The extragalactic background light (EBL), i.e., the di use meta-galactic photon field in the ultraviolet to infrared, is dominated by the emission from stars in galaxies. It is, therefore, intimately connected with the integrated star formation rate density (SFRD). In this paper, the SFRD is constrained using recent limits on the EBL density derived from observations of distant sources of high and very-high energy gamma-rays. The stellar EBL contribution is modeled utilizing simple stellar population spectra including dust attenuation and emission. For modeling the SFRD up to z = 4 a broken power law function in z + 1 is assumed. A wide range of values for the di erent model parameters (SFRD(z), metallicity, dust absorption) is investigated and their impact on the resulting EBL is studied. The calculated EBL densities are compared with the specific EBL density limits and constraints on the SFRD are derived. For the fiducial model, adopting a Chabrier initial mass function (IMF) and a second power law index for the SFRD of = 0:3, the SFRD is constrained to . 0:1 M yr 1 Mpc 3 and < 0:2 M yr 1 Mpc 3 for a redshift of z 1 and z 2, respectively. The limits for a redshift of z 1 are in tension with SFRD measurements derived from instantaneous star formation tracers. While the tension for the conservative fiducial model in this study is not yet overly strong, the tension increases when applying plausible changes to the model parameters, e.g., using a Salpeter instead of a Chabrier IMF or a adopting a sub-solar metallicity.


This study analytically and biologically validated an enzyme immunoassay for quantification of glucocorticoid metabolites (MGC) in Megascops choliba. Differences in MGC levels were recorded between individuals in relation to time of day, but not in relation to sex. Additionally, higher frequency of active behaviours was related to higher levels of MGC.


The problem of implementation security in quantum key distribution (QKD) refers to the difficulty of meeting the requirements of mathematical security proofs in real-life QKD systems. Here, we provide a succint review on this topic, focusing on discrete variable QKD setups. Particularly, we discuss some of their main vulnerabilities and comment on possible approaches to overcome them.


The screening and impurity profiling of drugs, like cocaine, is essential information that provides chemical and/or physical characterization to assist police agencies in understanding the trafficking and identifying drug origin. This work proposes to show the development and applications of two different electronic tongues (e-tongues) on the profiling study of cocaine seized samples. The developed intelligent devices' primary objective is the simple, quick, and remote cocaine classification samples based on the individual cutting agents added. The paper-based colorimetric sensor was fabricated in the lab using chromatographic paper as a substrate, wax printing to produce spot zones of reactions, a smartphone as image detection, and an editing image software to extract the chemical information through RBG values. The voltammetric e-tongue applied a boron-dopped diamond electrode to extract the cutting agents' electrochemical information through the square wave voltammetry (SWV) technique. In any case, both described sensors were coupled to chemometric tools for data analysis to construct the discrimination model. According to the objective, the unsupervised pattern recognition technique, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), was applied to test the capability of the device on individually discriminating the most common cutting agents of cocaine.


Puroindoline a and b ( Pina , Pinb ) form the molecular basis of bread wheat grain hardness. Varieties with a softer endosperm and a wild genotype, in which both Pina and Pinb were present, seemed to produce less dam-aged starch X our than hard varieties, where Pin mutations occurred and changed the starch rheological properties. The functional property of starch samples extracted from wheat varieties with di V erent Pin alleles was evaluated. Starch morphology was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and laser light scattering. Thermal properties were evaluated by di V erential scanning calorimetry. Amylose content, starch damage and rapid visco-analyser (RVA) parameters were also determined. Signi W cant varia-tions ( P < 0.05) were identi W ed between di V erent Pin variants for the distribution pattern of starch granule volume, amylose content, starch damage, RVA viscosity breakdown and retrogradation, gelatinisation transition temperatures and enthalpies. Hard genotypes presented higher medium diameter granules and lower enthalpic values. However, the di V erences detected are more evident among varieties that present both Pina and Pinb , than among those presenting only one of the two ( a or b ).


driving in the following manner. You fix your eyes twenty feet in front of your car. When you see no obstacle in sight, you slowly increase your speed. As soon as anything comes into sight, you slam on the brakes. Repeat as many times as necessary to reach your destination. This is not a bad strategy in a parking lot, but it is not how you would want to drive on the auto-bahn, or on any high-speed roadway. When we enter a highway, we look near and far, front and rear, to sense the traffic flow around us and then converge quickly to the right speed. When sending and receiving information over the Internet, the current strategies used to control transfer speed are still designed for parking lot driving, while the infrastructure is being upgraded to superhighway mode. The FAST project at Caltech, led by Professor Steven Low, is changing that. Here is the current state of affairs. The algorithm that controls the sending speed is called the congestion control algorithm. It is a distributed algorithm designed to share the Internet among hundreds of millions of users. It consists of two sub-algorithms. One is a host algorithm, implemented by the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) that modifies the sending rate in response to the amount of congestion in the path from source to destination. The second is a queue-management (QM) algorithm that implicitly or explicitly feeds back congestion information to the hosts. All currently deployed TCP algorithms are based on a scheme developed at Berkeley 15 years ago when most parts of the Internet could barely carry the traffic of a single voice call—and when the general public had no knowledge of the Internet's existence, let alone surfed the web. Since the mid 1990s, researchers have realized that this algorithm cannot scale to any future network that must be able, for instance, to carry 1.5 million concurrent voice calls. The lack of a theoretical framework to understand the underlying structure of the general problem led to a tremendous variety of ad hoc tinkering with the TCP and QM algorithms , with limited success. During the past five years, a rigorous theory of congestion control has started to emerge, based on The theory covers the equilibrium and dynamic structure of large-scale networks under end-to-end control. One of the key components in the theory is Low's idea of interpreting the TCP/QM pair as …


The first ratiometric fluorescent probe for the detection of a nerve agent simulant was developed based on tandem phosphorylation and intramolecular cyclization, by which high sensitivity as well as large emission shift could be achieved.


Natural extracts or essences are largely used in several fields (farm- produce industry, cosmetic, perfumery, biochemistry, etc.). However, most of these complex extracts contain also toxic, carcinogenic or non desirable molecules. By using a laser directly tuned to an absorption band of the unwanted molecules, selective elimination is obtained. Advantages of this procedure are the rapidity, in situ reaction and the possibility to perform quantitative elimination. Examples such as the destruction of thujone in extract of Salvia, bergaptene in essence of Bergamote, phycocyanin in Porphyridium Cruentum or simply dye will be presented and discussed.


Background: To evaluate the salivary protein concentration in gingivitis and periodontitis patients and compare the parameters like salivary total protein, salivary albumin, salivary flow rate, pH, buffer capacity and flow rate in both young and elderly patients with simple methods. Materials and Methods: One hundred and twenty subjects were grouped based on their age as young and elderly. Each group was subgrouped (20 subjects) as controls, gingivitis and periodontitis. Unstimulated whole saliva was collected from patients and flow rate was noted down during collection of the sample. Salivary protein estimation was done using the Biuret method and salivary albumin was assessed using the Bromocresol green method. pH was estimated with a pHmeter and buffering capacity was analyzed with the titration method. Student's t-test, Fisher's test (ANOVA) and Tukey HSD (ANOVA) tests were used for statistical analysis. Results: A very highly significant rise in the salivary total protein and albumin concentration was noted in gingivitis and periodontitis subjects of both young and elderly. An overall decrease in salivary flow rate was observed among the elderly, and also the salivary flow rate of women was significantly lower than that of men. Conclusion: Significant associations between salivary total protein and albumin in gingivitis and periodontitis were found with simple biochemical tests. A decrease in salivary flow rate among elderly and among women was noted.


Recently, a number of scalable stream sharing protocols have been proposed with the promise of great reductions in the server and network bandwidth required for delivering popular media content. Although the scalability of these protocols has been evaluated mostly for sequential user accesses, a high degree of interactivity has been observed in the accesses to several real media servers. Moreover, some studies have indicated that user interactivity can severely penalize the scalability of stream sharing protocols.This paper investigates alternative mechanisms for scalable streaming to interactive users. We first identify a set of workload aspects that are determinant to the scalability of classes of streaming protocols. Using real workloads and a new interactive media workload generator, we build a rich set of realistic synthetic workloads. We evaluate Bandwidth Skimming and Patching, two state-of-the-art streaming protocols, covering, with our workloads, a larger region of the design space than previous work. Finally, we propose and evaluate five optimizations to Bandwidth Skimming, the most scalable of the two protocols. Our best optimization reduces the average server bandwidth required for interactive workloads in up to 54%, for unlimited client buffers, and 29%, if buffers are constrained to 25% of media size.


The theoretical, practical and technical description of linear associative memory which has developed in last 40 years. There is detail description of linear associative memory of neural network. What it is, how it works and how it is helping in neural network.


The film "Dua Garis Biru" is a film that is popular in Indonesian society and impresses people because it creates controversy in its scenes. Bima and Dara are a teenage couple as the main characters of the film who have carried out activities beyond their limits as teenagers. The purpose of this study is to find out the description of teenage couples who have sex outside of marriage and face big problems involving Dara being pregnant and they must be responsible for what they experience with lots of opposition from the family, social background, and different ideologies. At first, they did not want to tell their parents about their condition because they were undergoing high school education. However, during school activities, Dara experienced pain and called her parents. From here, the peak of the problem occurred because of a dispute between the Bima family and Dara's family. This film educates young people about love, friendship, and family relationships in today's world. The film also teaches parents about sexual education, which sometimes parents are embarrassed to talk about with their children. The research was conducted using qualitative methods and content analysis techniques.


