The article describes the use of dynamic computer models as a means of teaching solid geometry to secondary school students. In teaching solid geometry, the main goals are achieved through the implementation of didactic functions of dynamic computer models that act as the link between logical and spatial aspects of thinking.


Noise corruption degrades the R-D performance of H.264/AVC encoders because of a loss of image quality and an increase in bit-rate. Previous noise reduction techniques attempt to avoid the loss of image quality, but they do not take the effect of noise on compression efficiency into serious consideration. In this paper, the noise effect on an H.264/AVC encoder is analyzed and a blockbased adaptive denoising algorithm is proposed. The proposed algorithm applies the denoising operation adaptively to blocks which do not include image details that need to be preserved. Furthermore, the proposed noise filter is not applied when the quantization parameter is larger than a pre-defined threshold because noise is filtered by a quantization operation in the encoder. As a result, both residual and information bits are decreased by the proposed noise filtering operation. Edge blurring caused by the filtering operation is also reduced as a result of the adaptive application of the filtering operation. Compared to cases where filtering is not used, the proposed method shows a maximum PSNR enhancement of 1.98 dB and a maximum bitrate reduction of 41%.


Ready to eat tomato curry in see through retort pouches was developed using steam air retort. The product was found to be commercially sterile after retorting to an F0 value of 7.34 minutes. The heat penetration characteristics of the product was studied and revealed a total process time of 30.38 minutes to attain the above F0 value and the cook value was 66.03 minutes. The characteristics of the see through retort pouch used for the study was analysed and our results showed that it had good barrier properties and is suitable for food contact applications. Tomato is known as a rich source of lycopene, thus in this study the ready to eat tomato curry was also analysed to determine the changes that occurred in the lycopene content during processing. Shelf life studies conducted revealed a shelf life of one year at ambient temperature (26 to 28°C).


In public perception, religious scholars (Ulama) serve as highly trusted sources of information, particularly within Indonesian society. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure that Ulama possesses adequate digital literacy to convey accurate and reliable information. This study aims to provide computer training to the students (santri) of Ma'had MQDH NW Pancor, enabling them to master relevant computer technologies and applications. The training primarily focuses on internet literacy and Microsoft Office applications, employing a combination of lectures and hands-on practice. Ten participants from various levels of study were involved in the program, which took place at Laboratory 1, Faculty of Engineering, Hamzanwadi University. The results of the training revealed that 57.1% of the participants expressed high satisfaction levels, while 71.4% reported an increase in their understanding after completing the training. In conclusion, this computer training program has demonstrated positive benefits in enhancing the digital comprehension and skills of the students, preparing them to tackle digital challenges in the future.


This paper explores how we as female researchers are constructing our professional identities in a male-dominated scientific world. In particular, we focus on the extent to which patriarchal articulations of professional identities influence female academics' self-concept and consciousness of their own abilities. We believe that the business school in which we work reproduces certain inequalities systematically, if unintentionally. We are especially interested in the way in which we, as part of the scientific community, are ourselves discursively producing and reproducing the gender division based on differences of sex. In other words, how we 'do gender' in a particular organizational setting and when assuming a particular organizational role.

The argument of this paper rests on the belief that the social construction of gender identities is not taking place only in the interaction of persons but also in the discourses within which those interactions occur. Identity and the meaning it implies are located here especially in language use. Discourses not only constitute meanings for terms and practices, but they also engender personal identities. Identity is not seen as fixed but rather as actively negotiated and transformed in discourse.


In work presents the results of experimental researches active spectrozonal systems with laser illumination and direct comparison of signals of passive and active systems in real marine conditions. The distinction of signals, is marked by these systems in nonuniform optical conditions of coastal zone.


The objective of this study is to evaluate the characteristics of discount store environment by compare under-ground selling area with aboveground selling area. Because occupants spend most of time at selling area in discount store, the focus of field measurement is evaluation of selling area's environment. In the field measurement, air environment is estimated by the concentration of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, dust and thermal environment is estimated by dry temperature, globe temperature, relative humidity and velocity of air. Parking lot is the source of carbon monoxide. And, the moving walk, connection of parking lot and selling area, is passway of carbon monoxide. So parking lot is in need of isolation facility system. In conclusion, the result of this study in the case of underground selling area is located in worse indoor environment than aboveground selling area.


The ideal duration of antiplatelet therapy following percutaneous coronary intervention is a topic of much discussion within the cardiology community. Numerous contemporary studies have highlighted benefits of both shortened and prolonged treatment courses within particular patient cohorts. Despite this, there is a delay in seeing such individualised decisions being made within stretched healthcare systems. We aimed to highlight this issue and facilitate discussions on how we can bring this important research from 'bench' to 'bedside'.


Detailed measurements of moderate to large separated flows have been made for the 13%-thick GA(W)-2 airfoil with 25% slotted flap at a Reynolds number of 2.2 x 106 and Mach number of 0.13. The tests were made for flap nested and flap deflected cases of 30- and 40-deg flap angles with optimum and narrow gaps at near- and poststall angles of attack. The data include pressure, mean flow, and turbulence quantities. A splitter plate was employed for measuring a large number of static pressures simultaneously. Flowfield sensitivity to the measuring probes was determined by means of force and surface pressure measurements. The experimental program revealed the difficulty of measuring pressures in separated flows. The presence of a probe, no matter how small, changes the flow geometry in the interacting parts of the flowfield. The results of this experimental study are sufficiently detailed to serve to evaluate computational codes of such separated flows on multielement airfoils.


This paper summarized and combed the relative theories on internet bank, brand image and purchase decision. Make the analysis on the effect of internet bank"s innovation on its own brand construction and its customer purchase decision under the actual operate background. While using the questionnaire research to collect the data samples and using the SPSS19.0 to make the positive analysis on the research samples, propose the hypotheses on the effect relationships of internet bank"s innovations to its brand construction and its customer purchase decision and verify them. After that, make suggestions to the internet bank from the aspects of product and service innovation, operate method innovation and brand construction.


COVID-19 is a respiratory disease that causes severe pneumonia and sepsis. It affects mainly the lungs, but its effects on other organs can reflect the severity of sepsis in a patient. Arterial and venous thrombosis have been noted in necropsy studies, suggesting a direct and/or indirect action of the virus on the endothelium and the coagulation cascade. Endothelial involvement in bacterial and viral infections is not a new finding. It is known to be mediated by cytokines and has been [...]


A skiing monitoring system composed of multiple sensors can feedback videos, kinematic, and physiological parameters synchronously. Also, it is a significant technology for improving the skills of skiers. The time synchronization between diverse sensors is a prerequisite for comprehensive analysis and feedback. The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and the inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor are the two key components of the skiing monitoring system. However, due to uncertainties in the quasi-random human motion signals of skiing, it is still a challenge to achieve fully automatic synchronization between the GNSS and independent IMU without imposing any additional burden on skiers. In order to provide a solution that can be used in daily ski training, a time synchronization algorithm based on cross correlation analysis and "0/1 speed dichotomy" (CSD) is proposed. For the first time, the quasi-random human motion signals of skiing collected by the GNSS and independent IMU achieve automatic time synchronization without imposing any additional burden to the athletes. In this method, the sampling points of IMU and GNSS are divided into static state interval and motion state interval by a static interval detection algorithm, and then, the speed is assigned a value of 0 or 1 depending on the interval in which the sample point is located. It is no longer necessary to reconstruct the speed by integration operation using the acceleration collected by IMU. The algorithm is verified by using 21 training datasets from ten national athletes. The results show that even in the presence of ski resorts and athletes changing, the average error of CSD is 84.65 ms and the average running time of CSD is only 58.77 ms. The average error is further reduced to 34.29 ms with a standard deviation of 33.64 ms when the sampling rates of GNSS and IMU are increased. Compared to time synchronization algorithms based on high-pass filters, zero velocity update (ZUPT), and improved ZUPT, CSD takes less time to run with smaller synchronization errors and standard deviations when test athletes and snowfields change. CSD shows distinct advantages, including low computational cost, good robustness, and high accuracy. Therefore, CSD is adopted for application in a synchronous skiing monitoring system. The system can perform collection, synchronous analysis, feedback of various data, and videos of skiers without affecting the skiers' actions. At present, the system has been used in the daily training of a professional cross-country skiing team and has provided some suggestions for athletes to improve their physical distribution and technical actions.


An unusual case of scrotal lymphangioma in a ongole bull is described. A 5 years old ongole bull was presented with a eight month history of swelling at the neck of scrotum. On palpation the swelling was hard in consistency. Fine needle aspiration revealed no sign of malignancy. On surgical exploration of scrotal swelling, a hard mass was observed adhering to the outerlayers of spermatic cord. The mass was excised without disturbing the testes and the associated structures. Based on cytological and histopathological examination the mass was diagnosed as lymphangioma. The surgical treatment was successful and the animal had uneventful recovery without any complications.


Disclosed herein is a portable communication device. The portable communication apparatus includes a first housing axially extending; rotation perpendicular to the first hinge shaft axial direction of the first housing about that change the corresponding top surface of the bottom surface of the second housing to the first housing between the angle of the second housing; and at the first housing at one end of the cylindrical hinge housing, while the cylindrical hinge portion of the housing from the first housing prominent. The first hinge axis extends in the diameter direction of the cylindrical hinge housing, wherein the second housing is connected to the cylindrical hinge housing while the second housing about the first hinge axis. The cylindrical hinge housing having a second hinge axis extending in the longitudinal direction of the cylindrical hinge in that the second housing can rotate about the second hinge axis. The second hinge axis perpendicular to the first hinge axis.


