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A standard-free method developed by ourselves has been applied to bio-medical samples of less than 1 mg or less than 1 μl, to which an ordinary internal standard method can not be accurately applied. As the result, correct values of potassium concentration in NIST-Bovine liver samples of nearly 0.5 mg were obtained. Furthermore, the standard-free method has been applied to small quantity of serum and whole-blood samples, and satisfactory results were obtained. For samples which easily peel off from a backing film, such as serum and whole blood, a carbon tape with an adhesive agent was also used as a backing film, and it is found that this method is also applicable. Moreover, the standard-free method was confirmed to be effective for a case where a specially designed x-ray absorber is used.

A Standard-free method, which has been developed by ourselves, was applied to powdered biomedical samples to which a conventional method of quantitative analysis, such as an internal standard method, can not be successfully applied. First, NIST-Bovine liver and NIES-rice targets, which are powdered as they are, were analyzed by the standard-free method and correct quantitative values of potassium and manganese concentration, which are consistent with those obtained by the conventional internal standard method, were obtained. Furthermore, for relative values of concentration of various elements, almost the best results we have ever had were obtained. Next, the present method has been successfully applied to a hard tissue sample (mouse bone), which is quite difficult to be accurately analyzed by the internal standard method. In order to solve the problem of falling off of powdered samples from a backing film, a carbon tape with an adhesive agent has been examined and found to be quite effective.

A theoretical comparison has been made for some calcium isotopes (${}_{20}$Ca) which are even–even nuclei and have the atomic mass (Z = 20) with its previous experimental data. Theoretical calculations of some ${}_{20}$Ca isotopes (A = 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52) adopted by the shell model theory were performed to calculate the transition rate B(E2), theoretical intrinsic quadruple moments ($Q_{0\mathrm{\text{Th}}})$ and theoretical deformation parameters (${\beta }_2$, $\delta {)}_{\mathrm{\text{Th}}}$ were calculated by two methods by using different effective interactions for each isotope such as, su3fp, fpbm, fprkb, fpd6, kb3. Through code NuShellX@MSU, the single-body density matrix was calculated. The effects of the core polarization were neglected by adopting various effective charges that were employed, effective charges of conventional (Con-E), effective charges of standard (St-E) and effective charges of Bohr and Mottelson (B-M-E) which were calculated. The theoretical values of the B(E2)_Th, the $Q_{0\mathrm{\text{Th}}}$ and the (${\beta }_2$, $\delta {)}_{\mathrm{\text{Th}}}$ were then compared with the previous experimental data where values of the transition rate B(E2)_Th, theoretical intrinsic quadrupole moments $Q_{0\mathrm{\text{Th}}}$ and theoretical deformation parameter (${\beta }_2$, $\delta {)}_{\mathrm{\text{Th}}}$, using the fpbm, the fpd6 and the kb3 interactions were the best.

Having significantly interacted over 17 years with Abdus Salam, as an undergraduate, postgraduate, postdoc, and eventually as an academic colleague, I will try to paint a personal picture of Salam which may convey something about the man, his greatness and his humanity.

The globalization of the economy and the competition between emerging countries has compelled machinery manufacturers in developed countries to have new production methods in an environment of "consensual" standardization and extensive regulation. However, very little research has focused on the use of these standards and regulations. This empirical exploratory study aims to develop a profile of the adoption and use of normative and regulatory documents by Québec machinery manufacturers. It investigated the data from 46 manufacturing companies in this Canadian province. The statistical analyses led to many relevant findings. They revealed that some factual characteristics positively affect these companies' use of standards and regulations. However, other apparently important factors, but having no significant impact, were also identified. The results will serve as tools for the actors (machine designers, quality and safety and health managers, government agencies, and universities) in improving machinery production and utilization conditions in Québec, Canada and elsewhere.

This article addresses the problem of standard Romanization of Arabic names using undiacritized-Arabic forms and their corresponding non-standard Romanization. The Romanization of Arabic names has long been studied and standardized. Huge amounts of non-standard Arabic databases of Romanized names exist that are in use in many private and government agencies. Examples of such applications are passport name holder databases, phone directories, and geographic names databases. Dealing with such databases can be inefficient and can produce inconsistent results. Converting such databases into their standard Romanization can help in solving these problems.

In this paper, we present an efficient algorithmic software implementation which produces standard Romanization of Arabic alphabet name presentation by utilizing the hints in the existing non-standard Romanized databases. The results of the software implementation have proven to be very promising.

The common robot communication platform using Web Service is well accepted and becoming popular gradually. One of the key components for robot communication platform is the reliable messaging which provides reliable high performance message transfer. Both conforming to standard specifications and interoperability among multiple implementations are critical requirements for the platform, because different robots and different services should be able to connect and communicate each other on the platform. However, there is no conformance/interoperability testing tool for the reliable message component of Web Services. This paper describes requirements for the conformance and interoperability testing for Web Service technologies, and how we developed the verification suit that satisfies the requirements by automated error case verification model. This paper also reports the interoperability verification results for emerging reliable message components of Web Services and our contribution to the international standardization group based on this verification results.

A health impact assessment case study of an innovative "Towards 2010" programme aiming to bring together health and social care organisations is described. The aim of the assessment was to inform the decision makers which of the four service reconfiguration options being considered would bring about significant benefits to the health and wellbeing of the local population. Overall, 600 positive and negative impacts were predicted across 11 broad determinants of health including employment and economy, education, transport, housing, visual amenity (environment), access to services, crime, lifestyle, pollution, health inequalities and family and social cohesion. The findings suggest that two of the four options seem to offer the best opportunity for improving the health and wellbeing of the local population and for linking into wider regeneration initiatives within the programme area. The outcome of the HIA places decision makers in a better informed position to develop appropriate policies for maximising positive and mitigating negative aspects of the proposals.