A new PSpice-based model is developed for simulating the soft-start characteristics of switching power supplies. Three commonly-used control ICs: TL494; SG3525; and UC3825 are considered. Using this model, starting characteristics of power supply circuits can be simulated effectively even with popular personal computers.<<ETX>>


: The reaction between permanganate and guanidine hydrochloride in alkaline medium has a stoichiometry of 2 : 1 with first order dependence each on [permanganate] and [osmium(VIII)] and fractional order in [OH - ], while zero order dependence on [guanidine hydrochloride]. No effect of added products, ionic strength and dielectric constant has been observed. Investigation at different temperatures allowed the determination of the activation parameters with respect to slow step of the proposed mechanism. The observed kinetic data were compared with uncatalysed reaction. Entirely different observation obtained are discussed with respect to kinetic result and activation parameters.


Abstract This paper treats a problem of stochastic cash management under an average compensating-balance requirement. It develops a dynamic programming formulation of the problem in which the relevant state is a unidimensional quantity equivalent to the forecasted average balance at the end of the averaging period. Under usably broad conditions, it establishes the optimality of a transient policy of simple type, similar to the two-sided inventory type policy familiar from certain earlier studies of stationary cash balance problems having absolute balance requirements. The results apply to cases in which the transactions costs contain both fixed and proportional components. The paper discusses also a numerical example drawn from the literature of the cash balance problem and shows by simulation of the optimal (and simply modified forms of the optimal) policy, that good protection is afforded against negative balances, even though the model does not explicitly constrain the negative-balance probabilities.


In this article,authors analyze the difference between high support form strut system and formwork supports design,such as the considering loads,calculation content and installation structures.Based on site measuring results of standing bar's axial force and slab reinforcement's stress of fly-over crossing bridge, the load path of strut system is studied for safe construction.


The various techniques that have been used to fabricate waveguides in GaAs/GaAkAs are reviewed; including p-n junction, carrier-concentration-reduction, heteroepitaxial growth, and strip-loading methods. The results of this survey show that it is possible to produce waveguides in GaAs/GaAkAs with losses less than 2 dB/cm for wavelengths ranging from 1.06 to 10.6μm. In some cases losses as low as 1 dB/cm have been observed.


German Photographs (1724–2005) explores the relationship between the visual and the conceptual in two disparate practices: philosophy and photography. The series began with the idea of observing or envisioning the places where a lineage of German philosophers (Kant to Adorno) worked, wrote, studied, and thought. Twelve philosopher subjects have been photographed to date, in seven cities and four countries, yielding over twenty photographs in the series. What emerges is an assortment of interiors, exteriors, landscapes, and cityscapes, each inextricably linked to its ostensible subject at the intersection of place, practice, and pictures: here and not there, this but not that.


The hospital operational activities, medical supplies have the most frequent usage. To support medical supplies management that is effective and efficient, the management needs accounting information system of inventory that is more actual and adequate. The purpose of this research is to found accounting information system of inventory in AR Bunda Hospital. This method of research is a qualitative study by using descriptive approach. The sources of the data are primary data and secondary data. There are three ways in technique for collecting the data, namely observation, interview, and documentation. The result of the study found that accounting information system of inventory in AR Bunda Hospital are going well, but the are some weakness such as medical supplies procedure, multiply task head of pharmacy installation, the lack of some documents/form and the accounting records to support accounting informaton system of inventory.


Let Fq be the finite field of characteristic p containing q = pr elements. A polynomial f (x) ∈ Fq [x] is called a permutation polynomial of Fq if the induced map f : Fq → Fq is one to one. The study of permutation polynomials goes back to Hermite [2] for Fp and to Dickson [1] for Fq . One of the open problems proposed by Lidl and Mullen [3], is to find new classes of permutation polynomials of Fq . We refer to [4] or [5] for the basic results on permutation polynomials. Wan and Lidl [7], gave conditions on a polynomial of the form xr f (x (q−1)/d) to be a permutation polynomial. The conditions are not explicitely given in terms of q and r , and may be difficult to verify in general. In the present note, without using the characterization of Wan and Lidl [7], but using only an elementary method, we exhibit a new class of permutation polynomials. We prove the following:


Report presenting flight data, which shows that the absolute minimum or limit pressure coefficient on an airfoil is a function mainly of the Mach number for Mach numbers above about 0.3 and for usual flight values of the Reynolds number. The curve of limit pressure coefficient as a function of Mach number is established.


ABSTRACT Although resources are invested in maintaining the professional standards, knowledge, and skills of community development practitioners (CDPs), research has not established if they have benefited adequately from the provisions of an appropriate professional development programme. The Stufflebeam's CIPP model was used to evaluate this, which is the first exercise of its kind in South Africa. This qualitative study reports on the circumstances associated with its planning. Lack of alignment between the professionals' needs and learning activities was uncovered, which resulted from the absence of learning activities which meet the needs of CDPs and poor planning. A planning framework is proposed to mitigate the obstacles and challenges.


Earlier research demonstrated that diesel engine nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions can be reduced by lowering certain combustion conditions: rate of heat release, maximum pressure, maximum rate of pressure rise, maximum temperature, and oxygen concentration. These findings were used in the present study to determine various methods to achieve reduced NOx without loss in engine performance. A lighter fuel with improved ignitability resulted in a lower oxygen concentration in the precombustion chamber of a two-stage combustion system and in decreased combustion time. Auxiliary fuel injection (pilot injection) with retarded timing of the main fuel injection reduced combustion duration. A water-oil emulsified fuel produced a drop in temperature and oxygen concentration, resulting not only in reduced NOx but also in lowered specific fuel consumption, smoke density, and carbon monoxide.


Natural gas is an important source of energy. Underwater gas pipeline leaks, on the other hand, have a serious impact on the marine environment; hence, the need for a reliable and preferably automated inspection method is essential. Due to the high impedance difference and strong scattering properties of gas bubbles in the marine environment, sonar systems are recognized as excellent tools for leak detection. In this paper, a new method for gas leak detection is proposed based on gas bubble acoustic scattering modeling using Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) technology, in which a coherent combination of gas bubble and pipeline scattering fields at different angles along synthetic apertures is used for leak detection. The proposed method can distinguish leak signals from the background noise using coherent processing in SAS range migration. SAS as an active sonar can collect accurate information at wide area coverage rate, independent of operating range and frequency, which can potentially reduce the time and cost of pipeline inspection. The simulation and comparison results of the proposed method based on coherent processing of synthetic aperture technology and the real aperture system show that the proposed method can effectively distinguish gas bubble signals at different ranges even in a single pass and improves pipeline leak detection operations.


The structure of the first of the new alkali metal chalcogenides of the composition M 5 X 3 has been solved (K 5 Te 3 : a=13.742(2) A, c=6.364(2) A, space group: I4./m, Z=4). It can be derived from the W 5 Si 3 type of structure by substituting the ...Si...Si...Si... chains by those of Te 2 2− -dumbbells ...(Te-Te)...(Te-Te)...(Te-Te)..., both running along [001]. The Te 2 2− -dumbbells occur as a consequence of the necessity of charge compensation of the saltlike compound K 5 Te 3 , according to 2 K 5 Te 3 ⇇10 K + +Te 2 2- +4 Te 2− . The remaining tellurium atoms not involved in the dumbbells build up strings of tetrahedra ∞ 1 [KTe 4/2 ], with common edges along [001]. Therefore, the resulting K-K distances in these strings of tetrahedra are extremely short (3.18 A)


The mat2,3‐region of Schizosaccharomyces pombe is flanked by two inverted repeat elements, IRL and IRR, which define the boundaries of the silent domain resulting from heterochromatin assembly in the region. We employed a genetic screen to isolate factors whose mutations allowed spreading of heterochromatin across boundary elements. Surprisingly, this screen revealed that mutations in the genes required for deoxyribonucleotide biosynthesis, cdc22 (encoding the large subunit of ribonucleotide reductase) and tds1 (putative thymidylate synthase), cause silencing of marker genes inserted outside of the silent domain. Chromatin‐immunoprecipitation analysis showed that histone H3 lysine 9 methylation modification, an epigenetic mark associated with gene silencing, is enriched by two‐ to three‐fold in the cdc22 mutant as compared to the level found in the wild‐type strain in regions outside the silent domain. The spreading of heterochromatin across barriers required functional Atf1/Pcr1, ATF‐CREB family proteins, but not the RNA‐interference Dcr1, Ago1, or Rdp1 factors, previously implicated in silencing. These results implicate the deoxyribonucleotide biosynthesis pathway in limiting epigenetic controls at barrier elements at the mating‐type region, but the mechanism remains unknown. Published in 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This study of the VLF fields transmitted into seawater leads to a versatile model of the E field under the interface. The experimental measurements presented agree quite well with the ground wave theory and the ray geometrical optics for rays having Brewsterian or pseudo-Brewsterian incidence. >


Fossilization was first defined in 1972 as a failure, or an ultimate attainment in adult second language acquisition that falls short of native-speaker competence. It represents a final stage in the interlanguage development of the individual learner and characterizes all but a very few adult second language learners. Over the 40 years or so since the term appeared, fossilization in adult second language acquisition has come to be widely accepted by scholars as a genuinely existing phenomenon. Fossilization is now viewed as permanent and resistant to correction either through instruction or acculturation. However, no universally accepted definition or explanation of fossilization has achieved universal acceptance. This paper attempts to add an extralinguistic perspective on fossilization and its possible outcome in the communicative practice of adult L2 speakers by building a bridge between linguistics and teaching languages, on the one hand, and philosophy of communication, on the other. Habermasian concept of communicative rationality is applied to demonstrate that oratory and writing skills ensure a more significant role in a dialogue, which seems to be sufficient grounds for fighting fossilization. In terms of the theory of speech acts, the paper attempts to trace the mechanism of fossilizing in a transition from the inner space of an individual consciousness and intent (illocution) to the outer space of the perlocutionary consequence when a locutionary distortion of the speech itself does not affect the speaker's intent and he / she receives no feedback of the error made. Several factors inhibiting the effectiveness of such corrective feedback are touched upon, as well as certain strategies adopted by second language learners in their communicative efforts.