This study tries to investigate the counseling needs in the academic, professional, psychological and social domains among students of preliminary year at the University of Al-Jouf, and its relationship to the school level. The study also aims to identify the significant differences in counseling needs according to the following variables: class, place of residence and the level of parent's education. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researcher developed a counseling scale composed of 40 items, divided to four dimensions: for each of 10 items (academic, social, psychological, and professional) scale has got a high degree of validity and reliability and internal consistency. It was then applied to a sample of 80 student enrolled in Level I and II in the preliminary year at the University of Al-Jouf, in the academic year 1435/1436 first semester. The data manipulated statistically using statistical package for social science (SPSS). The most important results of the study are: The needs professional counseling is the most pressing needs of the female students, followed by academic needs, then psychological and social needs. There is no statistically significant difference in counseling needs according to the level of study. The results showed that there are statistically significant differences in counseling needs according to place of residence in favor of students who live in students residence. There is a negative correlation between counseling needs (academic, psychological and vocational) with fathers' educational level. There is a significant negative correlation between the need for psychological counseling with mothers' educational level. The researchers postulated a number of recommendations according to the findings reached.


Software efforts estimation is tedious task for every software industry. Many software efforts estimation models are invented to make efforts estimation accurate. Unfortunately no model is suitable for all kind of software industries. This paper used Use Case method for efforts estimation for a small software company. For many projects we have not got good results. These papers modify Use Case Point and apply on same project of same company and we have got some better result. This paper modify the method Jorgensen has described 12 expert-based best practices, one of the best practices said that combine estimates from different experts and estimation strategies [2]. It is always suggested that we must use more than one method for estimation, but there is no model is exits which support this concept. This paper combines the Use Case point and COCOMO. We are predicting the Line of Code with the help of Use Cases. Use Case used in the method must be more specific not more generalized .More recently; the use of Use Cases for software effort estimation has gained wide popularity. Researchers from academia as well as industry have shown interest in the Use Case based approaches because of the promising results obtained along with their early applicability A strong monitoring policy is always required to make estimation as a success .We have to make a check list with the date of completion and must follow the checklist. If work is not done on the time some necessary action must be taken to compensate the deviation [14].


In this article, we investigate the impact of hardware impairments (HIs) on the performance of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) based integrated satellite-terrestrial relay networks (ISTRNs). Particularly, we obtain the novel closed-form expression for the outage probability (OP) of the considered NOMA-based ISTRNs with HIs. Furthermore, to get further insights of the effect of HIs on the considered system in high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) scenario, the asymptotic expression for the OP is also obtained, which provides an efficient way to evaluate the system performance, and effective quantification of different parameters on the system performance. Furthermore, we study the energy efficiency (EE) of the considered system and obtain interesting findings when NOMA scheme is applied. At last, numerical Monte Carlo (MC) results are given to verify the correctness of the theoretical results.


A b-coloring of a graph G is a proper coloring of the vertices of G such that there exists a vertex in each color class joined to at least one vertex in each other color classes. The b-chromatic number of a graph G, denoted by φ(G), is the largest integer k such that G has a b-coloring with k colors. The b-chromatic sum of a graph G(V, E), denoted by φ′(G) is defined as the minimum of sum of colors c(v) of v for all v ∈ V in a b-coloring of G using φ(G) colors. The Mycielskian or Mycielski, μ(H) of a graph H with vertex set {v1, v2,…, vn} is a graph G obtained from H by adding a set of n + 1 new vertices {u, u1, u2, …, un} joining u to each vertex ui(1 ≤ i ≤ n) and joining ui to each neighbour of vi in H. In this paper, the b-chromatic sum of Mycielskian of cycles, complete graphs and complete bipartite graphs are discussed. Also, an application of b-coloring in image processing is discussed here.


This article aims at comparing gravitational wave memory effect in a Schwarzschild spacetime with that of other compact objects with static and spherically symmetric spacetime, with the purpose of proposing a procedure for differentiating between various compact object geometries. We do this by considering the relative evolution of two nearby test geodesics with in different backgrounds in the presence and absence of a gravitational wave pulse and comparing them. Memory effect due to a gravitational wave would ensure that there is a permanent effect on each spacetime and the corresponding geodesic evolution, being metric dependent, would display distinct results in each case. For a complete picture, we have considered both displacement and velocity memory effect in each geometry.


A Genetic Network Programming Architecture (GNP) is applied to a multi- agent problem where cooperation of agents are required. GNP is a kind of evolutionary methods inspired from Genetic Programming(GP). While GP has a tree architecture, GNP has a network architecture. The model and algorithm of GP and GNP are firstly described. Secondly, the performance of GNP and GP are discussed by using load transportation problem respectively. Finally, simulating results on ability- based role assignment problem show the effectiveness of GNP.


ABSTRACT The southern Canadian Rockies is an excellent area in which to examine and discuss compressional hydrocarbon traps for three main reasons: (1) the Foothills host numerous large hydrocarbon fields, many of which were discovered decades ago and continue to produce today, providing a growing subsurface database and documentation of the history of applicable structural models over time; (2) the thrust belt is well exposed and provides many outstanding examples of seismic-scale structures associated with thin-skinned fold-thrust hydrocarbon traps and play types, including surface expression of several of the producing hydrocarbon fields; and (3) many published maps and papers from the Canadian Rockies have contributed significantly over several decades to our evolving understanding of the geometry, evolution, and hydrocarbon prospectivity of thin-skinned fold-thrust belts worldwide.


Recent works have shown that combining several classifiers is an effective method to improve classification accuracy. Many ensemble approaches have been introduced such as bagging and boosting that have reduced the generalization error of different classifiers; however, these methods could not increase the performance of Nearest Neighbor (NN) classifier. In this paper, a novel weighted ensemble technique (WNNE) is presented for improving the performance of NN classifier. In fact, WNNE is a combination of several NN classifiers, which have different subsets of input feature set. The algorithm assigns a weight to each classifier, and uses a weighted vote mechanism among these classifiers to determine the output of ensemble. We evaluated the proposed method on several datasets from UCI Repository and compared with NN classifier and Random subspace method (RSM). The results show that our method outperforms these two approaches.


Abstract The last decade has witnessed the rise of ideologies of self‐help and independence which have made many anti‐racist initiatives in local government and elsewhere appear patronising and irrelevant. The article argues that there is more to the emancipation of blacks than opposition to racism, particularly when racism is itself viewed as separable from wider political processes. These have come to include the emergence of an integrated Europe. Anti‐racist initiatives have emerged in Labour local authorities when support among blacks for the Labour Party is itself waning. Those opposed to 'anti‐racism' have been able to exploit ambiguities in what the term has come to denote. Definitions of race in cultural terms have come to mirror the categories employed by racists themselves. In this way, 'anti‐racism', which also tends to trivialise black life as nothing more than a response to racism, has come to be discredited.


This paper introduces technical challenges with National Telepresence Infrastructure in Slovakia during COVID-19 Pandemic. Rapidly increasing demand for videoconference technology from academic and research institutions is calling for quick sometimes not yet stable solutions during these days. Paper should be a summary of operational and innovative rapid development activities of large telepresence infrastructure. There will be also a vision for transforming telepresence technology regarding current situation into more effective digital tool not only for communication, but also for remote work, digital traveling etc.


AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH: CONSERVATIVES BEHAVING CHARITABLY WHO REALLY CARES: THE SURPRISING TRUTH ABOUT COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM. Arthur C. Brooks. New York: Basic Books, 2006. Pp. xi, 249. $26.00. I. INTRODUCTION I live in Austin, the capital of Texas and inarguably the most liberal city in an otherwise solidly conservative state. How singular is Austin, the so-called Berkeley of the South? Of Texas' 254 counties, Travis County, which Austin dominates population-wise, was the only county that opposed a 2005 constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.4 In fact, I inhabit the epicenter of Austin liberalism: the way-cool 78704 zip code, a hippie South Austin neighborhood that revels in its left-wing funkiness. One familiar bumper sticker reads, "78704: Not Just a Zip Code, A Way of Life." Another, "78704: We're All Here 'Cause We're Not All There." To be sure, Austin, a blue speck in a vast red sea,5 is home to many kind-hearted Good Samaritans, and I love it deeply, but according to a provocative new book by Syracuse University Professor Arthur Brooks, liberal bastions like Austin are not necessarily bastions of charity.6 As it turns out, conservatives, particularly religious conservatives, are the most generous Americans by any measuremoney given, hours volunteered, blood donated. His 2006 book, Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism, suggests that while plenty of Austinites may sport nannying bumper stickers exhorting me to "Practice Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Beauty" or declaring "The Moral High Ground is Built on Compassion," this rear-bumper sanctimony seemingly comes cheap. The gut-punch of Who Really Cares-aptly described as a "tidy time-bomb of a book"7-is prefaced on page 10: "This story has some sharp elbows, culturally and politically."8 Razor-sharp, it seems. It is an article of faith among political liberals that they care more about the poor than political conservatives, but Professor Brooks, a born-and-raised liberal and professor of public administration at Syracuse's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, demonstrates that what may be politically correct is frequently empirically incorrect.9 The fact that "the electoral map and the charity map are remarkably similar"10 is sure to rile political liberals. This evidence of a stark rhetoric-reality gap is dispiriting to proud Austinites like me, but it is also mounting. A September 2007 study by The Chronicle of Philanthropy ranked Austin forty-eighth out of America's fifty largest cities in per capita charitable giving.11 Austin is accustomed to topping countless national "Best Of" lists-hippest, fittest, greenest, most pro-business, etc.12 Shouting "We're Number 48!" hurts, especially when the measure (caring) goes to the core of Austin's liberal self-identity. City leaders' reaction to the ranking was one of disbelief: '"But we're a caring community. How can this be?'"13 The data represent an inconvenient truth, to be sure, but as John Adams observed, "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."14 So while a slew of Austin-area bumper stickers cheer liberal selflessness and jeer conservative selfishness, the unflinching data obliterate a stubborn conventional piety. "Compassionate conservatism"-when measured in terms of personal voluntary sacrifice (both monetary and nonmonetary)-is far from a contradiction in terms; if anything, it is redundant. II. THE CULTURE OF CHARITY-RHETORIC V. REALITY The exquisiteness of Brooks's book is that it peeks behind dense, mind-numbing economic data to plumb why people give-the culture of charity and the values that animate people's good works.16 In doing so, a herd of prized oxen gets gored, but Brooks's commitment is unswerving: to discover hard, and often surprising, truths, "whether they happen to conform to preconceived notions or not. …


