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From the perspective of team difference, combined with multiple SCRUM software development project features, studied the impacts of team communication, team trust, team innovation, team reaction speed and team conflict on the performance of multiple SCRUM software development project. The data was collected by means of electronic questionnaire, then performed multiple regression analysis. Results show that team communication and team reaction speed have significant influence on the performance of multiple SCRUM project. Team trust, team innovation and team conflict have no obvious effect on team performance.

To find the relation between conflict and employee satisfaction in geographically distributed software development (GDD) team, study the characters of GDD team and put forward four types of team conflict: emotional conflict, task conflict, cognitive conflict, and process conflict. Besides, bring in team interaction as an influencing factor of team conflict. Then come up with hypotheses about the impact of team conflict on employee satisfaction. And use collected data to carry out regression analyze. The results show that emotional, task and cognitive conflict all have significant influence on employee satisfaction, instead of process conflict. And emotional conflict and task conflict can change with team interaction. The results can provide some help with handling conflict more efficient and improving the employee satisfaction in GDD team.

This paper first states the characteristics of culture industry and tourism industry then establish the evaluation index for evaluating the development level of these two industries. Take the Shannxi area as an example, we analyze the development level of culture industry and tourism industry and the integration of the two in 11 cities in 2010-2014. The results show that the development level of culture industry and tourism industry in Shannxi area is increasing year by year, but the whole development level of two kinds of industry is low, and the difference of the two kinds of industry integration in different places is great. Moreover, the coupling degree in urban is generally in the verge of disorder and barely imbalance. Based on this, the paper suggests some constructive proposals to promote industrial development.

The area of interest (AOI) reflects the degree of attention of a driver while driving. The division of AOI is visual characteristic analysis required in both real vehicle tests and simulated driving scenarios. Some key eye tracking parameters and their transformations can only be obtained after the division of AOI. In this study, 9 experienced and 7 novice drivers participated in real vehicle driving tests. They were asked to drive along a freeway section and a highway section, wearing the Dikablis eye tracking device. On average, 8132 fixation points for each driver were extracted. After coordinate conversion, the MSAP (Mean Shift Affinity Propagation) method is proposed to classify the distribution of fixation points into a circle type and a rectangle type. Experienced drivers’ fixation behavior falls into the circle type, in which fixation points are concentrated. Novice drivers’ fixation points, which are decentralized, are illustrated in the rectangle type. In the clustering algorithm, the damping coefficient λ determines the algorithm convergence, and the deviation parameter p mainly affects the number of clusters, where larger p values generate more clusters. This study not only provides the cluster type and cluster counts, but also presents the borderlines for each cluster. The findings provide significant contribution to eye tracking research.

Atmospheric polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were monitored monthly from 2010 to 2013 at rural and urban sites near a large shallow Chinese lake (Lake Chaohu). The urban areas had higher air PBDEs than the rural areas because of endogenic pollution. The highest and lowest concentrations of Σ13BDEs were observed in the winter and in the summer, respectively. A weak temperature dependence and significant positive correlations between certain PBDE congeners and the PM10 (p

This work is concerned with the dynamics of a Leslie–Gower predator–prey model with nonmonotonic functional response near the Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation point. By analyzing the characteristic equation associated with the nonhyperbolic equilibrium, the critical value of the delay inducing the Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation is obtained. In this case, the dynamics near this nonhyperbolic equilibrium can be reduced to the study of the dynamics of the corresponding normal form restricted to the associated two-dimensional center manifold. The bifurcation diagram near the Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation point is drawn according to the obtained normal form. We show that the change of delay can result in heteroclinic orbit, homoclinic orbit and unstable limit cycle.

Long-term annual dynamics from 1984 to 2020 (simulation #1) and seasonal variation from May 2010 to February 2011 (simulation #2) of γ-hexachlorocyclohexane (γ-HCH) in various environmental media in Lake Chaohu, China were simulated with an already developed fugacity-based level IV Quantitative Water Air Sediment Interaction (QWASI) model (Kong et al., 2012). The model was modified, as a fish sub-phase was included. Also the emission flux was added to study the impact of the lindane prohibition in simulation #1. Sensitivity analysis was conducted for both static and dynamic parameters, while in uncertainty analysis, both basic Monte Carlo and Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods were undertaken for simulation #2 and the results were compared. Simulated data were consistent with the observations in simulation #1. Seasonal patterns in various media were also successfully modeled in simulation #2 and factors leading to this seasonality were discussed. Atmospheric advection input was the main source. In simulation #2, approximately 36 kilogram (kg) of γ-HCH in Lake Chaohu was removed per year. In addition, 31 kg of γ-HCH was added to Lake Chaohu by air–water interface fluxes, and 13 kg of γ-HCH was added to the sediment by water–sediment interface. Sensitivity of static and dynamic parameters was discussed. Uncertainty analysis by the basic Monte Carlo method for simulation #1 showed that the dispersion for each media was less than two orders of magnitude. Higher dispersions in fish and two sub-phases of the sediment were attributed to a larger variation in the relevant parameters. The MCMC method for simulation #2 eliminated 77% of the model true uncertainty in water ascertained by basic Monte Carlo method and significant elimination in other phases can be speculated. It is suggested that rather than calibrating the model, the main function of the MCMC for fugacity model should be to avoid overestimating uncertainty in model prediction.