This article examines the relationship between political identity and voice through an analysis of conflict between members of the same Native American nation over the development of environmental policy. Grounding this study in the work of Paul Ricoeur and his theory of narrated identity, and using Senecah's "Trinity of Voice" as an analytical framework, I examine communication and negotiation of voice among members of the Skull Valley Goshute tribe regarding the storing of nuclear waste on their reservation. I argue that tribal members' identities are constructed through political narratives about voice (or lack thereof) complicating their sense of self and creating a complex forum for tribal nuclear waste policy development and decision-making. This article contributes to our theoretical understanding of political voice and identity, revealing its implications for nuclear waste policy development. Further, it provides a deeper understanding of the complexities of environmental conflicts within Native American communities.


Purpose – The population of the USA consists of a culturally diverse mix of individuals, many of them recent immigrants, from a wide range of ethnic and racial groups. Given an increasing multicultural and multilingual population, an urgent need for cross‐cultural community and health services, and for culturally competent practitioners, has emerged in the profession of mental health. The reality of that diversity raises two crucial implications: the profession needs more culturally competent practitioners to work with multicultural service‐users; and the clinical assessment and treatment of the population has become more challenging and complex. This paper seeks to explore vital cultural components in training mental health practitioners to work with multiethnic groups.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative and purposive methodology with structured interview questions was employed to gather data for analysis. The process of data analysis included line‐by‐line transcription of each interview and then...


From the relativistic mean field model and the theory of weak interactions,the effects of ∑ hyperons on neutron stars are studied.Results show that ∑ hyperons have effects on the three meson fields.They change the particle distribution and mass-radius relation of neutron stars.The effects of ∑ on the cooling of neutron stars are obviouly.The density ranges where direct lerca processes of both electorns and muons are allowed can be changed.On the other hand,∑ hyperons lower the neutrino emissivity obviously,so it maybe not suitable for the fast cooling of neutron stars.


Creativity is thought to involve searching and selecting amongst multiple discrete idea candidates. Honing theory predicts that it involves actualizing the potentiality of as few as a single ill-defined idea by viewing it from different contexts. This paper reports on a study that tests between these theories. Participants were invited to "Create a painting that expresses yourself in any style that appeals to you", and asked "Were all of your ideas for your painting distinct and separate ideas?" Naive judges were provided with descriptions of the two theories of creativity, sample answers, and practice responses to classify. The judges were significantly more likely to classify the artists' responses as 'H', indicative of honing theory rather than 'S' indicative of a search-select view of creativity.


The utility model provides a seawater pumping device for crossing-road cultivation. A water pipe crosses over a road. A plurality of water pumping pipes is installed below the seal level. The water pumping pipes are communicated with the water pipe. An enclosed seawater well is arranged on a beach. The upper portion of the seawater well is provided with an air pump. An air pumping pipe of the air pump is communicated with the space inside the seawater well. A water pump is installed inside the seawater well. The water pump is communicated with a water outlet pipe. The seawater pumping device is able to cross over the road; the water pumping pipes are installed below the sea level; the seawater is conveyed into the seawater well through the water pipe under the effect of the air pump; and the seawater can be pumped from the seawater well for being used as the water for cultivation. The seawater pumping device for the crossing-road cultivation is suitable to be used as a seawater pumping device.


NLP, an unique training method used by Corporate Trainers, Psychologists and Linguists alike, shows people how to recode their experiences and organise their internal programming so they can get the outcomes they want. This article traces its history from its creation it 1979 to its transformation and studies in brief what it stands for - in perspective to the present era.


This paper conducts axial compression test of ultrahigh performance concrete- (UHPC-) filled hybrid FRP (HFRP) tubes, using the alternating hybrid technology to improve the deformation capacity of FRP tube and measure the axial compressive responses of ultimate strength, strains, and stress-strain curve of confined specimens. The test results show that the local rupture of HFRP tubes did not lead to explosive failure of UHPC cylinder, and its ductility is better than that of UHPC confined by only one type of FRP tube; HFRP tube can effectively improve the compressive strength and ultimate strain of UHPC specimens; the stress-strain curves divide into three distinct regions: linear phase, transition phase, and linear strengthening phase. None of the models provided a reasonable prediction for strength and strain of HFRP-confined UHPC specimen; therefore, a new ultimate strength and strain perdition model considering the confinement effectiveness of different hybrid FRP series was proposed. The new proposed model presented the best fitting results. The stress-strain responses predicted by the existing models are all below the experimental curves; therefore, a new three-stage constitutive model was proposed, which relatively fits the test curves better than the existing models.


In earlier work Borrego, Cohen and DeVun (1971a, b) topological semigroups which were uniquely representable in terms of two subsets were investigated. In this note we extend the definition and prove similar results for a larger class of semigroups.


Eleven plants were collected at the Zongo Valley to evaluate their antioxidant and photo-protector properties. In this paper we report a strong correlation between high antioxidant activity and strong UV-A and/or UV-B absorptions. The most active species, tested at 10µg/ml with the DPPH assay, were Fuchsia boliviana (leaves), Baccharis pentlandii (flowers), Rubus floribundus (fruits), Fuchsia boliviana (flowers and fruits) and Brachyotum microdon (flowers). All the mentioned species have important UV- B and/or UV-A absorptions. This DPPH/UV technique could be used to preliminary screen vegetable samples and to select those with DPPH values above 83% and strong UV-A and/or UV-B absorptions. The chosen samples can then be evaluated with other more expensive in vitro assay (TEAC, ABTS or FRAP) to finally confirm their activities with the in vivo test. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the antioxidant properties of Distichia muscoides , Souroubea fragilis , Brachyotum microdon , Monnina bridgesii , Baccharis pentlandii , Thibaudia crenulata , Siphocampylus tupaeformis , Cobaea scandens , Fuchsia boliviana and Rubus floribundus are reported. In addition, this is the first time that Siphocampylus tupaeformis and Thibaudia crenulata are presented in a publication as well as the study of their photo-protector and antioxidant properties.


B decay sum rules relate exclusive B semileptonic decay matrix elements to forward B-meson matrix elements of operators in HQET. At leading order the operators that occur are the b-quark kinetic energy λ1 and chromomagnetic energy λ2. The latter is determined by the measured B ∗ − B mass splitting. The derivation of these sum rules is reviewed and perturbative QCD corrections are discussed. A determination of λ1 and the energy of the light degrees of freedom in a B-meson, Λ̄, from semileptonic B decay data is presented. Future prospects for improving these sum rules are discussed.


Method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using a SiGe or Ge film in a channel portion, the substrate processing method, to provide a substrate processing apparatus. A substrate SiGe film or Ge film is exposed to at least part of the surface, a processing chamber for processing the substrate, and the etching gas supply unit for supplying an etching gas into the processing chamber, at least as a deposition gas into the processing chamber a film-forming gas supply unit for supplying a Si-containing gas, wherein the SiGe film or Ge film Ge oxide film formed on the surface of the removed by supplying the etching gas, the Ge oxide film by the supply of the etching gas said supplying Si-containing gas after removal of at least said SiGe layer or a Si-containing film on said Ge layer as epitaxially grown, the control unit for controlling the film-forming gas supply section and the etching gas supply unit , a substrate processing apparatus having a.


In order to investigate the influence of shot peening on the surface durability of sintered powder metal gears, the plasma case-hardened sintered powder metal gears shot-peened with different shot diameter and shot hardness were fatigue-tested using a gear testing machine. The hardness, the compressive residual stress and the surface roughness of the gears increased by the shot peening. The pores near the tooth surface of the shot-peened gears were obviously deformed excect for those of the lightest shot-peened gear in this study. The failure mode of the unpeened gear was pitting, and those of the shot-peened gears was mainly spalling. The failure depth agreed almost with the depth where the amplitude A (τyz/HV) of the ratio of orthogonal shear stress to Vickers hardness became peak near the tooth surface. In these experiments the surface durability of the lightest shot-peened gear was highest comparing with those of the other gears. Therefore, it can be proposed that the light shot peening, which does not cause too large surface roughness and the deformed sharp pore, has to be selected in order to improve the surface durability of sintered powder metal gears.


In 1991 the Health Care Financing Agency (HCFA) changed the reimbursement system for hospital capital costs from a costs-paid basis to one with a prospective basis, as part of the ongoing battle to control health care costs. This followed the 1984 change for patient costs from a Fee-For-Service basis to one based on DRGs, a prospectively determined amount for specific diagnosis categories. The capital cost reimbursement allowances in 1996, for example, had a $462 base amount, which was pro-rated with an adjustment for patient-specific DRGs. Previous empirical research has shown that hospitals increased net fixed capital when the proportion of Medicare discharges increased, and as the market became less concentrated. In this paper we develop a model of hospital behavior in which non-profit hospitals maximize some combination of quantity, quality and profits; for-profits maximize the more traditional economic concept of profit. Hospitals differ by the number of Medicare and Medicaid patients, concentration of the market in which they are located, and other hospital-specific factors. Using annual Medicare Cost Report data, provided by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), we estimate the annual change in real fixed assets, or hospital net investment, in a fixed effects model for Pennsylvania hospitals. These estimates are then used as inputs to measure both the effect of the percentage of Medicare discharges and market concentration on hospital net investment in the 1980s and 1990s. Our results show that hospital capital formation responded in a directly (i.e., positively) to more competitive markets, even after capital reimbursement was restricted/tightened intentionally, via the 1991 payments system change.