This paper is an analysis of the trade flows between Colombia and Chile over the past five years, from the period 2010 - 2014. This comparison of Colombia versus Chile is an interesting topic and a good indicator given that the Chilean economy is a of the most stable in the region and who best you can compare Colombia. The trade flow analysis provides insight into the behavior of countries regarding exports and imports, data that will allow us to determine whether the trade balance is positive or negative depending on the case. In each case we can deduce and analyze the following; when the trade balance showed a surplus means that exports were higher and that the country has the capacity to meet domestic demand and also can export, of course we also come here to discuss protectionist measures that the country has. In the case of negative balance, ie when imports are higher, is not the case, domestic production is unable to meet demand or no protectionist measures. In the case of comparing the GDP with the population, it allows us to define how competitive the country and compare it with others. For analysis of Norte de Santander - Santander, it is an important comparison taking into account the development of neighboring department, which enable us to define strengths and weaknesses well founded, given the similarity between the two departments by location and culture.


Abstract. Piping Plovers (Charadrius melodus) are primarily monogamous birds that usually raise only one brood per season, but rare instances of double brooding have been documented. Piping Plovers breeding in the northern Great Plains, USA were studied in two locations: the Missouri River near the Gavins Point Dam (2005– 2013) and the lower Platte River (2008–2013). There were 25 confirmed instances of double brooding on the Missouri River across the 9-year duration of the study. There were no instances of double brooding observed locally on the lower Platte River. However, in 2013, two female Piping Plovers successfully hatched eggs and fledged chicks from nests on the lower Platte River and later were observed nesting for a second time on the Missouri River. Factors predicted to increase the frequency of double brooding are: early nest initiation, male biased sex ratio, age of breeding adults, and decreased nesting density. Our results indicate density is an important factor that accounts for some of the difference in the proportion of double brooding on the Missouri River compared to the lower Platte River. It is likely a combination of factors is responsible for this behavior, previously thought to be rare, in Piping Plovers.


This report presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations from an independent evaluation by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) of the Department for Education (DfE) Work Experience Placement Trials. The trials aimed to test different work experience placement models for 16 to 19 year olds. The models were as follows: (1) removing cost barriers for employers (for example, by providing materials or financial incentives); (2) investigating specific challenges faced by small to medium-sized employers (SMEs) when offering work placements; (3) providing extra resources to colleges (for example, to employ staff to organise work placements and liaise with employers); (4) exploring the timing of placements for students (for example, investigating whether a block of time or individual days throughout a course is most effective and why); and (5) supporting students with learning difficulties and disabilities (LLDD) or vulnerable/disadvantaged students (for example, considering the support employers need to employ young people with specific needs).


The graduation thesis deals with the topic of the current debt crisis of euro and the Eurozone by analyzing the evolution of the crisis itself and the actual situation in the countries of the Economic and Monetary Union. In conclusion, the thesis states the possibility of potential development of the current stagnation. The thesis consists of several chapters which have an empirical character. Its character is based mainly on literary research and with regards to the chosen topic there is no practical part in which the theoretical knowledge would be applied.


This article gives an account of the diagnosis made to a Mexican elementary school, which is experiencing difficulties due to the absence of strategic leadership and a democratic culture, which hinders the generation of a shared vision between the principal and teachers, preventing decision-making based on dialogue. In addition to creating a sense of purpose for the organization, understanding and promoting change, as well as strengthening relationships among its members. Performing the analysis from speeches generated by the research subjects during a dialogue through the design thinking approach, which allows opening possibilities for the group in their organizational development. In this sense, the purpose of the work was focused on analyzing through a diagnosis the school management of the strategic leadership of a Mexican elementary school. From the perspective of a feasible project, using a sample made up of the director, an advisor and six teachers. On the other hand, due to the contingency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not possible to carry out the activity through a face-to-face session, which is why it was deployed online, through the Zoom application.
Keywords: School management, Strategic leadership, decision making, collaboration, design thinking.


During a routine survey in June 2012, pear trees ( Pyrus communis ) bearing deformed fruits, along with occasional chlorotic spots on leaves (Fig. 1), were observed in nine pear orchards located in Shimla district in Himachal Pradesh, India.…


The blood-brain barrier keeps the protein concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) much lower than in serum (1)(2)(3)(4). However, the CSF apolipoprotein E (apoE) concentration is approximately one-tenth to one-twentieth of the serum apoE concentration (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13). Mainly glia cells secrete apoE in the central nervous system (14)(15)(16). CSF apoE is carried exclusively on HDL, which is the major lipoprotein in the CSF (17)(18). The CSF apoE concentration varies in neurological disorders such as central nervous system inflammatory diseases (5)(19) and Alzheimer disease (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13). However, the clinical significance of the CSF apoE concentration is still unclear.

Recent studies have suggested that the apoE content of CSF HDL is more important than the CSF apoE concentration (20). HDL enriched with apoE promotes nerve growth factor-induced neurite outgrowth (20). Because the number of synapses increases markedly in childhood (21), the apoE content of CSF HDL might be higher in children than in adults. To address this question, we measured the apoE and phospholipid (PL) concentrations in CSF simultaneously.

Samples were obtained from 59 neurologically normal subjects (42 males and 17 females, ages 2–86 years). Of the 59 subjects, 30 were patients with acute leukemia in complete remission, the others were patients who underwent surgery …