The seasonal and spatial variations of phytoplankton community and their correlation with environmental factors, as well as the applicability of phytoplankton to serve as biological water quality indicator in Lake Chaohu are investigated in the present study. 97 phytoplankton species were identified, in which 35.1% of Cyanophyta and 37.1% of Chlorophyta. In terms of the community composition at the annual average level and the spatial distribution, Cyanophyta was absolutely dominant (more than 99.4% of the total). The main dominant species in Lake Chaohu were Microcystis viridis, Microcystis flos-aquae, and Anabaena circinalis, all belonging to Cyanophyta. The average phytoplankton cell density of the dominant species showed substantial seasonal differences. In Lake Chaohu, the M. flos-aquae was dominant in spring and summer; while the M. viridis and the A. circinalis were dominant in autumn and in winter, respectively. The canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) showed that the water temperature (T), oxidation reduction potential (ORP), dissolved oxygen (DO) and orthophosphate (PO43−-P) were the environmental factors having the greatest influence on the phytoplankton community composition in Lake Chaohu, whereas T, ORP, total suspended solids (TSS) and total nitrogen (TN) were the most important environmental factors in the inflow and outflow rivers. The average species number of phytoplankton was lowest, and the average cell density of phytoplankton was highest in summer, which corresponded to the worst water quality, as indicated by physical and chemical indicators, TSS, DO, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total phosphorus (TP); while, in winter, the average species number of phytoplankton was largest, and the average cell density of phytoplankton was lowest, which corresponded to the best water quality, as indicated by TSS, DO, COD and TP. This implied that the species number and cell density of phytoplankton could serve as biological water quality indicators, which would give overall descriptions of water quality by combining with the physical and chemical indicators.

The priority control screening (PCS) and water quality benchmarking (WQB) of toxic chemicals in water are key steps to ensure the safety of drinking water and aquatic ecosystem that is the crucial goal of water environment management. Owing to the different levels of social-economic development in different countries and regions, the PCS and WQB of toxic chemicals must be determined in accordance with their specific water environment situations. However, in China, the PCS and WQB of toxic chemicals in water were mainly introduced from the other countries. A method for the PCS and WQB of toxic chemicals in water based on the ecological risks was proposed, and a platform named Bayesian Matbugs Calculator (BMC) was developed. As a case study, the WQB and PCS of sixty-nine PTSs based their ecological risks were performed on the basis of one-year monthly monitoring in Lake Chaohu. The results showed that the current national water quality criteria (WQC) would underestimate the toxicological risk to organisms in this aquatic ecosystem. It appears necessary to develop new WQC for the protection of aquatic organisms in Lake Chaohu. Four grades of priority control chemicals (PCCs) in Lake Chaohu were proposed. The highest priority was assigned to organonitrogen-phosphorus pesticides, including parathion, dichlorvos, malathion, omethoate, and di-n-butyl phthalate. However, the national “blacklist” of toxic compounds only covered 7 of 20 PCCs, indicating that the other 13 PCCs would not be controlled efficiently. Because the pollution pattern of PTSs in various water bodies might be quite different, we appealed to the governments to screen the regional PPC lists or develop a more comprehensive national list for aquatic ecosystem protection in China.

In Web data integration,selecting data from a Web data source collection such that the specific query intents are satisfied while the number of accesses to data sources is minimized and the quality of returned results are guaranteed is a popular topic.In this paper,using the researches and practices in recent ten years as the background,the study focuses on the evolution and presents research in the area of Web data source selection and classifies Web data source selection methods.In addition,the paper discusses the research motivations,methods and results of relevance-based data source selection and quality-based data source selection.Moreover,the paper introduces the correlation research results and analyzes their destinations,key techniques,merits and demerits.Finally,some directions for future research are put forward.

