Ring Resonators

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Bo Yan

2013-01-01

Full Text Available A novel ultrawideband (UWB antenna which has a triple-band notch function is presented. The proposed antenna can block interfering signals from C-band satellite communication systems, IEEE802.11a, and HIPERLAN/2 WLAN systems for example. The antenna is excited by using novel common direction rectangular complementary split-ring resonators (CSRR fabricated on radiating patch of the dielectric substrate with coplanar waveguide (CPW feed strip line. The voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR of the proposed antenna is less than 2.0 in the frequency band from 2.8 to 12 GHz, while showing a very sharp band-rejection performance at 3.9 GHz, 5.2 GHz, and 5.9 GHz. The measurement results show that the proposed antenna provides good omnidirectional field pattern over its whole frequency band excluding the rejected band, which is suitable for UWB applications.

ADDITIONS TO THE RETROSPECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LITHUANIAN BOOKS AND THEIR SOURCES

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Kaunas, Domas

2006-12-01

Full Text Available The bibliographers of the Lithuanian National Martynas Maþvydas Library have written an open letter to the public asking to provide data about additions to the retrospective bibliography of oldLithuanian publications published in Vilnius in 1969. This act was inspired by the Consorcium of European Research Libraries that started a project of database of the Hand Press Books publishedin 1455–1830. Lithuanian National Library is conducting retroconversion of the retrospective bibliography and provide data to the international database. This task will also lead to the creationof an original database of books and an electronic publication of it on CD-ROM. The specialists expect that bibliophiles and collectors will help to identify the additional publications. The requestto investigate personal libraries looking for the books published before 1864 was made. The data on them should be sent to the creators of the bibliography. This article is a response to the call of bibliographers. It provides information about rare books collected in the personal library of the author. They allow to make changes of the scope of the bibliography and correct some bibliographic records. The data is organised according to the importance and subject: a additions to the retrospective bibliography of books, b copies of the books registered and described in the bibliography using sources, c additional data to some bibliographic descriptions, d unknown copies of rare books, e valuable copies of books. This article also pursues a methodological purpose. It presents the personally acquired experience of data retrieval, acquisition and classification forsuppllementing of the retrospective bibliography as well as the methods of making and arguing the assumptions inevitable in the history of a book. The author believes that the registration of oldbooks from personal libraries in bibliographies is an important task of accounting of the cultural heritage. It is very important

The Main Drivers of Environmentally Responsible Behaviour in Lithuanian Households

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Dalia Streimikiene

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Preserving environmental and natural resources is one of the most important challenges for ensuring the sustainability of well-being over time. One can notice that measuring of environmental indicators related to environmentally responsible behaviour is complicated and demanding task. It is also important to define the main drivers of environmentally responsible development. The objective of this paper is to provide comparatives analysis of indicators of environmentally responsible behaviour in the Baltic States by comparing and assessing them in terms of the EU-28 average and to present the main drivers of environmentally responsible behaviour in Lithuania. Environmentally responsible behaviour is related to resource and energy savings, use of renewable energy sources, waste sorting and recycling, wastewater disposal etc. Comparative assessment of environmentally responsible behaviour indicators in the Baltic States indicated that all these indicators are bellow the EU-average, except the use of renewable energy sources. The main drivers of consumption behaviour in Lithuania were assessed by applying households surveys in order to define the major issues of concern and to develop relevant policies targeting these issues. Age, gender, education, and income of Lithuanian residents do not have impact on environmentally responsible behaviour in Lithuanian households (energy saving, buying energy efficient electric appliances, willingness to pay electricity from renewable energy sources use of biofuels. Only environmental awareness has impact on energy saving behaviour at home and use of biofuels in cars and waste recycle.

Insight into carrier lifetime impact on band-modulation devices

Science.gov (United States)

Parihar, Mukta Singh; Lee, Kyung Hwa; Park, Hyung Jin; Lacord, Joris; Martinie, Sébastien; Barbé, Jean-Charles; Xu, Yue; El Dirani, Hassan; Taur, Yuan; Cristoloveanu, Sorin; Bawedin, Maryline

2018-05-01

A systematic study to model and characterize the band-modulation Z2-FET device is developed bringing light to the relevance of the carrier lifetime influence. This work provides guidelines to optimize the Z2-FETs for sharp switching, ESD protection, and 1T-DRAM applications. Lower carrier lifetime in the Z2-FET helps in attaining the sharp switch. We provide new insights into the correlation between generation/recombination, diffusion, electrostatic barriers and carrier lifetime.

Electronics and Lithuanian Terminology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stasys Zajankauskas

2011-04-01

Full Text Available It is found that the vacuum triode, transistor, monolithic circuit and microprocessor were the most important inventions of traditional electronics. Thus, the origins of the traditional electronics should be associated with the invention of the vacuum triode, but not with the invention of vacuum diode. It is shown that the science of electronics is not as young as computer science or up-to-date information technologies: electronics, including active electronics, had already celebrated the centenary, and the period of 2004–2008 is the period of numerous already solid jubilees. Thus, the terminology of electronics is not at initial stage of evolution as well – general terms should be already systematized and normalized. However, Lithuanian terms for electronic devices invented before tens of years and terms for old-defined notions associated with these devices are still varying, some are worsened. Especially, the incorrectly motivated terms used for variations of transistors and microcircuits are analyzed in the article. It is motivated which terms are preferable, systematic and exact. The paper is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of monolithic circuit, as well as the 60th anniversary of transistor, the 40th jubilee of microprocessor and centenary of electronics.

Analysis of sharpness increase by image noise

Science.gov (United States)

Kurihara, Takehito; Aoki, Naokazu; Kobayashi, Hiroyuki

2009-02-01

Motivated by the reported increase in sharpness by image noise, we investigated how noise affects sharpness perception. We first used natural images of tree bark with different amounts of noise to see whether noise enhances sharpness. Although the result showed sharpness decreased as noise amount increased, some observers seemed to perceive more sharpness with increasing noise, while the others did not. We next used 1D and 2D uni-frequency patterns as stimuli in an attempt to reduce such variability in the judgment. The result showed, for higher frequency stimuli, sharpness decreased as the noise amount increased, while sharpness of the lower frequency stimuli increased at a certain noise level. From this result, we thought image noise might reduce sharpness at edges, but be able to improve sharpness of lower frequency component or texture in image. To prove this prediction, we experimented again with the natural image used in the first experiment. Stimuli were made by applying noise separately to edge or to texture part of the image. The result showed noise, when added to edge region, only decreased sharpness, whereas when added to texture, could improve sharpness. We think it is the interaction between noise and texture that sharpens image.

Localness of energy cascade in hydrodynamic turbulence, II. Sharp spectral filter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aluie, Hussein [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Eyink, Gregory L [JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV.

2009-01-01

We investigate the scale-locality of subgrid-scale (SGS) energy flux and interband energy transfers defined by the sharp spectral filter. We show by rigorous bounds, physical arguments, and numerical simulations that the spectral SGS flux is dominated by local triadic interactions in an extended turbulent inertial range. Interband energy transfers are also shown to be dominated by local triads if the spectral bands have constant width on a logarithmic scale. We disprove in particular an alternative picture of 'local transfer by nonlocal triads,' with the advecting wavenumber mode at the energy peak. Although such triads have the largest transfer rates of all individual wavenumber triads, we show rigorously that, due to their restricted number, they make an asymptotically negligible contribution to energy flux and log-banded energy transfers at high wavenumbers in the inertial range. We show that it is only the aggregate effect of a geometrically increasing number of local wavenumber triads which can sustain an energy cascade to small scales. Furthermore, nonlocal triads are argued to contribute even less to the space-average energy flux than is implied by our rigorous bounds, because of additional cancellations from scale-decorrelation effects. We can thus recover the -4/3 scaling of nonlocal contributions to spectral energy flux predicted by Kraichnan's abridged Lagrangian-history direct-interaction approximation and test-field model closures. We support our results with numerical data from a 512{sup 3} pseudospectral simulation of isotropic turbulence with phase-shift dealiasing. We also discuss a rigorous counterexample of Eyink [Physica D 78, 222 (1994)], which showed that nonlocal wavenumber triads may dominate in the sharp spectral flux (but not in the SGS energy flux for graded filters). We show that this mathematical counter example fails to satisfy reasonable physical requirements for a turbulent velocity field, which are employed in our

Cranking model interpretation of weakly coupled bands in Hg isotopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guttormsen, M.; Huebel, H.

1982-01-01

The positive-parity yrast states of the transitional sup(189-198)Hg isotopes are interpreted within the Bengtsson and Frauendorf version of the cranking model. The very sharp backbendings can be explained by small interaction matrix elements between the ground and s-bands. The experimentally observed large aligned angular momenta and the low band-crossing frequencies are well reproduced in the calculations. (orig.)

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy of band tails in lightly doped cuprates

OpenAIRE

Alexandrov, A. S.; Reynolds, K.

2007-01-01

We amend ab initio strongly-correlated band structures by taking into account the band-tailing phenomenon in doped charge-transfer Mott-Hubbard insulators. We show that the photoemission from band tails accounts for sharp "quasi-particle" peaks, rapid loss of their intensities in some directions of the Brillouin zone ("Fermi-arcs") and high-energy "waterfall" anomalies as a consequence of matrix-element effects of disorder-localised states in the charge-transfer gap of doped cuprates.

Creativity Enhancement in Lithuanian Furniture Manufacturing Business According to International Business Development

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Rita Zybartaitė

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This article analyzes Lithuanian furniture manufacturing business perceptions towards creativity, and creativityenhancement behavior according to its international development. Firstly article focuses on international business development,substantiate need of creativity for international business development, outline creativity influencing factors which operateat individual, team and organizational levels and recommendations how to enhance creativity in methodical way. Secondly,article describes a problem of empirical research, methodology of used methods and instruments, and presents results of surveyresearch.

Stable isotopes in Lithuanian bioarcheological material

Science.gov (United States)

Skipityte, Raminta; Jankauskas, Rimantas; Remeikis, Vidmantas

2015-04-01

Investigation of bioarcheological material of ancient human populations allows us to understand the subsistence behavior associated with various adaptations to the environment. Feeding habits are essential to the survival and growth of ancient populations. Stable isotope analysis is accepted tool in paleodiet (Schutkowski et al, 1999) and paleoenvironmental (Zernitskaya et al, 2014) studies. However, stable isotopes can be useful not only in investigating human feeding habits but also in describing social and cultural structure of the past populations (Le Huray and Schutkowski, 2005). Only few stable isotope investigations have been performed before in Lithuanian region suggesting a quite uniform diet between males and females and protein intake from freshwater fish and animal protein. Previously, stable isotope analysis has only been used to study a Stone Age population however, more recently studies have been conducted on Iron Age and Late medieval samples (Jacobs et al, 2009). Anyway, there was a need for more precise examination. Stable isotope analysis were performed on human bone collagen and apatite samples in this study. Data represented various ages (from 5-7th cent. to 18th cent.). Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis on medieval populations indicated that individuals in studied sites in Lithuania were almost exclusively consuming C3 plants, C3 fed terrestrial animals, and some freshwater resources. Current investigation demonstrated social differences between elites and country people and is promising in paleodietary and daily life reconstruction. Acknowledgement I thank prof. dr. G. Grupe, Director of the Anthropological and Palaeoanatomical State Collection in Munich for providing the opportunity to work in her laboratory. The part of this work was funded by DAAD. Antanaitis-Jacobs, Indre, et al. "Diet in early Lithuanian prehistory and the new stable isotope evidence." Archaeologia Baltica 12 (2009): 12-30. Le Huray, Jonathan D., and Holger

The SHARP scramjet launcher

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cartland, H.; Fiske, P.; Greenwood, R.; Hargiss, D.; Heston, P.; Hinsey, N.; Hunter, J.; Massey, W.

1995-01-10

The worlds largest light gas gun at SHARP (Super High Altitude Research Project) is completed and in the past year has launched 9 scramjets. Typical masses and velocities are 5.9 kg at 2.8 km/sec.and 4.4 kg at 3.1 km/sec. In so doing SHARP launched the first fully functioning, hydrogen burning scramjet at mach 8. The SHARP launcher is unique in having a 4 inch diameter and 155 foot-long barrel. This enables lower acceleration launches than any other system. In addition the facility can deliver high energy projectiles to targets in the open air without having to contain the impact fragments. This allows one to track lethality test debris for several thousand feet.

Country of origin (COO) effect in cereal products: A comparative study of Danish and Lithuanian consumers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krutulyte, Rasa; Costa, Ana I.A.; Grunert, Klaus G.

2005-01-01

This paper presents the results of a survey which aimed at uncovering the influence of COO information on the perceptions of 281 Danish and Lithuanian consumers regarding several cereal foods and their marketing characteristics, such as price, place-of-purchase, brand, packaging, and labelling. P...

Modern Lithuanian foreign policy: the adjustment of traditional policy

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Batorshina Irina

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The authors consider the core areas of Lithuanian foreign policy. Special attention is paid to the adjustment of the major foreign policy vector, which concentrated earlier on the cooperation with the United States of America and strategic partnership with the Republic of Poland. The article analyses the attempts of Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė to formulate the so-called «new foreign policy» based on the multivector approach to the intergovernmental cooperation. This research is timely because of an increasing influence of small states on foreign policy decision-making within the European Union. It emphasizes the need to analyse foreign policy priorities of the Baltic States and Central and Eastern European countries and to identify the dominant trends in the international policy in the region in order to forecast further development at European and global levels. This objective is achieved with the help of an integrated approach with elements of interdisciplinary research. Special attention is paid to the comparative-historical approach, which facilitates the analysis of the relations between the Republic of Lithuania and the neighbouring states and its principal partners. Alongside traditional methods of historical research, this work employs such methods as participant observation, content and event analysis, and simultaneous and comparative analysis. The research and practical significance of this work is explained by its emphasis on the need to apply an additional theoretical framework to studies into the foreign policy initiatives of the Republic of Lithuania in the international arena. While earlier they were determined by the value (democratic approach, which was a reflection of American realism, today an increasingly important factor is the personality of the president, who does not always positively influence the changing policy of the country. The results of the research contribute substantially to the understanding of

[Academician Vladas Lasas -- distinguished Lithuanian scientist, organizer and educator].

Science.gov (United States)

Padegimas, Bernardas; Abraitis, Romualdas

2002-01-01

The material of this publication is dedicated to the memory of Professor Vladas Lasas, honored scientist of Lithuania, member of Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and corresponding member of the Academy of Medicine of the USSR. V. Lasas was born on January 13th, 1892, on a farmstead in Rokiskis region, Lithuania. He died on January 2nd, 1966 in Kaunas. V. Lasas studied medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Tartu (Dorpat) University and graduated from it in 1918. In 1921 he was invited to deliver lectures on physiology at the newly organized Higher Courses in Kaunas. During 1920-1924 he attended higher educational establishments of Prague, Berlin, Lausanne and Paris. In 1924 V. Lasas worked on probation in Lausanne under supervision of famous scientist M. Arthus, the founder of experimental allergy--anaphylaxis, in the field of experimental anaphylaxis, desensibilization, enteral sensibilization and resorption of native albumins, transfer of allergic state from mother to fetus, the role of interoceptors and biologically active substances in the formation and development of anaphylaxis. Over 40 scientific papers were published and 12 doctoral these were maintained, dealing with these problems. From 1924 to 1940 and from 1944 to 1946 V. Lasas acted as dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Kaunas University. During this period he displayed great organizational talent, and on his initiative three basic clinical buildings were built for the Faculty of Medicine. In 1946 V. Lasas was elected as academician and appointed as secretary-in-charge of natural mathematical and applied science of the Academy of Sciences of Lithuania. V. Lasas was the founder and longstanding chairman of the Lithuanian Physiological Society. Alone and with coauthors he has published 16 original textbooks. The list of his bibliography accounts to 229 publications.

Mathematics Education Problems and Attempts to Solve Them in Nowadays Lithuanian School

OpenAIRE

Malaukytė Ieva

2017-01-01

The decreasing number of the Lithuanian residents has strong impact on the educational system: the number of pupils is decreasing, the schools are getting closed. School is considered to be the provider of educational services, so it is necessary to search, how to preserve and attract clients – pupils. The growing competition induces search for distinctiveness among the schools. According to the theory of generations of William Strauss and Neil Howe, now we have to educate representatives of ...

Reorganization of the Lithuanian State Power System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paskevicius, V.

1995-01-01

This article deals with preasent situation in energy sector in Lithuania. All power plants with installed capacity of 2561 MW, except Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (3000 MW) belongs to Lithuanian State Power System (LSPS) as well transmission and distribution networks. In 1989-1991 Lithuania generated approximately 29TWh of electricity annually from which 12TWh LSPS exported to neighbouring countries. After 1990 in the transitional period from planned economy to the marked one, the economic situation in the country became complicated. The electricity demand has fallen nearly 40%. Due to the similar situation in neighboring countries the electricity export has decreased too. The article presents the distribution of electric power output in 1994 by power plants; electric power consumption and output of power plants in Lithuania from 1940 to 1994 is also included. Some aspects of regional cooperation of tree Baltic countries in energy area is touched too. 3 figs

Informing the Lithuanian public about the decommissioning of Unit 1 at Ignalina NPP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Medeliene, D.; Alvers, M.

2001-01-01

The final decision about decommissioning of Unit 1 at Ignalina NPP by 2005 was taken when the Lithuanian Parliament approved the National Energy Strategy in 1999. In 2000 the Board of the European Bank of Research and Development (EBRD) approved the establishment of the Ignalina International Decommissioning Support Fund and the International Donors' Conference took place in Vilnius. Sweden's longterm co-operation with Lithuania in the area of nuclear safety started already in 1992, soon after the country had regained its independence. SIP (Swedish International Project Nuclear Safety) administers this bilateral assistance. Public information has been included in the Swedish programme since the establishment of the Information Centre at INPP and is also a part of the bilateral decommissioning support. SIP finances a series of TV-programmes on a national channel and the local cable TV in Visaginas (the town close to Ignalina NPP) about various aspects of decommissioning. The Lithuanian regulatory authority VATESI uses its experience in public relations to inform about the situation related with decommissioning. The authority organizes 'Open Doors' days and press conferences to provide objective and trustworthy information. The reaction of the viewers to the TV-programmes were very positive and Sweden will continue the support to the information programme in Lithuania. (author)

Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP)

Science.gov (United States)

1997-01-01

The summer of 1997 will not only be noted by NASA for the mission to Mars by the Pathfinder but also for the 179 brilliant apprentices that participated in the SHARP Program. Apprentice participation increased 17% over last year's total of 153 participants. As indicated by the End-of-the-Program Evaluations, 96% of the programs' participants rated the summer experience from very good to excellent. The SHARP Management Team began the year by meeting in Cocoa Beach, Florida for the annual SHARP Planning Conference. Participants strengthened their Education Division Computer Aided Tracking System (EDCATS) skills, toured the world-renowned Kennedy Space Center, and took a journey into space during the Alien Encounter Exercise. The participants returned to their Centers with the same goals and objectives in mind. The 1997 SHARP Program goals were: (1) Utilize NASA's mission, unique facilities and specialized workforce to provide exposure, education, and enrichment experiences to expand participants' career horizons and inspire excellence in formal education and lifelong learning. (2) Develop and implement innovative education reform initiatives which support NASA's Education Strategic Plan and national education goals. (3) Utilize established statistical indicators to measure the effectiveness of SHARP's program goals. (4) Explore new recruiting methods which target the student population for which SHARP was specifically designed. (5) Increase the number of participants in the program. All of the SHARP Coordinators reported that the goals and objectives for the overall program as well as their individual program goals were achieved. Some of the goals and objectives for the Centers were: (1) To increase the students' awareness of science, mathematics, engineering, and computer technology; (2) To provide students with the opportunity to broaden their career objectives; and (3) To expose students to a variety of enrichment activities. Most of the Center goals and

Cluster models, factors and characteristics for the competitive advantage of Lithuanian Maritime sector

OpenAIRE

Viederytė, Rasa; Didžiokas, Rimantas

2014-01-01

Paper analyses several cluster models on the basis of competitiveness: Nine-factor model, Double diamond model, Funnel model of cluster determinants, Destination Competitiveness and sustainability models, which are related to Porter’s Diamond model and concentrate to the classical one - adopt M. Porter’s Diamond model methodology to the evaluation of Lithuanian Maritime sector’s clustering on the basis of competitiveness. Despite the advances in cluster research, this model remains a complex ...

Lithuanian on-line periodicals on the World Wide Web

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lina Sarlauskiene

2001-01-01

Full Text Available Deals with Lithuanian full-text electronic periodicals distributed through the World Wide Web. An electronic periodical is usually defined as a regular publication on some particular topic distributed in digital form, chiefly through the Web, but also by electronic mail or digital disk. The author has surveyed 106 publications. Thirty-four are distributed only on the Web, and 72 have printed versions. The number of analysed publications is not very big, but four years of electronic publishing and the variety of periodicals enables us to establish the causes of this phenomenon, the main features of development, and some perspectives. Electronic periodicals were analysed according to their type, purpose, contents, publisher, regularity, language, starting date and place of publication, and other features.

Influence of Rules for Computing Corporate Income Tax on the Accuracy of Financial Statements of Lithuanian Companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cernius Gintaras

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Companies in Lithuania have to follow Business Accounting Standards (BAS when preparing their financial statements. Recording financial transactions according to BAS ensures that the information a company shares with potential lenders and investors gives a true and fair view of its business situation. However, the tax law prescribes its own set of accounting rules, which can result in a difference between what a business shows in financial statements and what it reports on its tax returns. This paper examines whether Lithuanian companies predominantly use tax accounting principles that migrate into their financial statements to create an inaccurate picture of business performance. The method of experts’ evaluation was chosen for that purpose. The results indicate that Lithuanian companies tend to heavily rely on accounting principles prescribed in corporate income tax law thus distorting information contained in financial statements. The paper contributes to the scarce literature on this issue of high relevance to both academics and practitioners.

Do socio-economic disparities in dental treatment needs exist in Lithuanian adolescents?

Science.gov (United States)

Aleksejuniene, Jolanta; Brukiene, Vilma

2008-01-01

To explore disparities in needs for dental treatment which arise from individual and area-based socio-economic determinants. A cross-sectional study conducted in 22 randomly selected Lithuanian areas. In each of the pre-selected areas, one secondary school was randomly chosen. A total of 885 15-16-year-olds participated. Outcome measures. Dental treatment need was evaluated following the WHO guidelines and aQuantitative Summative Dental Treatment Needs Index (QSDTNI) was used to calculate the total burden of needs. The information about socio-economical determinants was obtained from a structured questionnaire and national statistics database. Individual socio-economic status (SES) measures were: parents' occupation, family structure, family income and affordability to have holiday used as a proxy measure for income. The area-based SES estimates were: unemployment, average household income, educational attainment, natural increase/decrease of population in an area and net migration rate. Data was analyzed by bivariate and multivariate analyses. None of significant bivariate associations between individual socio-economic variables and the QSDTNI were detected. Among area-based variables natural increase/decrease of population in an area and net migration rate were significantly related to the QSDTNI. Two individual and two area-based factors were extracted and introduced into Linear Multiple Regression Analysis (LMR). The LMR model was significant, but only one factor, i.e. area demographics, significantly contributed to this model. There are no clear social disparities in dental treatment needs in Lithuanian adolescents.

The Development of the Model for the Park and Ride System in the Major Lithuanian Cities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vytautas Palevičius

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Park and Ride (P&R is the original transport system of public passengers, acting as a traditional supplement of public transport. The system is becoming widely popular in European cities. The central core of this system is composed of parking facilities in the specified parking areas at the approaches to the city with connections to public transport or special buses that allow people reach the city centre. The P&R system is based on a reduction in car density in the city centre as well as on a decrease in traffic noise, air and visual pollution. Furthermore, the P&R system is an economical and time-saving way to travel. This article has been prepared according to structural support provided by the European Union (EU for the purpose of developing the P&R system in five major Lithuanian cities – Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipeda, Siauliai and Panevezys. Therefore, this paper is aimed at the development and application of the theoretical model of the P&R system to Lithuanian cities according to external good and bad practice.

A note on trader Sharpe Ratios.

Science.gov (United States)

Coates, John M; Page, Lionel

2009-11-25

Traders in the financial world are assessed by the amount of money they make and, increasingly, by the amount of money they make per unit of risk taken, a measure known as the Sharpe Ratio. Little is known about the average Sharpe Ratio among traders, but the Efficient Market Hypothesis suggests that traders, like asset managers, should not outperform the broad market. Here we report the findings of a study conducted in the City of London which shows that a population of experienced traders attain Sharpe Ratios significantly higher than the broad market. To explain this anomaly we examine a surrogate marker of prenatal androgen exposure, the second-to-fourth finger length ratio (2D:4D), which has previously been identified as predicting a trader's long term profitability. We find that it predicts the amount of risk taken by traders but not their Sharpe Ratios. We do, however, find that the traders' Sharpe Ratios increase markedly with the number of years they have traded, a result suggesting that learning plays a role in increasing the returns of traders. Our findings present anomalous data for the Efficient Markets Hypothesis.

A note on trader Sharpe Ratios.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John M Coates

Full Text Available Traders in the financial world are assessed by the amount of money they make and, increasingly, by the amount of money they make per unit of risk taken, a measure known as the Sharpe Ratio. Little is known about the average Sharpe Ratio among traders, but the Efficient Market Hypothesis suggests that traders, like asset managers, should not outperform the broad market. Here we report the findings of a study conducted in the City of London which shows that a population of experienced traders attain Sharpe Ratios significantly higher than the broad market. To explain this anomaly we examine a surrogate marker of prenatal androgen exposure, the second-to-fourth finger length ratio (2D:4D, which has previously been identified as predicting a trader's long term profitability. We find that it predicts the amount of risk taken by traders but not their Sharpe Ratios. We do, however, find that the traders' Sharpe Ratios increase markedly with the number of years they have traded, a result suggesting that learning plays a role in increasing the returns of traders. Our findings present anomalous data for the Efficient Markets Hypothesis.

Comparative analysis of features of Polish and Lithuanian Day-ahead electricity market prices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bobinaite, Viktorija; Juozapaviciene, Aldona; Staniewski, Marcin; Szczepankowski, Piotr

2013-01-01

The goal of this article is to better understand the processes of electricity market price formation in Poland and Lithuania through an analysis of the features (volatility and spikes) of Lithuanian and Polish day-ahead electricity market prices and to assess how acquired electricity price features could affect the achievement of the main goals of the national energy policy. The following indicators have been calculated to determine electricity market price volatility: the oscillation coefficient, the coefficient of variation, an adjusted coefficient of variation, the standard deviation indicator, the daily velocity indicator (based on the overall average price) and the daily velocity indicator (based on the daily average price). Critical values for electricity market price have been calculated to evaluate price spikes. This analysis reveals that electricity market-price volatility is moderate in Poland and high in Lithuania. Electricity price spikes have been an observable phenomenon both in Lithuanian and in Polish day-ahead electricity markets, but they are more common in Lithuania, encompassing 3.15% of the time period analysed in Poland and 4.68% of the time period analysed in Lithuania. Volatile, spiking and increasing electricity prices in day-ahead electricity markets in Lithuania and Poland create preconditions and substantiate the relevance of implementation of the national energy policies and measures. - Highlights: • Moderate and seasonal volatility. • spiking market price and. • stable average price

Assessment of sharps waste management practices in a referral ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

hospital (40.8 kg/day) was higher than values reported in district hospitals, but the sharps waste ... Key words: Sharps waste, sharps waste container, overfilled safety box, sharps waste proportion, .... requirements and availability of technology.

Lithuanian health care in transitional state: ethical problems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Žekas Romualdas

2005-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Throughout the economic and political reforms in post-communist countries, significant changes have also occurred in public morality. One of the tasks of the Lithuanian health policy is to create mechanisms for strengthening the significance of ethical considerations in the decision-making processes concerning health care of individuals and groups of individuals, as well as considering the positions of physicians and the health care system itself in a general way. Thus, health care ethics could be analyzed at two levels: the micro level (the ethics of doctor-patient relationships and the macro level (the ethics of health policy-making, which can be realized by applying the principles of equal access, reasonable quality, affordable care and shared responsibilities. To date, the first level remains dominant, but the need arises for our attention to refocus now from the micro level to the patterns of managing and delivering care, managing the health care resources, and conducting business practices. Discussion In attempting to increase the efficiency of health services in Lithuania, a common strategy has been in place for the last fifteen years. Decentralization and privatization have been implemented as part of its policy to achieve greater efficiency. Although decentralization in theory is supposed to improve efficiency, in practice the reform of decentralization has still to be completely implemented in Lithuania. Debates on health policy in Lithuania also include the issue of private versus public health care. Although the approach of private health care is changing in a positive way, it is obvious that reduced access to health services is the most vulnerable aspect. In the Lithuanian Health Program adopted in July 1998, the target of equity was stressed, stating that by 2010, differences in health and health care between various socio-economic groups should be reduced by 25%. Summary The restructuring of health care system

Lithuanian health care in transitional state: ethical problems.

Science.gov (United States)

Jakusovaite, Irayda; Darulis, Zilvinas; Zekas, Romualdas

2005-11-09

Throughout the economic and political reforms in post-communist countries, significant changes have also occurred in public morality. One of the tasks of the Lithuanian health policy is to create mechanisms for strengthening the significance of ethical considerations in the decision-making processes concerning health care of individuals and groups of individuals, as well as considering the positions of physicians and the health care system itself in a general way. Thus, health care ethics could be analyzed at two levels: the micro level (the ethics of doctor-patient relationships) and the macro level (the ethics of health policy-making, which can be realized by applying the principles of equal access, reasonable quality, affordable care and shared responsibilities). To date, the first level remains dominant, but the need arises for our attention to refocus now from the micro level to the patterns of managing and delivering care, managing the health care resources, and conducting business practices. In attempting to increase the efficiency of health services in Lithuania, a common strategy has been in place for the last fifteen years. Decentralization and privatization have been implemented as part of its policy to achieve greater efficiency. Although decentralization in theory is supposed to improve efficiency, in practice the reform of decentralization has still to be completely implemented in Lithuania. Debates on health policy in Lithuania also include the issue of private versus public health care. Although the approach of private health care is changing in a positive way, it is obvious that reduced access to health services is the most vulnerable aspect. In the Lithuanian Health Program adopted in July 1998, the target of equity was stressed, stating that by 2010, differences in health and health care between various socio-economic groups should be reduced by 25%. The restructuring of health care system in Lithuania should be based on a balance between

Type D (distressed) personality and its assessment with the DS14 in Lithuanian patients with coronary artery disease

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bunevicius, A.; Staniute, M.; Brozaitiene, J.; Stropute, D.; Bunevicius, R.; Denollet, J.

2013-01-01

We examined Type D personality (combination of negative affectivity with social inhibition) and its assessment with the DS14 in 543 Lithuanian coronary patients. Psychometric analyses confirmed the two-factor structure, internal consistency (α = 0.84/α = 0.75), and test–retest reliability (r =

Managerial attitude to the implementation of quality management systems in Lithuanian support treatment and nursing hospitals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lydeka Zigmas

2006-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The regulations of the Quality Management System (QMS implementation in health care organizations were approved by the Lithuanian Ministry of Health in 1998. Following the above regulations, general managers of health care organizations had to initiate the QMS implementation in hospitals. As no research on the QMS implementation has been carried out in Lithuanian support treatment and nursing hospitals since, the objective of this study is to assess its current stage from a managerial perspective. Methods A questionnaire survey of general managers of Lithuanian support treatment and nursing hospitals was carried out in the period of January through March 2005. Majority of the items included in the questionnaire were measured on a seven-point Likert scale. During the survey, a total of 72 questionnaires was distributed, out of which 58 filled-in ones were returned (response rate 80.6 per cent; standard sampling error 0.029 at 95 per cent level of confidence. Results Quality Management Systems were found operating in 39.7 per cent of support treatment and nursing hospitals and currently under implementation in 46.6 per cent of hospitals (13.7% still do not have it. The mean of the respondents' perceived QMS significance is 5.8 (on a seven-point scale. The most critical issues related to the QMS implementation include procedure development (5.5, lack of financial resources (5.4 and information (5.1, and development of work guidelines (4.6, while improved responsibility and power sharing (5.2, better service quality (5.1 and higher patient satisfaction (5.1 were perceived by the respondents as the key QMS benefits. The level of satisfaction with the QMS among the management of the surveyed hospitals is mediocre (3.6. However it was found to be higher among respondents who were more competent in quality management, were familiar with ISO 9000 standards, and had higher numbers of employees trained in quality management. Conclusion

Three band crossings in the yrast structure of 162Hf

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bingham, C.R.; Riedinger, L.L.; Courtney, L.H.

1988-01-01

The yrast sequence of 162 Hf has been observed up to a level tentatively assigned as 38 + and reveals a continuing rotational character up to that spin. Sharp backbends at rotational frequencies of 0.27 and 0.42 MeV/ℎ are attributed to isub(13/2) neutron and hsub(11/2) proton alignments, respectively. A gradual increase in the aligned angular momentum of the yrast levels between these two sharp backbends is attributed to the rotational alignment of a pair of negative parity quasineutrons (mostly hsub(9/2) in character). The interpretation of this effect is supported by the failure of the negative parity bands, which already contain this aligned hsub(9/2) neutron, to gain alignment in the same rotational frequency range. While the alignment of the hsub(9/2) quasineutrons has been predicted in the cranked shell model to occur in the rare-earth region with a large interaction strength, this represents the first clear observation of such a band crossing. (author)

Association of HFE gene C282Y and H63D mutations with liver cirrhosis in the Lithuanian population

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Simonas Juzėnas

2016-01-01

Conclusions: Heterozygous C282Y mutation of the HFE gene was associated with liver cirrhosis in the Lithuanian population. In gender-related analysis, heterozygous C282Y and homozygous H63D mutations were linked to liver cirrhosis in men, not in women.

Sharp spatially constrained inversion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vignoli, Giulio G.; Fiandaca, Gianluca G.; Christiansen, Anders Vest C A.V.C.

2013-01-01

We present sharp reconstruction of multi-layer models using a spatially constrained inversion with minimum gradient support regularization. In particular, its application to airborne electromagnetic data is discussed. Airborne surveys produce extremely large datasets, traditionally inverted...... by using smoothly varying 1D models. Smoothness is a result of the regularization constraints applied to address the inversion ill-posedness. The standard Occam-type regularized multi-layer inversion produces results where boundaries between layers are smeared. The sharp regularization overcomes...... inversions are compared against classical smooth results and available boreholes. With the focusing approach, the obtained blocky results agree with the underlying geology and allow for easier interpretation by the end-user....

Sharps injury reduction using a sharps container with enhanced engineering: a 28 hospital nonrandomized intervention and cohort study.

Science.gov (United States)

Grimmond, Terry; Bylund, Suzann; Anglea, Candace; Beeke, Lou; Callahan, Angela; Christiansen, Erik; Flewelling, Kelly; McIntosh, Kathleen; Richter, Kay; Vitale, Monica

2010-12-01

The decrease in reported sharps injuries (SI) in the United States has markedly slowed. Additional devices and strategies need investigation. Sharps containers are associated with SI, and more than 90% of these injuries are related to container design. This study addresses the hypothesis that containers with enhanced engineering can reduce SI. In a before/after intervention study from 2006 to 2008, we examined the impact of conversion to a sharps container with enhanced engineering (the Device) on SI categories in 14 Ascension Health hospitals (study group). The Device's safety features included large horizontal aperture, sensitive counterbalanced door, large atrium, and passive overfill prevention. Study group results were also compared with a control cohort of 14 contemporaneous size-matched, Ascension Health hospitals (control group). The Device was associated with significant reductions in after-procedure (-30%), disposal-related (-57%), and container-associated (-81%) SI in the study group. No significant reductions occurred in container-associated sharps injuries in the control group. Hospitals using the Device had significantly fewer total SI than control hospitals. Enhanced aperture design can significantly reduce container-associated sharps injuries. Other factors contributing to reduced injuries may include 1-hand deposit, safe closure, hand restriction, and preassembly. These results, from a country where sharps safety devices are widespread, are particularly applicable to countries where safety devices are not extensively used. Copyright © 2010 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Lithuanian medical tourism cluster: conditions and background for functioning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Korol A. N.

2017-10-01

Full Text Available as the global economy develops, more and more attention is paid to the creation of tourist clusters, which are extremely important for the economy and national competitiveness. This article analyzes the cluster of medical tourism in Lithuania, and explores the conditions for its successful functioning. The creation of the medical tourism cluster is highly influenced by a number of factors: the regulation of tourist and medical services, the level of entrepreneurial activity, human resources, the experience of partnership. In addition, the article analyzes the structure of the medical tourism cluster, determines the prerequisites for the functioning of the Lithuanian medical tourism cluster, including a wide range of services, European standards for the provision of medical services, high qualification of specialists, etc. When writing the article, the methods of systematic and logical analysis of scientific literature were used.

Employment preferences of Lithuanian MA graduates in economic studies

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Vaitiekus Novikevičius

2009-12-01

Full Text Available People may demonstrate preferences for different alternatives when choosing a workplace, for example: wages, career opportunities or workplace location. It is therefore important to determine which of the alternatives provides the maximum performance for the respondents. For this purpose, the authors have carried out extensive research of utility functions, originated theoretical models and / or employed practically. Unfortunately, there has been a lack of such research in Lithuania. The paper aims to examine the preferences and financial incentives based on the utility aspect Lithuanian master’s graduates in economic studies, including financial incentives, when they choose a workplace. The paper formulates the definition of the utility functions and the analysis its types. Moreover, it analyzes the utility functions of the MA graduates in economic studies from four universities, distinguishes their preferences and major financial incentives which give them the maximum utility.

Process integration and waste heat recovery in Lithuanian and Danish industry. Final report phase 1

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1998-08-01

The present document forms the Final Report for the first phase of the project `Process Integration and Waste Heat Recovery in Lithuanian and Danish Industry`. The project is carried out in the period 1995-1998 in a co-operation between the COWI offices in Lyngby and Vilnius, The Technical University of Denmark (Institute for Energetics), Kaunas University of Technology (CIPAI) and Vilnius Technical University, financed by The Danish Ministry of Energy`s EFP-95-programme, Lithuanian Energy Agency as well as the participants. The first phase of the project has comprised the establishment of the CIPAI centre (Centre for Industrial Process Analysis and Integration) at Kaunas University of Technology, training and knowledge transfer as well as elaboration of 6 industrial case-studies within the area of `Process Integration and waste Heat Recovery`. The second phase of the project has comprised R and D activities in this area in order to present general conclusions from the project as well as to present new and improved methods and tools for PI-analysis. The aim of the Final Report for the first phase of the project is to summarise project activities and the achieved results from case-studies and from the operation of the CIPAI-centre in general. (au)

Acoustic streaming of a sharp edge.

Science.gov (United States)

Ovchinnikov, Mikhail; Zhou, Jianbo; Yalamanchili, Satish

2014-07-01

Anomalous acoustic streaming is observed emanating from sharp edges of solid bodies that are vibrating in fluids. The streaming velocities can be orders of magnitude higher than expected from the Rayleigh streaming at similar amplitudes of vibration. Acoustic velocity of fluid relative to a solid body diverges at a sharp edge, giving rise to a localized time-independent body force acting on the fluid. This force results in a formation of a localized jet. Two-dimensional numerical simulations are performed to predict acoustic streaming for low amplitude vibration using two methods: (1) Steady-state solution utilizing perturbation theory and (2) direct transient solution of the Navier-Stokes equations. Both analyses agree with each other and correctly predict the streaming of a sharp-edged vibrating blade measured experimentally. The origin of the streaming can be attributed to the centrifugal force of the acoustic fluid flow around a sharp edge. The dependence of this acoustic streaming on frequency and velocity is examined using dimensional analysis. The dependence law is devised and confirmed by numerical simulations.

77 FR 56647 - Lisa Jean Sharp: Debarment Order

Science.gov (United States)

2012-09-13

... Act (the FD&C Act) permanently debarring Lisa Jean Sharp from providing services in any capacity to a...&C Act. Ms. Sharp was given notice of the proposed permanent debarment and an opportunity to request... drug product under the FD&C Act. The factual basis for this conviction is as follows: Ms. Sharp was the...

Self-publishing of Lithuanian cultural periodicals in Soviet and contemporary times

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Asta Urbanaviciute

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to analyse self-publishing trends of Lithuanian cultural periodicals focusing on the historical and contemporary contexts. The article provides an overview of the reasons for historical cultural periodical self-published texts, known as samizdats, to appear, as well as their publishing and circulation trends in Lithuania. It also analyses what contemporary cultural self-publishing is: whether it is a completely independent, logical consequence of the digital age, which emerged under favourable circumstances, or if it can be characterized as having something in common with the past experiences. The most active years of the periodical underground press publishing in Soviet Lithuanian self-publishing development were between 1975 and 1981. Self-published texts ideologically diverged into three main directions: religious, civic, and cultural-artistic. A total of 22 publications were being published for a longer or shorter period of time. While analysing contemporary cultural self-publishing topics, the report focuses only on online cultural texts, irrespective of the printed ones. Survey method was used to find out how much and in what aspect modern Internet users perceive historical periodical self-publishing, and how and in what aspect they value modern cultural self-published texts. The results show that 18-35-year-old respondents have not acquired the skills necessary to analyse samizdat publishing. They associate the word self-publishing with digital texts only, which due to favourable conditions spread easily through social networks and blogs. In the era of advancing computer technologies and the Internet, every person who has the time and desire may become a developer, an author, or at least a disseminator of information: this tradition is becoming more and more topical and quite frequently – an almost self-evident phenomenon.

Assessment of Sharp Injuries among Cameroonian Dental ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2010-07-10

Jul 10, 2010 ... prophylaxis practice and methods of sharps disposal. Results ... training on guidelines adherence, safe recapping and disposal systems. Abstract ... of sharps in oral healthcare delivery and restricted nar- row field of surgery ...

Specialist English as a foreign language for European public health: evaluation of competencies and needs among Polish and Lithuanian students.

Science.gov (United States)

Sumskas, Linas; Czabanowska, Katarzyna; Bruneviciūte, Raimonda; Kregzdyte, Rima; Krikstaponyte, Zita; Ziomkiewicz, Anna

2010-01-01

Foreign languages are becoming an essential prerequisite for a successful carrier among all professions including public health professionals in many countries. The expanding role of English as a mode of communication allows for university graduates to project and to seek their career in English-speaking countries. The present study was carried out in the framework of EU Leonardo da Vinci project "Specialist English as a foreign language for European public health." The study aimed to get a deeper insight how the English language is perceived as a foreign language, by Polish and Lithuanian public health students, what is level of their language competence, which level of English proficiency they expect to use in future. MATERIAL AND METHODS. A total of 246 respondents completed the special questionnaires in autumn semester in 2005. A questionnaire form was developed by the international project team. For evaluation of English competences, the Language Passport (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages of Council of Europe) was applied. RESULTS. Current self-rated proficiency of the English language was at the same level for Lithuanian (3.47+/-1.14) and Polish (3.31+/-0.83) respondents (P>0.05). Majority of respondents (88.6% of Lithuanian and 87.8% of Polish) reported using the English language for their current studies. Respondents reported a significant increase in necessity for higher level of English proficiency in future: mean scores provided by respondents changed from B1 level to B2 level. Respondents gave priority to less formal and practice-based interactive English teaching methods (going abroad, contacts with native speakers) in comparison with theory-oriented methods of learning (self-studying, Internet courses). CONCLUSIONS. Similar levels of English language in all five areas of language skills were established in Polish and Lithuanian university students. Respondents gave more priorities to less formal and practice-based interactive

The Impact of the Conflict in Ukraine on Lithuanian Security Development

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Kojala Linas

2015-12-01

Full Text Available After regaining independence in 1990, Lithuania chose a strategic path to integrate into Western organizations, with clear priorities for the European Union and NATO, the biggest military alliance in the world. In Russia, such direction was regarded as a threat to its influence in the post-Soviet area. Hence the article seeks to provide an overview of Lithuania’s security policy, with specific emphasis on the role of Russia, in the recent quarter century. The aim is to distinguish key priorities for Lithuania and assess their practical implementation. Furthermore, the paper seeks to analyse the impact of the war in Ukraine, both on Lithuanian and regional security as well as the development of key security priorities.

Observations of copolar correlation coefficient through a bright band at vertical incidence

Science.gov (United States)

Zrnic, D. S.; Raghavan, R.; Chandrasekar, V.

1994-01-01

This paper discusses an application of polarimetric measurements at vertical incidence. In particular, the correlation coefficients between linear copolar components are examined, and measurements obtained with the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL)'s and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)'s polarimetric radars are presented. The data are from two well-defined bright bands. A sharp decrease of the correlation coefficient, confined to a height interval of a few hundred meters, marks the bottom of the bright band.

Variational reconstruction using subdivision surfaces with continuous sharpness control

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Xiaoqun Wu; Jianmin Zheng; Yiyu Cai; Haisheng Li

2017-01-01

We present a variational method for subdivision surface reconstruction from a noisy dense mesh.A new set of subdivision rules with continuous sharpness control is introduced into Loop subdivision for better modeling subdivision surface features such as semi-sharp creases,creases,and corners.The key idea is to assign a sharpness value to each edge of the control mesh to continuously control the surface features.Based on the new subdivision rules,a variational model with L1 norm is formulated to find the control mesh and the corresponding sharpness values of the subdivision surface that best fits the input mesh.An iterative solver based on the augmented Lagrangian method and particle swarm optimization is used to solve the resulting non-linear,non-differentiable optimization problem.Our experimental results show that our method can handle meshes well with sharp/semi-sharp features and noise.

The Music Repertoire of the Society of Jesus in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1565–1773

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Jeż Tomasz

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The paper presents the research project coordinated by the University of Warsaw and financed by the Minister of Science and Higher Education as part of the “Tradition 1a” module of the National Programme for the Development of Humanities. The main task of this research project is the documentation of the Jesuit music repertory produced and disseminated on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Sustainable Development of Lithuanian Seacoast Recreational Objects

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Jonas Abromas

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Recreational architecture is a branch of architectural activity whose main object is formation of recreational spaces (territories, buildings, complexes and equipment. The goal of recreational architecture is to create optimal (comfortable, lovely and realizable environment for all recreation types and forms. This goal is realized by projects which are based on scientific research and recommendations. This activity needs more than casual work and living environment. It needs special space and equipment: territory, water area, buildings, and rooms. Everything can be called recreational environment. Recreational environment can be of various dimensional scales: enormous seaside or lake areas intended for recreation, resorts, recreational institution complexes and many single buildings, beaches, forest parks, pools. Recreational environment is possible not only out of town but in town as well. Beginning of recreational architecture is observed in antique cultures, but as a separate specific architectural activity branch it rapidly began to spread in last century first half and in Lithuania – in the last four decades. In this work, analysis of evaluating recreational architecture is made seeking to reveal recreational architecture evaluating criteria and their use .Article in Lithuanian

The Dynamics of Lithuanian-Polish Strategic Partnership

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Pukšto Andžej

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The paper aims at identifying relations between the events which influence Lithuanian-Polish strategic cooperation, defining principal aspects of cooperation dynamics, and analysing recent challenges in relations between Lithuania and Poland. For the purpose of analysis the following objectives have been set: 1 to analyse the development of strategic partnership and political dialogue in bilateral relations; 2 to evaluate the importance of security, defence policy, and economic projects in cooperation between the states; 3 to assess the aspect of ethnic minorities in the context of bilateral relations. The authors of the paper seek to review the principal internal and external factors which affect bilateral cooperation between Lithuania and Poland. The following methods of analysis are used in the paper: public statements made by officials, document analysis and discourse formed by the media. The key areas of analysis are the development of political dialogue, strategic cooperation, security and defence policy, economic and energy cooperation, and questions of ethnic minorities in bilateral relations. Presently in the field there is a lack of thorough investigation of similarities and differences of strategic cooperation between Lithuania and Poland.

Multislot microstrip antenna for ultra-wide band applications

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Noor M. Awad

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper designs of both planar ultra-wide band (UWB antenna and UWB antenna with two rejected bands are given. The antenna consists of a rectangular patch etched on FR4-substrate with 50 Ω feed line. The rectangular patch has one round cut at each corner with one slot in the ground plane. The simulated bandwidth with return loss (RL ⩾ 10 dB is 3.42–11.7 GHz. The rejected bands are the WLAN and X-bands, achieved by inserting slots in the patch and the feed. The simulated results of the proposed antenna indicate higher gain at the passbands while a sharp drop at the rejected bands is seen. The radiation pattern is of dipole shape in the E-plane and almost omnidirectional in the H-plane. The high frequency structure simulator (HFSS is used to design and simulate the antennas behavior over the different frequency ranges. Measurements confirm the antenna characteristic as predicted in the simulation with a slight shift in frequencies.

