Date ________________________________ iii ABSTRACT By Victoria L. McPeak The research that was done for this project was based on the idea that students' knowledge of and attitudes about topics related to water would improve with a new curriculum unit. The students were exposed to topics that will impact their lives in the future because the demand for water is becoming an increasing problem, not only through out the United States, but also across the globe. The teacher created a week long unit about topics related to water quality, treatment and conservation as it related to Geoscience. The material for this unit was something that was not previously taught in Geoscience. The book that this class uses does not having any information related to this topic. Therefore, the curriculum came from varying sources and was adapted by the teacher to meet the classroom needs of the students. The students were given a pre test prior to instruction during the unit. After the unit, students were given a post test. The information gathered from these tests will be used for data to compare if students knowledge and attitudes changed related to water quality, treatment and conservation. Once the unit was complete, the students were taken to the local waste water treatment plant and then given a survey about the value of the trip as it related to the unit on water.


Abstract. Experimental results on three types of HPFRCC reinforced with steel and polyvinyl-alcohol fibres subjected to dynamic tensile loading are presented. The tests were carried out onnotched-specimens by means of a modified Hopkinson bar, a hydro pneumatic and universalapparatus for high, medium and low strain-rate respectively. From the experiments it was foundthat there is a significant enhancement in tensile strength with increasing strain-rates. The dynamictests on HPFRCCs, for increasing strain- rates, show a remarkable decrease of post-peak strengthand ductility with respect to the static tests. 1. INTRODUCTIONDuring the last few years the use of Fibre Reinforced Concrete (FRC) and, more recently, the useof High Performance Fibre Reinforced Cementitius Composites (HPFRCC) is significantlyincreased in structural engineering because of their performance both in terms of toughnessand crack control. Furthermore, these materials are successfully used in structures such as off-shore,towerbuildingorbridges,inwhichthestrain-rateinducedbyparticularloadingconditions,that largely overcomes the quasi-static conditions, might cause damage [1, 2]. Due to theworldwide growing concern for terrorist attacks against civilian targets, comes up the need of abetter understanding of the impact resistance of HPFRCC and how to enhance its performances[3,4].The behaviour of HPFRCCs can vary with strain-rate; consequently, there is a need todetermine the performance of these materials in a large range of strain-rates that approximatethose occurring in actual applications. The interest generated by the mechanical performancesof such materials has an immediate application in seismic structures or for infrastructuresdesigned for resisting possible terrorist attacks. Despite this great interest, due to the difficultiesin carrying out the tests, only few experimental data are available; the latter are necessary tobetter understand the actual behaviour of HPFRCCs in tension or in compression at differentstrain-rates.In the present paper, experimental results from a research program focused on the mechanicalcharacteristics of HPFRCCs in tension, over a wide range of strain-rates, are described. Threetypes of HPFRCCs were considered, the first one was reinforced with a high volume fraction(V


Based on Multilevel Mark Theory,11-10 and 1-0 transformation form of UTF-8 are proposed in this paper. The transformation between UCS and 1-0 form of UTF-8 is introduced, then, the transformation between Local Code and 1-0 Form of UTF-8 is discussed in detail.


This paper addresses the problem how learning both from extracorporate sources like universities, as well as across internal corporate functions like R&D and manufacturing, can enhance company flexibility and performance in innovation. It also shows how this symbiotic relationship contributes to knowledge economy and helps Denmark to be in forefront of hi-tech industry. This paper aims at delivering a new theoretical rationale for I-U learning alliances as a natural way out from the managerial problem of trying to perform both exploration and exploitation within the same company boundaries. Through our theoretical framework, the academic science domain becomes a logical partner to handle the full phase of exploration and support the process of exploitation.


A growing number of environmental historians have ties to departments or institutes that focus on contemporary issues, yet scholars in the field rarely discuss careers that aren't centered in history. How does having an affiliation with an issue-oriented department or institute change what we do? What preparation is needed to thrive in interdisciplinary communities? What are the upsides and downsides of having an academic home in environmental or sustainability studies? This essay is a reflection on those questions by a scholar who moved from a history department to a department of environment and sustainability. In addition to offering insight into a career path that is likely to become more common, this essay considers different ways that environmental historians might use their expertise to address contemporary problems. How do we see the relationship of past and present in our work?


In order to examine whether or not the quantum phase transition of Dicke type exists in realistic systems, we revisit the model setup of the superconducting circuit QED from a microscopic many-body perspective based on the BCS theory with pseudo-spin presentation. By deriving the Dicke model with the correct charging terms from the minimum coupling principle, it is shown that the circuit QED system can exhibit superradiant quantum phase transition in the limit N\rightarrow\infty. The critical point could be reached at easiness by adjusting the extra parameters, the ratio of Josephson capacitance C_{J} to gate capacitance C_{g}, as well as the conventional one, the ratio of Josephson energy E_{J} to charging energy E_{C}.


One of the most important issues in modern society is how, in the face of new communication technologies, society modifies how its members develop relationships and foster cooperation. As people rely more heavily on emails, instant messages, and text messages, they become accustomed to using these media to establish trusting relationships. We explore theoretical and practical parameters of this process and its implications for encouraging cooperation in negotiations. Communication is a critical component for successful negotiations (Bazerman, Curhan, Moore, & Valley, 2000; Valley, Moag, & Bazerman, 1998). Researchers have looked at the use of different communication media in negotiations (Bazerman, Curhan, Moore & Valley, 2000; Thompson & Nadler, 2002; Valley et al. 1998). As individuals change their natural communicating means, the relative ability of different media to enhance cooperation is also likely to change (Fulk & DeSanctis, 1995; Prensky, 2001; Wellman, 2001). For the Millennial Generation this ...


A report that Bacteroides fragilis inhibited the killing of facultative anaerobes by human leukocytes in vitro prompted us to look for such inhibition in the peritoneal cavities of mice. No evidence that this phenomenon was operative could be found.


Abstract Land trusts have been widely recognized as a successful method for preserving agricultural land, historic buildings, scenic views, trails, wetlands, and wildlife areas of biological importance in the United States. In Mexico, such land trusts are practically unknown. In the Mexican‐U.S. border region, where landscapes are rapidly deteriorating and habitat is disappearing at an alarming rate, private conservation might prove an invaluable asset as a complement or alternative to slow‐developing intergovernmental conservation agreements. This paper examines the main issues for the application of land trust mechanisms in Mexico and concludes that, in spite of limitations, it is an alternative of great promise and potential.


W E agree entirely with the sentiments which have been expressed by Dr Tweedie, and which appear to have been judiciously enforced on the attention of himself and his colleague Dr Smith by the governors of the institution under their care,?that " the public have an undoubted right to expect that the information acquired in hospitals should not be confined to those to whom the care of the sick is entrusted, but that by impartially and faithfully recording the symptoms, causes, and treatment of disease, together with morbid appearances observed on dissection of those who die, these charities should not only be a blessing to the sick, but by thus diffusing the most valuable kind of knowledge, prove a source of universal good.1' In return, the medical officers of such institutions have an undoubted right to expect from the public, and those who direct public opinion, that, since the obligation of authorship is thus in some measure imposed on them, their efforts shall be received with a favourable eye, and without extravagant expectations of perpetual novelty and originality. Without this mutual understanding, the hospitals of Britain will


Anaesthesia for neurosurgery differs only in points of detail from the requirements for other branches of surgery. For example, in a patient with a critically raised intracranial pressure even a minor degree of respiratory depression or straining during induction or intubation may produce a rapidly lethal transtentorial or transforaminal impaction of the mid-brain or brain-stem, due to the consequent secondary rise of intracranial pressure. These risks can be reduced by the proper choice of prernedication with careful avoidance of respiratory depression and a suitable anmthetic technique. Controlled respiration, considered to be essential in many neurosurgical centres, ensures adequate ventilation during operation so that relaxants and other agents depressing respiration can be used. Properly used, it can cause a very great reduction of intracranial pressure and cerebral swelling. Hypertonic solutions of 25 per cent mannitol or 30 per cent urea may still be invaluable on occasions to improve surgical access further. Early recognition of signs of developing complications depend on either rapid recovery of consciousness or in the unconscious patient a


Improving product quality of machining components has always met with problems due to the vibration of the milling machine's spindle, which can be reduced by adding a vibration absorber. The tuned vibration absorber (TVA) has been studied extensively and found to have a narrow bandwidth, but the cutting force possesses wide bandwidth in the process of machining parts. Introducing nonlinearity into the dynamic vibration absorber can effectively increase the bandwidth of vibration suppression and can significantly improve the robustness of the vibration absorber. In addition, a semiactive TVA has proved to be more effective than a passive TVA for many applications, so the main purpose of this study is to find some appropriate semiactive control methods for a nonlinear energy sink (NES), a nonlinear vibration absorber, in structural vibration applications. Two semiactive control methods are considered in this study: continuous groundhook damping control based on velocity and on-off groundhook damping control based on velocity. To fairly compare these vibration absorbers, the optimal parameters of a passive TVA, a passive NES, and two semiactive NESs are designed using numerical optimization techniques to minimize the root-mean-square acceleration. Two cutting forces are introduced in this study, a periodic force and an aperiodic force, and the four vibration absorbers are compared. When the primary structure is excited with aperiodic cutting force, the amplitude of the primary structure decreased by 17.73% with the passive TVA, by 72.29% with the passive NES, by 73.54% with the on-off NES, and by 87.54% with the continuous NES. When the primary structure is excited with periodic cutting force, the amplitude of the primary structure decreased by 49.01% with a passive TVA, by 86.93% with a passive NES, by 96.38% with an on-off NES, and by 99.23% with a continuous NES. The results show that the passive NES is better than the passive TVA; the semiactive NES provides more effective vibration attenuation than the passive NES, and the continuous control is more effective than the on-off control.


