AMONG the endless postwar projects now 4 germinating are many looking to IL planned migration arranged by bilateral agreement or an international agency. The attempt to plan population mobility reflects a general conviction that unrestricted migration, a "free trade in peoples," is politically and perhaps even economically impossible. The spontaneous movement of individuals or families seeking greater opportunities, which reached the proportions of a mass movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was made possible by a unique combination of circumstances that certainly will not recur. Briefly stated, those circumstances were rapid industrial and demographic growth in Western Europe, together with the opening up and industrialization of thinly settled areas rich in resources and not too different in climate, soil, or agricultural potentialities from the migrant's area of origin. The many remaining areas of the world that await transition to a modem economy appear to be less favorably situated with respect to lands and other resources, and some of them already support a dense agricultural population. Those that are not closely settled constitute the remaining "open spaces" that figure in many of the proposals to provide new opportunities for the potentially large number of economic and political "refugees" from crowded agrarian regions and urban slums. The present paper is limited to a narrow aspect of international migration. It deals only with the planned migration of groups and their resettlement on agricultural lands, and especially with a rather general consideration of such questions as resources, capital, and markets.


As Latin America continues to develop its healthcare systems, this region looks to successful models from foreign healthcare systems to advance and increase competence in a global healthcare market. This research is intended to determine the development of Latin American health systems, the influence of foreign investment in this market and to explore and promote proper ways of operating abroad in a Latin American healthcare system. This exploration of foreign influence in Latin American health care is divided into three distinct parts. Part 1 intends to gain a current idea of the situation of medical care Latin American. Although varied in different countries of the region, it is clear that Latin America as a whole experienced significant health care reform beginning in the late 20 century. An overview of segmented Latin American health systems is provided, and the current situation of the public and private sectors as well as social security is explored. The second segment of Part 1 focuses on the countries of Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, and Chile in regard to past reform projects and the status of each country's healthcare market, since these countries are particular places of interest in foreign investment. This summary of the situation of healthcare in Latin America is essential in understanding how to approach foreign investment in the health sectors of Latin American countries. Part 2 focuses on previous and existing international investment in Latin American healthcare systems. First, it defines the channels of globalization through which health care organizations extend their operations to Latin American and other regions. This section then defines the determining factors for investing in foreign markets. Foreign investment in Latin America is also expanded upon by using specific cases of interaction through multinational corporations,


A superposition modulation and adaptive power allocation algorithm was proposed,which can mitigate the inference between users and allocate the transmission power of each user adaptively in cooperative communications.Each user transmits its own signal while relays other users′ signals,and the superposition modulation functions are designed jointly to form the reconstructed signals.The destination cancels the inference by the use of these functions.The reconstructed signal power of each user was adjusted to maximize the system capacity according to the channel variety.Simulation results of various network models show that the proposed algorithm can cancel the inference efficiently and reduce the probability of system error.Compared with the inference cancellation algorithm using fixed power allocation,this algorithm can achieve 1.5 dB bit error rate improvement and 5 dB frame error rate improvement respectively.


The study aims to investigate the influence of Internal Audit on performance of financial organizations in Libya. Data is collected from 26 financial companies listed in Libya Stock Market. The 4 internal audit characteristics namely, the audit committee size, the audit committee independence, the auditor's qualification and the auditor's experience are taken as independent variables whereas Return of Assets (ROA) is used as dependent variable to measure the performance of the variable. The data is retrieved from the financial reports of organization for the three years period 2013-215. Correlation and regression tests are performance using SPSS software. The result reveals that the relation between internal audit committee size and performance is statistically insignificant whereas other variables are significant with performance of these organizations. This study helps both academicians and practitioners for policy designs. The empirical results of the study lead to recommendation to tighten the weak areas identified in this study.


Abstract In this study, population density and yield loss caused by two-spotted spider mite (TSSM) on eight lines of pinto bean were studied under field conditions during two successive years (2009-2010). The experiment was arranged in completely randomized block design with subdivided plots and four replications in Lordegan fields, Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province, Iran. The main plots and sub-plots consisted of bean lines and acaricides application, respectively. Population density of TSSM was recorded at weekly intervals, beginning from the seedling stage and continued to harvesting time on different lines. Yield loss caused by the mite on each line, was calculated by subtracting the average yields in sprayed subplots versus unsprayed subplots. For this purpose, 10 plants from each subplot were selected randomly and the yield and yield components including; the number of pods/plant, number of seeds/pod and weight of 100 seeds were recorded. Moreover, the grain yield (kg. ha-1) was determined by harvesting the central area (10 m2) in each subplot. Our results indicated significant differences in TSSM population (eggs, juveniles and adults) among the studied lines. In 2009, the highest number of mite was recorded on line 'L29' (120.20 ± 18.79) whereas, the lowest on line 'L1' (22.51 ± 4.96 mites/2 cm2 of the abaxial leaf surface). Moreover, during 2010, the highest and the lowest population density of the mite were supported by line 'D3' (55.53 ± 5.68) and line 'L1' (9.33 ± 0.79 mites/2 cm2 of the abaxial leaf surface), respectively. Mean yield loss of pinto bean lines due to the mite attack calculated 1460.6 kg. ha-1 (64.1 ± 10.2%) and 1278.7 kg. ha-1 (61.4 ± 8.6%) in 2009 and 2010, respectively. The highest grain yield loss presented by line 'L1' (91.1 ± 12.1% and 86.4 ± 8.9%) followed by lines 'L29'and 'L30', whereas, the lowest observed in lines 'J29' (41.5 ± 7.7% and 37.5 ± 7.6%) and 'L19' (50.7 ± 6.6% and 47.4 ± 5.4% in 2009 and 2010, respectively).


The diet and the feeding habits of adult (80-150 mm shell length) and juvenile (< 30 mm shell length) abalone Haliotis midae were investigated from the subtidal and intertidal regions at Great Fish Point on the Eastern Cape coast of South Africa. Adults feed on a variety of seaweeds by grazing on attached plants and by trapping drift algae under the muscular fool. Juvenile abalone are grazers, feeding primarily on encrusting algae. Within each of the adult and juvenile sub-groupings, no seasonal differences or size-specific dietary patterns were apparent. Based on algal availability and frequency of occurrence in gut samples, adults selected Ralfsia verrucosa, Ulva spp. and five of the red seaweeds, namely Plocamium corallorhiza, Calliblepharis fimbriata, Spyridia cupressina, Hypnea rosea and Hypnea spicifero. Algae rejected by adults included several coralline species and the spined kelp Ecklonia radiata. Of the six algal types consumed by juveniles, only two were selected, i.e. Ralfsia verrucosa and Cor...


Due to the increasing demand for water resources worldwide, this commodity and its spatial and temporal properties are of the interest of decision makers and scientists. In this respect, the accuracy in detecting the physical characteristics of the water movement such as velocity and its associated phenomena should be preauthorized in hydraulic studies. Although velocity, as the deriving factor of the water flow, can be determined with the help of theoretical or practical approaches, researchers continuously pushes the limits of science by improving the existing methods to the best. The pitot tube, which is not widely used in open channel hydraulic practices, is one of these methods. In this study, we have addressed a case from design to conducting a set of laboratory experiments. A 3D-printed pitot-tube is designed and used in a set of experiments carried out in an open channel, with different flow rates (three experiments). As a result, the relative error rates were interpreted by comparing the velocity rates obtained with the help of the water level difference in the differential manometer (Vm) and the velocity rates obtained from the flow continuity equation in the open channel (Vo). Results indicated a 50% bias in the experiments, while scatter analysis showed that the associated deviations matches a linear equation.


Five known greedy algorithms designed for the single measurement vector setting in compressed sensing and sparse approximation are extended to the multiple measurement vector scenario: Iterative Hard Thresholding (IHT), Normalized IHT (NIHT), Hard Thresholding Pursuit (HTP), Normalized HTP (NHTP), and Compressive Sampling Matching Pursuit (CoSaMP). Using the asymmetric restricted isometry property (ARIP), sufficient conditions for all five algorithms establish bounds on the discrepancy between the algorithms' output and the optimal row-sparse representation. When the initial multiple measurement vectors are jointly sparse, ARIP-based guarantees for exact recovery are also established. The algorithms are then compared via the recovery phase transition framework. The strong phase transitions describing the family of Gaussian matrices which satisfy the sufficient conditions are obtained via known bounds on the ARIP constants. The algorithms' empirical weak phase transitions are compared for various numbers of multiple measurement vectors. Finally, the performance of the algorithms is compared against a known rank aware greedy algorithm, Rank Aware Simultaneous Orthogonal Matching Pursuit + MUSIC. Simultaneous recovery variants of NIHT, NHTP, and CoSaMP all outperform the rank-aware algorithm.


Based on literatures of creative industries,the paper puts forward the main factors which impact Chinese creative industries development are institutions,talent pool,urban openness strength and urban infrastructure level,and make an empirical research based on the data of 43 cities.The results show that the talent pool is the most important factor which affects the urban creative industries development.And urban infrastructure level,external institutions and the urban openness strength bring about notably positive impact.The impact of internal institutions on creative industries seems not be positive notable because of the development level of the urban creative industries association,but it should be attached importance to the active role of internal institutions and promote the development of creative industries with external institutions.Finally,the paper classifies 43 cities into four creative echelons and bring forward different development strategies according to different creative class.