The ${}^{235}$U(n,f) cross section plays a key role for nuclear physics due to its widespread use as a standard reference for neutron cross section measurements and for neutron flux measurements. Recent experimental data of the fission cross section have suggested the presence of discrepancies around 6–8% with respect to the most used libraries, precisely in the range between 10 keV and 30 keV. In order to shed light on this disagreement, an accurate measurement of the ${}^{235}$U(n,f) fission cross section has been performed at n_TOF facility @CERN, using the standard reactions ⁶Li(n,t) and ${}^{10}$B(n,$\alpha )$ as reference. A custom experimental setup based on a stack of silicon detectors sandwiched between pairs of ${}^{235}$U, ⁶Li and ${}^{10}$B targets, has been installed along the neutron beam line to intercept the same neutron flux, allowing the detection of the fission fragments and the products of the reference reactions at the same time. Such a technique allows calculation of the cross section via the “ratio method”, by normalizing the ${}^{235}$U(n,f) reaction yields with respect to the reference reactions and to the recommended data in the IAEA libraries; in particular, the integral between 7.8 and 11 eV has been chosen. Accurate Monte Carlo simulations have allowed evaluation of the neutron absorption in the different layers, as well as the detection efficiency of each detector. The data are in excellent agreement with the standard values and highlight the overestimation of the ${}^{235}$U(n,f) cross section between 9 and 18 keV in the most recent libraries.

In recent years, the issue of environmental pollution and climate change has led the scientific debate to focus on social issues, environmental protection, and human rights, deepening the topic of sustainable economic development. To provide stakeholders evidence on economic, environmental, and social performance, all corporate organizations must supplement traditional financial reporting tools with Non-financial information, following numerous standards, frameworks, and guidelines. The topic of Non-financial disclosure is widely investigated with reference to industrial companies, while the financial institution sector represents a context that is still little explored. Indeed, financial institutions are significant promoters of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and even if their operations do not have direct impacts on the environment, they can encourage the allocation of their capital in socially responsible investments, thus contributing to the spread of sustainability culture in the financial system and among citizens. This paper analyzes the main sustainability frameworks, standards, and guidelines used by global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) for disclosure on environmental aspects along with social and governance factors, investigating the attention degree of financial institutions toward the sustainability issue.

Rubber tiles are popular in playgrounds as protective surfacing to reduce the incidence of head injuries caused by children falling from equipment. However, Taiwan has not yet established a test code for assessment of the shock-absorption properties of such surfacing. For this study, an experimental model was established to evaluate the behavior of various rubber tiles. A hemispherical headform was dropped from a set height to strike the center of the specimen tile. The peak acceleration and Head Injury Criterion (HIC) were measured to assess the impact absorption of and critical height for a given rubber tile. The results show that utilization of the HIC index provides a more conservative assessment of the shock absorption and, ultimately, protection from head injuries than peak acceleration. The maximum critical heights of the rubber tiles used in this study for tile thicknesses of 45, 60 and 80 mm were 1.6, 2.0 and 2.2 m, respectively. Two-part rubber tiles with a base structure consisting of a box-like core offer superior protection from head injuries relative to analogous cylindrical, square pillar and solid structures. The maximum differences in peakacceleration and HIC values comparing the box-like core and solid structures at a thickness of 45 mm were 21% and 44%, respectively. The results of this study suggest a minimum of rubber thickness of 60 mm, based on probable maximum fall heights of more than 1.6 m. Moreover, incorporation of an appropriate cushioning structure in the base of the rubber tile could further improve protection.

With the rapid development of global digital transformation, digital transformation is a system engineering with many collaborative elements, high degree of complexity and great difficulty in overall planning. As a common language for collaborative dialogue between different systems and different elements, standardization is an indispensable soft foundation in digital transformation, and also an important starting point to realize its efficient, intensive and collaborative development. Digital government is the key basis and an important part of the digital transformation, which has received widespread attention from all countries in the world. Based on the analysis of relevant policies and measures in United Kingdom, Denmark, Australia, Singapore and other countries with good performance in digital government construction, combined with the situation of digital technology standardization, this paper puts forward suggestions on the construction of digital government standardization, so as to provide reference for shaping fair digital transformation and building government digital capability. This paper proposes a digital government construction standard system, the evaluation index system of standard application, and the BP neural network model of standard application evaluation is constructed, and the simulation test is carried out.

Maximum residue limits (MRLs) on pesticides and veterinary drugs in plant and animal products are established to promote food safety and animal and plant health. In practice, however, they are often accused of creating unnecessary trade barriers. The controversy is more prominent when a given MRL is stricter than the corresponding international standard developed by Codex. Using the score indices constructed by Li and Beghin (2012), we empirically assess the implications of stringency in MRLs in plant and animal products, relative to Codex levels, for Canadian and US trade performance. We find little evidence that US imports are influenced by domestic stringency or those imposed by its trading partners. However, US exports are negatively affected by stringency in destination markets. Canada’s stringent MRLs facilitate its exports of plant and animal products and these exports do not seem to be impeded by MRL stringency in destination markets. Canada’s imports do not appear to be systematically influenced by either its own or its trading partners’ MRL stringency. We draw implications for the potential harmonization of MRLs between the two countries.

Kid's sunglasses have been the articles for children daily use. Therefore based on the children's physical and mental development characteristics and injury events in recent years, this paper analyzes the harm mechanism of nickel precipitation, transmission, high-temperature resistance and so on of the kid's sunglasses, parses the problems existed in standards and supervision of kid's sunglasses in China, and offers proposals for accelerating revision of national standards, strengthening consumption guide and enterprise supervision in order to improve the quality safety level of kid's sunglasses.