Part 1: Which Macroeconomic Policy is Most Effective to Reduce Unemployment in the Short Run? Part 2: Why Did Unemployment Hit Low-Skilled Labour So Much Harder? Part 3: What Explains Persistent Unemployment?


Abstract The time dependences of the luminance properties of 55‐inch CCFL and LED backlights and 32‐inch FFL backlights with LCD panels were investigated during the warm‐up time from the cold start. The long‐term luminance maintenance curve of a standard CCFL was examined in a time window up to 5000 hours. These two time dependences are important characteristics from the viewpoint of initial picture quality and lifetime reliability, respectively. Empirical equations were suggested for the analysis of the time dependence of these luminance data. These approaches are expected to be helpful in predicting the luminance properties of backlights based on the luminance data obtained in a limited time window.


The invention discloses an automatic balanced support mechanism for uneven ground support, which comprises a running frame and two longitudinal traveling wheel sets, wherein the two longitudinal traveling wheel sets are installed on the running frame, and the inside of each longitudinal traveling wheel set is provided with a reverse rail wheel and a hanging roller; the reverse rail wheel is connected with a motor, and connected with the hanging roller by a transmission mechanism; one of the two longitudinal traveling wheel sets comprises an inner box and an outer seat, the reverse rail wheel and the hanging roller are installed in an inner seat, the inner box is connected with the outer seat by positioning pins, and the balancing function of the automatic balanced support mechanism is realized through relative swinging. The automatic balanced support mechanism disclosed by the invention not only ensures the automatic step motion of the engineering machinery, but also realizes the support and balancing of the engineering machinery when the engineering machinery is moved, therefore, the safety performance of the automatic balanced support mechanism is better; and meanwhile, the automatic balanced support mechanism is suitable for any uneven road surface, thereby reducing a great deal of preliminary works of the engineering machinery such as road surface leveling and the like performed before traveling, improving the construction efficiency, and shortening the construction period.


The present invention provides a hip bone prosthesis comprising a prosthetic body having an arcuate structure, an acetabular cup and a connection device, wherein the prosthetic body comprises a first end and a second end; the first end cooperates with the sacrum in a contact way; and the acetabular cup is connected to the second end by the connection device with the adjustable position. The technical scheme of the invention can effectively solve the problems that the supporting effect of a screw and rod system is unreliable and fatigue crack is liable to cause in the prior art.


This paper aims at breaking down the actuality of the political consequences entailed in Spinoza's thought. The three parts of the paper tackle the following issues: a) an enquiry of the point of view of god in politics; b) the involvement of body for fostering civil peace and c) the affective grounds of the establishment of the civil contract.


Purpose: The aim of this retrospective study was to compare marginal bone loss and survival rates of double short implants(multiple implant) which had been installed and restored in severely atrophic maxillary molar site without a grafting procedure. Material and Method: The subjects were patients (90 patients, 180 implants) who had been installed double short implants in severely atrophic maxillary single molar site without bone augmentation procedure from 2006 to 2014 in dental clinic in Chuncheon city. Following data were collected from dental records and radiographic panoramic views: patient's age, gender, smoking status, implant site, timing of implant installation, residual ridge height. The correlation between those factors and survival rate and marginal bone loss were analyzed. Statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square test, Student's t- test and ANOVA. Result: Eleven implants in 6 patients failed and the cumulative survival rate was 93.9%. No significant differences were found in relation to the following factors: patient's age, gender, implant site, timing of implant installation (P> .05). There were significant differences in smoking status and residual ridge height(P Conclusion: Despite the short term outcomes, the survival rate of double short implants was comparable to normal length implants. This study demonstrated that placement of double short implants without the use of bone grafting procedure for severely atrophic posterior maxilla is a simple and predictable treatment procedure.


There are two reasons for the existence of private defence in criminal law. The first is
the individual-protection theory, according to which private defence is aimed at protecting the particular individuall/Ig who relies on this defence against an unlawful
attack. In this theory the individualistic notion of self-defence is predominant. One of
the effects of this theory is that a person does not have the right to assume the duties
of the police by protecting what he or she subjectively believes to be the interests of
justice. The second reason underlying the defence is that private defence serves to
uphold justice . Here, the emphasis is on preventing justice yielding to injustice. The
person acting in private defence acts in place of the state or police, because it is
impossible for the police always to protect everybody in society wherever they may
find themselves. At issue in all instances of private defence is the clash between justice
and injustice. This theory explains inter alia why the attack must be unlawful, why
proactive action by the attacked party is permissible, why there is no duty on the
attacked party to flee from the danger, why the attacked party must consciously act in
private defence, why one is entitled to protect also another party in private defence,
and why it is the attacking party, and not the defending party, who should carry the
risk of the consequences (death or injury) flowing from his or her action.


In the last five years, multiple losses of solar farms have been reported due to tripping of solar photovoltaic inverters following a grid disturbance. These inverters employed momentary cessation (MC) as a mechanism to ride through disturbances, where they remained electrically connected, but stopped contributing currents. The tripping occurred while recovering from the disturbance following the MC mode. Sub-cycle overvoltage was identified as the cause of tripping, where the instantaneous terminal voltage of inverters rose above a hard threshold for a fraction of a cycle. This paper first describes simulation of a scaled model of a real solar farm in PSCAD to recreate these events. Gaining insights from the results and from the NERC reports of field events, the paper proposes and validates through further simulations a method to alleviate sub-cycle overvoltage.


The ab-plane reflectance of Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+ δ (Bi-2212) thin films was measured in the 30–25000 cm − 1 range for one underdoped ( T c = 70 K), and one overdoped sample ( T c = 63 K) as a function of temperature (10–300 K). We find qualitatively similar behaviors in the temperature dependence of the normal-state infrared response of both samples. Above T c , the effective spectral weight, obtained from the integrated conductivity, does not decrease when T decreases, so that no opening of an optical pseudogap is seen. We suggest that these are consequences of the pseudogap opening first in the k = (0 , π ) direction, according to ARPES, and of the in-plane infrared conductivity being mostly sensitive to the k = ( π, π ) direction.


Over the past few years an increasing number of reports have been published on mentum deformities in midge larvae as a too! for assessment of sediment toxicity (e.g. WARWICK 1988, MADDEN er al. 1992, }ANSSENS DE BISTHOVEN er al. 1998, MEREGALLI er al. 2000, VERMEULEN er al. 2000). These analyses clearly indicate the high potential of deformities in chironomid larvae as indicators of environmental stress. In the comext of the TRIAD approach for sedimem quality assessment of unnavigable warercourses in Flanders, which is based on a combination of physical-chemical, ecotoxicological and biological assessments (DE CooMAN er al. 1999), rhe occurrence of Chironomus mentum deformities in 360 sites was also examined. Deformity frequency was used as one criterion, in addition to the Biotic Sediment Index (BSI), to assess the biological quality of rhese sediments (BEYST & DE PAuw 1996, DE PAuw er al. 2000, DE PAuw & HEYLEN 2001). The aim of rhis study was to critically review the results obtained with rhis new assessment too!. A number of advantages but also disadvantages related to rhe application and interpretation emerged. Suggestions on ways to improve the assessment methodology are made. Relations berween rhe mentum deformities and the physical-chemical, biological and ecotoxicological data have also been sought.


Data based on all eligible Texas public school students reveals that scores from the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) reading and mathematics tests are more valid than Klein, Hamilton, McCaffrey, and Stecher (2000) implied. New analyses based on both individual student and school-level scores support the concurrent validity of the TAAS. TAAS scores are moderately to highly correlated with answers from the Stanford-9 reading and mathematics tests. In addition, analyses based on individual students and aggregated school scores support the nomological validity of TAAS scores. In contrast to the findings reported by Klein et al., economically disadvantaged students in the present study obtain lower reading and mathematics TAAS scores than students of higher socioeconomic status. Schools with a greater percentage of students qualifying for federal lunch assistance also evidence lower average performance on the TAAS. The present results indicate that the nonrandom sample of 20 schools available to Klein et al. (2000) led to findings unrepresentative of Texas students and schools. Background The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS), a criterionreferenced educational achievement test, has received considerable attention in recent years. Results from the TAAS tests became the basis for evaluating the performance of individual students, teachers, schools, and school districts in Texas. Beginning in the spring of 1994, Texas students in grades three through eight and grade ten were required to take tests in reading and mathematics. In 2003 the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) tests replaced the TAAS as the foundation of the state=s accountability system. The new state mandated tests required additional testing in grades nine and eleven which had previously been excluded from taking the TAAS. Despite the fact that Texas now uses a different criterion-referenced test to measure what students have learned in school, there are several reasons to investigate the validity of scores from the TAAS. First, the Texas high-stakes accountability system was the foundation for the No Child Left Behind (2002) legislation, which attempted to implement throughout all states educational evaluation practices similar to those in Texas. Supporters of this legislation argued that educational reforms in Texas were successful because TAAS scores had increased during the latter half of the 1990s. However, critics of the Texas educational model argued that TAAS scores were invalid because school administrators and teachers focused only on a narrow curriculum devoted solely to TAAS questions (e.g., McNeil & Valenzuela, 2001). The observed increases in TAAS scores over time were attributed largely to teaching only to the tests, rather than an increase in "real" student learning. A RAND report by Klein, Hamilton, McCaffrey, and Strecher (2000) also argued that TAAS test scores were invalid. Insofar as the Texas Education Agency has provided TAAS data to many researchers, analysts of TAAS data may find that their results will be challenged if the validity of TAAS scores is viewed as highly suspect. To illustrate, Allensworth (2005) and Shepard (2004) cited the Klein et al. (2000) study to indicate that educational findings based on TAAS scores are likely distorted and not believable. Given the prominence of the Klein et al. (2000) critique and the degree to which it is mentioned as challenging the validity of TAAS scores, it is worthwhile to reevaluate this RAND study's findings. Klein et al. (2000) Study Although Klein et al. (2000) did not state the explicit strategies used to gauge the validity of TAAS scores, they utilized the general methods associated with concurrent and nomological validation. To assess the concurrent validity of the TAAS reading and mathematics tests, Klein et al. administered the Stanford-9 open-ended math test, the Stanford-9 multiple-choice science test, and a hands-on science test developed at RAND to approximately 2000 fifth grade students in 20 public schools from one geographic region in Texas. …


