Knee valgus is a mechanism of popular interest concerning its contributions to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in females, as it has consistently been measured greater in women than men during similar activities. However, literature has been relatively inconsistent as to the cause of this gender disparity. Consequently, the gender difference in ACL injuries still exists and will likely continue to be relatively divergent.\nA literature search was conducted to identify relevant factors/mechanisms based on their association with knee valgus and/or ACL injuries using articles from PubMed, EMBASE, and SPORTDiscus published through 2012. The final list of selected factors were hormones, rearfoot pronation, fatigue, knee joint characteristics, and muscle development of the knee flexors/extensors and adductors. These are the primary factors that are discussed in this review with regard to their influence on knee valgus angles.\nWe identified rearfoot pronation and muscle development as having the greatest impact on knee valgus angles. Prevention strategies should aim to increase dynamic control and/or decrease rearfoot pronation to help minimize knee valgus angles and the potential for knee injuries in females.
In order to compare the differences of damage processes among concrete and its components, four kinds specimens of concrete, aggregate (granite), mortar and interface (interface between aggregate and mortar) are tested in MTS materials test system under uniaxial tension loading. Feature parameters of acoustic emission (AE) signals during the whole loading process are acquired using broadband sensor and stored simultaneously. Statistic comparison and analysis of AE parameters of these specimens during the whole loading processes are performed. The results show that, the earliest appearance of damage is from the interface between aggregate and mortar; the percentage of hits in short rise time (<30μs) from aggregate specimen reaches about 84%, which is higher than the other specimens. The research is helpful to the physical mechanism identification of concrete in damage process.
In this paper, an attempt to apply the popular grid synchronization techniques such as synchronous reference frame phase locked loop (SRF PLL) method and zero crossing method to synchronize solar photovoltaic system with a grid has been made. To obtain better harmonic suppression the SRF PLL with low pass filter (LPF) and moving average filter (MAF) have been tried. A detailed analysis and comparative study has been carried out using Matlab-Simulink and results are verified to meet IEC 61727 standard for grid interactive inverters.
Positioning applications is one of the final stages of applicable land planning. Due to the fact that favorable settlement of application, which is affected by highly numerous and variable factors, is the key element to keep costs down and increase accessibility. So site selection of applications of Rural Guidance Plans that requires a lot of investment, Should be done in such a way that its desirability will not be diminished with the passage of time, or change very slightly and guarantee sustainable rural development process. This study investigates factors influencing on positioning proposed Landuse of pilot projects in rural land in Iran. Different and various criteria and principles to select appropriate locations for rural Landuse make using multi-criteria decision necessary. One of widely used and most common of these methods is analytic hierarchy process or AHP. Thus the relationship between the objectives, criteria, sub-criteria and the introduction of a structure were prepared hierarchically. Then the coefficients of the importance of criteria and sub-criteria, agents’ weight, and the final score and of parameters and agents were calculated and reasonable adjustment of judgments examined. Aforementioned stages have taken place using the Expert Choice software. The results showed that among three indicators used in positioning of Landuse of rural proposed pilot project, Rural Community Needs Index weighting 0.413 is the most effective which include several sub-criteria and, Among these, indicators of welfare and justice in distribution of application with weights of 0.166 and 0.122 have the highest weights, respectively. And next in rank, Qualitative and quantitative factors stand with weights of the 0.327 and 0.26 respectively.\nKey words: positioning quantitative factors, positioning qualitative factors, rural needs, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), rural settlements
The reversible architecture scheme yields significantly reduced complexity and low power features. It is a key issue in the interface between computation and physics, and of growing importance as miniaturization progresses towards its physical limits. With the advent of nanotechnology the fault detection and testability is of high interest for accuracy concerns. This research work describes the design of an novel reversible testable gate. There is 82% reduction in number of garbage outputs and constant inputs using proposed gate which is a key parameter for reversible logic. The CMOS implementation of reversible logic is better in terms of power consumption than the static CMOS design. The proposed approach shows significantly reduced logical complexity and incorporates reduced power consumption than existing designs.
An issue related to waiting rows and the development of mathematical models related thereto was first proposed at the beginning of this century by the Danish engineer Erlang (Schatteles, 1992), regarding the phone network. The basic ideas of Erlang’s models (Schatteles, 1992) were subsequently adapted to the solution of other crowding phenomena, such as: operations of parking landed airplanes; operations of storage of goods; water supply to consumers; establishing the influence of narrow places in manufacture; regulating the circulation of vehicles etc.
