Social entrepreneurs are playing a pivotal role in promoting intersector initiatives to address economic and social challenges in regions and local communities. This generates social capital to support an initiative-oriented collaboration framework among participants and across sectors. Such intersectoral initiatives are of paramount importance for the capacity of a region/community to set up innovative solutions to socioeconomic problems from the bottom-up, going beyond the limits of markets and government institutions. This is increasingly happening not only in depressed but also in developed regions and communities, such as Silicon Valley. This article reports on the Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a nonprofit organization launched in 1992 to promote a series of intersectoral initiatives at the edge of the economy, society, and environment in Silicon Valley.


A general successive substitutions' scheme is developed to estimate parameters in a finite mixture of distributions from the exponential family, based on censored data. It is assumed that the data can be grouped in the first class and the number of observations in each of the remaining classes are known Examples from Poisson Exponential and Normal distributions are given A small simulation exercise has also been carried out for the mixture of two one parameter exponential population.


This article aims to examine how the cuban writer Anton Arrufat (1935) understands the relationship between time, revolution and subjectivity in his first novel, Mi antagonista (1963). We propose that if the State discourse imagines revolution as the inaugural page of a history to be written by a new man, Arrufat, on the contrary, conceives it as a work of rewriting, as an experimentation to be done by the heir with the materials of his inheritance. The novel studied here suggests that this rewriting work transforms and renew not only the inheritance but the heir himself, given that he was already inscribed in that legacy.


In an attempt to reveal the characteristics of the boundary age of each training stage and the number of years for the total training process and each stage,the basic circumstances of the whole triningprocess of 379 Chinese p1ayers participating in the 23rd and the 24th Olympic Games were investigated. The results indicated that the total training years for Chinese Olympic players generally ranged from 7 to 14, obviously characterized by group event and specific event. The fuzzy ratio of the number of years of various training stages was 3: 4: 3 and the boundary age of training stages was lower for the event of gymnastics, diving and swimming, and higher for the event of shooting and cyclin.The boundary age model and fuzzy number of years for each training stage presented in this study may provide an effective, objective criteria for analysing the time characteristics of the selection, training and management of the Olympic players.


Key Points • Busulfan exposure is associated with OS; 5-year survival with an exposure of ≥59.5 vs <59.5 mg × h/L was 67% (95% CI, 59-76) vs 40%.• In 25% of the patients, busulfan levels were outside the optimal range.


We have searched for HI 21-cm absorption in 11 strong MgII systems ($W_{\rm r}$(MgII $\lambda 2796$) $\ge 1$ \AA) at $0.3<z<0.5$ using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope. We have detected HI 21-cm absorption in two of these. From the integrated optical depth ($\int\tau~dv$) we estimate $N$(HI) = $43 \pm 2$ and $9 \pm 2$ in units of $10^{19}$ cm$^{-2}$ for the absorbers towards J1428+2103 ($z_{abs} = 0.3940$) and J1551+0713 ($z_{abs} = 0.3289$), respectively, assuming spin temperature, $T_s = 100$ K, and gas covering factor, $C_f = 1$. The velocity width of the HI absorption towards J1428+2103 and J1551+0713 indicate that the gas temperature is $<1600$ K and $<350$ K, respectively. The $3\sigma$ upper limits on $\int\tau~dv$ in case of the HI 21-cm non-detections indicate that these MgII absorbers are likely to arise from sub-damped Lyman-$\alpha$ systems, when we assume $T_s = 100$ K and $C_f = 1$. This is verified for one of the systems which has $N$(HI) measurement using Lyman-$\alpha$ absorption detected in the ultraviolet spectrum. We estimate the detection rate of HI 21-cm absorption in strong MgII systems in our sample to be $0.18^{+0.24}_{-0.12}$ at $z\sim0.35$, for an integrated optical depth sensitivity of $\le 0.3$ km s$^{-1}$. Comparing with the results of HI 21-cm absorption surveys in strong MgII systems at higher redshifts from the literature, we do not find any significant evolution in the incidence and number density per unit redshift of HI 21-cm absorbers in strong MgII systems over $0.3<z<1.5$.