We investigate the dynamics of a delayed neural network model consisting ofnidentical neurons. We first analyze stability of the zero solution and then study the effect of time delay on the dynamics of the system. We also investigate the steady state bifurcations and their stability. The direction and stability of the Hopf bifurcation and the pitchfork bifurcation are analyzed by using the derived normal forms on center manifolds. Then, the spatiotemporal patterns of bifurcating periodic solutions are investigated by using the symmetric bifurcation theory, Lie group theory andS1-equivariant degree theory. Finally, two neural network models with four or seven neurons are used to verify our theoretical results.

Aerosol pollution episodes have frequently occurred in China in recent years, and the airborne trace elements in particulate matter have been a cause for concern worldwide because of their impacts on human health. However, there is limited information on the hourly variations of airborne trace elements. This paper describes a detailed investigation conducted in March 2013 on the hourly variations and potential sources of airborne trace elements. Trace elements in particles with aerodynamic diameters less than 10 μm (PM_(10)) were monitored on-line in four representative regions with similar latitudes in southeastern China. Our results showed that the number of species of elements in PM_(10) detected at urban sites and an industrial park was greater than that at a rural site, due to the influences of human activities. The hourly variation patterns of trace elements indicated that their concentrations were stable during the day at the rural site, whereas a visible ＂double peak＂ of Pb and Cu was observed in the tourist city and a ＂single morning peak＂ of Pb and As was seen in the industrial city. These variations indicated the abundant traffic in the tourist city, and strong industrial emissions in the industrial city. However, the single morning peak and the slight double peak patterns of the trace elements were both found at the industrial park, indicating a combined source of industry and traffic. The results from the source identification also indicated that the sources of airborne elements were mainly industrial emissions at industrial sites, whereas the elements in the tourist city might primarily result from traffic. The correlations between PM_(10) concentrations and trace element concentrations were also studied. The results revealed that PM_(10) correlated better with elements originating from natural sources (e.g., K, Ca, Fe) than with those from anthropogenic sources (e.g., Pb, Zn, Cu). Our results provide a scientific basis for pollution control strategies at these sites.

Crash occurrences are random rare events which are difficult to detect and reconstruct. Evaluating traffic safety using crash surrogate measures instead of historical crash data is attracting more and more attention. The trajectory, a continuous function of a vehicle’s temporal-spatial kinestate, is capable of depicting the process of crash potentials by means of theoretical analysis or simulation. The trajectory provides easy access to accurate calculation of the commonly used safety surrogate indicators like TTC and PET, which are difficult to obtain in practice. TTC and PET are the time differences between two vehicles during a quasi accident process. Compared with the situation in the final conflicting point, two vehicles may encounter a smaller distance or a bigger speed variation while approaching the conflict point. TTC and PET are deficient in describing abreast driving, or distinguishing the severity levels for approximately equal TTC (PET) cases. To remedy these shortcomings, this paper proposes a surrogate indicator Kj, the ratio of conflicting distance divided by relative speed. And an exponential model is developed to predict the conflict probability. Kj and the conflict probability are both time frame based, illustrating the changing process at each time frame during a conflict phase. The indicator Kj and conflict probability make it easier to describe the conflict mechanism and distinguish the levels of conflict severity.

The role of interleukin 17 (IL-17) to epilepsy-associated cortical tubers of tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is unknown. We investigated the expression patterns of the IL-17 and IL-17 receptor (IL-17R) in cortical tubers of TSC compared with normal control cortex (CTX). We found that IL-17 and IL-17R were clearly upregulated in cortical tubers at the protein levels. Immunostaining indicated that IL-17 was specifically distributed in the innate immunity cells (DNs, GCs, astrocytes, and microglia) and adaptive immunity cells (T-lymphocytes) as well as the endothelial cells of blood vessels. The overexpression and distribution patterns of IL-17 may be involved in the epileptogenicity of cortical tubers in TSC.

With the development of world science and technology, people's quality of life and living standard is also improving gradually, so the technology of remote access and control system will be born. The household appliances are carried out the remote access based on infrared communication technology, to construct the infrared communication coding protocol procedures, it can pass through the procedures to achieve the related functions of various electrical appliances with the organic coordination, in order to remote access for the household appliances. At the same time through the timing function of the infrared communication technology, it can be form a complete access and the control system, and can be the formation of the received infrared communication and emission flow diagram, in order to achieve the largest household appliance function and use, effectively guide people better infrared communication technology to be widely and effectively used.