Participatory Rural Appraisal method, a common practice in rural studies, provides the researchers with extensive information in short time. In this regard, Sarroud village is located on the path leading to Ortkand beautiful waterfalls, and despite the great potential for attracting tourists; it not only fails to take advantage of this opportunity, but it also deals with different problems. Therefore, using participatory rural appraisal of women population we attempted to identify the problems of the village in question. The results indicate a lack of specialist physicians, youth unemployment and environmental and cultural problems resulting from tourists commuting and lack of accommodation facilities for them, which was said to be of significant importance by the local residences. \nKeywords: assessing the contribution of rural women, facilitators, information professionals (analysts), rural tourism, Sarroud village.
In this paper, an ultra-low-power comparator based on optimization of depletion and parasitic capacitances in the sub-threshold region is presented. These capacitances have a profound effect on the propagation delay of the comparator circuit under sub-threshold condition. Using a standard 0.18μm CMOS process the designed comparator is simulated and verified. The simulated propagation delay and the power consumption are 51nSec and 69nW, respectively.
The milkweed bug, Spilostethus pandurus, is an agricultural pest in Egypt and some other tropical and subtropical areas. The objective of the present work is to clarify some biological parameters and morphological descriptions to emphasize the future researches from the ecological view point to the physiological study, biochemical study and control programs, integrated pest management program, study. Adult emergence of S. pandurus in summer season was higher than that in winter season. The increased longevity of S. pandurus was associated with prolonged rate of sexual maturation and low mean daily fecundity and that the life span increased during the cold months of the year and decreased during the hot summer and the males lived longer than females. The morphological descriptions of the adult and immature stages of S. pandurus were agreed with the taxonomic illustrations.
Dry matter management of winter wheat during the grain filling period is poorly recognized. The main objective of the study was to explain the impact of nitrogen increasing rates (0, 60, 120, 180 kg N ha-1, under the background of potassium application systems (medium and high K soil fertility levels and applied fertilizer K: 0, 100 kg K2O ha-1) on grain yield development. Dry matter yield of wheat canopy and its plant parts were recorded during three consecutive stages: mid-anthesis (BBCH 65), mid-milk stage (BBCH 75) and final maturity (BBCH 91). In the unfavorable 2003 (drought), the current photosynthesis was the dominant source of assimilates for developing grains up BBCH 75. The final grain yield was limited by low supply of carbohydrates mobilized from pre-anthesis pools following BBCH 75. In the favorable 2004, carbohydrate resources from vegetative wheat were the main source of grain yield. The highest grain yield was recorded in the plot of the medium K soil fertility and applied potassium fertilizer. The main attribute of the high grain yield was the balanced supply of assimilates from current photosynthesis and pre-anthesis resources (50 : 50). In other potassium systems, vegetative pools were the key source of assimilates, in turn causing grain yield decrease. \n\nK e y w o r d s: wheat, nitrogen, potassium, grain filling, dry matter remobilization indices, yield development
When examining brickwork, also ultrasonic pulse method is used to determinate the material properties such as strength, modulus of elasticity, and so on. In general terms, test results are influenced by many factors such as length of measuring base, probe frequency, specimen dimensions, moisture, and internal structure or its defects, and the like. Bricks built in masonry can show various moisture and structure values, but also defects related to manufacturing technology which are acceptable in the light of use nevertheless, they influence test results when testing the bricks by ultrasonic pulse method. Analysis of findings concerning the influence of moisture and brick sounding technique implies that test results are influenced in varying degrees. The highest reproducibility ratio is shown in case of calcium silicate bricks and the lowest one occurs with extruded clay bricks. Here, synergic action of moisture, state of structure (porosity), and clinker defects are manifested. To interpret correctly the test results as obtained by ultrasonic pulse method applied to built-in bricks, it is necessary to take those factors into account. Identical sounding techniques must be always applied in order to obtain comparable test results.