The editors of Journal of Ecology would like to thank the following colleagues for their assistance in evaluating manuscripts during 2003. Their opinions have been greatly appreciated. We hope that the already high percentage of referees willing to work within our new web-based system will continue to increase, but are happy to make alternative arrangements for those who find it difficult to review in this way. All we ask is that you should, if at all possible, upload your report via the system or, failing that, e-mail a copy of your report to the Managing Editor, in addition to any hard copy you return by post. We do try to spread the workload but we are particularly grateful to colleagues who have been willing to help on several occasions throughout the year (see p. 3).


This work models and experimentally investigates the transport of suspended microparticles with two acoustic methods. One method is continuous frequency sweeping based on acoustic radiation forces. The other method uses fluid flow generated by acoustic streaming. Furthermore, particle traps are presented which are based on single frequency acoustic radiation forces and can be combined with the presented acoustic streaming devices. Continuous frequency sweeping makes use of the shift of pressure nodes of standing waves when the frequency is changed. Acoustic radiation forces arise as non-linear effects when sound waves are scattered due to the presence of a particle and hence the method is 'contactless'. Acoustic streaming is a net mean fluid flow generated by acoustic oscillations. This non-linear effect can be divided into bulk attenuation driven acoustic streaming due to the spatial attenuation of acoustic oscillations in free space, and boundary layer driven acoustic streaming due to the friction between the oscillating medium and a solid boundary. Particles or beads with a specific surface affinity to a target substance are often used for purification. This is of a particular interest for point of care or lab on a chip devices which aim at reducing the size of the analysis apparatus, the analysis chip, or both. One application followed here is nucleic acid concentration. The requirements for this application are a closed system, disposable devices and sample volumes in the mL range. The investigated ultrasonic devices are mm-sized and mainly fabricated from plastics. Particle transport with continuous frequency sweeping has been described experimentally in literature, but without providing a physical model. In this work continuous frequency sweeping is described with a one dimensional analytical model. Two device designs are proposed to employ the method. The first is a planar square device geometry with a transducer placed in line with the particle transport direction, and the second is a planar device where the transducer is placed perpendicular to it. The latter is used to investigate wave coupling mechanisms. The devices are investigated numerically with a simulation of the pressure field. In addition, a particle tracing simulation with time dependent frequency is developed. Particle experiments are combined with biochemical experiments and a simple schlieren visualization setup is designed which can visualize the full pressure field in real time. In this work, it is demonstrated that continuous frequency sweeping relies on attenuated standing waves which are present at all frequencies in a cavity, the shift of pressure nodes of any off-resonance standing wave depends on the position of the excitation and particles can be moved from one side of a cavity to another and back. Moreover, averaging effects are important for particle transport with a high


The present study aimed to compare the episodic memory among students who suffer cerebral palsy and normal students. A total of 36 students participated in this study. At first, in a convenience sampling Original Article 22 Clinical Social Work and Health Intervention Clinical Social Work and Health Intervention Vol. 8 No. 3 2017 method 18 ill students were selected. Then 18 normal students were matched with them by demographic features, socio-economic status and average grades. For assessment of episodic memory verbal task and subject performed task were applied. Memory was evaluated by free recall test. The result of T-test and ANOVA showed there was significant difference between cerebral palsy students and the normal ones in memory tasks. Cerebral palsy students showed low and weak performance in verbal and practical memory tests. Motor weakness and speech disorders are causal factors in reducing cognitive abilities of children affected by cerebral palsy. In this aspect, reduced cognitive capacity causes those child to not have enough ability to explore the surrounding world. In this respect damaged memory assumes an important part of cognitive functioning.


The increasing use of micro systems in industry combined with an ever-increasing demand for higher measurement accuracy has led to ongoing developments in the field of dimensional metrology. Recently, several measuring machines suitable for measuring micro mechanical products have been introduced to the market. This article aims to give an overview of the state-of-the-art methods for these measurement tasks. Introduction Conventional measuring methods restrict the possibilities for three-dimensional measurements on micro products. Conventional Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs) lack the required level of uncertainty, Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM) lack the required range and optical methods are often not suitable for true three-dimensional measurements. Examples include the measurements of small holes (e.g. fuel injection nozzles), LIGA products, Micro Electromechanical Systems (MEMS), etc. Some available products that are currently available are given in Fig. 1. Fig. 1 Example products, from left to right: microturbine (MIT), array of needles (IMM Mainz), Pennymotor within bearing (Micromotion) and piezo-motor (Miniswys) The first section of this paper covers some of the available measuring machines suitable for measuring MEMS. Then some important issues with respect to probe design are discussed and some examples of available probe systems are given. Finally the calibration results and recent developments of the probe system, developed at the Eindhoven University of Technology, will be discussed. Coordinate Measuring Machines for Micro Products Generally speaking there are two ways to approach the measuring of micro products: bottom-up and top down. The top-down approach is done by improving conventional CMMs. These have excellent range, but lack the needed uncertainty for measuring micro products. The bottom-up approach aims at increasing the measurement range of nano-metrology devices, like the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM). AFM and SPM measuring techniques are typically used for surface characterisation. For True 3D measurements it is often more advantageous to use a CMM. Several CMMs


I've just read a new paper in Quality of Life Research by Round, Sampson (not me) and Jones [1]. The paper discusses the problems associated with current methods of quality of life measurement when applied to individuals without capacity, such as those with severe dementia. The purpose of the paper is to justify the need for a new (QALY-compatible) measure for use in dementia, and to offer a framework for its development. Here are my thoughts on the article. I agree with the authors' proposals, but I am not convinced by their arguments. The paper argues that current measures –– those based on functioning, capabilities or subjective well-being –– lack content, face and construct validity. This may be true, but I don't think it's quite that simple. The authors argue that because functioning and capabilities measures might invariably be at the lower bound for individuals with severe dementia, and because there may be no possibility of improvement, the measures are not valid. This is not the case; such people may be in the worst possible state of functioning and capability and the measures may be capturing this perfectly well. Furthermore, the authors argue that capabilities are not relevant to such a population because it is necessary that they receive almost constant care and assistance. On the contrary, the loss of capabilities is surely a key factor in the undesirability of dementia. The paper drops in words like 'unethical', 'immoral' and 'need' without much justification. Given the purpose of the paper, justification is necessary. For example, if 'need' were dependent on capacity to benefit, and an improvement in a patient's health is impossible, how can we say they are in need? Furthermore, if they cannot benefit, why is it immoral to withhold care? These issues need addressing. Of course, it may be that they have been addressed elsewhere and I just don't know about it. For me, the authors are more on the money when they consider subjective well-being (SWB). They state that:


Social network sites have become popular and their popularity is growing exponentially every day. From the requirements engineering point of view, social network sites have provided unprecedented opportunities for software development organizations to understand the requirements of unknown end-users. Using social network sites, end-users express their experiences, needs, or concerns about a particular system or a product. Such information can be useful for software developers to address the concerns of users quickly. To get an overview of how social network sites are helping requirements engineering and new research trends in this area, we have surveyed a large number of research papers. We found that social network sites can be a major source that can be used for requirements elicitation, requirements prioritization, and negotiation. We also found that the research in this domain is at its beginning stage, but it is rapidly growing with the passage of


In this article we study 3D non-Hermitian higher-order Dirac semimetals (NHHODSMs). Our focus is on C4-symmetric non-Hermitian systems where we investigate inversion (I) or time-reversal (T ) symmetric models of NHHODSMs having real bulk spectra. We show that they exhibit the striking property that the bulk and surfaces are anti-PT and PT symmetric, respectively, and so belong to two different topological classes realizing a novel non-Hermitian topological phase which we call a hybrid-PT topological phases. Interestingly, while the bulk spectrum is still fully real, we find that exceptional Fermi-rings (EFRs) appear connecting the two Dirac nodes on the surface. This provides a route to probe and utilize both the bulk Dirac physics and exceptional rings/points on equal footing. Moreover, particularly for T -NHHODSMs, we also find real hinge-arcs connecting the surface EFRs. We show that this higher-order topology can be characterized using a biorthogonal real-space formula of the quadrupole moment. Furthermore, by applying Hermitian C4-symmetric perturbations, we discover various novel phases, particularly: (i) an intrinsic I-NHHODSM having hinge arcs and gapped surfaces, and (ii) a novel T -symmetric skin-topological HODSM which possesses both topological and skin hinge modes. The interplay between non-Hermition and higher-order topology in this work paves the way toward uncovering rich phenomena and hybrid functionality that can be readily realized in experiment.


Due to the collapse of the Union, there was a reduction in funding for health care costs, as well as deterioration in the infrastructure and quality of medical services. The transitional economy in the Kyrgyz Republic has identified additional features in the health system. The main ones are the low level of funding, the presence of the shadow market of medical services, inefficient structure and the prevalence of high-cost hospital treatment. The market mechanism is developing, however, without state regulation.
The Kyrgyz Republic continues to reform its health-care system. The task was to improve the methods of their financing. New mechanisms for financing medical services have been introduced. Despite the reduction in the number of hospitals, the number of patients treated in hospitals has increased.


Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia that can be complicated by stroke at the 1 to 30% credible level per year in the absence of anticoagulant therapy, depending on the risk factor profile. Numerous clinical studies have strongly confirmed the efficacy of antithrombotic therapy, mainly with anticoagulants, in patients with AF [1].


Analysis of the title of the song "One Eye" by the band The Greenhouse Effect is backgrounded by the rapid development of this music among teenagers, therefore it aims to analyze the title of the song "Next to the Eye" by the Greenhouse Effect band using a semiotic approach and hermeutic reading to understand the meaning implied in the fragments of the lyrics. The method used is descriptive qualitative. The result of this study was that the form of signifier and sginified was found in the version of the song with a certain meaning. The lyrics of this song "One Eye" by ERK use a very good selection of language, not easy enough to capture the meaning but the lyrics contained can be directly touching when read.


In order to be useful, an approximate solution y of a nonlinear system of equations $f(x) = 0$ in $R^n $ must be close to a solution $x^ * $ of the system. Two theorems which can be used computationally to establish the existence of $x^ * $ and obtain bounds for the error vector $y - x^ * $ are the 1948 result of L. V. Kantorovich and the 1977 interval analytic theorem due to R. E. Moore. The two theorems are compared on the basis of sensitivity (ability to detect a solution $x^ * $ close to y), precision (ability to give sharp error bounds), and computational complexity (cost). A theoretical comparison shows that the Kantorovich theorem has at best only a slight edge in sensitivity and precision, while Moore's theorem requires far less computation to apply, and thus provides the method of choice. This conclusion is supported by a numerical example, for which available UNIVAC 1108/1110 software is used to check the hypotheses of both theorems automatically, given y and f.


Upsilon Pi Epsilon Upsilon Pi Epsilon is an honor society founded at Texas A&M University in 1967. It remains the only National Honor Society for the computing and information disciplines and is recognized as such by the Association for Computing Machinery and IEEE Computer Society. Its mission is to recognize academic excellence at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in the Computing and Information Disciplines. UPE promotes the computing and information disciplines and encourages their contribution to the enhancement of knowledge. Information about its history and ideals, how to start a new chapter and much more may be found on the UPE website [4]. Speaking of which, the fall is an excellent time to start the groundwork for forming a chapter. A good blueprint would be to gather interested parties at the beginning of the school year, collect the information required for the application (this is quite simple for ABET-accredited computing/information programs), enlist support from campus leaders, and submit the application while momentum is strong. Don't be shy about contacting a member of the Executive Council to discuss any aspects of the process, from application to chartering ceremony and chapter activities (a list of Council members can be found on the website; as a hint, one is writing this article.)


In interaction of magnetic fields with cracks in ferromagnetic steels has been calculated to assess the capability of magnetic particle inspection (MPI) for crack detection. In MPI the surface of a steel component is coated with magnetic ink and, under the influence of an applied magnetic field, particles in the ink diffuse through the liquid until a steady state is reached. The particles accumulate mainly in regions where the field is greatest—especially where the crack meets the material surface. The field is greater there because of the large difference in the magnetic potential across the crack mouth. The calculation shows that the field at the mouth increases with crack depth but reaches a saturation value due to the flux leakage between the crack faces. If oxide is present, the flux passing across the crack increases. Consequently, the magnetic potential difference at the mouth is reduced and the crack is more difficult to detect. The calculation has been performed using an integral formulation, ass...


This chapter examines law and justice on Canadian television. Canadian viewers generally prefer to watch American TV dramas over Canadian dramas so Canadian TV operates under the shadow of American TV. My close analysis of The Associates, and especially one of its characters, Robyn Parsons, reveals that Canadian legal TV is unique in its portrayal of alternative dispute resolution processes. This is noteworthy given how much American TV focuses on the trial to the near exclusion of other lawyerly work. Using the work of W.J.T. Mitchell, I inquire what the TV show wants and conclude that The Associates wants viewers to think about and perhaps embrace alternative dispute resolution.


The paper presents the key results of the EU-project Self-Learning. The strategic objective of Self-Learning is to strengthen EU leadership in production technologies in the global marketplace by developing innovative self-learning solutions to enable tight integration of control & so called secondary processes (e.g. maintenance, energy efficiency) of production systems. The project developed highly reliable and secure service-based self-learning solutions aiming at that integration. Approaches based on SOA principles, using distributed networked embedded services in device space, are the most appropriate for implementation of such self-learning solutions. Context awareness, providing information about the processes & equipment and circumstances under which the services operate and allowing them to react accordingly, is a promising holistic approach to assure needed self-learning adaptation to changes in processes and equipment states. The key components of a self-learning solution include a Context Extractor module to allow for dynamic context extraction, processing and storage, an Adapter module to allow for a holistic process control of considered systems and a self-learning module to allow for self-learning. Three industrial application scenarios drive the project.


Better mental health services would combat not only mental illness, but homelessness as well. Many homeless people with severe mental illnesses are willing to accept treatment and services, however, "only 44% of adults with diagnosable mental health problems and less than 20% of children and adolescents receive needed treatment" stated the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services6. Outreach programs are more successful when there are accessible health care services.


Based on trials in 1981, 1982 and 1983 the following tentative criteria are proposed for detecting whether dry bulbs (12–13 cm circumference) have been exposed to 5°C: the starch content of freeze-dried anthers should exceed 10% and the specific activity of -amylase in anthers extracts should be below 0.16 (arbitrary unit per mg protein). Data from a recent trial (1984) corroborated the proposed indicators. However, these critaria could not be used to determine how long the bulbs had been exposed to 5°C. During the 12 weeks of cold treatment development of anthers, expressed as fresh or dry weight, was a linear function of time; but, as the slope and Y-intercept of the lines differed from one year to another, this criterion was discarded as an indicator of the duration of cold treatment. The ratio of two bands obtained by liquid chromatography of acetone extracts from shoots shows no significant trend as a function of duration of cold treatment. The osmotic potential of shoots was not included in our model because it decreased linearly during treatment but after one week of simulated transport it increased to a level that would indicate a treatment of only 6 weeks.


This introductory article offers an account of how the principle of 'effectiveness' in EU law has shaped the development of EU criminal law. I will try to explain why effectiveness reasoning has played an important function in the development and formation of EU criminal law as well as the dangers and merits with effectiveness in EU context.


This paper addresses the experience of Transparency International (TI) exploring the integrity in water supply service provision (WSP) in Ghana, Kenya and Senegal as part of its "Transparency and Integrity in Service Delivery in Sub-Saharan Africa (TISDA)" project. WSP in Sub-Saharan countries are strongly affected by corruption practices and characterized by low performing water supply services. Despite a number of initiatives taken to overcome this situation including water sector reform, the problems persist better approaches are needed to fight corruption. The research undertaken by TISDA uses a case study approach to explore water system performance and integrity in terms of transparency, accountability, and participation (TAP). The case study looks at the relation between public officials, regulators, service providers and users in a specific governance-management model. Risk maps are used to assess the transactions between actors and its level of integrity in terms of TAP. The first findings suggest that the methodology is suitable to analyze the complexity of WSP sector providing a good basis for TI for evidence based advocacy, creating opportunities for rapid change in terms of enhancing integrity and improving WSP performance.


In 1924, the W. Atlee Burpee & Company® announced a contest calling for letters responding to the prompt, "What Burpee's Seeds Have Done for Me." By the deadline, Burpee had received thousands of letters, many written by women. Significant elements of this early twentieth-century contest influenced women's response. These elements—the historical context, the call for letters, and the act of gardening—converged in a kairotic fashion to form a rhetorical opportunity particularly accessible for women. The contest allowed women to apply familiar rhetorical acts in risky and self-promoting ways to validate their work and publicly identify as successful gardeners.


Summary. Assessing temporal changes of the distribution of threatened species is paramount for effective management. Threatened species are sensitive to environmental changes and can be extirpated rapidly due to climatic and anthropogenic effects. Here, we monitor the distribution of the locally critically endangered Urothemis edwardsii in northeastern Algeria where the species has been recovering during the last decade after being restricted to a single locality since the 1990s. During the flight seasons in 2018, 2019, and 2021, we conducted field surveys recording the number of males, females, and breeding pairs across 15 sites in northeast Algeria (El Taref province). We found the species at seven sites; reproduction was confirmed at four. In two of the sites, the species was newly recorded but showed no signs of reproduction. We confirmed the maintenance of the reproductive populations that were recently discovered. While the local conservation status of the species is better than that in the 1990s, there are still different threats that need to be addressed and conservation measures that should be implemented or reinforced to ensure maintenance as well as future expansion of the species.


Cyber-physical systems (CPS) and their Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) have attracted great interest for automatic management of industrial infrastructures, such as water and wastewater systems. A range of technologies can be employed for wastewater treatment CPS to manage risks and protect the infrastructures of water systems and their wastewater against cyberattacks. In this paper, we develop a novel risk assessment framework, named RAF-CPWS, which perfectly estimates the risks of water and wastewater technologies. To do this, a multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) approach is designed by neutrosophic theory to assess the risks of wastewater treatment technologies (WWTTs). The proposed approach evaluates the best WWTTs, considering various economic, environmental, technological and cybersecurity, and social factors. A decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is employed to evaluate the significance of the adopted factors in a real testbed setting. The proposed approach contributes to a comprehensive measure of WWTTs through several factors, revealing its high sustainability and security in assessing the risks of cyber-physical water and wastewater systems.


The statistics studies volume, structure and dynamics of monetary incomes and charges of the population. The im-portant direction of social sphere is distributions of the population on a level of incomes. Special value the characteristic of a level of poverty of the population now has.