As crowdsourced digital goods become more widely available and more frequently used as key inputs by firms, understanding the impact they have on productivity becomes of critical importance. This study measures the firm-level productivity impact of one such good, non-pecuniary (free) open source software (OSS). The results show a positive and significant return to the usage of non-pecuniary OSS that has gone unmeasured in prior studies of the economics of IT. The study addresses the endogeneity issues inherent in productivity studies by using inverse probability weighting, an instrumental variable approach, and firm fixed effects to add support for a causal interpretation. Across firms, a 1% increase in the amount of non-pecuniary OSS used by a firm leads to a .073% increase in productivity. This translates to a $1.38 million increase in value-added production for the average firm in the sample. This effect is greater for larger firms and for firms in the services industry. These findings show that firms willing to take on the risks associated with non-pecuniary OSS reap benefits from collective intelligence and labor spillovers. Further, the results indicate that existing studies underestimate the amount of IT at the firm, and therefore underestimate the importance of IT to firm productivity. 1 firstname.lastname@example.com. The author is grateful for helpful comments from Shane Greenstein, Carliss Baldwin, Yochai Benkler, Raj Choudhury, Anil Doshi, Marco Iansiti, Ohchan Kwon, Karim Lakhani, Kristina McElheran, Hart Posen, Scott Stern, Neil Thompson, Mike Toffel, Joel West, and Feng Zhu. Additional helpful comments were received from participants at ACAC 2014, AOM 2014, AOM 2014 BPS Dissertation Consortium, CCC 2014, Charles River Conference 2014, DRUID 2014, HBS TOM DBA Seminar 2014, HBS TOM Alumni Conference 2014, NYU Engelberg Center Conference on Knowledge Commons 2014, OUI 2014, SMS 2014, and ZEW ICT Conference 2014. All mistakes remain the author's own. Nagle
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  Productivity 2 I. Introduction As the digital age progresses, information goods are easier and easier to reproduce at costs that are rapidly approaching zero. Coupled with decreases in communication costs, this has made it easier for groups of individuals, frequently referred to as the crowd, to produce digital goods that are freely distributed to users who do not pay a monetary price. Wikipedia, the online crowdsourced encyclopedia, is a frequent example of this phenomenon. However, there are many other examples including open source software (OSS), crowdsourced innovation tournaments, and the digitization of consumers' opinions via online review sites and social media. The same information cost decreases that enable the production of these goods also enable firms to use these crowdsourced goods as inputs into production. Recent research has shown that firms are increasingly relying on these types of goods to drive innovation and production (Baldwin and von Hippel, 2011; Lakhani, Lifshitz-Assaf, and Tushman, 2012; Corrado and Hulten, 2013; Altman, Nagle, and Tushman, 2014). This trend is also widely discussed in the popular press as technology giants like Apple, Google, and Facebook increase their reliance on crowdsourced digital goods to grow their innovative and productive efforts. However, it is not only technology focused companies that are relying on the crowd Ford, Pepsi, and a host of other well-known non-IT brands use free inputs from the crowd to help drive their bottom line. Further, these same crowd based technologies are allowing small startups to have a large impact, even when they are capital constrained, due to a reliance on free crowdsourced digital goods as inputs. Despite the growing importance of crowdsourced digital goods as inputs into production, measuring the value they help create can be difficult. In a classic Schumpeterian creative 2 Apple's Mac OSX and iOS are based on the OSS operating system BSD (http://www.wired.com/2013/08/jordan-hubbard/), Google's YouTube and other products rely heavily on user generated content (UGC), and Facebook is increasingly relying on OSS to power it's infrastructure and giving back code to the open source community (http://readwrite.com/2013/10/17/is-facebook-the-worlds-largest-open-source-company). 3 Ford has relied on the open source community to help develop both hardware and software (http://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2013/01/10/ford-motor-company-sees-open-source/), while Pepsi has used crowdsourcing to develop ad campaigns (http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/01/19/crowdsourcing-super-bowlcommercials-doritos-lincoln-pepsi/1842937/). Nagle
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  and
  Firm
  Productivity 3 destruction process (Schumpeter, 1942), these new goods destroy old business models while creating new opportunities for growth. For example, the introduction of Wikipedia destroyed much of the market for pecuniary encyclopedias (both paper and digital). At the same time, Wikipedia has provided great societal value. However, as with all crowdsourced digital goods, this value is difficult to measure for two primary reasons. First, because these goods are frequently free, standard productivity measures, which rely on price to reflect value, do not properly capture these increasingly critical inputs. Second, because such goods are often distributed under licenses that allow for unlimited copying, it is unknown exactly how widespread such goods are. Despite the increasing prominence of crowdsourcing, these measurement challenges have prevented research from analyzing how its impact varies across different firms and market environments. As such, the goal of this paper is to answer the following question: what is the impact of free crowdsourced digital goods on firm productivity? After answering this broad question, the paper seeks to answer the related question: What are the firm-level determinants of the productivity related returns to such goods? As the production, and productive use, of such goods increases, the answer to these questions becomes more interesting and more important. Recent research has shown that the increased use of unpriced goods of both a digital (Greenstein and Nagle, 2014) and non-digital (Bridgman, 2013) nature may be an important factor in understanding recent trends in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Whether measuring GDP via a country's production or its expenditures, non-pecuniary digital goods can cause such a measure to greatly underestimate the true productivity of a nation and its firms. Further, these same issues can lead firms and managers to underestimate the importance of including crowdsourced digital goods as key inputs into their productive and innovative processes. While some leading firms, like Google and Facebook, have embraced the crowd and the free labor and content it provides, others have shied away from relying on such inputs due to concerns about reliability, sharing with competitors, and restructuring business models to add the user directly into the production and innovation process. Crowdsourced inputs are also allowing increasingly smaller firms to be valued at prices that seem absurd by pre-Internet standards. For example, WhatsApp, a five-year old firm bought by Nagle
  -‐
  Crowdsourced
  Digital
  Goods
  and
  Firm
  Productivity 4 Facebook for $19 billion, had only 55 employees at the time of acquisition and relied heavily on crowd-developed OSS to power its technology and on the crowd of users to drive its value. In addition to productivity-related implications, the reliance on, and contribution to, crowdsourced goods also has implications for firm competitive strategy. In a world where a firm must rely on actors outside of its boundaries for valuable inputs, and at the same time must consider contributing internally developed code to the world, co-opetition (Brandenburger and Nalebuff, 1996; Afuah, 2000) becomes an increasingly important concept. As firms' competitors increase their reliance on crowdsourced digital goods, understanding how these goods contribute to productivity and for what types of firms they are the most useful becomes increasingly important to allow managers to make the right decisions regarding the crowd. Further, understanding the productive implications of free digital goods scratches the surface of the broader issue of all digital goods, which essentially have a marginal cost of zero, and are therefore likely priced below their actual value. To understand how usage of such non-pecuniary digital inputs affects firm productivity, the paper first discusses why such goods should have a positive impact on productivity and then considers what firm characteristics determine the degree of this impact. To test the resultant hypotheses, it utilizes a dataset that measures the usage of one particularly important non-pecuniary crowdsourced digital good, open source software (OSS) operating systems. OSS is a frequently used example of a digital good that is produced by a community of users and is a particularly interesting example due to the lack of price that is normally, although not always, associated with this model of production. This data is combined with firm financial data and productivity measures to allow for the application of a classic Cobb-Douglas production function analysis to understand the role of non-pecuniary IT inputs in firm-level productivity. This is a standard methodology for estimating the value of IT (Brynjolfsson and Hitt, 1996; Dewan and Min, 1997; Tambe, Hitt, and Brynjolfsson, 2012; Huang, Ceccagnoli, Forman, and Wu, 2013), although nonpecuniary OSS is normally not accounted for in such frameworks. Due to sample 4 WhatsApp acquisition and employee information obtained from http://blogs.wsj.com/corporateintelligence/2014/02/19/facebooks-whatsapp-price-tag-19-billion/. WhatsApp Open Source usage obtained from http:


EDFA gain control is achieved by detecting the spontaneous emission power radiated along the EDF and modulating the pump LDs with optoelectronic feedback.


Abstract The prominence of production, schedule, cost and economic wellbeing in government policy and review is explored and contrasted with the status of safety. The connection between productivity as an objective and safety as a constraint is reviewed, though it can be concluded that in spite of widespread belief of a connection there is very little empirical causal evidence for high production pressure causing negative effects on safety. Nevertheless, the inverse is mooted, that high levels of safety has had a negative impact on productivity in construction. This possibility is discussed in the context of government rhetoric which tends to be highly critical of construction's economic shortcomings yet quite silent on the matter of its safety successes. The essay concludes with a possible vision for the future that allows safety and productivity to be re-positioned in terms of their potential symbiosis.


1 Acknowledgements I wanted to thank my reader Professor Lisa Meulbroek for all that she has taught me about financial economics as well as her help on this paper. I would like to thank my mom and dad for the guidance and support they have shown me over my years. And lastly but certainly not least I want to thank my two little sisters, Amelia and Colleen, for being the best sisters I could ever imagine. Abstract This paper uses timer series panel data from Bloomberg to ascertain the affects that carbon prices and other factors have on European oil and steel companies. This paper finds inconclusive evidence of carbon price return correlation with oil and steel company equity return. However it does find a strong positive correlation between the market portfolio excess return, which is the return on the DJS 600 EUR index minus the German three-month T-bill rate, and oil and steel excess equity return.


Objective To observe the efficacy and safety of sorafenib in the treatment of the unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.Methods According to the inclusion criteria,33 patients with the unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma were given sorafenib (400 mg for twice per day).During the course of treatment,dose was adjusted based on the degree of the adverse effects.Tumor response to sorafenib and safety was assessed every 6-8 weeks using the modified RECIST criteria.The survial curve for the time to progression (TTP) and overall survival (OS) were estimated.Results In this series,there was no patients achieved complete response (CR) and partial response (PR),1 1 patients were evaluated as with stable disease(SD),22 patients were with progressive disease (PD).The median TTP was 5.6 months (2.3-8.9 months).The median TTP was longer in patients with BCLC B than BCLC C stage.TTP was longer in good than in poor performance status patients,and shorter in extrahepatic metastasis than in no extrahepatic metastasis patients.The overall incidence of adverse events was 75.8%.The most common adverse events were hand foot skin reaction,diarrhea,hypertension and rash.Three patients had grade 3 adverse events.Conclusions Sorafenib can extend the median time to progression in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.Patients with earlier stage of HCC and better performance status are hopeful for more positive response to the treatment of sorafenib.

Key words:
Carcinoma, hepatocellular;  Antineoplastic combined chemotherapy protocols; Sorafenib


This paper presents interconnection of dynamic and average flow rates of the coolant in a channel of complex geometry that is a basis for a generalization model of experimental data on heat transfer in various porous structures. Formulas for calculation of heat transfer of fuel rods in transversal fluid flow are acquired with the use of the abovementioned model. It is shown that the model describes a marginal case of separated flows in twisting channels where coolant constantly changes its flow direction and mixes in the communicating channels with large intensity. Dynamic speed is suggested to be identified by power for pumping. The coefficient of proportionality in general case depends on the geometry of the channel and the Reynolds number (Re). A calculation formula of the coefficient of proportionality for the narrow line rod packages is provided. The paper presents a comparison of experimental data and calculated values, which shows usability of the suggested models and calculation formulas.


In this paper, closed forms of the sum formulas ∑n k=0 kWk and ∑n k=1 kW−k for generalized Pentanacci numbers are presented. As special cases, we give summation formulas of Pentanacci, Pentanacci-Lucas, and other fifth-order recurrence sequences. MSC: 11B37 • 11B39 • 11B83


The trust running framework of ITIL platform can provide a good context environment for dynamic trust management.Most researches on dynamic access control focus on models of P2P or of grid platform,and few models are used in ITIL platform.We proposed a framework to evaluate the trust of ITIL service based on the monitor perfor-mance in ITIL context environment.We calculated the trust value of ITIL service,and used IOWA calculator to help the evaluation and forecast of trust value of ITIL service in different time period.We also mined the frequent sequence in alarm log to improve the accuracy of forecast.Example analysis shows that our method has a good effect on fault analysis and resources optimization under ITIL platform.