The Large Enriched Germanium Experiment for Neutrinoless ββ Decay (LEGEND) is a future ton-scale experimental program that will search for neutrinoless double beta decay (0vββ) in the isotope 76Ge with an unprecedented sensitivity. To achieve the projected discovery sensitivity at a half-life beyond 1028 yr after about ten years of data taking, it is of utmost importance to operate in a background-free environment. This can be supported by using highly integrated readout electronics such as application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) technology. In this work we investigated the properties and electronic performance of a commercially available ASIC charge sensitive preamplifier, the XGLab CUBE preamplifier, together with a p-type point contact high-purity germanium detector.


The article introduces the current status of campus network management, and Systemic Expound the status and impact of teaching management of network information


In the current flurry of excitement, and dismay, at the relative ranking of the United States mortality rates,1 I should like to direct the reader's attention to a 25-year-old article which should make us–and also our Swedish colleagues–feel even worse.
 I refer to Sigismund Peller's study of the health of the ruling families of Europe over the last 400 years.2 One of the calculations which Peller made was that of the infant mortality rates for this group of favored citizens.


The current rapid development of technologies enables new procedures for deformation and the detecting of construction defects and their modelling and monitoring in BIM. New instruments were developed for fast and sufficiently accurate mapping like personal mobile laser scanners (PLS). In the world of photography, the size of camera sensors is bigger, and the photographs are sharper. The rapid development of computer performance enables automatic and complex calculations, which lead to large sets of detailed 3D data and a high degree of automation. This influences photogrammetry and its methods. The results are more detailed and more accurate. Deformation, defects and exact dimensions (metrology) of different structures or objects can be currently measured by digital close-range photogrammetry. Cracks and cavities are monitored for structure status detection. This is important for planning reconstruction and for financial reasons. For structures like cooling towers, chimneys, or bridges can be created on a 3D model with a high texture resolution for finding and monitoring cracks and cavities. Deformations or defects that were found must be in scale, and measurable for the calculation of the scope of repair work and its price. The generated 3D object model can then be used for further measurements, for the price estimation of renovation, and for the creation of a BIM, in which all processes can be modelled and watched. Deformation can be monitored over time by creating additional models after a defined period. Captured 3D models from different periods can be compared in software like CloudCompare to determine the progress of degradational changes. The trend of the aging of the structure can be traced, which will be helpful for the reasonable planning of reconstruction. Based on the rapid development and miniaturization of measuring devices, new, smaller, easier to use, and more perfect devices are constructed. This also applies to the new group of laser scanners constructed for basic measurement and structure modeling for BIM. Conventional laser scanners can be accurate, but they are relatively large and heavy, difficult to transport and measuring with them is relatively slow (stop and go type). If the project goal is the classic construction, documentation of the object, data transfer to BIM or basic documentation of objects, PLS is the ideal device. Thanks to the development of accurate IMU (inertial measurement unit) and SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) technologies, these devices are on the rise. The forthcoming article will inform about the methods of accurate close-range photogrammetry and mobile laser scanning and will show their advantages with specific examples.


The remote gesture recognition is a touch screen, a touch panel, mode selection unit, the first and second, and a switching circuit unit and the control unit, the first and touch, and a remote gesture recognized through the switching operation of the second switching circuit function according to the present invention by integrating the electrode pattern, the touch screen may have to end frivolous digestion the mobile device including, also, by forming the wide width of the metal mesh pattern the width of the first electrode pattern of the touch screen than conventional mutual inductive capacitive , both to the touch and gesture recognition can be remotely secure as possible SNR (Signal to noise ratio).


Protoplast fusion technology was applied widely in genetics,animal breeding and plants distant hybridization,biology,immunology and medicine,foodstuff,agriculture,and other aspects.This artical summarized the impact factors on process of protoplast preparation,regeneration and fusion,compared the protoplast fusion methods,the fusion of screening methods for the selection of appropriate and effective methods and induced fusion screening methods.


We report the operation of an optically-pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser (OP-VECSEL) oscillating at wavelengths up to 2.2 µm and at output powers greater than 200 mW. This versatile platform provides a broad gain bandwidth, and may be tuned and/or controlled by the addition of elements into the external cavity. Moreover, the nature of the semiconductor structure permits precise engineering of the operating wavelength---not possible with traditional solid state crystalline lasers---and the thin (few microns) pump absorption region, coupled with the external cavity control, permits the mode conversion of a low brightness pump into a high quality TEM00 output.


The boundary layer flow and heat transfer of a nanofluid over a stretching sheet are numerically studied. Velocity slip is considered instead of no-slip condition at the boundary as is usually appears in the literature. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into ordinary ones using a similarity transformation, before being solved numerically. Numerical solutions of these equations are obtained using finite element method (FEM). The variations of velocity and temperature inside the boundary layer as well as the skin friction coefficient and the heat transfer rate at the surface for some values of the governing parameters, namely, the nanoparticle volume fraction and the slip parameter are presented graphically and discussed. Comparison with published results for the regular fluid is presented and it is found to be in excellent agreement.


The unitarity property of transforms is useful in many applications (source compression, transmission, watermarking, to name a few). In many cases, when a transform is applied on real-valued data, it is very useful to obtain real-valued coefficients (i.e. a reality-preserving transform). In most applications, the decorrelation property of the transform is of importance and it would be very useful to control it under some transform's parameter (e.g. in joint source-channel coding). This paper focuses on fractional transforms, as tools for obtaining such properties. We propose a methodology for obtaining them and obtain variants of the Discrete Fractional Cosine (Sine) Transform which share real-valuedness as well as most of the properties required for a fractional transform matrix. As shown in [17], such matrices cannot be symmetric.


Hypertension is a disorder of the blood vessels that result in oxygen supply and nutrients carried by the blood obstructed to the body tissues that need it (Vitahealth, 2006). Consumption of a diet high in fruits and vegetables, reduced sodium intake and increased potassium intake in foods can reduce the incidence of hypertension (Houston, Harper & PharmD, 2008). This study aims to determine the effect of red watermelon consumption on the decrease in blood pressure in hypertensive patients outpatient in Puskesmas Perumnas I West Pontianak. This type of research is experimental with quasi experiment design with pretest-posttest control group design. The test used is chi square test, paired t-test, wilcoxon, oneway anova and kruskal-wallis. The number of samples studied was 42 samples and the time of the research was conducted on June 2018. The results of the red watermelon in patients with hypertension with a dose of 200 gr, 250 gr and 300 gr for 4 days can lower blood pressure. The average of derivation in systolic blood pressure in the 200 gr group was -10,71 mmHg and diastolic -8,21 mmHg, average of derivation systolic blood pressure in the 250 gr group of -12,86 mmHg and diastolic -9,99 mmHg while the systolic blood pressure average of derivation in group 300 gr for -15,71 mmHg and diastolic equal to -13,57 mmHg. Suggestions in this study respondents can consume watermelon fruit as an alternative to lower blood pressure as much as 300 grams and for subsequent researchers need an additional length of time intervention to see the effect of decreased blood pressure is systolic blood pressure and diastolic responders to normal.


The kinetics and mechanisms of the reactions of nickel(II) and cobalt(II) with 1-phenylhexane 1,3,5-trione (H2phto) to form the 1 : 1 and 2 : 2 complexes have been investigated in methanol–water (70 : 30 v/v) solutions at 25 °C and ionic strength 0.5 mol dm–3 NaClO4. The rate constants for 1 : 1 complex formation with H2phto (KHL) and with Hphto–(KL) have been determined. For Ni2+, KHL= 3.48 and KL= 5.14 × 104 dm3 mol–1s–1 while for Co2+, KHL= 0.6 and KL= 1.26 × 106 dm3 mol–1 s–1 The conversion of the 1 : 1 into the 2 : 2 complexes takes place via a two-step mechanism, the first of which is second order in complex concentration and first order in hydroxideion concentration, while the second step is first order in complex concentration. The rate constants for Ni2+ are 1.99 × 107 dm3 mol–1 s–1 and 0.34 s–1 while for Co2+ they are 3.12 × 107 dm3 mol–1 s–1 and 0.16 s–1. Mechanisms are proposed which account for the kinetic data.


Predicting future vehicle behaviour is an essential task to enable safe and situation-aware automated driving. In this paper, we propose to encapsulate spatial information of multiple objects in a ...


We demonstrate erbium- and thulium-doped fibre ring lasers mode-locked with a single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) operating at normal intracavity dispersion and high nonlinearity. The lasers generate transform-limited picosecond inversed-modified soliton pulses.


... Ireland and the Irish microcosm came under increased scrutiny, a scrutiny perhaps disproportionate to the real importance of the country itself. This attention, due to Ireland's accidental presence at the heart of the Empire, aggravated Irish selfconsciousness and self-importance. After all, all these important people were paying attention to us. A result was that few countries spend so much time and intellectual effort on self-definition as does Ireland. Endless and occasionally entertaining debates on what it means to be Irish go on in Ireland and among some sections of the diaspora in Britain and the United States. A minor publishing industry exists built around the subject.


The present investigation has been aimed at to carry out the modelling of the indicators of chloride-induced corrosion of the rebar in concrete under normal exposure at early age. The main factors considered are w/c ratio, cement content and the chloride content of concrete. In order to evaluate the simultaneous effects of these factors on rebar corrosion in terms of corrosion indicators such as a half-cell potential, concrete resistivity, corrosion rate, free Cl content and pH of concrete, a standard statistical experiment design has been adopted. Through analysis of variance (ANOVA), the factors and their possible interactions affecting each corrosion indicator have been identified. After identifying the effect of factors and their possible interactions on each of the corrosion indicators separately, the empirical models for corrosion indicators have been fitted in terms of the effective factors and interactions, using the method of least squares, and utility of these models is discussed.