To improve the accuracy of gait recognition by fully utilizing gait information, a human gait recognition algorithm based on the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and the Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) is proposed in this paper. First, frequency-domain features are extracted from the Gait Energy Image (GEI) by DCT, which can effectively distinguish different frequency components of human gait. Then, these frequency features are further mapped into the optimal discriminant vectors space by LDA, which can enhance the discrimination and reduce dimensions of features. Finally, the identity recognition is implemented according to the shortest similarity distance. Experiments on the database provided by Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Automation) demonstrate that the proposed feature extraction strategy has the highest recognition rate among the compared methods.

This paper refers to the fundamental distinguishing characteristics of agriculture in Heilongjiang Province, and analyses the current state of agricultural industrialization including: the regionalization of agricultural production centered on food production; the development trends which emphasize such matters as the quality of commodities; processing capacity; the cultivation of brand-name goods; and production models. In addition it raises problem points which should be paid attention to for the development of agricultural industrialized production.

This paper presents a continuous atmospheric heavy metals monitoring system (AMMS-100) for heavy metals analysis based on X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technology. The AMMS-100 is used to collect the sample automatically with filters and then measure the concentrations of heavy metals by XRF. The accuracy of AMMS-100 for heavy metals analysis has been verified by the standard method. The relative errors, such as Pb and Fe, are lower than 10%. Moreover, the AMMS-100 can be used for long-term continuous monitoring the atmospheric heavy metals under different weather condition. The AMMS-100 described herein presents a continuous system for accurate analysis of atmospheric heavy metals with long-term stability.

ZnO thin films were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering. The effects working pressures on the microstructure, optical properties and the photoluminescent properties were studied. The results show that ZnO thin films were successfully prepared with preferred orientation growth, showing structure of single crystal. The transmission of all the ZnO thin films kept above 85%. With increasing the working pressure, the surface of ZnO thin film became coarse, the intensity of X-ray diffraction peak decreased and the transmission of the film decreased and then increased. The intensity of the two photoluminescence peak of ZnO thin films one ultraviolet peak at 400 nm and one blue peak at 466 nm increased with increasing the working pressure. The ultraviolet peak was originated from the transition emission of the electrons from the conduction band to the valence band while the blue peak was originated from the defects in ZnO thin films.

TiO2/(Ag) thin films were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering. The effects of Ag-doping on the microstructure and properties were compared studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis spectra and photocatalysis tesing, respectively. The results show that when doped with Ag, the surface of TiO2 thin film was improved and the growth of anatase phase was promoted. The absoption properties of Ag-doped TiO2 thin film was enhanced dramatically compared with that of TiO2 thin film. And the photocatalysis properties of Ag-doped TiO2 thin film was increased twice as well.

Acute fatty liver of pregnancy (AFLP) is a rare disease of progressive hepatic insufficiency and secondary systemic complications that induce significant maternal risk. The application of combining plasma exchange (PE) and continuous hemodiafiltration (CHDF) is a novel concept for patients with AFLP. Since 2002, we have utilized the combination of PE with CHDF as adjunctive medical therapy for 11 AFLP patients with multiple organ dysfunction. Before PE and CHDF initiation, four patients had signs and symptoms of encephalopathy, four required ventilatory support, and all 11 were developing liver failure, significant renal compromise, and coagulopathy. PE combined with CHDF for patients was initiated a mean of 2 days postpartum (range, days 0-3). Daily or every other day PE combined with CHDF was undertaken on two to eight occasions for each of the 11 patients. Ten patients responded with composite clinical and laboratory improvement and were discharged to the ward, then cured and discharged from hospital; one patient died of septic shock. Average duration of hospitalization was 17 days (range, days 9-38) from time of admission to discharge; the average duration of intensive care unit was 10 days (range, days 4-23). No significant PE- and CHDF-related complications occurred. These results indicate that combing PE and CHDF in a series-parallel circuit is an effective and safe treatment for patients with severe AFLP. This finding may have important implications for the development of an effective treatment for patients with AFLP suffering multiple organ dysfunction.

TiO2 and Ni-doped TiO2 thin films were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering. The effects of Ni-doping on the microstructure and properties were studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis spectra and photocatalysis tesing, respectively. The results show that TiO2 thin films were successfully prepared with smooth surface. When doped with Ni, the surface of TiO2 thin film was improved and the growth of anatase phase was also promoted. With increasing the sputtering power of Ni, the absorption edge wavelegth red shifted and the photocatalysis property of TiO2 thin films was increased and then decreased

In this paper we deal with a cubic near-Hamiltonian system whose unperturbed system is a simple cubic Hamiltonian system having a nilpotent center. We prove that the system can have 5 limit cycles by using bifurcation theory.