Abstract : The purpose of this paper is to assess the existing hiring approach of the Federal government's civil service and demonstrate the shortcomings of the recruitment process in an effort to attract and recruit the best and brightest force of the future. This problem/solution methodology is used to analyze the rigid civilian personnel system, identify areas of weaknesses and recommend a strategic approach that can help the Air Force recruit highly specialized civilian professionals in mission critical occupations such as Cybersecurity, Acquisition, Intel and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). The key findings are these; a federal civil service system full of confusing statutory laws and executive orders left largely intact over the past six decades; a hiring process that lacks the agility to quickly fill vacancies; and finally, a lack of a marketing campaign that leaves many qualified candidates in the dark to job opportunities in the Air Force. Its keys recommendations include the need to overhaul the current personnel system with the incorporation of hiring flexibilities and to pursue a more deliberate and proactive recruitment effort where the Air Force can strategically identify specific civilian personnel gaps and target candidates where they reside. Accordingly, this paper proposes a number of innovative recommendations that can motivate prospective civilian hires to look at the Air Force as their number one employer of choice.


Novel engineering designs are usually infeasible for manufacturing or fail to meet the required performance. The dissimilar functionalities and mindsets between design and manufacturing pose challenges, as well as opportunities for innovation projects. This paper aims to report the innovation process that prototyped a novel engineering design of a haptic device in an engineering research lab. The innovation process went through several design generations. Interaction between design and manufacturing drove the innovation toward both better and worse directions between generations.,Using the case research method, the steps of theoretical proposition development, case selection, data collection, data analysis and theory modification were followed. By interviewing the key persons, the characteristics, issues and recommendations for improvement of the innovation process were identified.,It was found that technical issues were not the hurdles in the innovation process. Instead, managing the inter-organizational mechanism proved critical to its eventual success. The educational gap between the design and manufacturing groups gave rise to communicational and perceptional distance, while the gap in terms of work experience between the two groups enlarged that distance.,The research results may be limited to cases with similar organizational and technological contexts.,Within an organization, the design and the manufacturing divisions are separated by a functional gap. The functional gap should be managed with multiple views, namely, technical, personal and organizational perspectives. The identified innovation process could help bridge such a gap and facilitate innovative engineering designs in research institutes.,The effectiveness of the innovation process was, thus, found to be determined by the positive or negative reinforcement of these two gaps between the design and manufacturing of the research institute.


Introduction: In this study, we aimed to explore the effect of sleeplessness on right heart function in medical employees who have night-shift work.Patients and Methods: Fifty-two employees who work nightshifts were included in this study. Right ventricle tissue Doppler imaging (TDI), myocardial performance index (MPI), tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) and pulmonary artery stiffness (PAS) were calculated using maximal frequency shift (MFS) and acceleration time (AcT) in addition to routine echocardiographic examination of all individuals.Results: When comparing right ventricular functions before and after a night shift, there was reduction of tricuspid E wave velocity after sleeplessness was determined (p


An experiment was conducted to compare the estrus induction response, estrus pattern, endometrial regeneration and pregnancy rates following treatment with CIDR plus PGF2 α between normally calved (NC) and retained fetal membranes (RFM) affected water buffaloes. A total of 32 water buffaloes including 16 treated for RFM and 16 NC were selected and divided into 4 groups as I and II, and III and IV respectively. Buffaloes of group I and III were dewormed with Albendazole followed by the administration of mineral mixture in feed for 15 days. Buffaloes of all the groups were treated with CIDR intravaginally for 9 days and they received PGF2 α at 24 hours prior to CIDR withdrawal. After CIDR removal, the buffaloes of all the groups were artificially inseminated during induced estrus. Those buffaloes returned to estrus following breeding at induced estrus, were artificially inseminated twice at an interval of 24 hours. The estrus response following CIDR withdrawal was 100%. The RFM affected buffaloes had significantly longer interval to onset of estrus and shorter duration of estrus than NC buffaloes. More pronounced intensity of estrus following CIDR treatment was observed in NC buffaloes than in RFM affected buffaloes. The mean pregnancy rates obtained in NC and RFM affected buffaloes were 81.25% and 50%. Complete loss of epithelial layer, degenerative changes of endometrium and atrophic changes in the endometrial glands were observed in RFM affected buffaloes before estrus induction. After treatment, RFM affected buffaloes showed clear regeneration of endometrium and its glandular acini. It is concluded that estrus induction using CIDR plus PGF2 α might help to augment the fertility in NC and RFM affected buffaloes at field level.


E-selectin, a specific endothelial adhesion receptor, interacts with Death Receptor 3 (DR3) expressed by colon cancer cells. In this study, we investigated further the mechanisms by which the E-selectin-activated pathways downstream of DR3 confer a survival advantage to colon cancer cells. We found that DR3 exists under both transmembrane and secreted versions in HT29 cells. These Death Domain deleted isoforms hamper apoptosis. Additionally, we found that E-selectin could trigger the tyrosine phosphorylation Tyr285 of DR3 in a Src family member-dependent manner. We also obtained evidence indicating that E-selectin and TL1A induce the PI3K/Akt/NFκB p65 survival axis.


Silicon ingot growth technologies like the Ubiquitous Crystallization Process (UCP) are solidified within a shaping crucible. The rate at which heat can be lost from this crucible minus the rate at which heat is input from an external source determines the rate at which crystallization will occur. Occasionally, when the process parameters for solidification are exceeded, the normally large multi-centimeter grain size material assocated with the UCP will break down into regions containing extremely small, millimeter or less, grain size material. Accompanying this breakdown in grain growth is the development of so called sinuous grain boundaries. The breakdown in grain growth which results in this type of small grain structure with sinuous boundaries is usually associated with the rapid crystallization that would accompany a system failure. This suggests that there are limits to the growth velocity that one can obtain and still expect to produce material that would possess good photovoltaic properties. It is the purpose to determine the causes behind the breakdown of this material and what parameters will determine the best rates of solidification.


In this study we examined long-term variation in the selection of nesting cliffs for the recovering population of the Bearded Vulture Gypaetus barbatus inhabiting the Spanish Pyrenees. We focussed on variables indicating a high probability of cliff occupancy as determined by a previously published model. Although the breeding population increased from 53 to 93 territories between 1991 and 2002, the breeding range expanded only slightly. New and old nesting cliffs had similar habitat features in relation to topography, altitude and degree of human influence, but the distance between occupied cliffs was reduced (from 11.1 to 8.9 km). Thus the probabilities of occupation predicted by the model were lower for newly colonized locales. Our study shows that territory compression may occur without serious modification of nesting habitat quality. These results may arise from the lack of strong territorial behaviour by Bearded Vultures and the availability of high-quality cliffs. The relatively low quality of sites in adjacent mountains may prevent the expansion of the breeding range, but conspecific attraction may also play a role. Our study confirms that monitoring changes in key variables important to habitat selection is useful in determining long-term trends in settlement patterns in heterogeneous environments. The results also suggest that the available nest-site selection model may accurately predict cliff occupancy by Bearded Vultures in those areas where the distance to the nearest neighbour is not a limiting factor. In particular, the model may be useful in establishing priority areas for reintroduction.


the view that white bread is cariogenic and that brown bread is less so. Certainly many patients who claim never to eat any bread other than brown do have a low incidence of caries, but this is most likely due to their being also particular or selective about other items of diet, particularly those containing sucrose. While no adequately controlled clinical studies have been done, the animal experiments have shown that all breads have a low cariogenicity.6 7 But wholemeal whole-corn bread induced more caries than wheat bread of 7000 and 82° extraction,6 and this was due to the increased amount of vitamins of the B group in the wholemeal bread. Adjustment of the content of fluoride ion in the drinking water to the optimum concentration of 1 p.p.m. has long been accepted by most authorities as a safe, effective, and ethical method of reducing caries. Extensive studies in areas where the drinking water contains fluoride either naturally or artificially have contributed evidence of the value of the ion, and in addition it has been shown that the effect of fluoride is not confined to children but continues into middle age.8 A recently published report from the Departments of Health9 has further confirmed previous findings, but it also showed that the 1962 decision by the local authority to discontinue fluoridation in Kilmarnock resulted in an increase in the caries experience of the children, which is approaching the prefluoridation level. Other vehicles for the administration of fluoride hiave been considered, including salt, milk, and tablets. All have drawbacks which render them generally unsuitable as part of a community health procedure. Local applications of fluoride in the form of solutions applied by means of mouth rinses and toothpastes have been subjected to clinical trial and shown to have some value. But the reductions in caries experience do not approach those resulting from water fluoridation. Thus, while caries cannot be described as an entirely preventable disease, its prevalence in the community and the harm to a particular individual can be reduced considerably by sound diet and the use of fluorides.