The preparation and some properties of the thromboplastic protein from beef lungs have been described in previous publications from this laboratory (1, 2). The liberation of this substance from injured tissue cells starts the normal blood clotting process. The thromboplastic protein has been shown to contain 16 to 20 per cent of phosphatides and 2 to 3 per cent of nucleic acid. The composition of the extremely complex phosphatide mixture present has been described recently (3). The difficulty of obtaining solutions of the thromboplastic protein in an undenatured state has generally retarded the study of the purity of this substance. Furthermore, the unavailability of a standardized thromboplastin solution is a serious check on the development of routine determinations of the blood prothrombin level for diagnostic purposes. The thromboplastic protein, prepared by the simplified procedure described in this paper, was examined in the Tiselius electrophoresis apparatus (4). The electrophoretic analysis of the highly opalescent solutions of the protein was made possible by the recently developed technique of Treffers and Moore (5). The optical arrangement used was that of Longsworth (6).


To help growers identify market niches, sensory evaluations were conducted on colored bell peppers. Colored peppers have become supermarket staples and regularly demand premium prices. However, there are many varieties available from which growers may choose. Two consumer-based sensory panels (n=120) were conducted to evaluate the acceptability of six bell pepper cultivars. For the visual appearance test, panelists were asked to evaluate whole peppers based on appearance and how acceptable they thought the flavor of the sample would be. Panelists were then asked to evaluate bell pepper strips for appearance, aroma, texture, flavor, and overall acceptability. A 9-point hedonic scale was used to score responses for both visual appearance and consumer acceptance tests. Fisher's Protected LSD test was utilized to separate main effect treatment means when significant differences occurred among treatments. The cultivar 'Colossal' was the most preferred pepper based on visual appearance alone. 'Colossal' is a commercial cultivar that sets green fruit, which eventually turns to red, a familiar color combination for consumers. Panelists' perceived flavor acceptability, based on visual appearance alone, closely correlated to appearance acceptability. When panelists were presented with strips alone, ratings given for visual appearance of the strips did not follow the same order as ratings for the whole peppers. 'Valencia' was found to be more visually acceptable than the other cultivars. Flavor acceptability among cultivars ranged from 6.0 to 6.7 with no difference. The texture of 'Valencia' and 'Colossal' were most preferred and also received high scores for overall acceptability when all traits were combined. The least preferred cultivars were yellow-fruited 'Sirius' and 'Super Heavy Weight'.


PURPOSE: Macrocytic anemia is a state with mean corpuscular volume (MCV) more than 100fL. Various disease initially may present as macrocytosis. Thus, a detailed evaluation is required in every case of macrocytic anemia. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study was conducted on 500 patients of macrocytic anemia at Pt. B. D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak. Patients with any chronic medical illness were excluded. RESULTS: Majority of cases belonged to age group of 15-29 years of age with male preponderance. Pancytopenia was the most common hematological presentation. Megaloblastic anemia accounts for macrocytosis in 90% of the patients with MCV 110fL or more. Vitamin B12 was deficient in 84.5% cases with megaloblastic anemia. Non-megaloblastic causes include liver disease, aplastic anemia etc. CONCLUSION: This study concluded that megaloblastic anemia is the most common cause of macrocytic anemia and likelihood of megaloblastic cause increases with MCV of >110fL.


Nowadays, the growing CO2 emissions is one of the main internationalissues. The world is becoming aware that the current climate issues startbeing critic and that something has to be done. In paral ...


The importance of both social processes and of representational aids for learning is well established, yet few experimental studies have addressed the combination of these factors. The research reported in this paper evaluates the influence of tools for constructing representations of evidential models on collaborative learning processes and outcomes. Pairs of participants worked with one of three representations (Graph, Matrix, Text) while investigating complex science and public health problems. Dependent measures included (a) the content of participants' utterances and representational actions and the timing of these utterances and actions with respect to the availability of information; (b) a multiple choice test of the ability to recall the data, hypotheses, and evidential relations explored; and (c) the contents of a written essay. The results show that representational notations can have significant effects on learners' interactions, and may differ in their influence on subsequent collaborative use of the knowledge being manipulated. For example, Graph and Matrix users elaborated on previously represented information more than Text users. Representation and discussion of evidential relations was quantitatively greatest for Matrix users as predicted, yet this came at the cost of excessive consideration and revision of unimportant relations. Graph users may have been more focused in their consideration of evidence, and the work done in the Graph representation had the greatest impact on the contents of the essays. Although limited to initial use of representations in a laboratory setting, the work demonstrates that representational guidance of collaborative learning is worthy of study, and suggests several lines of further investigation. An Experimental Study of Representational Guidance 3 AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF REPRESENTATIONAL GUIDANCE ON COLLABORATIVE LEARNING PROCESSES Introduction The importance of social processes to learning, including the potential utility of collaborative learning, is well established (Brown & Campione, 1994; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Slavin, 1990; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1991; Webb & Palincsar, 1996). Likewise, prior work has shown the importance of representational aids to individual understanding and problem solving (Koedinger, 1991; Kotovsky & Simon, 1990; Larkin & Simon, 1987; Novak, 1990; Novick & Hmelo, 1994; Zhang, 1997). Yet few studies have addressed the combination of these factors, namely, the role of representational aids in supporting group learning processes. Exceptions include Baker & Lund (1997), Guzdial (1997) and Schwarz et al., (in press). The research reported in this article addresses the question of how we might design representational systems that guide and support collaborative learning processes (such as discourse) in a positive way. Our study has several converging motivations. Prior work by the first author and colleagues on Belvedere, a networked environment for collaborative construction of "evidence maps" (Suthers & Weiner, 1995; Suthers et al., 1997) suggested that the representational bias of tools such as Belvedere might influence students' discussion. Concurrently, other researchers were using different representations for similar objectives (supporting epistemic reasoning in science). For example, SenseMaker (Bell, 1997) used a container representation (in which data is sorted into theory containers); WebCamile (Guzdial et al., 1997) and SpeakEasy (Hoadley et al., 1995) used threaded discussions; and Puntambekar et al. (1997) studied matrix representations. However, the choice of representations for these systems was generally not based on systematic comparisons of the effects of representations on collaborative learning. Theoretical inspirations An Experimental Study of Representational Guidance 4 for undertaking such a comparison came from Roschelle's (1994) observation that shared representations (animations and simulations in his case) serve to mediate collaborative inquiry; and from Collins & Fergusons' (1993) discussion of representations as "epistemic forms" with associated "epistemic games." Other theoretical motivations are discussed in Suthers (1999a, 2001), as well as below. Based on these motivations, the first author and colleagues undertook a classroom study of representational effects (Toth et al., in press), which will be discussed in the conclusions of this paper. Pragmatic constraints limited that study to analysis of students' artifacts. We were unable to directly observe the roles representations played in students' collaborative learning processes, further motivating the laboratory study reported here. Roles of External Representations in Collaborative Learning External representations have long been a subject of study in the context of learning and problem solving tasks, with research showing that the choice of representation can influence an individual's conception of a problem and hence the ease of finding a solution (see previous citations). One might ask whether it is sufficient to extrapolate from this work, predicting representational effects on groups by aggregating effects on individuals. While we believe that much can be gained from such reasoning, we also believe that the shared use of representations by distributed cognitions (Salomon, 1993) might involve additional emergent phenomena. External representations play at least three roles that are unique to situations in which a group is constructing and manipulating shared representations as part of a constructive activity: 1. initiating negotiations of meaning, 2. serving as a representational proxy for purposes of gestural deixis, and 3. providing a foundation for implicitly shared awareness. These roles are discussed below. An Experimental Study of Representational Guidance 5 1. An individual who wishes to add to or modify a shared representation may feel some obligation to obtain agreement from one's group members, leading to negotiations about and justifications of representational acts. This discourse will include negotiations of meaning and shared belief that would not be necessary in the individual case, where one can simply change the representation as one wishes. The creative acts afforded by a given representational notation may therefore affect which negotiations of meaning and belief take place. 2. The components of a collaboratively constructed representation, having arisen from negotiations of the type just discussed, evoke in the minds of the participants rich meanings beyond that which external observers might be able to discern by inspection of the representations alone. These components can serve as an easy way to refer to ideas previously developed, this reference being accomplished by gestural deixis (reference to an entity relative to the context of discourse by pointing) rather than verbal descriptions (Clark & Brennan, 1991). In this manner, collaboratively constructed external representations facilitate subsequent negotiations, increasing the conceptual complexity that can be handled in group interactions and facilitating elaboration on previously represented information. 3. The shared representation also serves as a group memory, reminding the participants of previous ideas (encouraging elaboration on them) and possibly serving as an agenda for further work. Individual work also benefits from an external memory, but in the group case there is an additional awareness that one's interlocutors may be reminded by the representation of prior ideas, prompting oneself to consider potential commentary that others will have on one's proposals. That is, it becomes harder to ignore implications of prior ideas if one is implicitly aware that one's interlocutors may also be reminded of them by the representations (Michelene Chi, personal communication). An Experimental Study of Representational Guidance 6 In summary, there is good reason to believe that representational effects will extend to collaborative learning situations in ways worthy of study in their own right. Representational Guidance Further study is needed because these effects may differ between notational systems, and designers of representational tools for collaborative learning need to be informed of the implications of their notational design choices. Representational notations can differ on what information they are capable of expressing (Stenning & Oberlander, 1995), what information they make salient (Larkin & Simon, 1987), and what epistemic processes they promote (Collins & Ferguson, 1993). We claim that the ways in which a collaboratively constructed representational artifact can play the roles just discussed—initiating negotiations of meaning, representational proxy for purposes of deixis, implicitly shared awareness—is sensitive to the notation's expressiveness and salience of information. Learners use representational tools to construct proxies for their emerging knowledge in a persistent visual medium, inspectable by all participants. The representational guidance of their chosen tool constrains which knowledge can be expressed in the shared context, and makes some of that knowledge more salient and hence a likely topic of discussion. Therefore, the cognitive and social affordances of representations might be predicted from the constraints and salience of their notations. This representationspecific influence has been termed representational bias (Suthers, 1999a,b) or representational guidance (Suthers, 2001). See those papers for detailed predictions, further discussion of the origins of representational guidance, and a comparison of representations in CSCL systems. Overview of the Study This paper reports on an empirical study of the effects of representational tools on participants' collaborative discourse and learning outcomes during initial use of those An Experimental Study of Representational Guidance 7 representations in a laboratory setting. In our stud