Security threats such as jamming and route manipulation can have significant consequences on the performance of modern wireless networks. To increase the efficacy and stealthiness of such threats, a number of extremely challenging, next-generation cross-layer attacks have been recently unveiled. Although existing research has thoroughly addressed many single-layer attacks, the problem of detecting and mitigating cross-layer attacks still remains unsolved. For this reason, in this paper we propose a novel framework to analyze and address cross-layer attacks in wireless networks. Specifically, our framework consists of a detection and a mitigation component. The attack detection component is based on a Bayesian learning detection scheme that constructs a model of observed evidence to identify stealthy attack activities. The mitigation component comprises a scheme that achieves the desired trade-off between security and performance. We specialize and evaluate the proposed framework by considering a specific cross-layer attack that uses jamming as an auxiliary tool to achieve route manipulation. Simulations and experimental results obtained with a testbed made up by USRP software-defined radios demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.


Single-ended notch design facilitates accurate measurements of crack progression. Novel test specimen and novel loading fixture and fracture testing of materials under Mode II, or sliding-mode, loading. Testing required for analysis of failures in structural materials, bearings, and the like.


Alterations in the serum lactate dehydrogenase (LD) isozyme pattern can serve as an indicator of pathologic conditions and cancer development. There have been some reports of unusual LD electrophoretic isozyme patterns. An abnormal electrophoretic pattern may result from additional LD fractions, altered mobility, altered molecular structure, or distortion of one or more normal bands. Distortion of normal bands may be caused by immunoglobulin or other protein binding, genetic variants, and tumor production. In routine laboratory, abnormal LD isozyme pattern with high serum LD activity is frequently due to LD-linked immunoglobulin. Its identification method is established. Here we describe clinical patients we encountered whose LD isozyme pattern is abnormal due not to immunoglobulin binding: extra band between LD1 and LD2 due to LD-α-lipoprotein complex and shifted LD isozyme pattern caused by reduced LD expression due to DNA methylation of LDHA or LDHB gene promoter region.


The application of crop growth simulation and water management models will become increasingly important in the future. They can be used to predict yield reductions due to water scarcity and allocate water to ensure profitable crop production. The objective of this research was to calibrate the AquaCrop model for common bean (Faseolus vulgaris L.) grown in temperate climates and to test whether the model can be used for different irrigation strategies to achieve high yield productivity. The model was calibrated using data obtained from two years of experimental research in the Serbian territory of the Syrmia region. There were three sowing periods/plots: I—mid April, II—end of May/beginning of June, and III—third decade of June/beginning of July; and three levels of irrigation/subplots: full irrigation (F) providing 100% of crop evapotranspiration (ETc), mild deficit irrigation (R) at 80% of ETc, and moderate deficit irrigation (S) at 60% of ETc. The results show that the AquaCrop model accurately predicts common bean yield, biomass, canopy cover, and water requirements. The statistical indices of the calibrated dataset, coefficient of determination (R2), normalized root mean square error (NRMSE), mean bias error (MBE), and Willmott agreement index (d) for yield and biomass were: 0.91, 0.99; 6.9%, 11.4%; −0.046, 1.186 and 0.9, 0.89, respectively. When testing three irrigation strategies, the model accurately predicted irrigation requirements for the full and two deficit irrigation strategies, with only 29 mm, 32 mm, and 34 mm more water than was applied for the Fs, Rs, and Ss irrigation strategy, respectively. The AquaCrop model performed well in predicting irrigated yield and can be used to estimate the yield of common bean for different sowing periods and irrigation strategies.


The invasive lobular carcinomas are the second type of cancer Invasive breast cancer after invasive ductal and account for over 20% of invasive breast cancer. Metastasis from primary cancer to the myocardium is uncommon in lobular breast cancer. Here we present a case of lobular breast carcinoma that metastased to the myocardium.


Despite the popularity of Edith Wharton's novels and stories, her artistic genius has never been fully appreciated. Accordingly, this book provides new readings of such familiar favourites as "The House of Mirth" and "The Age of Innocence" as well as neglected works such as "Twilight Sleep" and "The Glimpses of the Moon". The effect of this study is to require reassessment not only of the critical possibilities of Edith Wharton's work and the private life about which she was so reticent, but also of her position in American literature. The book concludes that as a bridge between the Victorian and modern periods, Edith Wharton should stand independently as an American writer of the first rank.