The objective of this study was to know the effect of mahkota dewa (Phaleria macrocarpa) fruit's extract as antioxidant on regulation of mice lipid profile. The specific objective focused on the decreasing effects of cholesterol total level and cholesterol-LDL level on mice. This research used Completely Randomized Design in 30 male mice on 20-25 gram body weight, which divided into 5 groups and gave 6 times treat repetition. Group of treatment were divided into two parts. First, two groups for control, which contains of negative control (PO-) and positive control (PO+). Negative control is group which given standard feed and water and positive control is group which given high fat feeding and water. Secondly, three groups treated by high fat feeding and mahkota dewa fruit's extract (P1, P2, P3) by orally for five weeks with doses 25, 50, 100 mg/kg body weight, respectively. The blood samples taken by intracardial. The data were analyzed by ANOVA and Duncan's test to compare group. Based on the data analysis, there were a significance differences (p < 0,05) between group. The results of this study showed that there was significant difference in total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol blood levels decreased in on mice with high fat feeding (PO+, P1 and P2), whereas in POand P3 group (p>0,05) was no significant. In conclusion, the best effect to decrease total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol blood levels can be achieved by dose of 100 mg/kg body weight.


The aim of this study has been to investigate in what ways directors of doctoral education navigate and translate doctoral education norms from the European level to local contexts. In focus are the two norms of original research and wider labour market needs, enshrined in the Salzburg principles, adopted by the European University Association. These norms are argued to underpin a central notion of the European knowledge economy. The CUDOS mores (Merton) as well as post-academic science (Ziman) and the mode 1/mode 2 production of knowledge (Gibbons et al.) constitute a conceptual framework as a backdrop to the two overarching norms and their relevance today. The theory of translation assists in understanding the ways in which the directors reflect on and navigate among these norms. Interviews have been done with directors for five social sciences subjects. The two norms are found not necessarily in dichotomy or contradiction with each other when operating doctoral education, but are rather seen as contrapuntal. From the overall observation that fewer paradoxes and conflicts than anticipated were found between different goals and norms in the local contexts, follows that strategies for handling such tensions were less articulated than expected. A final main finding was that the Salzburg principles were not at all recognised locally, which calls for more active engagement from European stakeholders if they wish to create a stronger link between the European and the local level in the making of knowledge policy in Europe.


Let X and Z be the sets of possible values for two data variables X and Z, respectively. Suppose the joint probability distribution P(.\9) for (X, Z) depends on a parameter 9 with values in a parameter space 6. By a predictive inference for Z given X we mean a mapping R which assigns to each x X a probability distribution R(.\0) on Z. A predictive inference might correspond to a predictive distribution derived from a prior on 0 or to a system of prediction regions. The term has been used by several authors including Eaton (1982, 1992), Geisser (1993), and Lane and Sudderth (1984). We focus our attention on the following prediction problem. Data is available from a multivariate normal distribution with mean 0 and unknown covariance matrix. A future observable from the same population is to be predicted on the basis of the available data. (We have taken the mean to be zero for expositional simplicity only all of our results extend immediately to the case of unknown mean vector and covariance matrix.) In the one-dimensional case (with unknown mean and variance), Fisher (1935) used this problem to illustrate his fiducial method of inference. Naturally, Fisher's solution was based on a pivotal quantity whose sampling distribution was parameter-free. In the multivariate case, things are not quite so simple as we indicate in Section 2. However, there is a natural invariance in both the univariate and multivariate case which suggests that solutions to the predictive problem should be invariant in some sense. This invariance plays a central role in our treatment of the problem. A common alternative to the "pivotal method" is the formal Bayes method based on an "invariant" improper prior. ("Invariance" here refers to invari ance under all p x p non-singular linear transformations i.e. the full linear group.) There are a variety of arguments in the literature, all of which lead


One Another's Equals contains the revised versions of Jeremy Waldron's 2015 Gifford Lectures, in which he aims to explain and vindicate our 'basic equality' as human beings. To see why basic human equality is a problem, imagine that you have a good to share among a set of individuals, and you decide that you had better share it out equally. What is the moral basis of this decision? Is it that an equal distribution will maximize aggregate utility, thanks to the law of diminishing marginal utility? Or is it that the equal distribution seems to be fair, or just, in itself? If you think the latter, then you must hold that there is something about those individuals that gives them equal claims of justice. There must be some property, at the descriptive level, that they each possess equally. What is that property? In specific contexts, the answer to this question might be fairly straightforward. For example, the descriptive property of having worked equal hours in the same kind of job grounds the justice of equal salaries. No such simple answer is available, however, when we ask what it is about human beings as such that leads us to accord them equal basic rights, such as the right to equal liberty, equal opportunities, or equal voting power, or to affirm that they have equal standing as parties to the social contract. All the morally relevant natural properties – rationality, personal autonomy, moral virtue, wisdom, strength of will, the capacity to empathize, and so on – seem to be possessed unequally. Might the idea of basic human equality be a mere hangover from western religious doctrines, the abandonment of which has left many of us affirming egalitarian principles that we cannot ultimately defend? Waldron takes this worry seriously. Despite being a Christian himself, and despite devoting a whole chapter to religious bases for equality, he believes


This chapter contains sections titled: Three Sources of Information in Social Learning, Emulation and Imitation, A New, Multidimensional Framework, Conclusion, Acknowledgments, Note, References


This article examines the psychometric properties of the Religious Coping Strategies Inventory (IEAR) in a sample of Puerto Rican adults. Religious coping methods are ways of understanding and dealing with negative life events that are related to the sacred. A total of 350 Puerto Ricans participated in this exploratory and psychometric study. The results indicated that the scale has a two-factor structure. These factors were denominated internal strategies and external strategies. A total of 12 items complied with the criteria of discrimination and presented appropriate factorial loads (six items per factor). The reliability index of the scale was of .95 (Cronbach's alpha). These results suggest that the IEAR has the potential to measure this construct among Puerto Rican adults. Likewise, the IEAR will advance further research of religious coping in Puerto Rico and Latin America.


The damaged single-cylinder combustor of low calorie value gas turbine due to ablation was checked and analyzed,and the damage causes were found out.It determined replacing material for the cylinder and the heat-insulation hanging piece would be replaced by the home-made firebricks.The combustor was repaired.The maintenance experience and technical data were accumulated.


The impact of ocean surface waves on wind stress at the air–sea interface under low to moderate wind
conditions was systematically investigated based on a simple constant flux model and flux measurements
obtained from two coastal towers in the East China Sea and South China Sea. It is first revealed that the
swell-induced perturbations can reach a height of nearly 30m above the mean sea surface, and these perturbations
disturb the overlying airflow under low wind and strong swell conditions. The wind profiles severely
depart from the classical logarithmic profiles, and the deviations increase with the peak wave phase speeds. At
wind speeds of less than 4 m/s, an upward momentumtransfer from the wave to the atmosphere is predicted,
which is consistent with previous studies. A comparison between the observations and model indicates that
the wind stress calculated by the model is largely consistent with the observational wind stress when considering
the effects of surface waves, which provides a solution for accurately calculating wind stress in ocean
and climate models. Furthermore, the surface waves at the air–sea interface invalidate the traditional
Monin–Obukhov similarity theory (MOST), and this invalidity decreases as observational height increases.


The gas-liquid-liquid three-phase co-current flow is frequently observed in upstream petroleum pipelines. The identification of three-phase flow patterns is important to characterize three-phase flow dynamics. The three-phase flow patterns change with the pipe diameter, superficial velocities and physical properties of the fluids. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of three-phase flow through 0.1524 m diameter and 3.5 m long horizontal pipe has been conducted. The superficial velocity ranges of gas-oil-water were 0.5-4, 0.08-0.32 and 0.08-0.32 m/s respectively. The volume of fluid (VOF) model was used to simulate the three-phase interfacial structures. According to the results, the three-phase flow patterns have been successfully simulated. Three-phase flow regime map has been constructed to analyze the flow pattern transition with the superficial velocities. The three-phase flow pressure drop increased with the superficial velocities of oil and water. However, the drop in pressure first increased and then decreased with the increase in superficial velocity of the gas.


Objective To examine the concurrent validity of Peabody'S developmental motor scale number 2(PDMS-2)and Gesell's developmental scales with 1 2 to 30 month-old children with cerebral palsy (CP)and to assess the value of PDMS-2 in measuring motor function in children with CP.Methods Eighty-four children with CP aged 12 to 30 months were assessed with both PDMS-2 and Gesell's developmental scales.The correlation between PDMS-2 gross motor quotients and Gesell gross motor developmental quotients,and be-tween PDMS-2 fine motor quotients and Gesell fine motor developmental quotients were compared using Spearman rank correlation coefficients. Results The correlation coefficient between PDMS-2 gross motor quo-tient and the Gesell gross motor developmental quotient was 0.89.Between PDMS-2 fine motor quotient and Gesell's fine motor developmental quotient it was 0.87.The concurrent validities were 0.28 and 0.42 respec-tively. Conclusion PDMS-2 gross motor quotient and Gesell's gross motor developmental quotient are highly correlated,as are PDM S-2 fine motor quotient and Gesell's fine motor developmental quotient.The concurrent validities were between classifications using the PDMS-2 gross motor quotient and Gesell's gross motor develop- mental quotient were weakly correlated,but there was moderate correlation between PDM S-2 fine motor quotientsand Gesell fine gross developmental quotients.There may be limitations in assessing motor function children aged12 to 30 months with cerebral palsy using PDMS-2.

Key words:
Peabody developmental motor scale 2; Gesell's developmental scales; Concurrent validity; Cerebral palsy


We give a simple new proof that regular languages defined by first-order sentences with no quantifier alteration can be defined by such sentences in which only regular atomic formulas appear. Earlier proofs of this fact relied on arguments from circuit complexity or algebra. Our proof is much more elementary, and uses only the most basic facts about finite automata.