In order to provide for increasing power demand in Japan, larger capacity power generation plants have been constructed, which have higher thermal efficiency with less emission of NOx, SOX, dust, etc. Furthermore, to cope with the requirement of reducing CO2 emission, which has recently been needed for limiting climate change, new technologies are strongly expected to realize power plants with higher thermal efficiency and more environmentally benign performance. For the efficiency improvement of conventional steam Rankine Cycle, applying elevated steam condition is effective. In Japan, 1 OOOMW coal-fired supercritical units with steam condition of 24.5MPax6000/6000 have been commercially operated since 1998, and 1050MW coal-fired supercritical units (25MPax6000/6100) are under construction. Advanced combustion system contributes to the improvement of boiler efficiency. A-PM burner and MRS pulverizer for coal fired units have realized lower excess air along with lower unburnt carbon loss and suppressed NOx emission, that results higher boiler efficiency. Oil and gas fired A-PM burner is also available. Sliding pressure operation of supercritical unit is effective for the improvement of the plant efficiency during partial load operation. Vertical waterwall furnace with rifled tube, that has excellent heat transfer characteristics under both supercritical and subcritical pressure conditions, has been developed . Since 1989, supercritical sliding pressure boilers with vertical waterwall furnace have been under commercial operation, now there are 7 commercial units.


Optic atrophy 1 (OPA1) is a dynamin-like GTPase located in the inner mitochondrial membrane and mutations in OPA1 are associated with autosomal dominant optic atrophy (DOA). OPA1 plays important roles in mitochondrial fusion, cristae remodeling and apoptosis. Our previous study showed that dOpa1 mutation caused elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and resulted in damage and death of the cone and pigment cells in Drosophila eyes. Since ROS-induced oxidative damage to the cells is one of the primary causes of aging, in this study, we examined the effects of heterozygous dOpa1 mutation on the lifespan. We found that heterozygous dOpa1 mutation caused shortened lifespan, increased susceptibility to oxidative stress and elevated production of ROS in the whole Drosophila. Antioxidant treatment partially restored lifespan in the male dOpa1 mutants, but had no effects in the females. Heterozygous dOpa1 mutation caused an impairment of respiratory chain complex activities, especially complexes II and III, and reversible decreased aconitase activity. Heterozygous dOpa1 mutation is also associated with irregular and dysmorphic mitochondria in the muscle. Our results, for the first time, demonstrate the important role of OPA1 in aging and lifespan, which is most likely mediated through augmented ROS production. Citation: Tang S, Le PK, Tse S, Wallace DC, Huang T (2009) Heterozygous Mutation of Opa1 in Drosophila Shortens Lifespan Mediated through Increased Reactive Oxygen Species Production. PLoS ONE 4(2): e4492. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004492 Editor: Ellen A. A. Nollen, University Medical Center Groningen, Netherlands Received December 10, 2008; Accepted December 19, 2008; Published February 16, 2009 Copyright: 2009 Tang et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This project was partially supported by the Helen & Larry Hoag Foundation, an NIH Clinical Associate Physician Award, the Howard Hughes Biomedical Science Program, a UCI Junior Physician-Scientists Award and NEI 1R01EY018876 to TH. ST is supported by the Cystinosis Research Foundation. DCW is supported by the following NIH research grant NS21328, AG24373, DK73691, AG13154. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: email@example.com


In order to ensure the long-time stability of the terrestrial reference system with an accuracy of 10 in the global and continental scale, the interaction between different time dependent influences of the system Earth to the terrestrial reference system and the related observation has to be considered in the evaluation models. The EUROPEAN COMBINED GEODETIC NETWORK (ECGN) integrates the spatial and height reference system into the Earth gravity field parameter estimation. This is in agreement with the planned IAG project of an Integrated Global Geodetic Observation System (IGGOS). In geodetic fundamental stations the ECGN will establish a European network for the continuation of time series of spatial/geometric observations (GNSS GPS/GLONASS and in the future GALILEO), precise levelling and tide gauge records with gravity field related observations and parameters (gravity, Earth tides), complemented with supplementary information (meteorological parameters, surrounding information of the stations e.g. eccentricities and ground water level). The first call for participation in the project was directed to the implementation of the ECGN stations. These stations include the standard observation techniques GNSS (GPS/GLONASS and in future GALILEO), gravity (super conducting gravimeter and/or absolute gravimeter), levelling connections to nodal points of the European levelling network (UELN) and meteorological parameters. A basic constituent of the ECGN stations is a local network for controlling the eccentricities at the 1 mm accuracy level in all three spatial components. All ECGN stations are part of the European GPS Permanent Network (EPN). For the contributing observation techniques, guidelines have been agreed upon to ensure equal observation principles.


The dissection relationship between the faults in Mesozoic and Cenozoic in Jiyang Depression was analyzed by studying the entrenched valley in Cenozoic uplift, stages and strength of the faults activities in NW trend. The results shows that the earlier five NW-trending faults are dissected by the later NE (E)-trending faults and the mainly dissection stage is from the Kongdian Formation stage to the forth member of Shahejie Formation stage. Jiyang Depression is controlled by the NW-trending faults before the dissection stage, the development of Jiyang Basin is controlled by the NW-trending and NE-trending faults during the dissection stage, the activities of NW-trending faults stops and the NE-trending faults control the development of Jiyang Basing after the dissection stage.


Grout-enriched roller compacted concrete( GERCC) is a kind of RCC for resisting dam seepage,by applying cement grout to normal RCC and vibrating compaction. To research the slurry diffusion in GERCC,we establish a grouting model and analyze main factors influencing the effect of grouting. According to test results of grouting diffusion and by using multiple regression analysis,we obtain the influence of each factor on the test results and the quantitative relationship among various parameters. Through correlation coefficient analysis of independent and dependent variables in the formula,we find that the grouting diffusion is closely correlated with the grouting pressure of material subjected to injection and the single-hole grouting volume as well as water-cement ratio of slurry. Finally,the research results can be referenced for construction and technique improvement of GERCC grouting.


A methodology has been proposed that is aimed at the development and improvement of modern methods, models and algorithms for synergetic intelligent control of unmanned aerial vehicle formations.


The Szegö polynomials are defined on T, the real numbers modulo 1. In this paper and in its sequel we give a generalization of Szegö polynomials in which T is replaced by an arbitrary locally compact abelian group θ on whose dual there has been distinguished a measurable order relation compatible with the group structure. The present paper is devoted to the case where θ is compact and therefore discrete. The general case will be taken up in the sequel mentioned above. It is desirable to proceed in this way because the case θ compact is much simpler and much more like the classical situation than is the general case, in which various measure-theoretic difficulties obtrude. Moreover, as it happens, it is possible to develop the theory in this way with relatively little repetition.


Malaria continues to kill over a million people each year, with more than 90% of these cases found in sub-Saharan Africa. In many populations affected by malaria, conventional drugs are often unaffordable or inaccessible, and increasing drug resistance by the malaria parasite, P. falciparum, is of significant concern. The current study involved determination of antimalarial activity and toxicity o f selected plants from Msambweni district, Coast province; Kenya. Aqueous and organic [Chloroform: Methanol (1:1)] extracts from each plant were prepared and used to determine in vivo anti-malarial activity and toxicity. They were also screened for their phytochemical constituents. To evaluate antimalarial activity, Swiss albino mice (Mus musculus L.) were infected with Plasmodium berghei parasites through intraperitoneal route. Crude extracts were administered orally everyday at the same hour for four days at a dosage of 100 mg/kg from Day 0 to Day 3. Thin blood smears were prepared on Day 4 from each mouse and stained with 10% Giemsa in phosphate buffer, pH 7.2 and examined microscopically for assessment of parasitaemia. The mean parasitaemia in each group of mice on Day 4 was used to calculate the percentage chemosuppression for each extract. / Toxicity o f the crude extracts was evaluated using Brine shrimp larvae (Artemia salina L. nauplii). ANOVA was used to analyze the means of the parasite growth inhibitions while LDSo was estimated using Finney's probit analysis program. The screened plants exhibited varying degrees of chemosuppression. Aqueous extracts of Adansonia digitata L. (Bombacaceae), Zanthoxylum chalybeum Engl. (Rutaceae), Launea cornuta (Hocht. ex Oliv. & Hern) C.Jeffrey (Compositae) and Canthium glaucum Hiern. (Rubiaceae,) had 60.47%, 44.93%, 38.13% and 31.98% parasite growth inhibition respectively. CHCI3: MeOH extracts of C.glaucum and


Optical systems working with ultraviolet (UV) light below approximately 400 nm have typically been used for the optical detection of electric discharge (solar-blind method), criminalistics (crime scene inspection) or spectroscopic analytics. Over the past few years, however, UV light has also taken over other classic optical system applications, for example, industrial inspection or laser material processing. Another high-tech field, microchip processing, could not be imagined without UV light. The search for larger storage capacities using smaller semiconductor structures is intimately linked with the use of light of ever shorter wavelengths (Figure 1). For all these reasons, it is worth taking a closer look at the ultraviolet spectrum.