Research NoteEffect of drought and fires on the quality of water in Lithuanian rivers

OpenAIRE

Sakalauskiene, G.; Ignatavicius, G.

2003-01-01

In August and September 2002, concentrations of heavy metals (copper, lead, and zinc) were 21-74% more than in previous years in Lithuanian rivers. Such a sudden increase in heavy metal pollution reduces the value of any water body for fishing or recreation and poses a potential risk to the environment and to human health. Droughts in the summer of 2002 led to forest and peat bog fires all over Lithuania and may have caused the increase ...

The Sharp Lepton Quandary: Reasonable cautions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Griffin, J.J.

1996-02-01

Surprisingly, the new APEX experiment designed to measure a definitive invariant mass distribution of the sharp pairs previously reported in similar heavy ion studies reports null results. Although it asserts no direct conflict with any data reported by EPOS/I, the APEX report nevertheless seems to have encouraged the view that the earlier (EPOS/I) observations were erroneous, and by extrapolation, that the whole (e + e - ) Puzzle data set can be dismissed as an unfortunate set of physically meaningless statistical fluctuations. We wish here to argue that such sweeping judgments should be postponed, on the grounds that (1) the published APEX analysis of their data is self-inconsistent, and can therefore sustain no valid inference about the EPOS/I data; (2) the data which supports the occurrence of sharp (e + e - ) pairs is much more extensive than the EPOS/I data, so that the APEX surprise must be considered as one episode in a much longer struggle finally to settle the question of whether these weak signals are significant or not; (3) a qualitative phenomenology exists which can organize the whole range of data of the Sharp Lepton Problem, and which suggests that (4) certain low energy (and low cost) experiments ought to be explored for their creation of sharp pairs; as follows: the study of pairs emitted following scattering of few MeV electron and positron beams from neutral U and Th atoms, and the study of pairs emitted following the resonant absorption of photons of 1.5 to 2.0 MeV on U and Th atoms. We first present a brief data-oriented history of the Sharp Lepton Problem, to show that no single unexpected null result can provide an adequate basis for rejecting the great range and quantity of data which evidences the occurrence of sharp pairs. We then consider the Quadronium Composite Particle Scenario for these processes, and its Quantum Electrodynamical implications, in support of the above recommendations

Spacecraft Health Automated Reasoning Prototype (SHARP): The fiscal year 1989 SHARP portability evaluations task for NASA Solar System Exploration Division's Voyager project

Science.gov (United States)

Atkinson, David J.; Doyle, Richard J.; James, Mark L.; Kaufman, Tim; Martin, R. Gaius

1990-01-01

A Spacecraft Health Automated Reasoning Prototype (SHARP) portability study is presented. Some specific progress is described on the portability studies, plans for technology transfer, and potential applications of SHARP and related artificial intelligence technology to telescience operations. The application of SHARP to Voyager telecommunications was a proof-of-capability demonstration of artificial intelligence as applied to the problem of real time monitoring functions in planetary mission operations. An overview of the design and functional description of the SHARP system is also presented as it was applied to Voyager.

Secular trends in Cherokee cranial morphology: Eastern vs Western bands.

Science.gov (United States)

Sutphin, Rebecca; Ross, Ann H; Jantz, Richard L

2014-01-01

The research objective was to examine if secular trends can be identified for cranial data commissioned by Boas in 1892, specifically for cranial breadth and cranial length of the Eastern and Western band Cherokee who experienced environmental hardships. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the degree of relationship between each of the cranial measures: cranial length, cranial breadth and cephalic index, along with predictor variables (year-of-birth, location, sex, admixture); the model revealed a significant difference for all craniometric variables. Additional regression analysis was performed with smoothing Loess plots to observe cranial length and cranial breadth change over time (year-of-birth) separately for Eastern and Western Cherokee band females and males born between 1783-1874. This revealed the Western and Eastern bands show a decrease in cranial length over time. Eastern band individuals maintain a relatively constant head breadth, while Western Band individuals show a sharp decline beginning around 1860. These findings support negative secular trend occurring for both Cherokee bands where the environment made a detrimental impact; this is especially marked with the Western Cherokee band.

The role of Lithuanian TSO in view of changing nuclear situation in Lithuania

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uspuras, E.

2010-01-01

At present, the Technical and scientific Support Organisations (TSOs) are gaining increased importance by providing the technical and scientific basis for decisions and activities regarding nuclear and radiation safety. In lithuania, after Lithuania declared its independence, the technical support organisations in Lithuania grows and develops into institution, capable to perform all necessary safety analyses for Ignalina NPP. However, the preparation for the construction of new nuclear power plant showed that Lithuania lacks the nuclear energy specialists. This paper presents information about the creation and growing up of Lithuanian TSOs, the works performed at present days and the needs for nearest future. (author)

Deformation bands in porous sandstones their microstructure and petrophysical properties

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Torabi, Anita

2007-12-15

Deformation bands are commonly thin tabular zones of crushed or reorganized grains that form in highly porous rocks and sediments. Unlike a fault, typically the slip is negligible in deformation bands. In this dissertation the microstructure and petrophysical properties of deformation bands have been investigated through microscopy and numerical analysis of experimental and natural examples. The experimental work consists of a series of ring-shear experiments performed on porous sand at 5 and 20 MPa normal stresses and followed by microscopic examination of thin sections from the sheared samples. The results of the ring-shear experiments and comparison of them to natural deformation bands reveals that burial depth (level of normal stress in the experiments) and the amount of shear displacement during deformation are the two significant factors influencing the mode in which grains break and the type of shear zone that forms. Two end-member types of experimental shear zones were identified: (a) Shear zones with diffuse boundaries, which formed at low levels of normal stress and/or shear displacement; and (b) Shear zones with sharp boundaries, which formed at higher levels of normal stress and/or shear displacement. Our interpretation is that with increasing burial depth (approximately more than one kilometer, simulated in the experiments by higher levels of normal stress), the predominant mode of grain fracturing changes from flaking to splitting; which facilitates the formation of sharp-boundary shear zones. This change to grain splitting increases the power law dimension of the grain size distribution (D is about 1.5 in sharp boundary shear zones). Based on our observations, initial grain size has no influence in the deformation behavior of the sand at 5 MPa normal stresses. A new type of cataclastic deformation band is described through outcrop and microscopic studies; here termed a 'slipped deformation band'. Whereas previously reported cataclastic

Fabrication of 3-D Photonic Band Gap Crystals Via Colloidal Self-Assembly

Science.gov (United States)

Subramaniam, Girija; Blank, Shannon

2005-01-01

The behavior of photons in a Photonic Crystals, PCs, is like that of electrons in a semiconductor in that, it prohibits light propagation over a band of frequencies, called Photonic Band Gap, PBG. Photons cannot exist in these band gaps like the forbidden bands of electrons. Thus, PCs lend themselves as potential candidates for devices based on the gap phenomenon. The popular research on PCs stem from their ability to confine light with minimal losses. Large scale 3-D PCs with a PBG in the visible or near infra red region will make optical transistors and sharp bent optical fibers. Efforts are directed to use PCs for information processing and it is not long before we can have optical integrated circuits in the place of electronic ones.

An alternative window upon the GSI sharp lepton problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Griffin, J.J.

1997-10-01

Two major heavy ion studies of the GSI ''(e + e - )-Puzzle'' have ended in stalemate: APEX reports no evidence, but its data show a peak near 800 keV. EPOS/II cannot reproduce its own results,and leans towards random fluctuations as the explanation of sharp pair lines. (But one EPOS/II report shows evidence for a peak at an EPOS/I line energy, 610 keV, and under selection conditions the same as EPOSII's.) It is clear that these latest heavy ion studies, designed to settle once and for all the question of sharp pairs, have failed to fulfill that goal. Attention must now turn towards the sharp electron lines reported by Sakai et al. and others in collisions of few MeV beta decay positrons on U and Th atoms. In the Q 0 Scenario of the Sharp Lepton Problem these arise from the same source as the GSI pairs. Verification of Sakai's 100 mb cross section for such sharp electrons in collisions of few MeV electrons (or positrons) upon U or Th atoms would confirm this new experimental window upon the Sharp Lepton Problem. These relatively simple experiments, which are both inexpensive and reproducible (as their heavy ion counterparts are not), promise a less ponderous pace for the study of these questions. On the other hand, they require a challenging combination of proficiencies to measure a nuclear sized cross section in an atomic physics environment. The authors review briefly the diverse history (and especially the most recent developments) of the Sharp Lepton Problem, and outline how the Quadronium Scenario provides it with a unifying conceptual framework. That discussion points clearly towards the experimental study of sharp leptons and sharp pairs from few MeV (lepton+ATOM) and (photon+ATOM) processes as the appropriate next step towards either verifying the earlier results or precluding them

Sharp Gronwall-Bellman type integral inequalities with delay

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

István Győri

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Various attempts have been made to give an upper bound for the solutions of the delayed version of the Gronwall-Bellman integral inequality, but the obtained estimations are not sharp. In this paper a new approach is presented to get sharp estimations for the nonnegative solutions of the considered delayed inequalities. The results are based on the idea of the generalized characteristic inequality. Our method gives sharp estimation, and therefore the results are more exact than the earlier ones.

Sharp and the Jules Verne Launcher

Science.gov (United States)

Hunter, John; Cartland, Harry

1996-03-01

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has built the worlds largest hydrogen gas gun called SHARP, (Super High Altitude Research Project). Originally designed to launch 5 kg to a 450 km altitude, SHARP is configured horizontally at Site 300 in Tracy, California. SHARP is successfully delivering 5 kg scramjets at Mach 9 in aerophysics tests. Some of the results of the scramjet tests are enlightening and are presented insofar as they are relevant to future launches into space. Using a light gas gun to launch payloads into orbit has been analyzed. We look at LEO (Low Earth Orbit), GEO (Geosynchronous Earth Orbit), and LO (Lunar Orbit). We present a conceptual design for a large light gas gun called the Jules Verne Launcher (JVL). The JVL can deliver 3.3 metric tons to a 500 km low earth orbit. We anticipate one launch per day. We present the history of light gas guns, the SHARP design and performance, and the JVL design. Another section is devoted to the vehicle environment and resultant design. Lastly, we present a cost analysis. Our results indicated that the JVL will be able to deliver 1000 metric tons of payload to LEO yearly. The cost will be 5% of the best US rocket delivery cost. This technology will enable the next phase of man's exploration of space.

Controllable Absorption and Dispersion Properties of an RF-driven Five-Level Atom in a Double-Band Photonic-Band-Gap Material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ding Chunling; Li Jiahua; Yang Xiaoxue

2011-01-01

The probe absorption-dispersion spectra of a radio-frequency (RF)-driven five-level atom embedded in a photonic crystal are investigated by considering the isotropic double-band photonic-band-gap (PBG) reservoir. In the model used, the two transitions are, respectively, coupled by the upper and lower bands in such a PBG material, thus leading to some curious phenomena. Numerical simulations are performed for the optical spectra. It is found that when one transition frequency is inside the band gap and the other is outside the gap, there emerge three peaks in the absorption spectra. However, for the case that two transition frequencies lie inside or outside the band gap, the spectra display four absorption profiles. Especially, there appear two sharp peaks in the spectra when both transition frequencies exist inside the band gap. The influences of the intensity and frequency of the RF-driven field on the absorptive and dispersive response are analyzed under different band-edge positions. It is found that a transparency window appears in the absorption spectra and is accompanied by a very steep variation of the dispersion profile by adjusting system parameters. These results show that the absorption-dispersion properties of the system depend strongly on the RF-induced quantum interference and the density of states (DOS) of the PBG reservoir. (electromagnetism, optics, acoustics, heat transfer, classical mechanics, and fluid dynamics)

Disrupting neural activity related to awake-state sharp wave-ripple complexes prevents hippocampal learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Nokia, Miriam S; Mikkonen, Jarno E; Penttonen, Markku; Wikgren, Jan

2012-01-01

Oscillations in hippocampal local-field potentials (LFPs) reflect the crucial involvement of the hippocampus in memory trace formation: theta (4-8 Hz) oscillations and ripples (~200 Hz) occurring during sharp waves are thought to mediate encoding and consolidation, respectively. During sharp wave-ripple complexes (SPW-Rs), hippocampal cell firing closely follows the pattern that took place during the initial experience, most likely reflecting replay of that event. Disrupting hippocampal ripples using electrical stimulation either during training in awake animals or during sleep after training retards spatial learning. Here, adult rabbits were trained in trace eyeblink conditioning, a hippocampus-dependent associative learning task. A bright light was presented to the animals during the inter-trial interval (ITI), when awake, either during SPW-Rs or irrespective of their neural state. Learning was particularly poor when the light was presented following SPW-Rs. While the light did not disrupt the ripple itself, it elicited a theta-band oscillation, a state that does not usually coincide with SPW-Rs. Thus, it seems that consolidation depends on neuronal activity within and beyond the hippocampus taking place immediately after, but by no means limited to, hippocampal SPW-Rs.

The Prevalence of Cyberbullying and the Views of 5-12 Grade Pupils and Teachers on Cyberbullying Prevention in Lithuanian Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Baraldsnes, Dziuginta

2015-01-01

This article analyses the views of cyberbullying prevention among 5-12 grade pupils and teachers in Lithuanian schools. It defines the concept of cyberbullying in the context of school pupils, and analyses the theoretical grounds for prevention of this form of bullying. The article also presents the results of the survey (which was conducted in…

NASA-Ames Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP)

Science.gov (United States)

Powell, P.

1983-01-01

The function of SHARP is to recognize high school juniors who have demonstrated unusually high promise for sucess in mathemtics and science. Twenty academically talented students who will be seniors in high school in September were chosen to participate in SHARP 83. Mentors were selected to provide students with first-hand experiences in a research and development environment in order that each student might try out his or her tentative professional career choice. Some special features of SHARP included field trips to private industries doing similar and related research, special lectures on topics of research here at ARC, individual and group counseling sessions, written research papers and oral reports, and primarily the opportunity to be exposed to the present frontiers in space exploration and research. The long-range goal of SHARP is to contribute to the future recruitment of needed scientists and engineers. This final report is summary of all the phases of the planning and implemenation of the 1983 Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP).

Statistical Analysis and Evaluation of the Depth of the Ruts on Lithuanian State Significance Roads

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erinijus Getautis

2011-04-01

Full Text Available The aim of this work is to gather information about the national flexible pavement roads ruts depth, to determine its statistical dispersijon index and to determine their validity for needed requirements. Analysis of scientific works of ruts apearance in the asphalt and their influence for driving is presented in this work. Dynamical models of ruts in asphalt are presented in the work as well. Experimental outcome data of rut depth dispersijon in the national highway of Lithuania Vilnius – Kaunas is prepared. Conclusions are formulated and presented. Article in Lithuanian

Lithuanian heat sector: Today based on imported fossil fuel, tomorrow - On local biofuel and wastes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Janukonis, Andrius

2010-09-15

District heating sector is one of the most important energy sectors in Lithuania, operation of which is closely related to other energy sectors such as electricity, natural gas, oil products, renewable energy sources. Main priorities of Lithuanian energy policy based on the experience of the neighboring countries and directives of the European Union's environmental protection, security and reliability of energy supply and availability of district heating services to all users. It is necessary to use widely the biofuel in the DHS sector for the heat production, unused amounts of which are very big.

Optical study of the band structure of wurtzite GaP nanowires

OpenAIRE

Assali, S.; Greil, J.; Zardo, I.; Belabbes, A.; de Moor, M.W.A.; Kölling, S.; Koenraad, P.M.; Bechstedt, F.; Bakkers, E.P.A.M.; Haverkort, J.E.M.

2016-01-01

We investigated the optical properties of wurtzite (WZ) GaP nanowires by performing photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL measurements in the temperature range from 4 K to 300 K, together with atom probe tomography to identify residual impurities in the nanowires. At low temperature, the WZ GaP luminescence shows donor-acceptor pair emission at 2.115 eV and 2.088 eV, and Burstein-Moss band-filling continuum between 2.180 and 2.253 eV, resulting in a direct band gap above 2.170 eV. Sharp...

The sharp edge: a frequent radiographic sign in neonatal pneumothorax

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oestreich, A.E.

1987-01-01

The sharp edge sign, an unusually sharply defined silhouette of the heart and/or hemidiaphragm on frontal radiographs of the supine neonate, has been valuable in the initial recognition of pneumothorax. In a prospective study of 50 neonatal pneumothoraces, a sharp edge sign was present on the initial pneumothorax film 49 times. In seven of these, only the hemidiaphragm showed a sharp edge, while the heart margin was superimposed on the vertebral column. Greater awareness of the sharp edge sign would promote earlier recognition of neonatal pneumothorax. 6 refs.; 3 figs

Sharp tipped plastic hollow microneedle array by microinjection moulding

Science.gov (United States)

Yung, K. L.; Xu, Yan; Kang, Chunlei; Liu, H.; Tam, K. F.; Ko, S. M.; Kwan, F. Y.; Lee, Thomas M. H.

2012-01-01

A method of producing sharp tipped plastic hollow microneedle arrays using microinjection moulding is presented in this paper. Unlike traditional approaches, three mould inserts were used to create the sharp tips of the microneedles. Mould inserts with low surface roughness were fabricated using a picosecond laser machine. Sharp tipped plastic hollow microneedles 500 µm in height were fabricated using a microinjection moulding machine developed by the authors’ group. In addition, the strength of the microneedle was studied by simulation and penetration experiments. Results show that the microneedles can penetrate into skin, delivering liquid successfully without any breakage or severe deformation. Techniques presented in this paper can be used to fabricate sharp tipped plastic hollow microneedle arrays massively with low cost.

Sharp tipped plastic hollow microneedle array by microinjection moulding

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yung, K L; Xu, Yan; Kang, Chunlei; Liu, H; Tam, K F; Ko, S M; Kwan, F Y; Lee, Thomas M H

2012-01-01

A method of producing sharp tipped plastic hollow microneedle arrays using microinjection moulding is presented in this paper. Unlike traditional approaches, three mould inserts were used to create the sharp tips of the microneedles. Mould inserts with low surface roughness were fabricated using a picosecond laser machine. Sharp tipped plastic hollow microneedles 500 µm in height were fabricated using a microinjection moulding machine developed by the authors’ group. In addition, the strength of the microneedle was studied by simulation and penetration experiments. Results show that the microneedles can penetrate into skin, delivering liquid successfully without any breakage or severe deformation. Techniques presented in this paper can be used to fabricate sharp tipped plastic hollow microneedle arrays massively with low cost. (paper)

Challenges Faced by the Lithuanian State from Regional Identities

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Petras Kalnius

2007-12-01

Full Text Available The article examines how a search for identity attempted by Žemaitians (Samogitians, a Lithuanian local cultural group, eventually evolves into the demand that Žemaitian community should be recognised as an autochthonous nation, and Žemaitian dialect – as a separate language, with all implicit rights. Attempts to implement the idea of a self-governed region as a guarantee of reconstruction and protection of Žemaitian identity is the most recent and vivid representation of such proceedings. Since Lithuania’s accession to EU is increasingly perceived as a threat to cultural identity, other local cultural groups also tend to support the idea of self-governed regions. A suggestion that four (4 self-governed regions covering respective local culture distribution areas should be created in Lithuania is promoted. The authors of such demands, due to a multitude of historical, political, and social reasons, still do not have many supporters in central government bodies, and even in local communities, although in Žemaitija their number is greater.

Research Note
Effect of drought and fires on the quality of water in Lithuanian rivers

OpenAIRE

G. Sakalauskiene; G. Sakalauskiene; G. Ignatavicius

2003-01-01

In August and September 2002, concentrations of heavy metals (copper, lead, and zinc) were 21-74% more than in previous years in Lithuanian rivers. Such a sudden increase in heavy metal pollution reduces the value of any water body for fishing or recreation and poses a potential risk to the environment and to human health. Droughts in the summer of 2002 led to forest and peat bog fires all over Lithuania and may have caused the increase in concentrations of heavy metals detected in ...

Research Note
Effect of drought and fires on the quality of water in Lithuanian rivers

OpenAIRE

Sakalauskiene , G.; Ignatavicius , G.

2003-01-01

International audience; In August and September 2002, concentrations of heavy metals (copper, lead, and zinc) were 21-74% more than in previous years in Lithuanian rivers. Such a sudden increase in heavy metal pollution reduces the value of any water body for fishing or recreation and poses a potential risk to the environment and to human health. Droughts in the summer of 2002 led to forest and peat bog fires all over Lithuania and may have caused the increase in concentrations of heavy metal...

Magnonic band gaps in two-dimension magnonic crystals with diffuse interfaces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Qi; Zhang, Huaiwu; Ma, Guokun; Tang, Xiaoli; Liao, Yulong; Zhong, Zhiyong

2014-01-01

In this paper, the plane wave method is extended to include the diffuse interface in the calculation of the dispersion of spin waves in two-dimension magnonic crystals. The diffuse interfaces with linear and sinusoidal profiles of variation in the spontaneous magnetization and exchange constant are considered and the effects of the thicknesses and profiles of diffuse interfaces on the magnonic band gaps are investigated. The results show that the thicknesses and profiles of diffuse interfaces are clearly seen to play a significant role in determining the size and position of the magnonic band gaps in the both square and triangular lattices in the exchange interaction regime. The smooth (linear or sinusoidal) interface does not lead to disappearance of the band gaps, instead it may lead to larger band gaps than those in the model with sharp (infinitely thin) diffuse interface under certain conditions

Uncertainty relations and topological-band insulator transitions in 2D gapped Dirac materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Romera, E; Calixto, M

2015-01-01

Uncertainty relations are studied for a characterization of topological-band insulator transitions in 2D gapped Dirac materials isostructural with graphene. We show that the relative or Kullback–Leibler entropy in position and momentum spaces, and the standard variance-based uncertainty relation give sharp signatures of topological phase transitions in these systems. (paper)

Association of HFE gene C282Y and H63D mutations with liver cirrhosis in the Lithuanian population.

Science.gov (United States)

Juzėnas, Simonas; Kupčinskas, Juozas; Valantienė, Irena; Šumskienė, Jolanta; Petrenkienė, Vitalija; Kondrackienė, Jūrate; Kučinskas, Laimutis; Kiudelis, Gediminas; Skiecevičienė, Jurgita; Kupčinskas, Limas

2016-01-01

Liver cirrhosis is the end-stage disease of chronic liver injury. Due to differences in the natural course of chronic liver diseases, identification of genetic factors that influence individual outcomes is warranted. HFE-linked hereditary hemochromatosis (HH) predisposes disease progression to cirrhosis; however, the role of heterozygous C282Y or H63D mutations in the development of cirrhosis in the presence of other etiological factors is still debated. The aim of this study was to determine the association between heterozygous C282Y and H63D mutations and non-HH liver cirrhosis in Lithuanian population. The patient cohort consisted of 209 individuals. Diagnosis of cirrhosis was confirmed by clinical, laboratory parameters, liver biopsy, and radiological imaging. Control samples were obtained from 1005 randomly selected unrelated healthy individuals. HFE gene mutations were determined using the PCR-RFLP method. The most common causes of cirrhosis were hepatitis C (33.9%), hepatitis B (13.6%), and alcohol (25.8%). C282Y allele was associated with the presence of cirrhosis (OR=2.07; P=0.005); this was also observed under recessive model for C282Y (OR=2.06, P=0.008). The prevalence of C282Y allele was higher in cirrhotic men than in controls (7.0% vs. 2.8%, P=0.002). The carriage of H63D risk allele (OR=1.54; P=0.02), heterozygous C282Y/wt and homozygous H63D/H63D genotypes were associated with liver cirrhosis in males (OR=2.48, P=0.008, and OR=4.13, P=0.005, respectively). Heterozygous C282Y mutation of the HFE gene was associated with liver cirrhosis in the Lithuanian population. In gender-related analysis, heterozygous C282Y and homozygous H63D mutations were linked to liver cirrhosis in men, not in women. Copyright © 2016 The Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier Urban & Partner Sp. z o.o. All rights reserved.

Sharp Efficiency for Vector Equilibrium Problems on Banach Spaces

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Si-Huan Li

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The concept of sharp efficient solution for vector equilibrium problems on Banach spaces is proposed. Moreover, the Fermat rules for local efficient solutions of vector equilibrium problems are extended to the sharp efficient solutions by means of the Clarke generalized differentiation and the normal cone. As applications, some necessary optimality conditions and sufficient optimality conditions for local sharp efficient solutions of a vector optimization problem with an abstract constraint and a vector variational inequality are obtained, respectively.

Sharp foreign body ingestion by a young girl

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Riyadh Mohamad Hasan

2017-06-09

Jun 9, 2017 ... Sharp foreign body ingestion by a young girl. Riyadh Mohamad Hasan. University of Baghdad ... ray imaging and retrieved with the aid of C-arm fluoroscope at a laparotomy. Her postoperative period ... In our patient the foreign bodies were long sharp ones (sewing needles). Foreign body ingestion can be ...

Time-clustering behavior of sharp fluctuation sequences in Chinese stock markets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yuan Ying; Zhuang Xintian; Liu Zhiying; Huang Weiqiang

2012-01-01

Sharp fluctuations (in particular, extreme fluctuations) of asset prices have a great impact on financial markets and risk management. Therefore, investigating the time dynamics of sharp fluctuation is a challenge in the financial fields. Using two different representations of the sharp fluctuations (inter-event times and series of counts), the time clustering behavior in the sharp fluctuation sequences of stock markets in China is studied with several statistical tools, including coefficient of variation, Allan Factor, Fano Factor as well as R/S (rescaled range) analysis. All of the empirical results indicate that the time dynamics of the sharp fluctuation sequences can be considered as a fractal process with a high degree of time-clusterization of the events. It can help us to get a better understanding of the nature and dynamics of sharp fluctuation of stock price in stock markets.

Knowledge Base Editor (SharpKBE)

Science.gov (United States)

Tikidjian, Raffi; James, Mark; Mackey, Ryan

2007-01-01

The SharpKBE software provides a graphical user interface environment for domain experts to build and manage knowledge base systems. Knowledge bases can be exported/translated to various target languages automatically, including customizable target languages.

BAND STRUCTURE OF NON-STEIOCHIOMETRIC LARGE-SIZED NANOCRYSTALLITES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I.V.Kityk

2004-01-01

Full Text Available A band structure of large-sized (from 20 to 35nm non-steichiometric nanocrystallites (NC of the Si2-xCx (1.04 < x < 1.10 has been investigated using different band energy approaches and a modified Car-Parinello molecular dynamics structure optimization of the NC interfaces. The non-steichiometric excess of carbon favors the appearance of a thin prevailingly carbon-contained layer (with thickness of about 1 nm covering the crystallites. As a consequence, one can observe a substantial structure reconstruction of boundary SiC crystalline layers. The numerical modeling has shown that these NC can be considered as SiC reconstructed crystalline films with thickness of about 2 nm covering the SiC crystallites. The observed data are considered within the different one-electron band structure methods. It was shown that the nano-sized carbon sheet plays a key role in a modified band structure. Independent manifestation of the important role played by the reconstructed confined layers is due to the experimentally discovered excitonic-like resonances. Low-temperature absorption measurements confirm the existence of sharp-like absorption resonances originating from the reconstructed layers.

Exploring Moho sharpness in Northeastern North China Craton with frequency-dependence analysis of Ps receiver function

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, P.; Yao, H.; Chen, L.; WANG, X.; Fang, L.

2017-12-01

The North China Craton (NCC), one of the oldest cratons in the world, has attracted wide attention in Earth Science for decades because of the unusual Mesozoic destruction of its cratonic lithosphere. Understanding the deep processes and mechanism of this craton destruction demands detailed knowledge about the deep structure of this region. In this study, we calculate P-wave receiver functions (RFs) with two-year teleseismic records from the North China Seismic Array ( 200 stations) deployed in the northeastern NCC. We observe both diffused and concentered PpPs signals from the Moho in RF waveforms, which indicates heterogeneous Moho sharpness variations in the study region. Synthetic Ps phases generated from broad positive velocity gradients at the depth of the Moho (referred as Pms) show a clear frequency dependence nature, which in turn is required to constrain the sharpness of the velocity gradient. Practically, characterizing such a frequency dependence feature in real data is challenging, because of low signal-to-noise ratio, contaminations by multiples generated from shallow structure, distorted signal stacking especially in double-peak Pms signals, etc. We attempt to address these issues by, firstly, utilizing a high-resolution Moho depth model of this region to predict theoretical delay times of Pms that facilitate more accurate Pms identifications. The Moho depth model is derived by wave-equation based poststack depth migration on both Ps phase and surface-reflected multiples in RFs in our previous study (Zhang et al., submitted to JGR). Second, we select data from a major back azimuth range of 100° - 220° that includes 70% teleseismic events due to the uneven data coverage and to avoid azimuthal influence as well. Finally, we apply an adaptive cross-correlation stacking of Pms signals in RFs for each station within different frequency bands. High-quality Pms signals at different frequencies will be selected after careful visual inspection and adaptive

Deictic Reference as a Means for Constructing the Character Image in a Dubbed Cartoon Snow Postman: Comparative Analysis of the Lithuanian, Russian and English Versions

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Danguolė Satkauskaitė

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The article aims at examining how the main character Snowman’s image is constructed by applying an abundant number of deictic expressions in the Lithuanian, Russian and English versions of the cartoon Snow Postman. The research was based on M. Consten’s conception of direct and indirect reference and the model of visual-verbal cohesion proposed by N. Baumgarten. The study has revealed that in both, Russian and Lithuanian versions of the cartoon, the main character’s dialogues are loaded with deictic expressions which mark the same referents. In this way, the main character is shaped as a dull, forgetful being, unable to store and process a huge amount of information in his head. In the English version, deictic instances are sparsely used, thus the character image is quite different here: the snowman is less absent-minded and fuzzy.

SHARP {Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program}

Science.gov (United States)

Glasco, Deborah (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The Year 2002 was another successful year for SHARP. Even after 22 years of SHARP, the Program continues to grow. There were 12 NASA Field Installations with a total of 210 apprentices who participated in the summer 2002 Program supported by 215 mentors in the fields of science and engineering. The apprentices were chosen from a pool of 1,379 applicants. This was a record year for applications exceeding the previous year by over 60%. For the second consecutive year, the number of female participants exceeded the number of males with 53% female and 47% male participants in the program. The main thrust of our recruiting efforts is still focused on underrepresented populations; especially African American, Hispanic, and Native American. At the conclusion of the summer program, most SHARP Apprentices indicated on the EDCATS that they would be interested in pursuing careers in Aerospace (56.2%) while the second largest career choice was a job at NASA (45.7%). The smallest number (11.9%) were interested in careers in the government. The table of responses is listed in the Appendix. Once again this year we were fortunate in that the SHARP COTR, Ms. Deborah Glasco, gained the support of MURED funding sources at NASA to fully fund additional apprentices and boost the number of apprentices to 210.

Relationships of the Trade Unions with the Media: The Lithuanian Case

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Asta Krašenkienė

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The various practices of different countries show that, in order to achieve trade unions’ goals, working relationships with the media are very important, especially in terms of influencing public (stakeholder opinion, as well as instilling confidence in trade unions. This paper presents some examples and empirical research results that prove the significance of such relationships. The situation in Lithuania is analyzed based on qualitative research results. The results reveal that Lithuanian trade unions do not have effective tools at their disposal for the promotion of their activity. Moreover, their notion of their relationships with the media is limited to a narrow understanding such as “the article or broadcast in media”. Due to this and other reasons, the promotion of employers’ concessions is weak. Different situations can be noticed by analyzing the independent trade unions which use other practices and systems.

Charleso Dickenso kūrybos recepcija lietuvių literatūros kritikoje (III dalis | The Reception of Charles Dickens in Lithuanian Literary Criticism (Part III

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Regina Rudaitytė

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Although traditionally Dickens has always been regarded by Lithuanian critics and literary scholars as an emblematic English writer, one of the great­est representatives of the Victorian realist novel in England, his writing, however, has been given only cursory treatment in Lithuania, almost never until recently crossing the boundaries of biographical ar­ticles, reviews and notices with a biographical slant scattered in the press, particularly, but not only, dur­ing the early stages of reception. There is no book specifically dedicated to Dickens’s art by Lithuanian literary scholars, no comprehensive, fundamental and completely scholarly investigation of his writing. The critical assessment of Dickens’s writing has generally been coming in the form of reviews and articles dedicated to Dickens, in the form of prefaces and afterwords accompanying the translations of his books. In the inter-war years, Dickens was perceived as the great humanist, romanticist, and critic of the social evils of the Victorian England; he was glori­fied for his Christian ethics and his ‘Christmas phi­losophy’ with the focus on goodness and ‘religion of the heart’, with his cult of fireside tranquility. In the Soviet period, it is important to stress the tremen­dous influence of Marxist and communist ideology on the reception of Dickens who was favoured by the Marxist critics. In his writing they found the suit­able object to dissect using the tools, whatever blunt, of the Marxist approach, which was the only possi­ble method of literary analysis in Soviet times.Thus, during the period of Soviet occupation, Dickens was perceived as a typical representative of the social novel and of critical realism in English literature. His novels were popular because of political and social implications; he was the most translated and celebrated of English authors as providing a critique of capitalist society. This communist and Marxist bias was a crucial factor

Optogenetic activation of septal cholinergic neurons suppresses sharp wave ripples and enhances theta oscillations in the hippocampus.

Science.gov (United States)

Vandecasteele, Marie; Varga, Viktor; Berényi, Antal; Papp, Edit; Barthó, Péter; Venance, Laurent; Freund, Tamás F; Buzsáki, György

2014-09-16

Theta oscillations in the limbic system depend on the integrity of the medial septum. The different populations of medial septal neurons (cholinergic and GABAergic) are assumed to affect different aspects of theta oscillations. Using optogenetic stimulation of cholinergic neurons in ChAT-Cre mice, we investigated their effects on hippocampal local field potentials in both anesthetized and behaving mice. Cholinergic stimulation completely blocked sharp wave ripples and strongly suppressed the power of both slow oscillations (0.5-2 Hz in anesthetized, 0.5-4 Hz in behaving animals) and supratheta (6-10 Hz in anesthetized, 10-25 Hz in behaving animals) bands. The same stimulation robustly increased both the power and coherence of theta oscillations (2-6 Hz) in urethane-anesthetized mice. In behaving mice, cholinergic stimulation was less effective in the theta (4-10 Hz) band yet it also increased the ratio of theta/slow oscillation and theta coherence. The effects on gamma oscillations largely mirrored those of theta. These findings show that medial septal cholinergic activation can both enhance theta rhythm and suppress peri-theta frequency bands, allowing theta oscillations to dominate.

A Compact Multiple Notched Ultra-Wide Band Antenna with an Analysis of the CSRR-TO-CSRR Coupling for Portable UWB Applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Rahman, MuhibUr; Ko, Dong-Sik; Park, Jung-Dong

2017-09-25

We present a compact ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna integrated with sharp notches with a detailed analysis of the mutual coupling of the multiple notch resonators. By utilizing complementary split ring resonators (CSRR) on the radiating semi-circular patch, we achieve the sharp notch-filtering of various bands within the UWB band without increasing the antenna size. The notched frequency bands include WiMAX, INSAT, and lower and upper WLAN. In order to estimate the frequency shifts of the notch due to the coupling of the nearby CSRRs, an analysis of the coupling among the multiple notch resonators is carried out and we construct the lumped-circuit equivalent model. The time domain analysis of the proposed antenna is performed to show its validity on the UWB application. The measured frequency response of the input port corresponds quite well with the calculations and simulations. The radiation pattern of the implemented quad-notched UWB antenna is nearly omnidirectional in the passband.

Variation in the ACE, PPARGC1A and PPARA genes in Lithuanian football players.

Science.gov (United States)

Gineviciene, Valentina; Jakaitiene, Audrone; Tubelis, Linas; Kucinskas, Vaidutis

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to determine the impact of ACE (I/D), PPARGC1A (G/A) and PPARA (G/C) polymorphisms on footballers performance among 199 Lithuanian professional footballers and 167 sedentary, healthy men (controls). Genotyping was performed using polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism methods on DNA from leucocytes. Results revealed that the angiotensin-1-coverting enzyme gene (ACE) genotype distribution was significantly different between total football players group (II 23.6%, ID 46.7% and DD 29.6%) and the controls (II 24.6%, ID 29.9% and DD 45.5%; P=0.002). Although investigating PPARGC1A (G/A) and PPARA (G/C) polymorphisms no significant results were obtained in the total football players group, however, significant differences were determined between forwards and controls [PPARGC1A: GG 54.6%, GA 29.5%, AA 15.9% vs. GG 49.7%, GA 44.3% and AA 6.0% (P = 0.044); PPARA: GG 52.3%, GC 40.9%, CC 6.8% vs. GG 72.4%, GC 24.6% and CC 3.0% (P = 0.034)]. In the whole cohort, the odds ratio of the genotype [ACE ID + PPARA GG] being a footballer was 1.69 (95% CI 1.04-2.74), and of [ACE ID + PPARGC1A GG] 1.93 (95% CI 1.10-3.37) and of [ACE II + PPARA GC] 2.83 (95% CI 1.02-7.91) compared to controls. It was revealed that ACE ID genotype together with PPARA GG and PPARGC1A GG as well as ACE II genotype with PPARA GC is probably the 'preferable genotype' for footballers. Summing up, the present study suggests that the ACE, PPARGC1A and PPARA polymorphisms genotypes are associated, separately and in combination, with Lithuanian footballers' performance.

The impact of sharps injuries on student nurses: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Hambridge, Kevin; Nichols, Andrew; Endacott, Ruth

2016-10-27

The purpose of this review was to discover the impact of sharps injuries in the student nurse population. Much is known and reported about sharps injuries in registered nurses, but there has been a lack of published evidence regarding sharps injuries within the student nurse population. A systematic review of nursing, health and psychology databases was conducted. The limits set were publications between 1980 and 2014 in the English language. Studies were identified then, following a rigorous critical and quality appraisal with validated tools, were selected for the systematic review. A total of 40 articles met the inclusion criteria, reporting studies conducted in 18 countries. Psychological and physical impacts of sharps injuries in student nurses were reported, such as fear, anxiety and depression, although these impacts were not quantified using a validated instrument. The impact of sharps injuries can be severe, both psychological and physical. This systematic review shows that further research is needed into this, especially in under-researched areas such as the UK, to establish the impact of sharps injuries within this population. Further research would also aid the education and prevention of this harmful problem. The review also emphasises the psychological issues relating to sharps injuries, the impact these can have on individuals and the support and counselling that student nurses require after injury. These findings highlight the potential psychological issues that can result from sharps injuries in this population.

End-point sharpness in thermometric titrimetry.

Science.gov (United States)

Tyrrell, H J

1967-07-01

It is shown that the sharpness of an end-point in a thermometric titration where the simple reaction A + B right harpoon over left harpoon AB takes place, depends on Kc(A') where K is the equilibrium constant for the reaction, and c(A') is the total concentration of the titrand (A) in the reaction mixture. The end-point is sharp if, (i) the enthalpy change in the reaction is not negligible, and (ii) Kc(A') > 10(3). This shows that it should, for example, be possible to titrate 0.1 M acid, pK(A) = 10, using a thennometric end-point. Some aspects of thermometric titrimetry when Kc(A') < 10(3) are also considered.

Edge Sharpness Assessment by Parametric Modeling: Application to Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmad, R; Ding, Y; Simonetti, O P

2015-05-01

In biomedical imaging, edge sharpness is an important yet often overlooked image quality metric. In this work, a semi-automatic method to quantify edge sharpness in the presence of significant noise is presented with application to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The method is based on parametric modeling of image edges. First, an edge map is automatically generated and one or more edges-of-interest (EOI) are manually selected using graphical user interface. Multiple exclusion criteria are then enforced to eliminate edge pixels that are potentially not suitable for sharpness assessment. Second, at each pixel of the EOI, an image intensity profile is read along a small line segment that runs locally normal to the EOI. Third, the profiles corresponding to all EOI pixels are individually fitted with a sigmoid function characterized by four parameters, including one that represents edge sharpness. Last, the distribution of the sharpness parameter is used to quantify edge sharpness. For validation, the method is applied to simulated data as well as MRI data from both phantom imaging and cine imaging experiments. This method allows for fast, quantitative evaluation of edge sharpness even in images with poor signal-to-noise ratio. Although the utility of this method is demonstrated for MRI, it can be adapted for other medical imaging applications.

Influence of Brownfield Conversion on Evaluating Real Estate and Implemeting the Possibilites of Urban Brownfields in Lithuanian Cities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vytautas Bielinskas

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the problems of brownfield in Lithuania. The paper overviews Lithuanian and foreign experience of integrating the introduced areas into the urban framework based on social, economic, ecological and cultural contextuality. The main problem, on Lithuanian scale, is the absence of an official definition of urban brownfield. The legal framework in Lithuania does not contain any provisions to be processed. The article is aimed at identifying potential threats to the areas in respect of criteria for urban brownfields, and, according to this review, at revealing possible uses of this land. One of the most effective ways of urban sustainable development is the conversion of former military, industrial and other land accepted as the legacy of the Soviet regime. The authors have established a causal relationship resulting in the emergence of the urban areas of wilderness and developed guidance on using them. The authors have analysed and evaluated the existing real estate developers and current trends towards opportunities for private and public partnership (PPP in Lithuania. Although PPP is widespread in most of European countries, it is a rare phenomenon in Lithuania, and has no deep-rooted tradition of this kind of investment in urban infrastructure; however, evaluation is one of the most potential ways to revitalize abandoned urban territories. Based on practices of foreign countries, the authors have identified PPP as a priority.

Critical Security Studies in the 21st Century: Any Directions for Lithuanian Security Studies?

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Jakniūnaitė Dovilė

2014-12-01

Full Text Available This article focuses on recent developments and discussions in the field of security studies and aims to suggest new guidelines for the research of Lithuanian security policy. First it covers the main subjects of contemporary security discourse; next it provides evaluation and review of the critical tradition in security studies that frames presuppositions and is the means for analyzing specific security issues as well as that which fosters reflexive thinking about security. The third part deals with three topics of security research (analysis of security through the concepts of risk, exceptionality and media which have become talking-points in recent years and which have provided innovative insights in security studies.

The comparative analysis of English and Lithuanian transport terms and some methods of developing effective science writing strategies by non-native speakers of English

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V. Marina

2009-09-01

Full Text Available The paper addresses the problem of developing more effective strategies and skills of writing scientific and technical texts by non-native speakers of English. The causes of poor writing are identified and general guidelines for developing effective science writing strategies are outlined. The analysis of difficulties faced by non-native speakers of English in writing research papers is made by examining transport terms and international words which are based on different nomination principles in English and Lithuanian. Case study of various names given to a small vehicle used for passenger transportation in many countries is provided, illustrating the alternative ways of naming the same object of reality in different languages. The analysis is based on the theory of linguistic relativity. Differences in the use of similar international terms in English and Lithuanian, which often cause errors and misunderstanding, are also demonstrated. The recommendations helping non-native speakers of English to avoid errors and improve skills of writing scientific and technical texts are given.

An Empirical Study on the Impact of Country of Origin Effect on Young Lithuanian Consumers' Attitude towards Products

OpenAIRE

Sliburyte, Laimona; Bankauskiene, Giedre

2017-01-01

The country-of-origin (COO) effect is one of the most controversial areas of scientific marketing research because the results of some studies lead to different conclusions about the COO and its impact on consumer attitude and behaviour. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of COO effect on consumer's attitude to a product and how it depends on COO effect's moderators in the Lithuanian market. Theoretical analysis reveals that COO effect on consumer's attitude to a product depen...

Triple-Notched Band CPW fed UWB Antenna with Metallic Reflector for High Gain Performance

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K. G. Jangid

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This paper exhibits the design and performance of a coplanar waveguide (CPW fed triple notched band ultra-wide band (UWB antenna. Proposed prototype has two U-shaped slots on the patch and an inverted U slot in feed line with a metal reflector beneath the radiating element. Proposed structure renders wider impedance bandwidth extended between frequencies 2.71GHz to 12.92 GHz for VSWR 2. The utmost simulated gain of proposed antenna with reflector is close to 9.9dBi at 7.4GHz. A sharp reduction observed in the efficiency values of the proposed structure at stop bands. Perhaps, this structure proved as a useful tool for various applications in modern communication systems including UWB.

The features of choosing an institutional development trajectory in Eastern Europe in the 16th—17th centuries: Moscovy and the Polish — Lithuanian Commonwealth

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Vdovin Mikhail

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Recent decades have witnessed an increase in the number of works dedicated to the analysis of effects of historical events on the choice of institutions and further economic and social development of regions. This article employs the new institutional economic theory approach to consider the choices regarding title to land and serfdom in Moscovy and the Polish — Lithuanian Commonwealth (earlier the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 16th—17th centuries. The author emphasizes the factors, which affected the choice of institutional development trajectory, and considers the influence exerted by these institutes on the political and military development of these states. This article shows how the contingent property rights in Moscovy turned out to be competitive in the conditions of a considerable contribution of decentralization factors to defence capacity and, opposite to the situation in the Polish — Lithuanian Commonwealth, ensured the formation of large and efficient troops. This work contributes to the research on the property rights and Russian economic history.

Effects of sharp vorticity gradients in two-dimensional hydrodynamic turbulence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kuznetsov, E.A.; Naulin, Volker; Nielsen, Anders Henry

2007-01-01

The appearance of sharp vorticity gradients in two-dimensional hydrodynamic turbulence and their influence on the turbulent spectra are considered. We have developed the analog of the vortex line representation as a transformation to the curvilinear system of coordinates moving together with the ......The appearance of sharp vorticity gradients in two-dimensional hydrodynamic turbulence and their influence on the turbulent spectra are considered. We have developed the analog of the vortex line representation as a transformation to the curvilinear system of coordinates moving together...... with the divorticity lines. Compressibility of this mapping can be considered as the main reason for the formation of the sharp vorticity gradients at high Reynolds numbers. For two-dimensional turbulence in the case of strong anisotropy the sharp vorticity gradients can generate spectra which fall off as k−3 at large...

The Standardized Aspect of the Dictionaries of Lithuanian Terms of Physics

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Angelė Kaulakienė

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Single physical terms, words which became terms, can be found in the papers of our standard language founders J. Bretkūnas, M. Daukša, D. Kleinas, J. Rėza, S. Vaišnoras, B. Vilentas in the 16th–17th cc. K. Sirvydas’ trilingual (Polish-Latin-Lithuanian dictionary “Dictionarium trium linguarum”, the first edition of which appeared in1620, had a great influence on the development of standard language lexis. However, the terminology of physics began to develop much later. Its evolution can be divided in three stages:1 the middle of the 19th c – the end of the 19th c, when the first articles, published in Keleivis (1849–1880 and Aušra (1883–1886, and the first Lithuanian physics textbook of P. Vileišis “Populiariszkas rankvedis fyzikos” (1899 appeared; 2 the beginning of the 20th c – the middle of the 20th c, when the terminology of this stage was influenced by Ig. Končius’ manuscript of physics textbook for gymnasia, during preparation of which he consulted with K. Būga and J. Jablonskis in 1916–1919, Ig. Končius’ dictionary “Terminai fizikos reikalams”, published in Lithuania (1923–1924, K. Šakenis’ “Fizika” (1920, V. Čepinskis’ “Fizikos paskaitos” (1923–1926; 3 the middle of the 20th c – the beginning of the 21st c, when the majority of physical terms, which are still in use, were fixed. P. Brazdžiūnas’ normative work, which was performed by preparing the textbook for higher schools and colleges “Bendroji fizika” (1960–1965 and preparing and editing with his colleagues FTŽ1, FTŽ2, which became the basis of the newest FTŽ3, had influenced it. FTŽ3 terms are standardized most strongly of all terminographic physical publications. It was influenced by the normative aspect of previous dictionaries of physical terms, which changed at the same time, because the conceptions of different notions and terms changed, there were a lot of fixed terms. Consequently, it can be concluded that

Hydrodynamic processes in sharp meander bends and their morphological implications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Blanckaert, K.

2011-01-01

The migration rate of sharp meander bends exhibits large variance and indicates that some sharply curved bends tend to stabilize. These observations remain unexplained. This paper examines three hydrodynamic processes in sharp bends with fixed banks and discusses their morphological implications:

Interface sharpness in the Potts model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ruiz, J.

1989-01-01

A simple proof is given for the existence of a sharp interface between two ordered phases for the three-dimensional 2 double-prime-state Potts model (n integer). The results show that the roughening temperature of the three-dimensional Potts model is greater than the transition temperature of the two-dimensional Potts model. For a large arbitrary spin integer, it is expected that this roughening temperature is equal to the transition temperature (of the 3D model), i.e., that the interface between two ordered phases is harp up to the transition temperature, at which it is wetted by a film of the disordered phase. It is also expected that for a large arbitrary spin integer, the a-f interface (between an ordered and the disordered phase) is sharp at the transition temperature

Optical study of the band structure of wurtzite GaP nanowires

KAUST Repository

Assali, S.