ABSTRACT. A study on the distribution of the mosquitoes of Quintana Roo State of Mexico wascarried out by collecting immature and adult stages during September and October 2006. Thecollections were made from different locations in the three physiogeographical provinces of the state:Carso Yucateco, Carso, Lomerios de Campeche, and Costa Baja de Quintana Roo. Atotal of 420 larvae,294 pupae, and 726 adults representing 13 genera and 41 species were collected. Two genera, threesubgenera, and 11 species are new to the mosquito fauna of Quintana Roo State. Collection andbionomical data are included for species collected during the study, and a checklist of species newly andpreviously recorded from the state is provided. Key Words. Culicidae, Mexico, Mosquitoes, Quintana Roo State Ortega-Morales, A. I., P.Mis Avila, A. Elizondo-Quiroga, R. E. Harbach, Q. K. Siller-Rodriguez& I. Fernandez-Salas. 2010. Los mosquitos del estado de Quintana Roo, Mexico (Diptera: Culi-cidae). Acta Zoologica Mexicana (n. s.)


Landsat-8 was launched on 11 February 2013 with two new Earth Imaging sensors to provide a continued data record with the previous Landsats. For Landsat-8, pushbroom technology was adopted, and the reflective bands and thermal bands were split into two instruments. The Operational Land Imager (OLI) is the reflective band sensor and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS), the thermal. In addition to these fundamental changes, bands were added, spectral bandpasses were refined, dynamic range and data quantization were improved, and numerous other enhancements were implemented. As in previous Landsat missions, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and United States Geological Survey (USGS) cooperated in the development, launch and operation of the Landsat-8 mission. One key aspect of this cooperation was in the characterization and calibration of the instruments and their data. This Special Issue documents the efforts of the joint USGS and NASA calibration team and affiliates to characterize the new sensors and their data for the benefit of the scientific and application users of the Landsat archive. A key scientific use of Landsat data is to assess changes in the land-use and land cover of the Earth's surface over the now 43-year record. [...]


Backed by millions of euros from the European Union and designed by a group of higher education research centers, a new system to grade the world's universities is being billed as less simplistic and more reliable than existing university rankings. It will assess universities more broadly, comparing research reputation, teaching quality, ties with the local community, international orientation, and success in tech transfer. But some institutions are refusing to provide data, and the project has been called unnecessary and poorly designed.


tag=1 data=Maddening silence. by Adam Schwarz and Peter Wise

tag=2 data=Schwarz, Adam%Wise, Peter

tag=3 data=Far Eastern Economic Review,

tag=6 data=30 January 1992

tag=7 data=11.

tag=8 data=SOUTH-EAST ASIA

tag=9 data=EAST TIMOR

tag=10 data=Lisbon blamed for muted EC response on East Timor.

tag=11 data=1992/4/2

tag=12 data=92/0124

tag=13 data=CAB


A sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography-positive ion electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the quantification of methyllycaconitine (MLA) in rat plasma and brain tissue. Following acetonitrile protein precipitation, the analyte was separated using a gradient mobile phase on a reversed-phase column and analyzed by MS/MS in the multiple reaction monitoring mode using the respective [M + H](+) ions, m/z 683-216 for MLA and m/z 260-116 for the internal standard. The assay exhibited a linear dynamic range of 0.5-250 ng/mL for MLA in rat plasma and brain tissue. The lower limit of quantification was 0.5 ng/mL. Acceptable precision (<12%) and accuracy (100 ± 6%) were obtained for concentrations over the standard curve range. The method was successfully applied to quantify MLA concentrations in a rodent pharmacokinetic and brain penetration study.


The aim of this paper is to detail the diagnosis of a low power single phase induction motor with capacitor based on the measurement of the stray magnetic field, this diagnosis will be apply to an important industrial production in order to know global quality of motor in actuator. However, as the magnetic behavior of the studied machine is quite complex, many unbalances exist together and at significant levels. In order to distinguish them, an analytical study and modeling are carried out. The characterization of each unbalance is done using the traditional frequency analysis but also graphic spatial analysis based on retrieved information from several sensors. As a result, representations of the induction with and without the unbalances are illustrated in various ways.


Previous studies identified a learning progression on the concept of carbon cycling that was typically followed by American students when they progress from elementary to high school. This study examines the validity of this previously identified learning progression for a different group of learners— Chinese students. The results indicate that American and Chinese students share similar learning progression from force-dynamics to scientific model-based reasoning. And there are interesting similarities and differences between American and Chinese students' performances. Whereas American students perform better on items assessing the environmental impact of human behaviours, Chinese students include chemical equations, named forms of energy, and mention the energy conservation principle more commonly than American students. This study suggests that these differences may be due to various aspects of science education between these two countries and have implications for improving science education in each country.


about it, so he quietly put him in as law-adviser. * * * All propositions are rejected. It is a most uncomfortable twist in the make-up of a man." The other trouble which obstructed the unalloyed enjoyment and success of the head of the Department, is indicated in Mrs. Blaine's letter written within two months after taking the post. " Congratulate me and the principal sufferer, that the embargo of the lumbago is removed and that your Father, is actually out again." It is known that gradually the relations between the Executive Mansion and the residence of the premier of the cabinet became quite strained; and that attacks of severe illness often incapacitated him from the discharge of his duties. But here, so far as revealed in this work, the curtain drops upon the political life of the great Secretary.


REHABILITATION COUNSELING PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS: ME MBERSHIP, MEMBERSHIP INTENTIONS, AND LEVELS OF COMMITMENT AMONG REHABILITATION COUNSELING PROFESSIONALS By Brian N. Phillips Declining membership is a concerning, yet poorly understood issue affecting pr ofessional associations across many disciplines (Bauman, 2008). The discipline of rehabilita tion counseling is experiencing membership decline even as the number of certif ied rehabilitation counselors continues to increase (Leahy, 2009). Little empirical research exists on professional association membership and motivations for membership. The purpose of this study wa s to explore factors that might influence rehabilitation counseling professional association membership and membership commitment and to test theoretical hypotheses reg arding motives for membership; pursuit of this purpose was guided primarily by tenets of socia l ex hange and social identity theories. Social exchange theory is the theory most commonly associated with professional association membership. However, challenges in the application of exchange theor y to influence membership decisions are many during periods of declining membership. Efforts to increase overall value can become strained by the loss of revenue resulting from a reducti on in membership dollars. Social identity theory is offered, in addition to social exchange theory, as an explanation for membership decisions. In social identity theory, the influence of group membership on self-identity becomes primary (Tajfel, 1981). In line with social i dentity theory, professional identity was defined for this study as a special form of social identity in which a person defines him or herself by membership in an occupation believed to approximate t hat of a profession. A sample of 1,257 professionals closely connected to the discipline of rehabilitati on counseling was obtained for this study from the databases of CRCC, ARCA, NRCA , and RCEA. This sample included 450 participants who currently held membership in at least one rehabilitation counseling professional association, 324 participants who formerly h eld membership in at least one rehabilitation counseling professional association, a nd 483 participants who had never held membership in a rehabilitation counseling professiona l association. Research findings expand on the work of previous research in the area of professional association membership and membership commitment. As hypothesized, re ults showed professional identity salience was positively related with current m embership status and levels of affective and normative commitment. Also hypothesized, perceived val ue of membership was positively related with current membership status. In contras t, the hypothesis that private benefits would act as the only type of benefits predicting current m embership was not supported. Results suggest graduate programs and employing organizations als o play an important role in encouraging membership.


The conversion of particle-energy spectra into a linear energy transfer (LET) distribution is a guide in assessing biologically significant components. The mapping of LET to energy is triple valued and can be defined only on open subintervals. A well-defined numerical procedure is found to allow generation of LET spectra on the open subintervals that are integrable in spite of their singular nature.


To increase the absorptance of metal surfaces at the radiation of a CO2 laser beam in this work, a chemical etching technique has been used that allows the controlled modification of the superficial roughness. Absorptance tests have been performed in conditions close to real treatment using a CO2 c.w. 2.5 kW laser. The modification of the absorptance has been evaluated by means of the obtained effects on the treated surfaces. The achieved results show how the formation of microcavities on the analyzed surfaces allows a remarkable increase in the absorptance in real treatment conditions.


The ruthenium cluster [Ph4P][Ru3(CO)10(PhNCHO)] has been structurally characterised and shown to play an important role, along with its precursor [Ph4P][HRu3(CO)9(PhNCO)], in the hydroxide- or methoxide-promoted reductive carbonylation of nitrobenzene.


Purpose

This paper aims to present an aerothermodynamic analysis of a new concept of a small hypersonic airplane. Aerodynamics characteristics for different flow conditions encountered during the missions are analyzed. The effects of elevons deflection for pitch control and of the presence of engines on aerodynamic performances are also investigated for different flight conditions. The effects of boundary layer laminar–turbulent transition on aerodynamic heating are studied to preliminarily identify proper materials that can sustain the hypersonic phase.

Design/methodology/approach

Aerodynamic characteristics are predicted by means of the semi-empirical aerodynamic prediction code Missile DATCOM and computational fluid dynamics simulations. Computational fluid dynamics analysis is also performed to investigate aerodynamic heating phenomenon.

Findings

Major discrepancies between the results offered by the two methods have been registered in transonic regime, whereas in subsonic and super-hypersonic conditions, Missile DATCOM confirms to be a suitable tool for preliminary design steps. The results of the analysis show that for the identification of the materials that can sustain the hypersonic phase, the turbulent solution must be taken into account. Carbon fiber reinforced ceramics composite materials seem particularly well suited for the nose, wing and vertical tail leasing edges and control surfaces, while titanium alloys could be used for the rest of the vehicle surface.