Dielectric properties of various agro-foods and biological materials are finding increasing use in recent technologies and applications, especially in industries and research laboratories. In this paper, we present the measurement and evaluation of the dielectric properties of some local cereals (corn, beans, rice) in the audio frequency range (0.3-20KHz). A Marconi instrument of 0.1% universal impedance bridge together with a specially designed and constructed coaxial sample holder was used for the measurements. The properties measured include: the dielectric constant, the dielectric loss factor, the loss tangent (or dissipation factor) and the dielectric conductivity. In addition, the frequency dependence of these properties were explored.


This paper focuses on the background of the times, concept cognition and practical significance of the work mechanism of public opinion guidance in Colleges and universities. Public opinion field is an indispensable channel for college students to perceive social and political advantages and disadvantages in the new era, which will inevitably have a potential and far-reaching impact on the formation of their values. We need to optimize and improve the public opinion guidance mechanism of college students to guide the public opinion events in Colleges and universities more effectively, through the Marxist point of view.


This article examines the claims of Dutch East India Company (VOC) officials in the mid-eighteenth century regarding the Islamic source of a legal code prepared for the local population in Semarang, northeast Java. Although the VOC had encountered local legal cultures in Indonesia since the mid-seventeenth century, it preferred to circumvent those in favour of European laws whenever possible. But in the eighteenth century, VOC officials addressed indigenous legal systems more directly when the company sought possibilities for direct control. This resulted in the production of many codes on the legal status of Muslim and Chinese subjects of Indonesia. In the process of codification, some officials claimed to have consulted Islamic legal texts and Muslim jurists. One criminal code that came out of the effort supposedly took its rulings accurately from the Mugharrar, which is possibly the Muḥarrar written by the Islamic jurist ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Rāfiʿī (d. 1226). I argue that this assertion is baseless, and demonstrate that the very pretense is part of a larger colonial project that sought legitimacy from the indigenous subjects at a time of political and economic crises.


In this article we describe the system modeling of an advanced electrical tomography platform for biomedical use. The tomographic data acquisition needs to be as fast as reliable to incorporate tomographic inversion algorithms with almost real time update. To provide high level application programming interfaces using standard communication protocols and execute level programs System architecture and prototype designs for a biomedical electrical tomography platform are presented. Implementation details are explained for two prototype devices: a separated FPGA/microcontroller system and a system chip containing hardware microprocessor, peripherals and FPGA.


The invention discloses a rail-spanning transportation assembly wagon. The rail-spanning transportation assembly wagon comprises a rail-spanning ferry vehicle and a three-dimensionally moving GRV vehicle, wherein the rail-spanning ferry vehicle comprises a vehicle frame; wheels, a ferry vehicle driving device and a cantilever beam frame are arranged on the vehicle frame; the three-dimensionally moving GRV vehicle comprises a vehicle rail arranged on the vehicle frame and the cantilever beam frame, a lifting vehicle arranged on the vehicle rail, a rail vehicle driving device used for driving the lifting vehicle to move along the vehicle rail, and a moveable worktable arranged on the upper part of the lifting vehicle. When a workpiece is transferred to a total assembly line from an assembly line to be assembled, the cantilever beam frame can be spanned over a total assembly line heavy rail, so that the three-dimensionally moving GRV vehicle can be moved to the place below a complete machine on the total assembly line along the vehicle rail on the cantilever beam frame, the position of the workpiece can be adjusted by the three-dimensionally moving GRV vehicle so that the workpiece is accurately moved to the position matched with the assembly of the complete machine, the large workpiece can be conveniently and easily assembled below and in the complete machine by the rail-spanning transportation assembly wagon, the assembly operation is simple, the working efficiency is high, the labor intensity is low and the work safety is high.


04.2.5x12267 FORMING HUMAN-ROBOT TEAMS ACROSS TIME AND SPACE Kimberly A. Hambuchen* NASA Johnson Space Center, U.S.A., email@example.com Robert R. Burridge**, email@example.com, Robert O. Ambrose*, email@example.com, William J. Bluethmann*, firstname.lastname@example.com, Myron A. Diftler*, email@example.com, Nicolaus A. Radford*, email@example.com NASA pushes telerobotics to distances that span the Solar System. At this scale, time of flight for communication is limited by the speed of light, inducing long time delays, narrow bandwidth and the real risk of data disruption. NASA also supports missions where humans are in direct contact with robots during extravehicular activity (EVA), giving a range of zero to hundreds of millions of miles for NASA's definition of "tele". Another temporal variable is mission phasing. NASA missions are now being considered that combine early robotic phases with later human arrival, then transition back to robot only operations. Robots can preposition, scout, sample or construct in advance of human teammates, transition to assistant roles when the crew are present, and then become caretakers when the crew returns to Earth. This paper will describe advances in robot safety and command interaction approaches developed to form effective human-robot teams, overcoming challenges of time delay and adapting as the team transitions from robot only to robots and crew. The work is predicated on the idea that when robots are alone in space, they are still part of a human-robot team acting as surrogates for people back on Earth or in other distant locations. Software, interaction modes and control methods will be described that can operate robots in all these conditions. A novel control mode for operating robots across time delay was developed using a graphical simulation on the human side of the communication, allowing a remote supervisor to drive and command a robot in simulation with no time delay, then monitor progress of the actual robot as data returns from the round trip to and from the robot. Since the robot must be responsible for safety out to at least the round trip time period, the authors developed a multi layer safety system able to detect and protect the robot and people in its workspace. This safety system is also running when humans are in direct contact with the robot, so it involves both internal fault detection as well as force sensing for unintended external contacts. The designs for the supervisory command mode and the redundant safety system will be described. Specific implementations were developed and test results will be reported. Experiments were conducted using terrestrial analogs for deep space missions, where time delays were artificially added to emulate the longer distances found in space. I. I


Abstract In this paper, we study the stability of a string equation with time delays in the output feedback loop. When the delay is equal to the even multiples of the wave propagation time, we develop the necessary and sufficient conditions for the feedback gain and time delay which guarantee the exponential stability of the closed-loop system. We also show that when the delay is an odd multiple of the wave propagation time, the closed-loop system is unstable. In the particular case of delay equal to two, the lack of robustness to a small perturbation in time delay is discussed. The semigroup theory and Riesz basis approach are adopted in investigation. Finally, some numerical simulation for the case of the delay equal to two is presented to illustrate the convergence.


This paper tests the linkage between a binary treatment (rural road improvement project) and a continuous outcome (cotton productivity) in Zambia's agro-based Eastern Province as measured by repeated cross-sections of farm-level data from the Zambian post-harvest survey (PHS). We use this PHS dataset, which covers the period from 1996/1997 to 2001/2002 across two phases, the pre-treatment phase (1996/1998) and the treatment phase when the Eastern Province Feeder Road Project (EPFRP) was being implemented (1998/2002). The identification strategy relies on the implementing of matching estimators for all three treatment parameters: Average Treatment Effect (ATE); Treatment on the Treated (TT) and Treatment on the Untreated (TUT), which is crucial in terms of policy relevance (Arcand, 2012). Matching ensures a sub-set of non-project areas that best represents the counterfactual and is done at the same geographic level of aggregation (van de Walle, 2009). Since treatment participation is not by random asignment we use the propensity score as a method to reduce the bias in the estimation of these treatment effects with observational PHS data sets in order to reduce the dimensionality of the matching problem. We find the ATT estimation results are not the same when implementing various matching using 'the logarithm of (cotton) yield' compared to using 'cotton productivity' as variable. In the latter case the following matching methods all have negative difference between treated and controls: 1-to-1 propensity score matching; k-nearest neighbours matching; radius matching; and 'spline-smoothing'. However, the Kernel matching has positive difference between treated and controls for the 'productivity' variable: Finally, some of the local linear regression and the Mahalanobis matching specifications yields positive difference between treated and controls for the 'logyield' variable, but not for the 'productivity' variable and not for all specifications either. Through our robustness checks of the Matching Assumpion and Sensitivity of Estimates we find that the matching doesn't reduce the starting unbalancing. The comparison of the simulated ATT and the baseline ATT tells us that the latter is robust. We conclude that the application of various non-parametric matching methods didn't enable us to identify a robust linkage, most likely due to the PHS data source and the evaluation design. Future rigorous rural roads impact evaluation requires panel (with pre-intervention) data for project and appropriate non-project areas, which allows for an evaluation design that combines a double difference (DID) with controls for initial conditions either through propensity score matching, regression controls or an IV (van de Walle, 2009). Regression discontinuity designs would offer an alternative method for impact evaluation (ADB, 2011; see Arcand, 2012).


PURPOSE: An apparatus and method for controlling illumination using an ultrasonic wave is provided to control illumination with high sensitivity and reduce unnecessary power consumption by reducing wrong operation. CONSTITUTION: An illumination system has a lamp. An ultrasonic oscillation circuit generates an ultrasonic pulse by producing an oscillation frequency. An ultrasonic transmitting part emits the ultrasonic pulse signal generated through the ultrasonic oscillation circuit into air. An ultrasonic receiving part receives the ultrasonic pulse signal emitted from the ultrasonic transmitting part. An ultrasonic sensor(150) outputs an object sensing signal. An illumination system control part determines whether there exists an object based on the object sensing signal output through the ultrasonic sensor and transmits a control signal that the lighting should be turned off to the illumination system, so as to control the lamp to be turned on and off. A time control part is further provided to maintain on-condition of the lamp for a predetermined period of time.