The study of free radicals and antioxidants in biology is producing medical revolution that promises a new age of health and disease management. Therefore, the aim of this study was investigated antioxidant effectsand phenol and flavonoid content in Phaseolus vulgaris and Vigna sinensis in different stages of seeds germination. Seeds of Phaseolus vulgaris and Vigna sinensis were prepared from the Pakan bazr center of Isfahan. Seeds were sterilized in 50% sodium hypochlorite solution for 3 min, and then were air-dried. 10 seeds from each plant were separately placed in Petri dishes. The plates were placed into an incubator at 25 ±2°C in darkness for 2 days. Germination percentages of seeds of Phaseolus vulgaris and Vigna sinensis were recorded after 2, 4, 6, 8 days. Seeds powder (100g) was macerated using methanol at room temperature for 1 days. Then, for phytochemical studies of this plants for evaluation of antioxidant activity and total phenolic and flavonoid contents of methanolic extract of this plants were used from DPPH model system, Folin-Ciocalteu method and aluminum chloride colorimetric method, respectively. Results indicated that the amount of phenol, flavonoid and antioxidant activity were increased in second day of seeds. Therefore, analysis of phenolic compounds in Phaseolus vulgaris and Vigna sinensis seeds in second day of germination could be useful for explaining the relationships between total antioxidant capacity and total phenolic and flavonoid contents in these plants. * Corresponding Author: M. Kiyani-Sam  email@example.com International Journal of Biosciences | IJB | ISSN: 2220-6655 (Print), 2222-5234 (Online) http://www.innspub.net Vol. 6, No. 5, p. 292-297, 2015


I have built a monument more lasting than bronze, Taller than the pyramid that marks the grave of a king. Neither driving rain nor blasts of wind Can efface it; Nor the numberless years, nor the passing of time. I shall not perish utterly, and a great part of myself Will escape the grave; and I shall grow Revived by the praises of posterity, For as long as the priest and silent virgin climb the Capitol. (Horace, Odes, III.30.1–9)


Medicine treatment is critical for many proliferative,infective and degenerative eye diseases.Intraocular sustained drug delivery systems,including liposome,nanoparticles,microparticles,ocular implant,and scleral plug,have been developed to improve the efficiency and to reduce the side-effects of various drugs.Iontophoresis has also been proved to play a similar role in ocular drug delivery.


Twenty-four intertrochanteric fractures had been fixed with the titanium captured hip screw and five with a conventional stainless steel sliding device. The mean operating time using the former was four-minute shorter than that using the latter.Titanium is less stiff and stronger than stainless steel. Because of that, the titanium casptured hip screw can have keyless system. That has given simpler and quicker operation using the titanium device than using the stainless steel one. Titanium also produced less soft-tissue reaction than stainless steel.It is concluded that the titanium captured hip screw is a promising device for intertrochanteric fractures that often occur in the elderly people.


This article traces the origins of the concept of political culture within the study of comparative politics. After revisiting the circumstances under which it developed, the article highlights some of the key factors that set it apart from other studies in its era – its theoretical exploration of stable democracy, its systematically comparative focus and its use of sample surveys of public opinion. The article shows how these factors were refined and improved in subsequent work on political equality. Overall, it concludes that the basic formulation of The Civic Culture – of congruence between mass attitudes and the type of political system – will be retained and will continue to make a mark upon the future trajectory of comparative research on public opinion.


South Africa has evolved and defeated a blemished past of apartheid before 1994. Even after 27 years of democracy, South Africa has been struggling to stabilise economic markets with continued control by the white minority that marginalised the black community. The unemployment rate in the Province of the Eastern Cape in South Africa has grown from 28.5% in 1993 to 45.8% in quarter 3 of 2020 (ECSECC, 2020). Set targets have not been met since 2018, with programmes implemented not attractive nor conducive for the targeted youth and persons with disabilities. The study critically evaluated the existence and the extent of stakeholder management strategies in the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) within the Eastern Cape Department of Transport and the effects of not meeting the set youth and persons with disabilities targets over the years. To gain lived experiences of beneficiaries, a case study of the household Contractor Programme was used in three districts through group semi-structured interviews with non-probability purposive sampling used to select respondents using a primary data collection instrument. Data received was analysed with themes using a descriptive analysis approach to narrate the lived experiences of participants within EPWP. Results revealed a need for improved stakeholder diversity and inclusion, communication with stakeholders, management oversight, policy guidance, monitoring and evaluation within EPWP projects.


This paper contributes to the development of recent litera ture on the explanation power and calibration issue of heterogeneous asset pricing models by presenting a simple stochastic market fraction asset pricing model of two types of t raders (fundamentalists and trend followers) under a market maker scenario. It seeks to explai n aspects of financial market behaviour (such as market dominance, under and over-reaction, pr fitability and survivability) and to characterize various statistical properties (including a utocorrelation structure) of the stochastic model by using the the dynamics of the underlying determinis tic system, traders' behaviour and market fractions. Statistical analysis based on Monte Carl o simulations shows that the long-run behaviour and convergence of the market prices, long (short )-run profitability of the fundamental (trend following) trading strategy, survivability of char tists, and various under and over-reaction autocorrelation patterns of returns can be characterized b y the stability and bifurcations of the underlying deterministic system. Our analysis underpins mec hanism on various market behaviour (such as under/over-reactions), market dominance and styl ized facts in high frequency financial markets. Date: Latest version: January 18, 2005.


Comparison of collision-induced dissociation–mass analysed ion kinetic energy (CID–MIKE) spectra of cations found by chemical ionisation ethylation with those of chemical ionisation protonation of fixed ethyl derivatives, allows identification of predominant tautomers in vapour phase equilibria.


The invention concerns a powder composition, in particular cosmetic and/or physiological, for skin make-up or care, capable of being in free or compact form, comprising at least a powder compound and a binder containing at least a specific adhesive material. Said composition exhibits remarkable non-transfer and long-lasting properties. The invention also concerns the use of an adhesive material in such a composition.


Abstract : Ignition energies for a large number of propellants and some explosives have been determined using the locked-stroke compressor (2,3,4). The energies have been compiled and presented in tabular form. Effects of varying the sample diameter as well as the space between the sample and the viewing window have been investigated. The results show that the rate of heat transfer decreases as the diameter of the propellant cylinder increases, and increases as the spacing between the sample and the window increases.


Communication within society comprises diverse linguistic choices influenced by social interaction. This study discusses how structures of utterances and types of directive illocutionary acts pertain to the characters' qualities and non-linguistic factors in Amal Unbound (2018) by Aisha Saeed. This analysis aims to find out the connection between utterances the characters' qualities such as age, occupation, education, relationship, social status, and non-linguistic factor like the topic or purpose. The underlying theory used in this study is Bach and Harnish's directive speech act categorization. This study was conducted using qualitative method since it involves discussion on linguistic data (words, phrases, sentences, and utterances). The result of the analysis shows that the utterances of the novel's characters are affected by the quality they possess and surrounding non-linguistic factors. In conclusion, understanding illocutionary acts open our eyes of the significance of appropriate uses of language in social practice.


Objective To improve the smoothness of the gold-paste layer fused to Ni-Cr alloy with sieve.Methods We painted Ni-Cr alloy with gold-paste directly and with 100 mu,300mu,500 mu and 800 mu sieve separately,and then we baked them at 820 ℃ for 5 minutes.We observed the surface of the gold-paste and tested the surface roughness before and after polishing.Results The gold-paste layer became smoother as the number of mu of sieve increased before or after polishing.The surface roughness reduced prominently with 500 mu and 800 mu sieve(P0.05).Conclusion When we paint Ni-Cr alloy with gold-paste,using the sieve is an effective method to improve the smoothness of the gold-paste layer.


Higher education is changing with soft skills being implemented into the curriculum to prepare students for life after university. Students can be taught some of the soft skills by using a final-year, project-based assessment. One of the most valued soft skills by industry is communication. A statistics project is an essential component in ensuring that students have mastered communicating statistical findings in a non-technical manner suitable for a general audience. Students can become engaged in learning about communicating statistical results with carefully planned learning activities and project assessments. In this paper, we present scaffolded learning activities for improved statistical communication skills along with examples from student assessments.


Helicase family is highly conserved among eukaryotes and defines a family of proteins with similarity to has DNA-stimulated ATPase activity. The...


Applications in the AI and HPC fields require much memory capacity, and the amount of energy consumed by main memory of server machines is ever increasing. Energy consumption of main memory can be greatly reduced by applying approximate computing in exchange for increased bit error rates. AI and HPC applications are to some extent robust to bit errors because small numerical errors are amortized by their iterative nature. However, a single occurrence of a NaN due to bit-flips corrupts the whole calculation result. The issue is that fixing every bit-flip using ECC incurs too much overhead because the bit error rate is much higher than in normal environments. We propose a low-overhead method to fix NaNs when approximate computing is applied to main memory. The main idea is to reactively repair NaNs while leaving other non-fatal numerical errors as-is to reduce the overhead. We implemented a prototype by leveraging floating-point exceptions of x86 CPUs, and the preliminary evaluations showed that our method incurs negligible overhead.