2016-07-25

We investigated the optical properties of wurtzite (WZ) GaP nanowires by performing photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL measurements in the temperature range from 4 K to 300 K, together with atom probe tomography to identify residual impurities in the nanowires. At low temperature, the WZ GaP luminescence shows donor-acceptor pair emission at 2.115 eV and 2.088 eV, and Burstein-Moss band-filling continuum between 2.180 and 2.253 eV, resulting in a direct band gap above 2.170 eV. Sharp exciton α-β-γ lines are observed at 2.140–2.164–2.252 eV, respectively, showing clear differences in lifetime, presence of phonon replicas, and temperature-dependence. The excitonic nature of those peaks is critically discussed, leading to a direct band gap of ∼2.190 eV and to a resonant state associated with the γ-line ∼80 meV above the Γ8C conduction band edge.

Optical study of the band structure of wurtzite GaP nanowires

KAUST Repository

Assali, S.; Greil, J.; Zardo, I.; Belabbes, Abderrezak; de Moor, M. W. A.; Koelling, S.; Koenraad, P. M.; Bechstedt, F.; Bakkers, E. P. A. M.; Haverkort, J. E. M.

2016-01-01

We investigated the optical properties of wurtzite (WZ) GaP nanowires by performing photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL measurements in the temperature range from 4 K to 300 K, together with atom probe tomography to identify residual impurities in the nanowires. At low temperature, the WZ GaP luminescence shows donor-acceptor pair emission at 2.115 eV and 2.088 eV, and Burstein-Moss band-filling continuum between 2.180 and 2.253 eV, resulting in a direct band gap above 2.170 eV. Sharp exciton α-β-γ lines are observed at 2.140–2.164–2.252 eV, respectively, showing clear differences in lifetime, presence of phonon replicas, and temperature-dependence. The excitonic nature of those peaks is critically discussed, leading to a direct band gap of ∼2.190 eV and to a resonant state associated with the γ-line ∼80 meV above the Γ8C conduction band edge.

[Overview of sharps injuries among health-care workers].

Science.gov (United States)

Gopar-Nieto, Rodrigo; Juárez-Pérez, Cuauhtémoc Arturo; Cabello-López, Alejandro; Haro-García, Luis Cuauhtémoc; Aguilar-Madrid, Guadalupe

2015-01-01

Sharps injuries are one of the most frequent health-care related accidents. It is estimated globally that 35 million workers are at risk; in Mexico there is no data available for this type of injuries. They are associated with lack of training, instrument and procedure risk, fatigue and stress. The occupational distribution is nurses 45 %, technicians 20 %, doctors 20 % and maintenance workers 5 %. The most commonly associated procedures are injection, venipuncture, suture, and insertion and manipulation of IV catheters. Hepatitis B is the most commonly transmitted agent. Emotional distress is huge as well as the cost of prophylaxis and follow-up. More than half of the injuries are not notified. The most common reasons for not reporting are: the belief that the exposure has low risk of infection, the lack of knowledge of reporting systems and the assumption that it is difficult to notify. Many strategies have been created to reduce the incidence of sharps injuries, such as: identifying the risk of blood exposure, the creation of politics to minimize the risk, the education and training to create a safe workplace, the enhancing of the reporting system, the use of double-gloving and using safety-engineered sharps devices. In many countries these politics have reduced the incidence of sharps injuries as well as the economic burden.

DATA QUALITY EVALUATION AND APPLICATION POTENTIAL ANALYSIS OF TIANGONG-2 WIDE-BAND IMAGING SPECTROMETER

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B. Qin

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Tiangong-2 is the first space laboratory in China, which launched in September 15, 2016. Wide-band Imaging Spectrometer is a medium resolution multispectral imager on Tiangong-2. In this paper, the authors introduced the indexes and parameters of Wideband Imaging Spectrometer, and made an objective evaluation about the data quality of Wide-band Imaging Spectrometer in radiation quality, image sharpness and information content, and compared the data quality evaluation results with that of Landsat-8. Although the data quality of Wide-band Imager Spectrometer has a certain disparity with Landsat-8 OLI data in terms of signal to noise ratio, clarity and entropy. Compared with OLI, Wide-band Imager Spectrometer has more bands, narrower bandwidth and wider swath, which make it a useful remote sensing data source in classification and identification of large and medium scale ground objects. In the future, Wide-band Imaging Spectrometer data will be widely applied in land cover classification, ecological environment assessment, marine and coastal zone monitoring, crop identification and classification, and other related areas.

Data Quality Evaluation and Application Potential Analysis of TIANGONG-2 Wide-Band Imaging Spectrometer

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, B.; Li, L.; Li, S.

2018-04-01

Tiangong-2 is the first space laboratory in China, which launched in September 15, 2016. Wide-band Imaging Spectrometer is a medium resolution multispectral imager on Tiangong-2. In this paper, the authors introduced the indexes and parameters of Wideband Imaging Spectrometer, and made an objective evaluation about the data quality of Wide-band Imaging Spectrometer in radiation quality, image sharpness and information content, and compared the data quality evaluation results with that of Landsat-8. Although the data quality of Wide-band Imager Spectrometer has a certain disparity with Landsat-8 OLI data in terms of signal to noise ratio, clarity and entropy. Compared with OLI, Wide-band Imager Spectrometer has more bands, narrower bandwidth and wider swath, which make it a useful remote sensing data source in classification and identification of large and medium scale ground objects. In the future, Wide-band Imaging Spectrometer data will be widely applied in land cover classification, ecological environment assessment, marine and coastal zone monitoring, crop identification and classification, and other related areas.

Occupational exposure to sharps injury among healthcare providers in Ethiopia regional hospitals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sharew, Nigussie Tadesse; Mulu, Getaneh Baye; Habtewold, Tesfa Dejenie; Gizachew, Kefyalew Dagne

2017-01-01

BACKGROUND: Sharps injury is a penetrating stab wound from a needle, scalpel, or another sharp object that may result in exposure to blood or other body fluids. According to World Health Organization pooled estimate, the annual incidence of sharps injury in Africa was ranged from 2.10 to 4.68 per

Fabrication of Ceramic Layer-by-Layer Infrared Wavelength Photonic Band Gap Crystals

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kang, Henry Hao-Chuan [Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)

2004-12-19

Photonic band gap (PBG) crystals, also known as photonic crystals, are periodic dielectric structures which form a photonic band gap that prohibit the propagation of electromagnetic (EM) waves of certain frequencies at any incident angles. Photonic crystals have several potential applications including zero-threshold semiconductor lasers, the inhibition of spontaneous emission, dielectric mirrors, and wavelength filters. If defect states are introduced in the crystals, light can be guided from one location to another or even a sharp bending of light in micron scale can be achieved. This generates the potential for optical waveguide and optical circuits, which will contribute to the improvement in the fiber-optic communications and the development of high-speed computers.

[A pragmatic alliance. Jewisch-Lithuanian political cooperation at the beginning of the 20th century. Hrsg. von Vladas Sirutavičius, Darius Staliūnas] / Karsten Brüggemann

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Brüggemann, Karsten, 1965-

2013-01-01

Arvustus: A pragmatic alliance. Jewisch-Lithuanian political cooperation at the beginning of the 20th century. Hrsg. von Vladas Sirutavičius und Darius Staliūnas. Verlag CEU Press. Budapest und New York, 2011

Backbendings of superdeformed bands in 36;40Ar

Science.gov (United States)

Xiang, Xu-Hui; He, Xiao-Tao

2018-05-01

Experimentally observed superdeformed (SD) rotational bands in 36Ar and 40Ar are studied by the cranked shell model (CSM) with the pairing correlations treated by a particle-number-conserving (PNC) method. This is the first time that PNC-CSM calculations have been performed on the light nuclear mass region around A=40. The experimental kinematic moments of inertia J (1) versus rotational frequency are reproduced well. The backbending of the SD band at frequency around ℏω=1.5 MeV in 36Ar is attributed to the sharp rise of the simultaneous alignments of the neutron and proton 1d 5/2[202]5/2 pairs and 1f 7/2[321]3/2 pairs, which is a consequence of the band crossing between the 1d 5/2[202]5/2 and 1f 7/2[321]3/2 configuration states. The gentle upbending at low frequency of the SD band in 40Ar is mainly affected by the alignments of the neutron 1f 7/2[321]3/2 pairs and proton 1d 5/2[202]5/2 pairs. The PNC-CSM calculations show that besides the diagonal parts, the off-diagonal parts of the alignments play an important role in the rotational behavior of the SD bands. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (11775112 and 11275098) and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions

Specifics of Communication in Lithuanian Voting Campaigns, 2012-2016

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Mažylis Liudas

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The rapid growth of the numbers of unaffiliated voters and the internet users caused politicians’ interest in these audiences and the start of their activities in these communication channels by establishing more personalized relationships with voters. This paper aims to analyze the communication of main parties and their candidates in social media channel “Facebook” and in popular Lithuanian internet news media portals, such as delfi.lt, lrytas.lt and others before the Parliamentary elections in 2012 and the forthcoming 2016 Parliamentary elections. Both quantitative and qualitative aspects of campaign coverage in the media portals and Facebook are analysed. The paper addresses the following questions: How important are factors such as new party emergence, parallel referendum campaign, and activity of using social media for the final result of elections? How active were the politicians in the Facebook? What content dominated their profiles? How much personalized were their messages? What strategies were used for communication? Did the politicians aim at mobilizing or at persuasion the voters? Involvement of citizens, voters’ turnout and political results are linked with campaign arguments and the value normative environment. We conclude by providing the discussion on the noticed tendencies and possible improvements in the communication of candidates for the future.

Of decentralization of public power Ukrainian land that belonged to Lithuanian (XIII – the early XVII century

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C. V. Manuilova

2016-06-01

Full Text Available A comprehensive crisis in Ukraine and continued military confrontation in the Donbass demonstrated the urgent need to establish effective governance, which would imply decentralization of public power. Note that in implementing the decentralization of power in Ukraine insists the International Monetary Fund; United Nations Development Program; the transfer of authority to the field and decentralization of power in Ukraine is one of the points of the Minsk agreements and obligations of Ukraine to the EU. The article deals with the Ukrainian lands topical issue features the decentralization of public power in the XIII - the beginning of XVII century. The importance of the topic due to the need to study the historical experience of the implementation of decentralization. It was, emphasized that the success of the reforms depends largely because of the historical experience and features of the decentralization of public power in the past. Characterized by the development of local government in the Ukrainian lands was part of the Lithuanian state. The purpose of the article is to clarify the characteristics of decentralization of public authority on Ukrainian lands were part of the Lithuanian state during the XVII century XIII. To address this goal, outline decentralization of public power in the state; analyze, competence of local government in the Ukrainian lands that belonged to the Lith uanian State; determine how close to the power of the people. The level of decentralization of public power in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the XIII - the beginning of XVII century was high. It was, found that Lithuania had not established a centralized state. It is, noted that the Board of the nobility limited the princely power. The effect of delegated deputies from different parts of the Lithuanian statehood solutions nobility Council.Clarified the facts that confirm the existence of decentralization of public power in Lithuania: the functioning of local

Insulin stimulates the expression of the SHARP-1 gene via multiple signaling pathways.

Science.gov (United States)

Takagi, K; Asano, K; Haneishi, A; Ono, M; Komatsu, Y; Yamamoto, T; Tanaka, T; Ueno, H; Ogawa, W; Tomita, K; Noguchi, T; Yamada, K

2014-06-01

The rat enhancer of split- and hairy-related protein-1 (SHARP-1) is a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor. An issue of whether SHARP-1 is an insulin-inducible transcription factor was examined. Insulin rapidly increased the level of SHARP-1 mRNA both in vivo and in vitro. Then, signaling pathways involved with the increase of SHARP-1 mRNA by insulin were determined in H4IIE rat hepatoma cells. Pretreatments with LY294002, wortmannin, and staurosporine completely blocked the induction effect, suggesting the involvement of both phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-K) and protein kinase C (PKC) pathways. In fact, overexpression of a dominant negative form of atypical protein kinase C lambda (aPKCλ) significantly decreased the induction of the SHARP-1 mRNA. In addition, inhibitors for the small GTPase Rac or Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) also blocked the induction of SHARP-1 mRNA by insulin. Overexpression of a dominant negative form of Rac1 prevented the activation by insulin. Furthermore, actinomycin D and cycloheximide completely blocked the induction of SHARP-1 mRNA by insulin. Finally, when a SHARP-1 expression plasmid was transiently transfected with various reporter plasmids into H4IIE cells, the promoter activity of PEPCK reporter plasmid was specifically decreased. Thus, we conclude that insulin induces the SHARP-1 gene expression at the transcription level via a both PI 3-K/aPKCλ/JNK- and a PI 3-K/Rac/JNK-signaling pathway; protein synthesis is required for this induction; and that SHARP-1 is a potential repressor of the PEPCK gene expression. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

ASSESSMENT OF THE MANAGEMENT OF SHARPS INJURIES IN GOVERNMENT HOSPITALS: THE MALAYSIAN SITUATION

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M. Siti Haniza M.D PhD

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Management of occupational hazards has been a priority and sharps injuries is a known potential risk to health care workers. With the known risks of potential infections, to the workers as well as the patients, our workers need protection from further danger. Objective: This study looked at the measures taken on managing the affected healthcare workers. Methods: A cross-sectional survey using self-administered questionnaire was sent to 55 hospital directors. They were required to inform on their management practices on sharps injuries. Results: The findings showed variations in the management of sharps injuries during and after office hours, variation in the site of keeping the records, person responsible and variation in the frequency of data analysis and presentation to hospital directors. Discussion: According to OSHA Act 1994, it is the responsibility of the employer to ensure safety, health and welfare of the employee. In management of sharps injury data from injury reporting should be compiled and assessed. Reporting feedback need to be encouraged with timely follow-up of all sharps injury cases. Reporting of sharps injuries is essential to ensure that all healthcare workers receive appropriate post-exposure medical treatment. Conclusion & Recommendation: A uniform management of sharps injuries protocol need to be established to improve reporting. An avenue to present sharps injuries data regularly is needed so as appropriate management of workers be ensured. Therefore adherence to the available guidelines need to be ensured. Key words: management, sharps injuries, healthcare workers

Stability analysis of sharp-boundary Vlasov-fluid screw-pinch equilibria

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewis, H.R.; Turner, L.

1975-01-01

The Vlasov-fluid model is being used to study the linear stability of sharp-boundary screw pinches numerically. The numerical method appears to work well, and some preliminary results are reported. The sharp-boundary calculation is useful for gaining insight and for comparing with known MHD results. (auth)

On the Polysemy Of the Lithuanian Už. A Cognitive Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

nesa Šeškauskienė

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Adhering to the principle of motivated polysemy, this paper sets out to demonstrate how the principle works in interpreting numerous senses of the Lithuanian preposition už ‘behind, beyond’. The present investigation relies on the cognitive linguistic framework employed, first of all, by Lakoff (1987, Langacker (1987, Talmy (2000, Tyler and Evans (2003, and Tyler (2012, who mainly worked on English, and such linguists as Tabakowska (2003, 2010 and Shakhova and Tyler (2010, who attempted to investigate inflecting languages, such as Polish and Russian. Based on such semantic principles as types of Figure and Ground, their relationship (geometric, functional, etc., contextual clues and pattern of usage, etc., the present paper demonstrates that the polysemy of už used with two cases, Genitive and Accusative, is not an array of arbitrary senses, but rather a motivated network. It posits a central sense of už based on Figure located in the back region of Ground. All other senses, namely, those of function, control, obstacle, sequential location, hiding and covering, boundary or border, spatial distance, temporal distance, quality distance, replacement, retribution and remuneration, and benefactive, are directly or indirectly derived from the central sense.

The sharp peak-flat trough pattern and critical speculation

OpenAIRE

Roehner, B. M.; Sornette, D.

1998-01-01

We find empirically a characteristic sharp peak-flat trough pattern in a large set of commodity prices. We argue that the sharp peak structure reflects an endogenous inter-market organization, and that peaks may be seen as local ``singularities'' resulting from imitation and herding. These findings impose a novel stringent constraint on the construction of models. Intermittent amplification is not sufficient and nonlinear effects seem necessary to account for the observations.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering on periodic metal nanotips with tunable sharpness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Linn, Nicholas C; Sun, C-H; Arya, Ajay; Jiang Peng; Jiang Bin

2009-01-01

This paper reports on a scalable bottom-up technology for producing periodic gold nanotips with tunable sharpness as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates. Inverted silicon pyramidal pits, which are templated from non-close-packed colloidal crystals prepared by a spin-coating technology, are used as structural templates to replicate arrays of polymer nanopyramids with nanoscale sharp tips. The deposition of a thin layer of gold on the polymer nanopyramids leads to the formation of SERS-active substrates with a high enhancement factor (up to 10 8 ). The thickness of the deposited metal determines the sharpness of the nanotips and the resulting Raman enhancement factor. Finite-element electromagnetic modeling shows that the nanotips can significantly enhance the local electromagnetic field and the sharpness of nanotips greatly affects the SERS enhancement.

Numerical simulation of systems of shear bands in ductile metal with inclusions

Science.gov (United States)

Plohr, Jeeyeon

2017-06-01

We develop a method for numerical simulations of high strain-rate loading of mesoscale samples of ductile metal with inclusions. Because of its small-scale inhomogeneity, the composite material is prone to localized shear deformation. This method employs the Generalized Method of Cells to ensure that the micro mechanical behavior of the metal and inclusions is reflected properly in the behavior of the composite at the mesoscale. To find the effective plastic strain rate when shear bands are present, we extend and apply the analytic and numerical analysis of shear bands of Glimm, Plohr, and Sharp. Our tests of the method focus on the stress/strain response in uniaxial-strain flow, both compressive and tensile, of depleted uranium metal containing silicon carbide inclusions. In results, we verify the elevated temperature and thermal softening at shear bands in our simulations of pure DU and DU/SiC composites. We also note that in composites, due the asymmetry caused by the inclusions, shear band form at different times in different subcells. In particular, in the subcells near inclusions, shear band form much earlier than they do in pure DU.

Analysis and protective measures of sharp instrument injury causes of sterilization and supply center

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hua YANG

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Objective: To analyze the causes of sharp injury in the sterilization and supply center, take protective measures, effectively avoid sharp instrument injury, and guarantee staff safety. Methods: Adopt a retrospective survey method, summarize sharp instrument injury data of sterilization and supply center in 2013, analyze the reasons of the occurrence of sharp instrument injury, and make protective countermeasures. Results: Sharp instrument injuries occurred mainly in the device classification, manual cleaning and device packaging process. Conclusion: Poor consciousness of occupational protection of the staff in the sterilization and supply center, nonstandard operation, and lack of training and supervision in place are the main reasons of occurrence of sharp instrument injury.

Use of Cs-137 for the calibration of the circulation model of Lithuanian coastal waters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Davuliene, L.; Trinkunas, G.; Remeikis, V.; Valkunas, L.; Dick, S.

2002-01-01

It is well established that radioactive contamination of waters and sediments in the Lithuanian coastal area of the Baltic Sea is distributed unevenly. To describe the distribution of the radionuclides in waters of the Lithuanian coastal area of the Baltic Sea, the model based on the operational circulation model of the Bundesamt fuer Seeschffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH) for the North and Baltic seas was developed. The area under consideration contains both the Lithuanian coast of the Baltic Sea as well as the Curonian Gulf of the fresh water. The interplay between the salt and fresh water flows via the Kaipeda strait has impact on the distribution of radionuclides. For instance, Cs-137 is a typical radionuclide demonstrating this effect. It is experimentally well established that this radionuclide in the salt water is mainly in the dissolved form (about 90%) and just its minor part is concentrated in the suspended matter (about 10%). In fresh water the dissolved/suspended matter ratio for Cs-137 is totally opposite. Therefore, Cs-137 can be considered as the tracer following the fresh and salt water mixing. With samples of the radionuclide concentration in the sea area under consideration at hand, Cs-137 is used to normalize the tracer concentration simulated by the developed circulation model. The model was based on the grade of 1 nautic mile (nm), while the boundary conditions were taken from the more extended BSH model on the 6 nm grade. In order to understand the sensitivity of this local model to the initial conditions, the artificial conditions taken from the more general and coarse model were used. It has been obtained that the effect of the initial conditions is lost within 2-3 weeks. This result is independent of the coarse grain of the grade as calculations carried out on 1 nm and 0.5 nm grades show. The model was adopted for the PC Pentium III, and calculations of the salinity distribution depending on the meteorological conditions were carried out. Real

Objective assessment of knife sharpness over a working day cutting meat.

Science.gov (United States)

Savescu, Adriana; Cuny-Guerrier, Aude; Wild, Pascal; Reno, Gilles; Aublet-Cuvelier, Agnès; Claudon, Laurent

2018-04-01

Knife sharpness is one of multiple factors involved in musculoskeletal disorders in industrial meat cutting. The aim of this study was to objectively evaluate, in real working situations, how knife sharpness changed over a working day cutting meat, and to analyse the impact of sharpening, steeling and meat-cutting activities on these variations. Twenty-two meat-cutting workers from three different companies participated in the study. The methods included measurements of knife sharpness in relation to real work situations and consideration of the way meat-cutting and sharpening operations were organised. Results showed that the type of meat-cutting activities, the steeling strategy adopted by the worker, including the types of tool used, and the overall organisation of the sharpening task all had a significant influence on how knife sharpness evolved over a 2-h period and over an entire working day. To improve MSD prevention, sharpening and steeling operations should not be considered as independent activities, but taken into account as a continuity of working actions. Appropriate assessment of knife sharpness by meat cutters affects how they organise meat-cutting and sharpening tasks. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Intergenerational Transmission of Resilience? Sense of Coherence Is Associated between Lithuanian Survivors of Political Violence and Their Adult Offspring.

Science.gov (United States)

Kazlauskas, Evaldas; Gailiene, Danute; Vaskeliene, Ieva; Skeryte-Kazlauskiene, Monika

2017-01-01

Little is known about intergeneration effects on mental health in the families of survivors of political oppression of communist regime in Central and Eastern Europe. We aimed to explore post-traumatic stress in the second generation of the Lithuanian survivors of political violence, and analyze links between parental and adult offsprings' sense of coherence in the families exposed to political violence during the oppressive communist regime in Lithuania. A total of 110 matched pairs of communist regime political violence survivors (mean age = 73.22 years) and their adult offspring (mean age = 44.65 years) participated in this study. Life-time traumatic experiences and sense of coherence were measured in both parents and their offspring. Post-traumatic stress symptoms were assessed in the second generation of survivors. We found a high vulnerability in the second generation of the Lithuanian families of political violence survivors, with a 29% of probable PTSD in the second generation based on self-report measures. A significant positive correlation between parental and adult offsprings' sense of coherence was found. Post-traumatic stress symptoms were associated negatively with a sense of coherence in the second generation. Our study indicates the links between parental and the second generation's sense of coherence in the families of survivors of political violence. The study raises broader questions about the intergenerational aspects of resilience. Further studies are needed to explore the links between parental and child sense of coherence in other samples.

Sovremennaja vneshnjaja politika Litvy: korrektirovki tradicionnogo kursa [Modern Lithuanian foreign policy: the adjustment of traditional policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Batorshina Irina

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The authors consider the core areas of Lithuanian foreign policy. Special attention is paid to the adjustment of the major foreign policy vector, which concentrated earlier on the cooperation with the United States of America and strategic partnership with the Republic of Poland. The article analyses the attempts of Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė to formulate the so-called «new foreign policy» based on the multivector approach to the intergovernmental cooperation. This research is timely because of an increasing influence of small states on foreign policy decision-making within the European Union. It emphasizes the need to analyse foreign policy priorities of the Baltic States and Central and Eastern European countries and to identify the dominant trends in the international policy in the region in order to forecast further development at European and global levels. This objective is achieved with the help of an integrated approach with elements of interdisciplinary research. Special attention is paid to the comparative-historical approach, which facilitates the analysis of the relations between the Republic of Lithuania and the neighbouring states and its principal partners. Alongside traditional methods of historical research, this work employs such methods as participant observation, content and event analysis, and simultaneous and comparative analysis. The research and practical significance of this work is explained by its emphasis on the need to apply an additional theoretical framework to studies into the foreign policy initiatives of the Republic of Lithuania in the international arena. While earlier they were determined by the value (democratic approach, which was a reflection of American realism, today an increasingly important factor is the personality of the president, who does not always positively influence the changing policy of the country. The results of the research contribute substant

Sharp Dissection versus Electrocautery for Radial Artery Harvesting

Science.gov (United States)

Marzban, Mehrab; Arya, Reza; Mandegar, Mohammad Hossein; Karimi, Abbas Ali; Abbasi, Kiomars; Movahed, Namvar; Abbasi, Seyed Hesameddin

2006-01-01

Radial arteries have been increasingly used during the last decade as conduits for coronary artery revascularization. Although various harvesting techniques have been described, there has been little comparative study of arterial damage and patency. A radial artery graft was used in 44 consecutive patients, who were randomly divided into 2 groups. In the 1st group, the radial artery was harvested by sharp dissection and in the 2nd, by electrocautery. These groups were compared with regard to radial artery free flow, harvest time, number of clips used, complications, and endothelial damage. Radial artery free flow before and after intraluminal administration of papaverine was significantly greater in the electrocautery group (84.3 ± 50.7 mL/min and 109.7 ± 68.5 mL/min) than in the sharp-dissection group (52.9 ± 18.3 mL/min and 69.6 ± 28.2 mL/ min) (P =0.003). Harvesting time by electrocautery was significantly shorter (25.4 ± 4.3 min vs 34.4 ± 5.9 min) (P =0.0001). Electrocautery consumed an average of 9.76 clips, versus 22.45 clips consumed by sharp dissection. The 2 groups were not different regarding postoperative complications, except for 3 cases of temporary paresthesia of the thumb in the electrocautery group; histopathologic examination found no endothelial damage. We conclude that radial artery harvesting by electrocautery is faster and more economical than harvesting by sharp dissection and is associated with better intraoperative flow and good preservation of endothelial integrity. PMID:16572861

Autopsy on an RF-Processed X-band Travelling Wave Structure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Le Pimpec, Frederic

2002-01-01

In an effort to locate the cause(s) of high electric-field breakdown in x-band accelerating structures, we have cleanly-autopsied (no debris added by post-operation structure disassembly) an RF-processed structure. Macroscopic localization provided operationally by RF reflected wave analysis and acoustic sensor pickup was used to connect breakdowns to autopsied crater damage areas. Surprisingly, the microscopic analyses showed breakdown craters in areas of low electric field. High currents induced by the magnetic field on sharp corners of the input coupler appears responsible for the extreme breakdown damage observed

Peculiarities of the contamination with radionuclides of the cultured pasture grass of the Lithuanian SSR after the Chernobyl accident

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nedvetskajte, T.N.; Filistovich, V.I.; Petrulis, R.A.; Dauskurdis, S.I.; Tamulenajte, O.P.; Chias, K.V.

1989-01-01

Data on the contamination of pastures in the Lithuanian SSR with 131 I after the Chernobyl accident are given on the basis of measuring the grass samples from the cultured pastures. The predominant radionculides on the grass in the north-eastern and central parts of Lithuanie were 1 31 I and 103 Ru, while in its western and southern parts the 141 Ce, 144 Ce, 134 Cs, 137 Cs and other radioisotopes as well as hot particles predominated. The value of the grass-milk transfer coefficient was specified. 2 refs.; 5 figs

The Indicators of Gytariai Secondary School teachers' qualification in the context of restructure of Lithuanian and Šiauliai region's educational system

OpenAIRE

Tamošiūnas, Teodoras; Minkuvienė, Edita

2005-01-01

Having investigated the body of statistical data of teachers qualification of the 2002-2003 and 2002-2003 educational activities of Lithuania and Šiauliai city/municipality, the following was established: About 80 per cent of teachers of Lithuanian schools of general education are certified. Pedagogues having the qualification of a senior teacher prevail (56%). The dominant of teachers having high qualification (that of a methodologist or an expert) at secondary schools accounts for 13-23%, i...

Software design of SHARP

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siegel, A.; Tautges, T.; Caceres, A.; Kaushik, D.; Fischer, P.; Palmiotti, G.; Smith, M.; Ragusa, J.

2007-01-01

SHARP (Simulation-based High-efficiency Advanced Reactor Prototyping) is a modern suite of codes to simulate the key components of a fast reactor core. The SHARP tool-kit is organized as a collection of modules, each representing the key components of the physics to be modeled - neutron transport, thermal hydraulics, fuel/structure behavior - together with pre and post-processing for geometry definition, mesh generation, visualization, user interface, etc. The physics models are designed to make minimal possible use of lumped parameter models, homogenization, and empirical correlations in favor of more direct solution of the fundamental governing equations, when sufficient computing resources are available. Thus, one of the key design goals is to effectively leverage leadership class computing resources - viz. BG/P and Cray Supercomputers that are on the current trajectory to delivering sustained peta-flops performance. Further, the nature of the physical problem to be investigated will require either strong or weak coupling between some or all of the existing modules (e.g. operator split vs. fully coupled), while multiple implementations of each physics module, representing different algorithms, will also be required (e.g. deterministic versus Monte Carlo) for verification and to explore different physical regimes. Accomplishing these goals in the context of ultra-scalable architectures and multidisciplinary and possibly distributed development teams is a daunting task. In this paper we explain our initial lightweight and loosely coupled framework, its initial design, and a number of current open research questions in this area. (authors)

Sharp vorticity gradients in two-dimensional turbulence and the energy spectrum

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kuznetsov, E.A.; Naulin, Volker; Nielsen, Anders Henry

2010-01-01

Formation of sharp vorticity gradients in two-dimensional (2D) hydrodynamic turbulence and their influence on the turbulent spectra are considered. The analog of the vortex line representation as a transformation to the curvilinear system of coordinates moving together with the di-vorticity lines...... is developed and compressibility of this mapping appears as the main reason for the formation of the sharp vorticity gradients at high Reynolds numbers. In the case of strong anisotropy the sharp vorticity gradients can generate spectra which fall off as k −3 at large k, which appear to take the same form...

Lithuanian Cluster of Sea Economics – Instrument of Sustainable Regional Development Lietuvos jūrų ūkio klasteris – darnios regiono plėtros instrumentas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Violeta Grublienė

2011-02-01

Full Text Available

The article analyses problems of cluster’s formation in Lithuania. The reasons why clusters in Lithuania are evolving slowly are described in this article. Also cluster’s development process in a logical sequence is submitted. The article accented that the Lithuanian cluster’s policy principles should assess the specific Lithuanian conditions, the positive foreign experience and strategic objectives of competitiveness.Lithuanian status of fisheries sector is estimated. Also the main problems in this sector are named: complexity of management, decreasing of fishing quota, shorter season of cod fishing, economic problems. The article made assumptions that the clustering process should ensure more sustainable development of the sector, a new operational quality creating the ability to compete at lower prices and innovation. Also it was emphasized that clustering processes should assess such factors as: sector’s culture, competitive opportunities and sustainable development of the region.During formation of this cluster it is recommended to assess the fisheries sector as the component of Lithuanian maritime economy. Lithuanian maritime cluster should be developed allowing for common features inherent in clusters, assessing sustainable development principles of the sector. In this way Lithuanian maritime cluster combines not only the fisheries sector but also the activities characterized by Lithuanian maritime economy.

Keywords: cluster, sea economics, regional development, fisheries sector.

Conduction-band valley spin splitting in single-layer H-T l2O

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Yandong; Kou, Liangzhi; Du, Aijun; Huang, Baibiao; Dai, Ying; Heine, Thomas

2018-02-01

Despite numerous studies, coupled spin and valley physics is currently limited to two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs). Here, we predict an exceptional 2D valleytronic material associated with the spin-valley coupling phenomena beyond 2D TMDCs—single-layer (SL) H-T l2O . It displays large valley spin splitting (VSS), significantly larger than that of 2D TMDCs, and a finite band gap, which are both critically attractive for the integration of valleytronics and spintronics. More importantly, in sharp contrast to all the experimentally confirmed 2D valleytronic materials, where the strong valence-band VSS (0.15-0.46 eV) supports the spin-valley coupling, the VSS in SL H-T l2O is pronounced in its conduction band (0.61 eV), but negligibly small in its valence band (21 meV), thus opening a way for manipulating the coupled spin and valley physics. Moreover, SL H-T l2O possesses extremely high carrier mobility, as large as 9.8 ×103c m2V-1s-1 .

Involving Young People in Polish and Lithuanian Social Enterprises by Fostering Entrepreneurial Skills and Abil-ities as Entrepreneurial Opportunity at University

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jolita Greblikaite

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Objective: The paper aims to analyse theoretically and empirically the development of social entrepreneurship in Poland and Lithuania, emphasizing the development of appropriate skills and abilities gained at university as entrepreneurial opportunity. Research Design & Methods: The research undertaken for the purposes of the paper is based on a literature review and empirical research partly devoted to a situational analysis of social entrepreneurship in Poland, as well as a pilot survey of target groups pertaining to the entrepreneurial skills and abilities as entrepreneurial opportunity of Lithuanian and Polish students as potential social entrepreneurs. Findings: The main research findings imply that despite the existence of entrepreneurial opportunity as education at university, social entrepreneurship is increasingly important in Poland. Overall support is needed for the creation of social enterprises and attracting young people to them. Empirical research based on Lithuanian and Polish students’ perception of acquiring entrepreneurial skills and abilities at university can be entrepreneurial opportunity for social entrepreneurship. Implications & Recommendations: Implementing further research in the field, as empirical this research was just a pilot one. Research can be developed by taking into account more respondents in both countries. Contribution & Value Added: The study provides empirical evidence entrepreneurial skills and abilities gained/developed at university are a possible entrepreneurial opportunity for exploiting and creating social enterprises.

SHARP: A multi-mission AI system for spacecraft telemetry monitoring and diagnosis

Science.gov (United States)

Lawson, Denise L.; James, Mark L.

1989-01-01

The Spacecraft Health Automated Reasoning Prototype (SHARP) is a system designed to demonstrate automated health and status analysis for multi-mission spacecraft and ground data systems operations. Telecommunications link analysis of the Voyager II spacecraft is the initial focus for the SHARP system demonstration which will occur during Voyager's encounter with the planet Neptune in August, 1989, in parallel with real-time Voyager operations. The SHARP system combines conventional computer science methodologies with artificial intelligence techniques to produce an effective method for detecting and analyzing potential spacecraft and ground systems problems. The system performs real-time analysis of spacecraft and other related telemetry, and is also capable of examining data in historical context. A brief introduction is given to the spacecraft and ground systems monitoring process at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The current method of operation for monitoring the Voyager Telecommunications subsystem is described, and the difficulties associated with the existing technology are highlighted. The approach taken in the SHARP system to overcome the current limitations is also described, as well as both the conventional and artificial intelligence solutions developed in SHARP.

Proliferation of sharp kinks on cosmic (super)string loops with junctions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Binetruy, P.; Bohe, A.; Hertog, T.; Steer, D. A.

2010-01-01

Motivated by their effect on the gravitational wave signal emitted by cosmic strings, we study the dynamics of kinks on strings of different tensions meeting at junctions. The propagation of a kink through a Y junction leads to the formation of three 'daughter' kinks. Assuming a uniform distribution of the incoming wave vectors at the junction, we find there is a significant region of configuration space in which the sharpness of at least one of the daughter kinks is enhanced relative to the sharpness of the initial kink. For closed loops with junctions we show this leads to an exponential growth in time of very sharp kinks. Using numerical simulations of realistic, evolving cosmic string loops with junctions to calculate the distribution of kink amplitudes as a function of time, we show that loops of this kind typically develop several orders of magnitude of very sharp kinks before the two junctions collide. This collision, or other effects such as gravitational backreaction, may end the proliferation.

An Index to Measure Sustainability of a Business Project in the Construction Industry: Lithuanian Case

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nomeda Dobrovolskienė

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The continuous growth of the world population, resource scarcity and the threat of climate change pose numerous environmental and social problems to the world. Therefore, much hope is put in the concept of sustainability. Companies are increasingly coming under strong global pressure to incorporate sustainability considerations into their project decision-making process. Business projects in the construction industry are among the most important, as this sector is one of the largest sectors and of major importance for the national economy and therefore has a huge impact on the environment and society. Thus, we have to explore ways to integrate sustainability into the management of those projects. This paper presents a composite sustainability index of a project (CSIP which has been created following a review of existing literature and a pilot research study. A pilot research study was conducted in the Lithuanian construction industry between January 2015 and June 2015. Sustainability criteria were chosen and grouped on the basis of the analysis of the literature and different standards relating to sustainability applicable in the construction industry. A survey was used to select and rank the most important sustainability criteria. The index was constructed using multi-criteria decision-making methods. The results of the pilot study revealed that practitioners in the Lithuanian construction sector attach most importance to 15 sustainability criteria. A composite sustainability index of a project combining all these criteria may be useful in assessing the sustainability of a business project and making decisions regarding project portfolio selection and financial resource allocation. When addressing the issue of financial resource allocation in a project portfolio, the decision-maker could take into account not only the project’s return and risk, but also its sustainability. The understanding of this study should enable companies to execute

Work Values of Lithuanian University Students: Internal Structure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vincentas Lamanauskas

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Individual’s work values define his/her career purposefulness. Individual’s chosen work values allow foreseeing what activity context and career model is important for him/her, seeking to successfully realize oneself in professional activity. Planning his/her professional career an individual is searching for the activity sphere, which could conform not only to his/her personal features, but also to his/her value orientations. Work values important for the individual allow realizing if they form conditions for planning modern career (successfully solve constantly changing activity problems and to correspond to always new raised requirements for a person in the organisation or in labour market, the realisation of which in today’s constantly changing labour market and social context becomes more and more problematic. Empiric research was carried out seeking to discover the work (activity value structure. The research instrument was created by the authors of the research. Two hundred sixty five first-year students from three Lithuanian universities participated in the research. These are the main higher education institutions, preparing teachers in Lithuania. The obtained results show that work value structure of the first year students studying in social and humanitarian science programmes can be expressed by 6 main factors: responsible activity values, active work values, harmony values, reward values, activity style values, and social status values. Also, the main differences were ascertained between female and male work value structure. Responsible activity values, active work values and harmony values were much more important for female than male students.

Evaluation of Effects of Warning Sign Position on Driving Behavior in Horizontal Sharp Curves

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiao-hua Zhao

2015-02-01

Full Text Available In present time, the guidelines on warning sign position in the China National Standard lack detailed and standard regulations of placing warning signs on sharp curves, which may cause road safety problems. Therefore, this paper briefly discussed how to optimize the position of a warning sign on a sharp curve through a driving simulator experiment. This study concluded that a warning sign placed at different positions prior to a sharp curve will have different influence ranges for drivers approaching and negotiating the curve. Meanwhile, different positions of a warning sign imposed different effect obviously on the adjustment of vehicle's lane position on sharp curves with the same radius, especially at the midpoint of a sharp curve. The evaluation results of five positions (0 m, 50 m, 100 m, 200 m, and 400 m in advance showed that only when the warning signs were placed 100 m or 200 m prior to sharp curves, can they achieve positive influence on driving behavior. On this basis, the authors look forward to providing rationalization proposals in selecting the best position of a warning sign on a sharp curve for the engineering implementation and national standard.

On the sharp front-type solution of the Nagumo equation with ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

One of the methods is to solve the travelling wave equations and compute an exact solution which describes the sharp travelling wavefront. The second method is to solve numer- ically an initial-moving boundary-value problem for the partial differential equation and obtain an approximation for this sharp front-type solution.

Four year-old girl with having bled intestinal sharp

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rodriguez Toro, Gerzain

2001-01-01

Indigenous girl, natural of Vaupes, Colombia conduction to the Mitu Hospital to present depositions with bleed. Their father says that the girl is sick for two days; she presents anorexia, moderate abdominal pain and vomit scarce postprandial, followed by discreet diarrhea and of two depositions with blood and abundant clots, with posterior syncope. It confirms a bled digestive with sharp anemic syndrome. The possibilities of gastritis sharp erosive, gastric ulcer or duodenal and intestinal poliparasitism are suggested. It is diagnosed abdominal angioestrongilosis, illness produce by helminths that lives inside the blind and the distal ileum

Sharp fronts within geochemical transport problems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grindrod, P.

1995-01-01

The authors consider some reactive geochemical transport problems in groundwater systems. When incoming fluid is in disequilibrium with the mineralogy sharp transition fronts may develop. They show that this is a generic property for a class of systems where the timescales associated with reaction and diffusion phenomena are much shorter than those associated with advective transport. Such multiple timescale problems are relevant to a variety of processes in natural systems: mathematically methods of singular perturbation theory reduce the dimension of the problems to be solved locally. Furthermore, they consider how spatial heterogeneous mineralogy can impact upon the propagation of sharp geochemical fronts. The authors developed an asymptotic approach in which they solve equations for the evolving geometry of the front and indicate how the non-smooth perturbations due to natural heterogeneity of the mineralogy on underlying ground water flow field are balanced against the smoothing effect of diffusion/dispersive processes. Fronts are curvature damped, and the results here indicate the generic nature of separate front propagation within both model (idealized) and natural (heterogeneous) geochemical systems

Consideration of vision and picture quality: psychological effects induced by picture sharpness

Science.gov (United States)

Kusaka, Hideo

1989-08-01

A psychological hierarchy model of human vision(1)(2) suggests that the visual signals are processed in a serial manner from lower to higher stages: that is "sensation" - "perception" - "emotion." For designing a future television system, it is important to find out what kinds of physical factors affect the "emotion" experienced by an observer in front of the display. This paper describes the psychological effects induced by the sharpness of the picture. The subjective picture quality was evaluated for the same pictures with five different levels of sharpness. The experiment was performed on two kinds of printed pictures: (A) a woman's face, and (B) a town corner. From these experiments, it was found that the amount of high-frequency peaking (physical value of the sharpness) which psychologically gives the best picture quality, differs between pictures (A) and (B). That is, the optimum picture sharpness differs depending on the picture content. From these results, we have concluded that the psychophysical sharpness of the picture is not only determined at the stage of "perception" (e.g., resolution or signal to noise ratio, which everyone can judge immediately), but also at the stage of "emotion" (e.g., sensation of reality or beauty).

Weapon Use in Korean Homicide: Differences Between Homicides Involving Sharp and Blunt Instruments.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Jisun; Son, Hyeonseo

2017-10-23

On the basis of information regarding 276 homicides committed in South Korea between 1987 and 2008, we compared offenders' and victims' characteristics, injury locations, weapon-related behavior, and offending behavior between homicides involving sharp and blunt instruments. The victims of sharp-force homicide were much younger relative to those of blunt-force homicide. In addition, homicides involving blunt instruments were more likely to be committed by offenders who lived with the victims. Most sharp-force homicides involved injuries to the torso, while blunt-force homicides involved mainly head injuries. Furthermore, perpetrators of sharp-force homicides tended to preselect their weapons, while those of blunt-force homicides were likely to use weapons of opportunity. Logistic regression analysis identified a number of factors, including injury location and body transportation, which significantly predicted weapon type. As this was the first South Korean study to compare sharp- and blunt-force homicides, the results have practical implications for homicide investigations. © 2017 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Weighting of field heights for sharpness and noisiness

Science.gov (United States)

Keelan, Brian W.; Jin, Elaine W.

2009-01-01

Weighting of field heights is important in cases when a single numerical value needs to be calculated that characterizes an attribute's overall impact on perceived image quality. In this paper we report an observer study to derive the weighting of field heights for sharpness and noisiness. One-hundred-forty images were selected to represent a typical consumer photo space distribution. Fifty-three sample points were sampled per image, representing field heights of 0, 14, 32, 42, 51, 58, 71, 76, 86% and 100%. Six observers participated in this study. The field weights derived in this report include both: the effect of area versus field height (which is a purely objective, geometric factor); and the effect of the spatial distribution of image content that draws attention to or masks each of these image structure attributes. The results show that relative to the geometrical area weights, sharpness weights were skewed to lower field heights, because sharpness-critical subject matter was often positioned relatively near the center of an image. Conversely, because noise can be masked by signal, noisiness-critical content (such as blue skies, skin tones, walls, etc.) tended to occur farther from the center of an image, causing the weights to be skewed to higher field heights.

Methodology transfer for the preparation of NPP decommissioning for leading personnel of the Ignalina NPP and for the representatives of Lithuanian authorities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ackermann, L.; Baecker, A.

2004-01-01

At request of the Lithuanian government to receive support for the preparation of the decommissioning of Ignalina NPP, a bilateral project was financed by the German federal government to transfer experience from the decommissioning of the Greifswald and Rheinsberg NPPs to the management staff of the Ignalina NPP and to the representatives of the Lithuanian authorities in charge of the decommissioning. The methodology transfer project was prepared and carried out under the leadership of the Gesellschaft fuer Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS) mbH. The practical implementation was within the responsibility of Energiewerke Nord GmbH (EWN) in cooperation with other German subcontractors. The methodology transfer comprised the task fields of project management, project planning, licensing procedure and waste management as well as social aspects of the further development of the industrial site. Five intensive one-week seminars were conducted mainly at the Greifswald NPP site and the knowledge gained was then consolidated in two evaluation seminars at the Ignalina NPP. As the basis for the training realised in 2002 and 2003, EWN provided about 2000 power-point illustrations, more than 200 transparencies and four video films. The training handouts produced by EWN were delivered to the seminar participants in Russian and English language and documented in the database ''Technische Dokumentation Ost'' (DOKU OST) of GRS. (orig.)

The effectiveness of sharp end and rounded end bristle toothbrush

OpenAIRE

Paulus Januar; Anastasia Susetyo; Ratih Widyastuti

2010-01-01

Background: Numerous designs of manual toothbrush are available in the market with the claims of superiority in plaque removal. It often makes the public confuse which is the best design. The sharp end bristle toothbrush is a modification that commercially available in the market. Purpose: The objective of the study was to compare the effectiveness in plaque removal of the sharp end bristle toothbrush and the rounded end bristle toothbrush. Methods: This clinical trial was a double blind cros...

PRACTICES FOR PREVENTION NEEDLESTICK AND SHARPS INJURIES AMONG NURSING STUDENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anh Tran Thi Quynh

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Background: Needlestick and sharp injuries are a serious hazard in any health care setting for health care workers and students during clinical practice. Thus, the efforts to prevent the needlestick and sharps injuries are needed and considered a part of the routine practice. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the frequency of nursing students in doing the correct practice in prevention needlestick and sharps injuries. Methods: This cross- sectional study was conducted between 2013 and 2014 in nursing students of Tien Giang Medical College who participated in clinical practice. There were 360 students participated in the study using simple random sampling. Data were collected using the practical assessment checklist and demographic characteristics questionnaire. Data were processed using STATA 12.0, and analyzed using Chi-square and Fisher test. Results: The students who did general practice correctly accounted for 52.50%, and those who did practice incorrectly was 47.5%. The students who used gauze or wool wrap in inhaler were 59.7%, wearing gloves in practice (39.2%, do not disassemble needles from syringes after injection 50%, and removing needles into barrel after injection (65.6%. There was statistically significant relationship between time of participation in clinical practice and correct practice with p-value 0.04 (<0.05 Conclusion: The correct practice of nursing students related to the prevention of needlestick and sharps injuries remains low. There was a significant relationship between time of participation in clinical practice and correct nursing practice. It is suggested that students must be taught about the risk of infection at the beginning of clinical practice, and constantly reminded throughout the learning process, especially for injection safety awareness, knowledge and techniques about the risk of transmission of HBV, HCV and HIV by sharp objects in the healthcare facility.

SHARP: A multi-mission artificial intelligence system for spacecraft telemetry monitoring and diagnosis

Science.gov (United States)

Lawson, Denise L.; James, Mark L.

1989-01-01

The Spacecraft Health Automated Reasoning Prototype (SHARP) is a system designed to demonstrate automated health and status analysis for multi-mission spacecraft and ground data systems operations. Telecommunications link analysis of the Voyager 2 spacecraft is the initial focus for the SHARP system demonstration which will occur during Voyager's encounter with the planet Neptune in August, 1989, in parallel with real time Voyager operations. The SHARP system combines conventional computer science methodologies with artificial intelligence techniques to produce an effective method for detecting and analyzing potential spacecraft and ground systems problems. The system performs real time analysis of spacecraft and other related telemetry, and is also capable of examining data in historical context. A brief introduction is given to the spacecraft and ground systems monitoring process at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The current method of operation for monitoring the Voyager Telecommunications subsystem is described, and the difficulties associated with the existing technology are highlighted. The approach taken in the SHARP system to overcome the current limitations is also described, as well as both the conventional and artificial intelligence solutions developed in SHARP.

