I propose a comprehensive account of negation as a modal operator, vindicating a moderate logical pluralism. Negation is taken as a quantifier on worlds, restricted by an accessibility relation encoding the basic concept of compatibility. This latter captures the core meaning of the operator. While some candidate negations are then ruled out as violating plausible constraints on compatibility, ...

In this study, a new approach to edge detection on images, corrupted with Gaussian and impulsive noise, is presented. The concept, under the decomposition of image with its principal component being an analysis on local pixel grouping for noise suppression, called LPGPCA based denoising, is adopted in order to obtain noiseless gradient maps for edge extraction. As a result, an algorithm has bee...

Woven fabrics prove to be a very convenient fibre reinforcement when prepreg layers have to be draped on to double curvature moulds. The process of draping causes the angle between the warp and weft yarns to vary over the product with this double curvature. As a result, the thermomechanical properties of the fibre reinforced composite material show a corresponding distribution. These thermo-ela...

Model-Driven Security (Mds) has emerged as a promising sound methodology for modern secure systems development. Following the advances in Mds, our work described in this paper has proposed a solution to better support secure systems development, and further strengthens Mds. Our Mds solution focuses on modularity and reusability in secure systems development. On one hand, we have proposed a modu...

Experiments in Niger assessed whether extreme environmental conditions including sunlight exposure affect the performance of triple-layer PICS bags in protecting cowpea grain against bruchids. Sets of PICS bags and woven polypropylene bags as controls containing 50 kg of naturally infested cowpea grain were held in the laboratory or outside with sun exposure for four and one-half months. PICS b...

BACKGROUND Bacteria from the hospital environment, including linens and curtains, are often responsible for hospital-associated infections. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the bactericidal effects of fabrics coated with the hydroxyapatite-binding silver/titanium dioxide ceramic nanocomposite "Earth-plus". METHODS Bactericidal activities of woven and nonwoven fabrics coated with E...

The thermo-responsive polymer poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) has received widespread attention for its in vitro application in the non-invasive, non-destructive release of adherent cells on two dimensional surfaces. In this study, 3D non-woven scaffolds fabricated from poly(propylene) (PP), poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), and nylon that had been grafted with PNIPAAm were tested for their abili...

The histopathology of bone is described in 60 patients with chronic renal failure due to a variety of renal diseases. Changes of azotaemic renal osteodystrophy included osteitis fibrosa, osteomalacia, and osteosclerosis. Quantitative histology using a point-counting technique revealed a significant increase in total bone, mineralized bone, and osteoid in comparison with a control group of 68 in...

The arterial grafts currently in use are classified into five basic categories; 10 different commercially available prostheses were chosen to represent these categories. The Vascutek and Bionit are made from knitted Dacron and have medium porosity, requiring preclotting by the surgeon. The DeBakey Soft Woven and Plasma TFE grafts are made from woven Dacron and have low porosity, not requiring p...