Originality/value

This new concept of vehicle is designed both for point-to-point medium range hypersonic transportation and long duration suborbital space tourism missions, by integrating available technologies developed for aeronautical and space systems.


A multilayer analysis model for tie-ballast track structures has been developed. The model includes the effects of rail bending, rail-fastener stiffness, tie bending, variable ballast and subgrade material types, and variable tie spacing and ballast depth. The results predicted by using the model are compared with experimental results and excellent agreement is shown. The model offers the advantages of simplicity of use and reduced computer run time when compared with the finite-element codes currently used.


Everyone knows about the complicated solution of the nonlinear Fredholm integro-differential equation in general. Hence, often, authors attempt to obtain the approximate solution. In this paper, a numerical method for the solutions of the nonlinear Fredholm integro-differential equation (NFIDE) of the second kind in the complex plane is presented. In fact, by using the properties of Rationalized Haar (RH) wavelet, we try to give the solution of the problem. So far, as we know, no study has yet been attempted for solving the NFIDE in the complex plane. For this purpose, we introduce the continuous integral operator and real valued function. The Banach fixed point theorem guarantees that, under certain assumptions, the integral operator has a unique solution. Furthermore, we give an upper bound for the error analysis. An algorithm is presented to compute and illustrate the solutions for some numerical examples.


We have read with interest the letter by Aitken et al and we appreciate their constructive views as many of them are in agreement with our concepts expressed in our recent article on training in vascular access (1). However we believe they misunderstood our point regarding the effect of juniors' training on outcome. We have never stated in our article that "training impacts negatively the service provision," on the contrary we have proved that arteriovenous (AV) fistula creation is safe and of equal quality when delivered by residents. We came to this conclusion performing meta-analysis of all existing studies comparing the outcomes of AV fistulas created by consultants vs. trainees and getting no statistically significant results (1). Additionally we agree heartily with the concept expressed in Aitken et al's letter that AV fistulae can be effectively performed by any surgeon interested and trained in this type of surgery. On the other hand we totally understood experts' vote in the questionnaire that vascular surgeons should be those that more effectively create access, because vascular surgeons are those most familiar with both surgical and interventional techniques, using them in their everyday practice in hybrid suites and in various areas of the body. This view is supported by the fact that treatment of access thromboses in the UK is mainly carried out by vascular surgeons (2). Finally regarding the ideal facility for access creation that obviously interferes with training, Aitken et al support centralization of services. The latter is consistent with studies demonstrating the hospital volume–outcome effect in other areas of vascular surgery as aneurysm and carotid surgery (3, 4). Centralization in access is also recommended by many, but there are no quantitative data, in contrast to aneurysm and carotid surgery, demonstrating its success or justifying the existence of access centers (5). In our discussion we emphasized the pros and cons of centralization and although the evidence of centralization appears robust, it might not be as simple as that. There is a clear trade-off between advantages associated with a high-volume center and difficulties caused by prolonged travel times for patients and relatives and such centralization has been debated even for aneurysm surgery (6). These negative effects of centralization are known as "distance decay." From the patients' perspective there may be benefits to local service including convenience and continuity of care with familiar physicians, especially as complications and subsequent revisions in access surgery are more frequent than in any other area of vascular surgery. In our view centralization in access surgery remains a controversial issue.


The main objective of this paper is to present an analysis on diesel electric −DE− propulsion systems used on naval, maritime and fluvial ships. There are many advantages and some disadvantages of this system; besides, new propulsion systems have been developed to aid in the maneuvering and steering of ships. Recently, electric ships have employed a very interesting architectural arrangement and these technologies permit achieving more efficiency and a reduction of operational cost and weight. Considerations for propulsion systems utilizing the various types of machine technologies such as the Azipod system are also discussed.


A method for bonding flat substrates with a moisture-crosslinking 1K polyurethane-based adhesive, wherein the adhesive is applied at temperatures below 50 ° C onto a substrate, the coated substrate is optionally stored at room temperature, to the coated substrate a second substrate is deposited and is thereby at least pressed for a short time, the adhesive layer is brought prior to assembly or during compression to a temperature between 50 ° C to 250 ° C, characterized in that the adhesive does not foam at the application temperature and foams under the crosslinking conditions.


Abstract Renewed interest in increasing flexibility in working time arrangements derives from both social and economic changes. The dominant reasons for greater flexibility in shiftwork arrangements relate to diverse business demands resulting from competitive pressures and rapid technological change, modern workers' personal preferences about the timing of work, and the reduction in hours of work. Many new patterns are applied to meet these demands. A review of innovative patterns reveals their close link with shorter working hours and diversifying career needs. Typical patterns include (a) hours averaging schemes, (b) flexible daily hours, (c) individualized free time schemes. (d) flexitime plus shift systems, (e) a combination of full-time and part-time systems, (f) job sharing, (g) temporary transfer to day work, and (h) career break schemes. Attention is drawn to multi-skilling of workers associated with more independent responsibility and closer communication. Changes to a flexible pattern are usual...


A hook (11) heating means (17, 18, 19), a pilot operated pressure reducing valve (20), temperature sensor (15) and a pressure cooker which comprises a lid (12) with the housing (10) having a a control method, comprising the steps of pre-cooking in a pot (11) legumes for a predetermined duration within a given amount of liquid, the switch of the heating means (17, 18, 19) cut, the pressure reducing valve (20) is opened, a transition step of a predetermined rice and / or seeds and liquid is quantity so that the user can add, pot interior predetermined to 120 ° C. from 101 ° C. (11) a heating step of controlling the heating means (17, 18, 19) so as to reach the set temperature, starts when reaching the set temperature, the pot (11) to the set temperature for a predetermined duration of from 15 minutes to 25 minutes It is maintained Control method of the pressure cooker, which comprises a cooking step of controlling the heating means so that (17, 18, 19).


This book will especially appeal to social workers who specialize in palliative care and end of life but also to practitioners who occasionally serve terminally ill clients as part of their routine work. Although not explicit in the book's title, the text describes the authors' 3-year research project (funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation) that examined British service users' views about palliative care social work. The book describes the development of palliative—especially hospice—care in the UK, but it will be of interest to readers in many countries where similar developments have taken place. Of particular interest is the detailed discussion of what clients report they value about the services offered by palliative care social workers. The aims of the research were ''to improve social work practice with people facing life-limiting illnesses and conditions and bereavement . . . to inform policy . . . and [to] improve training'' (Beresford, Adshead, & Croft, p. 36). Participants lived in various parts of the British Isles, and included both terminally ill (n1⁄4 52) and bereaved (n1⁄4 61) clients. The participants used a range of palliative care services (e.g., hospice, hospital oncology units, day centers, bereavement support group, etc.). In-depth, semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted. The major findings revealed that clients were fearful of palliative care but once introduced to the services the vast majority viewed them most favorably. Service users admitted to a general distrust of social workers based on personal experience and=or media reports.


This study explored spatial patterns of overflights at Grand Canyon National Park (GRCA). Overflights were analyzed from February 5th, 2020 to January 9th, 2023 (975 days of data; 95 days of missing data) using Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data. The first phase of analysis focused on all overflights and found a high concentration of overflights above GRCA and definitive travel patterns across the park. The second phase of analysis focused on low-level overflights that fly below 10,000 ft mean sea level (MSL) and fly within 10-miles of the GRCA boundary. Phase 2 figures display yearly overflights segmented by aircraft type and show a concentration of flights between 7,000 – 10,000 ft MSL near the southeast boundary of GRCA. The third phase of analysis removed all overflights known to not be air tours. Kernel density analysis was conducted using waypoints segmented into 500 ft above ground level (AGL) altitude intervals. The altitude interval with the highest density of overflights was '3,001 – 3,500 ft AGL'. This information can be used for planning and management purposes and this study serves as a resource for future research that intends to use more advanced analytics.


Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) has been used to identify and characterize point defects in lithium triborate (LiB3O5) crystals grown for nonlinear optical applications. As-grown crystals contain oxygen vacancies and lithium vacancies (as well as trace amounts of transition-metal ions in a few samples). Exposing a crystal to ionizing radiation at 77 K produces "free" electrons and holes. These electrons are trapped at the pre-existing oxygen vacancies and give rise to an EPR signal with a large hyperfine from one 11B nucleus. The corresponding holes become self-trapped on oxygen ions as a result of the significant lattice relaxation of a nearest-neighbor fourfold-bonded boron ion. This gives rise to an EPR signal with a smaller 11B hyperfine pattern due to the oxygen's threefold bonded boron neighbor. Warming the crystal to approximately 130 K destroys the self-trapped hole centers that were initially formed, and allows a second holelike signal to be observed (which in turn decays between 150 and 200 K). The structure of the second hole center is very similar to the self-trapped hole center and a neighboring lithium vacancy makes this latter center more thermally stable. The EPR spectra from Ni+ and Cu2+ ions are also reported.


The diagnosis of Schizophrenia is a categorical classification that summarizes a set of characteristics of a disease. This clinically heterogeneous syndrome is a Severe Mental Disorder (TMG) that affects multiple life dimensions of the individual and also of their relatives. I have been working in the social care field for ten years and I have worked as a Family Nurse for six years. One of the people who have marked my career so far has been the professional caregiver of an immobilized patient whom I attended to cure for a long-standing pressure ulcer (UPP). Through this clinical narrative, I have gained vital experience as a professional nurse during nine home nursing visits. Her testimony raises the importance of holistic family approach and effective coordination of our socio-health resources. Nursing home visits allow to know the individual in context and can be the ideal setting to approach the etiology of their health problems.