The multi-crystalline silicon (me-Si) solar cell is considered to be one of the most promising cells capable of achieving high efficiency at low cost and high reliability. Improving solar cells efficiency using low cost materials requires careful design considerations aiming to minimise the optical and electrical losses. In this work plasma texturing was employed to reduce optical reflections from silicon surfaces well below 1%. Plasma texturing is used to form light trapping structures suitable for silicon solar cells. Several plasma texturing methods are investigated and associated defects are analysed. Masked as well as mask-less texturing techniques are investigated. Conventional parallel plate Reactive Ion Elching (RIE), Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) and Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma system are used to compare the plasma induced defects in silicon. The influence of various plasma etch parameters on plasma induced defect is investigated. A correlation between the minority carriers lifetime and surface area increased by texturing is established. Effective lifetime measurements using Quasi Steady State Photo Conductive (QSSPC) technique is mainly used to estimate the plasma induced defect in textured silicon substrates. Sinton lifetime tester is used to measure the effective lifetime of the substrates. The implied open circuit voltage is calculated from the lifetime data for textured substrates. In this work low temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy is also used to analyse the defect caused by plasma on me-Si substrates. Photoluminescence (PL) data is obtained using the 514.5 nm line of an Ar+ laser as an excitation source. The luminescence is dispersed with SPEX 1700 spectrometer with a liquid nitrogen cooled Germanium detector.


Abstract We investigate a new device, a SASER, consisting of a double-barrier heterostructure (DBH) designed to generate ultra-high-frequency coherent sound. The device is tailored such that under the influence of an external bias, some of the electrons injected into the first excited level decay to the ground state by emitting LO-phonons. Due to the low energy and short wavelength of the phonon beam, this device can be used for imaging, for non-destructive characterization of nanostructures and to construct phonoelectronic systems (analogous to optoelectronics). In this paper we use a simple model to calculate the electronic current which takes into account the electron–phonon and electron–electron interactions. The electronic part is described in terms of a tight-binding Hamiltonian. Lattice dynamics are presented by a single LO-phonon mode confined inside the well for the primary beam and another single TA-phonon mode for the secondary one (F. Vallee, Phys. Rev. B49 , 2460 (1994)). The electron--phonon interaction is described by a single transition matrix element between the two lowest states localized at the well. The electron and phonon populations, the current and the potential profile are calculated self-consistently. The results confirm the viability of the device, predicted in previous simplified calculations (S. S. Makler et al. , Surf. Sci. 361 , 239 (1996)).


Diploid yeast cells of Saccharomyces vini of the strain Megri-139-B were irradiated in air with Co/sup 60/ gamma rays in an aqueous suspension of 7 x 10/ sup 5/ cells/ml. The survival of the yeast cells was determined as a function of vinylpyrrolidone (VP), irradiation dose, and treatment time with VP before and after irradiation. At a dose of 37.5 kiloroentgens, a concentration of 2% VP was found to be optimum. Treatment of the yeast cells with 2% VP before irradiation was more effective in increasing the survival of yeast cells than treatment with 2% VP after irradiation. Yeast cells irradiated in water make a faster recovery from a 2% VP soliltion than from water alone. (TTT)


A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg in fulfillment for the requirements for the for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy


Information Security base on Graded Protection is a basic regime of the construction of information security in our country,and is an important means to guarantee the healthy development of information technology. Information Security base on Graded Protection,development both at home and abroad were introduced in this paper, as well as the status quo of Graded Protection in China. On this basis, the paper analyzes the problems existing in the Graded Protection in China, and put forward some Suggestions for bettering Graded Protection work.


Risky behaviors are associated with a number of factors. However, not all young people exposed to the same risk factor tend to externalize risk behaviors. Despite some studies in which the parents' level of education is identified as a protective factor, it is not known how much parental educational level protective against children risky behaviors. The aim of this study is to examine parental education levels and risk behaviors of adolescents who dropped out of the school. Using random sampling method, Adolescent Healt and Development Questionnare was conducted to juvenile delinquents (n=134). As the control group, the same inventory was conducted to high school students (n = 134) who did not conflict with the law and continue their education. Educational status and parental education levels associated with smoking, drinking and drug abuse, were assessed by logistic regression analysis. Maternal educational level was identified as a significant protective factors in order to decrease smoking. On the other hand it is found that parental educational level did not protect adolescent from drinking alcohol or drug abuse. Moreover, adolescent educational status did not classified as a protective factors for smoking, drinking alcohol and drug abuse.


Clay minerals are still widely used in pharmaceutical products for human health and cosmetic purposes. Pre-formulation studies were conducted to identify solid-state properties of pink clay, a sample from Diamantina, Brazil. Among the solid properties to be analyzed, we have selected type identification, iron phases, crystallinity, powder flow characteristics, thermal behavior, and non-isothermal phase transition kinetics. The pink clay is composed of (1:1) clay type and kaolinite as the main component. The Mössbauer spectrum of pink clay shows Fe 3+ (α-Fe 2 O 3 ) hematite, Fe 2+ , and Fe 3+ with large Δ/2ξq of about 2.80 and 2.69 mm.s -1 respectively, related to iron silicates, most likely pyroxene, and a superparamagnetic Fe 3+ . Pink clay exhibits poor flow properties. The thermal behavior indicates a phase-transition between 400 - 600 ºC associated with the dehydroxylation of the pink clay system requiring ~300 kJ mol -1 , being constant until the process reaches a conversion of ~50% when the energy is enhanced to ~530 kJ mol -1 , concluding the whole dehydroxylation process (α=80%). Solid-state properties and characteristics found for the pink clay must be considered for the proper design of formulations. This type of clay shows unique pharmaceutical properties that can be favorably exploited by the cosmetic industry.


Building facade for thermal insulation and covering outer walls of buildings with a thermal insulation layer (2) to be arranged on the outer wall of building (1), a sealing layer and at least one cladding panel (6) , characterized in that the cladding panel (6) adheres directly to the sealing layer by at least one adhesive segment and the sealing layer has a weave tight (3) disposed on the thermal insulation layer (2) and / or a coating sealed (4) of the / an armature (3) arranged on the thermal insulation layer (2), and the adhesive segment has at least one adhesive strip duplexing (5) and at least one adhesive layer of polyurethane adhesive or Polyurethane foam.


The Cenozoic succession in the Danish part of the North Sea Basin includes two significant breaks in sedimentation; 1) at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary and 2) at mid Miocene time. The sediment transport direction was from the west during the Middle-Late Eocene and mainly from northeast and east in post Eocene times, and a change from a concordant seismic reflection pattern to a progradational pattern is seen. A clear change in Iithology occurs at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, from a finegrained clay-dominated deposit below the boundary to a clay with silt and mica above. Near shore marine and fluvial sediments of Early Oligocene to mid Miocene age are known from the offshore and onshore areas, witnessing that the coastline migrated into the basin for the first time since the earliest Cretaceous. This change in sedimentation pattern was probably caused by the initial uplift of Scandinavia. At mid Miocene time a significant environmental change occurred in the North Sea. A change from dark coloured to light coloured deposits indicates introduction of a well-oxygenated environment. A marked increase in rate of sedimentation (and subsidence) is evidenced by the approx. 1500 m thick sedimentary package in the central part of the basin. Late Middle Miocene starved sedimentation seen in the central North Sea may indicate a significant increase in subsidence rates. The base of the Quaternary is a major erosional unconformity, mainly created by erosion caused by uplift of Scandinavia. 1000-1200 m of uplift is calculated for the eastern part of the North Sea Basin. With a post-Eocene subsidence of 2500 m in the central North Sea, the amplitude of the post-Eocene tectonic movements is approx. 3700 m.


. Typhi) is a human intra-cellular pathogen of global importance, infecting 21.7 millionpeopleandcausing217,000deathsannually(4).Thechallengesofhigherincidenceoftyphoidfeverindevelopingcountrieshaveledto an increased health burden (4).In2008,201casesofsporadicoutbreakswerereportedinMa-laysia (18). The genome sequence of this sporadically associatedstrainwillprovideinsightsintopossiblegeneticeventsthatwouldconfer a fitness advantage.


AIM
Intima media thickness (IMT) has proved to be a useful tool in predicting cardiovascular morbidity. However, methods are not well standardized, and several software packages softwares are available although they have never been compared with one other. Thus, the extrapolation of data from large studies might be questionable on routine practice. Our objective was to compare 2 software packages largely used for semi-automatic measurement of IMT.

METHODS
We have measured IMT on left and right common carotid in 97 patients in standardized conditions.

RESULTS
The same image was processed through the 2 software (Metris and Iôdp). There was no difference for IMT measured at various times by the same investigator, although the number of measurable points increased as the operator became more experienced. The number of measurable points was significantly greater with Iôdp. IMT was lower with Iôdp than Metris (mean difference 0.066 mm on the right side).

CONCLUSION
These results suggest that the same software must be used for repeated measurements in 1 patient. One must be careful in using data from large studies or normality values. At the individual level, the use of IMT to determine vascular risk is dependent upon the software used. It is urgent to standardize the methods of IMT measurement.