We show the sufficiency of Kalman's rank condition for the uniqueness of solution to a coupled system of wave equations in a rectangular domain. The approach does not need any gap condition on the spectrum of the differential operator and the usual multiplier geometrical condition. Then, the study on the asymptotic synchronization by groups can be improved for the corresponding system.


Abstract. We have studied the relationships between the main molecular forms of gastrin (G17 and G34) in the serum, antral and duodenal mucosa of duodenal (DU) and gastric (GU) ulcer patients. Fasting serum G17 was similar in both DU and GU (about 6 pmol/1) and in both groups increased about three‐fold with feeding. In contrast, basal serum G34 was significantly higher in GU (29 pmol/1) than in DU (12 pmol/1) and the peak post prandial increase over basal of G34 was also higher in GU (57 pmol/1) compared with DU (10 pmol/1). In sharp contrast, in the same groups of DU and GU patients mean total antral gastrin concentrations were similar (about 12 nmol/g), and in both groups 95% of antral gastrin was G17, most of the remainder being G34. In both groups total duodenal gastrin concentrations were about 20% those in antral mucosa and about 70% of duodenal gastrin was attributable to G34. The higher serum G34 in GU could therefore be explained by increased secretion of duodenal gastrin, but further work is needed to examine whether there might also be preferential secretion of antral G34 in GU, or a difference in the metabolism (or volume of distribution) of gastrin variants in GU and DU.


This paper deals with the evaluation of process/product quality measured via a ternary ordinal scale. Recently, a new approach for dealing with ordinal quality variables, based on constructing a quality ladder using rank and dispersion criterion, was proposed. In this method the quality of a given sample is characterized by its relative position on the constructed quality ladder. The present paper proposes a new mechanism for constructing such a quality ladder. This method is called proportion ratio and dispersion (PR&D). The underlying logic, advantage and applications of the proposed method are discussed and demonstrated using software developed by the authors. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Summary Routine forest health surveillance of Eucalyptus nitens and E. globulus plantations in Tasmania has detected more frequent borer-related mortality in mid-rotation plantations in drier areas of the state. Damaging borer populations are not usually detected using traditional health surveillance techniques until mortality has occurred. Appropriately baited static traps are known to attract a wide range of stem-boring insects and might provide a means of monitoring populations in at-risk plantations. The objectives of this study were to explore the relationships between rainfall, tree stress symptoms and stem-borer-related damage symptoms in plantation eucalypts, and the nature of the associated borer populations, to determine whether static traps might provide an effective early warning system. Trees from a number of mid-rotation plantations covering a range of rainfall categories were visually assessed for a wide range of damage symptoms, and two intercept panel traps baited with α-pinene and ethanol lures were deployed in each of 19 compartments between November 2006 and March 2007. All beetles caught in the traps were identified to species level and the numbers tallied. The incidence of damage symptoms tended to be negatively correlated with mean annual rainfall and was higher in plantations from lower-rainfall areas. There were no clear relationships between aggregated trap catches of borers and annual rainfall or the incidence of damage symptoms. However, a greater range of borer species was trapped in drier areas and the number of species trapped showed a strong negative correlation with annual rainfall. There were also strong positive correlations between damage levels and the range of borer species trapped. The size of the populations of some species, in particular some of the scolytids, increased substantially with decreasing rainfall and was strongly associated with the incidence of damaged trees. Cerambycids were the only group significantly correlated with borer-specific symptoms, but further work is required to determine their utility for monitoring purposes. In vulnerable plantations an increase in the range of borer species, scolytid populations or specific indicator species caught in static traps might provide useful early warning of unacceptable levels of mortality or stem damage. As such, static trapping has the potential to monitor populations and allow for timely silvicultural intervention to ameliorate stress.


Both positive and negative effects exist along with the strengthening of IPR protection after China's accession to WTO. On the basis of the specific characteristics of agricultural technology innovations, the authors raise five issues on respecting IPR of others and preventing right abuse by foreign firms, conflicts in introducing market forces into the traditional agriculture ST research mechanism, conflicts in traditional agricultural promotion mechanism and IPR protection, etc.


Part 1 Theoretical perspectives: a cross-cultural approach to validating international human rights - the case of retribution tied to proportionality, A.D.Renteln human rights in divergent conceptual settings - how do ideas influence policy choices?, M.G.Johnson human rights and culture change, J.Aschenbrenner a policy approach to human rights law - the right to development, R.Siegel. Part 2 Measurement of human rights practices: some thoughts on the systematic measurement of the abuse of human rights, A.D.McNitt measuring social and economic rights performance in the People's Republic of China - a comparative perspective among developing Asian countries, S.C.Thomas gender - generic language in the United States Constitution - gender bias versus democratic ideals, E.L.McDonagh and E.C.McDonagh. Part 3 Explanations of cross-national variations: comparative human rights - promise and practice, K.Pritchard correlates of due process, D.L.Cingranelli and K.N.Wright democracy and economic human rights in the Third World, N. Spalding militarization, human rights and basic needs in the Third World, R.M.Rosh abortion, rights and public policymaking in six Western democracies, J.E.Lennertz. Part 4 Consequences of cross-national variations: can democracy survive where there is a gap between political and economic rights, Z.F.Arat human rights and US bilateral aid allocations to Africa, T.N.Pasquarello.


This study investigated the effects of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) exposure for varying durations and at multiple concentrations to Carassius aurats on tissues and organs (plasma, liver, kidney, muscle, and brain) and reproductive hormone (plasma testosterone, 11-ketotestoterone, 17β-estradiol) and cell performance (membrane fluidity and potential), as well as kinetics models. The results showed that plasma PFOS concentrations were higher than those in other tissues, brains presented significantly lower PFOS concentrations than in other tissues, different ranking of mean tissue concentrations: plasma > liver > kidney > muscle > brain. PFOS caused significant decrease in serum cholesterol levels compared to control levels (P .05). Continuous incubation time induced a further decrease in serum cholesterol in Carassius aurats. Circulating testosterone was significantly depressed in male ...


The aim of the article is to show problems of a conceptual nature with defining non-religious people, as well as some ethical consequences of these problems. In the beginning I point to the frequent phenomenon of treating atheism as a kind of religion. I identify the sources of this phenomenon in a tendency among sociologists of religion to use inclusive and functional definitions of religion. From the point of view of the researcher of non-religion and non-religiousness it is a problem. Therefore, I call for using in this context definitions of religion suggested by researched actors themselves, which often have substantive character. In research practice it usually means using self-declaration as a definitional criterion of non-religion.


Recent work at Vinca-Belo Brdo has combined a total of more than 200 radiocarbon dates with an array of other information to construct much more precise narratives for the structural history of the site and the cultural materials recovered from it. In this paper, we present the results of a recent attempt to construct formal models for the chronology of the wider Vinca potscape, so that we can place our now detailed understanding of changes at Belo Brdo within their contemporary contexts. We present our methodology for assessing the potential of the existing corpus of more than 600 radiocarbon dates for refining the chronology of the five phases of Vinca ceramics proposed by Milojcic across their spatial ranges, including a total of 490 of them in a series of Bayesian chronological models. Then we outline our main results for the development of Vinca pottery. Finally, we discuss some of the major implications for our understanding of the source, character and tempo of material change.


Humboldt-University Berlin, Department of MathematicsUnter den Linden 6, D-10099 Berlin, GermanyE-mail: email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com,firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com,firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com project investigates the applicability of quasi-Monte Carlo methods to Euclidean lattice sys-tems in order to improve the asymptotic error scaling of observables for such theories. The error ofan observable calculated by averaging over random observations generated from ordinary MonteCarlo simulations scales like N


© 2018 Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction. All rights reserved. Deception and manipulation are expected in strategic gameplay, but how do players negotiate what counts as acceptable kinds of manipulation? We compare three examples from a corpus of 30 hours of competitive board game play, using conversation analysis to examine how players orient to the reasonableness of manipulations. We show that contingencies of timing of the attribution and receipt of the manipulation are as morally concerned as manipulation itself. Players organize their negotiations of acceptability around the concept of a "sporting" player or move. The "sporting" resource shows one situated members' method for collaboratively managing fairness and morality in play. A video abstract is available at https://youtu.be/IlaE-w6FUxw.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of lymph node metastasis along the superior mesenteric vein (station 14v) to determine the need for 14v dissection in gastric cancer surgery.


Objective To analyze the manpower resources situation of municipal and county CDCs in Zhejiang province,find out the existing problems and provide countermeasures.Methods The stratified random sampling was used and the basic information of CDC such as composing,the number of personnel,personnel structure was investigated.Results The personnel number had increased,but still lower than the average level of the eastern region in China.Additionally,the phenomenon of overstaff number was ubiquity.The average age of personnel was about 40 years.Their educational backgrounds were mainly undergraduate and junior college.And their professional titles were mainly intermediate and junior.All of these did not meet the standards recommended by the Ministry of Health.Conclusion At present,the number of personnel is relative shortage in CDC.Staffs are with a low level of educational background and professional title.The specialization of staff needs to be improved.Therefore,in order to promote the manpower resources of the public health in CDC,talent strategy must be carried out.Meanwhile,more high-quality talents should be introduced.Personnel training and standards of staff assignment also need to be strengthened and established.