Imprinting of slip bands in mechanically deformed MgO crystals using lithium impurities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Orera, V M; Chen, Y; Abraham, M M

1980-01-01

Lithium impurities in MgO can be used to imprint slip bands produced by plastic deformation. The imprinting is obtained by means of (Li)/sup 0/ defects (subtitutional Li/sup +/ ions each with an adjacent O/sup -/ ion) which absorb light at 680 nm (1.8 eV). Slip bands are observed as discolored regions against the background of dark blue coloration due to these defects. The decoloration can be achieved by two different processes: either by oxidation at 1275 K of a deformed crystal, or by the reverse procedure - deformation of a previously oxidized crystal. The mechanisms involved in the decoloration are different; the former is due to ionic motion, and the latter is an electronic effect. Similar procedures involving surface indentation by sharp objects also result in decoloration patterns.

ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION REPORT, HVLP COATING EQUIPMENT, SHARPE MANUFACTURING COMPANY PLATINUM 2012 HVLP SPRAY GUN

Science.gov (United States)

This report presents the results of the verification test of the Sharpe Platinum 2013 high-volume, low-pressure gravity-feed spray gun, hereafter referred to as the Sharpe Platinum, which is designed for use in automotive refinishing. The test coating chosen by Sharpe Manufacturi...

Near band edge emission characteristics of sputtered nano-crystalline ZnO films

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kunj, Saurabh; Sreenivas, K.

2016-01-01

Sputtered zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films deposited on unheated glass substrate under different sputtering gas mixtures (Ar+O_2) have been investigated using X-ray diffraction and photo luminescence spectroscopy. Earlier reported studies on ZnO films prepared by different techniques exhibit either a sharp/broad near band edge (NBE) emission peak depending on the crystalline quality of the film. In the present study zinc oxide films, grown on unheated substrates, are seen to possess a preferred (002) orientation with a microstructure consisting of clustered nano-sized crystallites. The splitting in the near band edge emission (NBE) into three characteristic peaks is attributed to quantum confinement effect, and is observed specifically under an excitation of 270 nm. Deep level emission (DLE) in the range 400 to 700 nm is not observed indicating absence of deep level radiative defects.

Near band edge emission characteristics of sputtered nano-crystalline ZnO films

Science.gov (United States)

Kunj, Saurabh; Sreenivas, K.

2016-05-01

Sputtered zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films deposited on unheated glass substrate under different sputtering gas mixtures (Ar+O2) have been investigated using X-ray diffraction and photo luminescence spectroscopy. Earlier reported studies on ZnO films prepared by different techniques exhibit either a sharp/broad near band edge (NBE) emission peak depending on the crystalline quality of the film. In the present study zinc oxide films, grown on unheated substrates, are seen to possess a preferred (002) orientation with a microstructure consisting of clustered nano-sized crystallites. The splitting in the near band edge emission (NBE) into three characteristic peaks is attributed to quantum confinement effect, and is observed specifically under an excitation of 270 nm. Deep level emission (DLE) in the range 400 to 700 nm is not observed indicating absence of deep level radiative defects.

Near band edge emission characteristics of sputtered nano-crystalline ZnO films

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kunj, Saurabh; Sreenivas, K. [Department of Physics & Astrophysics, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007 INDIA (India)

2016-05-06

Sputtered zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films deposited on unheated glass substrate under different sputtering gas mixtures (Ar+O{sub 2}) have been investigated using X-ray diffraction and photo luminescence spectroscopy. Earlier reported studies on ZnO films prepared by different techniques exhibit either a sharp/broad near band edge (NBE) emission peak depending on the crystalline quality of the film. In the present study zinc oxide films, grown on unheated substrates, are seen to possess a preferred (002) orientation with a microstructure consisting of clustered nano-sized crystallites. The splitting in the near band edge emission (NBE) into three characteristic peaks is attributed to quantum confinement effect, and is observed specifically under an excitation of 270 nm. Deep level emission (DLE) in the range 400 to 700 nm is not observed indicating absence of deep level radiative defects.

Numerical simulation of systems of shear bands in ductile metal with inclusions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Plohr, JeeYeon N., E-mail: jplohr@lanl.gov; Plohr, Bradley J. [Los Alamos National Laboratory, Theoretical Division, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)

2016-02-15

We develop a method for numerical simulations of high strain-rate loading of mesoscale samples of ductile metal with inclusions. Because of its small-scale inhomogeneity, the composite material is prone to localized shear deformation (adiabatic shear bands). This method employs the Generalized Method of Cells of Paley and Aboudi [Mech. Materials, vol. 14, pp. 127–139, 1992] to ensure that the micro mechanical behavior of the metal and inclusions is reflected properly in the behavior of the composite at the mesoscale. To find the effective plastic strain rate when shear bands are present, we extend and apply the analytic and numerical analysis of shear bands of Glimm, Plohr, and Sharp [Mech. Materials, vol. 24, pp. 31–41, 1996]. Our tests of the method focus on the stress/strain response in uniaxial-strain flow, both compressive and tensile, of depleted uranium metal containing silicon carbide inclusions. We use the Preston-Tonks-Wallace viscoplasticity model [J. Appl. Phys., vol. 93, pp. 211–220, 2003], which applies to the high strain-rate regime of an isotropic viscoplastic solid. In results, we verify the elevated temperature and thermal softening at shear bands in our simulations of pure DU and DU/SiC composites. We also note that in composites, due the asymmetry caused by the inclusions, shear band form at different times in different subcells. In particular, in the subcells near inclusions, shear band form much earlier than they do in pure DU.

Numerical simulation of systems of shear bands in ductile metal with inclusions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

JeeYeon N. Plohr

2016-02-01

Full Text Available We develop a method for numerical simulations of high strain-rate loading of mesoscale samples of ductile metal with inclusions. Because of its small-scale inhomogeneity, the composite material is prone to localized shear deformation (adiabatic shear bands. This method employs the Generalized Method of Cells of Paley and Aboudi [Mech. Materials, vol. 14, pp. 127–139, 1992] to ensure that the micro mechanical behavior of the metal and inclusions is reflected properly in the behavior of the composite at the mesoscale. To find the effective plastic strain rate when shear bands are present, we extend and apply the analytic and numerical analysis of shear bands of Glimm, Plohr, and Sharp [Mech. Materials, vol. 24, pp. 31–41, 1996]. Our tests of the method focus on the stress/strain response in uniaxial-strain flow, both compressive and tensile, of depleted uranium metal containing silicon carbide inclusions. We use the Preston-Tonks-Wallace viscoplasticity model [J. Appl. Phys., vol. 93, pp. 211–220, 2003], which applies to the high strain-rate regime of an isotropic viscoplastic solid. In results, we verify the elevated temperature and thermal softening at shear bands in our simulations of pure DU and DU/SiC composites. We also note that in composites, due the asymmetry caused by the inclusions, shear band form at different times in different subcells. In particular, in the subcells near inclusions, shear band form much earlier than they do in pure DU.

Helical quantum states in HgTe quantum dots with inverted band structures.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Kai; Lou, Wen-Kai

2011-05-20

We investigate theoretically the electron states in HgTe quantum dots (QDs) with inverted band structures. In sharp contrast to conventional semiconductor quantum dots, the quantum states in the gap of the HgTe QD are fully spin-polarized and show ringlike density distributions near the boundary of the QD and spin-angular momentum locking. The persistent charge currents and magnetic moments, i.e., the Aharonov-Bohm effect, can be observed in such a QD structure. This feature offers us a practical way to detect these exotic ringlike edge states by using the SQUID technique.

Sharp superconductor-insulator transition in short wires

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meidan, Dganit; Oreg, Yuval; Refael, Gil; Smith, Robert A.

2008-01-01

Recent experiments on short MoGe nanowires show a sharp superconductor-insulator transition tuned by the normal state resistance of the wire, with a critical resistance of R c ∼ R Q = h/(4e 2 ). These results are at odds with a broad range of theoretical work on Josephson-like systems that predicts a smooth transition, tuned by the value of the resistance that shunts the junction. We develop a self-consistent renormalization group treatment of interacting phase-slips and their dual counterparts, correlated cooper pair tunneling, beyond the dilute approximation. This analysis leads to a very sharp transition with a critical resistance of R Q . The addition of the quasi-particles' resistance at finite temperature leads to a quantitative agreement with the experimental results. This self-consistent renormalization group method should also be applicable to other physical systems that can be mapped onto similar sine-Gordon models, in the previously inaccessible intermediate-coupling regime

SHARP - a framework for incorporating human interactions into PRA studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hannaman, G.W.; Joksimovich, V.; Spurgin, A.J.; Worledge, D.H.

1985-01-01

Recently, increased attention has been given to understanding the role of humans in the safe operation of nuclear power plants. By virtue of the ability to combine equipment reliability with human reliability probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) technology was deemed capable of providing significant insights about the contributions of human interations in accident scenarios. EPRI recognized the need to strengthen the methodology for incorporating human interactions into PRAs as one element of their broad research program to improve the credibility of PRAs. This research project lead to the development and detailed description of SHARP (Systematic Human Application Reliability Procedure) in EPRI NP-3583. The objective of this paper is to illustrate the SHARP framework. This should help PRA analysts state more clearly their assumptions and approach no matter which human reliability assessment technique is used. SHARP includes a structure of seven analysis steps which can be formally or informally performed during PRAs. The seven steps are termed definition, screening, breakdown, representation, impact assessment, quantification, and documentation

Shear banding, discontinuous shear thickening, and rheological phase transitions in athermally sheared frictionless disks

Science.gov (United States)

Vâgberg, Daniel; Olsson, Peter; Teitel, S.

2017-05-01

We report on numerical simulations of simple models of athermal, bidisperse, soft-core, massive disks in two dimensions, as a function of packing fraction ϕ , inelasticity of collisions as measured by a parameter Q , and applied uniform shear strain rate γ ˙. Our particles have contact interactions consisting of normally directed elastic repulsion and viscous dissipation, as well as tangentially directed viscous dissipation, but no interparticle Coulombic friction. Mapping the phase diagram in the (ϕ ,Q ) plane for small γ ˙, we find a sharp first-order rheological phase transition from a region with Bagnoldian rheology to a region with Newtonian rheology, and show that the system is always Newtonian at jamming. We consider the rotational motion of particles and demonstrate the crucial importance that the coupling between rotational and translational degrees of freedom has on the phase structure at small Q (strongly inelastic collisions). At small Q , we show that, upon increasing γ ˙, the sharp Bagnoldian-to-Newtonian transition becomes a coexistence region of finite width in the (ϕ ,γ ˙) plane, with coexisting Bagnoldian and Newtonian shear bands. Crossing this coexistence region by increasing γ ˙ at fixed ϕ , we find that discontinuous shear thickening can result if γ ˙ is varied too rapidly for the system to relax to the shear-banded steady state corresponding to the instantaneous value of γ ˙.

Understanding sharps injuries in home healthcare: The Safe Home Care qualitative methods study to identify pathways for injury prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Markkanen, Pia; Galligan, Catherine; Laramie, Angela; Fisher, June; Sama, Susan; Quinn, Margaret

2015-04-11

Home healthcare is one of the fastest growing sectors in the United States. Percutaneous injuries from sharp medical devices (sharps) are a source of bloodborne pathogen infections among home healthcare workers and community members. Sharps use and disposal practices in the home are highly variable and there is no comprehensive analysis of the system of sharps procurement, use and disposal in home healthcare. This gap is a barrier to effective public health interventions. The objectives of this study were to i) identify the full range of pathways by which sharps enter and exit the home, stakeholders involved, and barriers for using sharps with injury prevention features; and ii) assess the leverage points for preventive interventions. This study employed qualitative research methods to develop two systems maps of the use of sharps and prevention of sharps injuries in home healthcare. Twenty-six in-depth interview sessions were conducted including home healthcare agency clinicians, public health practitioners, sharps device manufacturers, injury prevention advocates, pharmacists and others. Interview transcripts were audio-recorded and analyzed thematically using NVIVO qualitative research analysis software. Analysis of supporting archival material also was conducted. All findings guided development of the two maps. Sharps enter the home via multiple complex pathways involving home healthcare providers and home users. The providers reported using sharps with injury prevention features. However, home users' sharps seldom had injury prevention features and sharps were commonly re-used for convenience and cost-savings. Improperly discarded sharps present hazards to caregivers, waste handlers, and community members. The most effective intervention potential exists at the beginning of the sharps systems maps where interventions can eliminate or minimize sharps injuries, in particular with needleless treatment methods and sharps with injury prevention features

27 September 2013 -Lithuanian Minister of Culture Š. Birutis in the LHC tunnel with International Relations Adviser T. Kurtyka and visiting CMS experimental area with Deputy Spokesperson T. Camporesi. Also present: V. Rapsevicius, CMS Collaboration.

CERN Multimedia

Laurent Egli

2013-01-01

27 September 2013 -Lithuanian Minister of Culture Š. Birutis in the LHC tunnel with International Relations Adviser T. Kurtyka and visiting CMS experimental area with Deputy Spokesperson T. Camporesi. Also present: V. Rapsevicius, CMS Collaboration.

Mathematics Education Problems and Attempts to Solve Them in Nowadays Lithuanian School

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Malaukytė Ieva

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The decreasing number of the Lithuanian residents has strong impact on the educational system: the number of pupils is decreasing, the schools are getting closed. School is considered to be the provider of educational services, so it is necessary to search, how to preserve and attract clients – pupils. The growing competition induces search for distinctiveness among the schools. According to the theory of generations of William Strauss and Neil Howe, now we have to educate representatives of generation Z, who do not like violence, restrictions, want to be distinctive and are open to the world of technologies. The teacher faces the challenge when s/he wants to convey mathematical skills to these pupils. The profile teaching followed by training based on individual curricula provided more choices for the pupils. This freedom led to the dead-end of mathematical literacy and forced to return to a compulsory national final exam of Mathematics and to change the indexes for the persons entering studies of the first cycle and integrated studies. In the article, mathematics achievements and situation in schools in Lithuania as well as the measures taken to improve mathematical literacy in the country are described.

Sharps injury reduction: a six-year, three-phase study comparing use of a small patient-room sharps disposal container with a larger engineered container.

Science.gov (United States)

Grimmond, T; Naisoro, W

2014-09-01

A 350-bed Sydney hospital noted excessive container-associated sharps injuries (CASI) using small sharps containers and compared the effect from 2004 to 2010 of using a larger container engineered to reduce CASI. In Phase 1 (Ph1), disposable 1.4L containers (BD Australia) were carried to/from patients' rooms. In Phase 2 (Ph2), this stopped and a safety-engineered 32L reusable container (the Device; Sharpsmart, SteriHealth) was mounted in medication stations only and sharps were carried to and from patient rooms using kidney dishes. In Phase 3 (Ph3), the Device was wall-mounted in patient rooms. Sharps injuries were categorised as 'during-procedure', 'after-procedure but before disposal', 'CASI', and 'improper disposal SI'. Disposal-related SI comprised CASI plus improper-disposal SI. Injuries per 100 full-time-equivalent staff were analysed using Chi 2 ; p ≤ 0.05; and relative risk and 95% confidence limits were calculated. In Ph1 (small containers) 19.4% of SI were CASI and transport injuries were zero. In Ph2 (Device in medication station) CASI fell 94.9% ( p <0.001); Disposal-related SI fell 71.1% ( p =0.002) but transport injuries rose significantly. In Ph3 (Device in patient room) zero CASI occurred ( p <0.001); Disposal-related SI fell 83.1% ( p =0.001). Recapping SI fell 85.1% ( p =0.01) with the Device. The Device's volume, large aperture, passive overfill-protection and close-at-hand siting are postulated as SI reduction factors.

Natural gas distribution operation and maintenance dissemination project Kaunas City, Lithuania. Analysis, registration and recommendations on the existing Lithuanian gas measuring practice. Appendix 1

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2000-03-01

It is recommended that the Lithuanian Gas Industry considers: (1) To adopt a base temperature (T{sub b}) of 15 deg. C in order to uniform with the European preferable base temperature [cf. clause. 3.1]. (2) To use TC domestic gas meters at outdoor located gas meters and even when the gas meter is located just inside the exterior wall, in order to avoid too large error on the annual volume measured. Such TC meters should comply with EN 1359 clause B.23 (or alternatively the more strictly Danish type approval requirements) [cf. clause 3.2]. (3) To carry out supplementary high pressure calibration on turbine gas meters intended to be used at operating pressures of 3 or 6 bar in order to check if used makes and types are sensible to Reynolds number. If so, it would result in a measuring error at operating pressures higher than as determined by calibration with air at atmospheric pressure [cf. clause 3.3]. Similar tests should be considered for the existing Vortex gas meters. (4) To adopt the Danish legislation on legal metrology on gas meters in absence of a similar Lithuanian one due to its up to date requirements towards the distribution companies [cf. clause 3.4]. The first step towards such adoption would require a draft translation of the Danish legislation, at least into English. (5) To adopt the Danish in sevice inspection programme on domestic gas meters and on larger gas meters and gas measuring systems as well as on in-situ check of gas-volume electronic conversion devices [cf. clause 3.5.2 - 2.5.4]. The first step towards such adoption would require a draft translation of the 3 existing Danish manuals on calibration and in-situ check programmes, at least into English. Another approach would be a visit at HNG by 2-3 people from the Lithuanian Gas Industry in order to get acquainted with the Danish practice on laboratory calibration and in-situ check of gas-volume electronic conversion devices. However, it should be noticed that in-situ check measuring

Notes on breeding sharp-shinned hawks and Cooper’s hawks in Barnwell County, South Carolina.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vukovich, Mark; Kilgo, John, C.

2009-07-01

Abstract - Breeding records of Accipiter striatus (Sharp-shinned Hawks) in the southeastern US are scattered and isolated. We documented a Sharp-shinned Hawk and Accipiter cooperii (Cooper’s Hawk) nest while conducting a telemetry study on Melanerpes erythrocephalus (Red-headed Woodpeckers) in Barnwell County, SC in 2006 and 2007. We report the first known nest of a Sharp-shinned Hawk in Barnwell County, SC and the first report of Sharp-shinned Hawks preying upon Red-headed Woodpeckers. Thirteen of 93 (13.9 %) woodpeckers were killed by accipiters in the summers of 2006 and 2007. Large, contiguous forests managed for Picoides borealis (Red-cockaded Woodpeckers) may be used by breeding Sharp-shinned Hawks. The bright plumage, loud calls, and behavior of Red-headed Woodpeckers, particularly during the nestling stage, may make them conspicuous prey for accipiters.

Comparison of Fitness Levels between Croatian and Lithuanian Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dario Novak

2015-03-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to determine and compare the level of individual anthropological characteristics of children in Croatia and Lithuania. The study examined height, weight, BMI and flexibility, explosive power and muscle endurance. The study included a total of 11,258 participants from two different countries. Of the total sample, 8,289 participants were from Croatia between ages 11 and 14 (mean age 12,5±1.5, of which 4,032 were male and 4,157 were female students. The other 2,969 participants were from Lithuania, also in the age range of 11-14 years (mean age 12,4±1.6, of which 1,504 participants were male and 1,456 females. During the 2009-10 school year, reserachers conducted measurements on students at different schools across Croatia. The same battery of tests was conducted in Lithuania during the same year. The results showed that the Croatian students have a higher body-mass, have higher BMI values and score better on tests of flexibility. Lithuanian students achieved better results in the repetitive strength test. Boys are taller, heavier and had higher BMI values as well as achieved better results in tests of explosive power and muscle endurance, while girls were more flexibile. Boys from Lithuania scored highest in all tests except in flexibility compared to boys in Croatia. Girls from Lithuania are thinner, have lower BMI and achieve better results in repetitive test of strength than girls in Croatia. Age was shown as a significant factor in the increase in all tested variables.

Inference for the Sharpe Ratio Using a Likelihood-Based Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ying Liu

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The Sharpe ratio is the prominent risk-adjusted performance measure used by practitioners. Statistical testing of this ratio using its asymptotic distribution has lagged behind its use. In this paper, highly accurate likelihood analysis is applied for inference on the Sharpe ratio. Both the one- and two-sample problems are considered. The methodology has O(n−3/2 distributional accuracy and can be implemented using any parametric return distribution structure. Simulations are provided to demonstrate the method's superior accuracy over existing methods used for testing in the literature.

Sharing the Burden? Assessing the Lithuanian Decision to Establish a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maskaliūnaitė Asta

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The paper assesses theories explaining the states’ burden-sharing decisions in an alliance and uses them to evaluate the Lithuanian decision to establish a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT in Afghanistan. In the literature, several influences on such decision-making are identified. These fall into two broad categories of systemic and domestic factors. From the former, threat perception, alliance dependence, systemic pressures of alliance politics are analysed; and from the latter three clusters of aspects such as: state autonomy, elite consensus, space of manoeuver of the executive; bureaucratic politics and organizational interests, and third, some additional elements of strategic culture/state identity. While most factors have some explanatory value, the analysis invites the conclusion that in case of the decision to lead a PRT, the two most important elements were alliance dependence from the first cluster and strategic culture and bureaucratic politics from the second.

Energy dissipation characteristics of sharp-edged orifice plate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ai Wanzheng

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The energy loss coefficient, relating directly to the energy dissipation ratio, is an important index of this energy dissipater. In this article, this coefficient and its affecting parameters were analyzed by theoretical considerations, and their relationships were obtained by numerical simulations. It could be concluded that the energy loss coefficient of sharp-edged orifice plate and its backflow region length were mainly dominated by the contraction ratio of the orifice plate. Sharp-edged orifice plate’s energy loss coefficient and its backflow region length all increase slightly with the increase in its thickness. When Reynolds number is in the range of 9.00×104–10.3×106, Reynolds number has little impacts on energy loss coefficient and backflow region length. Two empirical expressions, relating to backflow region length and energy loss coefficient, respectively, were presented.

Cryogenic receiver front-end with sharp skirt characteristics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Narahashi, S [RF Technology Laboratory, Wireless Laboratories, NTT DoCoMo, Inc, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239-8536 (Japan); Satoh, K [RF Technology Laboratory, Wireless Laboratories, NTT DoCoMo, Inc, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239-8536 (Japan); Kawai, K [RF Technology Laboratory, Wireless Laboratories, NTT DoCoMo, Inc, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239-8536 (Japan); Koizumi, D [RF Technology Laboratory, Wireless Laboratories, NTT DoCoMo, Inc, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 239-8536 (Japan); Nojima, T [Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0808 (Japan)

2006-05-15

This paper presents an experimental cryogenic receiver front-end (CRFE) with sharp skirt characteristics for mobile base stations. The CRFE comprises a high-temperature superconducting filter, a cryogenic low-noise amplifier, and a highly reliable cryostat that is very compact. The major characteristics of the proposed CRFE measured at 70 K are a centre frequency of 1.95 GHz, passband width of 20 MHz, sharp selectivity of 20 dB/100 kHz, 1.4 dB ripple, 31.3 dB average passband gain, and average passband equivalent noise temperature of 47.9 K. The CRFE weighs 19 kg and occupies 35 l. Random failure of the cryostat is also evaluated by a continuous operation test using four identical ones simultaneously. The cryostat used in the CRFE has a high reliability level of over five years of continuous maintenance-free operation.

Sharp bounds for periodic solutions of Lipschitzian differential equations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zevin, A A

2009-01-01

A general system of Lipschitzian differential equations, containing simultaneously terms without delay and with arbitrary constant and time-varying delays, is considered. For the autonomous case, a lower bound for the period of nonconstant periodic solutions, expressed in the respective supremum Lipschitz constants, is found. For nonautonomous periodic equations, explicit upper bounds for the amplitudes and maximum derivatives of periodic solutions are obtained. For all n ≥ 2, the bounds do not depend on n and, in general, are different from that for n = 1. All the bounds are sharp; they are attained in linear differential equations with piece-wise constant deviating arguments. A relation between the obtained bounds and the sharp bounds in other metrics is established

Relationship between sharps disposal containers and Clostridium difficile infections in acute care hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Pogorzelska-Maziarz, Monika

2015-10-01

Sharps disposal containers are ubiquitous in health care facilities; however, there is paucity of data on their potential role in pathogen transmission. This study assessed the relationship between use of single-use versus reusable sharps containers and rates of Clostridium difficile infections in a national sample of hospitals. A 2013 survey of 1,990 hospitals collected data on the use of sharps containers. Responses were linked to the 2012 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review dataset. Bivariate and multivariable negative binomial regression were conducted to examine differences in C difficile rates between hospitals using single-use versus reusable containers. There were 604 hospitals who completed the survey; of these, 539 provided data on use of sharps containers in 2012 (27% response rate). Hospitals had, on average, 289 beds (SD ± 203) and were predominantly non-for-profit (67%) and nonteaching (63%). Most used reusable sharps containers (72%). In bivariate regression, hospitals using single-use containers had significantly lower rates of C difficile versus hospitals using reusable containers (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 0.846, P = .001). This relationship persisted in multivariable regression (IRR = 0.870, P = .003) after controlling for other hospital characteristics. This is the first study to show a link between use of single-use sharps containers and lower C difficile rates. Future research should investigate the potential for environmental contamination of reusable containers and the role they may play in pathogen transmission. Copyright © 2015 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Focusing optical waves with a rotationally symmetric sharp-edge aperture

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Yanwen; Fu, Shenhe; Li, Zhen; Yin, Hao; Zhou, Jianying; Chen, Zhenqiang

2018-04-01

While there has been various kinds of patterned structures proposed for wave focusing, these patterned structures usually involve complicated lithographic techniques since the element size of the patterned structures should be precisely controlled in microscale or even nanoscale. Here we propose a new and straightforward method for focusing an optical plane wave in free space with a rotationally symmetric sharp-edge aperture. The focusing phenomenon of wave is realized by superposition of a portion of the higher-order symmetric plane waves generated from the sharp edges of the apertures, in contrast to previously focusing techniques which usually depend on a curved phase. We demonstrate both experimentally and theoretically the focusing effect with a series of apertures having different rotational symmetry, and find that the intensity of the hotspots could be controlled by the symmetric strength of the sharp-edge apertures. The presented results would advance the conventional wisdom that light would diffract in all directions and become expanding when it propagates through an aperture. The proposed method is easy to be processed, and might open potential applications in interferometry, image, and superresolution.

Sharp Injuries Among Hospital Waste Handlers | Olaitan | Nigerian ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

, C as well as other before commencing on their jobs. Workers should be screened for infective diseases that can be of legal problem while at the job and the workers should be effectively immunized. Key words: sharp injuries, waste, handlers, ...

Notes on breeding sharp-shinned hawks and cooper’s hawks in Barnwell County, South Carolina

Science.gov (United States)

Mark Vukovich; John C. Kilgo

2009-01-01

Breeding records of Accipiter striatus (Sharp-shinned Hawks) in the southeastern US are scattered and isolated. We documented a Sharp-shinned Hawk and Accipiter cooperii (Cooper’s Hawk) nest while conducting a telemetry study on Melanerpes erythrocephalus (Red-headed Woodpeckers) in Barnwell County, SC in 2006 and 2007. We report the first known nest of a Sharp-shinned...

Influence of gantry angle in helical computed tomography. Usefullness of 1-dimension sharpness filter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kawano, Hirofumi; Suzuki, Toru; Matsuura, Shigeru; Kai, Tsuyoshi; Shimizu, Toshiyuki [Hyuga Hospital of Saiseikai Foundation, Kadogawa, Miyazaki (Japan)

2001-05-01

When we let gantry tilt and do scan in helical CT, vertical sharpness deteriorates. We were able to revise it with 1-dimensional sharpness filter which the square sum of difference of MTF was compared, and was designed this time. And the unsharpness was in proportion to sin of gantry angle. As a result, we led several sets of frequency emphasis degree. There is a model to built 1-dimension sharpness filter in a scan plan. It is useful for clinical diagnoses. (author)

Influence of gantry angle in helical computed tomography. Usefullness of 1-dimension sharpness filter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kawano, Hirofumi; Suzuki, Toru; Matsuura, Shigeru; Kai, Tsuyoshi; Shimizu, Toshiyuki

2001-01-01

When we let gantry tilt and do scan in helical CT, vertical sharpness deteriorates. We were able to revise it with 1-dimensional sharpness filter which the square sum of difference of MTF was compared, and was designed this time. And the unsharpness was in proportion to sin of gantry angle. As a result, we led several sets of frequency emphasis degree. There is a model to built 1-dimension sharpness filter in a scan plan. It is useful for clinical diagnoses. (author)

Sharp Central Venous Recanalization in Hemodialysis Patients: A Single-Institution Experience

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arabi, Mohammad, E-mail: marabi2004@hotmail.com; Ahmed, Ishtiaq; Mat’hami, Abdulaziz [Prince Sultan Military Medical City (PSMMC), Division of Endovascular Interventional Radiology, Department of Medical Imaging (Saudi Arabia); Ahmed, Dildar; Aslam, Naveed [Prince Sultan Military Medical City (PSMMC), Department of Nephrology (Saudi Arabia)

2016-06-15

PurposeWe report our institutional experience with sharp central venous recanalization in chronic hemodialysis patients who failed standard techniques.Materials and MethodsSince January 2014, a series of seven consecutive patients (four males and three females), mean age 35 years (18–65 years), underwent sharp central venous recanalization. Indications included obtaining hemodialysis access (n = 6) and restoration of superior vena cava (SVC) patency to alleviate occlusion symptoms and restore fistula function (n = 1). The transseptal needle was used for sharp recanalization in six patients, while it could not be introduced in one patient due to total occlusion of the inferior vena cava. Instead, transmediastinal SVC access using Chiba needle was obtained.ResultsTechnical success was achieved in all cases. SVC recanalization achieved symptoms’ relief and restored fistula function in the symptomatic patient. One patient underwent arteriovenous fistula creation on the recanalized side 3 months after the procedure. The remaining catheters were functional at median follow-up time of 9 months (1–14 months). Two major complications occurred including a right hemothorax and a small hemopericardium, which were managed by covered stent placement across the perforated SVC.ConclusionSharp central venous recanalization using the transseptal needle is feasible technique in patients who failed standard recanalization procedures. The potential high risk of complications necessitates thorough awareness of anatomy and proper technical preparedness.

Sharp Central Venous Recanalization in Hemodialysis Patients: A Single-Institution Experience

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arabi, Mohammad; Ahmed, Ishtiaq; Mat’hami, Abdulaziz; Ahmed, Dildar; Aslam, Naveed

2016-01-01

PurposeWe report our institutional experience with sharp central venous recanalization in chronic hemodialysis patients who failed standard techniques.Materials and MethodsSince January 2014, a series of seven consecutive patients (four males and three females), mean age 35 years (18–65 years), underwent sharp central venous recanalization. Indications included obtaining hemodialysis access (n = 6) and restoration of superior vena cava (SVC) patency to alleviate occlusion symptoms and restore fistula function (n = 1). The transseptal needle was used for sharp recanalization in six patients, while it could not be introduced in one patient due to total occlusion of the inferior vena cava. Instead, transmediastinal SVC access using Chiba needle was obtained.ResultsTechnical success was achieved in all cases. SVC recanalization achieved symptoms’ relief and restored fistula function in the symptomatic patient. One patient underwent arteriovenous fistula creation on the recanalized side 3 months after the procedure. The remaining catheters were functional at median follow-up time of 9 months (1–14 months). Two major complications occurred including a right hemothorax and a small hemopericardium, which were managed by covered stent placement across the perforated SVC.ConclusionSharp central venous recanalization using the transseptal needle is feasible technique in patients who failed standard recanalization procedures. The potential high risk of complications necessitates thorough awareness of anatomy and proper technical preparedness.

HTS dual-band bandpass filters using stub-loaded hair-pin resonators for mobile communication systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sekiya, N., E-mail: nsekiya@yamanashi.ac.jp; Sugiyama, S.

2014-09-15

Highlights: • We have developed a HTS five-pole dual-band bandpass filter using stub-loaded hair-pin resonators. • The proposed dual-band BPF can independently control of the center frequency. • Flexibly adjustment of the bandwidth can be achieved by the H-shaped waveguide. • The proposed BPF is evaluated by simulation and measurement with good agreement. - Abstract: A HTS dual-band bandpass filter is developed to obtain sharp-cut off characteristics for mobile communication systems. The filter is composed of five stub-loaded hair-pin resonators with H-shaped waveguides between them. The main advantage of the proposed filter is to allow independent control of the center frequency of the first and second bands. The bandwidths can be flexibly adjusted using the H-shaped waveguide. An electromagnetic simulator was used to design and analyze the filter, which have a 3.5-GHz center frequency and a 70-MHz (2%) bandwidth for the first band and a 5.0-GHz center frequency and a 100-MHz (2%) bandwidth for the second band. The filter was fabricated using YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub y} thin film on an Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} substrate. Ground plane was fabricated using Au thin film. The measured frequency responses of the filter tally well with the simulated ones.

Maintaining knife sharpness in industrial meat cutting: A matter of knife or meat cutter ability.

Science.gov (United States)

Karltun, J; Vogel, K; Bergstrand, M; Eklund, J

2016-09-01

Knife sharpness is imperative in meat cutting. The aim of this study was to compare the impact of knife blade steel quality with meat cutters' individual ability to maintain the cutting edge sharp in an industrial production setting. Twelve meat cutters in two different companies using three different knives during normal production were studied in this quasi-experimental study. Methods included were measuring knife cutting force before and after knife use, time knives were used, ratings of sharpness and discomfort and interviews. Results showed that the meat cutters' skill of maintaining sharpness during work had a much larger effect on knife sharpness during work than the knife steel differences. The ability was also related to feelings of discomfort and to physical exertion. It was found that meat cutters using more knives were more likely to suffer from discomfort in the upper limbs, which is a risk for developing MSD. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lacosamide and Levetiracetam Have No Effect on Sharp-Wave Ripple Rate.

Science.gov (United States)

Kudlacek, Jan; Chvojka, Jan; Posusta, Antonin; Kovacova, Lubica; Hong, Seung Bong; Weiss, Shennan; Volna, Kamila; Marusic, Petr; Otahal, Jakub; Jiruska, Premysl

2017-01-01

Pathological high-frequency oscillations are a novel marker used to improve the delineation of epileptogenic tissue and, hence, the outcome of epilepsy surgery. Their practical clinical utilization is curtailed by the inability to discriminate them from physiological oscillations due to frequency overlap. Although it is well documented that pathological HFOs are suppressed by antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), the effect of AEDs on normal HFOs is not well known. In this experimental study, we have explored whether physiological HFOs (sharp-wave ripples) of hippocampal origin respond to AED treatment. The results show that application of a single dose of levetiracetam or lacosamide does not reduce the rate of sharp-wave ripples. In addition, it seems that these new generation drugs do not negatively affect the cellular and network mechanisms involved in sharp-wave ripple generation, which may provide a plausible explanation for the absence of significant negative effects on cognitive functions of these drugs, particularly on memory.

Jasper Sharp - mees, kes jättis varasema töö, et vaadata Jaapani filme / Jasper Sharp ; intervjueerinud Helen Merila

Index Scriptorium Estoniae

Sharp, Jasper, 1971-

2011-01-01

Euroopa kultuuripealinn Tallinn 2011 programmi osana ning koostöös Zipangu Fest'iga korraldatakse Tallinna Kinomajas 25.-28. aug.-ni Aasia sõltumatute filmide festival EVA - East via Asia. Festivali kuraator, veebisaidi Midnight Eye kaastoimetaja Jasper Sharp endast, festivalist, Jaapani sõltumatust kinost tänapäeval. Festivali kava

A report on SHARP (Spacecraft Health Automated Reasoning Prototype) and the Voyager Neptune encounter

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, R. G. (Editor); Atkinson, D. J.; James, M. L.; Lawson, D. L.; Porta, H. J.

1990-01-01

The development and application of the Spacecraft Health Automated Reasoning Prototype (SHARP) for the operations of the telecommunications systems and link analysis functions in Voyager mission operations are presented. An overview is provided of the design and functional description of the SHARP system as it was applied to Voyager. Some of the current problems and motivations for automation in real-time mission operations are discussed, as are the specific solutions that SHARP provides. The application of SHARP to Voyager telecommunications had the goal of being a proof-of-capability demonstration of artificial intelligence as applied to the problem of real-time monitoring functions in planetary mission operations. AS part of achieving this central goal, the SHARP application effort was also required to address the issue of the design of an appropriate software system architecture for a ground-based, highly automated spacecraft monitoring system for mission operations, including methods for: (1) embedding a knowledge-based expert system for fault detection, isolation, and recovery within this architecture; (2) acquiring, managing, and fusing the multiple sources of information used by operations personnel; and (3) providing information-rich displays to human operators who need to exercise the capabilities of the automated system. In this regard, SHARP has provided an excellent example of how advanced artificial intelligence techniques can be smoothly integrated with a variety of conventionally programmed software modules, as well as guidance and solutions for many questions about automation in mission operations.

Current employment characteristics and career intentions of Lithuanian dentists.

Science.gov (United States)

Janulyte, Vilija; Aleksejuniene, Jolanta; Puriene, Alina; Peciuliene, Vytaute; Benzian, Habib

2014-12-20

The present survey explored the current employment profile and future career intentions of Lithuanian general dentists and specialists. A census sampling method was employed with data collected by means of a structured questionnaire that inquired about demographics, different employment-related aspects (practice type and location, working hours, perceived lack of patients, etc.), and future career intentions (intent to emigrate, to change profession, or the timing of retirement). The final response rate was 67.6% corresponding to 2,008 respondents. The majority of all dentists work full or part-time in the private dental sector, more than one third of them owns a private practice or rents a dental chair. A minority of dentists works in the public dental sector. According to the survey, 26.6% of general dentists and 39.2% of dental specialists works overtime (> 40 hours per week; P 0.05). The majority (68.9% of general dentists and 65.9% of dental specialists) plans to work after the retirement age (P > 0.05). Emigration as an option for their professional career is being considered by 10.8% of general dentists and 8.3% of dental specialists (P > 0.05). Working either full or part-time in private practices (OR = 4.3) and younger age (≤ 35 years; OR = 2.2) are the two strongest predictors for a perceived insufficient number of patients. One third of dentists in Lithuania work long hours and lack patients. Many dentists practice in multiple locations and plan to retire after the official retirement age. Some dentists and dental specialists plan to emigrate. The perceived shortcomings within the dental care system and workforce planning of dentists need to be addressed.

Reply to ``Comment on `Band structure engineering of graphene by strain: First-principles calculations' ''

Science.gov (United States)

Gui, Gui; Li, Jin; Zhong, Jianxin

2009-10-01

We reply to the Comment by Farjam and Rafii-Tabar [Phys. Rev. B 80, 167401 (2009)] on our paper [Phys. Rev. B 78, 075435 (2008)]. We show that the gap opening found in our paper is due to the use of a small number of k points in the calculation which prevents revealing the sharp contact of the two bands near K or R . Once a large number of k points is used, the density-functional theory (DFT) VASP codes give the same conclusion as obtained by Farjam and Rafii-Tabar by using the QUANTUM-ESPRESSO codes, namely, there is no gap opening in the band structure of graphene under small planar strain. We also point out that all other results in our paper remain correct, except for the conclusion of the gap opening. The results demonstrate the importance of using a large number of k points for determining the gap width of the band structure of graphene under strain as well as the validity of the DFT VASP codes for the system.

Needlestick and Sharp Instruments Injuries among Brazilian Dentistry Students

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandes, Liege Helena Freitas; Nunes, Wanúbia Barbosa; Silva, Larissa Costa; Wanderley, Rayssa Lucena; Barros, Criseuda Maria Benício; Cavalcanti, Alessandro Leite

2017-01-01

Background: The occurrence of occupational accidents is common among students and dentists. The present study is aimed to evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of needlestick and sharp instrument injuries among dentistry students. Materials and Methods: A documentary research was carried out with data being obtained from the analysis of 137 medical records of injuries caused by needlestick and sharp instruments occurring in the period from 2012 to 2016 and were analyzed regarding the characteristics of the victim (gender and age) and the accident (year, time, environment, and time interval between exposure and search for care). Data were organized in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software version 18 and were presented through descriptive statistics. Results: The occurrence of accidents was high (43.1%), with the predominance of female victims (66.1%) and aged up to 23 years (55.9%). The majority of events occurred in the afternoon (54.4%), in the clinical setting (70.7%), and in 75% of the cases, the search for care occurred within 2 h after exposure. Conclusion: Accidents with needlestick and sharp instruments have high frequency and involve mainly female students. They are more common in the afternoon and in the clinical setting and the time interval was between exposure and the search for care complied with recommendations of the Brazilian legislation. PMID:28566861

SHARP1: A revised systematic human action reliability procedure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wakefield, D.J.; Parry, G.W.; Hannaman, G.W.; Spurgin, A.J.

1990-12-01

Individual plant examinations (IPE) are being performed by utilities to evaluate plant-specific vulnerabilities to severe accidents. A major tool in performing an IPE is a probabilistic risk assessment (PRA). The importance of human interactions in determining the plant response in past PRAs is well documented. The modeling and quantification of the probabilities of human interactions have been the subjects of considerable research by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). A revised framework, SHARP1, for incorporating human interactions into PRA is summarized in this report. SHARP1 emphasizes that the process stages are iterative and directed at specific goals rather than being performed sequentially in a stepwise procedure. This expanded summary provides the reader with a flavor of the full report content. Excerpts from the full report are presented, following the same outline as the full report. In the full report, the interface of the human reliability analysis with the plant logic model development in a PRA is given special attention. In addition to describing a methodology framework, the report also discusses the types of human interactions to be evaluated, and how to formulate a project team to perform the human reliability analysis. A concise description and comparative evaluation of the selected existing methods of quantification of human error are also presented. Four case studies are also provided to illustrate the SHARP1 process

Status report on SHARP coupling framework.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Caceres, A.; Tautges, T. J.; Lottes, J.; Fischer, P.; Rabiti, C.; Smith, M. A.; Siegel, A.; Yang, W. S.; Palmiotti, G.

2008-05-30

This report presents the software engineering effort under way at ANL towards a comprehensive integrated computational framework (SHARP) for high fidelity simulations of sodium cooled fast reactors. The primary objective of this framework is to provide accurate and flexible analysis tools to nuclear reactor designers by simulating multiphysics phenomena happening in complex reactor geometries. Ideally, the coupling among different physics modules (such as neutronics, thermal-hydraulics, and structural mechanics) needs to be tight to preserve the accuracy achieved in each module. However, fast reactor cores in steady state mode represent a special case where weak coupling between neutronics and thermal-hydraulics is usually adequate. Our framework design allows for both options. Another requirement for SHARP framework has been to implement various coupling algorithms that are parallel and scalable to large scale since nuclear reactor core simulations are among the most memory and computationally intensive, requiring the use of leadership-class petascale platforms. This report details our progress toward achieving these goals. Specifically, we demonstrate coupling independently developed parallel codes in a manner that does not compromise performance or portability, while minimizing the impact on individual developers. This year, our focus has been on developing a lightweight and loosely coupled framework targeted at UNIC (our neutronics code) and Nek (our thermal hydraulics code). However, the framework design is not limited to just using these two codes.

Is there a sharp phase transition for deterministic cellular automata?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wootters, W.K.

1990-01-01

Previous work has suggested that there is a kind of phase transition between deterministic automata exhibiting periodic behavior and those exhibiting chaotic behavior. However, unlike the usual phase transitions of physics, this transition takes place over a range of values of the parameter rather than at a specific value. The present paper asks whether the transition can be made sharp, either by taking the limit of an infinitely large rule table, or by changing the parameter in terms of which the space of automata is explored. We find strong evidence that, for the class of automata we consider, the transition does become sharp in the limit of an infinite number of symbols, the size of the neighborhood being held fixed. Our work also suggests an alternative parameter in terms of which it is likely that the transition will become fairly sharp even if one does not increase the number of symbols. In the course of our analysis, we find that mean field theory, which is our main tool, gives surprisingly good predictions of the statistical properties of the class of automata we consider. 18 refs., 6 figs

Sharp Embeddings of Besov Spaces with Logarithmic Smoothness

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Gurka, P.; Opic, Bohumír

2005-01-01

Roč. 18, č. 1 (2005), s. 81-110 ISSN 1139-1138 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA201/01/0333 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10190503 Keywords : Besov spaces wirh logarithmic smoothness * Lorentz-Zygmund spaces * sharp embeddings Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics

Antisemitism, “Economic Emancipation” and the Lithuanian Co-operative Movement before World War I

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Klaus Richter

2012-07-01

Full Text Available The idea of having to liberate the Christian peasants from the harmful economic and moral influence of Jewish merchants was an essential element of the political agenda of both the secular intelligentsia and the Catholic clergy. Activists of both political camps started founding cooperative shops, which were seen as the most promising tool to “emancipate” the peasants and the founding of which became legally possible after a streak of reforms shortly before the Russian Revolution of 1905/06. The article thus poses the questions of what role antisemitism played in the cooperatives, what tasks these cooperatives were supposed to fulfill and whether they were a success or not. The article comes to the conclusion that after the Revolution, there was a significant dissent between the two groups mentioned: While priests argued that cooperatives needed to be antisemitic in order to be successful, the liberal intelligentsia countered that antisemitism deterred cooperative shops from being economically successful. Both groups, however, celebrated the founding of such shops as a means for Lithuanians to gain foot in the Jewish dominated towns.

A faunistic study of genus Chasmogenus Sharp, 1882 of China (Coleoptera, Hydrophilidae).

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Fenglong; Tang, Yu-Dan

2018-01-01

Chasmogenus Sharp, 1882 is newly reported from the Chinese Mainland. A new species, C. parorbus sp. n. , is described from China (Yunnan). Chasmogenus orbus Watanabe, 1987 is reported from Hong Kong, the first record outside Japan. Chasmogenus abnormalis (Sharp, 1890) is reported from the Chinese mainland for the first time. The male genitalia of each species are illustrated. A key to the Chinese species of the genus is provided.

Subjective Security in a Volatile Geopolitical Situation: Does Lithuanian Society Feel Safe?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vileikienė Eglė

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The geopolitical situation of Lithuania has deteriorated since the annexation of Crimea and the military conflict in Eastern Ukraine. It has affected the objective security of the state as well as subjective security of the Lithuanian population. This article analyses subjective security and deals with the subjective perception of geopolitical and military threats, mainly social attitudes towards national security and the willingness to defend the country. Article is based on theories of securitisation and human security and holds that individuals are the primary referents of security. Empirically, the article relies on the original data of the research project “Subjective Security in a Volatile Geopolitical Context: Traits, Factors and Individual Strategies”, funded by the Research Council of Lithuania. Article shows the dynamics of social attitudes towards security. Over the last 15 years, a clear shift towards the understanding of potential military threats has occurred. Nevertheless, the predominant concern about individual security, overshadowing security of the state and security of the global order, found in previous studies, has persisted. An individual, as a rule, feels most secure in his/her “closest” environment, e.g. family and friends, and least secure in the “farthest” environment, e.g. other continents.

Quadrilateral mesh fitting that preserves sharp features based on multi-normals for Laplacian energy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yusuke Imai

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Because the cost of performance testing using actual products is expensive, manufacturers use lower-cost computer-aided design simulations for this function. In this paper, we propose using hexahedral meshes, which are more accurate than tetrahedral meshes, for finite element analysis. We propose automatic hexahedral mesh generation with sharp features to precisely represent the corresponding features of a target shape. Our hexahedral mesh is generated using a voxel-based algorithm. In our previous works, we fit the surface of the voxels to the target surface using Laplacian energy minimization. We used normal vectors in the fitting to preserve sharp features. However, this method could not represent concave sharp features precisely. In this proposal, we improve our previous Laplacian energy minimization by adding a term that depends on multi-normal vectors instead of using normal vectors. Furthermore, we accentuate a convex/concave surface subset to represent concave sharp features.

Soft yet Sharp Interfaces in a Vertex Model of Confluent Tissue

Science.gov (United States)

Sussman, Daniel M.; Schwarz, J. M.; Marchetti, M. Cristina; Manning, M. Lisa

2018-01-01

How can dense biological tissue maintain sharp boundaries between coexisting cell populations? We explore this question within a simple vertex model for cells, focusing on the role of topology and tissue surface tension. We show that the ability of cells to independently regulate adhesivity and tension, together with neighbor-based interaction rules, lets them support strikingly unusual interfaces. In particular, we show that mechanical- and fluctuation-based measurements of the effective surface tension of a cellular aggregate yield different results, leading to mechanically soft interfaces that are nevertheless extremely sharp.

A faunistic study of genus Chasmogenus Sharp, 1882 of China (Coleoptera, Hydrophilidae

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fenglong Jia

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Chasmogenus Sharp, 1882 is newly reported from the Chinese Mainland. A new species, C. parorbus sp. n., is described from China (Yunnan. Chasmogenus orbus Watanabe, 1987 is reported from Hong Kong, the first record outside Japan. Chasmogenus abnormalis (Sharp, 1890 is reported from the Chinese mainland for the first time. The male genitalia of each species are illustrated. A key to the Chinese species of the genus is provided.