Diagnosis of the legal and organizational status of groundwater monitoring in Poland. A b s t r a c t. The article presents the current groundwater monitoring system in Poland. It points out the ambiguity of the terminology and the correlation between the previous concept, based on the areal criterion for monitoring networks (national, regional and local) and the recently introduced three types of monitoring: diagnostic, operational and research monitoring. In this context, the problem of changing legal regulations that govern the groundwater monitoring has been given special attention. Constant changes in the legal acts result in the ambiguity about who is currently responsible for the groundwater monitoring system and its various types in Poland. The paper explicitly addresses the question of the functioning of the local monitoring in Poland and the presentation of the results. It has been found out that the approach to the local and research monitoring of groundwater in annual reports on the state of the environment in particular regions published by the Voivodeship Inspectorates of Environmental Protection (WIOŚ) is inconsistent. These reports, being an essential element in disseminating information about the environment, should be complete, clear and consistent. Unfortunately, the quality of reports is highly variable in both technical terms and the merits. In many cases, they are incomplete due to the lack of information about the local monitoring as well as the fact that the issue of groundwater is frequently dealt with in a very superficial manner. The access to the data contained in these reports is sometimes difficult because of their different location on the websites of WIOŚ.


99.1 Roadcuts in light-colored arkose. Plateau coincides roughly with top of Dawson arkose. To right is uppermost part of Dawson overlain by Castle Rock conglomerate. Prominent ledge of Dawson arkose overlying soft arkose and red clay. Panoramic view of Denver and surroundings. DenHayes, J. R., 1960, Structural investigations of South Park, Colorado: In progress. Hutchinson, R. M., and Hayes, R. M., 1960, Investigations of sandstone dikes and Lower Pa!eozoic stratigraphy in Jefferson, Douglas, and Park Counties, Colorado: In progress. Giffin, C. E., and Kulp, J. L., 1960, Potassium-argon ages in the Precambrian basement of Colorado: Geol. SOC. America


This work presents a novel, efficient and robust approach for object tracking based on sequences of video images. A fuzzy system has been developed to ponder update decisions both for the trajectories and shapes estimated for targets with the set of image regions (blobs) extracted from each frame. Several numeric heuristics, describing the quality of gated groups of blobs and predicted tracks, are considered to generate confidence levels used in the update process. Rules are aimed to generate the most appropriate decisions under different conditions, emulating the reasoned decisions taken by an expert, and have been derived with a systematic analysis of performance. The application area is the Surveillance of airport surface, including situations with very closely spaced objects (aircraft and surface vehicles moving on apron). System performance with real image sequences of representative ground operations is shown at the end.


ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of morphologies and the structure of polyurethane-based coatings created by different colour pigments, on sound transmission loss properties. To achieve this goal, coatings were created in different concentrations of 5%, 7% and 9% with red, green, orange and yellow pigments. The coatings were applied on glass surfaces and the sound transmission loss was measured by an experimental arrangement containing a microphone and a decibel meter. The effect of surface tension energy, surface roughness, reflection percentages and concentration of pigments were found to be negligible on the sound transmission loss, whereas the LAB colour codes have a determining effect. In the scope of this study, a new method and mathematical model were created to help measure the sound transmission loss on a surface, in which sound signal was carried with a laser beam via a system created in the laboratory.


Plants evolved from long-term adaptation to form regulatory mechanisms of perception, transduction, and response to stresses. The CBL?CIPK signaling system is a basic calcium sensor that plays an important role in sensing adverse environmental stimuli. CBLs can perceive and bind Ca2+ under adversity and then specifically interact with CIPKs. The activated CBL?CIPK complex phosphorylates downstream target proteins (such as ion channels and transporters), or regulates transcription factors and stress responsive genes. Important progress has been made in the study of CBL?CIPK signaling pathways in response to high salt, low N, low K, high Mg, and high pH. This review summarizes the structural features of CBL and CIPK families and the research progress of CBL?CIPK complexes under environmental stresses, and forecasts the important future direction in studies of the CBL?CIPK signaling system.