Abstract Background and aim : Material and methods: Findings : Mean age of participants was 57.85 with standard deviation 11.02. Mean age of participants' at the time of diagnosis was 54.83 with standard deviation of 11.33. Quality of life scores for these patients was 46.98 with standard deviation of 7.60 , which is considered a moderate level of quality of life. Scores of physical functioning ,emotional ,and social functioning sub scales were 25±9.61 -53.8±14.53 and 61.34±18.33 respectively.Therer was a significant association between quality of life scores and socioeconomic status .A significant association was also found between quality of life scores and duration of time from diagnosis and treatment completion. Conclusion: Findings of this study showed that quality of life of cervical cancer survivals was affected by cancer. Improving physical function and recovery form symptoms may improve quality of life of these patients. Key words : Quality of life. Cervical cancer. Cancer survivors A descriptive correlational design was used. 65 cervical cancer survivors who had completed their treatment during the time period from 2001 to 2008 participated in the study. Data were collected by two questionnaires:" European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire –Cervix 24 " and " European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire- Core30-Version 3". Medical records were reviewed for pathologic and clinical features of these patients. Validity of these questionnaires was assured by content validity. Questionnaires were completed by phone interview with the patients. Reliability of these questionnaires was obtained by computing internal consistency (Cronbach alpha) and test re test. Data were analyzed by SPSS 17. Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers of women in developing countries. Disease and its treatments affect different aspects of patients' life. The aim of the present study was to assess the quality of life among long term cervical cancer survivors and its association with clinical and pathological features in patients attended to cancer centers in Shahid Beheshti university of medical sciences,Tehran,Iran.


A number of councils in the North Island are trialling an augmented reality experience called Magical Park to encourage children and their families to explore parks and be more active. Magical Park is developed by GEO AR Games, a digital outdoor gaming company that promotes its games as being both fun and a spur to physical activity.


Several fuel oils were stored in glass bottles at four different temperatures - 43.3/sup 0/C (110/sup 0/F), 65.6/sup 0/C (150/sup 0/F), 82.2/sup 0/C (180/sup 0/F), and 100/sup 0/C (212/sup 0/F). Each day the bottles were opened and aerated. At the end of each storage period, the amount of insolubles that had formed in the fuel was measured. An insolubles content of 2 mg per 100 ml of fuel was considered to be the maximum amount acceptable. From the amount of insolubles formed during different storage times, a graphical method was developed for accurately determining the storage time to reach 2 mg of insolubles per 100 ml of fuel for each storage temperature. Correlations and equations were developed by which time of storage at temperatures up to 100/sup 0/C could be converted to equivalent time of storage at any other temperature.


Although π-conjugated, organic semiconductors have been successfully tested in several electronic devices; e.g. organic photovoltaic cells [1], organic light emitting diodes [2], and organic field-effect transistors [3]; a full understanding of the precise nature of the underlying charge migration mechanisms is still lacking. In such systems, charge carrier mobilities are dramatically influenced by the structural fluctuations of the molecular stacks, which makes it necessary to take dynamic effects into account beyond purely perturbative treatments. As a result of this strong coupling of the electronic structure to dynamic degrees of freedom, charge transport cannot be described in terms of fully coherent or fully incoherent microscopic mechanisms within the molecular devices' operating temperature range (250 K to 350 K) [4].


This work is concerned with the effect of trace element amount (%wt) in the properties of the sintered bovine hydroxyapatite (BHA). The BHA powders were mixed with various percentage of ZnO ranging from 0 wt. % to 15 wt. % by magnetic stirrer. The dry powders were uniaxially pressed at 312 MPa. For comparison purpose, synthetic HA also produced using the same process. It has been found that the relative density decreases with increasing of ZnO content. The additions of ZnO have shown an increasing of Vickers hardness with the highest of the micro Vickers hardness obtained in 1.5 wt. % ZnO. The BHA have stable phase stability at within the range of 0.5 wt% to 1.0 wt% and 2.0 wt% to 5.0 wt. %. The decomposition occurs as the ZnO increased to 10 wt. % and 15 wt. %. Thus, material preparation plays an important role on determining the effect of sintered BHA. Keyword: Bovine Hydroxyapatite, trace elements, ZnO, Vickers hardness.


Silvicultural effectiveness of intermediate felling in potential spruce forests has bee analysed on the base of long investigation on 2 permanently tested (experimental) areas. A variant of intermediate felling organization and technical parameters aimed at highly productive spruce forests formation has been offered.


This paper presents the experimental results of large-scale concrete-filled glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) circular tubes and control hollow GFRP and steel tubes tested in bending. The diameter of the beams ranged from 89 to 942 mm and the spans ranged from 1.07 to 10.4 m. The study investigated the effects of concrete filling, cross-sectional configurations including tubes with a central hole, tube-in-tube with concrete filling in between, and different laminate structures of the GFRP tubes. The study demonstrated the benefits of concrete filling and showed that a higher strength-to-weight ratio can be achieved by providing a central hole. The results indicated that the flexural behavior is highly dependent on the stiffness and diameter-to-thickness ratio of the tube and, to a much less extent, on the concrete strength. Test results suggest that the contribution of concrete confinement to the flexural strength is insignificant; however, the ductility of the member is improved. A strain compatibility model has been developed, verified by the experimental results, and used to provide a parametric study of the different parameters, significantly affecting the behavior. The parametric study covered a wide range of FRP sections filled with concrete, including under-reinforced, balanced, and over-reinforced sections.


PURPOSE: An interference removing method and a terminal using the same method are provided to alleviate the interference by interference node. CONSTITUTION: A processor(210) receives node information from a base station(100). The processor receives a first signal from a destination node. The processor receives a second signal from an intervening node. The processor applies a receiving filter to the first signal and the received signal including the second signal. The processor eliminates the interference generated by the second signal.


The sparse regularization (SReg) model is widely used for structural damage identification by employing the sparsity peculiarity of the structural damage. The conventional SReg model often separately conducts damage identification on each measurement, while ignores the utilization of the similarity information among different measurements. In this paper, we propose a novel joint sparse regularization model for structural damage identification. In detail, combined with the sparsity of the structural damage by the conventional SReg model, our model employs the similarity of different measurements to further improve the damage identification performance, which is realized by the generalized fused lasso penalty. Numerical simulations on the six-bay planar truss structure and experimental studies on the cantilever beam structure illustrate that the damage identification accuracy of our model is promoted 3.59% and 20.75% than the conventional SReg one, respectively.


The paper was based on research tasks in the field of robotics. It approaches solving the collision states of a robot while operating equipment and applies the knowledge in the CATIA system environment. Motion Planning is of paramount importance in robotics, where a goal is to determine a collision-free, unobstructed path for a robot that works in an environment which contains obstacles. An obstacle can be an object that is found in the robot's workspace.

http://www.astrj.com/pdf-110154-41175?filename=An Algorithm in the.pdf


This article presents a typology derived from field work seeking to identify what characterizes the differences between two organizational models based on relationships organized into a hierarchy and relationships arising from cooperation. Services are considered as the determining factor, enabling the specification of the relationship between types of firms and their spatial behaviour. Three contrasting types of organization are explored (network firm and consultancy chain; globalization and consultancy network; technology and consultancy node). They are complemented by intermediary types with influences on extemalization, scientific and technical information and performance specification. Three case studies support this classification. They question various traditionally identified attitudes concerning the re-qualification of territories. In conclusion, the 'network' form of organization plays a multiple role in the relations between firms and territories and has to be taken into account in the understanding of externalities, polarized diffusion and economies of agglomeration.


The more reliable prediction for future level of atmospheric greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) requires the quantitative understanding of global cycles in these gases. Comprehensive observation in atmospheric mixing ratios of trace gases can reduce the uncertainties of emission and absorption of these gases at earth's surface. The atmospheric observations, however, are not enough in several areas in the world, especially observations in upper atmosphere are quite limited compared to surface measurements. Aircraft is one of the most reliable tools to observe the atmospheric compositions in troposphere and lower stratosphere. Several activities have been conducted to understand the 3-dimensional distribution and temporal variation of atmospheric greenhouse gases. Mixing ratios of atmospheric CO2 have been measured from 200 to 10,000 m over Japan using chartered and commercial airliner since 1979 by Tohoku University (TU). Obtained data set is the longest record for CO2 mixing ratio in upper air. Latitudinal distributions of CO2 in upper troposphere are observed by commercial airliner operated by Japan Airlines (JAL) between Sydney, Australia and Narita, Japan, and Narita and Anchorage, USA from 1984 to 1985 by TU. The JAL observation in Australia-Japan route started again in 1993 using an Automatic Air Sampling Equipment (ASE) by Meteorological Research Institute (MRI). The new JAL observation named "Comprehensive Observation Network for Trace gases by AIrLiner (CONTRAIL)" have been done using improved ASE and Continuous CO2 Measuring Equipment (CME) since 2005 by National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) and MRI. Time series of CO2 mixing ratio in upper troposphere observed by old ASE and improved ASE are shown in the Figure. CONTRAIL-CME provides a large amount of CO2 data in upper air which contribute to solve global carbon cycle, atmospheric transport, model validation and satellite validation. When dedicated aircraft is introduced in Japan, we propose to make a long-term observation for atmospheric greenhouse gases using above techniques and instruments.