Type D (distressed) personality and its assessment with the DS14 in Lithuanian patients with coronary artery disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Bunevicius, Adomas; Staniute, Margarita; Brozaitiene, Julija; Stropute, Dalia; Bunevicius, Robertas; Denollet, Johan

2013-09-01

We examined Type D personality (combination of negative affectivity with social inhibition) and its assessment with the DS14 in 543 Lithuanian coronary patients. Psychometric analyses confirmed the two-factor structure, internal consistency (α = 0.84/α = 0.75), and test-retest reliability (r = 0.69/0.81) of the DS14 negative affectivity and inhibition components. Negative affectivity correlated (r = -0.58) with emotional stability and social inhibition (r = -0.46) with extraversion; correlations with other Big-Five traits ranged between r = -0.11 and -0.19. Type D patients (34%) had a ninefold increased odds of depression (95% confidence interval = 5.01-17.36) and a fivefold increased odds of anxiety (95% confidence interval = 3.47-7.97). These findings support the validity of the Type D construct in Lithuania.

Flow Control Over Sharp-Edged Wings

Science.gov (United States)

2007-07-01

Gad-el-Hak (2001) as the ability to actively or passively manipulate a flow field to effect a desired change. The challenge is to achieve that change...combinations. Been able to independently control both is a great challenge . These requirements may appear too stringent for the sharp- edged airfoils...06 0𔄁 08 09 lic Vlc Figure 22: Pressure distributions for Model B at a=13 °. Stations I (left); 2 (right) 1 , -2 1 F - [12 1 -6a -16 08 -08 06 -06

Sharp inequalities for tangent function with applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hui-Lin Lv

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract In the article, we present new bounds for the function e t cot ( t − 1 $e^{t\\cot(t-1}$ on the interval ( 0 , π / 2 $(0, \\pi/2$ and find sharp estimations for the Sine integral and the Catalan constant based on a new monotonicity criterion for the quotient of power series, which refine the Redheffer and Becker-Stark type inequalities for tangent function.

Infection disclosure in the injecting dyads of Hungarian and Lithuanian injecting drug users who self-reported being infected with hepatitis C virus or human immunodeficiency virus.

Science.gov (United States)

Gyarmathy, V Anna; Neaigus, Alan; Li, Nan; Ujhelyi, Eszter; Caplinskiene, Irma; Caplinskas, Saulius; Latkin, Carl A

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and correlates of disclosure to network members of being hepatitis C virus (HCV)- or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected among injecting dyads of infected injection drug users (IDUs) in Budapest, Hungary and Vilnius, Lithuania,. Multivariate generalized estimating equations (GEE) were used to assess associations. Very strong infection disclosure norms exist in Hungary, and HCV disclosure was associated with using drugs and having sex within the dyad. Non-ethnic Russian IDUs in Lithuania were more likely to disclose HCV infection to non-Roma, emotionally close and HCV-infected network members, and to those with whom they shared cookers, filters, drug solutions or rinse water or got used syringes from, and if they had fewer non-IDU or IDU network members. Ethnic Russian Lithuanian IDUs were more likely to disclose HCV if they had higher disclosure attitude and knowledge scores, 'trusted' network members, and had lower non-injecting network density and higher injecting network density. HIV-infected Lithuanian IDUs were more likely to disclose to 'trusted' network members. Disclosure norms matched disclosure behaviour in Hungary, while disclosure in Lithuania to 'trusted' network members suggests possible stigmatization. Ongoing free and confidential HCV/HIV testing services for IDUs are needed to emphasize and strengthen disclosure norms, and to decrease stigma.

Hole geometry effect on stop-band characteristics of photonic crystal in Ti-diffused LiNbO_3 waveguide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao, Quan-Zhou; Zhang, Zi-Bo; Xu, Jia-Qi; Wong, Wing-Han; Yu, Dao-Yin; Pun, Edwin Yue-Bun

2017-01-01

Effects of finite hole depth and non-cylindrical hole shape on stop-band characteristics of photonic crystal formed by air-hole square lattice in Ti-diffused LiNbO_3 strip waveguide were studied theoretically. The study shows that hole depth determines the contrast of stop-band, and the hole radius and conical angle determine the bandgap and location. Cylindrical holes must be sufficiently deep so as to overlap most of waveguide mode and hence obtain a stop-band with high contrast, sharp edge and broad bandgap. Non-cylindrical holes seriously affect the stop-band features. Conical holes cause low contrast and narrow bandgap, and the stop-band shifts with the conical angle. For the cylindrical-conical hybrid holes, the cylindrical portion determines the desired features. Given the difficulty in fabricating high aspect-ratio cylindrical holes, we propose to fabricate the holes at the bottom of a shallow trench, which is introduced into waveguide surface prior to the hole milling. - Highlights: • Cylindrical hole must be deep enough and a shallow waveguide is required. • Increasing hole radius causes blueshift, broadening and edge sharpening of band. • Non-cylindrical hole seriously affects gap, location and contrast of stop-band. • For cylindrical-conical hybrid hole, cylindrical part determines desired features. • A scheme of milling holes at bottom of a trench on waveguide surface is proposed.

On averaging the Kubo-Hall conductivity of magnetic Bloch bands leading to Chern numbers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Riess, J.

1997-01-01

The authors re-examine the topological approach to the integer quantum Hall effect in its original form where an average of the Kubo-Hall conductivity of a magnetic Bloch band has been considered. For the precise definition of this average it is crucial to make a sharp distinction between the discrete Bloch wave numbers k 1 , k 2 and the two continuous integration parameters α 1 , α 2 . The average over the parameter domain 0 ≤ α j 1 , k 2 . They show how this can be transformed into a single integral over the continuous magnetic Brillouin zone 0 ≤ α j j , j = 1, 2, n j = number of unit cells in j-direction, keeping k 1 , k 2 fixed. This average prescription for the Hall conductivity of a magnetic Bloch band is exactly the same as the one used for a many-body system in the presence of disorder

Single-step electrochemical method for producing very sharp Au scanning tunneling microscopy tips

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gingery, David; Buehlmann, Philippe

2007-01-01

A single-step electrochemical method for making sharp gold scanning tunneling microscopy tips is described. 3.0M NaCl in 1% perchloric acid is compared to several previously reported etchants. The addition of perchloric acid to sodium chloride solutions drastically shortens etching times and is shown by transmission electron microscopy to produce very sharp tips with a mean radius of curvature of 15 nm

The Spectral Sharpness Angle of Gamma-ray Bursts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hendrik J. van Eerten

2016-06-01

Full Text Available We extend the results of Yu et al. (2015b of the novel sharpness angle measurement to a large number of spectra obtained from the Fermi gamma-ray burst monitor. The sharpness angle is compared to the values obtained from various representative emission models: blackbody, single-electron synchrotron, synchrotron emission from a Maxwellian or power-law electron distribution. It is found that more than 91% of the high temporally and spectrally resolved spectra are inconsistent with any kind of optically thin synchrotron emission model alone. It is also found that the limiting case, a single temperature Maxwellian synchrotron function, can only contribute up to 58+23 -18% of the peak flux. These results show that even the sharpest but non-realistic case, the single-electron synchrotron function, cannot explain a large fraction of the observed spectra. Since any combination of physically possible synchrotron spectra added together will always further broaden the spectrum, emission mechanisms other than optically thin synchrotron radiation are likely required in a full explanation of the spectral peaks or breaks of the GRB prompt emission phase.

THE PECULIARITIES OF MARKETING TERMS AND THEIR TRANSLATION INTO LITHUANIAN IN THE MARKETING TEXTBOOK BY PH. KOTLER AND G. ARMSTRONG “PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING” (“RINKODAROS PRINCIPAI“)

OpenAIRE

Saulis, Antonas

2008-01-01

After the literature analysis has been performed, the present research states that terms are related with the scientific discourse, i.e. they are used exclusively by educated people. On the whole, the peculiarities of marketing terms and their translation into Lithuanian are analyzed here. Special attention is paid to the semantics of marketing terms, the issues related with the translation of marketing terms are discussed and the solutions to the issues are suggested in the thesis. Magist...

Herbivores Enforce Sharp Boundaries Between Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sarneel, Judith M.; Huig, N.; Veen, G. F.; Rip, W.; Bakker, E. S.

2014-01-01

The transitions between ecosystems (ecotones) are often biodiversity hotspots, but we know little about the forces that shape them. Today, often sharp boundaries with low diversity are found between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. This has been attributed to environmental factors that hamper

Conservative sharp debridement: the professional and legal issues.

Science.gov (United States)

Ashworth, Jenny; Chivers, Marc

2002-06-01

In recent years there has been much debate over the use of conservative sharp debridement in the treatment of certain wound types. Here it is discussed in relation to increasing the speed of wound healing in slow-to-heal wounds. The authors examine education and skill competence in relation to the professional's duty of care to patients with wounds.

Sharp Bounds for Symmetric and Asymmetric Diophantine Approximation

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Cornelis KRAAIKAMP; Ionica SMEETS

2011-01-01

In 2004,Tong found bounds for the approximation quality of a regular continued fraction convergent to a rational number,expressed in bounds for both the previous and next approximation.The authors sharpen his results with a geometric method and give both sharp upper and lower bounds.The asymptotic frequencies that these bounds occur are also calculated.

Vyryvajas' iz objatij politiki. Issledovanie kul'tur vospominanija kak sposob pooshhrenija istoricheskogo dialoga v litovsko-rossijskih otnoshenijah [An escape from the embrace of politics. A study into the cultures of remembrance as a means to encourage a historical dialogue in Lithuanian-Russian relations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Safronovas Vasilijus

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This article focuses on the factors inhibiting a productive rethinking of the past in contemporary Lithuanian-Russian relations. The rethinking of the past is understood as a process facilitating the reconsideration of historical meanings through adjusting them to the expectations and values of the contemporary society. The author argues that in this process historical research — as an important tool for encouraging the co-existence of communities —should fulfil certain social functions. Having chosen the Lithuanian-Russian communication space as a case, the author emphasizes the need to develop an interest in mutual knowledge of cultures of remembrance in this space. Outlining the strategies specific to the prevailing cultures of remembrance in contemporary Russia and Lithuania, the author addresses the issue of their proper relationship, as well as that of the appropriateness of historical policy. The criminalisation of certain evaluations of the past and the academic dialogue between historians are regarded as two opposite extremes of historical policy actually existing in the Lithuanian-Russian communication space. The author stresses that research into the values and interpretations of the past peculiar to certain social groups in both Lithuania and Russia may be considered as a basis for further development of the historical dialogue. It is assumed that such research may contribute to the improvement in the field of politics of history.

Driving Skills Training for Older Adults: An Assessment of DriveSharp.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnston, Katherine A; Borkenhagen, David; Scialfa, Charles T

2015-12-01

RÉSUMÉ Les procédures de formation cognitive informatique visent à augmenter la sécurité en améliorant les compétences relatives à la conduite, comme la vitesse-de-traitement et le Useful Field of View. L'étude actuelle a évalué l'efficacité du DriveSharp dans la formation des conducteurs âgés dans un cadre de classe réaliste. Les participants (n = 24) ont assisté à 10 heures de cours de DriveSharp pendant 5 semaines. Les séances pré- et post-test ont evalués améliorations sur un essai dynamique de la perception du risque, Trails A et Trails B. Un groupe de contrôle (n = 18) a terminé seulement les séances pré- et post-test. En classe, les temps de formation étaient plus bas que prévus. L'amélioration des participants aux jeux ont stabilisée après la première évaluation, et le groupe de DriveSharp n'a pas démontré une amélioration significative des performances sur les tests, par rapport au groupe de contrôle. Parmi plusieurs questions relatives à la facilité d'utilisation, les plus problématiques étaient le malentendudes objectifs de la tâche et la différence entre la formation et l'évaluation. Il y a plusieurs implications pour ceux qui utilisent DriveSharp pour améliorer la sécurité des conducteurs âgés.

Saccadic spike potentials in gamma-band EEG: characterization, detection and suppression.

Science.gov (United States)

Keren, Alon S; Yuval-Greenberg, Shlomit; Deouell, Leon Y

2010-02-01

Analysis of high-frequency (gamma-band) neural activity by means of non-invasive EEG is gaining increasing interest. However, we have recently shown that a saccade-related spike potential (SP) seriously confounds the analysis of EEG induced gamma-band responses (iGBR), as the SP eludes traditional EEG artifact rejection methods. Here we provide a comprehensive profile of the SP and evaluate methods for its detection and suppression, aiming to unveil true cerebral gamma-band activity. The SP appears consistently as a sharp biphasic deflection of about 22 ms starting at the saccade onset, with a frequency band of approximately 20-90 Hz. On the average, larger saccades elicit higher SP amplitudes. The SP amplitude gradually changes from the extra-ocular channels towards posterior sites with the steepest gradients around the eyes, indicating its ocular source. Although the amplitude and the sign of the SP depend on the choice of reference channel, the potential gradients remain the same and non-zero for all references. The scalp topography is modulated almost exclusively by the direction of saccades, with steeper gradients ipsilateral to the saccade target. We discuss how the above characteristics impede attempts to remove these SPs from the EEG by common temporal filtering, choice of different references, or rejection of contaminated trials. We examine the extent to which SPs can be reliably detected without an eye tracker, assess the degree to which scalp current density derivation attenuates the effect of the SP, and propose a tailored ICA procedure for minimizing the effect of the SP. Copyright (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Application of Information Technologies in Teaching Foreign VGTU Students Lithuanian as a Foreign Language

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Regina Žukienė

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Lithuanian universities are currently undergoing a novel period of social changes, globalization and rapid technological development. A substantial body of relevant international programmes are being implemented. One of them is Erasmus – an international higher education programme aiming to strengthen cooperation at the European level and promote the mobility of students and lecturers, as well as to enhance the interaction between enterprises and higher education institutions. Vilnius Gediminas Technical University attempts to provide foreign Erasmus students with the best scientific, linguistic, cultural and educational experiences. For this purpose, the use information technologies in learning processes proved to be very helpful by opening a unique possibility to learn new languages and to communicate despite cultural differences. Computer aided language teaching tools are modern, effective and flexible alternatives to traditional learning in auditoriums and serve as auxiliary means to increase the effectiveness of studies. The article presents an e-learning programme “First Steps of HERMES” for learning languages. The management of the programme is discussed, the possibilities provided by online learning are assessed and the results of the pilot offering of the programme to VGTU are summarized.

Non-indigenous macroinvertebrate species in Lithuanian fresh waters, Part 2: Macroinvertebrate assemblage deviation from naturalness in lotic systems and the consequent potential impacts on ecological quality assessment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arbačiauskas K.

2011-12-01

Full Text Available The biological pressure represented by non-indigenous macroinvertebrate species (NIMS should be addressed in the implementation of EU Water Framework Directive as this can have a direct impact on the ’naturalness’ of the invaded macroinvertebrate assemblage. The biocontamination concept allows assessment of this deviation from naturalness, by evaluation of abundance and disparity contamination of an assemblage. This study aimed to assess the biocontamination of macroinvertebrate assemblages in Lithuanian rivers, thereby revealing the most high-impact non-indigenous species, and to explore the relationship between biocontamination and conventional metrics of ecological quality. Most of the studied rivers appeared to be impacted by NIMS. The amphipods Pontogammarus robustoides, Chelicorophium curvispinum and snail Litoglyphus naticoides were revealed as high-impact NIMS for Lithuanian lotic systems. Metrics of ecological quality which largely depend upon the richness of indicator taxa, such as the biological monitoring working party (BMWP score and Ephemeroptera/Plecoptera/Trichoptera (EPT taxa number, were negatively correlated with biocontamination, implying they could provide unreliable ecological quality estimates when NIMS are present. Routine macroinvertebrate water quality monitoring data are sufficient for generation of the biocontamination assessment and thus can provide supplementary information, with minimal extra expense or effort. We therefore recommend that biocontamination assessment is included alongside established methods for gauging biological and chemical water quality.

Hole geometry effect on stop-band characteristics of photonic crystal in Ti-diffused LiNbO{sub 3} waveguide

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhao, Quan-Zhou [Department of Opto-electronics and Information Engineering, School of Precision Instruments and Opto-electronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072 (China); Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Technology (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072 (China); School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, University of Shanxi Datong, Datong 037009 (China); Zhang, Zi-Bo [University of Toulouse 3, Faculty of Engineering, 118 Route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse (France); Xu, Jia-Qi [Department of Opto-electronics and Information Engineering, School of Precision Instruments and Opto-electronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072 (China); Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Technology (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072 (China); Wong, Wing-Han, E-mail: eewhwong@cityu.edu.hk [Department of Opto-electronics and Information Engineering, School of Precision Instruments and Opto-electronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072 (China); Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Technology (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072 (China); Department of Electronic Engineering and State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong (China); Yu, Dao-Yin [Department of Opto-electronics and Information Engineering, School of Precision Instruments and Opto-electronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072 (China); Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Technology (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072 (China); Pun, Edwin Yue-Bun [Department of Electronic Engineering and State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong (China); and others

2017-01-15

Effects of finite hole depth and non-cylindrical hole shape on stop-band characteristics of photonic crystal formed by air-hole square lattice in Ti-diffused LiNbO{sub 3} strip waveguide were studied theoretically. The study shows that hole depth determines the contrast of stop-band, and the hole radius and conical angle determine the bandgap and location. Cylindrical holes must be sufficiently deep so as to overlap most of waveguide mode and hence obtain a stop-band with high contrast, sharp edge and broad bandgap. Non-cylindrical holes seriously affect the stop-band features. Conical holes cause low contrast and narrow bandgap, and the stop-band shifts with the conical angle. For the cylindrical-conical hybrid holes, the cylindrical portion determines the desired features. Given the difficulty in fabricating high aspect-ratio cylindrical holes, we propose to fabricate the holes at the bottom of a shallow trench, which is introduced into waveguide surface prior to the hole milling. - Highlights: • Cylindrical hole must be deep enough and a shallow waveguide is required. • Increasing hole radius causes blueshift, broadening and edge sharpening of band. • Non-cylindrical hole seriously affects gap, location and contrast of stop-band. • For cylindrical-conical hybrid hole, cylindrical part determines desired features. • A scheme of milling holes at bottom of a trench on waveguide surface is proposed.

A rare case of a sharp foreign body on the vocal cord

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khairunnisak Misron

2017-08-01

Full Text Available A foreign body (FB in the upper aerodigestive tract is a common clinical problem that presents as as acute emergency. Sharp FB, such as fish bone or chicken bone, commonly lodges in the tonsil, base of tongue, vallecula or pyriform fossa. Dislodgement of a FB into the laryngopharynx is very rare and specifically onto the vocal cord is extremely uncommon. This case report illustrates a rare case of a sharp FB that was dislodged into the airway and stuck on to the right vocal cord, which was removed under local anaesthesia.

Erozijos tema Czesławo Miłoszo kūryboje: svarstymai lietuvių literatūros akivaizdoje. The Topic of Erosion in the Works of Czesław Miłosz from the perspective of Lithuanian Literature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Audinga Peluritytė

2009-01-01

Full Text Available The creation of Polish literature classic Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004 is being discussed in this article. It is proposed that the Christian time and history are more important that space and its experiences in the creation of Miłosz. History is a time of God, Creator, that is given to human being, but that time of history is finite, and knowable in that way only. The time of history is given to human so that he could realize his will by creating culture, civilization, by being in action in the world. The gift of knowledge is given to human in the presence of God, Creator, and so the responsibility for the surrounding matter of the planet. Human inevitably consumes the nature of the planet he lives on by his activity, and embroils into a difficult creative process. The erosion of nature is a consequence of human activity in history. Miłosz ponders upon the categories of human history and nature by invoking plenty of cultural contexts. The Christian eschatology – one of the most important of them. But Lithuanian literature, entering Polish literature mainly through biographic and creative experience of Miłosz, almost does not know such eschatological, Christian time. The Lithuanian lite­rature reasons in a perspective of natural, entropic time, and consequently the questions of Christianity, civilization, history exist in Lithuanian literature un­der a different – alternative – programme of natural religion and worldview.

Sharp-tailed Grouse and Pygmy Rabbit Wildlife Mitigation Project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-10-01

The Proposed Action is needed to protect and enhance shrub-steppe and riparian habitat for sharp-tailed grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus columbianus), Pygmy rabbits (Brachylagus idahoensis), and other indigenous wildlife species. The purpose of the Proposed Action is to compensate, in part, for wildlife habitat lost from the construction of Grand Coulee Dam and the inundation of Lake Roosevelt. Bonneville Power Administration proposes to fund management agreements, conservation easements, acquisition of fee title, or a combination of these on as many as 29,000 acres in Lincoln and Douglas Counties to improve shrub-steppe and riparian habitat for sharp-tailed grouse and pygmy rabbits. The BPA also proposes to fund habitat improvements (enhancements) on project lands including existing public lands. Proposed habitat treatments would include control of grazing; planting of native trees, shrubs, forbs and grasses; protection of wetlands and streambanks; herbicide use; fire prescriptions; and wildfire suppression. Proposed management activities may include predator control, population introductions, and control of crop depredation

Improvement in perception of image sharpness through the addition of noise and its relationship with memory texture

Science.gov (United States)

Wan, Xiazi; Kobayashi, Hiroyuki; Aoki, Naokazu

2015-03-01

In a preceding study, we investigated the effects of image noise on the perception of image sharpness using white noise, and one- and two-dimensional single-frequency sinusoidal patterns as stimuli. This study extends our preceding study by evaluating natural color images, rather than black-and-white patterns. The results showed that the effect of noise in improving image sharpness perception is more evident in blurred images than in sharp images. This is consistent with the results of the preceding study. In another preceding study, we proposed "memory texture" to explain the preferred granularity of images, as a concept similar to "memory color" for preferred color reproduction. We observed individual differences in type of memory texture for each object, that is, white or 1/f noise. This study discusses the relationship between improvement of sharpness perception by adding noise, and the memory texture, following its individual differences. We found that memory texture is one of the elements that affect sharpness perception.

Current status of sharps waste management in the lower-level ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Key words: Sharps waste management, health facilities, infection, Tanzania ... and hence improve infection prevention and control at work places in Tanzania. .... The UNICEF /WHO safety boxes were observed in 31 (23%) of the LLHFs, while ...

Consistency relations for sharp inflationary non-Gaussian features

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mooij, Sander; Palma, Gonzalo A.; Panotopoulos, Grigoris [Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Chile, Blanco Encalada 2008, Santiago (Chile); Soto, Alex, E-mail: sander.mooij@ing.uchile.cl, E-mail: gpalmaquilod@ing.uchile.cl, E-mail: gpanotop@ing.uchile.cl, E-mail: gatogeno@gmail.com [Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Las Palmeras 3425, Ñuñoa, Santiago (Chile)

2016-09-01

If cosmic inflation suffered tiny time-dependent deviations from the slow-roll regime, these would induce the existence of small scale-dependent features imprinted in the primordial spectra, with their shapes and sizes revealing information about the physics that produced them. Small sharp features could be suppressed at the level of the two-point correlation function, making them undetectable in the power spectrum, but could be amplified at the level of the three-point correlation function, offering us a window of opportunity to uncover them in the non-Gaussian bispectrum. In this article, we show that sharp features may be analyzed using only data coming from the three point correlation function parametrizing primordial non-Gaussianity. More precisely, we show that if features appear in a particular non-Gaussian triangle configuration (e.g. equilateral, folded, squeezed), these must reappear in every other configuration according to a specific relation allowing us to correlate features across the non-Gaussian bispectrum. As a result, we offer a method to study scale-dependent features generated during inflation that depends only on data coming from measurements of non-Gaussianity, allowing us to omit data from the power spectrum.

Consistency relations for sharp inflationary non-Gaussian features

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mooij, Sander; Palma, Gonzalo A.; Panotopoulos, Grigoris; Soto, Alex

2016-01-01

If cosmic inflation suffered tiny time-dependent deviations from the slow-roll regime, these would induce the existence of small scale-dependent features imprinted in the primordial spectra, with their shapes and sizes revealing information about the physics that produced them. Small sharp features could be suppressed at the level of the two-point correlation function, making them undetectable in the power spectrum, but could be amplified at the level of the three-point correlation function, offering us a window of opportunity to uncover them in the non-Gaussian bispectrum. In this article, we show that sharp features may be analyzed using only data coming from the three point correlation function parametrizing primordial non-Gaussianity. More precisely, we show that if features appear in a particular non-Gaussian triangle configuration (e.g. equilateral, folded, squeezed), these must reappear in every other configuration according to a specific relation allowing us to correlate features across the non-Gaussian bispectrum. As a result, we offer a method to study scale-dependent features generated during inflation that depends only on data coming from measurements of non-Gaussianity, allowing us to omit data from the power spectrum.

The roles of word-form frequency and phonological neighbourhood density in the acquisition of Lithuanian noun morphology.

Science.gov (United States)

Savičiūtė, Eglė; Ambridge, Ben; Pine, Julian M

2018-05-01

Four- and five-year-old children took part in an elicited familiar and novel Lithuanian noun production task to test predictions of input-based accounts of the acquisition of inflectional morphology. Two major findings emerged. First, as predicted by input-based accounts, correct production rates were correlated with the input frequency of the target form, and with the phonological neighbourhood density of the noun. Second, the error patterns were not compatible with the systematic substitution of target forms by either (a) the most frequent form of that noun or (b) a single morphosyntactic default form, as might be predicted by naive versions of a constructivist and generativist account, respectively. Rather, most errors reflected near-miss substitutions of singular for plural, masculine for feminine, or nominative/accusative for a less frequent case. Together, these findings provide support for an input-based approach to morphological acquisition, but are not adequately explained by any single account in its current form.

The stratigraphy and evolution of lower Mount Sharp from spectral, morphological, and thermophysical orbital data sets.

Science.gov (United States)

Fraeman, A A; Ehlmann, B L; Arvidson, R E; Edwards, C S; Grotzinger, J P; Milliken, R E; Quinn, D P; Rice, M S

2016-09-01

We have developed a refined geologic map and stratigraphy for lower Mount Sharp using coordinated analyses of new spectral, thermophysical, and morphologic orbital data products. The Mount Sharp group consists of seven relatively planar units delineated by differences in texture, mineralogy, and thermophysical properties. These units are (1-3) three spatially adjacent units in the Murray formation which contain a variety of secondary phases and are distinguishable by thermal inertia and albedo differences, (4) a phyllosilicate-bearing unit, (5) a hematite-capped ridge unit, (6) a unit associated with material having a strongly sloped spectral signature at visible near-infrared wavelengths, and (7) a layered sulfate unit. The Siccar Point group consists of the Stimson formation and two additional units that unconformably overlie the Mount Sharp group. All Siccar Point group units are distinguished by higher thermal inertia values and record a period of substantial deposition and exhumation that followed the deposition and exhumation of the Mount Sharp group. Several spatially extensive silica deposits associated with veins and fractures show that late-stage silica enrichment within lower Mount Sharp was pervasive. At least two laterally extensive hematitic deposits are present at different stratigraphic intervals, and both are geometrically conformable with lower Mount Sharp strata. The occurrence of hematite at multiple stratigraphic horizons suggests redox interfaces were widespread in space and/or in time, and future measurements by the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover will provide further insights into the depositional settings of these and other mineral phases.

Body Image Issues In Lithuanian Magazines Aimed For Children And Adolescents In Relation To Body Mass Index And Body Size Perception Of 16-19 Y. Old Girls During The Last 15 Years.

Science.gov (United States)

Tutkuviene, Janina; Misiute, Agne; Strupaite, Ieva; Paulikaite, Gintare; Pavlovskaja, Erika

2017-03-01

Mass media plays an important role in forming body image and makes the significant impact on body size perception in children and adolescents. The aim of present study was to reveal trends in depiction of body image cues in Lithuanian magazines aimed for children and adolescents in relation to changes of real body mass index (BMI) and body size perception of 16-19 y. old girls in the year 2000 and the 2015. Three popular journals published both in the year 2000 and the 2015, were chosen for in-depth analysis of their contents (the periodicity of different topics was counted and compared). Attention given to a healthy body image has increased and the promotion of especially skinny females’ body has decreased during the last 15 years from the dominant type in the year 2000 to depiction of slightly thin or normal body build in the 2015. However, the real BMI of 16-19 y. old Lithuanian girls has significantly increased during the 2000-2015 period (from 20.09 till 21.32 kg/m²; pimage issues in mass media (magazines aimed for adolescent girls) were in parallel with the proper self-esteem of body size in adolescent girls.

SHARP, a first step towards a full sized Jules Verne Launcher

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bertolini, L.R.; Hunter, J.W. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States); Powell, J.R. [Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States); Tidman, D.A. [GT-Devices, Inc., Alexandria, VA (United States)

1993-05-01

A vital element for space exploration and utilization is the ability to affordably place large quantities of consumables and building material into low earth orbit. Calculations and supportive data indicate this can be done with a large hydrogen gas gun referred to as the Jules Verne Launcher (JVL). We present a design for the JVL based upon the concept of side injecting preheated hydrogen along a long barrel. This dramatically reduces the peak pressures in the launcher as well as the pressures and g-loads at the vehicle. The JVL has the promise of reducing payload delivery costs to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to below $500/kg. The Super High Altitude Research Project (SHARP) is a conventional two-stage hydrogen gas gun which is configured to launch 5 kg packages on suborbital trajectories. It is the first step towards the much larger Jules Verne system and will demonstrate several important features of the larger system. SHARP is currently in the middle of a series of tests aimed at its first milestone. This is to launch 5 kg at 4 km/sec horizontally. In its inclined configuration SHARP should launch vehicles to apogees in excess of 400 km and ranges in excess of 700 km.

Application of the SHARP Toolkit to Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor Challenge Problems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shemon, E. R. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Nuclear Engineering Division; Yu, Y. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Nuclear Engineering Division; Kim, T. K. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Nuclear Engineering Division

2017-09-30

The Simulation-based High-efficiency Advanced Reactor Prototyping (SHARP) toolkit is under development by the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) Campaign of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy. To better understand and exploit the benefits of advanced modeling simulations, the NEAMS Campaign initiated the “Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) Challenge Problems” task, which include the assessment of hot channel factors (HCFs) and the demonstration of zooming capability using the SHARP toolkit. If both challenge problems are resolved through advanced modeling and simulation using the SHARP toolkit, the economic competitiveness of a SFR can be significantly improved. The efforts in the first year of this project focused on the development of computational models, meshes, and coupling procedures for multi-physics calculations using the neutronics (PROTEUS) and thermal-hydraulic (Nek5000) components of the SHARP toolkit, as well as demonstration of the HCF calculation capability for the 100 MWe Advanced Fast Reactor (AFR-100) design. Testing the feasibility of the SHARP zooming capability is planned in FY 2018. The HCFs developed for the earlier SFRs (FFTF, CRBR, and EBR-II) were reviewed, and a subset of these were identified as potential candidates for reduction or elimination through high-fidelity simulations. A one-way offline coupling method was used to evaluate the HCFs where the neutronics solver PROTEUS computes the power profile based on an assumed temperature, and the computational fluid dynamics solver Nek5000 evaluates the peak temperatures using the neutronics power profile. If the initial temperature profile used in the neutronics calculation is reasonably accurate, the one-way offline method is valid because the neutronics power profile has weak dependence on small temperature variation. In order to get more precise results, the proper temperature profile for initial neutronics calculations was obtained from the

Fischer's Plants in folk beliefs and customs: a previously unknown contribution to the ethnobotany of the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian borderland.

Science.gov (United States)

Kujawska, Monika; Klepacki, Piotr; Łuczaj, Łukasz

2017-03-23

Historical ethnobotanical studies are useful starting points for further diachronic analysis. The aim of this contribution is to present archival data from the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian borderland, which were collected by Adam Fischer, a Polish ethnographer from Lviv, in the 1930s. These data were originally gathered for publication in the first part of the Lexicon of Slavic beliefs and customs, dedicated to plant uses in traditional Slavonic culture. It was intended to be a joint international enterprise, but was never actually fulfilled. In this article we used information from historical Lithuania (the Great Duchy of Lithuania), nowadays a border region between Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. We applied cultural importance indices such as Use Value, Relative Importance value and Sørensen similarity coefficient, in order to compare our data with a western Ukraine data set from the same research framework. In total, 153 plant taxa were registered as used in peasant culture in the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian borderland in the 1930s. The species which achieved the highest Use Values were: Calendula officinalis, Cyanus segetum, Helichrysum arenarium, Betula sp., Prunella vulgaris, and Nuphar lutea or Lilium sp. The most salient use categories were medicinal, followed by food and home garden plants. The overall similarity to plants recorded in western Ukraine within the same project of Fischer's is quite low (46%), which may be explained by the partly different flora found in the regions, and a cultural discontinuity, revealed by the difference in species with the highest UV. Moreover, the field collaborators were different in the two regions and may have paid attention to different cultural spheres of use. The presented ethnobotanical data are a valuable contribution to the ethnobotany of Eastern Europe as a whole. In particular, the presented list of plants may be a rich source for future studies on the ethnobotany of the Polish diaspora in Lithuania, and

Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Science.gov (United States)

1984-01-01

A total of 125 talented high school students had the opportunity to gain first hand experience about science and engineering careers by working directly with a NASA scientist or engineer during the summer. This marked the fifth year of operation for NASA's Summer High School Apprenticehsip Research Program (SHARP). Ferguson Bryan served as the SHARP contractor and worked closely with NASA staff at Headquarters and the eight participating sites to plan, implement, and evaluate the Program. The main objectives were to strengthen SHARP and expand the number of students in the Program. These eight sites participated in the Program: Ames Research Center North, Ames' Dryden Flight Research Facility, Goddard Space Flight Center, Goddard's Wallops Flight Facility, Kennedy Space Center, Langley Research Center, Lewis Research Center, and Marshall Space Flight Center.

A sharp Rogers–Shephard type inequality for Orlicz-difference body ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Abstract. In this paper, we prove a sharp Rogers–Shephard type inequality for the Orlicz-difference body of planar convex bodies, which extend the works of Bianchini and Colesanti (Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 138(7) (2008) 2575–2582).

Clustering of germanium atoms in silica glass responsible for the 3.1 eV emission band studied by optical absorption and X-ray absorption fine structure analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoshida, Tomoko; Muto, Shunsuke; Yuliati, Leny; Yoshida, Hisao; Inada, Yasuhiro

2009-01-01

Correlation between the 3.1 eV emission band and local atomic configuration was systematically examined for Ge + implanted silica glass by UV-vis optical absorption spectroscopy and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) analysis. The 2.7 eV emission band, commonly observed in defective silica, was replaced by the sharp and intense 3.1 eV emission band for the Ge + fluence > 2 x 10 16 cm -2 , in which UV-vis absorption spectra suggested clustering of Ge atoms with the size ∼1 nm. XAFS spectroscopy indicated that the Ge atoms were under coordinated with oxygen atoms nearly at a neutral valence state on average. The present results are consistent with the previous ESR study but imply that the small Ge clusters rather than the O=Ge: complexes (point defects) are responsible for the 3.1 eV emission band.

Quantifying the margin sharpness of lesions on radiological images for content-based image retrieval

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu Jiajing; Napel, Sandy; Greenspan, Hayit; Beaulieu, Christopher F.; Agrawal, Neeraj; Rubin, Daniel

2012-01-01

Purpose: To develop a method to quantify the margin sharpness of lesions on CT and to evaluate it in simulations and CT scans of liver and lung lesions. Methods: The authors computed two attributes of margin sharpness: the intensity difference between a lesion and its surroundings, and the sharpness of the intensity transition across the lesion boundary. These two attributes were extracted from sigmoid curves fitted along lines automatically drawn orthogonal to the lesion margin. The authors then represented the margin characteristics for each lesion by a feature vector containing histograms of these parameters. The authors created 100 simulated CT scans of lesions over a range of intensity difference and margin sharpness, and used the concordance correlation between the known parameter and the corresponding computed feature as a measure of performance. The authors also evaluated their method in 79 liver lesions (44 patients: 23 M, 21 F, mean age 61) and 58 lung nodules (57 patients: 24 M, 33 F, mean age 66). The methodology presented takes into consideration the boundary of the liver and lung during feature extraction in clinical images to ensure that the margin feature do not get contaminated by anatomy other than the normal organ surrounding the lesions. For evaluation in these clinical images, the authors created subjective independent reference standards for pairwise margin sharpness similarity in the liver and lung cohorts, and compared rank orderings of similarity used using our sharpness feature to that expected from the reference standards using mean normalized discounted cumulative gain (NDCG) over all query images. In addition, the authors compared their proposed feature with two existing techniques for lesion margin characterization using the simulated and clinical datasets. The authors also evaluated the robustness of their features against variations in delineation of the lesion margin by simulating five types of deformations of the lesion margin

Sharp estimates for damped oscillatory integrals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ikromov, I.A.; Shaimardanov, S.S.

2004-05-01

We consider a real-analytic hypersurface S in R 3 with surface measure dS, ψ is a smooth function with compact support, and we let dμ α be the surface measure with dμ α = ψ vertical bar K(x) vertical bar α dS, where K(x) is the Gaussian curvature of the surface. We show that if S is a real analytic hypersurface with one non-vanishing principal curvature and α > 1, then μ-circumflex α (ξ) decays as O (vertical bar ξ vertical bar -1 ). The well-known examples show that the estimate for the exponent α is sharp. (author)

Intra- and interregional cortical interactions related to sharp-wave ripples and dentate spikes.

Science.gov (United States)

Headley, Drew B; Kanta, Vasiliki; Paré, Denis

2017-02-01

The hippocampus generates population events termed sharp-wave ripples (SWRs) and dentate spikes (DSs). While little is known about DSs, SWR-related hippocampal discharges during sleep are thought to replay prior waking activity, reactivating the cortical networks that encoded the initial experience. During slow-wave sleep, such reactivations likely occur during up-states, when most cortical neurons are depolarized. However, most studies have examined the relationship between SWRs and up-states measured in single neocortical regions. As a result, it is currently unclear whether SWRs are associated with particular patterns of widely distributed cortical activity. Additionally, no such investigation has been carried out for DSs. The present study addressed these questions by recording SWRs and DSs from the dorsal hippocampus simultaneously with prefrontal, sensory (visual and auditory), perirhinal, and entorhinal cortices in naturally sleeping rats. We found that SWRs and DSs were associated with up-states in all cortical regions. Up-states coinciding with DSs and SWRs exhibited increased unit activity, power in the gamma band, and intraregional gamma coherence. Unexpectedly, interregional gamma coherence rose much more strongly in relation to DSs than to SWRs. Whereas the increase in gamma coherence was time locked to DSs, that seen in relation to SWRs was not. These observations suggest that SWRs are related to the strength of up-state activation within individual regions throughout the neocortex but not so much to gamma coherence between different regions. Perhaps more importantly, DSs coincided with stronger periods of interregional gamma coherence, suggesting that they play a more important role than previously assumed. Off-line cortico-hippocampal interactions are thought to support memory consolidation. We surveyed the relationship between hippocampal sharp-wave ripples (SWRs) and dentate spikes (DSs) with up-states across multiple cortical regions. SWRs and

Enhanced Transmissions Through Three-dimensional Cascade Sharp Waveguide Bends Using C-slit Diaphragms.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Rui; Hu, Bowei; Zhang, Aofang; Gao, Dongxing; Wang, Hui; Shi, Ayuan; Lei, Zhenya; Yang, Pei

2017-03-21

Transmission properties through sharp rectangular waveguide bends are investigated to determine the cut-off bending angles of the wave propagation. We show that a simple metallic diaphragm at the bending corner with properly devised sub-wavelength defect apertures of C-slits would be readily to turn on the transmissions with scarce reflections of the propagating modes, while preserving the integrity of the transmitting fields soon after the bends. In particularly, our design also demonstrates the capability of eliminating all the unwanted cavity resonant transmissions that exist in the three-dimensional cascade sharp waveguide bends, and solely let the desired signals travel along the whole passage of the waveguide. The present approach, using C-slit diaphragms to support the sharp bending behaviors of the guided waves with greatly enhanced transmissions, would be especially effective in constructing novel waveguides and pave the way for the development of more compact and miniaturized electromagnetic systems that exploit these waveguide bends.

The cases of non-equivalence between English and Lithuanian: a corpus based solution. Ekvivalentiškumo nebuvimo problemos ir jų sprendimai anglų ir lietuvių kalbose pasitelkiant tekstynų tyrimus

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jurgita Cvilikaitė

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Šiame straipsnyje pristatomas leksinių ertmių reiškinys bei jo potipis – morfologinės ertmės. Morfologinių ertmių, kurios atsiranda dėl tam tikrų dviejų kalbų derivacijos potencialų skirtumų (šiame straipsnyje – neigiamos reikšmės perteikimas priešdėlių pagalba anglų ir lietuvių kalbose, analizė parodė, kaip tokia morfologinio pobūdžio sąvokų leksikalizacijos stoka įtakoja vertimą, t. y. domėtasi, kaip morfologinės ertmės perteikiamos vertimo kalboje. Straipsnyje pirmiausia aptariami vertimo atvejai dvikalbiame anglų–lietuvių kalbų žodyne. Pastebėta, kad tokiais atvejais dažniausiai vartojami vertimo metodai yra vertimas sinonimų grupe bei aprašomasis vertimas. Aptariamos su tokiu reikšmės perteikimu susijusios problemos. Žodynų vertimai palyginti su vertimais tekstuose, kurie gauti pasitelkus Lygiagretųjį anglų – lietuvių kalbų tekstyną. Tokių dviejų šaltinių vertimų palyginimas užbaigiamas diskusija apie išplėstinio vertimo vieneto sąvoką ir tekstynų medžiagos panaudojimą vertime bei šiuolaikinėje leksikografijoje. ----- Machine translation systems, machine-readable dictionaries or other computer-oriented electronic lexical resources present a challenging task in the case of the Lithuanian language. Many of them are related to the problem of non-equivalence resulting from cultural and systemic differences and thus existing on various levels of a language – lexical, morphological and syntactic. This paper focuses on instances of non-equivalence between Lithuanian and English on the morphologicallevel. More specifically, the resolution of non-equivalence problems caused by morphological gaps between English and Lithuanian is investigated. Morphological gaps represent a type of lexicalgaps, which are understood as lack of direct lexicalisation for a certain concept.

The influence of surface stress on dislocation emission from sharp and blunt cracks in f.c.c. metals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schiøtz, Jakob

2000-01-01

We use computer simulations to study the behaviour of atomically sharp and blunted cracks in various fee metals. The simulations use effective medium potentials which contain many-body interactions. We find that when using potentials representing platinum and gold a sharp crack is stable with res......We use computer simulations to study the behaviour of atomically sharp and blunted cracks in various fee metals. The simulations use effective medium potentials which contain many-body interactions. We find that when using potentials representing platinum and gold a sharp crack is stable...... with respect to the emission of a dislocation from the crack tip, whereas for all other metals studied the sharp crack is unstable. This result cannot be explained by existing criteria for the intrinsic ductile/brittle behaviour of crack tips, but is probably caused by surface stresses. When the crack...... is no longer atomically sharp dislocation emission becomes easier in all the studied metals. The effect is relatively strong; the critical stress intensity factor for emission to occur is reduced by up to 20%. This behaviour appears to be caused by the surface stress near the crack tip. The surface stress...

Prevalence and extent of dental caries, dental fluorosis, and developmental enamel defects in Lithuanian teenage populations with different fluoride exposures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Machiulskiene, Vita; Bælum, Vibeke; Fejerskov, Ole

2009-01-01

The aim of this study was to describe the pattern of dental caries, dental fluorosis, and developmental defects of non-fluoride origin in Lithuanian children born and raised in regions with 1.1 ppm (1.1 mg/l F) and 0.3 ppm (0.3 mg/l F) water fluoride levels, respectively. All permanent surfaces/t...... difference, 3.43). The results lend support to the hypothesis that the presence of fluoride in the oral environment promotes lesion arrest rather than inhibiting the initiation of new lesions......./teeth of 300 teenagers were examined for dental caries, dental fluorosis, and non-fluoride developmental defects. The caries prevalence of the study population was 100%. The mean number of decayed surfaces (DS) differed only slightly and statistically insignificantly between the '1.1 ppm fluoride' and '0.3 ppm...

Temporal Modulation Detection Depends on Sharpness of Spatial Tuning.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Ning; Cadmus, Matthew; Dong, Lixue; Mathews, Juliana

2018-04-25

Prior research has shown that in electrical hearing, cochlear implant (CI) users' speech recognition performance is related in part to their ability to detect temporal modulation (i.e., modulation sensitivity). Previous studies have also shown better speech recognition when selectively stimulating sites with good modulation sensitivity rather than all stimulation sites. Site selection based on channel interaction measures, such as those using imaging or psychophysical estimates of spread of neural excitation, has also been shown to improve speech recognition. This led to the question of whether temporal modulation sensitivity and spatial selectivity of neural excitation are two related variables. In the present study, CI users' modulation sensitivity was compared for sites with relatively broad or narrow neural excitation patterns. This was achieved by measuring temporal modulation detection thresholds (MDTs) at stimulation sites that were significantly different in their sharpness of the psychophysical spatial tuning curves (PTCs) and measuring MDTs at the same sites in monopolar (MP) and bipolar (BP) stimulation modes. Nine postlingually deafened subjects implanted with Cochlear Nucleus® device took part in the study. Results showed a significant correlation between the sharpness of PTCs and MDTs, indicating that modulation detection benefits from a more spatially restricted neural activation pattern. There was a significant interaction between stimulation site and mode. That is, using BP stimulation only improved MDTs at stimulation sites with broad PTCs but had no effect or sometimes a detrimental effect on MDTs at stimulation sites with sharp PTCs. This interaction could suggest that a criterion number of nerve fibers is needed to achieve optimal temporal resolution, and, to achieve optimized speech recognition outcomes, individualized selection of site-specific current focusing strategies may be necessary. These results also suggest that the removal of

Two New Sharp Ostrowski-Grüss Type Inequalities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zheng Liu

2013-11-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to use a variant of the Grüss inequality to derive two new sharp Ostrowski-Grüss type inequalities related to a perturbed trapezoidal type rule and a perturbed generalized interior point rule, respectively, which provide improvements of some previous results in the literatures.

Shot noise and Fano factor in tunneling in three-band pseudospin-1 Dirac-Weyl systems

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Rui; Hui, Pak Ming

2017-06-01

Tunneling through a potential barrier of height V0 in a two-dimensional system with a band structure consisting of three bands with a flat band intersecting the touching apices of two Dirac cones is studied. Results of the transmission coefficient at various incident angles, conductivity, shot noise, and Fano factor in this pseudospin-1 Dirac-Weyl system are presented and contrasted with those in graphene which is typical of a pseudospin-1/2 system. The pseudospin-1 system is found to show a higher transmission and suppressed shot noise in general. Significant differences in the shot noise and Fano factor due to the super Klein tunneling effect that allows perfect transmission at all incident angles under certain conditions are illustrated. For Fermi energy EF =V0 / 2, super Klein tunneling leads to a noiseless conductivity that takes on the maximum value 2e2 DkF / (πh) for 0 ≤EF ≤V0. This gives rise to a minimum Fano factor, in sharp contrast with that of a local maximum in graphene. For EF =V0, the band structure of pseudospin-1 system no longer leads to a quantized value of the conductivity as in graphene. Both the conductivity and the shot noise show a minimum with the Fano factor approaching 1/4, which is different from the value of 1/3 in graphene.

The hierarchically organized splitting of chromosome bands into sub-bands analyzed by multicolor banding (MCB).

Science.gov (United States)

Lehrer, H; Weise, A; Michel, S; Starke, H; Mrasek, K; Heller, A; Kuechler, A; Claussen, U; Liehr, T

2004-01-01

To clarify the nature of chromosome sub-bands in more detail, the multicolor banding (MCB) probe-set for chromosome 5 was hybridized to normal metaphase spreads of GTG band levels at approximately 850, approximately 550, approximately 400 and approximately 300. It could be observed that as the chromosomes became shorter, more of the initial 39 MCB pseudo-colors disappeared, ending with 18 MCB pseudo-colored bands at the approximately 300-band level. The hierarchically organized splitting of bands into sub-bands was analyzed by comparing the disappearance or appearance of pseudo-color bands of the four different band levels. The regions to split first are telomere-near, centromere-near and in 5q23-->q31, followed by 5p15, 5p14, and all GTG dark bands in 5q apart from 5q12 and 5q32 and finalized by sub-band building in 5p15.2, 5q21.2-->q21.3, 5q23.1 and 5q34. The direction of band splitting towards the centromere or the telomere could be assigned to each band separately. Pseudo-colors assigned to GTG-light bands were resistant to band splitting. These observations are in concordance with the recently proposed concept of chromosome region-specific protein swelling. Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel

Cannula Versus Sharp Needle for Placement of Soft Tissue Fillers: An Observational Cadaver Study.