The next Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements (CPEM), will be held from 9 to 12 June 1992 at the Centre des Nouvelles Industries et Technologies (CNIT), La Défense, Paris, France. This conference, which is held every two years and whose importance and high level, confirmed by thirty years' experience, are recognized throughout the world, can be considered as a forum in which scientists, metrologists and professionals will have the opportunity to present and compare their research results on fundamental constants, standards and new techniques of precision measurement in the electromagnetic domain. Topics The following topics are regarded as the most appropriate for this conference: realization of units and fundamental constants d.c. a.c. and high voltage time and frequency radio-frequency and microwaves dielectrics, antennas, fields lasers, fibre optics advanced instrumentation, cryoelectronics. There will also be a session on international cooperation. realization of units and fundamental constants d.c. a.c. and high voltage time and frequency radio-frequency and microwaves dielectrics, antennas, fields lasers, fibre optics advanced instrumentation, cryoelectronics. Conference Language The conference language will be English. No translation will be provided. Organizers Société des Electriciens et des Electroniciens (SEE). Bureau National de Métrologie (BNM) Sponsors Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Instrumentation & Measurement Society Union Radio Scientifique Internationale United States National Institute of Standards and Technology Centre National d'Etudes des Télécommunications Mouvement Français pour la Qualité, Section Métrologie Comité National Français de Radioélectricité Scientifique Contact Jean Zara, CPEM 92 publicity, Bureau National de Métrologie, 22, rue Monge, 75005 Paris Tel.: (33) 1 46 34 48 16, Fax: (33) 1 46 34 48 63


The resonant wireless power transfer (RWPT) system is investigated and put into application to electrical devices since it was issued by the MIT. In this paper, the performance of the RWPT system with different conditions of misalignment between transmitter and receiver coil is experimented and investigated by using a pair of coils on rectangular printed circuit boards. A typical wireless power transfer (WPT) system is replaced by the proposed one, which enables the magnetic fluxes generated by the transmitter coil to transmit through a mid-range distance at resonant condition so as to make the power efficiency higher to lead to efficient power transfer. In order to realize the performance of the proposed RWPT system, finite-element method simulations and the corresponding experiments are carried out and reported to illustrate its performance.


This study aims to examine the effect of mind mapping learning methods on social studies materials comprehension of students at Baleendah 2nd Junior High School. This study used a quasi-experimental method with the design of "nonequivalent control group design" with the pattern of "pretest" and "posttest" and carried out treatments in class VIII-F as the experimental class group and VIII-H as the control group used as a comparison. Sampling uses a purposive sampling technique. Data collection on the social studies material comprehension of students use questions as the main data. After the data is collected, the analysis is carried out quantitatively through hypothesis testing or T-Test. The results of the difference between "pretest" and "posttest" in the experimental class given treatment showed a significant difference in improvement, while the control class between "pretest" and "posttest" which were not given treatment the results were no difference or no improvement. It can be said that there are influences from mind mapping learning methods to on social studies materials comprehension of students. Keywords: comprehension of material, Mind Mapping Learning Method, Social Studies Learning


An error correction specification which nests the linear-quadratic production smoothing and stock-adjustment models of inventories is estimated on U.S. seasonally adjusted two-digit SIC data. The restrictions of the general model to the production smoothing specification is accepted for four out of six of the production-to-stock industries and for total nondurables. The estimation results do not suggest any use of inventories to smooth the level of production, but there is evidence of smoothing of the rate of change of production for three production-to-stock industries and for both total nondurables and total durables. Coefficient estimates may, however, be biased. Copyright 1994 by Royal Economic Society.


These days, a lot of people talk about "bold action" and "producing immediate results". While these phrases sound exciting and give the reader a feeling that something very important is happening, the truth is a lot of it is just "empty talk". Although it seems like this leader is going to get immediate results, he wants "without further delay" to start to study the problem. And how long


We describe optical solitons consisting of nonlinearly coupled periodic or quasi-periodic and localized components, and reveal a fundamental difference between moving solitons in self-focusing and self-defocusing media related to the effect of dynamic gap merging.


One kind of crocodile-type cutter, comprising a seat portion and a plurality of cutting edges, a rake face of the cutting portion is arcuate, with the rake face. Crocodile type cutter according to the present invention provides not only achieves the replacement frequency is reduced (every 3 months for a tool), the cost decrease, is also achieved full power is applied to the material: the shredder (e.g., plastic film), now overcome due to technical gap between the movable and fixed knives are expanded, or cutting corners worn makes it impossible to achieve the full cut on the material, and the resulting many deficiencies, such as: large power consumption, tool change frequently, blocking material high failure rate and the use of high cost many deficiencies. The crocodile-type cutter used in various types of shredding equipment or in combination with other devices forming apparatus, so that the overall efficiency is significantly improved.


Odious sovereign contracts inhibit developing country growth. They cause
money and resources to be improperly transferred from one country to an
undeserving one. Think tanks and civil society actors have long suggested
that Indonesia is plagued by a sizeable odious sovereign contract account. Policy makers and scholars continue to grapple with how the odious debts doctrine may operate in law to curb this important problem. Taking into account the lack of transparency in an odious contract setting, this paper proposes a new approach premised on principles of transparency, accountability and citizen participation in public contracts. In design, it proposes the following: 1) the creation of ex-ante obligations and a public website on which financiers can disclose the key terms of their contractual arrangements with a sovereign government. This website enables a financier to signal the nature of their engagement with a sovereign counterpart; 2) the creation of an ex-post tribunal, in which private citizens have standing, to adjudicate the odiousness of a disputed sovereign contract. In the tribunal's deliberations, disclosure by a financier and compliance with ex-ante obligations weighs in favour of a presumption of legitimate contracting, whereas non-disclosure lends itself to a presumption of odiousness. This new approach has the right incentives for participation. It will revolutionize the currency of International law and International institutions, by giving the public a mechanism to eke out odiousness in transnational sovereign dealings. It can have important implications for Indonesia and more generally, the future of transnational trade and finance.


This study deals with the quality and with some questions of the qualification of datas of samples formed on the basis of different sampling methods, sampling plans, and of estimations based on these datas. Thereinafter I have undertaken for the elaboration of principles, on the basis of which – if not in the point of all interpretable criterias of quality, but on the basis of some important parameters datas and estimation results gained from different samples can be qualified, ranked. Of course, I have made an attempt to this beside the existence of several theoretical conditions.


Simple Summary Obesity has been linked to several common cancers including breast, colorectal, esophageal, kidney, gallbladder, uterine, pancreatic, and liver cancer. Obesity also increases the risk of dying from cancer and may influence the treatment choices. About 4–8% of all cancers are attributed to obesity. The underlying mechanism of obesity causing cancer is complex and is incompletely understood. Lifestyle changes that include diet, exercise, and behavior therapy are the mainstay of interventions. Drug therapy and weight reduction surgery result in a more rapid weight loss and may be used for a subgroup of cancer survivors with obesity. This review highlights the epidemiology and the risk associated with the development and recurrence of cancer in obese individuals and the management of obesity. Abstract Background: Obesity or excess body fat is a major global health challenge that has not only been associated with diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease but is also a major risk factor for the development of and mortality related to a subgroup of cancer. This review focuses on epidemiology, the relationship between obesity and the risk associated with the development and recurrence of cancer and the management of obesity. Methods: A literature search using PubMed and Google Scholar was performed and the keywords 'obesity' and cancer' were used. The search was limited to research papers published in English prior to September 2022 and focused on studies that investigated epidemiology, the pathogenesis of cancer, cancer incidence and the risk of recurrence, and the management of obesity. Results: About 4–8% of all cancers are attributed to obesity. Obesity is a risk factor for several major cancers, including post-menopausal breast, colorectal, endometrial, kidney, esophageal, pancreatic, liver, and gallbladder cancer. Excess body fat results in an approximately 17% increased risk of cancer-specific mortality. The relationship between obesity and the risk associated with the development of cancer and its recurrence is not fully understood and involves altered fatty acid metabolism, extracellular matrix remodeling, the secretion of adipokines and anabolic and sex hormones, immune dysregulation, and chronic inflammation. Obesity may also increase treatment-related adverse effects and influence treatment decisions regarding specific types of cancer therapy. Structured exercise in combination with dietary support and behavior therapy are effective interventions. Treatment with glucagon-like peptide-1 analogues and bariatric surgery result in more rapid weight loss and can be considered in selected cancer survivors. Conclusions: Obesity increases cancer risk and mortality. Weight-reducing strategies in obesity-associated cancers are important interventions as a key component of cancer care. Future studies are warranted to further elucidate the complex relationship between obesity and cancer with the identification of targets for effective interventions.


Two types of filamentary currents (FCs) were observed inside a magnetic flux rope at the magnetopause by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission. The first FC is identified as an electron vortex, while the other is a reconnecting current sheet. Stochastic electric fields were generated within the FCs, resulting in electron acceleration up to a few keV, similar to recent simulations of electron acceleration inside vortex, which is a second‐order Fermi acceleration. Furthermore, two FCs propagated at different speeds, causing compression in the region between them. Energetic electrons up to 200 keV were detected in the compressed region and displayed a double power‐law spectrum. Observations suggest that the electrons were mainly accelerated by betatron mechanism in the compressed region. The formation, evolution, and interaction of FCs provide a novel mechanism for electron acceleration. These results clearly show the significance of electron‐scale dynamics within flux rope.


This PhD project is multidisciplinary, at the intersection of Early Childhood Education, Design, and Human-Computer Interaction. The PhD goal aim at developing new approaches for early childhood education focusing on the role of body in the learning process. We leverage digital tangible and interactive technologies to develop specific scenarios that are evaluated in preschools. Our work proposes novel paradigms and uses of digital technologies currently not found in typical preschool environments.