We study the formation of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) binary and the shrinking of the separation of the two holes to sub-pc scales starting from a realistic major merger between two gas-rich spiral galaxies with mass comparable to our Milky Way. The simulations, carried out with the Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) code RAMSES, are capable of resolving separations as small as 0.1 pc. The collision of the two galaxies produces a gravo-turbulent rotating nuclear disk with mass (10^9 Msun) and size (60 pc) in excellent agreement with previous SPH simulations with particle splitting that used a similar setup (Mayer et al. 2007) but were limited to separations of a few parsecs. The AMR results confirm that the two black holes sink rapidly as a result of dynamical friction onto the gaseous background, reaching a separation of 1 pc in less than 10^7 yr. We show that the dynamical friction wake is well resolved by our model and we find good agreement with analytical predictions of the drag force as a function of the Mach number. Below 1 pc, black hole pairing slows down significantly, as the relative velocity between the sinking SMBH becomes highly subsonic and the mass contained within their orbit falls below the mass of the binary itself, rendering dynamical friction ineffective. In this final stage, the black holes have not opened a gap as the gaseous background is highly pressurized in the center. Non-axisymmetric gas torques do not arise to restart sinking in absence of efficient dynamical friction, at variance with previous calculations using idealized equilibrium nuclear disk models. (abridged)


The behavior of the queen and workers in the amblyoponine ant Prionopelta kraepelini was observed and compared with th at of the queen and workers of P. amabilis. The queen fed mainly on larval hemolymph by pinching the lat·val body. Workers often laid trophic eggs, most of which were given to larvae. The fo raging and recruitment behavior of workers were sim ilar to P. amabilis.


If the start times of PCR thermal cycling were plotted relative to frequency, we could expect to easily see sharp peaks of start times immediately before morning/afternoon coffee breaks, lunch times, and end of day, by operators safe in the knowledge that the amplification would take 1–2 hours to complete. Perhaps it is a little faster in many, but not most, diagnostic laboratories. Indeed, careful experimental planning when I was a student allowed leisure activities at opportune times "while the PCR was running." At the time, these PCRs were typically 50–100 μL in volume and used relatively thick 0.5-mL tubes.

In the late 1990s, the Guinness Book of World Records held an entry for "fastest DNA fingerprint" of approximately 11 min (essentially rapid real-time PCR detection). Further demonstrating that faster amplification concepts are not new, the term "rapid-cycle PCR" was coined in the early 1990s to define a thermal cycling program performed in 10–30 min (1). The Guinness entry and rapid-cycle PCR have a common denominator: the world record was held by the original capillary-based LightCycler, and similar capillaries were used for the rapid-cycle PCR—both in the hands of Carl Wittwer from the University of Utah.

The work of Professor Wittwer and his team is no stranger to these pages, as they previously published real-time PCR applications on the LightCycler (2) as well as early papers on the now well-adopted genotyping and variant scanning methodology of high-resolution melting analysis (HRMA) developed in his laboratory (3, 4)—work that more than justified Wittwer as the subject of an "Inquiring Minds" article, also in Clinical Chemistry (5). Since …


All kinks of problems having existed in electrostatic precipitator of Harbin No.3 Power Generation Co. Ltd these years were analyzed one by one, some relevant measures to solving them were taken, and the reform of electrostatic precipitator was done. The dedusting efficiency of the electrostatic precipitator was enhanced after reformed, which decreases the discharge value of flyash and makes the index of dust exhaust conform to the state standard concerning with dust emission, and has the ecological environment surrounding Harbin No.3 Power Generation Co. Ltd improved greatly.


Gerrit van Rensburg, Western Cape Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, recently returned from a week's visit to Finland, Sweden and Germany, aimed at bolstering agricultural trade relations between the Western Cape Province and these trading partners.


This paper deals with the electric vehicle fleet re-location management in a sharing system. The mobility sharing systems efficiency depends on the vehicles relocation task that strongly affect the company operating cost, and consequently the service price for users. The proposed approach aims at minimizing the cost of vehicles relocation for a sharing company by involving users through an innovative incentive scheme. The idea is to request users of the sharing service to relocate the EVs, e.g. through an IT application, incentivizing them by free-of-charge travels and rewards. The proposed incentive mechanism is based on the application of different levels of incentive proposal. In addition, in case of user unavailability, the vehicle relocation is guaranteed by the company staff. To this aim, a first ILP is formalized to manage the relocation task by the company staff. Moreover, a second ILP allows the company to involve users in the relocation process by the proposed incentive mechanism. Finally, a case study is presented to show the application of the proposed methodology on the relocation of electric cars and light electric vehicles.


The author presents a brief history of the development of the IEEE pulse standards and outlines their organization and content with emphasis on old terms with new names and new terms. It is noted that these standards (and their International Electrotechnical Commission counterparts) are applicable to a wide range of pulse measurement situations ranging from automatic instruments that digitize, store, and analyze waveforms to the practices of the more casual user who employs visual observation and mental evaluation.<<ETX>>


INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 357 ANTIOXIDANT C IVITY ....................................................................... 358 Free Radicals and Oxygen." Lipid Peroxidation and Antioxidants ...................... 358 BIOKINETICS AND BIOAVAILABILITY ..................................................... 361 New Methodology: Deuterated Vitamin E ................................................... 362 Biokinetic Studies ................................................................................. 364 Bioavailability Studies: The Competitive Uptake Method ................................. 366 Lipoprotein Studies: Human Aspects .......................................................... 369 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................ 377


The care of terminally ill cancer patients poses a significant global public health problem.1 Populations are growing older as healthcare interventions become increasingly more effective in the management of chronic diseases.2 Care of the terminally ill patients has evolved significantly over the centuries in the developed countries from Hospice services to highly specialized palliative care programs and facilities. In the Middle East, the progress in this area has been very slow over the last two decades which could be attributed to several reasons including the lack of education, training, budgets and several other barriers.3 Although age projection for Palestinians does not indicate generational transition toward an older population,4 yet the increasing incidence of cancer cases and other chronic diseases that need palliation, alerts the policy makers to the crucial need of introducing and developing palliative care services. Thus, the aim of this paper is to: 1) Reflect on the need and access of the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to palliative care; 2) Define the factors that might interfere with the proper introduction of palliative care; and 3) Focus on the positive compensatory effect of religion and culture on palliative care.


To a preschool child, nature offers many challenges through which he or she can gain experience, which is crucial for their well-rounded development. A stimulating natural environment along with its varied materials, objects and spaces, provides plenty of opportunities for gaining knowledge and developing skills. However, to develop a scientific way of thinking, there should be present conclusion making and natural scientific thinking which a child builds through science process skills. Science process skills are skills and knowledge which a child needs to discover nature and through which he or she starts to understand the phenomena and processes in natural science. In a preschool period, we develop mainly the processes of observation, comparison, classification and editing.
In my diploma thesis, I carried out a study into how children through various guided activities in natural environment can make progress in science process skills. There were 21 children included, three to six years old. By means of the tests that I prepared, I found to what extent the children had already acquired science process skills such as observation, comparison, classification and editing. Then, during five visits with children to the forest, I conducted a variety of guided games through which the children were developing these skills. When the activities were over, I re-tested them, and two month after the final test, I carried out a late final test and then made a quantitative analysis of the results.
The results showed that the children made progress in science process skills after the visits to the forest. Compared to the initial test, the results of the final and late final tests showed the biggest improvement in the process of classification, clearly as well as in the processes of observation and comparison.
The activities in which the children were developing science process skills through play in a natural environment, proved as a strong motivator. I conclude that natural environment is made good use of with such activities. The results of my study proved the forest to be that learning environment which not only stimulates learning new natural scientific contents, but also and primarily enables progress in science process skills.


Blends of ethyl alcohol and distillate have been run in an Australian farm tractor diesel engine under controlled laboratory conditions at the repco engine technical centre. The engine was not modified in any way to suit the fuel characteristics. At a 10 per cent by volume ratio of ethyl alcohol to distillate the engine performed satisfactorily with negligible power loss. Hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions were equivalent to those from straight distillate and smoke levels were similar, but changed from black to white. Blends of 20, 30 and 40 per cent were also run in the engine, even though artificial means had to be used to keep the ethyl alcohol and distillate in solution. It was found that the engine suffered power reduction as the ethyl alcohol level was raised. The engine would not run satisfactorily on the 40 per cent blend. The solubility of ethyl alcohol in distillate is extremely sensitive to temperature and water content and therefore the amount by which distillate may be supplemented by blending without cosolvents will depend on local climatic conditions. Phase separation must be avoided, especially in stationary applications where there may be no agitation to remix the fuel, or engine damage could result. A 10 per cent blend may separate at low ambient temperatures prevailing in Australia. Comment is also made that even at the 10 per cent blend ratio the flash limit of the mixture is reduced to that of ethyl alcohol, making the combined fuel significantly more hazardous than normal distillate.


Unsatisfactory results afterthe interventional treatment of pain syndrome associated with lumbar spondyloarthrosis could be explained by underestimation of variants of location of posterior branches (PB) of spinal nerves (SN) and therefor by incomplete denervation of facet joints (FJ). The goal: to perform topographic-anatomic study of the medial branches PB SN in lumbar spine (LS) of human corpses and determine their size and variation of anatomical location in order to optimize minimally invasive diagnostic and treatment procedures. The methods: 8 corpses are investigated (6 males and 2 females, age from 45 to 86 years). All the corpses were not claimed for burial, the causes of death were not associated with pathology or trauma of spine. 40 vertebral-motor segments (VMS), i.e. 80 segments on both sides, were isolated from the corpses on the LI–SI levels of spine without blocks removal or violation of corpse shape. The results: it was found out that anatomic variation in LI–LV levels was equal to 15.6 %, in LV–SI — 25 %. Diameter of medial branch was equal to 340–760 microns. «Triangle of medial branches» of PB of SN in LS was determined. Its borders pass in segments LI–LV on the base of transverse process to 2/3 (bottom line), outer surface of superior articular process to 3/3 (medial) and line connecting apex 3/3 of superior articular and 2/3 of transverse process (top). In segments LV–SI inferior border passes on the base of sacrum wing to 2/3, medial — on outer surface of articular process to 3/3 and superior — on the line connecting apex of 3/3 of superior articular process and sacrum wing. The conclusions: a clear visualization of nerves, planned for the intersection, is required to perform a complete denervation of FJ. Using of specialized endoscopic equipment and taking into consideration the minimum necessary area to determine the bony landmarks VMS make it possible.