Bound states of counterions during the coil-globule transition of poly(acrylic acid) in water/organic solvent mixtures were investigated by NMR spectroscopy of alkali metal cations (Li+, Na+, Cs+). Accompanying the transition, the line widths of the respective NMR peaks significantly increased with increasing the organic solvent composition in the medium. Although this line width broadening suggests that some specific counterion binding with desolvation is involved with the coil-globule transition, the most marked broadening was observed in higher organic solvent compositions than those of the coil-globule transition region detected by the viscometry. Namely, the specific counterion binding with desolvation proceeds even after the polymer chain collapsed. This means in turn that such a strong counterion binding is not a prerequisite for the coil-globule transition, at least at the stage of the onset. For the Li+/Cs+ mixed counterion system in 60 vol % DMSO, where our previous conductivity data suggested that the specific counterion binding occurred only for Cs+ during the coil-globule transition induced on mixing with Li+, a significant increase in the line width was also observed only for Cs+. The coincidence between the conductivity and the NMR results for the Li+/Cs+ mixed counterion system strongly supports a working hypothesis, "size-fitting effect," that has been proposed to determine the counterion specificity observed for the conformational transitions of polyelectrolytes. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 47: 2132–2139, 2009


The aim of this study is to search for any potential gastric ulcerogenic properties of the ester form of ibuprofen in comparison with Ibuprofen in order to establish the gastrointestinal safety profile. Ibuprofen ester derivates were synthesized and were tested for their gastroulcerogenic side effects. The esterification of ibuprofen suppressed its gastric ulceration which is associated with its side effect as an antiinflammation. Research results showed that the rat group given Ibuprofen ester conjugate compound had fewer ulcers, smaller ulcer diameters, and less severe ulcer onditions. Histological examination showed that rat in the group given Ibuprofen ester conjugates had lesser number of hemorrhage and congestion compared to the group given ibuprofen. In conclusion, the treatment of Ibuprofen ester conjugates has a lower risk of ulcerogenic effects than the treatment of ibuprofen.


This article aims to examine the use of the ma'na-yi harfi (Indicative Meaning) and ma'na-yi ismi (Nominal Meaning) concept of Badiuzzaman Said Nursi in preventing hoaxes caused by new media abuse. The approach offered by Nursi is important because it can be considered as the basis of Islamic media communication in which moral values in media are prioritized over only material aspects. New media characterized by openness and freedom, in a certain condition, enable the hoax to spread. Hoax often occurs because the media does not prioritize morality values but leads to materially self and group fulfillment. Using the qualitative method with library data in the form of Said Nursi's  Risale-i N u r , we explore Nursi's views related to ma'na-yi ismi and ma'na-yi harfi in the media field. We then use his view as a basis for analyzing media hoaxes. The result is that the ma'na-yi  ismi perspective tends to be a worldly material orientation in which communication phenomena, such as events, news, and information themselves, are understood based on the visible social contexts where media practitioners are working and oriented to fulfill self-desires. Meanwhile, in the ma'na-yi harfi perspective, the communication phenomenon is interpreted, constructed, and displayed with self-consideration (individual or collective self), but it is built in the full awareness that phenomena belong to the absolute Ruler (God), and humans as the giver of meaning to those phenomena must translate the greatness of God in them. The phenomenon of communication is considered a part of the greatness of God in the universe so the hoaxes and negative messages can be avoided. The ma'na-yi harfi perspective can be considered as a solution to solve the social problems of hoaxes.


This preliminary interpretation of available geologic, seismologic, geophysical, and geodetic data indicates that the references repository location in the Cold Creek syncline of the Pasco Basin meets the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Basalt Waste Isolation Project proposed criteria for tectonic stability. Uncertainties regarding the timing, sequence, and mechanics of fold and fault development will be addressed during the program of detailed site characterization. This preliminary assessment of tectonic stability does not appear to preclude development of a repository in the reference repository location. 230 references.


The present invention relates to an internal combustion engine, especially a diesel engine high pressure exhaust gas recirculation system (1), an exhaust gas recirculation duct (8) from the exhaust gas pipe (6) upstream of the turbocharger branch, wherein the exhaust gas recirculation valve (9) mounted on the exhaust gas recirculation cooler of the exhaust gas recirculation pipe (11) upstream of the exhaust gas recirculation pipe and the internal combustion engine (2) fresh air side (3) opens. Recommendation downstream connecting pipe (13) from the exhaust gas recirculation duct (8) and located in said branch exhaust gas recirculation cooler (11), and toward the exhaust gas pipe (6) opening, the control element (12) mounted on the connecting pipe (13), the exhaust gas recirculation cooler (11) is connected to the cooling system of an internal combustion engine (2). The high-pressure exhaust gas recirculation system (1) combines the advantages of an exhaust gas recirculation and heat recovery, wherein an aspect of the present invention, a high-pressure exhaust gas recirculation system (1) can be controlled so that even when the exhaust gas recirculation or exhaust gas recirculation No cooling Indeed, the exhaust flow through the exhaust gas recirculation cooler (11), it is possible to utilize the exhaust gas heat inherent to influence the warm-up phase and to selectively provide heat to a cab heating means (17 ).