The levels of 18 organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in the water from Lake Chaohu were measured by a solid phase extraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometer detector. The spatial and temporal distribution, possible sources, and potential ecological risks of the OCPs were analyzed. The annual mean concentration for the OCPs in Lake Chaohu was 6.99 ng/L. Aldrin, HCHs, and DDTs accounted for large proportions of the OCPs. The spatial pollution followed the order of Central Lakes > Western Lakes > Eastern Lakes and water area. The sources of the HCHs were mainly from the historical usage of lindane. DDTs were degraded under aerobic conditions, and the main sources were from the use of technical DDTs. The ecological risks of 5 OCPs were assessed by the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) method in the order of heptachlor > γ-HCH > p,p′-DDT > aldrin > endrin. The combining risks of all sampling sites were MS > JC > ZM > TX, and those of different species were crustaceans > fish > insects and spiders. Overall, the ecological risks of OCP contaminants on aquatic animals were very low.

To evaluate the potential preventive effect of probiotics on ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). This was an open-label, randomized, controlled multicenter trial involving 235 critically ill adult patients who were expected to receive mechanical ventilation for ≥48 h. The patients were randomized to receive (1) a probiotics capsule containing live Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus faecalis (Medilac-S) 0.5 g three times daily through a nasogastric feeding tube plus standard preventive strategies or (2) standard preventive strategies alone, for a maximum of 14 days. The development of VAP was evaluated daily, and throat swabs and gastric aspirate were cultured at baseline and once or twice weekly thereafter. The incidence of microbiologically confirmed VAP in the probiotics group was significantly lower than that in the control patients (36.4 vs. 50.4 %, respectively; P = 0.031). The mean time to develop VAP was significantly longer in the probiotics group than in the control group (10.4 vs. 7.5 days, respectively; P = 0.022). The proportion of patients with acquisition of gastric colonization of potentially pathogenic microorganisms (PPMOs) was lower in the probiotics group (24 %) than the control group (44 %) (P = 0.004). However, the proportion of patients with eradication PPMO colonization on both sites of the oropharynx and stomach were not significantly different between the two groups. The administration of probiotics did not result in any improvement in the incidence of clinically suspected VAP, antimicrobial consumption, duration of mechanical ventilation, mortality and length of hospital stay. Therapy with the probiotic bacteria B. Subtilis and E. faecalis are an effective and safe means for preventing VAP and the acquisition of PPMO colonization in the stomach.

Aiming at secure analog speech communication, a homology sound-based algorithm for speech signal interference is proposed in this paper. We first split speech signal into phonetic fragments by a short-term energy method and establish an interference noise cache library with the phonetic fragments. Then we implement the homology sound interference by mixing the randomly selected interferential fragments and the original speech in real time. The computer simulation results indicated that the interference produced by this algorithm has advantages of real time, randomness, and high correlation with the original signal, comparing with the traditional noise interference methods such as white noise interference. After further studies, the proposed algorithm may be readily used in secure speech communication.

Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) is a frequent form of focal intractable epilepsy in adults. We previously reported overexpression of vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C) and its receptors, VEGFR-2 and VEGFR-3, in epilepsy-associated tuberous sclerosis complex. To identify whether VEGF-C and its receptors are involved in epileptogenesis of MTLE, we investigated the levels and expression pattern of VEGF-C and its receptors in temporal neocortex and hippocampus (HPC) from 28 patients with MTLE and ten control (CTX) subjects. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting results revealed upregulated mRNA and immunoreactive protein levels of VEGF-C, VEGFR-2, and VEGFR-3 in the MTLE group compared to the control groups. Immunohistochemistry and double-labeled immunofluorescence showed that VEGF-C was highly expressed in neurons and astrocytes, including reactive astrocytes and vascular endothelial cells, VEGFR-2 was expressed at a high level in reactive astrocytes and vascular endothelial cells, but not in neurons, whereas VEGFR-3 was only overexpressed in reactive astrocytes. Taken together, these findings suggest that VEGF-C and its receptors, VEGFR-2 and VEGFR-3, may contribute to the epileptogenesis of MTLE.