A project managed by the Subtropical Farm Forestry Association has as its primary objective to increase the number of farmers adopting activities that contribute to the ongoing conservation and protection of biodiversity by way of farm forestry practice. This dovetails with a national target of the Commonwealth-funded Caring for our Country program.


Dynamic reliability is the basis of short-time risk evaluation and maintenance decisionmaking for transformers.The paper first analyzes the factors that influence the failure rate of transformer by considering the dissolved gas analysis(DGA)characterized gas content,velocity of total gas production and enlistment age as the main influencing factors.Then the paper establishes dynamic reliability model based on least-square support vector machines(LS-SVM)to predict the dynamic failure rate of the transformer.Finally,a specific case is studied to prove the rationality of chosen factors and model.The result calculated by the proposed method is then compared with that by Markov method,proving that the enlistment age is the important factor of internal latent failure of transformer,and the transformer dynamic reliability model based on LS-SVM has the advantages of faster calculation and higher recognition of monitoring information.


Objective: Peptide hormone hepcidin is a key systemic regulator of the iron metabolism. Hepcidin binds to the iron cell exporter ferroportin so iron is kept in the cells unavailable for erythropoiesis. The synthesis of hepcidin is up-regulated by high iron stores and inflammation. Dialyzed patients have very often impaired iron management – they suffer from anemia, which is caused by many factors including the state of micro inflammation and hepcidin retention due to decreased glomerular filtration rate. Our aim was to describe the relationship of hepcidin and other parameters of iron metabolism, erythropoiesis and inflammation. Design: Observation Settings: Institute of Clinical Biochemistry and Hematology, Charles University Hospital in Pilsen, Alej Svobody 80, 304 60 Plzeň Material and Methods: Complete blood cell count, iron, ferritin, transferrin, CRP, albumin, creatinine, hepcidin, soluble transferrin receptors (sTfR) and IL-6 were measured in samples from 164 patients included in chronic hemodialysis program (age 66 ± 13, 25 92 years), 63 women and 101 men and 37 control healthy volunteers (age 55 ± 20, 21 92 years), 21 women and 16 men. Results: Iron, transferrin and hemoglobin were significantly lower in the patients group (p<0.0001) while ferritin (p<0.0001), sTfR (p<0.05), hepcidin (p=0.0003), CRP and IL-6 (p<0.0001) were significantly higher in the patients group. Hepcidin weakly positively correlated with CRP and ferritin and weakly negatively correlated with transferrin in hemodialyzed patients. No correlation of hepcidin with other biochemical parameters in controls was found. Conclusion: It seems that the influence of inflammation on hepcidin levels in hemodialyzed patients is not crucial and other factors including its retention in end-stage renal disease participate.


The characterization of demographic features in natural populations is important to understand recruitment dynamics, mating systems, and propensities for loss of genetic diversity. The accurate identification of sex can be difficult in sexually monomorphic species. We present a melt curve analysis based on qPCR assays for lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) sex identification and validation using the AllWSex2 marker and adult males and females (total N = 143) with an assigned field sex from two populations (Black Lake, MI, and Menominee River, MI–WI border, USA). The assay is highly accurate (~98% concordance between putative or confirmed field and molecular sex classification), fast, and easy to use. The detected inconsistencies between field and molecular sexing were partially attributed to field-sexing uncertainty. This method will allow researchers to rapidly determine the sex of individuals of this regionally threatened species to use in conservation efforts and research.


The lepromatous form of leprosy is characterized by low or absent specific immune response to antigens from Mycobacterium leprae and intense bacterial proliferation. Among the host cells, macrophages appear to play a crucial role in directing the response profile to M. leprae. Many of the pathways of immunosuppression of cellular immune response seem to be involved with the iron metabolism and their carriers, for example the higher expression of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase in lepromatous macrophages and heme-oxygenase 1 in M2 macrophages. Previously, our group demonstrated that macrophages of lepromatous patients have an increased expression of scavenger receptor CD163 as compared to tuberculoid ones. The CD163 recognizes the complex Haptoglobin-Hemoglobin and we hypothesized that M. leprae increases the expression of CD163, in order to increase the iron storage in macrophages, contributing to the persistence of mycobacteria. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of iron in the immunopathogenesis of leprosy. We observed that skin biopsies from lepromatous patients exhibit a higher expression of proteins related to iron uptake and metabolism, as well as increased iron deposition in the form of ferritin and hemosiderin in foamy macrophages, where the bacilli are located. The addition of exogenous iron, as ferrous sulfate treatment, was able to reduce the expression and activity of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase induced by M. leprae in monocytes of healthy donors. The addition of free iron was also able to modulate the cytokine production, increasing the production of IL-12p70 and IL-10 in cultures of monocytes, and IL-6 in cultures of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The increase in CD163 receptor and transferrin receptor 1 expression in lepromatous macrophages was associated with increased iron stores in skin biopsies from lepromatous patients. In addition, treatment with free iron was able to increase proinflammatory pathways in leukocytes stimulated with M. leprae. This indicates that the iron homeostasis in the host at the time of infection is important for defining the outcome of leprosy, and that iron presents a dual role depending on the timing, the cell type and the way that it is present, creating a favorable environment for the mycobacteria or inducing the production of proinflammatory cytokines that may contribute to activation of antimicrobial pathways in macrophages.


This invention concerns a process for preparing soluble rice protein concentrate with reduced levels of manga nese, aluminum, selenium and phytic acid and improved digestibility from rice raw material comprising: digesting the raw material reduced in particle size to permit efficient enzyme action in an aqueous me dium with an alpha-amylase enzyme at an operable pH and temperature for a period of time sufficient to solubilize a substantial portion of the rice starch and form a liquid slurry; heating the rice starch slurry at 105 C. to 130° C. for 30 to 60 seconds; separating the high protein rice flour from the rice syrup; treating a slurry of the high protein rice flour with a protease enzyme at an operable pH and tempera ture in an amount and for a period of time to solubi lize the rice protein: clarifying the protease treated slurry to provide a soluble rice protein concentrate with reduced man ganese, aluminum, selenium and phytic acid and improved digestibility. The soluble rice protein concentrate contains more the 16% protein on a solids basis, and has on a per gram protein basis, a manganese content of 50 microgram or less, an aluminum content of less than 15 microgram, a selenium content reduces a minimum of 25% relative to rice raw material and a phytic acid content of less than 15 mg, and a protein digestibility of greater than 90%.


We calculate the generalized stacking fault (GSF) energies and cleavage energies γcl of the chalcopyrite compounds CuAlSe2, CuGaSe2, CuInSe2, CuGaS2 and CuGaTe2 using first principles. From the GSF energies, we obtain the unstable stacking fault energies γus and intrinsic stacking fault energies γisf. By analyzing γus and γisf, we find that the (1 1 2) direction is the easiest slip direction for these five compounds. Also, for CuInSe2, it is most possible to undergo a dislocation-nucleation-induced plastic deformation along the (1 1 2) slip direction. We show that the (1 1 2) plane is the preferable plane for fracture in the five compounds by comparing γcl of the (0 0 1) and (1 1 2) planes. It is also found that both γus and γcl decrease as the cationic or anionic radius increases in these chalcopyrites, i.e. along the sequences CuAlSe2 → CuGaSe2 → CuInSe2 and CuGaS2 → CuGaSe2 → CuGaTe2. Based on the values of the ratio γcl/γus, we discuss the brittle–ductile properties of these compounds. All of the compounds can be considered as brittle materials. In addition, a strong relationship between γcl/γus and the total proportion of ionic bonding in these compounds is found.


Vitality utilization is a significant piece of the memory, power-off operating mode, and low voltage circuits for vitality scattering have been proposed. In the present chips, static random-access recollections (SRAMs) are widely used, non-volatiles Rams (NVSRAMs) have been advised to defend information while giving quick power-on/off paces. Non-flimsy movement is regularly per-shaped by the use of Resistive RAM circuits (in the future alluded to as RRAMs), the utilization of RRAMs with SRAMs not just causes chips to accomplish low vitality utilization for non-unpredictable activity, yet additionally permits information to be recouped when powerup recovery is performed (frequently usually mentioned to as &quota; Instant-on and quot; activity). This paper presents a novel noted " Instant-on &quota; activity NVSRAM circuit and tests its nano-metric component size effectiveness. The proposed memory cell consists of an SRAM core (in this case, a 6T cell) and an oxide resistive RRAM circuit (1T1R). Contrasted with existing non-unstable cells, the new memory cell comprises an SRAM center point. Likewise, broken down is the actual multi-setting design situation. Furthermore, there is a considerable improvement in the Figure of authenticity, for instance, essentialness, operational deferral, and zone, making the proposed structure a predominant arrangement for minute action.