ABSTRACT : Fluoride content of ground water, soils and some cereal and vegetable crops were estimated in 26 villages in Aatmakoor mandal of Nalgonda district, Telangana, India. The results indicated that, accumulation of fluoride (F) was observed in different plant parts of crops irrigated with F contaminated ground water (0.73 to 3.25 and 1.12 to 4.67 mg L-1 during Kharif and Rabi seasons, respectively) grown in soil containing 0.41 to 2.32 and 0.68 to 2.63 mg kg-1 available fluoride during Kharif and Rabi seasons, respectively. All the values obtained were well below the toxic limit of 2.57 to 6.44 mg kg-1 in soil and maximum contaminant level of 4.0 mg kg-1 in crops and vegetable stipulated by EPA, FAO, and WHO Joint standard limit for fluoride. The implication of the results is that the use of the ground water for irrigation and the contribution of fluoride to the soil and absorption by the crops, has no deleterious effect on the soil and some crops cultivated with ground water. Maximum accumulation of F (mg kg-1 dry wt.) occurred in the roots followed by shoot and economic part. The mean F levels in the economic part of the crops analyzed are follows the order, paddy > sorghum > red gram in Kharif and groundnut > paddy > sorghum in Rabi.


This paper presents a new approach to credit scoring by synthesizing Simple Naive Bayesian Classifier (SNBC) and the Rough Set Theory. We adopted the combination of SNBC and Rough Set Theory to build credit scoring model. The experiment was done on German Credit Database and showed that the model has a good prediction performance and has real world value upon application.


Which party characteristics contribute to the representation of young legislators? We examine this question quantitatively, focusing on the European Parliament (EP), and gauge the influence of the age of the party leader, the age of the party, the size of its support, party ideology and party nomination procedures on the age of politicians, based on data of all members who have served in the EP. We find that none of these characteristics matter substantively in explaining young representatives' presence and discuss ways to further the field of research on youth representation. Online Appendix


On the basis of illustrating on the existing situation and problems of grassland resources in Gulang county,this paper puts forward suggestions from the following aspects: rationally using the natural grassland,intensifying the man-made grassland construction,accelerating the expansion of new technology of prataculture production and fostering leading grass products processing enterprises.


(∗) u′(t) + f(t, u(t)) = g(t), where the unknown u is a real function on S1 and the nonlinearity f : S1×R → R can assume a number of forms. Our approach is to study the global geometry of the operator F : B1 → B0, u → u′ + f(t, u) where the domain is either C1(S1) (the Banach space of periodic functions with continuous derivatives) or the Hilbert space H1(S1) of periodic functions with square integrable derivative. Ideally, we search for global changes of variables in both domain and image taking the operator F to a simple normal form. This goal has been achieved in previous occasions, starting with the seminal work of A. A. Ambrosetti and G. Prodi ([AP]) and its geometric interpretation by M. S. Berger and P. T. Church ([BC]), who showed that the operator associated to a certain nonlinear Dirichlet problem gives rise to a global fold between infinite


Sodium germanate glasses containing copper oxide with the nominal composition (0.70 − x) GeO20.30Na2OxCuO, (x in the range 0–0.15 mol%), were prepared and their structure as well as the valence state of the copper ions have been investigated by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The absence of "shake up" satellite peak in the Cu 2p spectra for glasses with x = 0.05 and 0.15 suggests the presence of copper in the Cu+ state for these glasses while the presence of both oxidation states (Cu+ and Cu2+) in the glass with x = 0.10 has been concluded from the presence of satellite structure of the Cu 2p core level spectra as well as the observation of asymmetry in the Cu 2p spectra. A deconvolution procedure has been undertaken to determine quantitatively the Cu2+/Cutotal ratio for x = 0.10 glass composition. The non‐bridging oxygen content, obtained from the deconvolution of the O 1s core level spectra, increases with increasing copper oxide content indicating that copper acts as a network modifier. The Ge 3d core level spectra show asymmetry and were fitted with two contributions, one due to Ge atoms in Ge (IV) coordination and the other due to Na 2p core level spectra which were overlapping with the Ge 3d peaks.


57 ABSTRACT A buffer occupancy control method is provided in order to properly control a buffer occupancy of a decoder. The intial time delay indicated in data received by the buffer is extended and the capacity of the buffer is expanded accord ing to the additional amount of data inserted during the extended initial time delay, thereby preventing the buffer from overflowing and underflowing. In particular, when a bitstream encoded with a frame rate of 24 Hz is decoded according to a display field frequency of 60 Hz, excellent images can be regenerated without requiring additional components.


Through the analysis of the necessity of the right to use house sites and combining with China's actual conditions of the house sites and the local instance of the right to use the transfer of the relevant laws and policies,this article analyzed the necessity of transferring of the right to use house sites and creatively put forward the countermeasures of transferring of the right to use house sites.


In this paper, we report the difficult synthesis of cyclo(Leu‐Pro‐Leu‐Pro). While the cyclization of Leu‐Pro‐Leu‐D‐Pro did not cause problems, the all‐L‐peptide afforded cyclodimer rather than cyclotetrapeptide (cyclomonomer). A first attempt using our reversible backbone substitution methodology failed. However, we were successful in obtaining the desired cyclo(Leu‐Pro‐Leu‐Pro) by decreasing the concentration. The ratio of cyclomonomer to cyclodimer was raised to 1:1.1 using BOP and 1:0.6 using HATU under our high dilution condition. The structures of the cyclopeptides were confidently assigned by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and NMR. Copyright © 2000 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Dark blue [CTC]2·(TCNE)·6THF and dark green [CTC]2·(TCNQ)·4THF are both exclusion complexes, with the cyanoalkene acceptor being sandwiched between the catechol rings of two cyclotricatechylene (CTC) host molecules. There is also extensive hydrogen bonding between the CTC and tetracyanoethene (TCNE) or tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) molecules, which is unusual for crystals containing these cyanoalkenes. Crystallographic, IR and UV–vis data show that these are typical donor–acceptor complexes, with strong charge–transfer interactions between the CTC and cyanoalkene acceptors. These are the first donor–acceptor complexes of a cyclotriveratrylene (CTV)-derived host, and the first crystallographically characterised adducts between TCNE or TCNQ and an organic cavitand. The solvate CTC·3.5THF·0.5H2O adopts a novel nanoporous crystal lattice, composed of undulating hydrogen-bonded sheets of CTC molecules. In contrast, the clathrates CTC·2EtOH, CTC·3DMA and CTC·5DMSO all adopt structures that are related to previously reported clathrates of CTC, containing hydrogen-bonded bilayers or bis-monolayers of CTC molecules. The CTC molecules in all six structures contain included guest solvent. This contrasts with CTV clathrate crystals, which rarely contain included solvent.


In this paper we present results of experimental study of glucose impact on skin tissue by testing tissue structure alteration at glycerol diffusivity. The measurements have been performed using Ocean Optics spectrometer USB4000 in transmittance mode. In the in vitro experiments twenty samples of intact rat skin were used. Transmittance of ten samples was measured immediately after obtaining the samples concurrently with administration of 58% aqueous glycerol solution in the spectral range 400-1000 nm. The second group of the rat skin samples (ten samples) was incubated during 24 hours in 40%-glucose solution and during 24 hours in physiological solution. After that transmittance of the ten samples was measured concurrently with administration of the 58%- glycerol solution. Special computer program has been developed for processing of the experimental data and estimation of the glycerol diffusion rate. Degree of optical clearing of intact skin samples and skin samples previously immersed in glucose solution were estimated and compared. As a result we found that the optical clearing of intact skin increases about 3 times faster in comparison with skin immersed in the glucose solution.


The invention provides a microscopic video image objective lens compensation method. An image sensor is connected with a microscope through an optical adapter. The image sensor outputs collected microscopic image data flow to a processor. The processor reads a preset objective lens compensation value table to compensate each pixel point in the image data flow. Follow-up microscopic video image operations can be carried out on the processed real-time image data flow. Through the microscopic video image objective lens compensation method, the illumination uniformity of microscopic video images can be greatly improved, and the integral sharpness of the images can be improved.


Proton exchange equilibria between acids and bases have been studied in detail in anhydrous acetic acid, by means of both potentiometric and' spectrophotometric techniques. Recently, the same type of reaction hasbeen investigated in more polar two-component solvents containing acetic acid in order to identify the sources of various solvent influences upon theapparent strengths of acids and bases (4,6,7). In the acetic acidacetic anhydride and acetic acid-nitromethane solvent systems the macroscopic dielectric constant and total polarization of the solvent medium were helpful auxiliary functions for the rationalization of the solvent effect upon proton exchange constants. The dielectric constant range for these binary mixtures was from 6.2 to about 21 at 250 C. The present communication reports dielectric constant data for three representativeless polar, acetic acid-containing solvent pairs within the range of 2.0 to 6.2 at the same temperature. Cyclohexane, p-dioxane, and propionic acid were selected as model second-component solvents. Both acetic acid and propionic acid in the pure state undergo polymerization through hydrogen bonding to form cyclic dimers and chain polymers (8,9). Because the magnitudes of the hydrogen bond energies are comparable for the two acids, we expected the formation of mixed polymeric species (ex. CH3COOH-C2HCOOH) in a binary solvent containing these two acids to have little or no abnormal effect upon the total polarization. By contrast, the acetic acid-p-dioxane solvent pair can have competitive hydrogen bonding between the acid itself and the cyclic ether in both its "chair" and "boat" structures, making a non-ideal polarization curve quite probable. Specific dioxane solvation of ions has been identified from conductance measurements in p-dioxane-containing mixed solvents (3). The acetic acid-cyclohexane system includes nearly the same dielectric constant range as p-dioxane-acetic acid and involves a similar less polar component with the "chair" and "boat" forms for the six-membered ring, but lacks the basic oxygen atoms of p-dioxane.