Joel Katz,1–3 Aliza Weinrib,1,2 Samantha R Fashler,2 Rita Katznelzon,1,3 Bansi R Shah,1 Salima SJ Ladak,1 Jiao Jiang,1 Qing Li,1 Kayla McMillan,1 Daniel Santa Mina,5,6 Kirsten Wentlandt,7 Karen McRae,1,3 Diana Tamir,1,3 Sheldon Lyn,1,3 Marc de Perrot,8 Vivek Rao,9 David Grant,10 Graham Roche-Nagle,11 Sean P Cleary,12 Stefan OP Hofer,13 Ralph Gilbert,14 Duminda Wijeysundera,1,3 Paul Ritvo,15 Tahir Janmohamed,16 Gerald O’Leary,1,3 Hance Clarke1,3 1Department of Anesthesia and Pain Management, Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network, University of Toronto, 2Department of Psychology, York University, 3Department of Anesthesia, University of Toronto, 4Palliative Care, University Health Network, University of Toronto, 5Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, University of Toronto, 6Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto, 7Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, 8Division of Thoracic Surgery, Toronto General Hospital, 9Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Toronto General Hospital, 10Multiorgan Transplant Program, Toronto General Hospital, 11Division of Vascular Surgery, Toronto General Hospital, 12Division of General Surgery, Toronto General Hospital, 13Division of Plastic Surgery, Toronto General Hospital, 14Division of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Toronto General Hospital, 15Department of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, 16ManagingLife, Toronto, ON, CanadaAbstract: Chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP), an often unanticipated result of necessary and even life-saving procedures, develops in 5–10% of patients one-year after major surgery. Substantial advances have been made in identifying patients at elevated risk of developing CPSP based on perioperative pain, opioid use, and negative affect, including depression, anxiety, pain catastrophizing, and posttraumatic stress disorder-like symptoms. The Transitional Pain Service (TPS) at Toronto General Hospital (TGH) is the first to comprehensively address the problem of CPSP at three stages: 1) preoperatively, 2) postoperatively in hospital, and 3) postoperatively in an outpatient setting for up to 6 months after surgery. Patients at high risk for CPSP are identified early and offered coordinated and comprehensive care by the multidisciplinary team consisting of pain physicians, advanced practice nurses, psychologists, and physiotherapists. Access to expert intervention through the Transitional Pain Service bypasses typically long wait times for surgical patients to be referred and seen in chronic pain clinics. This affords the opportunity to impact patients' pain trajectories, preventing the transition from acute to chronic pain, and reducing suffering, disability, and health care costs. In this report, we describe the workings of the Transitional Pain Service at Toronto General Hospital, including the clinical algorithm used to identify patients, and clinical services offered to patients as they transition through the stages of surgical recovery. We describe the role of the psychological treatment, which draws on innovations in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy that allow for brief and effective behavioral interventions to be applied transdiagnostically and preventatively. Finally, we describe our vision for future growth. Keywords: Transitional Pain Service, chronic postsurgical pain, transition to chronic pain, opioid use, multidisciplinary treatment

A new polythiophene derivative, poly[3,4-bis-(1,3-dioxane-2-ylethyl) thiophene] (PBDT) with two 1,3-dioxane groups was synthesized via two-step strategy. Firstly, a precursor polymer poly(3,4-dibromothiophene) (PDBrT) was prepared, and secondly the bromo-atoms were substituted by 1,3-dioxan-2-ylethyl groups to get the target polymer. The later reaction was monitored by FTIR spectroscopy. Molecular weights of PBDT were measured by GPC. In addition, the optical absorption and photoluminescence (PL) of PBDT and PDBrT were investigated and demonstrated that the maximum emission wavelength of PBDT was red-shifted about 80 nm in comparison with that of PDBrT, which was due to the effects of electron withdrawing and steric repulsion between two 1,3-dioxane-2-ylethyl groups.

Well-defined CdS nanorod arrays were pepared via a facile one-step hydrothermal approach and Poly (N-vinyl carbazole) (PVK)/CdS nanocomposites were fabricated by spin-coating chloroform solution of PVK on the surface of CdS film. A variety of techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical absorption and photoluminescence (PL) were employed to investigate the surface morphology and optical properties of PVK/CdS nanocomposites. Photoluminescence efficiency of nanocomposites decreases compared to pure PVK and CdS nanorod arrays due to quenching through high photocharge generation quantum efficiency and high charge transport between inorganic semiconductor and conducting polymer.