First Turkish existance in England is based on acquiring the English citizenship with the conservation of Cyprus in 1987 by England. First immigration of Turkish people was made by Turkish people as a result of pressure of Greeks in Cyprus started in 1940 and increased in 1974. The immigration from Turkey was started in 1970 because of educational, economic and politic reasons. Furthermore many Turkish people immigrated from Asia, Russia and East Europe. All of the can be called “The community who speak Turkish”.\nThis people’s childrens are bilingual and it is questionable whether which language is their mother language. Normally as long as knowing mother language well being bilingual is advantageous. But the reaserces have shown that for Turkish bilingual children bilingulism is disadvantageous. Unconsious families, being careless on awareness of bilingulism are the reason for their low language levels in two languages. \nIn this research it is concluded that English level of the children between 5 and 16 is higher and families try to preserve their children Turkish level but the teachers don’t consider that this levels are satisfactory. It is determined that families efforts are inconcious and Turkish schools and courses are not sufficent because of many reasons.
The purpose of this study was to test the model of self-esteem, optimism, big five personality traits, namely, extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience in the prediction of presence of meaning and search for meaning dimensions. Totally, 432 (261 female, 171 male) university students with a mean age of 21.28 (SD = 1.91) participated to the study. Structural equation modeling among all personality characteristics revealed that only self-esteem had a significant effect on both meaning in life dimensions namely search for meaning and presence of meaning; optimism and agreeableness significantly affected only presence of meaning dimension. Self-esteem, optimism and agreeableness are the significant predictors on presence of meaning. Particularly, the role of self-esteem is the higher than others in both on meaning in life dimensions similar to existing literature.
Abstract\nThis paper proposes a methodology for evaluating the success of the designed and implemented system for TQM (audit) and its application in some Macedonian companies.\nBut without the commitment of top management to set goals for quality and consistency in their implementation, these efforts will only be spending time and money, while at the same time will reduce the possibility of following such a successful initiative. Successful application of this methodology can only be achieved if business processes are designed and implemented with optimal utilization of resources, in order to work out the best from the first time, no defects, no loss of time and to the satisfaction of all users. This methodology has found a practical application within same of the Macedonian companies. The results displayed universal possibility of application and visible effects. \nKeywords: methodology, evaluation, TQM strategy, quality system.
In this study, the organic carbon content and carbon storage of the Robinia pseudoacacia communities in different stand ages (5, 10, and 25 years old) were investigated in Zhifanggou located in Ansai County, Shaanxi Province. Each of Robinia pseudoacacia communities was divided into four subsystems, i.e., Robinia pseudoacacia, litterfall, companion species and soil, and to be estimated the carbon storage of different parts. The results showed that the soil carbon storage of 5a, 10a and 25a Robinia pseudoacacia communities dropped with the increasing stand ages. However, the carbon storage of Robinia pseudoacacia, litterfall and companion species enhanced gradually with increasing stand ages. For the Robinia pseudoacacia communities, the soil carbon storage occupied a large proportion, accounting for 70~90% of the total carbon storage. The carbon storage of Robinia pseudoacacia ranged from 2% to 13% while that of companion species and litterfall occupied a relatively small proportion, being 0.5%~8% of the total. The total carbon storage of three Robinia pseudoacacia communities were 12.8437 kg m-2, 10.3221 kg m-2, 9.2914 kg m-2, respectively. So 5a Robinia pseudoacacia community was recommended with higher potential in carbon absorption and sequestration.
Abstract:\nIntroduction:Nursing faculties should have a comprehensive curriculum to integrate students\' knowledge and skills of health-promoting. It seems that nursing education has effects on health behaviors. But some studies showed that nursing students are more passive than other students in health-promoting behaviors. Therefore, this study was done with the aim of explaining nursing students\' views in the field of nursing education impact on health promotion.\nMethodology: This study was conducted in qualitative form with the content analysis approach and through deep, and 20 semi-structured interviews with undergraduate nursing students of Tehran city. The participants were selected through purposive sampling.Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and reviewed. Also, codes were extracted and summarized. Then a list of summarized codes was prepared. The codes were subcategorized on the basis of centralization and then were categorized after review of subcategories, and the impact category of nursing education on the students\' health-promoting behaviors was put in spiritual growth theme. \nFindings:After analyzing and encoding, students\' perception of \"positive effects of study in nursing on health promotion\", \"negative effects of study in nursing on health promotion\", \"needs andnecessaryjob actions\", and \"individual actions for countering with nursing negative effects on health promotion\" was recognized.\nDiscussion:According to the effective role of nursing students on society health promotion and mutual effect of society on students\' health, it is suggested that nursing faculties revere the matter of students\' health promotion more.\nKeywords: Perceptions, Nursing students, Nursing education, Health promotion
In this paper, we consider the varying coefficient regression model\nwith unknown regression coefficient functions, and independent and identically distributed random errors. We establish the error variance estimation via a new constructed estimator for unknown coefficient functions. Under some mild assumptions, some approximative properties of error variance estimation, including the asymptotic normality and the optimal Berry-Esseen bound, are derived.