This research aimed to explain the improvement of the students' reading comprehension in terms of Literal Reading of the text dealing with main ideas and sequence of details and Creative Reading of the text dealing withcharacterization and conclusion. The researcher used a classroom action research (CAR) which was conducted in two cycles in which every cycle consisted of four meetings. The location of this research was taken at the first grade students of SMAN 1 Bontomarannu  with a number of the subject were 35 students. The research findings indicated that the application of SMAN 1 Bontomarannu, This strategy was improving the students' reading comprehension in terms ofLiteral reading  and Creative reading of the text. It was proved by the mean score of cycle I was 60.7. It was classified as fair then improved to be 73.36. It was classified as good in cycle II. They are higher than the mean score of diagnostic test namely 50.7 that classified as poor. Therefore there was the improvement of the students' reading comprehension in terms of Literal Reading of the text dealing with main ideas and sequence of details and Creative Reading of the text dealing withcharacterization and conclusion.


The Quaternary sediments,especially the debris deposits older than 200 ka,can be dated by ESR.However,its poor precision and reproducibility limited its application.The errors can be produced during sampling,carrying and measurement in lab.Therefore,it is important for rising precision to control the production of these errors.The result of ESR dating in terraces sediments on the Western Sichuan and Northern Yunnan Plateau basically tally with sequence of stratigraphy and tectonic events,indicating its reliability in terrace dating.According to our experience,the ESR dating error would be limited to 10%-15%,if we do some proper treatments during the process of sample collecting in the field and sample pretreatment and measurement in the lab.


This paper studies a retrial system with batch arrival and general retrial time, where the server may take an additional vacation after the essential vacation. In this system, primary customers arrive according to Poisson processes and receive corresponding service immediately if the server is available upon arrival. When the server is busy or on vacation, arriving customers enter a retrial orbit. If the orbit is empty, the server immediately leaves for the essential vacation. At the end of essential vacation, he may take one additional vacation. It is assumed that the retrial time and service time are all arbitrary distributed. This retrial system has potential applications in the packet-switched networks and the proxy of WWW server. By applying the supplementary variable technique, some important performance measures are derived, which may be useful for network system designers and software system engineers.


Many authors have studied linear preservers of different kinds of generalized numerical ranges and numerical radii. It is known that these operators are related to the linear isometrics of unitary similarity invariant norms. In this chapter we survey the results on these subjects.


In the Swiss education system, approximately 55% of adolescents are required to make their first vocational choice at the end of mandatory school. This can induce transitory or long-lasting career indecision that is recognized as being influenced by personal and contextual factors. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationships between career decision-making difficulties and the five-factor model of personality traits, parental support, and self-esteem in 448 Grade 9 Swiss adolescents. We then proceeded to test if these relationships vary according to the adolescent's educational choice (i.e., whether they attend high school or if they choose an apprenticeship or vocational training). Results have highlighted the importance of neuroticism, conscientiousness, and parental support to predict career decision-making difficulties. Moreover, parental support mediated the relationships between extraversion and agreeableness (fully) and between conscientiousness (partially) and career decision-making difficulties. Finally, the educational choice had no impact on the overall pattern of relationships. Implications for career counselor practices were further discussed.


In the plasma CVD apparatus comprising a vacuum vessel having a discharge electrode plate and the substrate ground electrode plate mounted for thin film formed therein, has the earth cover plate provided opposite at a distance to the discharge electrode plate, the discharge electrode plate, one end of which is coupled to the source gas supply facility for thin film formation, the gas exhaust the other end for exhausting the gas introduced from the gas introduction hole and the gas introduction hole opened in the lower surface of the discharge electrode plates It has a hole, the earth cover plate, and having a second gas inlet hole corresponding to the gas inlet hole, a plasma CVD apparatus having a second gas exhaust holes corresponding to the gas exhaust hole. In this plasma CVD apparatus, the spaced earth cover plate has a potential control plate provided opposite, said potential control plate, a third gas introducing hole corresponding to the second gas inlet together with a plasma CVD apparatus having a third gas exhaust holes corresponding to the second gas exhaust hole.


To accurately detect objects, the radar antenna must have a high gain for the desired range. The antenna uses an array method to increase the gain. It has a unidirectional radiation pattern to meet the X-band radar implementation as a ship navigation tool. The X-band radar works at high frequencies. Thus, it will be more sensitive in detecting small particles, including rain particles. The use of a mitered-bends feeding network method by cutting the 90-degree curve is to maximize the power transmitted to reduce losses. This method spreads the bandwidth of the antenna. The antenna is designed and fabricated into a linear array of 8 elements, using the R04003C Rogers substrate with a microstrip line supply. This study limits up to 8 elements of radiation, followed by the addition of a method to expand the bandwidth of antennas. Considering material limitation and duration of antenna design. The final antenna dimensions are 142.40 mm × 42.8 mm. The measuring results show fc = 9.496 GHz, S11 = -32.64 dB, VSWR 1.05, bandwidth = 41.9 MHz (9.5159 GHz - 9.4740 GHz), and gain 8.8 dB as well as a linear polarized antenna with unidirectional pattern direction. The radar antenna tends to have a narrow beamwidth and high gain.


This study examines the temporal (monthly) and spatial climatology (2004–2010) of the first return stroke of the cloud‐to‐ground (CG) lightning flash peak current (Ip) across various land/water boundaries over the contiguous United States. Four regions are examined: the Gulf of Mexico (region 1), the Florida peninsula (region 2), Lake Michigan (region 3), and part of the U.S. Mid‐Atlantic (region 4). The crosss across the coastlines of regions 1, 2, and 4 show a gradual oceanward increase in the mean negative polarity CG peak current values (−Ip). This transition along the respective land/ocean boundaries is not sharp but gradual. In direct contrast with ocean, there is no consistent behavior in −Ip values as we move from land out across the fresh water of Lake Michigan (region 3). Meanwhile, the positive CG flash peak current (+Ip) values do not exhibit a consistent variation across any coastal boundary. For region 1, the −Ip values increase as we move toward the coast (southwards) especially during the wet season (June–October). This finding is in direct contrast with studies that documented winter as the season of maximum −Ip values. The zonal and seasonal variations of −Ip values across region 4 are not quite as pronounced, but the oceanic −Ip values are still larger than over the adjoining landmass. We explore in turn which up to date hypotheses pertinent to the oceanic −Ip enhancement are supported or refuted by our findings. It is concluded that the oceanic −Ip enhancement is not an artifact related to CG detection or Ip retrieval methods, nor is it likely related to the cloud top heights or CG activity. The study cannot refute the role of electrical conductivity and its contribution to CG leader attachment processes. However, given the observed "blurred transition" of the Ip values across the coastlines this paper suggests that likely the main physical mechanism is acting on the thundercloud potential. The recently suggested role of sodium chloride (NaCl) but also the role of ice crystal size (implicated herein), as possible modulators of the thundercloud potential, exhibit distinct pros and cons. Their candidacy is supported by their strong physical links to the electrostatic charging and thundercloud electric potential buildup but also by the exhibited blurred −Ip transition across the coastlines. In contrast, the suggested mechanisms cannot individually explain the observed −Ip enhancement in terms of season, NaCl concentrations, and absence of similar behavior in the respective +Ip values.


In two trials established between 1983 and 1990, copper oxychloride and prochloraz-manganese applied at 5 and 50% leaf-fall were as effective as phenylmercury nitrate, formerly used (but now banned) for the control of leaf-scar infection by Nectria galligena. However, prochloraz-manganese has not been developed for use on fruit. Autumn application of carbendazim gave inadequate control and thiophanate-methyl, bitertanol and fenpropimorph were ineffective. Carbendazim applied as a spring-summer treatment reduced canker development to a similar level to a spring-summer dodine scab programme plus autumn copper oxychloride. Summer carbendazim + captafol was an outstandingly effective treatment, but since this trial the use of captafol as a fungicide in the UK has been prohibited. In the absence of an effective autumn treatment, penconazole alone or with captan, and myclobutanil preblossom with myclobutanil alone or with mancozeb post-blossom tended to be less effictive than the standard programme (dodine pre- and dithianon post-blossom). Carbendazim mixed with an effective scab fungicide such as dithianon therefore remains the recommended treatment in an orchard with a serious canker problem. In orchards where there is a limited risk of canker, a spring-summer scab fungicide programme should prevent N. galligena infection at this time of year, with copper oxychloride applied at leaf-fall, particularly after wet weather, to prevent leaf-scar infection.


In sharp contrast to many slow-growing lichens, some epiphytic pendulous and foliose lichens display striking biomass accumulation in favorable habitats. Whereas lichen growth rates have received considerable attention, comparatively few detailed studies of growth patterns have been carried out. Generally, most lichens seem to grow apically, with only pseudomeristomatic tissue confined to lobe margins and branch tips. However, some species appear to retain the capacity to expand throughout the thallus, thereby increasing their growth potential. Such intercalary growth processes have proved difficult to confirm in the field for two- and three-dimensionally growing folious and fruticose forms. Using transplants of the conspicuous, one-dimensionally growing Usnea longissima Ach., we document that intercalary growth actually does occur, with thalli expanding geometrically in length with a doubling time of less than a year under favorable conditions.


Motion in Quantum-Classical Transition via ODM GAO Wei-chen Abstract: In this paper, we firstly re-present the results of Bondar et al. (2013). Then, following the approach taken in it, we use the method of Operational Dynamic Modeling (ODM) to deal with the situation where the background mechanics is varying between quantum and classical mechanics.