The electronic band structures of BeSiN2 and BeGeN2 compounds are calculated using the quasiparticle self-consistent GW method. The lattice parameters are calculated for the wurtzite based crystal structure commonly found in other II–IV-N2 compounds with the Pbn21 space group. They are determined both in the local density approximation and generalized gradient approximation, which provide lower and upper limits. At the GGA lattice constants, which gives lattice constants closer to the experimental ones, BeSiN2 is found to have an indirect band gap of 6.88 eV and its direct gap at is 7.77 eV, while in BeGeN2 the gap is direct at and equals 5.03 eV. To explain the indirect gap in BeSiN2 comparisons are made with the parent III-N compound w-BN band structure. The effective mass parameters are also evaluated and found to decrease from BeSiN2 to BeGeN2.


In this paper, we study the impact of pilot contamination in a system where two operators serve their respective users with the assistance of two wide-band reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), each belonging to a single operator. We consider one active user per operator and they use disjoint narrow frequency bands. Although each RIS is dedicated to a single operator, both users' transmissions are reflected by both RISs. We show that this creates a new kind of pilot contamination effect when pilots are transmitted simultaneously. Since combating inter-operator pilot contamination in RIS-assisted networks would require long pilot signal sequences to maintain orthogonality among the users of different operators, we propose the orthogonal configurations of the RISs. Numerical results show that this approach completely eliminates pilot contamination, and significantly improves the performance in terms of channel estimation and equalization by removing the channel estimation bias.


La2Zr2O7 is one of the proposed next generation thermal barrier coating materials due to its low thermal conductivity and superior high temperature stability. In this work, La2Zr2O7 and conventional 8 wt% yttria stabilized zirconia (8YSZ) coatings were deposited using plasma spray technique. Both single-layer La2Zr2O7 and double-layer 8YSZ/La2Zr2O7 coating architectures were designed in the matrix for evaluation. Heat treatment, thermal cycling, and thermal shock tests were conducted on the samples to evaluate their thermal stability. All the La2Zr2O7 coats were delaminated in the furnace cycle test in less than 20 cycles. This is because residual thermal stresses accumulated during thermal cycling. In the heat treatment and the jet engine thermal shock (JETS) tests, the SCL La2Zr2O7 and DCL dense 8YSZ/La2Zr2O7 coatings were fully delaminated. In contrast, the DCL porous 8YSZ/La2Zr2O7 coating sample only partially delaminated on the edge. This is because of the porous 8YSZ layer provides strain compliance. The findings will help to propose efficient thermal barrier coating systems.


Global hunger has become one of the most pressing issues our planet faces. The need to research the causes of this food shortage are more urgent than ever, and if we fail to act, the situation will only grow direr. Climate change and food shortage are both highly intricate, but their common ground is the area that is of greatest importance. Climate change has proven too much for global food production systems to bear, and as a result, climate-stressed regions are now experiencing food insecurity as well. Climate change has shaken the three pillars of food security—availability, access, and utilization—and it will be an enormous undertaking to shore them up. As diverse as the three components of food security are; they are all interdependent. Solutions to this crisis will require a well-rounded approach. Drawing conclusions from literary research and engaged experiential research with The Apeiron Institute of Providence, Rhode Island, this thesis discusses the most important ways that climate affects food security, and proposes the most needed and feasible solutions that should be pursued in the near future.