Science.gov (United States)

van Loghem, Jani A J; Humzah, Dalvi; Kerscher, Martina

2017-12-13

Soft-tissue fillers have become important products for facial rejuvenation. Deep fat compartments and facial bones lose volume during the natural aging process. For the most natural-looking results, deep volumetric injections at strategic sites are therefore preferred. Supraperiosteal placement is performed with a sharp needle or a non-traumatic cannula. The primary objective was to determine whether there is a difference in precision between supraperiosteal placement with a sharp needle compared with a non-traumatic cannula in cadaver specimens. A secondary objective was to analyze the safety profiles of both injection techniques. Cadaver heads were injected with dye material and soft-tissue fillers at multiple aesthetic facial sites on the supraperiosteum and subsequently dissected for observation of dye and filler placement. The non-traumatic cannula technique resulted in product being confined to the deep anatomic layers. In contrast, with the sharp needle technique, material was placed in multiple anatomic layers, from the periosteum to more superficial skin layers. For both techniques results were consistent for all facial sites. Although direct extrapolation from cadavers to the in vivo situation cannot be made, cannulae showed more precision in placement of product. With the sharp needle, the material was injected on the periosteum, and then migrated in a retrograde direction along the trajectory of the needle path, ending up in multiple anatomic layers. The sharp needle technique also showed a higher complication risk with intra-arterial injection occurring, even though the needle tip was positioned on the periosteum and the product was injected with the needle in constant contact with the periosteum. © 2016 The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Inc. Reprints and permission: journals.permissions@oup.com

Axisymmetric MHD stability of sharp-boundary Tokamaks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rebhan, E.; Salat, A.

1976-09-01

For a sharp-boundary, constant pressure plasma model of axisymmetric equilibria the MHD stability problem of axisymmetric perturbations is solved by analytic reduction to a one-dimensional problem on the boundary and subsequent numerical treatment, using the energy principle. The stability boundaries are determined for arbitrary aspect ratio, arbitrary βsub(p) and elliptical, triangular and rectangular plasma cross-sections, wall stabilization not being taken into account. It is found that the axisymmetric stability strongly depends on the plasma shape and is almost independent of the safety factor q. (orig.) [de

Hybridization between Dusky Grouse and Sharp-tailed Grouse

Science.gov (United States)

O'Donnell, Ryan P.

2015-01-01

Cache County, Utah, 7 April 2013: rare hybrid combination of grouse noted. Hybridization between Dusky Grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) and Sharp-tailed Grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus) has been rarely documented in the wild. The only published record was of one collected from Osoyoos, British Columbia, in 1906 (Brooks 1907, Lincoln 1950). There is also one record of this hybrid in captivity (McCarthy 2006)...Although hybridization within genera is more common than between genera, it is perhaps not all too remarkable that these species would hybridize, given that Dendragapus and Tympanuchus are each other’s closest relatives (Drovetski 2002). The ranges of these two species overlap over a broad area ranging roughly from parts of northern Utah and Colorado to Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Given the close relatedness and extent of overlap of their ranges, it is perhaps surprising that there have not been more reports of this hybrid combination in the over-100 years since Brooks (1907) first described one. The species may be segregated by habitat use, as Sharp-tailed prefer open grassland sites for lekking and shrub areas for nesting, and Dusky are often found in more densely forested conifer stands—although Dusky often use more open habitats in the spring.

Analysis of energy development sustainability: The example of the lithuanian district heating sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kveselis, Vaclovas; Dzenajavičienė, Eugenija Farida; Masaitis, Sigitas

2017-01-01

Today, sustainable energy development is one of key issues on European development agenda. The article describes one of sustainable energy development promoting tool - the eco-labelling scheme for district heating and cooling systems elaborated within the framework of Intelligent Energy for Europe program project “Ecoheat4cities” and partially funded by European Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation. The scheme is based on measured energy and environmental performance data of the district heating and cooling system and considers primary non-renewable energy usage together with the share of renewable energy and carbon dioxide emissions calculated using life-cycle analysis methodology. The “power bonus” approach is used for performance indicators of the heat generated in cogeneration installations. An analysis of a number of Lithuanian district heating companies using elaborated labelling criteria shows positive trends towards fulfilling Lithuania's energy policy goals. The labelling scheme gives opportunity for policy makers and urban planners to compare different heat supply options and decide upon exploiting district heating advantages and benefits for reaching EU energy and environment policy goals. - Highlights: • Overview of Lithuania's district heating sector was performed via main sustainability criteria. • Developing to greener and more efficient state was disclosed via analysis of three years activity results. • Green labelling may help district heating companies to maintain existing and attract new potential consumers.

Factors related to gender differences in toothbrushing among Lithuanian middle-aged university employees.

Science.gov (United States)

Sakalauskienė, Zana; Vehkalahti, Miira M; Murtomaa, Heikki; Mačiulskienė, Vita

2011-01-01

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES. Many previous studies showed clear gender differences in the percentages of adults reporting toothbrushing more than once a day. This study evaluated the factors determining gender differences in toothbrushing among Lithuanian middle-aged university employees. MATERIAL AND METHODS. A questionnaire survey was anonymously conducted among 35- to 44-year-old employees (n=862) of four universities in Lithuania in 2005. The response rate was 64% (n=553). Data covered toothbrushing frequency, habitual dental attendance, dental health attitudes and knowledge, and subject's background information. RESULTS. Of all respondents, 68% reported brushing their teeth more than once a day (73% of women and 49% of men, Pimportant to them and poor oral health as injurious to general health. Of all respondents, 44% indicated that "Lack of time is the main reason for incomplete oral self-care" (61% of men and 40% of women, Pimportance of good dental health to them (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1-2.4; P=0.02) among women and statement that "Poor oral health can be injurious to general health" (OR, 2.6; 95% CI, 1.2-5.5; P=0.01) and checkup-based habitual dental attendance (OR, 2.4; 95% CI, 1.0-5.9; P=0.06) among men. CONCLUSIONS. Due to different determinants affecting toothbrushing frequency among men and women, different oral health motivation programs by gender should be developed.

Patterns of acute whiplash-associated disorder in the Lithuanian population after road traffic accidents.

Science.gov (United States)

Pajediene, Evelina; Janusauskaite, Jolita; Samusyte, Gintaute; Stasaitis, Kestutis; Petrikonis, Kestutis; Bileviciute-Ljungar, Indre

2015-01-01

To investigate acute whiplash-associated disorder in the Lithuanian population who are unaware of the phenomenon. Controlled cohort study. Seventy-one patients were enrolled from the emergency departments of the Kaunas region of Lithuania following road traffic accidents, examined within 3-14 days after the accident, and compared with 53 matched controls. Clinical neurological examination, including range of motion and motion-evoked pain or stiffness in the neck; spontaneous pain and pain pressure threshold. Questionnaires: Quebec Task Force questionnaire (QTFQ); Disability Rating Index (DRI); Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ); Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and health perception. Sixty-six of 71 (93%) patients developed acute symptoms. The most frequent symptoms found after road traffic accidents were neck or shoulder pain; reduced or painful neck movements, including decreased range of motion; multiple subjective symptoms according to QTFQ and significantly reduced pain threshold. Perceived health status was decreased and DRI was increased, while HADS showed a significantly higher risk of developing anxiety. Higher grade whiplash-associated disorder was linked with a greater reduction in range of motion and more prominent neck pain. Road traffic accidents induce whiplash-associated disorder in patients who seek help, but who are unaware of the condition whiplash-associated disorder. Whiplash-associated disorder should be considered and treated as an entity per se.

Towards a sharp-interface volume-of-fluid methodology for modeling evaporation

Science.gov (United States)

Pathak, Ashish; Raessi, Mehdi

2017-11-01

In modeling evaporation, the diffuse-interface (one-domain) formulation yields inaccurate results. Recent efforts approaching the problem via a sharp-interface (two-domain) formulation have shown significant improvements. The reasons behind their better performance are discussed in the present work. All available sharp-interface methods, however, exclusively employ the level-set. In the present work, we develop a sharp-interface evaporation model in a volume-of-fluid (VOF) framework in order to leverage its mass-conserving property as well as its ability to handle large topographical changes. We start with a critical review of the assumptions underlying the mathematical equations governing evaporation. For example, it is shown that the assumption of incompressibility can only be applied in special circumstances. The famous D2 law used for benchmarking is valid exclusively to steady-state test problems. Transient is present over significant lifetime of a micron-size droplet. Therefore, a 1D spherical fully transient model is developed to provide a benchmark transient solution. Finally, a 3D Cartesian Navier-Stokes evaporation solver is developed. Some preliminary validation test-cases are presented for static and moving drop evaporation. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Department of Defense, Tank and Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center, under Award Number DEEE0007292.

Asymptotic Sharpness of Bounds on Hypertrees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lin Yi

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The hypertree can be defined in many different ways. Katona and Szabó introduced a new, natural definition of hypertrees in uniform hypergraphs and investigated bounds on the number of edges of the hypertrees. They showed that a k-uniform hypertree on n vertices has at most (nk−1$\\left( {\\matrix{n \\cr {k - 1} } } \\right$ edges and they conjectured that the upper bound is asymptotically sharp. Recently, Szabó verified that the conjecture holds by recursively constructing an infinite sequence of k-uniform hypertrees and making complicated analyses for it. In this note we give a short proof of the conjecture by directly constructing a sequence of k-uniform k-hypertrees.

Structural phase change and optical band gap bowing in hot wall deposited CdSe{sub x}Te{sub 1-x} thin films

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Muthukumarasamy, N. [Department of Physics, Coimbatore Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu (India); Jayakumar, S.; Kannan, M.D.; Balasundaraprabhu, R. [Thin Film Center, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu (India)

2009-04-15

CdSe{sub x}Te{sub 1-x} thin films of different compositions have been deposited on glass substrates by hot wall deposition method under conditions very close to thermodynamical equilibrium with minimum loss of material. The structural studies carried out on the deposited films revealed that they are crystalline in nature and exhibit either cubic zinc blende or hexagonal phase or both depending on the composition of the material. The lattice parameter values for both cubic and hexagonal phases have been determined and are observed to vary with composition according to Vegard's law. The optical properties of the deposited CdSe{sub x}Te{sub 1-x} thin films have been studied using transmittance spectra. The spectra shows a sharp fall in transmittance at wavelength corresponding to the band gap of the material. The optical band gap has been determined and found to be direct allowed. The band gap has been observed to strongly depend on film composition. The variation of band gap with composition has been observed to be quadratic in nature exhibiting a bowing behaviour. (author)

Best Way to Get Rid of Used Needles and Other Sharps

Science.gov (United States)

... other options are not available. If traveling by plane, check the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) website for ... be thrown away in the common trash. Additional Consumer Information How to Get Rid of a Sharps ...

Testing the efficiency of the wine market using unit root tests with sharp and smooth breaks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elie Bouri

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the efficient market hypothesis for the wine market using a novel unit root test while accounting for sharp shifts and smooth breaks in the monthly data. We find evidence of structural shifts and nonlinearity in the wine indices. Contrary to the results from conventional linear unit root tests, when we account for sharp shifts and smooth breaks, the unit root null for each of the wine indices has been rejected. Overall, our results suggest that the wine market is inefficient when we incorporate breaks. We provide some practical and policy implications of our findings. Keywords: Wine market, Efficiency, Sharp and smooth breaks, Unit root tests

Needles and Other Sharps (Safe Disposal Outside of Health Care Settings)

Science.gov (United States)

... disorders, and psoriasis. Examples of sharps include: Needles – hollow needles used to inject drugs (medication) under the ... and Drug Administration 10903 New Hampshire Avenue Silver Spring, MD 20993 1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888- ...

Multi-Physics Demonstration Problem with the SHARP Reactor Simulation Toolkit

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Merzari, E. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Shemon, E. R. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Yu, Y. Q. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Thomas, J. W. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Obabko, A. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Jain, Rajeev [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Mahadevan, Vijay [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Tautges, Timothy [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Solberg, Jerome [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Ferencz, Robert Mark [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Whitesides, R. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2015-12-21

This report describes to employ SHARP to perform a first-of-a-kind analysis of the core radial expansion phenomenon in an SFR. This effort required significant advances in the framework Multi-Physics Demonstration Problem with the SHARP Reactor Simulation Toolkit used to drive the coupled simulations, manipulate the mesh in response to the deformation of the geometry, and generate the necessary modified mesh files. Furthermore, the model geometry is fairly complex, and consistent mesh generation for the three physics modules required significant effort. Fully-integrated simulations of a 7-assembly mini-core test problem have been performed, and the results are presented here. Physics models of a full-core model of the Advanced Burner Test Reactor have also been developed for each of the three physics modules. Standalone results of each of the three physics modules for the ABTR are presented here, which provides a demonstration of the feasibility of the fully-integrated simulation.

A Small Fullerene (C{sub 24}) may be the Carrier of the 11.2 μ m Unidentified Infrared Band

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bernstein, L. S.; Shroll, R. M. [Spectral Sciences, Inc., 4 Fourth Ave., Burlington, MA 01803 (United States); Lynch, D. K. [Thule Scientific, P.O. Box 953, Topanga, CA 90290 (United States); Clark, F. O., E-mail: larry@spectral.com, E-mail: rshroll@spectral.com, E-mail: dave@caltech.edu, E-mail: frank.clark@gmail.com [Wopeco Research, 125 South Great Road, Lincoln, MA 01773 (United States)

2017-02-20

We analyze the spectrum of the 11.2 μ m unidentified infrared band (UIR) from NGC 7027 and identify a small fullerene (C{sub 24}) as a plausible carrier. The blurring effects of lifetime and vibrational anharmonicity broadening obscure the narrower, intrinsic spectral profiles of the UIR band carriers. We use a spectral deconvolution algorithm to remove the blurring, in order to retrieve the intrinsic profile of the UIR band. The shape of the intrinsic profile—a sharp blue peak and an extended red tail—suggests that the UIR band originates from a molecular vibration–rotation band with a blue band head. The fractional area of the band-head feature indicates a spheroidal molecule, implying a nonpolar molecule and precluding rotational emission. Its rotational temperature should be well approximated by that measured for nonpolar molecular hydrogen, ∼825 K for NGC 7027. Using this temperature, and the inferred spherical symmetry, we perform a spectral fit to the intrinsic profile, which results in a rotational constant implying C{sub 24} as the carrier. We show that the spectroscopic parameters derived for NGC 7027 are consistent with the 11.2 μ m UIR bands observed for other objects. We present density functional theory (DFT) calculations for the frequencies and infrared intensities of C{sub 24}. The DFT results are used to predict a spectral energy distribution (SED) originating from absorption of a 5 eV photon, and characterized by an effective vibrational temperature of 930 K. The C{sub 24} SED is consistent with the entire UIR spectrum and is the dominant contributor to the 11.2 and 12.7 μ m bands.

Valence-band and core-level photoemission study of single-crystal Bi2CaSr2Cu2O8 superconductors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shen, Z.; Lindberg, P.A.P.; Wells, B.O.; Mitzi, D.B.; Lindau, I.; Spicer, W.E.; Kapitulnik, A.

1988-01-01

High-quality single crystals of Bi 2 CaSr 2 Cu 2 O 8 superconductors have been prepared and cleaved in ultrahigh vacuum. Low-energy electron diffraction measurements show that the surface structure is consistent with the bulk crystal structure. Ultraviolet photoemission and x-ray photoemission experiments were performed on these well-characterized sample surfaces. The valence-band and the core-level spectra obtained from the single-crystal surfaces are in agreement with spectra recorded from polycrystalline samples, justifying earlier results from polycrystalline samples. Cu satellites are observed both in the valence band and Cu 2p core level, signaling the strong correlation among the Cu 3d electrons. The O 1s core-level data exhibit a sharp, single peak at 529-eV binding energy without any clear satellite structures

Asmeniniai įvardžiai mokslo kalboje. Personal pronouns in Lithuanian scientific discourse

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nijolė Linkevičienė

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The focus of the paper is the use of personal pronouns as a means of author stance expression in the Corpus Academicum Lithuanicum (about 9 million words representing a variety of academic genres in five science areas (Biomedical sciences, Humanities, Physical sciences, Social sciences, Technological sciences. Pronouns in the subject position in Lithuanian may be omitted, as the person/number inflection of the verb already indicates the subject. Therefore, when the pronoun does occur in scientific discourse it might be interpreted as an emphasized expression of the author stance.In this study qualitative and quantitative approaches are employed to reveal distributional information and usage patterns of the personal pronouns I and we. The results of the study indicate cross-disciplinary differences in the use of personal pronouns in different science areas: researchers in the hard science fields tend to use personal pronouns to a much smaller extent than researchers in the soft fields. The study also showed marked differences in the distribution of exclusive and inclusive we. Scientists in the humanities and social sciences prefer the inclusive communal we, whereas researchers in biomedical, physical and technological sciences favour the exclusive we which primarily refers to the authors themselves or to the academic community. A case study of the personal pronoun you revealed its rare usage in scientific Lithuanian. This pronoun is usually employed to refer to the indefinite addressee. ------ Straipsnyje aptariama autoriaus pozicijos raiška asmeniniais įvardžiais lietuvių mokslo kalbos tekstyne CorALit. Pasitelkus kiekybinę ir kokybinę analizę, tiriami asmeninių įvardžių aš ir mes bei jų dažniausių gramatinių formų vartosenos ypatumai biomedicinos, humanitarinių, socialinių, fizinių ir technologinių mokslų srityse. Tyrimas parodė, kad tiek vienaskaitinė, tiek daugiskaitinė autoriaus pozicijos raiška asmeniniais �

Interface energy band alignment at the all-transparent p-n heterojunction based on NiO and BaSnO3

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jiaye; Han, Shaobo; Luo, Weihuang; Xiang, Shuhuai; Zou, Jianli; Oropeza, Freddy E.; Gu, Meng; Zhang, Kelvin H. L.

2018-04-01

Transparent oxide semiconductors hold great promise for many optoelectronic devices such as transparent electronics, UV-emitting devices, and photodetectors. A p-n heterojunction is the most ubiquitous building block to realize these devices. In this work, we report the fabrication and characterization of the interface properties of a transparent heterojunction consisting of p-type NiO and n-type perovskite BaSnO3. We show that high-quality NiO thin films can be epitaxially grown on BaSnO3 with sharp interfaces because of a small lattice mismatch (˜1.3%). The diode fabricated from this heterojunction exhibits rectifying behavior with a ratio of 500. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals a type II or "staggered" band alignment with valence and conduction band offsets of 1.44 eV and 1.86 eV, respectively. Moreover, a large upward band bending potential of 0.90 eV for BaSnO3 and a downward band bending potential of 0.15 eV for NiO were observed in the interface region. Such electronic properties have important implication for optoelectronic applications as the large built-in potential provides favorable energetics for photo-generated electron-hole separation/migration.

Design Investigation of a Laminated Waveguide Fed Multi-Band DRA for Military Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Pramod; Dwari, Santanu; Singh, Shailendra; Agrawal, N. K.

2017-12-01

In this paper a laminated waveguide fed DR Antenna is investigated. It can use for moderate power military applications. Cylindrical DRA is excited by two closely spaced asymmetric longitudinal slots on the broad wall of the laminated cavity are responsible for producing three different frequency bands. Parametric study of slots has been done with the help of commercial software ANSOFT HFSS. All the bands have sharp rejection. The final model of the antenna is simulated, fabricated and experimentally measured. Measured results are in quite accordant with design results. SIW feeding structures have small losses, moderate power handling capacity, low costs, compact sizes and can be seamlessly integrated with planar circuits. At all the bands 9.76 GHz, 10.53 GHz and 11.8 GHz resonant frequency, the antenna shows 56 MHz, 160 MHz, and 250 MHz impedance bandwidth (for VSWR<2) with 6 dB,6.2 dB and 6.8 dB gain respectively. Simulated and measured results reveal outstanding performance with a cross-polar level of 29 dB lower than that of the co-polar level at 9.76 GHz, the cross-polar level of 32 dB lower than that of the co-polar level at 10.53, GHz, and similarly cross-polar level of 30 dB lower than that of the co-polar level at 11.8 GHz.

Space-time adaptive hp-FEM for problems with traveling sharp fronts

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Šolín, Pavel; Korous, L.

2013-01-01

Roč. 95, č. 1 (2013), S709-S722 ISSN 0010-485X Institutional support: RVO:61388998 Keywords : adaptive hp-FEM * transient problems * sharp fronts Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 1.055, year: 2013

Investigation of Sharp Injuries in an Educational Hospital, Ahvaz, Iran

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sahar Geravandi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Background & Aims of the Study: The Sharp Injuries (SIs are a percutaneous piercing wound caused by a sharp instrument. Needle Sticks and Sharp Injuries (NSSIs can increase the incidence of cases of Hepatitis B, C and HIV. The purpose of this study was to Investigation of the relative frequency of NSSIs in healthcare workers (HCWs in Ahvaz, Iran (Razi hospital over 3-year period (2011–2013. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study during 2011-2013 was conducted on 600 HCWs at Razi Hospital, Ahvaz, Iran. To measure NSSIs, has been diagnosis and categorized based on the National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (NNIS. Data about health workers’ age, sex, site of NSIs injury, ward of hospitalization and case of needle stick were collected. Descriptive statistical by SPSS version 16 used for analyzed data in this study. Results: According to the results of this study, among all nurses, the maximum cases of NSIs were HCWs. Regarding the finding, recapping needle were found in 34.17%, handling needle in 20.25%, suturing in 16.45%, passing needle in 13.92%, transit disposal in 8.86% and dissembling needle in 6.32% of cases. Findings showed that the most NSIs in Razi Hospital were general surgery, emergency, Intensive Care Unit (ICU, Obstetrics and Gynecology (OBGYN, operating room, orthopedic and infectious diseases wards during 2011-2013. Conclusion: Based on these findings, the number of health care-associated with NSIs between nurses in our study may be due to the shortage of nurses, long working hours during the night shift, fatigue and failure to use an appropriate equipment.

Comparison of image sharpness metrics and real-time sharpening methods with GPU implementations

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

De Villiers, Johan P

2010-06-01

Full Text Available , and not in trying to adjust the image to some fixed sharpness value. With the advent of the increased progammability of Graphics Pro- cessing Units (GPU) and their seemingly ever increasing number of processor cores (the dual-GPU NVidia GTX295 has 480 cores...) Quadro MDS 140M 16 400 64 700 ATI HD 2400XT 40 800 64 700 NVidia 9600GT 64 650 256 900 NVidia GTX280 240 602 512 1107 2 Metric descriptions Three metrics are used to evaluate images for sharpness. The first two are a measure of how much information...

Vatellini Sharp (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae) from Brazil: two new species, new records, and a checklist.

Science.gov (United States)

Braga, Rafael Benzi; Ferreira, Nelson

2016-05-12

The tribe Vatellini Sharp, 1882 is composed of 55 species divided in two genera. Even though a recent revision of the tribe was made, Vatellini of the new world are weakly explored with great gaps in the distributions of species. In Brazil the knowledge is based only on a few localities. In this work two new species are described and illustrated, Vatellus caissara sp. nov. and Vatellus yanomami sp. nov.; new records are given for Brazil: Vatellus maculosus Miller, 2005 in the state of Mato Grosso, Derovatellus lentus (Wehncke, 1876) in Amazonas, Pará and Rio de Janeiro, Vatellus lateralis (Sharp, 1882) in Alagoas, Ceará, Espírito Santo, Pará, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Sul, Vatellus sahlbergi (Sharp, 1882) in Rio de Janeiro, and Vatellus tarsatus (Laporte, 1835) in Pará. A checklist with all species of Vatellini occurring in Brazil is provided and steps for identification of the new species are added in the key of Miller (2005).

SINGLE-BAND, TRIPLE-BAND, OR MULTIPLE-BAND HUBBARD MODELS

NARCIS (Netherlands)

ESKES, H; SAWATZKY, GA

1991-01-01

The relevance of different models, such as the one-band t-J model and the three-band Emery model, as a realistic description of the electronic structure of high-T(c) materials is discussed. Starting from a multiband approach using cluster calculations and an impurity approach, the following

Numerical deconvolution to enhance sharpness and contrast of portal images for radiotherapy patient positioning verification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Looe, H.K.; Uphoff, Y.; Poppe, B.; Carl von Ossietzky Univ., Oldenburg; Harder, D.; Willborn, K.C.

2012-01-01

The quality of megavoltage clinical portal images is impaired by physical and geometrical effects. This image blurring can be corrected by a fast numerical two-dimensional (2D) deconvolution algorithm implemented in the electronic portal image device. We present some clinical examples of deconvolved portal images and evaluate the clinical advantages achieved by the improved sharpness and contrast. The principle of numerical 2D image deconvolution and the enhancement of sharpness and contrast thereby achieved are shortly explained. The key concept is the convolution kernel K(x,y), the mathematical equivalent of the smearing or blurring of a picture, and the computer-based elimination of this influence. Enhancements of sharpness and contrast were observed in all clinical portal images investigated. The images of fine bone structures were restored. The identification of organ boundaries and anatomical landmarks was improved, thereby permitting a more accurate comparison with the x-ray simulator radiographs. The visibility of prostate gold markers is also shown to be enhanced by deconvolution. The blurring effects of clinical portal images were eliminated by a numerical deconvolution algorithm that leads to better image sharpness and contrast. The fast algorithm permits the image blurring correction to be performed in real time, so that patient positioning verification with increased accuracy can be achieved in clinical practice. (orig.)

Numerical deconvolution to enhance sharpness and contrast of portal images for radiotherapy patient positioning verification

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Looe, H.K.; Uphoff, Y.; Poppe, B. [Pius Hospital, Oldenburg (Germany). Clinic for Radiation Therapy; Carl von Ossietzky Univ., Oldenburg (Germany). WG Medical Radiation Physics; Harder, D. [Georg August Univ., Goettingen (Germany). Medical Physics and Biophysics; Willborn, K.C. [Pius Hospital, Oldenburg (Germany). Clinic for Radiation Therapy

2012-02-15

The quality of megavoltage clinical portal images is impaired by physical and geometrical effects. This image blurring can be corrected by a fast numerical two-dimensional (2D) deconvolution algorithm implemented in the electronic portal image device. We present some clinical examples of deconvolved portal images and evaluate the clinical advantages achieved by the improved sharpness and contrast. The principle of numerical 2D image deconvolution and the enhancement of sharpness and contrast thereby achieved are shortly explained. The key concept is the convolution kernel K(x,y), the mathematical equivalent of the smearing or blurring of a picture, and the computer-based elimination of this influence. Enhancements of sharpness and contrast were observed in all clinical portal images investigated. The images of fine bone structures were restored. The identification of organ boundaries and anatomical landmarks was improved, thereby permitting a more accurate comparison with the x-ray simulator radiographs. The visibility of prostate gold markers is also shown to be enhanced by deconvolution. The blurring effects of clinical portal images were eliminated by a numerical deconvolution algorithm that leads to better image sharpness and contrast. The fast algorithm permits the image blurring correction to be performed in real time, so that patient positioning verification with increased accuracy can be achieved in clinical practice. (orig.)

Osobennosti vybora institucional'nogo puti razvitija v Vostochnoj Evrope XVI—XVII vekov: Moskovskoe gosudarstvo i Rech' Pospolitaja [The features of choosing an institutional development trajectory in Eastern Europe in the 16th—17th centuries: Moscovy and the Polish — Lithuanian Commonwealth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vdovin Mikhail

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Recent decades have witnessed an increase in the number of works dedicated to the analysis of effects of historical events on the choice of institutions and further economic and social development of regions. This article employs the new institutional economic theory approach to consider the choices regarding title to land and serfdom in Moscovy and the Polish — Lithuanian Commonwealth (earlier the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 16th—17th centuries. The author emphasizes the factors, which affected the choice of institutional development trajectory, and considers the influence exerted by these institutes on the political and military development of these states. This article shows how the contingent property rights in Moscovy turned out to be competitive in the conditions of a considerable contribution of decentralization factors to defence capacity and, opposite to the situation in the Polish — Lithuanian Commonwealth, ensured the formation of large and efficient troops. This work contributes to the research on the property rights and Russian economic history.

Interrelations between Energy Security Economics and Social Cohesion: Analysis of a Lithuanian Case

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dainius Genys

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Growing attention to sustainable development in academic discourse fosters discussions on how energy security affects society. In most cases the discussions consider the political and economic consequences, which affect or may affect the society. The aim of the article is to assess the impact of energy security economics on social cohesion in Lithuania. To achieve this aim the interrelations between energy security, energy economics and social cohesion are discussed. The theoretical framework of social cohesion (introduced by J. Jenson and P. Bernard is presented and applied in empirical analysis. The operationalization of empirical variables is based on economic, political and socio-cultural - activity areas, which are analyzed to verify the dichotomies between public attitudes and the actual behavior of society. These dichotomies help to distinguish six analytical dimensions, on the basis of which we created 17 empirical indicators, which analysis allows for describing the impact of Lithuanian energy security economics on social cohesion in quantitative data. The statistical analyses showed that the impact of attitudinal dimensions of energy security economics on social cohesion in Lithuania has an almost neutral effect: 3.05 (1-very negative; 3-neutral, 5-very positive. Whereas, the impact of behavioural dimensions of energy security economics on social cohesion has a negative effect: 2.47. The aggregated average of the overall impact of energy security economics on social cohesion in Lithuania has a negative effect: 2.76.

Development of a Silicon Microneedle with Three-Dimensional Sharp Tip by Electrochemical Etching

Science.gov (United States)

Izumi, Hayato; Okamoto, Tokusuke; Suzuki, Masato; Aoyagi, Seiji

Aiming at the use in low-invasive medical treatments, this paper reports a fabrication technique of silicon microneedle of conical sharp point. The electrochemical etching technique is employed for sharpening the tip of a pillar, which is diced from a silicon wafer. A finely smooth tip surface is obtained due to electrochemical etching reactions, and is effective for easy insertion. The fabrication method is based on inexpensive wet etching, which does not require expensive fabrication facilities such as deep reactive ion etching (DRIE). A sharp needle was successfully fabricated, the tip angle of which was considerably small and was distributed within the range from 15 to 30 deg. An experiment of inserting the fabricated needle into an artificial skin of silicone rubber was carried out. As the results, the resistance force during insertion was much reduced compared to those of two-dimensional sharp needles. Imitating mosquito's motion, the effectiveness of applying vibration to the fabricated needle during insertion was also confirmed. After biocompatible Parylene coating, puncturing a human skin was demonstrated assuming a lancet usage for the diabetics, in which the bleeding was surely observed.

SHARP pre-release v1.0 - Current Status and Documentation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mahadevan, Vijay S. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Rahaman, Ronald O. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

2015-09-30

The NEAMS Reactor Product Line effort aims to develop an integrated multiphysics simulation capability for the design and analysis of future generations of nuclear power plants. The Reactor Product Line code suite’s multi-resolution hierarchy is being designed to ultimately span the full range of length and time scales present in relevant reactor design and safety analyses, as well as scale from desktop to petaflop computing platforms. In this report, building on a several previous report issued in September 2014, we describe our continued efforts to integrate thermal/hydraulics, neutronics, and structural mechanics modeling codes to perform coupled analysis of a representative fast sodium-cooled reactor core in preparation for a unified release of the toolkit. The work reported in the current document covers the software engineering aspects of managing the entire stack of components in the SHARP toolkit and the continuous integration efforts ongoing to prepare a release candidate for interested reactor analysis users. Here we report on the continued integration effort of PROTEUS/Nek5000 and Diablo into the NEAMS framework and the software processes that enable users to utilize the capabilities without losing scientific productivity. Due to the complexity of the individual modules and their necessary/optional dependency library chain, we focus on the configuration and build aspects for the SHARP toolkit, which includes capability to autodownload dependencies and configure/install with optimal flags in an architecture-aware fashion. Such complexity is untenable without strong software engineering processes such as source management, source control, change reviews, unit tests, integration tests and continuous test suites. Details on these processes are provided in the report as a building step for a SHARP user guide that will accompany the first release, expected by Mar 2016.

Full-Band Quasi-Harmonic Analysis and Synthesis of Musical Instrument Sounds with Adaptive Sinusoids

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcelo Caetano

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Sinusoids are widely used to represent the oscillatory modes of musical instrument sounds in both analysis and synthesis. However, musical instrument sounds feature transients and instrumental noise that are poorly modeled with quasi-stationary sinusoids, requiring spectral decomposition and further dedicated modeling. In this work, we propose a full-band representation that fits sinusoids across the entire spectrum. We use the extended adaptive Quasi-Harmonic Model (eaQHM to iteratively estimate amplitude- and frequency-modulated (AM–FM sinusoids able to capture challenging features such as sharp attacks, transients, and instrumental noise. We use the signal-to-reconstruction-error ratio (SRER as the objective measure for the analysis and synthesis of 89 musical instrument sounds from different instrumental families. We compare against quasi-stationary sinusoids and exponentially damped sinusoids. First, we show that the SRER increases with adaptation in eaQHM. Then, we show that full-band modeling with eaQHM captures partials at the higher frequency end of the spectrum that are neglected by spectral decomposition. Finally, we demonstrate that a frame size equal to three periods of the fundamental frequency results in the highest SRER with AM–FM sinusoids from eaQHM. A listening test confirmed that the musical instrument sounds resynthesized from full-band analysis with eaQHM are virtually perceptually indistinguishable from the original recordings.

Long working hours increase the risk of sharp and needlestick injury in nurses: the need for new policy implication.

Science.gov (United States)

Ilhan, Mustafa N; Durukan, Elif; Aras, Evin; Türkçüoğlu, Sertaç; Aygün, Remzi

2006-12-01

This paper reports a study to determine the sharp and needlestick injury incidence in nurses working at a university hospital and the contributing factors. Although it is generally felt that working in the healthcare sector is clean and without risk, healthcare staff and especially physicians and nurses who generally work very long hours are actually exposed to various occupational risks. Sharps and needlestick injuries are important problems for healthcare workers as they increase the risk of spread of infection. A self-administered questionnaire was completed in October 2005 by 449 of the 516 nurses working at a Turkish hospital (response rate 87.0%). The percentage of nurses experiencing a sharp or needlestick injury during their professional life was 79.7%. The incidence of exposure to sharp or needlestick injury in the last year was 68.4%. The factors increasing the rate of sharp and needlestick injury were: age 24 years and less, working in surgical or intensive care units and working for more than 8 hours per day (P working long shifts, where tiredness may contribute to the number of needlestick injuries.

L-band brightness temperature disaggregation for use with S-band and C-band radiometer data for WCOM

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, P.; Shi, J.; Zhao, T.; Cosh, M. H.; Bindlish, R.

2017-12-01

There are two passive microwave sensors onboard the Water Cycle Observation Mission (WCOM), which includes a synthetic aperture radiometer operating at L-S-C bands and a scanning microwave radiometer operating from C- to W-bands. It provides a unique opportunity to disaggregate L-band brightness temperature (soil moisture) with S-band C-bands radiometer data. In this study, passive-only downscaling methodologies are developed and evaluated. Based on the radiative transfer modeling, it was found that the TBs (brightness temperature) between the L-band and S-band exhibit a linear relationship, and there is an exponential relationship between L-band and C-band. We carried out the downscaling results by two methods: (1) downscaling with L-S-C band passive measurements with the same incidence angle from payload IMI; (2) downscaling with L-C band passive measurements with different incidence angle from payloads IMI and PMI. The downscaling method with L-S bands with the same incident angle was first evaluated using SMEX02 data. The RMSE are 2.69 K and 1.52 K for H and V polarization respectively. The downscaling method with L-C bands is developed with different incident angles using SMEX03 data. The RMSE are 2.97 K and 2.68 K for H and V polarization respectively. These results showed that high-resolution L-band brightness temperature and soil moisture products could be generated from the future WCOM passive-only observations.

Adaptive moving mesh methods for simulating one-dimensional groundwater problems with sharp moving fronts

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, W.; Zheng, Lingyun; Zhan, X.

2002-01-01

Accurate modelling of groundwater flow and transport with sharp moving fronts often involves high computational cost, when a fixed/uniform mesh is used. In this paper, we investigate the modelling of groundwater problems using a particular adaptive mesh method called the moving mesh partial differential equation approach. With this approach, the mesh is dynamically relocated through a partial differential equation to capture the evolving sharp fronts with a relatively small number of grid points. The mesh movement and physical system modelling are realized by solving the mesh movement and physical partial differential equations alternately. The method is applied to the modelling of a range of groundwater problems, including advection dominated chemical transport and reaction, non-linear infiltration in soil, and the coupling of density dependent flow and transport. Numerical results demonstrate that sharp moving fronts can be accurately and efficiently captured by the moving mesh approach. Also addressed are important implementation strategies, e.g. the construction of the monitor function based on the interpolation error, control of mesh concentration, and two-layer mesh movement. Copyright ?? 2002 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.

An Intersection–Union Test for the Sharpe Ratio

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gabriel Frahm

2018-04-01

Full Text Available An intersection–union test for supporting the hypothesis that a given investment strategy is optimal among a set of alternatives is presented. It compares the Sharpe ratio of the benchmark with that of each other strategy. The intersection–union test takes serial dependence into account and does not presume that asset returns are multivariate normally distributed. An empirical study based on the G–7 countries demonstrates that it is hard to find significant results due to the lack of data, which confirms a general observation in empirical finance.

Treatment of sharp mandibular alveolar process with hybrid prosthesis

OpenAIRE

Sukaedi, Sukaedi; Djulaeha, Eha

2010-01-01

Background: Losing posterior teeth for a long time would occasionally lead to the sharpening of alveolar process. The removable partial denture usually have problems when used during mastication, because of the pressure on the mucosa under the alveolar ridge. Purpose: The purpose of this case report was to manage patients with sharp mandibular alveolar process by wearing hybrid prosthesis with extra coronal precision attachment retention and soft liner on the surface base beneath the removabl...

Study of hydrodynamic characteristics of a Sharp Eagle wave energy converter

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Ya-qun; Sheng, Song-wei; You, Ya-ge; Huang, Zhen-xin; Wang, Wen-sheng

2017-06-01

According to Newton's Second Law and the microwave theory, mechanical analysis of multiple buoys which form Sharp Eagle wave energy converter (WEC) is carried out. The movements of every buoy in three modes couple each other when they are affected with incident waves. Based on the above, mechanical models of the WEC are established, which are concerned with fluid forces, damping forces, hinge forces, and so on. Hydrodynamic parameters of one buoy are obtained by taking the other moving buoy as boundary conditions. Then, by taking those hydrodynamic parameters into the mechanical models, the optimum external damping and optimal capture width ratio are calculated out. Under the condition of the optimum external damping, a plenty of data are obtained, such as the displacements amplitude of each buoy in three modes (sway, heave, pitch), damping forces, hinge forces, and speed of the hydraulic cylinder. Research results provide theoretical references and basis for Sharp Eagle WECs in the design and manufacture.

LLNL contributions to ANL Report ANL/NE-16/6 'Sharp User Manual'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Solberg, J. M.

2016-01-01

Diablo is a Multiphysics implicit finite element code with an emphasis on coupled structural/thermal analysis. In the SHARP framework, it is used as the structural solver, and may also be used as the mesh smoother.

Numerical investigation of rarefaction effects in the vicinity of a sharp leading edge

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Shaowu; Gao, Zhenxun; Lee, Chunhian

2014-12-01

This paper presents a study of rarefaction effect on hypersonic flow over a sharp leading edge. Both continuum approach and kinetic method: a widely spread commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics-Navior-Stokes-Fourier (CFD-NSF) software - Fluent together with a direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) code developed by the authors are employed for simulation of transition regime with Knudsen number ranging from 0.005 to 0.2. It is found that Fluent can predict the wall fluxes in the case of hypersonic argon flow over the sharp leading edge for the lowest Kn case (Kn = 0.005) in current paper while for other cases it also has a good agreement with DSMC except at the location near the sharp leading edge. Among all of the wall fluxes, it is found that coefficient of pressure is the most sensitive to rarefaction while heat transfer is the least one. A parameter based on translational nonequilibrium and a cut-off value of 0.34 is proposed for continuum breakdown in this paper. The structure of entropy and velocity profile in boundary layer is analyzed. Also, it is found that the ratio of heat transfer coefficient to skin friction coefficient remains uniform along the surface for the four cases in this paper.

A Novel Ku-Band/Ka-Band and Ka-Band/E-Band Multimode Waveguide Couplers for Power Measurement of Traveling-Wave Tube Amplifier Harmonic Frequencies

Science.gov (United States)

Wintucky, Edwin G.; Simons, Rainee N.

2015-01-01

This paper presents the design, fabrication and test results for a novel waveguide multimode directional coupler (MDC). The coupler, fabricated from two dissimilar frequency band waveguides, is capable of isolating power at the second harmonic frequency from the fundamental power at the output port of a traveling-wave tube (TWT) amplifier. Test results from proof-of-concept demonstrations are presented for a Ku-band/Ka-band MDC and a Ka-band/E-band MDC. In addition to power measurements at harmonic frequencies, a potential application of the MDC is in the design of a satellite borne beacon source for atmospheric propagation studies at millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequencies (Ka-band and E-band).

Sharp metric obstructions for quasi-Einstein metrics

Science.gov (United States)

Case, Jeffrey S.

2013-02-01

Using the tractor calculus to study smooth metric measure spaces, we adapt results of Gover and Nurowski to give sharp metric obstructions to the existence of quasi-Einstein metrics on suitably generic manifolds. We do this by introducing an analogue of the Weyl tractor W to the setting of smooth metric measure spaces. The obstructions we obtain can be realized as tensorial invariants which are polynomial in the Riemann curvature tensor and its divergence. By taking suitable limits of their tensorial forms, we then find obstructions to the existence of static potentials, generalizing to higher dimensions a result of Bartnik and Tod, and to the existence of potentials for gradient Ricci solitons.

Short-Term Power Load Point Prediction Based on the Sharp Degree and Chaotic RBF Neural Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dongxiao Niu

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In order to realize the predicting and positioning of short-term load inflection point, this paper made reference to related research in the field of computer image recognition. It got a load sharp degree sequence by the transformation of the original load sequence based on the algorithm of sharp degree. Then this paper designed a forecasting model based on the chaos theory and RBF neural network. It predicted the load sharp degree sequence based on the forecasting model to realize the positioning of short-term load inflection point. Finally, in the empirical example analysis, this paper predicted the daily load point of a region using the actual load data of the certain region to verify the effectiveness and applicability of this method. Prediction results showed that most of the test sample load points could be accurately predicted.

The close objects buffer : a sharp shadow detection technique for radiosity methods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Telea, A.C.; Overveld, van C.W.A.M.

1997-01-01

Detecting sharp illumination variations such as shadow boundaries is an important problem for radiosity methods. Such illumination variations are captured using a nonuniform mesh that refines the areas exhibiting high illumination gradients. Nonuniform meshing techniques like discontinuity meshing

The Close Objects Buffer : A Sharp Shadow Detection Technique for Radiosity Methods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Telea, A.C.; Overveld, C.W.A.M. van

1998-01-01

Detecting sharp illumination variations such as shadow boundaries is an important problem for radiosity methods. Such illumination variations are captured using a nonuniform mesh that refines the areas exhibiting high illumination gradients. Nonuniform meshing techniques like discontinuity meshing

The pattern of sharps injury to health care workers at Witbank Hospital

African Journals Online (AJOL)

800 000 needle stick injuries occur every year.1 According to UK data, there were ... Factors associated with an increased risk of occupational exposure can differ from ... there are many sharps safety devices on the market, but unfortunately.

SHARP's systems engineering challenge: rectifying integrated product team requirements with performance issues in an evolutionary spiral development acquisition

Science.gov (United States)

Kuehl, C. Stephen

2003-08-01

Completing its final development and early deployment on the Navy's multi-role aircraft, the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, the SHAred Reconnaissance Pod (SHARP) provides the war fighter with the latest digital tactical reconnaissance (TAC Recce) Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) sensor system. The SHARP program is an evolutionary acquisition that used a spiral development process across a prototype development phase tightly coupled into overlapping Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) and Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) phases. Under a tight budget environment with a highly compressed schedule, SHARP challenged traditional acquisition strategies and systems engineering (SE) processes. Adopting tailored state-of-the-art systems engineering process models allowd the SHARP program to overcome the technical knowledge transition challenges imposed by a compressed program schedule. The program's original goal was the deployment of digital TAC Recce mission capabilities to the fleet customer by summer of 2003. Hardware and software integration technical challenges resulted from requirements definition and analysis activities performed across a government-industry led Integrated Product Team (IPT) involving Navy engineering and test sites, Boeing, and RTSC-EPS (with its subcontracted hardware and government furnished equipment vendors). Requirements development from a bottoms-up approach was adopted using an electronic requirements capture environment to clarify and establish the SHARP EMD product baseline specifications as relevant technical data became available. Applying Earned-Value Management (EVM) against an Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) resulted in efficiently managing SE task assignments and product deliveries in a dynamically evolving customer requirements environment. Application of Six Sigma improvement methodologies resulted in the uncovering of root causes of errors in wiring interconnectivity drawings, pod manufacturing processes, and avionics

Managing State Border in the Context of Migration Crisis in Europe: Lithuanian Case

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aurelija Pūraitė

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper has been the achievement of the level of scientific knowledge on the subject of research in terms of establishment and analysis of economic effectiveness of state border governance in Lithuania in the context of increasing migration in European Union. The objective also has been to suggest the possible measures for improvement of state border management bearing in mind the migration perspectives. There is an unexpressed demand on migration (especially immigration as an economic and social phenomenon to have some positive impact on the economy of target country. It’s nevertheless true, that from political point of view the migration trends are usually being associated with the economic, social, security challenges in target countries. European Union countries which are the external borders of EU face with even more specific obstacles – the effective management of borders and necessity to bare costs of controlling migration flows. Therefore the effective use of economic and financial measures managing state borders is of the utmost importance reaching common goals of public security, stability, respect for European values and rule of law. The paper contains results of the analysis of international, regional and national legal acts and the secondary analysis of statistical data of European Union agencies and international organizations. The financial data of operational activities of Lithuanian State Border Guard Service is analysed, aiming to reveal the correlation between the effective management of state border control and financial support of the state and EU institutions.

Influence of baking enzymes on antimicrobial activity of five bacteriocin-like inhibitory substances produced by lactic acid bacteria isolated from Lithuanian sourdoughs.

Science.gov (United States)

Narbutaite, V; Fernandez, A; Horn, N; Juodeikiene, G; Narbad, A

2008-12-01

To evaluate the effect of four different baking enzymes on the inhibitory activity of five bacteriocin-like inhibitory substances (BLIS) produced by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated from Lithuanian sourdoughs. The overlay assay and the Bioscreen methods revealed that the five BLIS exhibited an inhibitory effect against spore germination and vegetative outgrowth of Bacillus subtilis, the predominant species causing ropiness in bread. The possibility that the observed antibacterial activity of BLIS might be lost after treatment with enzymes used for baking purposes was also examined. The enzymes tested; hemicellulase, lipase, amyloglucosidase and amylase had little or no effect on the majority of the antimicrobial activities associated with the five BLIS studied. This study suggests a potential application in the sourdough baking industry for these antimicrobial producing LAB strains in the control of B. subtilis spore germination and vegetative outgrowth.

Geology of the Early Arikareean sharps formation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and surrounding areas of South Dakota and Nebraska.

Science.gov (United States)

McConnell, Thomas H; Dibenedetto, Joseph N

2012-01-01

Based on geologic mapping, measured sections, and lithologic correlations, the local features of the upper and lower type areas of the Early Arikareean (30.8-20.6 million years ago) Sharps Formation are revised and correlated. The Sharps Formation above the basal Rockyford Member is divided into two members of distinct lithotypes. The upper 233 feet of massive siltstones and sandy siltstones is named the Gooseneck Road Member. The middle member, 161 feet of eolian volcaniclastic siltstones with fluvially reworked volcaniclastic lenses and sandy siltstone sheets, is named the Wolff Camp Member. An ashey zone at the base of the Sharps Formation is described and defined as the Rockyford Ash Zone (RAZ) in the same stratigraphic position as the Nonpareil Ash Zone (NPAZ) in Nebraska. Widespread marker beds of fresh water limestones at 130 feet above the base of the Sharps Formation and a widespread reddish-brown clayey siltstone at 165 feet above the base of the Sharps Formation are described. The Brown Siltstone Beds of Nebraska are shown to be a southern correlative of the Wolff Camp Member and the Rockyford Member of the Sharps Formation. Early attempts to correlate strata in the Great Plains were slow in developing. Recognition of the implications of the paleomagnetic and lithologic correlations of this paper will provide an added datum assisting researchers in future biostratigraphic studies. Based on similar lithologies, the Sharps Formation, currently assigned to the Arikaree Group, should be reassigned to the White River Group.