In order to expand the choice of address codes of quasi-synchronous code division multiple access(QSCDMA) systems and to relax the limit on the related parameters,based on an arbitrary optimal sequence whose length is longer than 4,three classes of novel methods for constructing zero correlation zone(ZCZ) sequence pairs set are proposed via the interleaved technique and the recursive operation.In addition,the length of new sequence pairs and the ZCZ width can doubled through recursive operation,while keeping the number of the sequence pairs in the constructed ZCZ set unchanged.The constructed sequence pairs set in this paper is close to the theoretical bound,and thus once it is adopted to eliminate the co-channel interference in QSCDMA systems,the quality of system communication will be enhanced.


Corn straw biochar and peanut shell biochar were used as an adsorbent, duly affected by the condition of diverse concentrations of ammonium nitrogen, response times, the pH and temperature levels. The study focused on the adsorption characteristics of ammonium nitrogen by corn straw biochar and peanut shell biochar, which demonstrated that the adsorption rate of ammonium nitrogen by corn straw biochar and peanut shell biochar is higher in the initial response. The adsorption quantity rises quickly and attains equilibrium after 4 hours. The adsorbance, once stable was found to be 753.29mg/kg for corn straw biochar and 1003.70mg/kg for peanut shell biochar.The adsorption characteristics of ammonium nitrogen by corn straw biochar and peanut shell biochar are more fitted to the Freundlich equation (Freundlich adsorption isotherm), within the limits of pH 5 to9. The adsorption of ammonium nitrogen by corn straw biochar and peanut shell biochar increased with the increase in the pH and temperature. The adsorption effectiveness of peanut shell biochar is better than corn straw biochar.


A 3.3 l liquid hydrogen and deuterium target cell of diameter 140 mm and length 230 mm constructed from 0.2 mm-thick stainless-steel sheet was used for an experiment on the annihilation of antiprotons at rest in the KEK 12 GeV Proton Synchrotron. The target cell was mounted deep inside the detector system, and the whole target system was designed for safety in case of breakage of the target cell, because the detector was contained in an enclosed room. The liquid level in the cell could be monitored well with carbon resistors distributed on its outer surface.


The article includes the comparative results of 2 researches at 21-year interval (1985 and 2006) on getting a perception of a vague picture. The results proved the existence of typical changes in psychology at the stage of perception that were connected with the social and economic reforms, taken place in Russia, and were considered by the author to be the empirical confirmations of L.S. Vhygotsky's concept.


The main objective of this paper is to show one way of optimization, analysis and design of microwave active circuits, based on the transformation of the reflection coefficient for an amplifier or a microwave oscillator. This improved method is based on a non linear optimization of the circuit. This way consists on introducing a transformation invariant which allows to test the appropriate transistor for a given frequency bandwidth. The transformation invariant is called coefficient N, and it determines very quickly, the possible modifications of the active multiport network by external circuits connected to it. This procedure is applied by looking at the microwave transistor as a three- port or as an equivalent two-port. The present method appears to be accurate and fast in the design and optimization of a microwave oscillator or an amplifier based on H.F transistors.


Objective.—To investigate the presence of thromboembolic risk factors and the effect of low‐dose acenocoumarol therapy on migraine in patients who spontaneously reported a reduction of their migraine attacks during previous therapeutic use of anticoagulants.


At 04:01 today (22 October 2013) fire crews from Harrogate were called to a van on fire in the Providence Terrace area of Harrogate. The fire caused ...


Introduction Nosocomial infections are serious complications that increase morbidity, mortality and costs and could potentially be avoidable. Antiseptic body wash is an approach to reduce dermal micro-organisms as potential pathogens on the skin. Large-scale trials with chlorhexidine as the antiseptic agent suggest a reduction of nosocomial infection rates. Octenidine is a promising alternative agent which could be more effective against Gram-negative organisms. We hypothesise that daily antiseptic body wash with octenidine reduces the risk of intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired primary bacteraemia and ICU-acquired multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) in a standard care setting. Methods and analysis EFFECT is a controlled, cluster-randomised, double-blind study. The experimental intervention consists in using octenidine-impregnated wash mitts for the daily routine washing procedure of the patients. This will be compared with using placebo wash mitts. Replacing existing washing methods is the only interference into clinical routine. Participating ICUs are randomised in an AB/BA cross-over design. There are two 15-month periods, each consisting of a 3-month wash-out period followed by a 12-month intervention and observation period. Randomisation determines only the sequence in which octenidine-impregnated or placebo wash mitts are used. ICUs are left unaware of what mitts packages they are using. The two coprimary endpoints are ICU-acquired primary bacteraemia and ICU-acquired MDRO. Endpoints are defined based on individual ward-movement history and microbiological test results taken from the hospital information systems without need for extra documentation. Data on clinical symptoms of infection are not collected. EFFECT aims at recruiting about 45 ICUs with about 225 000 patient-days per year. Ethics and dissemination The study was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Leipzig (number 340/16-ek) in November 2016. Findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals. Trial registration number DRKS-ID: DRKS00011282.


A grouping of administrative raions in Kyiv oblast was conducted based upon a number of socio-demographic indicators and using the method of cluster analysis. Cluster analysis allowed identifying two clusters of Kyiv oblast administrative raions and three sub-clusters within each of them. Inherent features of the socio-demographic development have been identified for each cluster and sub-cluster of administrative raions. The map based on the results of the analysis gives the opportunity to establish the existence of territorial patterns in the placement of certain groups of administrative raions with similar socio-demographic development in the Kyiv oblast.


Creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera) experiences quality decline during summer in the United States transition zone and warmer regions. Various bioproducts have been used to improve creeping bentgrass performance and to mitigate effects of summer stress in the United States transition zone. This 2-year study was carried out to examine if foliar application of seaweed extract (SWE; Ascophyllum nodosum)-based biostimulant Utilize® could enhance creeping bentgrass nitrate reductase (NaR) activity, and root viability under heat and drought stress conditions. The Utilize® was sprayed biweekly on creeping bentgrass foliage at 0, 29, 58, 87, and 116 µL⋅m−2, with application volume of 815 L⋅ha−2. Two weeks after first application, plants were exposed to heat (35/25 °C, day/night) and drought stress (40% to 50% evapotranspiration replacement) conditions for 42 days in an environment-controlled growth chamber. In general, the abiotic stress caused turf quality reduction. Foliar application of Utilize® at 58, 87, and 116 µL⋅m−2 increased turf quality, leaf color ratings, leaf chlorophyll, carotenoid content, and net photosynthetic rate (Pn). Utilize® at 58, 87, and 116 µL⋅m−2 increased NaR activity by 26.5%, 16.3%, and 16.3%, respectively, when compared with the control. Utilize® at 58, 87, and 116 µL⋅m−2 increased root biomass, root length, surface area (SA), and root volume when compared with the control. Utilize® at 58 and 87 µL⋅m−2 improved root viability by 16.3% and 30.9%, respectively, when compared with the control. Our data indicate that the SWE-based biostimulant Utilize® improves nitrogen (N) metabolism and root viability. Utilize® treatment at 58 µL⋅m−2 biweekly can be considered an effective approach for improving creeping bentgrass performance during summer stress.


The focus of this section is on protecting assets, networks, systems, and humans by preventing and/or mitigating physical attacks and damage. This article provides an overview and addresses the question "what do protection and prevention mean from a homeland security and defense perspective?" Definitions and terminologies are included in the article. Most of the emphasis is on protecting a wide variety of infrastructure elements and the people who work or reside in them. A broad range of threats and attack modes is considered—from the use of small arms and weapons to explosives to biological and chemical agents. The article discusses important auxiliary elements such as assessments, training, and preparations. Many forms of defensive components and systems are treated—from body armor to blast shields to "smart" ventilation systems. Concepts such as robustness and resilience, response and recovery, deterrence, and devaluation of potential targets/sites are discussed. Finally, advanced concepts and designs using innovative components and materials are highlighted as areas of future research and development.

This overview focuses on protecting assets, networks, systems, and humans by preventing and/or mitigating physical attacks and damage (see also Cyber-Security). Background information includes the historical development of the concept of homeland security and defense following acts of terrorism on US soil in the late 1990s. A number of plans for federal and national research and development (RD we must therefore be smart about our utilization of resources. We must be prepared to accept some risk and to rapidly recover if we are attacked (the fear of terrorism can do more damage to our way of life than actual attacks). Threats are dynamic and involve a wide range of possible means of attack ranging from the use of conventional explosives to biological agents to nuclear explosives. The number of possible targets is enormous and some vulnerabilities are part of the nature of a free and open society. Consequences of possible terrorist actions range from tens to thousands of lives lost and millions to billions of dollars of economic losses. Protecting our infrastructure and citizens from terrorist acts and preventing catastrophic impacts is a truly daunting challenge that will involve the efforts of many global R&D organizations. Science and technology can assist the development of systems to inform us about the status of our critical infrastructure and ultimately design advanced infrastructure that will be inherently secure, safe, and resilient.

Keywords:

protection;
prevention;
mitigation;
response;
recovery;
resilience;
defense;
infrastructure


Abstract : The report presents the computer program corresponding to the method of design expounded in the Ship Structure Committee Report SSC-215, A Guide for the Synthesis of Ship Structures - Part One - The Midship Hold of a Transversely-Framed, Dry Cargo Ship. The program consists in an executive routine, called TRANSHIP, and twenty seven subroutines. The report includes the complete program documentation. For each routine, the following items are given: description, notation, listing and flow chart. The report includes 64 pages of FORTRAN listings.