The accurate prediction of wind speed is greatly significant for evaluating the security and economy of the wind farm which is connected to the grid. This paper proposed a hybrid model for wind speed prediction based on spatial correlation and nonlinear state space model. Firstly, a rank correlation coefficient is calculated according a Coupla function and the coefficient is used to choose the input data of the model. A support vector regression machine is introduced to build a nonlinear state space model, and then a hybrid model is obtained. Finally,experiment results based on some public data are given, the results demonstrate that the proposed hybrid model has higher prediction accuracy and stable performance while comparing with some classical algorithm. Keywords-wind speed forecasting; spatial correlation; coupla functions; state space


The invention discloses a connecting device for guiding lightning current between a blade and a hub, relates to a lightning prevention device for a wind turbine, and solves the problems that a cable joint is easy to break and potential safety hazard exists. The device comprises a woven cable connected between the blade and the hub, wherein the woven cable is subjected to heat shrinkage by a heat-shrinkable tube; line noses are pressed in the heads of the woven cable; the woven cable is fixed on a steel wire rope by a binding tape; the two rope heads of the steel wire rope are fixed by pressing plates after the steel wire rope is tightened; the two heads of the woven cable are coated with conductive paste and are connected with an angle iron connecting piece respectively; and the two angle iron connecting pieces are fixed in the center of the root of the blade and the center of an interlayer of the hub respectively. The device is used for preventing lightning stroke in a wind generating set and has the advantages that: the device firmly connects the blade and the hub and is safely operated.


In this paper we introduce the notion of mapping-based knowledge base (MKB), to formalize those ontology-based data access (OBDA) scenarios where both the extensional and the intensional level of the ontology are determined by suitable mapping assertions involving the data sources. We study reasoning over MKBs in the context of Hi(DL-LiteR), a higher-order version of the DL DL-LiteR. We show that answering queries posed to MKBs expressed in Hi(DL-LiteR) can be done efficiently through FOL rewriting: hence, query answering can be delegated to a DBMS, as in the case of traditional OBDA systems.


The utility model discloses a high-shock-resistance sulfur hexafluoride gas density relay which comprises a shell body, a signal control part and an indicating value displaying part, wherein the signal control part and the indicating value displaying part are arranged in the shell body and are relatively independent, the shell body comprises an airtight oil chamber used for installing the signal control part and an air chamber used for installing the indicating value displaying part, the oil chamber and the air chamber are connected and relatively independent, and the oil chamber is filled with shock-resisting oil. The high-shock-resistance sulfur hexafluoride gas density relay has the advantages of being perfect in oil leakage prevention, good in shock resistance, high in precision, good in electrical performance, and long in service life.


A two-stage aerobic treatment consisting of conventional active sludge treatment followed by membrane bio reactor has been tested for 100 days. The overall pollutant removal efficiencies (97.1% COD, 99.5% BOD5, 94.7% total nitrogen and 72.9% total phosphorous) are high enough to produce effluent that meets criteria for discharge to surface water with a relatively low amount of surplus sludge: 0.34 gSS (gCODremoved) -1 . The only exception is total phosphorous concentration. The analysis of biodegradable COD in the effluent shows that only 14% is still biodegradable. Although the high quality effluent may be reused in preliminary soiled potato washing, the limiting criteria may be an increased concentration of chlorides.


The invention proposes a method for improving the performance in the case of combining the failed packet and the retransmitted packet in the decoding process of a code that requires the iterative decoding when the HARQ. Previously, it was generally the way to after the error I store the previous value of the packet decoding and combining it with the retransmitted packet decoding. However, it is true that the reliability In the value after decoding the code to the iterative decoding, compared to the value prior to the decoding as LDPC generally larger. Therefore, the error I get the value before decrypting the packet to decoding by combining the retransmission packet errors than I after decoding value to a better performance of decoding by combining the retransmission packet of the packet. In this case it is simply an error that combines I properly adjust the value after decryption, rather than combining the value after decoding the packet and the retransmitted packet can bring better performance improvement. Decoding, combining, LDPC code, HARQ


This concluding chapter argues that Thucydides' approach to politics is more preferable than Hobbes's. Hobbes, despite his pessimistic assumptions about human nature, is not realistic. Is it realistic to assume that all people act predictably, that they are always guided strictly by self-interest, that all other motivations are a sham—or, if genuine, so rare that to take them into account is useless? According to Thucydides, human beings are multifaceted, so that it becomes necessary, for example, to examine individual leaders and to listen seriously to their reasons for acting a certain way. Thucydides also shows that there is a natural sociability in people that goes beyond vying for power and glory and, indeed, coexists with these urges, so that it is unrealistic not to take into account a certain amount of genuine altruism. Does Hobbes's account of leadership deal with the impact of great individuals on history? Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War contains individuals with varying motivations, some altruistic, some self-interested, some acting on rage and revenge. In other words, it reflects reality. As such, Thucydides, as often as Hobbes, has been dubbed the father of international realism. The chapter then discusses how realism and neorealism, despite their differences, share the same philosophical roots. It also suggests that Thucydides has been misunderstood and that he actually provides an interesting alternative approach to realism in the study of international politics.


This paper retrieves different types of soliton solutions for coupled nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE). We use extended F-expansion method to find bright, dark and other trigonometric solutions with Kerr law and anti-cubic law. We also find Gausson soliton for coupled NLSE under log law nonlinearity.


Objective To explore the effect of ventricular outflow tract septum pacing on heart function. Methods 75 hospitalized patients(38 male and 37 females) with bradycardia were chosen to undergo selective right ventricular outflow tract septum pacing(RVOTSP).Left atrial diameter(LAD),left ventricular end-diastolic diameter(LVEDD),left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF) and New York heart Association(NYHA) cardiac function classification indexes and other indexes were observed before and after the surgery. Results 75 patients were successfully implanted pacemakers by septal pacing.For those with the LVEF normal,it can improve postoperative LVEF,reduce LAD and LVEDD;For the LVEF below normal,it can increase stroke volume,reduce LAD and LVEDD,improve heart function.For the LVEF below normal,especially for those with atrial fibrillation,it can statistically significantly improve LVEF,reduce LAD,LVEDD.According to NYHA class,cardiac function was improved in varying degrees. Conclusion For the patients with implantable pacemakers installation indications,the implementation of the outflow tract septal pacing,which can improve heart function,is safe and feasible.But long term observation is still necessary.


Attribute-based encryption (ABE) is a promising encryption for fine-grained sharing of ciphertext based on users' attributes. One drawback of ABE is that the encryption and decryption computational costs grow with the number of attributes and the complexity of the access policy. In scenarios where mobile devices are required, it will make encryption and decryption a possible bottleneck for these applications. To largely eliminate computational overhead for mobile devices, we propose a novel attribute-based online/offline encryption with outsourcing decryption (ABOOEOD). First, the encryption process is split into the offline and online phases. Second, we modify the key generation and decryption algorithms to handle the ciphertext, and outsource the majority of decryption to cloud servers without compromising its security. Our first ABOOE-OD scheme is proven to be secure against the chosen-plaintext attack. We present an attribute-based online/offline KEM with outsourcing decapsulation (ABOOKEM-OD), and construct a generic transformation to achieve CCA security for ABOOE-OD from any ABOOKEM-OD with one-wayness. Finally, we compare our schemes with previous schemes, and provide an implementation of our scheme. The performance measurements indicate ABOOE-OD is very suitable for mobile devices to perform the online encryption and decryption operations without significantly draining the battery.


The present paper focuses on the order-disorder transition of an Ising model on a self-similar lattice. We present a detailed numerical study, based on the Monte Carlo method in conjunction with the finite size scaling method, of the critical properties of the Ising model on some two dimensional deterministic fractal lattices with different Hausdorff dimensions. Those with finite ramification order do not display ordered phases at any finite temperature, whereas the lattices with infinite connectivity show genuine critical behavior. In particular we considered two Sierpinski carpets constructed using different generators and characterized by Hausdorff dimensions dH = ln8/ln3 = 1.8927.. and dH = ln12/ln4 = 1.7924.., respectively. The data show in a clear way the existence of an order-disorder transition at finite temperature in both Sierpinski carpets. By performing several Monte Carlo simulations at different temperatures and on lattices of increasing size in conjunction with a finite size scaling analysis, we were able to determine numerically the critical exponents in each case and to provide an estimate of their errors. Finally we considered the hyperscaling relation and found indications that it holds, if one assumes that the relevant dimension in this case is the Hausdorff dimension of the lattice.


Objective: The determinants of increased psychosis risk among immigrants remain unclear. Given ethnic density may be protective, we investigated whether the presence of immediate family, or "family networks", at time of immigration was associated with risk of non-affective psychosis.Methods: We followed a cohort of migrants (n=838,717) to Sweden, born 1968-1997, from their 14th birthday, or earliest immigration thereafter, until diagnosis of non-affective psychosis (ICD-9/ICD-10), emigration, death, or 2011. Using record linkage, we measured family network as the presence of adult first-degree relatives immigrating with the cohort participant or already residing in Sweden. We used Cox proportional hazards regression to examine whether risk varied between those migrating with family, migrating to join family, or migrating alone. Results: Migrating with immediate family was associated with increased psychosis risk amongst males compared to males who did not migrate with family (adjusted Hazard Ratio [aHR]: 1.16, 95%CI: 1.00-1.34). Migrating with family did not increase risk among females (aHR:0.91, 95%CI: 0.78-1.07); similar observations were observed for males who immigrated to join family (aHR: 1.35, 95%CI: 1.21-1.51). In contrast, females who migrated alone were at increased risk compared to females who did not migrate alone (aHR: 1.31, 95%CI: 1.11-1.54). Conclusion: Family networks at the time of immigration were associated with differential patterns of non-affective psychotic disorders for males and females. These results suggest sex-specific differences in the perceived role of family networks during the migration process.