This report presents a research based design guidance of Glass Fibre Reinforced Concrete. Glass Fibre Reinforced Concrete’s production methods are described further on emphasizing on its physical properties and behaviour. Findings show that it is a non-corrosive matrix with low coefficients of thermal expansion. Its strongest property is reduced thickness, which makes it light in weight, and therefore has lower superimposed loads, hence savings in the superstructure cost. The main cause of ageing of the material is chemical attack of the glass fibres and growth of hydration products between the glass filaments. Design of elements and fixings are explained in detail (to Eurocode standard) showing the design to Ultimate Limit State (ULS) and Serviceability Limit State (SLS).
Maternal exposure to air pollution has been related to fetal growth in a number of recent scientific studies. The objective of this study was to assess the association between exposure to air pollution during pregnancy and anthropometric measures at birth in an Ain El-Kebira area in Algeria (36°36\' N and 5°5\' E). The accumulated evidence indicates that children\'s health is adversely affected by air pollution levels currently. Outcome variables were birth weight, length, and head circumference, along with being small for gestational age. The association between exposure to residential outdoor NO2 and outcomes was assessed controlling for potential confounders and examining the shape of the relationship. In view of the fact that input data sets of parameters that are not crisp, we propose that a form of fuzzy logic needs to be adopted. This will help to create a reasoned approach to determine an air pollution effect. The initial data used are measured variables (birth weight, birth length and head circumference of newborns at different distances and different directions from pollution sources cement Manufacturing, wind speed, and months during last decade). The number of cases is considered as an output.
The aim of the study was to evaluate the technological avail of selected beef muscles: m. semitendinosus (BST), m. semimembranosus (BSM), mm. psoas major and minor (BPM) as entire primal cuts in the production of raw fermented meats, with regard to the raw pork rump (RSR) and loin (RSL), widely known in the Podlasie region. The 4-week ripening was conducted. The lowest aw (0.89 and 0.83), pH (5.16 and 4.75) as well as the highest WB shear force (8.50 and 19.96 kG/cm2), TPA hardness (52.12 and 199.24 N) and TPA chewiness (10.35 and 46.18 N) were indicated respectively in the ready-to-eat RSL and BST. The a* values showed an increase in the red colour intensity during the first 2 weeks of processing in beef and during the entire processing period in the pork products. The most substantial colour differences were indicated in the BST and BSM products (∆EL*a*b*=5.27 and 6.48, respectively). The RSR and BPM products obtained the highest grades of the overall impression (4.5 pt), cross-section colour (4.6 pt), structure (4.6 pt), tenderness (4.3 and 4.7 pt) and flavour-desirability (4.6 pt) in the sensory evaluation while the RSL and BPM were the juiciest (4.6 and 4.7 pt).
This paper deals with the estimation of R=Pr (Y< X) when and are two independent but not identically exponentiated Weibull (EW) distributed random variables. MLE, UMVUE and Bayes estimator with Gamma prior are used for this purpose. Also two-sided confidence intervals for are obtained. Simulation studies which compare the estimators are presented. Moreover, sensitivity of Bayes estimator to the prior parameters is considered.