Two novel polythiophenes with 1,3-dioxane group in the side chain named poly[3-(1,3-dioxane-2-ylethyl)thiophene] (PDT) and poly[3-(1,3-dioxane-2-ylethyl)-4-methyl- thiophene] (PDMT) were synthesized via oxidative polymerization firstly to form their precursor polymers and substitution secondly to obtain the target polymers in this paper. The chemical structures, molecular weights, thermal properties of the polymers were characterized by 1H NMR, FT-IR, GPC, and TGA respectively, indicating that both polymers had high molecular weight and good thermal stability. Meanwhile, the optical absorption and photoluminescence (PL) of both polymers were investigated and the results showed that the maximum absorption and emission wavelengths of PDMT were blue-shifted than that of PDT due to its methyl-substitution at 4-position in thiophene.

Infrared sky background level is an important parameter of infrared astronomy observations from the ground, particularly for a candidate site of an infrared capable observatory since low background level is required for such a site. The Chinese astronomical community is looking for a suitable site for a future 12 m telescope, which is designed for working in both optical and infrared wavelengths. However, none of the proposed sites has been tested for infrared observations. Nevertheless, infrared sky background measurements are also important during the design of infrared observing instruments. Based on the requirement, in order to supplement the current site survey data and guide the design of future infrared instruments, a multiband near-infrared sky brightness monitor (MNISBM) based on an InSb sensor is designed in this paper. The MNISBM consists of an optical system, mechanical structure and control system, detector and cooler, high gain readout electronics, and operational software. It is completed and tested in the laboratory. The results show that the sensitivity of the MNISBM meets the requirements of the measurement of near-infrared sky background level of several well-known astronomical infrared observing sites.

Tracking clustering objects with similar appearances simultaneously in collective scenes is a challenging task in the field of collective motion analysis. Recent work on clustering-object tracking often suffers from poor tracking accuracy and terrible real-time performance due to the neglect or the misjudgment of the motion differences among objects. To address this problem, we propose a subgroup motion pattern segmentation framework based on a multilayer clustering structure and establish spatial constraints only among objects in the same subgroup, which entails having consistent motion direction and close spatial position. In addition, the subgroup segmentation results are updated dynamically because crowd motion patterns are changeable and affected by objects’ destinations and scene structures. The spatial structure information combined with the appearance similarity information is used in the structure preserving object tracking framework to track objects. Extensive experiments conducted on several datasets containing multiple real-world crowd scenes validate the accuracy and the robustness of the presented algorithm for tracking objects in collective scenes.

NSFC [20832005, 20602028]; Innovative Research Team in Science & Technology (University) in Fujian Province

As we know, the Lienard system and its generalized forms are classical and important models of nonlinear oscillators, and have been widely studied by mathematicians and scientists. The main problem considered by most people is the number of limit cycles. In this paper, we investigate two kinds of Lienard systems and obtain the maximal number (i.e. the least upper bound) of limit cycles appearing in Hopf bifurcations by applying some known bifurcation theorems with technical analysis.

In this paper we deal with a centrally symmetric quintic near-Hamiltonian system whose unperturbed system is a simple cubic Hamiltonian system having a nilpotent center. We prove that the system can have ten limit cycles by using a homoclinic bifurcation method based on stability-change.

Regioselective Grignard reagent additions to 3-methoxymaleimidesand subsequent diastereoselective reductive dehydroxylation of theresulting N, O-acetalswere studied. On the basis of these studies, a flexible and highlyregio- and diastereoselective approach to methyl 5-alkyltetramatederivatives was disclosed. The method is the first direct and flexibleasymmetric cationic synthon-based approach, and allows for the synthesisof various methyl (5 S)-5-alkyltetramatederivatives that are otherwise inaccessible by the commonly usedmethods based on α-amino acids.

As we know, Hopf bifurcation is an important part of bifurcation theory of dynamical systems. Almost all known works are concerned with the bifurcation and number of limit cycles near a nondegenerate focus or center. In the present paper, we study a general near-Hamiltonian system on the plane whose unperturbed system has a nilpotent center. We obtain an expansion for the first order Melnikov function near the center together with a computing method for the first coefficients. Using these coefficients, we obtain a new bifurcation theorem concerning the limit cycle bifurcation near the nilpotent center. An interesting application example & a cubic system having five limit cycles & is also presented.