Optimizing 3D Triangulations to Recapture Sharp Edges

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bærentzen, Jakob Andreas

2006-01-01

In this report, a technique for optimizing 3D triangulations is proposed. The method seeks to minimize an energy defined as a sum of energy terms for each edge in a triangle mesh. The main contribution is a novel per edge energy which strikes a balance between penalizing dihedral angle yet allowing...... sharp edges. The energy is minimized using edge swapping, and this can be done either in a greedy fashion or using simulated annealing. The latter is more costly, but effectively avoids local minima. The method has been used on a number of models. Particularly good results have been obtained on digital...

Magnetic field penetration into superconductors with sharp edges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhilichev, Yuriy N.

2003-01-01

The magnetic field and surface currents induced within a superconductor are calculated assuming the field penetrates in it near sharp corners. Rounding the corners is used to keep the field less than a critical value. Analytical formulas for a corner radius are given for a wire of the rectangular cross-section and a cylinder in the external magnetic field. A boundary integral method is used to calculate the boundary of the Meissner domain when the external field penetrates deep into the superconductor. The effect of degree of penetration on the magnetic moment of superconducting cylinders and wires is discussed

Endovascular Sharp Recanalization for Calcified Femoropopliteal Artery Occlusion

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Hsuan-Li Huang

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Endovascular intervention of peripheral chronic total occlusion (CTO is technically challenging and time consuming. Various techniques and devices are used to facilitate lesion crossing and improve the success rate of the procedure. However, these new devices are quite expensive and not readily available. We report 2 cases of peripheral CTO wherein the occlusions were successfully crossed by using stiff end of Terumo glidewire. This sharp recanalization may be a useful technique for the recanalization of calcified peripheral CTOs when conventional techniques fail and new devices are not readily available, but it is accompanied by the risk of distal atheroembolism.

PEROLD-SHARPE REBALANCING STRATEGIES IN PRACTICE

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Valentyn Khokhlov

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to investigate the different strategies for portfolio rebalanc-ing (buy-and-hold, constant weights, and constant-proportion portfolio insurance (CPPI suggested by Perold and Sharpe in a reallife environment using the actual market data and considering trans-action costs. Methodology. Exchange-traded funds were used to represent asset classes, and actual market prices in 2007-2015 for the ETFs used to conduct the research. The Monte-Carlo simulations were used to generate 400 portfolios over 3 different time horizons in order to get a representative sample. Two actual fee structures were used from the leading U.S. brokerage firms. Results of the portfolio dynamics research show outperformance of CPPI over other strategies on holding periods over 36 months, and on shorter time horizons CPPI and constant weights strategies clearly dominate over buyand- hold strategy. Contrary to the previous conclusions by Perold and Sharpe, there was no definite link between the stock market dynamics or volatility and the preferred strategy. We also see that after a bull market period the CPPI portfolio allocation shifts to 100% equity. The portfolio turnover is typically higher and much more dispersed for CPPI strategy than for constant weights strategy. We also found a strong negative correlation between the CPPI portfolio turnover and the initial equity allocation, whereas for constant weights strategy the turnover is higher at 50% allocation to both stocks and bonds. Practical implications. The strategy choice is shown to be more a matter of the holding period; CPPI seems the best choice over longer periods. Contrary to the widespread perception, our research shows that brokerage fees has not had a material influence on the simulated portfolio performance and, thus, should not be a factor for choosing a strategy. Originality/value. Unlike previous studies in this area that focused on analytical derivation based on sample statistics

Load modeling for sharp V-cutter cutting litchi ( Litchi chinensis Sonn ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

harvesting. Cutting load is a key parameter for 'hand-held auto-picker' operation. However, there is still no suitable model for cutting load setting. Hence, a model describing the relationship among cutting load, blade angle and friction coefficient was developed for cutting operation by sharp V-cutters. The model was based ...

Intercomparison of field measurements of nitrous acid (HONO) during the SHARP Campaign

Science.gov (United States)

Because of the importance of HONO as a radical reservoir, consistent and accurate measurements of its concentration are needed. As part of the SHARP (Study of Houston Atmospheric Radical Precursors), time series of HONO were obtained by five different measurement techniques on th...

Computer simulation of radiographic images sharpness in several system of image record

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva, Marcia Aparecida; Schiable, Homero; Frere, Annie France; Marques, Paulo M.A.; Oliveira, Henrique J.Q. de; Alves, Fatima F.R.; Medeiros, Regina B.

1996-01-01

A method to predict the influence of the record system on radiographic images sharpness by computer simulation is studied. The method intend to previously show the image to be obtained for each type of film or screen-film combination used during the exposure

Growth of aluminum oxide on silicon carbide with an atomically sharp interface

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Silva, Ana Gomes; Pedersen, Kjeld; Li, Zheshen

2017-01-01

this system up to around 600 °C (all in ultrahigh vacuum). This converts all the SiO2 into a uniform layer of Al2O3 with an atomically sharp interface between the Al2O3 and the Si surface. In the present work, the same procedures are applied to form Al2O3 on a SiC film grown on top of Si (111). The results...... indicate that a similar process, resulting in a uniform layer of 1-2 nm of Al2O3 with an atomically sharp Al2O3/SiC interface, also works in this case.......The development of SiC wafers with properties suitable for electronic device fabrication is now well established commercially. A critical issue for developing metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor devices of SiC is the choice of dielectric materials for surface passivation...

An engineering assessment methodology for non-sharp defects in steel structures – Part I: Procedure development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Horn, A.J.; Sherry, A.H.

2012-01-01

This Part I paper describes a new engineering assessment methodology for ferritic steel structures containing non-sharp defects within the context of a Failure Assessment Diagram (FAD) approach. Although the modification of the FAD for non-sharp defects can be applied whether the initiating failure mechanism is cleavage or ductile tearing, this paper focuses on cleavage fracture. The parameters describing the sensitivity of the material toughness to the notch effect can either be measured by testing notched specimens of the same thickness as the structure, or for cleavage fracture they can be obtained using look-up tables generated using the Weibull stress toughness scaling model. The other parameters in the procedure can either be conservatively estimated using simple equations or they can be determined more accurately using finite element analysis. Validation of the new method is presented in the companion Part II paper: this shows that assessments of U-notched SE(B) specimens have significantly reduced conservatism when using the new assessment methodology compared to the standard FAD approach for sharp cracks. - Highlights: ► Development of a new procedure for predicting failure from non-sharp defects. ► Based on a modification of the Failure Assessment Diagram (FAD) approach. ► Applicable to cleavage and ductile tearing initiation although paper focuses on cleavage. ► Validation provided in a companion Part II paper.

Cryptic species of sharp-nosed reed frogs in the Hyperolius nasutus ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The sharp-nosed reed frog is widespread in Africa. Although currently recognized as one species, suggestions have been made that more than one species might exist. We analysed 237 calls of 69 males from 19 localities in the western to southern parts of Africa. Calls fall into three groups, which we recognize as cryptic ...

Evaluation of exposure to cosmic radiation of flight crews of Lithuanian Airlines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morkunas, G.; Pilkyte, L.; Ereminas, D.

2003-01-01

In Lithuania the average annual effective dose due to cosmic radiation at the sea level is 0.38 mSv. The dose rate caused by cosmic radiation increases with altitude due to the decrease in attenuation of cosmic radiation by atmosphere. Dose rates altitudes of commercial flights are tens times higher than those at the sea level. For this reason people who frequently fly receive higher doses which might even be subject to legal regulations. The European Council Directive (96/29 EURATOM) on basic radiation safety standards requires that doses of air crews members be assessed and appropriate measures taken, depending on the assessment results. The aim of this study was to evaluate potential doses, which can be received by members of air crews of Lithuania Airlines. The assessment was done by performing measurements and calculations. Measurements were performed in flying aircraft by thermoluminescent detectors, Geiger Muller counters and neutron rem counter. Such an approach lead to evaluation of doses due to directly ionizing particles and neutrons. Calculations were done with the help of the code CARI-6M. Such parameters as flight route, solar activity, duration and altitudes of flight were taken into account. Doses received during different flights and in different air crafts were assessed. The results of measurements and calculations were compared and differences discussed. The results were also compared with the data obtained in other similar studies. It was found that the highest doses are received in flights to Paris, London, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt by aircraft B737. A number of flights causing annual doses higher than 1 mSv was estimated. Despite the fact that only European flights are operated by Lithuanian Airlines the dose of 1 mSv may be exceeded under some circumstances. If it happens some radiation protection measures shall be taken. These measures are also discussed. (author)

Spectrally selective solar absorber with sharp and temperature dependent cut-off based on semiconductor nanowire arrays

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yang; Zhou, Lin; Zheng, Qinghui; Lu, Hong; Gan, Qiaoqiang; Yu, Zongfu; Zhu, Jia

2017-05-01

Spectrally selective absorbers (SSA) with high selectivity of absorption and sharp cut-off between high absorptivity and low emissivity are critical for efficient solar energy conversion. Here, we report the semiconductor nanowire enabled SSA with not only high absorption selectivity but also temperature dependent sharp absorption cut-off. By taking advantage of the temperature dependent bandgap of semiconductors, we systematically demonstrate that the absorption cut-off profile of the semiconductor-nanowire-based SSA can be flexibly tuned, which is quite different from most of the other SSA reported so far. As an example, silicon nanowire based selective absorbers are fabricated, with the measured absorption efficiency above (below) bandgap ˜97% (15%) combined with an extremely sharp absorption cut-off (transition region ˜200 nm), the sharpest SSA demonstrated so far. The demonstrated semiconductor-nanowire-based SSA can enable a high solar thermal efficiency of ≳86% under a wide range of operating conditions, which would be competitive candidates for the concentrated solar energy utilizations.

Adjusted Empirical Likelihood Method in the Presence of Nuisance Parameters with Application to the Sharpe Ratio

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Yuejiao Fu

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The Sharpe ratio is a widely used risk-adjusted performance measurement in economics and finance. Most of the known statistical inferential methods devoted to the Sharpe ratio are based on the assumption that the data are normally distributed. In this article, without making any distributional assumption on the data, we develop the adjusted empirical likelihood method to obtain inference for a parameter of interest in the presence of nuisance parameters. We show that the log adjusted empirical likelihood ratio statistic is asymptotically distributed as the chi-square distribution. The proposed method is applied to obtain inference for the Sharpe ratio. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed method is comparable to Jobson and Korkie’s method (1981 and outperforms the empirical likelihood method when the data are from a symmetric distribution. In addition, when the data are from a skewed distribution, the proposed method significantly outperforms all other existing methods. A real-data example is analyzed to exemplify the application of the proposed method.

A wheat cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase TaCAD12 contributes to host resistance to the sharp eyespot disease

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Wei Rong

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Sharp eyespot, caused mainly by the necrotrophic fungus Rhizoctonia cerealis, is a destructive disease in hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum L.. In Arabidopsis, certain cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenases (CADs have been implicated in monolignol biosynthesis and in defense response to bacterial pathogen infection. However, little is known about CADs in wheat defense responses to necrotrophic or soil-borne pathogens. In this study, we isolate a wheat CAD gene TaCAD12 in response to R. cerealis infection through microarray-based comparative transcriptomics, and study the enzyme activity and defense role of TaCAD12 in wheat. The transcriptional levels of TaCAD12 in sharp eyespot-resistant wheat lines were significantly higher compared with those in susceptible wheat lines. The sequence and phylogenetic analyses revealed that TaCAD12 belongs to IV group in CAD family. The biochemical assay proved that TaCAD12 protein is an authentic CAD enzyme and possesses catalytic efficiencies towards both coniferyl aldehyde and sinapyl aldehyde. Knock-down of TaCAD12 transcript significantly repressed resistance of the gene-silenced wheat plants to sharp eyespot caused by R. cerealis, whereas TaCAD12 overexpression markedly enhanced resistance of the transgenic wheat lines to sharp eyespot. Furthermore, certain defense genes (Defensin, PR10, PR17c, and Chitinase1 and monolignol biosynthesis-related genes (TaCAD1, TaCCR, and TaCOMT1 were up-regulated in the TaCAD12-overexpressing wheat plants but down-regulated in TaCAD12-silencing plants. These results suggest that TaCAD12 positively contributes to resistance against sharp eyespot through regulation of the expression of certain defense genes and monolignol biosynthesis-related genes in wheat.

Influence and evolution mechanism of different sharpness contact forms to mechanical property of cortical bone by nanoindentation

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Xingdong; Guo, Yue; Li, Lijia; Liu, Zeyang; Wu, Di; Shi, Dong; Zhao, Hongwei; Zhang, Shizhong

2018-03-01

Based on different damage forms of various contact forms to bone, the mechanical response and mechanism were investigated by nanoindentation under different sharpness contact forms. For the purpose of simulating the different sharpness contact forms, two kinds of indenters were used in experiments and finite elements simulations. Through nanoindentation experiments, it was concluded that the residual depth of sharp indenter was bigger than that of blunt indenter with small penetration depth. However, the contrary law was obtained with bigger penetration depth. There was a turning point of transition from blunt tendency to sharp tendency. By calculation, it was concluded that the sharper the indenter was, the bigger the proportion of plastic energy in total energy was. Basically, results of finite elements simulation could correspond with the experimental conclusions. By the observation of FE-SEM, the surface of cortical bone compressed was more seriously directly below the blunt indenter than the lateral face. For the berkovich indenter, the surface of indentation compressed was less directly below the indenter, but seriously on three lateral faces. This research may provide some new references to the studies of bone fracture mechanism in different load patterns in the initial press-in stage and offer new explanation for bone trauma diagnosis in clinical treatment and criminal investigation.

Influence and evolution mechanism of different sharpness contact forms to mechanical property of cortical bone by nanoindentation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xingdong Sun

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Based on different damage forms of various contact forms to bone, the mechanical response and mechanism were investigated by nanoindentation under different sharpness contact forms. For the purpose of simulating the different sharpness contact forms, two kinds of indenters were used in experiments and finite elements simulations. Through nanoindentation experiments, it was concluded that the residual depth of sharp indenter was bigger than that of blunt indenter with small penetration depth. However, the contrary law was obtained with bigger penetration depth. There was a turning point of transition from blunt tendency to sharp tendency. By calculation, it was concluded that the sharper the indenter was, the bigger the proportion of plastic energy in total energy was. Basically, results of finite elements simulation could correspond with the experimental conclusions. By the observation of FE-SEM, the surface of cortical bone compressed was more seriously directly below the blunt indenter than the lateral face. For the berkovich indenter, the surface of indentation compressed was less directly below the indenter, but seriously on three lateral faces. This research may provide some new references to the studies of bone fracture mechanism in different load patterns in the initial press-in stage and offer new explanation for bone trauma diagnosis in clinical treatment and criminal investigation.

On the sharpness of the Rüssmann estimates

Science.gov (United States)

Figueras, Jordi-Lluís; Haro, Alex; Luque, Alejandro

2018-02-01

Estimating the norm of the solution of the linear difference equation u(θ) - u(θ + ω) = v(θ) plays a fundamental role in KAM theory. Optimal (in certain sense) estimates for the solution of this equation were provided by Rüssmann in the mid 70's. The aim of this paper is to compare the sharpness of these classical estimates with more specific estimates obtained with the help of the computer. We perform several experiments to quantify the improvement obtained when using computer assisted estimates. By comparing these estimates with the actual norm of the solution, we can analyze the different sources of overestimation, thus encouraging future improvements.

Critical applied stresses for a crack initiation from a sharp V-notch

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L. Náhlík

2014-10-01

Full Text Available The aim of the paper is to estimate a value of the critical applied stress for a crack initiation from a sharp V-notch tip. The classical approach of the linear elastic fracture mechanics (LELM was generalized, because the stress singularity exponent differs from 0.5 in the studied case. The value of the stress singularity exponent depends on the V-notch opening angle. The finite element method was used for a determination of stress distribution in the vicinity of the sharp V-notch tip and for the estimation of the generalized stress intensity factor depending on the V-notch opening angle. Critical value of the generalized stress intensity factor was obtained using stability criteria based on the opening stress component averaged over a critical distance d from the V-notch tip and generalized strain energy density factor. Calculated values of the critical applied stresses were compared with experimental data from the literature and applicability of the LEFM concept is discussed.

Hydrothermal and hydrochemical operating conditions of the cooling water basin of the Lithuanian thermalelectric station. Gidrotermicheskii i gidrokhimicheskii rezhim vodokhranilishcha - okhladitela Litovskoi GRES

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lasinskas, M

1981-01-01

Complex studies of the cooling water storage basin and its drainage system are described. Physical and geographical conditions (terrain, soil, vegetation, etc) of the drainage system and their influence on processes within the water basin are discussed. Inflow and discharge parts of the water balance, particularly the evaporation of hot water from the basin surface, are discussed. Data of long-term measurements of thermal conditions, heat exchange processes and their relation to the effectivity of the thermalelectric plant are presented. Heat balance of the water basin was determined. The influence of the Lithuanian Hydro upon precipitation, physical and chemical operating conditions of the water storage basin, and drainage and ground water was studied. The characteristics of the chemical composition of bottom sediments, intensity of current sedimentation processes and sediment accumulation in the water storage basin are given.

Body Image Issues In Lithuanian Magazines Aimed For Children And Adolescents In Relation To Body Mass Index And Body Size Perception Of 16-19 Y. Old Girls During The Last 15 Years

OpenAIRE

Tutkuviene, Janina

2017-01-01

Mass media plays an important role in forming body image and makes the significant impact on body size perception in children and adolescents. The aim of present study was to reveal trends in depiction of body image cues in Lithuanian magazines aimed for children and adolescents in relation to changes of real body mass index (BMI) and body size perception of 16-19 y. old girls in the year 2000 and the 2015. Three popular journals published both in the year 2000 and the 2015, were chosen for i...

A Constructive Sharp Approach to Functional Quantization of Stochastic Processes

OpenAIRE

Junglen, Stefan; Luschgy, Harald

2010-01-01

We present a constructive approach to the functional quantization problem of stochastic processes, with an emphasis on Gaussian processes. The approach is constructive, since we reduce the infinite-dimensional functional quantization problem to a finite-dimensional quantization problem that can be solved numerically. Our approach achieves the sharp rate of the minimal quantization error and can be used to quantize the path space for Gaussian processes and also, for example, Lévy processes.

Reward banding to determine reporting rate of recovered mourning dove bands

Science.gov (United States)

Tomlinson, R.E.

1968-01-01

Reward bands placed on the other leg of certain regularly banded immature mourning doves (Zenaidura macroura) were used to develop information on reporting rates of recovered dove bands. Reports from 15 widely separated sections of the United States showed considerable variation in recovery rate of doves both with and without reward bands. The overall percentages of banded doves that were reported as recovered were 9.69% for those with reward bands and 3.83% for controls. The bandreporting rate for states influenced by publicity was 66%; that for states not influenced was 32%.

SHARP ENTRYWISE PERTURBATION BOUNDS FOR MARKOV CHAINS.

Science.gov (United States)

Thiede, Erik; VAN Koten, Brian; Weare, Jonathan

For many Markov chains of practical interest, the invariant distribution is extremely sensitive to perturbations of some entries of the transition matrix, but insensitive to others; we give an example of such a chain, motivated by a problem in computational statistical physics. We have derived perturbation bounds on the relative error of the invariant distribution that reveal these variations in sensitivity. Our bounds are sharp, we do not impose any structural assumptions on the transition matrix or on the perturbation, and computing the bounds has the same complexity as computing the invariant distribution or computing other bounds in the literature. Moreover, our bounds have a simple interpretation in terms of hitting times, which can be used to draw intuitive but rigorous conclusions about the sensitivity of a chain to various types of perturbations.

DSMC simulations of shock interactions about sharp double cones

Science.gov (United States)

Moss, James N.

2001-08-01

This paper presents the results of a numerical study of shock interactions resulting from Mach 10 flow about sharp double cones. Computations are made by using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method of Bird. The sensitivity and characteristics of the interactions are examined by varying flow conditions, model size, and configuration. The range of conditions investigated includes those for which experiments have been or will be performed in the ONERA R5Ch low-density wind tunnel and the Calspan-University of Buffalo Research Center (CUBRC) Large Energy National Shock (LENS) tunnel.

Energy Band Gap Dependence of Valley Polarization of the Hexagonal Lattice

Science.gov (United States)

Ghalamkari, Kazu; Tatsumi, Yuki; Saito, Riichiro

2018-02-01

The origin of valley polarization of the hexagonal lattice is analytically discussed by tight binding method as a function of energy band gap. When the energy gap decreases to zero, the intensity of optical absorption becomes sharp as a function of k near the K (or K') point in the hexagonal Brillouin zone, while the peak intensity at the K (or K') point keeps constant with decreasing the energy gap. When the dipole vector as a function of k can have both real and imaginary parts that are perpendicular to each other in the k space, the valley polarization occurs. When the dipole vector has only real values by selecting a proper phase of wave functions, the valley polarization does not occur. The degree of the valley polarization may show a discrete change that can be relaxed to a continuous change of the degree of valley polarization when we consider the life time of photo-excited carrier.

Sensitivity of using blunt and sharp crack models in elastic-plastic fracture mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pan, Y.C.; Kennedy, J.M.; Marchertas, A.H.

1985-01-01

J-integral values are calculated for both the blunt (smeared) crack and the sharp (discrete) crack models in elastic-plastic fracture mechanics problems involving metallic materials. A sensitivity study is performed to show the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two cracking models. It is concluded that the blunt crack model is less dependent on the orientation of the mesh. For the mesh which is in line with the crack direction, however, the sharp crack model is less sensitive to the mesh size. Both models yield reasonable results for a properly discretized finite-element mesh. A subcycling technique is used in this study in the explicit integration scheme so that large time steps can be used for the coarse elements away from the crack tip. The savings of computation time by this technique are reported. 6 refs., 9 figs

Dosimetric Properties of Plasma Density Effects on Laser-Accelerated VHEE Beams Using a Sharp Density-Transition Scheme

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yoo, Seung Hoon; Cho, Sungho; Kim, Eun Ho; Park, Jeong Hoon; Jung, Won-Gyun; Kim, Geun Beom; Kim, Kum Bae [Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Min, Byung Jun [Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Jaehoon [Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, Ansan (Korea, Republic of); Jeong, Hojin [Gyeongsang National University Hospital, Jinju (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Kitae [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Deajeon (Korea, Republic of); Park, Sung Yong [Karmanos Cancer Institute, Michigan (United States)

2017-01-15

In this paper, the effects of the plasma density on laser-accelerated electron beams for radiation therapy with a sharp density transition are investigated. In the sharp density-transition scheme for electron injection, the crucial issue is finding the optimum density conditions under which electrons injected only during the first period of the laser wake wave are accelerated further. In this paper, we report particle-in-cell simulation results for the effects of both the scale length and the density transition ratio on the generation of a quasi-mono-energetic electron bunch. The effects of both the transverse parabolic channel and the plasma length on the electron-beam's quality are investigated. Also, we show the experimental results for the feasibility of a sharp density-transition structure. The dosimetric properties of these very high-energy electron beams are calculated using Monte Carlo simulations.

The 1985 National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP)

Science.gov (United States)

1985-01-01

In 1985, a total of 126 talented high school students gained first hand knowledge about science and engineering careers by working directly with a NASA scientist or engineer during the summer. This marked the sixth year of operation for NASA's Summer High School Apprenticeship Research Program (SHARP). The major priority of maintaining the high standards and success of prior years was satisfied. The following eight sites participated in the Program: Ames Research Center, Ames' Dryden Flight Research Facility, Goddard Space Flight Center, Goddard's Wallop Flight Facility, Kennedy Space Center, Langley Research Center, Lewis Research Center, and Marshall Space Flight Center. Tresp Associates served as the SHARP contractor and worked closely with NASA staff at headquarters and the sites just mentioned to plan, implement, and evaluate the program.

Resilience in a reborn nation: Validation of the Lithuanian Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA).

Science.gov (United States)

Hilbig, Jan; Viliūnienė, Rima; Friborg, Oddgeir; Pakalniškienė, Vilmantė; Danilevičiūtė, Vita

2015-07-01

Resilience, as an ability to withstand or rebound from crisis or adversity, is becoming an increasingly significant concept in health promotion and well-being. Individuals exhibiting resilience use skills or resources flexibly to solve situational demands. The Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) may be used to assess protective resources, and the aim of the present study was to validate the Lithuanian translation. The translated RSA was administered to a clinical (n=125) and a non clinical sample (n=499) to examine the discriminant validity of the RSA items with a confirmatory factor analysis, the internal consistency as well as construct validity by correlating it with the Quick Psycho-Affective Symptoms Scan (QPASS). The internal consistency, the test-retest stability and the factor structure were replicated as adequate, thus indicating good psychometric properties and support of discriminant validity. Females reported more resilience resources for the domains of social competence, family cohesion and social resources compared to men. The RSA subscales correlated negatively with the QPASS scores, and patients reported significantly less resilience resources than non-patients, thus indicating construct validity. Valid psychometric tools for research purposes and routine every-day use are urgently needed in Lithuania, a young nation still under numerous challenges due to social, economic and political transitions. The RSA represents a reliable and valid tool for assessing protective factors. Assessing resilience factors may extend the understanding of factors relevant for mental health problems as well as treatment prognosis beyond the capabilities of mere symptom oriented approaches. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The self-reported quality of life of Lithuanian children with asthma was comparable to Western populations.

Science.gov (United States)

Taminskiene, Vaida; Vaitkaitiene, Egle; Valiulis, Algirdas; Turner, Steve; Hadjipanayis, Adamos; Stukas, Rimantas; Valiulis, Arunas

2018-02-01

Quality of life (QoL) has been widely researched among children with asthma in Western countries, but there is a lack of data from eastern Europe, where the prevalence is relatively low, but hospital admission rates are higher. We evaluated the overall level and major determinants of QoL in Lithuanian children aged 5-11 years with asthma. This study was carried out in six asthma outpatient clinics in the two largest cities of Lithuania from January 2015 to July 2016. The children's QoL was measured using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) asthma module, which was completed by the child and one parent. We collected questionnaires from 226 children (68% boys) with a mean age of eight (±2) years: 65% had mild asthma, 31% had moderate asthma and 4% had severe asthma. One in 10 had been hospitalised in the preceding 6 months. The mean self-reported QoL score was 74 and the parent-reported QoL score was 73. QoL was associated with asthma severity and control, shortness of breath and the child's general health, but not socioeconomic factors. The overall level and major determinants of QoL in children with asthma in Lithuania were comparable with Western populations. ©2017 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Sharps injuries in UK health care: a review of injury rates, viral transmission and potential efficacy of safety devices.

Science.gov (United States)

Elder, Alexander; Paterson, Caron

2006-12-01

To review the literature on sharps injuries and occupational bloodborne virus transmission in health care in the UK and the worldwide evidence for injury prevention of sharps safety devices. Literature review by online database and Internet resource search. Twenty-four relevant publications were identified regarding UK reported sharps injury rates. UK studies showed as much as a 10-fold difference between injuries reported through standard reporting systems (0.78-5.15 per 100 person-years) and rates estimated from retrospective questionnaires of clinical populations (30-284 per 100 person-years). National surveillance data from England, Wales and Northern Ireland gives a rate of 1.43 known hepatitis C virus or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmissions to health care workers per annum. When extrapolated, this suggests an approximate rate of 0.009 such viral transmissions per 1000 hospital beds per annum. Risk of infection from sources with no risk factors is extremely small (less than one in one million for HIV transmission based on Scottish data). Thirty-one studies on the efficacy of sharps safety devices showed evidence of a reduction in injuries, with the greatest reductions achieved by blunt suture needles and safety cannulae. Although injuries remain common, confirmed viral transmission in the UK has been relatively rare. The degree of under-reporting of sharps injuries may be as much as 10-fold. Safety-engineered devices are likely to be effective at injury reduction.

Suicidal tendencies and attitude towards freedom to choose suicide among Lithuanian schoolchildren: results from three cross-sectional studies in 1994, 1998, and 2002

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zaborskis Apolinaras

2005-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Suicidal behaviour is increasingly becoming a phenomenon associated with young people and an important public health issue in Lithuania. However, there are very few studies evaluating impact of young peoples' attitudes towards suicide to their suicidal behaviour. A better understanding of the relations among the variables associated with suicidal ideation and threats in the normal population of adolescents may eventually result in a better understanding of the more serious forms of adolescent suicidal behaviour. The aim of the present study was to evaluate prevalence of suicidal tendencies among Lithuanian schoolchildren and to estimate its association with an attitude towards suicide in 1994 – 2002. Methods Three country representative samples of schoolchildren, aged 11, 13 and 15, were surveyed in 1994 (n = 5428, 1998 (n = 4513, and 2002 (n = 5645 anonymously in conformity with the methodology of the World Health Organization Cross – National study on Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC. Results About one third of respondents reported about suicidal ideation, plans or attempts to commit suicide. In the study period of eight years, the percentage of adolescents who reported sometime suicidal ideation decreased but the percentage of adolescents who declared serious suicidal behaviour remained on the same high level (8.1%, 9.8% and 8.4% correspondingly in 1994, 1998 and 2002. Moreover, the number of suicidal attempts changed from 1.0% in 1994 to 1.8% in the year 1998 and to 1,7% in the year 2002. The schoolchildren's attitude towards suicide became more agreeable: 36.6%, 41.9% and 62.5% of respondents, correspondingly in 1994, 1998 and 2002, answered that they agree with a person's freedom to make a choice between life and suicide. A multiple logistic regression analysis with low level of suicidality and high level of suicidality versus non suicidal behaviour as dependent variables for gender, age, year of the

Caffeine Increases Hippocampal Sharp Waves in Vitro.

Science.gov (United States)

Watanabe, Yusuke; Ikegaya, Yuji

2017-01-01

Caffeine promotes memory consolidation. Memory consolidation is thought to depend at least in part on hippocampal sharp waves (SWs). In the present study, we investigated the effect of bath-application of caffeine in spontaneously occurring SWs in mouse acute hippocampal slices. Caffeine induced an about 100% increase in the event frequency of SWs at concentrations of 60 and 200 µM. The effect of caffeine was reversible after washout of caffeine and was mimicked by an adenosine A 1 receptor antagonist, but not by an A 2A receptor antagonist. Caffeine increased SWs even in dentate-CA3 mini-slices without the CA2 regions, in which adenosine A 1 receptors are abundantly expressed in the hippocampus. Thus, caffeine facilitates SWs by inhibiting adenosine A 1 receptors in the hippocampal CA3 region or the dentate gyrus.

Dual-band frequency selective surface with large band separation and stable performance

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Hang; Qu, Shao-Bo; Peng, Wei-Dong; Lin, Bao-Qin; Wang, Jia-Fu; Ma, Hua; Zhang, Jie-Qiu; Bai, Peng; Wang, Xu-Hua; Xu, Zhuo

2012-05-01

A new technique of designing a dual-band frequency selective surface with large band separation is presented. This technique is based on a delicately designed topology of L- and Ku-band microwave filters. The two band-pass responses are generated by a capacitively-loaded square-loop frequency selective surface and an aperture-coupled frequency selective surface, respectively. A Faraday cage is located between the two frequency selective surface structures to eliminate undesired couplings. Based on this technique, a dual-band frequency selective surface with large band separation is designed, which possesses large band separation, high selectivity, and stable performance under various incident angles and different polarizations.

Mechanisms for Selective Single-Cell Reactivation during Offline Sharp-Wave Ripples and Their Distortion by Fast Ripples.

Science.gov (United States)

Valero, Manuel; Averkin, Robert G; Fernandez-Lamo, Ivan; Aguilar, Juan; Lopez-Pigozzi, Diego; Brotons-Mas, Jorge R; Cid, Elena; Tamas, Gabor; Menendez de la Prida, Liset

2017-06-21

Memory traces are reactivated selectively during sharp-wave ripples. The mechanisms of selective reactivation, and how degraded reactivation affects memory, are poorly understood. We evaluated hippocampal single-cell activity during physiological and pathological sharp-wave ripples using juxtacellular and intracellular recordings in normal and epileptic rats with different memory abilities. CA1 pyramidal cells participate selectively during physiological events but fired together during epileptic fast ripples. We found that firing selectivity was dominated by an event- and cell-specific synaptic drive, modulated in single cells by changes in the excitatory/inhibitory ratio measured intracellularly. This mechanism collapses during pathological fast ripples to exacerbate and randomize neuronal firing. Acute administration of a use- and cell-type-dependent sodium channel blocker reduced neuronal collapse and randomness and improved recall in epileptic rats. We propose that cell-specific synaptic inputs govern firing selectivity of CA1 pyramidal cells during sharp-wave ripples. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Investigation of Double-Band Electrophoretic Pattern of ITS-rDNA Region in Iranian Isolates of Leishmania Tropica

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MA Ghatee

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Background: Leishmania tropica is a genetically divergent species. Amplification of entire internal tran­scribed spacer (ITS region of L. tropica isolates obtained from Bam district, one of the well known focus of anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis ACL( in Iran, revealed a double-band pat­tern in agarose gel electrophoresis. This study explains how this pattern occurs.Methods: Twenty seven L. tropica smear preparations were collected from Bam district, south east Iran, and eight L. major and one L. infantum smear preparations were gathered from Shiraz, south west Iran. Furthermore one L. major and one L. infantum cultured standard strains were tested using entire ITS-PCR to survey their electrophoretic pattern. The ITS sequences of L. tropica, L. major, and L. infantum already deposited in GenBank were analyzed. Analysis of GenBank sequences of L. tropica revealed two groups of sequences based on length size, one group having a 100 bp gap. Therefore, a new re­verse primer namely LITS-MG was designed to exclude this gap in PCR products.Results: Whole ITS fragment amplification resulted in a double-band pattern in all L. tropica cases, while a sharp single band was observed for L. infantum and L. major isolates. This result was correspond­ing to the result obtained from in silico analysis of GenBank sequences. Use of LITS-MG primer was expectedly resulted in a single band including ITS1, 5.8s and partial ITS2 product for L. tropica which is appropriate for following molecular studies such as sequencing or restriction analysis.Conclusion: Sequences analysis of GenBank L. tropica sequences and following practical laboratory tests revealed at least two alleles in L. tropica which were confirmed in Bam isolates. This especial double-band pattern is because of a 100 bp fragment difference within ITS-rDNA alleles

Computational analysis of network activity and spatial reach of sharp wave-ripples.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sadullah Canakci

Full Text Available Network oscillations of different frequencies, durations and amplitudes are hypothesized to coordinate information processing and transfer across brain areas. Among these oscillations, hippocampal sharp wave-ripple complexes (SPW-Rs are one of the most prominent. SPW-Rs occurring in the hippocampus are suggested to play essential roles in memory consolidation as well as information transfer to the neocortex. To-date, most of the knowledge about SPW-Rs comes from experimental studies averaging responses from neuronal populations monitored by conventional microelectrodes. In this work, we investigate spatiotemporal characteristics of SPW-Rs and how microelectrode size and distance influence SPW-R recordings using a biophysical model of hippocampus. We also explore contributions from neuronal spikes and synaptic potentials to SPW-Rs based on two different types of network activity. Our study suggests that neuronal spikes from pyramidal cells contribute significantly to ripples while high amplitude sharp waves mainly arise from synaptic activity. Our simulations on spatial reach of SPW-Rs show that the amplitudes of sharp waves and ripples exhibit a steep decrease with distance from the network and this effect is more prominent for smaller area electrodes. Furthermore, the amplitude of the signal decreases strongly with increasing electrode surface area as a result of averaging. The relative decrease is more pronounced when the recording electrode is closer to the source of the activity. Through simulations of field potentials across a high-density microelectrode array, we demonstrate the importance of finding the ideal spatial resolution for capturing SPW-Rs with great sensitivity. Our work provides insights on contributions from spikes and synaptic potentials to SPW-Rs and describes the effect of measurement configuration on LFPs to guide experimental studies towards improved SPW-R recordings.

Sharp Bounds by Probability-Generating Functions and Variable Drift

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Doerr, Benjamin; Fouz, Mahmoud; Witt, Carsten

2011-01-01

We introduce to the runtime analysis of evolutionary algorithms two powerful techniques: probability-generating functions and variable drift analysis. They are shown to provide a clean framework for proving sharp upper and lower bounds. As an application, we improve the results by Doerr et al....... (GECCO 2010) in several respects. First, the upper bound on the expected running time of the most successful quasirandom evolutionary algorithm for the OneMax function is improved from 1.28nln n to 0.982nlnn, which breaks the barrier of nln n posed by coupon-collector processes. Compared to the classical...

SHARPENDING OF THE VNIR AND SWIR BANDS OF THE WIDE BAND SPECTRAL IMAGER ONBOARD TIANGONG-II IMAGERY USING THE SELECTED BANDS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Q. Liu

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The Tiangong-II space lab was launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center of China on September 15, 2016. The Wide Band Spectral Imager (WBSI onboard the Tiangong-II has 14 visible and near-infrared (VNIR spectral bands covering the range from 403–990 nm and two shortwave infrared (SWIR bands covering the range from 1230–1250 nm and 1628–1652 nm respectively. In this paper the selected bands are proposed which aims at considering the closest spectral similarities between the VNIR with 100 m spatial resolution and SWIR bands with 200 m spatial resolution. The evaluation of Gram-Schmidt transform (GS sharpening techniques embedded in ENVI software is presented based on four types of the different low resolution pan band. The experimental results indicated that the VNIR band with higher CC value with the raw SWIR Band was selected, more texture information was injected the corresponding sharpened SWIR band image, and at that time another sharpened SWIR band image preserve the similar spectral and texture characteristics to the raw SWIR band image.

Dual-band frequency selective surface with large band separation and stable performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou Hang; Qu Shao-Bo; Lin Bao-Qin; Wang Jia-Fu; Ma Hua; Zhang Jie-Qiu; Peng Wei-Dong; Bai Peng; Wang Xu-Hua; Xu Zhuo

2012-01-01

A new technique of designing a dual-band frequency selective surface with large band separation is presented. This technique is based on a delicately designed topology of L- and Ku-band microwave filters. The two band-pass responses are generated by a capacitively-loaded square-loop frequency selective surface and an aperture-coupled frequency selective surface, respectively. A Faraday cage is located between the two frequency selective surface structures to eliminate undesired couplings. Based on this technique, a dual-band frequency selective surface with large band separation is designed, which possesses large band separation, high selectivity, and stable performance under various incident angles and different polarizations. (electromagnetism, optics, acoustics, heat transfer, classical mechanics, and fluid dynamics)

Short-term responses of Dutch vacationers to a sharp increase in transport costs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Cranenburgh, S.

2016-01-01

This paper investigates vacationers’ short-term responses to a sharp increase in transport costs. It aims to (1) acquire an understanding of the relative popularity of the different types of responses among vacationers and (2) explore whether there are distinct market segments of vacationers that

Validity of single term energy expression for ground state rotational band of even-even nuclei

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharma, S.; Kumar, R.; Gupta, J.B.

2005-01-01

Full text: There are large numbers of empirical studies of gs band of even-even nuclei in various mass regions. The Bohr-Mottelson's energy expression is E(I) = AX + BX 2 +CX 3 +... where X = I(I+1). The anharmonic vibrator energy expression is: E(I) = al + bl 2 + cl 3 SF model with energy expression: E(I)= pX + qI + rXI... where the terms represents the rotational, vibrational and R-V interaction energy, respectively. The validity f the various energy expressions with two terms had been tested by Sharma for light, medium and heavy mass regions using R I s. R 4 plots (where, spin I=6, 8, 10, 12), which are parameter independent. It was also noted, that of the goodness of energy expression can be judged with the minimum input of energies (i.e. only 2 parameters) and predictability's of the model p to high spins. Recently, Gupta et. al proposed a single term energy expression (SSTE) which was applied for rare earth region. This proposed power law reflected the unity of rotation - vibration in a different way and was successful in explaining the structure of gs-band. It will be useful for test the single term energy expression for light and heavy mass region. The single term expression for energy of ground state band can be written as: E I =axI b , where the index b and the coefficient a are the constant for the band. The values of b+1 and a 1 are as follows: b 1 =log(R 1 )/log(I/2) and a 1 =E I /I b ... The following results were gained: 1) The sharp variation in the value of index b at given spin will be an indication of the change in the shape of the nucleus; 2) The value of E I /I b is fairly constant with spin below back-bending, which reflects the stability of shape with spin; 3) This proposed power law is successful in explaining the structure of gs-band of nuclei

Real time algorithms for sharp wave ripple detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Sethi, Ankit; Kemere, Caleb

2014-01-01

Neural activity during sharp wave ripples (SWR), short bursts of co-ordinated oscillatory activity in the CA1 region of the rodent hippocampus, is implicated in a variety of memory functions from consolidation to recall. Detection of these events in an algorithmic framework, has thus far relied on simple thresholding techniques with heuristically derived parameters. This study is an investigation into testing and improving the current methods for detection of SWR events in neural recordings. We propose and profile methods to reduce latency in ripple detection. Proposed algorithms are tested on simulated ripple data. The findings show that simple realtime algorithms can improve upon existing power thresholding methods and can detect ripple activity with latencies in the range of 10-20 ms.

Discharge coefficient of a rectangular sharp-edged broad-crested weir

OpenAIRE

Zachoval Zbyněk; Knéblová Michaela; Roušar Ladislav; Rumann Ján; Šulc Jan

2014-01-01

his paper is concerned with the determination of the relationship for the calculation of the discharge coefficient at free overflow over a rectangular sharp-edged broad-crested weir without lateral contraction. The determination was made on the basis of new measurement in a range of the relative thickness of the weir from 0.12 to 0.30 and newly in a large range of relative height of the weir extremely from 0.24 to 6.8 which greatly expands the application possibilities of low weirs. In additi...

Sharp at any Age: Moho boundary thickness estimates along a trans-sect through 2 Ga of tectonic history.

Science.gov (United States)

Servali, A.; Levin, V. L.; VanTongeren, J. A.

2015-12-01

In this study we evaluate crustal thickness and Moho sharpness beneath seismic stations in three different tectonic units of the North American continent: the Archean Superior Province, the Proterozoic Grenville Province, and the Paleozoic Appalachian Orogen. Our analysis involves two steps. First, for each site, we produce P-to-S receiver functions (RFs) organized by backazimuth and epicentral distance, and use them to identify the phase most likely representing a conversion from the Moho. Second, we construct averaged RFs for groups of telesismic events located in a similar geographic region, which we employ to examine shapes of Moho P-to-S converted phases in time series with maximum frequencies increasing from 0.25Hz to 2-3 Hz. At some sites we observe a progressive narrowing of a simple Moho converted phase with an increase in frequency, typical of a vertically instantaneous boundary, while at others the converted phase becomes progressively more complex, typical of a diffuse Moho. Thus, we adopt this difference in converted wave shape dependence on increasing frequency as a measure of Moho thickness. Our estimates of Moho thickness range from less than 300 m to over 2 km, with some locations showing evidence for multiple converting boundaries in the 35-50 km depth range. In this study we define "sharp" Moho at those sites where its vertical thickness is less than 1 km. Our results show that sharp Moho is universal in the Archean terranes regardless of surface lithology, likely due to higher Moho temperatures facilitating wide-spread delamination of dense lower crustal rocks. While a sharp Moho is not unique to the Superior Province, all Grenville and Appalachians sites where we find sharp Moho are in regions of granitic plutonism, suggesting a possible general association with reworking and density sorting of the crustal material (e.g. volcanic arc).

Study of microstructure and fracture properties of blunt notched and sharp cracked high density polyethylene specimens.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Huanyu; Devasahayam, Sheila; Bandyopadhyay, Sri

2017-07-21

This paper examines the effect of a broad range of crosshead speed (0.05 to 100 mm/min) and a small range of temperature (25 °C and 45 °C) on the failure behaviour of high density polyethylene (HDPE) specimens containing a) standard size blunt notch and b) standard size blunt notch plus small sharp crack - all tested in air. It was observed that the yield stress properties showed linear increase with the natural logarithm of strain rate. The stress intensity factors under blunt notch and sharp crack conditions also increased linearly with natural logarithm of the crosshead speed. The results indicate that in the practical temperature range of 25 °C and 45 °C under normal atmosphere and increasing strain rates, HDPE specimens with both blunt notches and sharp cracks possess superior fracture properties. SEM microstructure studies of fracture surfaces showed craze initiation mechanisms at lower strain rate, whilst at higher strain rates there is evidence of dimple patterns absorbing the strain energy and creating plastic deformation. The stress intensity factor and the yield strength were higher at 25 °C compared to those at 45 °C.

Phase change and optical band gap behavior of Se0.8S0.2 chalcogenide glass films

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdel Rafea, M.; Farid, Huda

2009-01-01

Se 0.8 S 0.2 chalcogenide glass films have been prepared by thermal vacuum evaporation technique with thickness 583 nm. Annealing process at T ≥ 333 K crystallizes the films and nanostructured films are formed. The crystallite size was increased to 24 nm as the annealing temperature increased to 373 K. Orthorhombic crystalline system was identified for the annealed films. SEM micrographs show that films consist of two parallel surfaces and the thickness was determined by cross section imaging. The optical transmittance is characterized by interference patterns as a result of these two parallel surfaces, besides their average value at longer wavelength decreases as a result of annealing process. The band gap, E g is red shifted due to crystallization by annealing. As the phase of the films changes from amorphous to crystalline in the annealing temperature range 333-363 K, a non sharp change of the band gap (E g ) is observed. This change was explained by Brus's model of the energy gap confinement behavior of the nanostructured films. The optical refractive index increases suddenly when the system starts to be crystallized by annealing

78 FR 43183 - Notice of Availability for Sharpe Permit Relinquishment Project Environmental Assessment Finding...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-07-19

... for Sharpe Permit Relinquishment Project Environmental Assessment Finding of No Significant Impact... Relinquishment Project Environmental Assessment (EA) Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). SUMMARY: On April... environment. Human environment was interpreted comprehensively to include the natural and physical environment...

Design of low complexity sharp MDFT filter banks with perfect reconstruction using hybrid harmony-gravitational search algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Sakthivel

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The design of low complexity sharp transition width Modified Discrete Fourier Transform (MDFT filter bank with perfect reconstruction (PR is proposed in this work. The current trends in technology require high data rates and speedy processing along with reduced power consumption, implementation complexity and chip area. Filters with sharp transition width are required for various applications in wireless communication. Frequency response masking (FRM technique is used to reduce the implementation complexity of sharp MDFT filter banks with PR. Further, to reduce the implementation complexity, the continuous coefficients of the filters in the MDFT filter banks are represented in discrete space using canonic signed digit (CSD. The multipliers in the filters are replaced by shifters and adders. The number of non-zero bits is reduced in the conversion process to minimize the number of adders and shifters required for the filter implementation. Hence the performances of the MDFT filter bank with PR may degrade. In this work, the performances of the MDFT filter banks with PR are improved using a hybrid Harmony-Gravitational search algorithm.

Band structure of semiconductors

CERN Document Server

Tsidilkovski, I M

2013-01-01

Band Structure of Semiconductors provides a review of the theoretical and experimental methods of investigating band structure and an analysis of the results of the developments in this field. The book presents the problems, methods, and applications in the study of band structure. Topics on the computational methods of band structure; band structures of important semiconducting materials; behavior of an electron in a perturbed periodic field; effective masses and g-factors for the most commonly encountered band structures; and the treatment of cyclotron resonance, Shubnikov-de Haas oscillatio

Sharp wave/ripple network oscillations and learning-associated hippocampal maps.

Science.gov (United States)

Csicsvari, Jozsef; Dupret, David

2014-02-05

Sharp wave/ripple (SWR, 150-250 Hz) hippocampal events have long been postulated to be involved in memory consolidation. However, more recent work has investigated SWRs that occur during active waking behaviour: findings that suggest that SWRs may also play a role in cell assembly strengthening or spatial working memory. Do such theories of SWR function apply to animal learning? This review discusses how general theories linking SWRs to memory-related function may explain circuit mechanisms related to rodent spatial learning and to the associated stabilization of new cognitive maps.

Development of the Children's Scale of Hostility and Aggression: Reactive/Proactive (C-SHARP)

Science.gov (United States)

Farmer, Cristan A.; Aman, Michael G.

2009-01-01

Whereas some scales exist for assessing aggression in typically developing children, they do not give a detailed analysis, and none is available for populations with developmental disabilities (DD). Parents of 365 children with DD completed the Children's Scale of Hostility and Aggression: Reactive/Proactive (C-SHARP), which surveys the severity…

Atomic-Monolayer MoS2 Band-to-Band Tunneling Field-Effect Transistor

KAUST Repository

Lan, Yann Wen

2016-09-05

The experimental observation of band-to-band tunneling in novel tunneling field-effect transistors utilizing a monolayer of MoS2 as the conducting channel is demonstrated. Our results indicate that the strong gate-coupling efficiency enabled by two-dimensional materials, such as monolayer MoS2, results in the direct manifestation of a band-to-band tunneling current and an ambipolar transport.