Instant messaging (IM) is a form of phone call over the Internet, that offers speedy communication of text-based messages from sender to receiver. As security issues and threats are playing vital role while transferring the files through chat boxes, transfer of worms and other malware through instant messengers had been detected. Instant messengers can also afford an entrance spot for backdoor Trojan horses. Hackers can use instant messaging to expand backdoor entrance to computers exclusive of opening a snoop port, successfully bypass desktop and boundary firewall implementations. In this Worms and viruses creates many security vulnerabilities to network services. Worms and viruses easily enter the system as it executes in a normal mode and it’s independent in its nature. Worms are generated in multiples and it attacks the remote hosts in network. Thus great challenges are to protect the hosts in the network from the attack of the worm and other threats which has been transmitted by instant messengers. In this paper, with the help of an internet based technology ,XMPP protocol jabber server (open source) we are going to ensure the security of instant messaging services and educate users of the risks involved and the means of extenuating those risks, rather before a serious confrontation occurs and also efficient data hiding in MPEG video using Spatio-temporal. Our experimental results deals with power spectral density (PSD) corresponding with spectral flatness measure (SFM). To identify the traffic by means of frequency domain. Using these set of detection metrics and real world traces we conduct extensive performance evaluation on our proposed detection technique.
Nanoparticles (NPs) are now becoming more and more commonly used and, concequently, concerns about their possible adverse effects are being voiced as well. However, little is known about the fates of NPs released to the environment. The aim of the present study was to: i) evaluate the ability of Sinapis alba and Lepidium sativum plants to take up platinum nanoparticles (Pt-NPs) and translocate them to above-ground organs; ii) compare the accumulation efficiency of different forms of platinum and iii) identify the forms in which platinum is stored in plant tissues. Plants were cultivated on growth medium supplemented with different concentrations (1 – 100 mg L-1) of Pt-NPs and [Pt(NH3)4](NO3)2 (1 mg L-1). Platinum content in plants was determined using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. For the identification of the presence of Pt-NPs in plant tissues gamma spectrometry following iron irradiation was applied. \nIt was found that L. sativum and S. alba are tolerant to applied concentrations of platinum nanoparticles and have an ability to take up platinum from the medium and translocated it to above-ground organs. The highest concentration of platinum was observed in plant roots (reaching 8.7 g kg-1 for S. alba). We tentatively conclude that platinum is accumulated as nanoparticles In plants exposed to platinum salt the amounts of platinum were about 220 times higher for leaves and only 3 times for roots than in plants exposed to the nanoparticles. \nThe obtained results suggest future application of plants for phytoremediation and recovery of noble-metal nanoparticles. Nanoparticles are much safer than the inorganic form of platinum, because the hazards of NPs entering the food chain are much lower in comparison with ionic platinum.
This paper presents an optimum long – term generation maintenance scheduling to enhance the grid reliability using hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization and Shuffled Frog leaping Algorithm. Maintenance scheduling establishes the outage time scheduling of units in a particular time horizon. In a monopolistic power system, maintenance scheduling is being done upon the technical requirements of power plants and preserving the grid reliability. While in power system, technical viewpoints and system reliability are taken into consideration in maintenance scheduling with respect to the economical viewpoint. In this paper a hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization and Shuffled Frog leaping Algorithm methodology for finding the optimum preventive maintenance scheduling of generating units in power system. The objective function is to maintain the units as earlier as possible. Various constraints such as spinning reserve, duration of maintenance and maintenance crew are being taken into account. In case study, a 66 bus utility power system in India with twelve generating units and IEEE test system consist of 24 buses is used.
Ethics is a broad issue which affects quality of services provision in different professions. Certainly, popular profession of accounting is not out of this discussion and major part of accounting process is subject to personal accounting estimates and judgments. In this research, importance of ethics has been studied in the field of education. Therefore, goal of the research is to determine content of ethics courses in different educational levels of accounting. Research method is questionnaire-based. Statistical population included accounting professors, financial managers, auditors and accounting students and results of research obtained from 153 questionnaires have been statistically analyzed. Research findings show that only issues of “studying unethical cases in accounting world “and Fraud protection methods” are taught in PhD and master’s courses of accounting and there is consensus on more and deeper attention to ethical issues of accounting among different spectrums relating to this field.
This paper is the result of theoretical and practical research done in the field of expert systems applicable in economics. The main objective considered was to develop an expert system architecture (which uses as knowledge base the data from the financial statements) and to test it on the economy (in the sense of permanent and automatic updating of accounting knowledge which is taken from the balance sheet and other accounting documents), considering this approach as a new element in the design of ES. Obviously, the ES proposed does not ignore the knowledge base, knowledge editors, inference engine and interfaces specific to any type of expert system.\nThe knowledge base is made up of knowledge (taken from various financial statements), which is processed by the inference engine (the inference machine works with production rules).