Background Sodium 4-phenylbutanoate (NaPB) can induce cellular differentiation and cell cycle arrest. However, its potential anticancer properties in hepatocellular carcinoma and influence on normal liver cell are still unclear. We observed the effects of NaPB on growth inhibition, including differentiation and phase growth arrest in normal liver cell line L-02 and hepatocellular carcinoma cell line Bel-7402. Furthermore, we investigated its mechanism in Bel-7402. Methods Hepatocellular carcinoma cells Bel-7402 and normal liver cell line L-02 were treated with NaPB at different concentrations. Light microscopy was used to find morphological change in cells. Cell cycle was detected by flow cytometry. Expression of acetylating histone H4 and of histones deacetylase 4 (HDAC4) were determined by Western blot. The expression of P21 WAF1/CIP1 and E-cadherin were observed through immunocytochemistry. Results NaPB treatment led to time dependent growth inhibition in hepatocellular carcinoma cells Bel-7402. NaPB treatment caused a significant decline in the fraction of S phase cells and a significant increase in G 0 /G 1 cells. NaPB increased the expression of P21 WAF1/CIP1 and E-cadherin in Bel-7402 and significantly decreased the level of HDAC4 in Bel-7402. NaPB significantly improved the level of acetylating histone H4. The normal liver cell line L-02 showed no distinct changes under treatment with NaPB. Conclusions NaPB inhibited the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma cells Bel-7402 and induced partial differentiation through enhancing the acetylating histones. In Bel-7402, the expressions of P21 WAF1/CIP1 and E-cadherin may be related to level of acetylating histones and inhibition of cellular growth. NaPB showed no significant effect on normal liver cells.

We investigate a general near-Hamiltonian system on the plane whose unperturbed system has a nilpotent center. Our main purpose is to give an algorithm for calculating the first coefficients of the expansion of the first order Melnikov function. We also give an application by using the method and obtain the number of limit cycles of a cubic system.

Liénard systems and their generalized forms are classical and important models of nonlinear oscillators, and have been widely studied by mathematicians and scientists. The main problem considered is the maximal number of limit cycles that the system can have. In this paper, two types of symmetric polynomial Liénard systems are investigated and the maximal number of limit cycles bifurcating from Hopf singularity is obtained. A global result is also presented.

Bioleaching combined with Fenton-like oxidation was used to condition sewage sludge. The results showed that it took approximately 1 d to decrease pH from 6.9 to 2.5 by bioleaching, with fixed sulfur power and FeSO4 x 7H2O dosages of 3 g x L(-1) and 8 g x L(-1), respectively. After bioleaching, the volatile solids(VS) reduction was 13.4%, and the specific resistance to filtration(SRF) dropped from 3.1 x 10(9)s2 x g(-1) to 1.5 x 10(9)s2 x g(-1) with a reduction of 51.6%, but the bioleached sludge was still difficult to be dewatered. The bioleached sludge was further oxidized by Fenton-like oxidation. The results indicated that the optimal H2O2 dosage and reaction time were 3.3 g x L(-1) and 60 min, respectively. Under the optimal conditions, VS reduction was 30.8%, SRF was declined to 1.9 x 10(8) s2 x g(-1) with a reduction of 93.9%, and the moisture of sludge cake was 76.9%. After treated by bioleaching combined with Fenton-like oxidation, the dewaterability and stability of sewage sludge were significantly improved. Besides, the combined technology was more efficient in conditioning sewage sludge than single Fenton-like oxidation.

Rock-fall impact is the main threat to the roads and bridges. The research background, methodology and literature review are introduced respectively on rock-fall impact to traditional reinforced concrete shed-hole and flexible steel shed-hole. The impact force transmission mechanism is brought into focus. It combines with the advantages and disadvantages. And the development trends in the future is discussed.

The toxic effects of ethyl cinnamate on the photosynthetic and physiological characteristics ofChlorella vulgariswere studied based on chlorophyll fluorescence and flow cytometry analysis. Parameters, including biomass,Fv/Fm(maximal photochemical efficiency of PSII), ФPSII(actual photochemical efficiency of PSII in the light), FDA, and PI staining fluorescence, were measured. The results showed the following: (1) The inhibition on biomass increased as the exposure concentration increased. 1 mg/L ethyl cinnamate was sufficient to reduce the total biomass ofC. vulgaris. The 48-h and 72-h EC50 values were 2.07 mg/L (1.94–2.20) and 1.89 mg/L (1.82–1.97). (2) After 24 h of exposure to 2–4 mg/L ethyl cinnamate, the photosynthesis ofC. vulgarisalmost ceased, manifesting in ФPSIIbeing close to zero. After 72 h of exposure to 4 mg/L ethyl cinnamate, theFv/FmofC. vulgarisdropped to zero. (3) Ethyl cinnamate also affected the cellular physiology ofC. vulgaris, but these effects resulted in the inhibition of cell yield rather than cell death. Exposure to ethyl cinnamate resulted in decreased esterase activities inC. vulgaris, increased average cell size, and altered intensities of chlorophyll a fluorescence. Overall, esterase activity was the most sensitive variable.