Sharp corners as sources of spiral pairs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Biton, Y.; Rabinovitch, A.; Braunstein, D.; Friedman, M.; Aviram, I.

2010-01-01

It is demonstrated that using the FitzHugh-Nagumo model, stimulation of excitable media inside a region possessing sharp corners, can lead to the appearance of sources of spiral-pairs of sustained activity. The two conditions for such source creation are: The corners should be less than 120 deg. and the range of stimulating amplitudes should be small, occurring just above the threshold value and decreasing with the corner angle. The basic mechanisms driving the phenomenon are discussed. These include: A. If the corner angle is below 120 deg., the wave generated inside cannot emerge at the corner tip, resulting in the creation of two free edges which start spiraling towards each other. B. Spiraling must be strong enough; otherwise annihilation of the rotating arms would occur too soon to create a viable source. C. The intricacies of the different radii involved are elucidated. Possible applications in heart stimulation and in chemical reactions are considered.

Conformal coating by photoresist of sharp corners of anisotropically etched through-holes in silicon

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heschel, Matthias; Bouwstra, Siebe

1997-01-01

The authors describe a photoresist treatment yielding conformal coating of three-dimensional silicon structures. This even includes the sharp corners of through-holes obtained by anisotropic etching in (100)-silicon. Resist reflow from these corners is avoided by replacing the common baking...

A very sharp drop in the photovoltaic market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boulanger, V.

2013-01-01

For the second year in a row the photovoltaic market is in sharp decline in France, it dropped by 37% between 2011 and 2012 and the situation for 2013 is expected to be even worse. The last emergency measures taken by the government have been useless. The syndicate of renewable energies (SER) and the 'Europe Ecologie les Verts' party urge the government to take efficient emergency measures like for instance the implementation of local purchase tariffs instead of the present bidding process or to keep the obligation of the integration to the building only for new constructions. The only good piece of news is that photovoltaic power is getting more and more competitive. France has to reconsider its energy policy and its regulatory framework in order to benefit from it. (A.C.)

Triomicrus Sharp of Eastern China (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae).

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Jia-Wei; Yin, Zi-Wei; Li, Li-Zhen

2015-08-31

Twelve species of the genus Triomicrus Sharp are here recognized in eastern China, with eleven of them described as new: T. Inaequalis Shen & Yin, sp. n. and T. mirus Shen & Yin, sp. n. from Anhui, T. abhorridus Shen & Yin, sp. n., T. aculeus Shen & Yin, sp. n., T. damingensis Shen & Yin, sp. n., T. frondosus Shen & Yin, sp. n., T. gutianensis Shen & Yin, sp. n. and T. tibialis Shen & Yin, sp. n. from Zhejiang, T. anfractus Shen & Yin, sp. n. from Anhui and Zhejiang, T. Hamus Shen & Yin, sp. n. from Jiangxi, and T. contus Shen & Yin, sp. n. from Jiangxi and Zhejiang. New distributional data for T. rougemonti Löbl, Kurbatov &Nomura is given. A key for the identification of the Triomicrus species in eastern China is presented.

On sharp estimates of the convergence of double Fourier-Bessel series

Science.gov (United States)

Abilov, V. A.; Abilova, F. V.; Kerimov, M. K.

2017-11-01

The problem of approximation of a differentiable function of two variables by partial sums of a double Fourier-Bessel series is considered. Sharp estimates of the rate of convergence of the double Fourier-Bessel series on the class of differentiable functions of two variables characterized by a generalized modulus of continuity are obtained. The proofs of four theorems on this issue, which can be directly applied to solving particular problems of mathematical physics, approximation theory, etc., are presented.

Lacosamide and Levetiracetam Have No Effect on Sharp-Wave Ripple Rate

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kudláček, Jan; Chvojka, Jan; Pošusta, Antonín; Kováčová, Ľubica; Hong, S.B.; Weiss, S.; Volná, K.; Marusič, P.; Otáhal, Jakub; Jiruška, Přemysl

2017-01-01

Roč. 8, Dec 21 (2017), č. článku 687. ISSN 1664-2295 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA14-02634S; GA ČR(CZ) GA15-08565S; GA MZd(CZ) NV15-29835A; GA MZd(CZ) NV17-28427A Institutional support: RVO:67985823 Keywords : high-frequency oscillations * sharp-wave ripples * levetiracetam * lacosamide * antiepileptic drugs Subject RIV: FH - Neurology OBOR OECD: Neurosciences (including psychophysiology Impact factor: 3.552, year: 2016

Photon Counting Computed Tomography With Dedicated Sharp Convolution Kernels: Tapping the Potential of a New Technology for Stent Imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

von Spiczak, Jochen; Mannil, Manoj; Peters, Benjamin; Hickethier, Tilman; Baer, Matthias; Henning, André; Schmidt, Bernhard; Flohr, Thomas; Manka, Robert; Maintz, David; Alkadhi, Hatem

2018-05-23

The aims of this study were to assess the value of a dedicated sharp convolution kernel for photon counting detector (PCD) computed tomography (CT) for coronary stent imaging and to evaluate to which extent iterative reconstructions can compensate for potential increases in image noise. For this in vitro study, a phantom simulating coronary artery stenting was prepared. Eighteen different coronary stents were expanded in plastic tubes of 3 mm diameter. Tubes were filled with diluted contrast agent, sealed, and immersed in oil calibrated to an attenuation of -100 HU simulating epicardial fat. The phantom was scanned in a modified second generation 128-slice dual-source CT scanner (SOMATOM Definition Flash, Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany) equipped with both a conventional energy integrating detector and PCD. Image data were acquired using the PCD part of the scanner with 48 × 0.25 mm slices, a tube voltage of 100 kVp, and tube current-time product of 100 mAs. Images were reconstructed using a conventional convolution kernel for stent imaging with filtered back-projection (B46) and with sinogram-affirmed iterative reconstruction (SAFIRE) at level 3 (I463). For comparison, a dedicated sharp convolution kernel with filtered back-projection (D70) and SAFIRE level 3 (Q703) and level 5 (Q705) was used. The D70 and Q70 kernels were specifically designed for coronary stent imaging with PCD CT by optimizing the image modulation transfer function and the separation of contrast edges. Two independent, blinded readers evaluated subjective image quality (Likert scale 0-3, where 3 = excellent), in-stent diameter difference, in-stent attenuation difference, mathematically defined image sharpness, and noise of each reconstruction. Interreader reliability was calculated using Goodman and Kruskal's γ and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). Differences in image quality were evaluated using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Differences in in-stent diameter difference, in

Comparing non-safety with safety device sharps injury incidence data from two different occupational surveillance systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Mitchell, A H; Parker, G B; Kanamori, H; Rutala, W A; Weber, D J

2017-06-01

The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Bloodborne Pathogens Standard as amended by the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act requiring the use of safety-engineered medical devices to prevent needlesticks and sharps injuries has been in place since 2001. Injury changes over time include differences between those from non-safety compared with safety-engineered medical devices. This research compares two US occupational incident surveillance systems to determine whether these data can be generalized to other facilities and other countries either with legislation in place or considering developing national policies for the prevention of sharps injuries among healthcare personnel. Copyright © 2017 The Healthcare Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Lamina-specific contribution of glutamatergic and GABAergic potentials to hippocampal sharp wave-ripple complexes.

Science.gov (United States)

Schönberger, Jan; Draguhn, Andreas; Both, Martin

2014-01-01

The mammalian hippocampus expresses highly organized patterns of neuronal activity which form a neuronal correlate of spatial memories. These memory-encoding neuronal ensembles form on top of different network oscillations which entrain neurons in a state- and experience-dependent manner. The mechanisms underlying activation, timing and selection of participating neurons are incompletely understood. Here we studied the synaptic mechanisms underlying one prominent network pattern called sharp wave-ripple complexes (SPW-R) which are involved in memory consolidation during sleep. We recorded SPW-R with extracellular electrodes along the different layers of area CA1 in mouse hippocampal slices. Contribution of glutamatergic excitation and GABAergic inhibition, respectively, was probed by local application of receptor antagonists into s. radiatum, pyramidale and oriens. Laminar profiles of field potentials show that GABAergic potentials contribute substantially to sharp waves and superimposed ripple oscillations in s. pyramidale. Inhibitory inputs to s. pyramidale and s. oriens are crucial for action potential timing by ripple oscillations, as revealed by multiunit-recordings in the pyramidal cell layer. Glutamatergic afferents, on the other hand, contribute to sharp waves in s. radiatum where they also evoke a fast oscillation at ~200 Hz. Surprisingly, field ripples in s. radiatum are slightly slower than ripples in s. pyramidale, resulting in a systematic shift between dendritic and somatic oscillations. This complex interplay between dendritic excitation and perisomatic inhibition may be responsible for the precise timing of discharge probability during the time course of SPW-R. Together, our data illustrate a complementary role of spatially confined excitatory and inhibitory transmission during highly ordered network patterns in the hippocampus.

Lithium implantation at low temperature in silicon for sharp buried amorphous layer formation and defect engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oliviero, E.; David, M. L.; Beaufort, M. F.; Barbot, J. F.; Fichtner, P. F. P.

2013-01-01

The crystalline-to-amorphous transformation induced by lithium ion implantation at low temperature has been investigated. The resulting damage structure and its thermal evolution have been studied by a combination of Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy channelling (RBS/C) and cross sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM). Lithium low-fluence implantation at liquid nitrogen temperature is shown to produce a three layers structure: an amorphous layer surrounded by two highly damaged layers. A thermal treatment at 400 °C leads to the formation of a sharp amorphous/crystalline interfacial transition and defect annihilation of the front heavily damaged layer. After 600 °C annealing, complete recrystallization takes place and no extended defects are left. Anomalous recrystallization rate is observed with different motion velocities of the a/c interfaces and is ascribed to lithium acting as a surfactant. Moreover, the sharp buried amorphous layer is shown to be an efficient sink for interstitials impeding interstitial supersaturation and {311} defect formation in case of subsequent neon implantation. This study shows that lithium implantation at liquid nitrogen temperature can be suitable to form a sharp buried amorphous layer with a well-defined crystalline front layer, thus having potential applications for defects engineering in the improvement of post-implantation layers quality and for shallow junction formation.

Band-notched spiral antenna

Science.gov (United States)

Jeon, Jae; Chang, John

2018-03-13

A band-notched spiral antenna having one or more spiral arms extending from a radially inner end to a radially outer end for transmitting or receiving electromagnetic radiation over a frequency range, and one or more resonance structures positioned adjacent one or more segments of the spiral arm associated with a notch frequency band or bands of the frequency range so as to resonate and suppress the transmission or reception of electromagnetic radiation over said notch frequency band or bands.

Sharp Interface Tracking in Rotating Microflows of Solvent Extraction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Glimm, James; Almeida, Valmor de; Jiao, Xiangmin; Sims, Brett

2013-01-01

The objective of this project is to develop a specialized sharp interface tracking simulation capability for predicting interaction of micron-sized drops and bubbles in rotating flows relevant to optimized design of contactor devices used in solvent extraction processes of spent nuclear fuel reprocessing. The primary outcomes of this project include the capability to resolve drops and bubbles micro-hydrodynamics in solvent extraction contactors, determining from first principles continuum fluid mechanics how micro-drops and bubbles interact with each other and the surrounding shearing fluid for realistic flows. In the near term, this effort will play a central role in providing parameters and insight into the flow dynamics of models that average over coarser scales, say at the millimeter unit length. In the longer term, it will prove to be the platform to conduct full-device, detailed simulations as parallel computing power reaches the exaflop level. The team will develop an accurate simulation tool for flows containing interacting droplets and bubbles with sharp interfaces under conditions that mimic those found in realistic contactor operations. The main objective is to create an off-line simulation capability to model drop and bubble interactions in a domain representative of the averaged length scale. The technical approach is to combine robust interface tracking software, subgrid modeling, validation quality experiments, powerful computational hardware, and a team with simulation modeling, physical modeling and technology integration experience. Simulations will then fully resolve the microflow of drops and bubbles at the microsecond time scale. This approach is computationally intensive but very accurate in treating important coupled physical phenomena in the vicinity of interfaces. The method makes it possible to resolve spatial scales smaller than the typical distance between bubbles and to model some non-equilibrium thermodynamic features such as finite

Sharp Interface Tracking in Rotating Microflows of Solvent Extraction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Glimm, James [Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States); Almeida, Valmor de [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Jiao, Xiangmin [Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States); Sims, Brett [City Univ. (CUNY), NY (United States). Borough of Manhattan Community College; Li, Xaiolin [Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)

2013-01-08

The objective of this project is to develop a specialized sharp interface tracking simulation capability for predicting interaction of micron-sized drops and bubbles in rotating flows relevant to optimized design of contactor devices used in solvent extraction processes of spent nuclear fuel reprocessing. The primary outcomes of this project include the capability to resolve drops and bubbles micro-hydrodynamics in solvent extraction contactors, determining from first principles continuum fluid mechanics how micro-drops and bubbles interact with each other and the surrounding shearing fluid for realistic flows. In the near term, this effort will play a central role in providing parameters and insight into the flow dynamics of models that average over coarser scales, say at the millimeter unit length. In the longer term, it will prove to be the platform to conduct full-device, detailed simulations as parallel computing power reaches the exaflop level. The team will develop an accurate simulation tool for flows containing interacting droplets and bubbles with sharp interfaces under conditions that mimic those found in realistic contactor operations. The main objective is to create an off-line simulation capability to model drop and bubble interactions in a domain representative of the averaged length scale. The technical approach is to combine robust interface tracking software, subgrid modeling, validation quality experiments, powerful computational hardware, and a team with simulation modeling, physical modeling and technology integration experience. Simulations will then fully resolve the microflow of drops and bubbles at the microsecond time scale. This approach is computationally intensive but very accurate in treating important coupled physical phenomena in the vicinity of interfaces. The method makes it possible to resolve spatial scales smaller than the typical distance between bubbles and to model some non-equilibrium thermodynamic features such as finite

Complex layered materials and periodic electromagnetic band-gap structures: Concepts, characterizations, and applications

Science.gov (United States)

Mosallaei, Hossein

The main objective of this dissertation is to characterize and create insight into the electromagnetic performances of two classes of composite structures, namely, complex multi-layered media and periodic Electromagnetic Band-Gap (EBG) structures. The advanced and diversified computational techniques are applied to obtain their unique propagation characteristics and integrate the results into some novel applications. In the first part of this dissertation, the vector wave solution of Maxwell's equations is integrated with the Genetic Algorithm (GA) optimization method to provide a powerful technique for characterizing multi-layered materials, and obtaining their optimal designs. The developed method is successfully applied to determine the optimal composite coatings for Radar Cross Section (RCS) reduction of canonical structures. Both monostatic and bistatic scatterings are explored. A GA with hybrid planar/curved surface implementation is also introduced to efficiently obtain the optimal absorbing materials for curved structures. Furthermore, design optimization of the non-uniform Luneburg and 2-shell spherical lens antennas utilizing modal solution/GA-adaptive-cost function is presented. The lens antennas are effectively optimized for both high gain and suppressed grating lobes. The second part demonstrates the development of an advanced computational engine, which accurately computes the broadband characteristics of challenging periodic electromagnetic band-gap structures. This method utilizes the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) technique with Periodic Boundary Condition/Perfectly Matched Layer (PBC/PML), which is efficiently integrated with the Prony scheme. The computational technique is successfully applied to characterize and present the unique propagation performances of different classes of periodic structures such as Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSS), Photonic Band-Gap (PBG) materials, and Left-Handed (LH) composite media. The results are

Long work hours and chronic insomnia are associated with needlestick and sharps injuries among hospital nurses in Taiwan: A national survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Lo, Wen-Yen; Chiou, Shu-Ti; Huang, Nicole; Chien, Li-Yin

2016-12-01

Needlestick and sharps injuries are prevalent work-related injuries among nurses. Safety devices prevent only one-quarter of related injuries. More studies of modifiable risk factors are needed. To examine whether long work hours and chronic insomnia are associated with needlestick and sharps injuries among hospital nurses in Taiwan. Cross-sectional survey. This analysis included 19,386 full-time bedside nurses working in 104 hospitals across Taiwan. Participants filled out an anonymous questionnaire from July to September 2014. Chronic insomnia, needlestick injuries, and sharps injuries during the past year were each measured by a yes/no question. Multivariate logistic regression models were applied to examine the effects of long work hours and chronic insomnia on needlestick and sharps injuries, given with control for sex, marital status, educational level, age, years of practice, work unit, and hospital level in the model. More than 70% of study nurses worked long hours during the previous week (>50h: 27.5%; 41-50h: 43.2%), and 15.5% of nurses reported chronic insomnia. The percentage of sharps injuries (38.8%) was higher than that for needlestick injuries (22.4%) during the previous year among nurses. After adjusting for potential confounders, logistic regression yielded significant results showing that those who worked 41 to 50h per week, >50h per week, and had chronic insomnia were 1.17 times (95% C.I.=1.04-1.32), 1.51 times (95% C.I.=1.32-1.72), and 1.45 times (95% C.I.=1.25-1.68) more likely to experience needlestick injuries, and 1.29 times (95% C.I.=1.17-1.42), 1.37 times (95% C.I.=1.23-1.53), and 1.56 times (95% C.I.=1.37-1.77) more likely to experience sharps injuries, respectively, than those who worked fewer hours and did not have insomnia. This nationwide nurse survey showed that high rates of needlestick and sharps injuries persist in hospital nurses in Taiwan. The common problems of long work hours and chronic insomnia increase the risk of these

The effective field theory of inflation models with sharp features

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bartolo, Nicola; Cannone, Dario; Matarrese, Sabino

2013-01-01

We describe models of single-field inflation with small and sharp step features in the potential (and sound speed) of the inflaton field, in the context of the Effective Field Theory of Inflation. This approach allows us to study the effects of features in the power-spectrum and in the bispectrum of curvature perturbations, from a model-independent point of view, by parametrizing the features directly with modified ''slow-roll'' parameters. We can obtain a self-consistent power-spectrum, together with enhanced non-Gaussianity, which grows with a quantity β that parametrizes the sharpness of the step. With this treatment it is straightforward to generalize and include features in other coefficients of the effective action of the inflaton field fluctuations. Our conclusion in this case is that, excluding extrinsic curvature terms, the only interesting effects at the level of the bispectrum could arise from features in the first slow-roll parameter ε or in the speed of sound c s . Finally, we derive an upper bound on the parameter β from the consistency of the perturbative expansion of the action for inflaton perturbations. This constraint can be used for an estimation of the signal-to-noise ratio, to show that the observable which is most sensitive to features is the power-spectrum. This conclusion would change if we consider the contemporary presence of a feature and a speed of sound c s < 1, as, in such a case, contributions from an oscillating folded configuration can potentially make the bispectrum the leading observable for feature models

Critical β of a D-shaped toroidal plasma with sharp boundary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kito, M.

1981-01-01

Under the cap-cyclide coordinate system, the marginal stability of a sharp boundary toroidal plasma whose cross section is D shaped is examined using the energy principle. The analytical results are valid for arbitrary b, arbitrary aspect ratio, and arbitrary elongation of the plasma. There exists a maximum elongation for a given aspect ratio. The critical beta b/sub c/ is computed for several aspect ratios and elongations. For given aspect ratio, b/sub c/ increases as long as the elongation increases

Feeding ecology of sharp-shinned hawks in deciduous and coniferous forests in Colorado

Science.gov (United States)

Suzanne M. Joy; Richard T. Reynolds; Richard L. Knight; Richard W. Hoffman

1994-01-01

Feeding ecology of 11 Sharp-skinned Hawk (Accipiter striates) pairs nesting in aspen (Populus tremuloides), conifer (Abies, Picea spp.), and mixed aspen-conifer habitats in southwest Colorado was investigated during 1988-1989. Small birds (x-bar = 20.9 g, SE = 0.8 g) and mammals (x-bar = 41.1 g, SE = 3.3 g) comprised 91 and 9% of...

Origin of the near-band-edge photoluminescence in ZnO nanorods realised by vapour phase epitaxy and aqueous chemical growth

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bekeny, C.; Hilker, B.; Wischmeier, L.; Voss, T. [IFP, University of Bremen, P.O Box 330440, 28334 Bremen (Germany); Postels, B.; Mofor, A.; Bakin, Andrey; Waag, A. [IHT, TU Braunschweig, P.O Box 3329, 38023 Braunschweig (Germany)

2007-07-01

Well established high temperature growth techniques like the vapourliquid-solid (VLS: 1100 C) and vapour-phase-epitaxy (VPE: 800 C) have been successfully optimized while the low-temperature aqueous chemical growth (ACG: 90 C) is being extended to yield large-scale high quality ZnO nanorods. Here, a detailed and systematic photoluminescence (PL) study is presented to understand the microscopic processes responsible for the near-band-edge (NBE) emission in nanorods obtained from these processes. For the ACG samples, the as-grown nanorods show relatively broad NBE emission (15 meV) attributed to the presence of large donor densities. After annealing in various atmospheres at {proportional_to}800 C, a significant reduction of the linewidth ({proportional_to}4 meV) and even the appearance of relatively sharp excitonic transitions is explained by the drastic reduction of the donor density. In contrast, the as-grown VPE and VLS samples exhibit well-resolved and sharp peaks resulting from exciton-related transitions. There is a shift in the room-temperature PL peak for VLS and VPE samples and is shown to result from contributions of the free exciton peak, its first and second order phonon replicas and not due to quantum confinement and or laser heating as assumed in literature.

Sharp transition between thermal and quantum tunneling regimes in magnetization relaxation processes

Science.gov (United States)

Tejada, J.; Zhang, X. X.; Barbara, B.

1993-03-01

In this paper we describe experiments involving measurements of the dependence on time of the thermoremanence magnetization of 2-dimensional random magnets. The low temperature values for the magnetic viscosity agree well with both current theories of tunneling of the magnetization vector (Chudnovsky et al.) and the work of Grabert et al. who predicted that the transition from classical to quantum regime is rather sharp for undamped systems.

Increased tree establishment in Lithuanian peat bogs--insights from field and remotely sensed approaches.

Science.gov (United States)

Edvardsson, Johannes; Šimanauskienė, Rasa; Taminskas, Julius; Baužienė, Ieva; Stoffel, Markus

2015-02-01

Over the past century an ongoing establishment of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), sometimes at accelerating rates, is noted at three studied Lithuanian peat bogs, namely Kerėplis, Rėkyva and Aukštumala, all representing different degrees of tree coverage and geographic settings. Present establishment rates seem to depend on tree density on the bog surface and are most significant at sparsely covered sites where about three-fourth of the trees have established since the mid-1990s, whereas the initial establishment in general was during the early to mid-19th century. Three methods were used to detect, compare and describe tree establishment: (1) tree counts in small plots, (2) dendrochronological dating of bog pine trees, and (3) interpretation of aerial photographs and historical maps of the study areas. In combination, the different approaches provide complimentary information but also weigh up each other's drawbacks. Tree counts in plots provided a reasonable overview of age class distributions and enabled capturing of the most recently established trees with ages less than 50 years. The dendrochronological analysis yielded accurate tree ages and a good temporal resolution of long-term changes. Tree establishment and spread interpreted from aerial photographs and historical maps provided a good overview of tree spread and total affected area. It also helped to verify the results obtained with the other methods and an upscaling of findings to the entire peat bogs. The ongoing spread of trees in predominantly undisturbed peat bogs is related to warmer and/or drier climatic conditions, and to a minor degree to land-use changes. Our results therefore provide valuable insights into vegetation changes in peat bogs, also with respect to bog response to ongoing and future climatic changes. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

SHARP - Automated monitoring of spacecraft health and status

Science.gov (United States)

Atkinson, David J.; James, Mark L.; Martin, R. G.

1990-01-01

Briefly discussed here are the spacecraft and ground systems monitoring process at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Some of the difficulties associated with the existing technology used in mission operations are highlighted. A new automated system based on artificial intelligence technology is described which seeks to overcome many of these limitations. The system, called the Spacecraft Health Automated Reasoning Prototype (SHARP), is designed to automate health and status analysis for multi-mission spacecraft and ground data systems operations. The system has proved to be effective for detecting and analyzing potential spacecraft and ground systems problems by performing real-time analysis of spacecraft and ground data systems engineering telemetry. Telecommunications link analysis of the Voyager 2 spacecraft was the initial focus for evaluation of the system in real-time operations during the Voyager spacecraft encounter with Neptune in August 1989.

SHARP: Automated monitoring of spacecraft health and status

Science.gov (United States)

Atkinson, David J.; James, Mark L.; Martin, R. Gaius

1991-01-01

Briefly discussed here are the spacecraft and ground systems monitoring process at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Some of the difficulties associated with the existing technology used in mission operations are highlighted. A new automated system based on artificial intelligence technology is described which seeks to overcome many of these limitations. The system, called the Spacecraft Health Automated Reasoning Prototype (SHARP), is designed to automate health and status analysis for multi-mission spacecraft and ground data systems operations. The system has proved to be effective for detecting and analyzing potential spacecraft and ground systems problems by performing real-time analysis of spacecraft and ground data systems engineering telemetry. Telecommunications link analysis of the Voyager 2 spacecraft was the initial focus for evaluation of the system in real-time operations during the Voyager spacecraft encounter with Neptune in August 1989.

Congenital Constriction Band Syndrome

OpenAIRE

Rajesh Gupta, Fareed Malik, Rishabh Gupta, M.A.Basit, Dara Singh

2008-01-01

Congenital constriction bands are anomalous bands that encircle a digit or an extremity. Congenitalconstriction band syndrome is rare condition and is mostly associated with other musculoskeletaldisorders.We report such a rare experience.

Importance of layer thermal conductivity on the sharpness of patterns produced by laser interference

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peláez, R.J., E-mail: rpelaez@io.cfmac.csic.es [Laser Processing Group, Instituto de Optica, CSIC, Serrano 121, 28006 Madrid (Spain); Afonso, C.N. [Laser Processing Group, Instituto de Optica, CSIC, Serrano 121, 28006 Madrid (Spain); Škereň, M. [Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Brehova 7, 115 19 Prague 1 (Czech Republic); Bulíř, J. [Institute of Physics, ASCR, v.v.i., Na Slovance 2, Prague (Czech Republic)

2016-06-30

Highlights: • Temperature profile matches laser intensity profile in poor thermally conducting layers. • Patterns produced in poor thermally conducting layers have sharp interfaces. • Lateral heat flow smears the temperature profile in thermally conducting layers. • Both liquid and solid state dewetting occurs upon patterning thermally conducting layers. • The thermal conductivity of layers limits the minimum period achievable. - Abstract: In this work, we compare patterns produced in Ag layers having similar thickness in the range 8.3–10.8 nm but having different initial nanostructure, i.e. behaving either as discontinuous or continuous layers and thus having very different thermal conductivities. The patterns are produced by exposing a phase mask to an excimer laser operating at 193 nm and using a projection optics that leads to similar fringed patterns with periods in the range 6.3–6.7 μm. The layer breaks up into isolated NPs due to laser induced melting at the regions around the intensity maxima sites. The resulting fringes have sharp interfaces in the case of discontinuous layers while a variety of regions across the pattern with no sharp interfaces are produced in the case of continuous layers. The results show that while the temperature distribution across the pattern matches almost perfectly the laser beam intensity profile for the former case, it becomes smeared due to lateral heat flow for the latter case. These results provide evidences for significant heating at the intensity minima sites that lead to solid-state dewetting and will eventually limit the minimum period achievable in the case of continuous metal layers or thermally conducting layers.

Single-Band and Dual-Band Infrared Detectors

Science.gov (United States)

Ting, David Z. (Inventor); Gunapala, Sarath D. (Inventor); Soibel, Alexander (Inventor); Nguyen, Jean (Inventor); Khoshakhlagh, Arezou (Inventor)

2017-01-01

Bias-switchable dual-band infrared detectors and methods of manufacturing such detectors are provided. The infrared detectors are based on a back-to-back heterojunction diode design, where the detector structure consists of, sequentially, a top contact layer, a unipolar hole barrier layer, an absorber layer, a unipolar electron barrier, a second absorber, a second unipolar hole barrier, and a bottom contact layer. In addition, by substantially reducing the width of one of the absorber layers, a single-band infrared detector can also be formed.

Three-dimensional vibrations of cylindrical elastic solids with V-notches and sharp radial cracks

Science.gov (United States)

McGee, O. G.; Kim, J. W.

2010-02-01

This paper provides free vibration data for cylindrical elastic solids, specifically thick circular plates and cylinders with V-notches and sharp radial cracks, for which no extensive previously published database is known to exist. Bending moment and shear force singularities are known to exist at the sharp reentrant corner of a thick V-notched plate under transverse vibratory motion, and three-dimensional (3-D) normal and transverse shear stresses are known to exist at the sharp reentrant terminus edge of a V-notched cylindrical elastic solid under 3-D free vibration. A theoretical analysis is done in this work utilizing a variational Ritz procedure including these essential singularity effects. The procedure incorporates a complete set of admissible algebraic-trigonometric polynomials in conjunction with an admissible set of " edge functions" that explicitly model the 3-D stress singularities which exist along a reentrant terminus edge (i.e., α>180°) of the V-notch. The first set of polynomials guarantees convergence to exact frequencies, as sufficient terms are retained. The second set of edge functions—in addition to representing the corner stress singularities—substantially accelerates the convergence of frequency solutions. This is demonstrated through extensive convergence studies that have been carried out by the investigators. Numerical analysis has been carried out and the results have been given for cylindrical elastic solids with various V-notch angles and depths. The relative depth of the V-notch is defined as (1- c/ a), and the notch angle is defined as (360°- α). For a very small notch angle (1° or less), the notch may be regarded as a "sharp radial crack." Accurate (four significant figure) frequencies are presented for a wide spectrum of notch angles (360°- α), depths (1- c/ a), and thickness ratios ( a/ h for plates and h/ a for cylinders). An extended database of frequencies for completely free thick sectorial, semi-circular, and

The Influence of the Sharpe Ratio on Appreciation Savings Intended for the Payment of Lifetime Pensions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Petr Kupčík

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The paper focuses on the payment of lifetime pensions paid by pension companies based on the selected mortality table of the Czech Statistical Office. We assume different input values depending on the size of the Sharpe ratio pension companies from selected countries. This paper aims to identify and assess the impact of the Sharpe ratio on the payment of lifetime pensions in postproduction period. We used data of nominal appreciation of pension companies from the Visegrad countries and Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands in the period 2005–2013. In the empirical analysis we additionally distinguished between guaranteed and non-guaranteed pension funds. For the purpose of calculating lifetime pensions, we used the formula early paid pension by the pension company on the Czech market down in its her pension plan with an expected median payment period of r years. We found link between the value of the Sharpe ratio and the size of lifetime pensions. Conclusion of the paper shows the effects of low performance of pension funds on lifetime pension with a focus on the Czech Republic. The scientific paper describes partial results reached within the project no. 54/2014 of the Internal Grant Agency of the Faculty of Business and Economics of the Mendel University in Brno following the aims and methodology of the given project.

Visualizing band offsets and edge states in bilayer–monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides lateral heterojunction

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Chendong

2016-01-18

Semiconductor heterostructures are fundamental building blocks for many important device applications. The emergence of two-dimensional semiconductors opens up a new realm for creating heterostructures. As the bandgaps of transition metal dichalcogenides thin films have sensitive layer dependence, it is natural to create lateral heterojunctions (HJs) using the same materials with different thicknesses. Here we show the real space image of electronic structures across the bilayer–monolayer interface in MoSe2 and WSe2, using scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy. Most bilayer–monolayer HJs are found to have a zig-zag-orientated interface, and the band alignment of such atomically sharp HJs is of type-I with a well-defined interface mode that acts as a narrower-gap quantum wire. The ability to utilize such commonly existing thickness terraces as lateral HJs is a crucial addition to the tool set for device applications based on atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides, with the advantage of easy and flexible implementation.

How different contexts of social capital are associated with self-rated health among Lithuanian high-school students

Science.gov (United States)

Novak, Dario; Emeljanovas, Arunas; Mieziene, Brigita; Štefan, Lovro; Kawachi, Ichiro

2018-01-01

ABSTRACT Background. Adolescents’ self-rated health is related to a number of sociodemographic and socio-economic factors, health-related behaviors, and their social environment. The impact of the latter is still not well explored. An adolescent’s social environment is represented by the social capital, i.e. social resources that they can access. The relationships between various contexts of social capital (family, neighborhood, peers, and school) and self-rated health among adolescents are still unclear. Objective. This study aims to examine the relationships between various social capital contexts and self-rated health in Lithuanian adolescents. Methods. The current cross-sectional study includes a nationally representative sample of 1863 adolescents (51.4% were girls) aged 14–18 years. The indicators of self-rated health as well as indicators of social capital in family, neighborhood, and school contexts were assessed. The results of the relationships between self-rated health and contexts of social capital were calculated controlling for the following covariates: physical activity, psychological distress, gender, body mass index, and family socioeconomic status. Results. Results indicate that there are significant relationships between good self-rated health and a higher level of family support, neighborhood trust, and vertical school trust. In the final logistic regression model, while controlling for all covariates, a higher level of family support and neighborhood trust remain significant predictors of good self-rated health. Conclusions. Family support and neighborhood trust are important correlates of self-rated health in adolescents. PMID:29871556

How different contexts of social capital are associated with self-rated health among Lithuanian high-school students.

Science.gov (United States)

Novak, Dario; Emeljanovas, Arunas; Mieziene, Brigita; Štefan, Lovro; Kawachi, Ichiro

2018-01-01

Adolescents' self-rated health is related to a number of sociodemographic and socio-economic factors, health-related behaviors, and their social environment. The impact of the latter is still not well explored. An adolescent's social environment is represented by the social capital, i.e. social resources that they can access. The relationships between various contexts of social capital (family, neighborhood, peers, and school) and self-rated health among adolescents are still unclear. This study aims to examine the relationships between various social capital contexts and self-rated health in Lithuanian adolescents. The current cross-sectional study includes a nationally representative sample of 1863 adolescents (51.4% were girls) aged 14-18 years. The indicators of self-rated health as well as indicators of social capital in family, neighborhood, and school contexts were assessed. The results of the relationships between self-rated health and contexts of social capital were calculated controlling for the following covariates: physical activity, psychological distress, gender, body mass index, and family socioeconomic status. Results indicate that there are significant relationships between good self-rated health and a higher level of family support, neighborhood trust, and vertical school trust. In the final logistic regression model, while controlling for all covariates, a higher level of family support and neighborhood trust remain significant predictors of good self-rated health. Family support and neighborhood trust are important correlates of self-rated health in adolescents.

Distribution of metals and extent of contamination in sediments from the south-eastern Baltic Sea (Lithuanian zone

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nijolė Remeikaitė-Nikienė

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Summary: The distribution of metals (Pb, Cu, Cd, Ni, Cr, Zn in surface sediments and the potential pollution sources in the south-eastern part (SE of the Baltic Sea (Lithuanian zone were investigated in relation to the environmental characteristics (amount of fine-grained particles, TOC content in sediments, origin of sedimentary organic matter, salinity, water depth in 2011–2014. The higher metal concentrations were measured in sediments of the Curonian Lagoon and in the open waters. An approach using various environmental indices (enrichment factor EF, geoaccumulation index Igeo and contamination factor CF was used to quantitatively assess a contamination degree. The principal component analysis (PCA was applied in order to further scrutinize pollution from metal sources. The values of the contamination indices showed no/very low sediment contamination with Ni and Cr, minor–moderate contamination with Cu, Zn and Pb and moderate–considerable pollution with Cd. The strong relationships among metals suggested their similar distribution pattern and a combination of natural and anthropogenic sources. The higher metal concentrations coincided with an increasing amount of fine-grained fraction and organic carbon. In the territorial waters, the distribution of elements was related to the water depth. In addition, the binding of metals with insoluble iron sulphides might explain their high concentrations at the most remote and deepest stations. Keywords: Metals, Enrichment factor, Geoaccumulation index, Contamination factor, The Baltic Sea, The Curonian Lagoon

Reversibility and hysteresis of the sharp yielding transition of a colloidal glass under oscillatory shear

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dang, M. T.; Denisov, D.; Struth, B.; Zaccone, A.; Schall, P.

The mechanical response of glasses remains challenging to understand. Recent results indicate that the oscillatory rheology of soft glasses is accompanied by a sharp non-equilibrium transition in the microscopic dynamics. Here, we use simultaneous x-ray scattering and rheology to investigate the

Broad-Band Spectroscopy of Hercules X-1 with Suzaku

Science.gov (United States)

Asami, Fumi; Enoto, Teruaki; Iwakiri, Wataru; Yamada, Shin'ya; Tamagawa, Toru; Mihara, Tatehiro; Nagase, Fumiaki

2014-01-01

Hercules X-1 was observed with Suzaku in the main-on state from 2005 to 2010. The 0.4- 100 keV wide-band spectra obtained in four observations showed a broad hump around 4-9 keV in addition to narrow Fe lines at 6.4 and 6.7 keV. The hump was seen in all the four observations regardless of the selection of the continuum models. Thus it is considered a stable and intrinsic spectral feature in Her X-1. The broad hump lacked a sharp structure like an absorption edge. Thus it was represented by two different spectral models: an ionized partial covering or an additional broad line at 6.5 keV. The former required a persistently existing ionized absorber, whose origin was unclear. In the latter case, the Gaussian fitting of the 6.5-keV line needs a large width of sigma = 1.0-1.5 keV and a large equivalent width of 400-900 eV. If the broad line originates from Fe fluorescence of accreting matter, its large width may be explained by the Doppler broadening in the accretion flow. However, the large equivalent width may be inconsistent with a simple accretion geometry.

Reminių lietuvių kalbos pagrindinių sakinio dalių perteikimas norvegų kalboje. Norwegian Equivalents to Lithuanian Rhemic Subject and Predicate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aurelija Griškevičienė

2008-01-01

Full Text Available In Norwegian, like in other analytical languages, the distribution of information in terms of Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP is heavily constrained by the grammatically defined word order, whereas the main means of expression of FSP in written Lithuanian is the word order, which is grammatically unrestricted thus enabling to convey the new information by any sentence part. The aim of this article is to summarise and classify expressions of Norwegian equivalents to the rhemic subject and predicate in the Lithuanian language. The analysis resorts for illustrations to the short story “Gyvenimas po klevu” by Granauskas and its translation into Norwegian.The analysis shows, one of the best ways to shift the rhemic from the usual position at the begin­ning of a sentence in the Norwegian language is by applying the passive voice. The subject can equally be made rhemic by the cleft, presentative construction, the reduplication of a sentence part. The subject rhemisation can happen by replacing it with other sentence parts of the same meaning. To retain the rhemic subject in translation, not only can a word order be reshuffled, but even an extra sentence added to convey new information.In Norwegian, the predicate has a strictly defined second position. Therefore, the rhemic predicate is impossible to indicate by a word order. In Norwegian sentences where new information is presented through the predicate, the position of the predicate is considered rhemic, and no other means to express the rhemic predicated are employed. In translation, the rhemic predicate can be expressed through the nominalization, which facilitates the needed shift. As the empiric material demonstrates, the predicate replacement by any other sentence part is the most frequent way for the rhemisation of the predicate. It is also possible to make verb-for-verb replacement. In certain cases, extra themic elements, helping to shift the focus predicate.The use of lexical means

Band Edge Dynamics and Multiexciton Generation in Narrow Band Gap HgTe Nanocrystals.

Science.gov (United States)

Livache, Clément; Goubet, Nicolas; Martinez, Bertille; Jagtap, Amardeep; Qu, Junling; Ithurria, Sandrine; Silly, Mathieu G; Dubertret, Benoit; Lhuillier, Emmanuel

2018-04-11

Mercury chalcogenide nanocrystals and especially HgTe appear as an interesting platform for the design of low cost mid-infrared (mid-IR) detectors. Nevertheless, their electronic structure and transport properties remain poorly understood, and some critical aspects such as the carrier relaxation dynamics at the band edge have been pushed under the rug. Some of the previous reports on dynamics are setup-limited, and all of them have been obtained using photon energy far above the band edge. These observations raise two main questions: (i) what are the carrier dynamics at the band edge and (ii) should we expect some additional effect (multiexciton generation (MEG)) as such narrow band gap materials are excited far above the band edge? To answer these questions, we developed a high-bandwidth setup that allows us to understand and compare the carrier dynamics resonantly pumped at the band edge in the mid-IR and far above the band edge. We demonstrate that fast (>50 MHz) photoresponse can be obtained even in the mid-IR and that MEG is occurring in HgTe nanocrystal arrays with a threshold around 3 times the band edge energy. Furthermore, the photoresponse can be effectively tuned in magnitude and sign using a phototransistor configuration.

Sharp Absorption Peaks in THz Spectra Valuable for Crystal Quality Evaluation of Middle Molecular Weight Pharmaceuticals

Science.gov (United States)

Sasaki, Tetsuo; Sakamoto, Tomoaki; Otsuka, Makoto

2018-05-01

Middle molecular weight (MMW) pharmaceuticals (MW 400 4000) are attracting attention for their possible use in new medications. Sharp absorption peaks were observed in MMW pharmaceuticals at low temperatures by measuring with a high-resolution terahertz (THz) spectrometer. As examples, high-resolution THz spectra for amoxicillin trihydrate, atorvastatin calcium trihydrate, probucol, and α,β,γ,δ-tetrakis(1-methylpyridinium-4-yl)porphyrin p-toluenesulfonate (TMPyP) were obtained at 10 K. Typically observed as peaks with full width at half-height (FWHM) values as low as 5.639 GHz at 0.96492 THz in amoxicillin trihydrate and 8.857 GHz at 1.07974 THz for probucol, many sharp peaks of MMW pharmaceuticals could be observed. Such narrow absorption peaks enable evaluation of the crystal quality of MMW pharmaceuticals and afford sensitive detection of impurities.

Psychological and physical well-being of Lithuanian youth: Relation to emotional intelligence.

Science.gov (United States)

Antinienė, Dalia; Lekavičienė, Rosita

2017-01-01

failed to determine whether emotion recognition from non-verbal signs (face pictures) was related to at least one of the previously mentioned indexes. The study revealed that the factors such as subjective assessment of physical and mental health, depressiveness, anxiety, and psychological well-being were reliable predictors of certain EI indexes. Copyright © 2017 The Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier Sp. z o.o. All rights reserved.

Deciphering the role of CA1 inhibitory circuits in sharp wave-ripple complexes.

Science.gov (United States)

Cutsuridis, Vassilis; Taxidis, Jiannis

2013-01-01

Sharp wave-ripples (SWRs) are population oscillatory patterns in hippocampal LFPs during deep sleep and immobility, involved in the replay of memories acquired during wakefulness. SWRs have been extensively studied, but their exact generation mechanism is still unknown. A computational model has suggested that fast perisomatic inhibition may generate the high frequency ripples (~200 Hz). Another model showed how replay of memories can be controlled by various classes of inhibitory interneurons targeting specific parts of pyramidal cells (PC) and firing at particular SWR phases. Optogenetic studies revealed new roles for interneuronal classes and rich dynamic interplays between them, shedding new light in their potential role in SWRs. Here, we integrate these findings in a conceptual model of how dendritic and somatic inhibition may collectively contribute to the SWR generation. We suggest that sharp wave excitation and basket cell (BC) recurrent inhibition synchronises BC spiking in ripple frequencies. This rhythm is imposed on bistratified cells which prevent pyramidal bursting. Axo-axonic and stratum lacunosum/moleculare interneurons are silenced by inhibitory inputs originating in the medial septum. PCs receiving rippling inhibition in both dendritic and perisomatic areas and excitation in their apical dendrites, exhibit sparse ripple phase-locked spiking.

Spontaneous passage of long, sharp gastrointestinal foreign body in a child.

Science.gov (United States)

Karthikeyan, Vilvapathy Senguttuvan; Ansari, Mohammed Gaffoor; Suresh, Ramasamy; Easwaran, Bettaiyagowder

2015-01-19

Foreign body (FB) ingestion is a common problem in children. Up to 90% of these FBs pass spontaneously. FBs reaching the stomach usually pass out spontaneously. Exceptions to this spontaneous passage include a long FB that cannot cross the pylorus, duodenum or ileocaecal junction. We present a case of a 9-year boy who accidentally ingested a long paper pin, which spontaneously passed in 26 h. This case is being reported to highlight the successful spontaneous passage of a 4 cm long sharp foreign body in a child. 2015 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

Znaczenie dwujęzycznych korpusów w polsko‑litewskich badaniach konfrontatywnych

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roman Roszko

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The meaning of bilingual corpora in the Polish-Lithuanian comparative studies In his article, the author compares and contrasts the results of his own research on the hypothetical modality in Polish and Lithuanian: a carried out together with Danuta Roszko, using the traditional method (without use of bilingual corpora in the 90s; b with use of parallel Polish-Lithuanian corpora resources. As for the contrast of the two methods, special attention has been drawn to the lexical exponents singled out. The use of the corpora resources resulted in the fact that the number of exponents of hipothetical modality singled out in the two languages has slightly risen. Moreover, the borders between the corresponding groups of exponents have become more distinct and obvious. There has been confirmed a possibility of using the corresponding groups of exponents to express the meanings of the adjacent groups. The conclusion has been drawn that this phenomenon is as obvious now as it was earlier expected (in studies without use of bilingual corpora. The separate analysis of corpora resources with the division into the material being a mutual Polish-Lithuanian translations (i.e. from Polish into Lithuanian and vice versa and b translations into Polish and Lithuanian from third languages (here: from German, English or Russian does not significantly influence the number and diversity of the lexical exponents applied in the two languages. This fact proves a high competence of the translators. The formal resemblance of some of the Polish and Lithuanian exponents does not have a significant influence on which form to choose in the target language. In the translations from Polish into Lithuanian, part of the lexical exponents are conveyed with morphological exponents (lack of such in Polish. The hypothetical modality understated in Polish is sometimes clarified in translations into Lithuanian with the help of morphological forms. In some translations from Lithuanian

Noise exposure in marching bands

Science.gov (United States)

Keefe, Joseph

2005-09-01

Previous studies involving orchestras have shown that music ensembles can produce hazardous noise levels. There are no similar data for marching bands and pep bands. In order to evaluate the noise levels produced by marching and pep bands, 1/3-octave-band sound-pressure levels were measured while these groups rehearsed and performed. Data were collected while marching with the bands to ensure a realistic environment. Comparing these data to OSHA and NIOSH criteria, marching and pep band exposures often exceed safe values. For typical exposures, OSHA doses range from 11% to 295%, while NIOSH doses range from 35% to 3055%. Exposures that would be considered hazardous in the workplace are common in marching and pep bands; students and band directors should take steps to recognize the risk posed by various instruments and various locations, and should implement hearing conservation efforts.

B(M1) values in the band-crossing of shears bands in 197Pb

Science.gov (United States)

Krücken, R.; Cooper, J. R.; Beausang, C. W.; Novak, J. R.; Dewald, A.; Klug, T.; Kemper, G.; von Brentano, P.; Carpenter, M.; Wiedenhöver, I.

We present details of the band crossing mechanism of shears bands using the example of 197Pb. Absolute reduced matrix elements B(M1) were determined by means of a RDM lifetime measurement in one of the shears bands in 197Pb. The experiment was performed using the New Yale Plunger Device (NYPD) in conjunction with the Gammasphere array. Band mixing calculations on the basis of the semi-classical model of the shears mechanism are used to describe the transition matrix elements B(M1) and energies throughout the band-crossing regions. Good agreement with the data was obtained and the detailed composition of the states in the shears band are discussed.

Precipitation Estimation Using L-Band and C-Band Soil Moisture Retrievals

Science.gov (United States)

Koster, Randal D.; Brocca, Luca; Crow, Wade T.; Burgin, Mariko S.; De Lannoy, Gabrielle J. M.

2016-01-01

An established methodology for estimating precipitation amounts from satellite-based soil moisture retrievals is applied to L-band products from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) and Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite missions and to a C-band product from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) mission. The precipitation estimates so obtained are evaluated against in situ (gauge-based) precipitation observations from across the globe. The precipitation estimation skill achieved using the L-band SMAP and SMOS data sets is higher than that obtained with the C-band product, as might be expected given that L-band is sensitive to a thicker layer of soil and thereby provides more information on the response of soil moisture to precipitation. The square of the correlation coefficient between the SMAP-based precipitation estimates and the observations (for aggregations to approximately100 km and 5 days) is on average about 0.6 in areas of high rain gauge density. Satellite missions specifically designed to monitor soil moisture thus do provide significant information on precipitation variability, information that could contribute to efforts in global precipitation estimation.