ABSTRACT The explicit linking of institutional funding to in-curricular industry engagement and graduate employment affirms the strategic importance of enhancing graduate employability in Australia. Key strategies to enhance graduate employability and employment outcomes are work-integrated learning (WIL) (where students engage with industry as part of their formal learning and assessment) and co-curricular activities (e.g. volunteering, leadership/award, and mentoring programmes), which are facilitated by the university but not embedded into curricula. While WIL is widely recognised for enhancing different aspects of student employability, the impact of co-curricular activities is less well-known. Further, there is a lack of empirical analysis on the nuanced impact of different forms of WIL and co-curricular activities on graduate outcomes. This research sought to explore the impact of a range of WIL and co-curricular activities on labour force outcomes among new higher education graduates. Findings are informed by national survey data for 51,883 domestic graduates of both coursework and research degrees in Australia. They point to a strong labour market advantage from work-based WIL for Bachelor graduates, while undergraduate participation in co-curricular activities appeared to have less effect on labour force outcomes. However, there were consistent, positive results for industry mentoring and leadership/award programmes for increasing the chances of securing full-time work and reducing the likelihood of perceived overqualification among Bachelor and postgraduate coursework graduates. Implications for stakeholders and practice are discussed, as well as directions for future research.


Labor and social security law is a legal course which is connected closely with daily life,while the traditional teaching method has its shortcomings.According to the demand of innovative talent cultivating model in the National medium and long-term educational reform and development plan,the research oriented teaching model based on special subjedct can overcome the shortcomings in conditional tuitionary teaching,adapt the traits of labor and social security law course,meet the teaching need of labor and social security law,and fulfills the mind of innovative talent cultivating.


Attribute reduction is a kind of NP-hard problem and there are many contributions for attribute reduction,but almost all of which have limitations.As a new bionics optimization algorithm,ant colony algorithm has good effects in solving combination optimization problems.In this paper,a new approach for attribute reduction based on rough set and ant colony algorithm is presented,which can solve the low convergence speed problem in the classical ant colony algorithm.Experiments show the validity of this new method through comparison.


Over the past six years, the authors have been project leaders for three distance education initiatives in Cape Verde and Mozambique: • a blended learning master's degree in multimedia in education for faculty in Cape Verdean public higher education institutions (2005–2008) • a teacher training programme for 1375 elementary teachers provided through distance education in Cape Verde (2006–2008) • a blended-learning multimedia in education doctoral programme for staff, at the Centre for Distance Education, University Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique (2008–11). This article describes the background to these projects, solutions adopted to meet the specific needs, capabilities, and constraints of the participants and institutions, and difficulties encountered. The project leaders reflect upon their experiences and the main lessons learned, while drawing conclusions that may be relevant to other higher education institutions in Africa and other developing countries embarking on planning and implementing distance education programmes and support units.


Rating healthcare enterprise into one of the key decisions that affect investors in investing. Rating healthcare companies affected by the position of liquidity, solvency, profitability and firm size. Therefore, the purpose of the implementation of this study was to obtain empirical evidence of the effect of liquidity, solvency, profitability and the size of the company rating the company's health. In this study used 75 financial companies in Indonesia Stock Exchange. The type of data used was obtained through secondary of Indonesian Capital Market Directory. The data used from the year 2010 - 2013 ago. For testing the hypothesis used binary logistic regression models. Based on the results of hypothesis testing found that liquidity, profitability and company size does not significantly influence the company's financial health rating in Indonesia Stock Exchange, in the hypothesis testing also found that the solvency of a significant effect on the health rating of financial companies in Indonesia Stock Exchange. Keywords: Liquidity, Solvency, Profitability, firm size and Rating healthcare financial companies


Taking both white noise and colored environment noise into account, a predator-prey model is proposed. In this paper, our main aim is to study the stationary distribution of the solution and obtain the threshold between persistence in mean and the extinction of the stochastic system with regime switching. Some simulation figures are presented to support the analytical findings.


Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales, J S Currie, 23 August 2019. Neither Racing NSW nor an associated Trust is an exempt charitable or benevolent body for NSW duty purposes.


Aircraft and satellite observations indicate the presence of ppt (ppt ≡ pmol/mol) levels of BrO in the free troposphere with important implications for the tropospheric budgets of ozone, OH, and mercury. We can reproduce these observations with the GEOS‐Chem global tropospheric chemistry model by including a broader consideration of multiphase halogen (Br‐Cl) chemistry than has been done in the past. Important reactions for regenerating BrO from its nonradical reservoirs include HOBr + Br−/Cl− in both aerosols and clouds, and oxidation of Br− by ClNO3 and ozone. Most tropospheric BrO in the model is in the free troposphere, consistent with observations and originates mainly from the photolysis and oxidation of ocean‐emitted CHBr3. Stratospheric input is also important in the upper troposphere. Including production of gas phase inorganic bromine from debromination of acidified sea salt aerosol increases free tropospheric Bry by about 30%. We find HOBr to be the dominant gas‐phase reservoir of inorganic bromine. Halogen (Br‐Cl) radical chemistry as implemented here in GEOS‐Chem drives 14% and 11% decreases in the global burdens of tropospheric ozone and OH, respectively, a 16% increase in the atmospheric lifetime of methane, and an atmospheric lifetime of 6 months for elemental mercury. The dominant mechanism for the Br‐Cl driven tropospheric ozone decrease is oxidation of NOx by formation and hydrolysis of BrNO3 and ClNO3.


During the last 20 years, science policy-making has taken to evaluation as an instrument for assessing research projects, programmes and even entire research institutes or faculties. This article examines key elements of the evaluation systems in the United Kingdom (Research Assessment Exercise), the Netherlands (Standard Evaluation Protocol) and Germany (Leibniz Association's Evaluation Procedure) and the extent to which evaluations serve as an instrument of organizational development for the scientific bodies being evaluated. Evaluations are often mistrusted – particularly in Germany's public discourse – as a Trojan horse of policy-making infiltrating the science system. However, our findings demonstrate that peer-review based evaluations can be an authoritative source of validation employed by scientific institutes to develop or optimize institutional strategies. Against this backdrop, we conclude with recommendations of how institutional evaluations may be further developed and how processes of organizational transformation can be supported in the research landscape.


Our civilization recognizes that errors can be valuable learning opportunities, but for decades, they have widely been avoided or, at best, allowed to occur as serendipitous accidents. The present research tested whether greater learning success could paradoxically be achieved through making errors by intentional design, relative to traditional errorless learning methods. We show that deliberately committing and correcting errors even when one knows the correct answers enhances learning—a counterintuitive phenomenon that we termed the derring effect. Across two experiments (N = 160), learners engaged in open-book study of scientific expository texts, and were then tested on their retention and higher order application of the material to analyze a novel news event. Deliberate error commission and correction during study produced not only better recall performance, but also superior knowledge application than two errorless study techniques that are popular among students and educational researchers: copying with underlining, and elaborative studying with concept-mapping (Experiment 1). These learning benefits persisted even over generating alternative conceptually correct answers, revealing that the derring effect is not merely attributable to generation or elaboration alone, but is unique to producing incorrect responses (Experiment 2). Yet, learners were largely unaware of these advantages even after experiencing them. Our results suggest that avoiding errors in learning may not always be most optimal. Rather, deliberate erring is a powerful strategy to enhance meaningful learning. We discuss implications for educational practice in redesigning conventional approaches to errors: To err is human; to deliberately err is divine.


oral formulation, wherein said formulation is a dry formulation comprising: - inecalcitol, - carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and - one or more excipient (s) optional (s) pharmaceutically acceptable (s).


Summary

One of the important characteristics of syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS) is that it forms cocrystals with a variety of chemical compounds. The guest exchange procedure is an effective method to introduce diverse chemical compounds into the crystalline region of sPS cocrystals; it enables sPS to form cocrystals even with chemical compounds that are difficult to incorporate into the crystalline region by usual crystallization. The original guest in the sPS cocrystal is replaced by another chemical when exposed to a vapor, a liquid or a solution of the new guest. In order to study the characteristics of the guest exchange process initiated by exposure to a liquid, simultaneous time resolved SAXS and WAXS measurements were carried out to follow the structure changes during the guest exchange process. A series of aromatic compounds, benzene, toluene, xylene (o- and p-isomers) and mesitylene were employed as new guests. The simultaneous measurements enabled gathering information concerning both the higher order structure and the cocrystal structure. The exchange from the old guest to the new guest was also followed by FTIR spectroscopy. It is clarified that not only the size of the new guest molecules but also the molecular shape has a significant influence on the guest exchange behavior. It is also suggested that on the liquid-phase guest exchange an expansion of the lamellar period somewhat precedes the guest exchange in the crystalline lamellae.


AbstractDynamics is an essential characteristic of our society and of organizations. The turbulent developments in our society lead to the question of how organizations should be designed in such an environment. Both at the office and in the factory, what matters is the effectiveness of the workplaces. The physical and information processes in the organization must be efficiently and effectively coordinated and information "navel strings" to other organizations must be offered. Such questions of design require a new approach to the development of organizations: dynamic modelling or, also, the dynamic designing of dynamic systems. The dynamic modelling approach constitutes a problem solving perspective on organization redesign. It aims to analyze and diagnose an organizations current situation with simulation and animation techniques, and subsequently identify and evaluate alternatives for change. This paper shows how dynamic modelling has been applied to a number of actual cases, and points at issues for ...


The influence of toughening agent,surface treatment of glass fiber and screw combination on the impact strength of glass fiber reinforced PA66 composites were investigated.The experiment results indicated that the PA66 composites containing 3% toughening agent possessed the best impact strength and notched impact strength.Special surface treatment of glass fiber and proper screw combination facilitate the uniform dispersion and narrow length distribution of glass fiber in PA66 matrix,which results in excellent impact strength of glass fiber reinforced PA66 composites.