Online consumers do not read privacy policies. These policies outline the ways in which consumer data will be collected and used. Certain common usages personalization of ads, prices or content have long been identified as potential venues of algorithmic unfairness, lack of accountability and transparency. In this paper we draw the reader's attention to a related problem, which we call social unfairness and non-transparency. We demonstrate that privacy policies of online apps and services are written in an essentially "empty" language full of qualifiers like "we might," abstract terms like "third parties," and open-ended phrases like "among others." As a result, even a consumer with expert knowledge is unable to predict what will be done with what her data, and the imbalance of rights and duties strongly favors the data holders, to the detriment of consumers. We argue that machine learning tools can be used to combat the "emptiness" of language of privacy policies, by increasing the text-processing power of individual consumers and consumer organizations. Further, once the social practice changes and policies start containing more actual information, machine learning can be used to process these documents with high speed and accuracy. To substantiate this claim, we review the existing literature and conduct out own experiment. We have tagged 15 privacy policies of services in competitive markets (jogging, food delivery and dating apps) and demonstrate that information derived from topic modeling in conjunction with a classification model allows one to detect a rigidly defined type of information with accuracy as high as 90 percent. This finding, given the small size of the initial sample, provides good prospects for future research. Hopefully, more and more applications empowering individual consumers and civil society will soon be able to follow.


Since 1999, the protection of civilians (poc) has become central to UN peacekeeping, included in the mandates of all contemporary multidimensional missions. At the same time, member states have reiterated their commitment to the so-called "primacy of politics" in UN peacekeeping. Yet, protection activities often live in fragile balance with the political objectives of the mission. The last two decades have shown that there can be both complementarities and areas of friction between poc and political processes. Yet, to date there has not been a thorough discussion of these patterns within the academic or policy literature. This research aims to contribute to this gap by analyzing the relationship between poc and the political process in South Sudan. This case is illustrative of ways in which protection activities can contribute to the overall peace process, though mission limitations and government obstinacy have limited its overall effect. Lessons from this case shed light on mechanisms by which poc activities may contribute to the political process, as well as challenges between the two.


THE VISCOSITIES OF DIFFERENT BINDERS ARE COMPARED AT TEMPERATURES IN THE RANGE 0-45DEGREE C. AS TAR/BITUMEN BLENDS HAVE VISCOSITY/TEMPERATURE RELATIONSHIPS CLOSE TO THOSE OF CUT-BACK BITUMEN THE DOE TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM H10/72 SPECIFIES THEM IN TERMS OF 'SECONDS STV AT 40DEGREE C' AND GIVES APPROXIMATE EVT VALUES. ROAD TARS AND TAR/BITUMEN BLENDS WITH THE SAME EVT HAVE BEEN ASSUMED TO HAVE THE SAME VISCOSITIES THROUGHOUT THE ROAD SURFACE TEMPERATURE RANGE, BUT, AT RELATIVELY HIGH TEMPERATURES, THIS IS NOT TRUE. THE EVT VALUES FOR CUT-BACK BITUMENS AND TAR/BITUMEN BLENDS, WHICH HAVE THE SAME VISCOSITIES AS ROAD TARS AT TEMPERATURES IN THE RANGE 0 TO 45DEGREE C, ARE TABULATED. AN EQUIVALENT TABLE IN TERMS OF 'SECONDS STV AT 40DEGREE C' IS REQUIRED SO THE EVT/'SECONDS STV AT 40DEGREE C' RELATIONSHIPS FOR TWO BINDERS WAS DETERMINED. THE PREPARATION OF THE BINDERS AND THE DETERMINATION OF THEIR EVT AND 'SECONDS STV AT 40DEGREE C' VALUES DESCRIBED. THE LATTER TOOK PLACE IN A LABORATORY MAINTAINED AT 40DEGREE C. THE RESULTS ARE PRESENTED IN TABULAR FORM AND SHOWN GRAPHICALLY AS PLOTS OF LOG STV SECONDS AGAINST EVT. 100 AND 200 SEC GRADES OF TAR/BITUMEN BLENDS CORRESPOND TO 38 AND 42 EVT TARS AT 20-25DEGREE C. FACTORS, OTHER THAN VISCOSITY, FOR SELECTING THE GRADE OF BINDER ARE OUTLINED. /TRRL/


In the software industry there are new major technology trends - i.e. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Business Process Management (BPM) and Enterprise Architecture - that had already gained enough popularity and adoption to have a stance on their own in the community of practice, but that have not been successfully incorporated into the standard set of software development practices. This creates a window of opportunity for the Software Engineering (SE) researchers to evaluate the inclusion of these new concepts into the existing software development process. This paper introduces the idea of an integrated framework with the aim of supporting the inclusion of SOA, BPM and EA into the Rational Unified Process (RUP). We expect that the current work will support future researchers in finding the proper path to achieve consensus for the inclusion of the mentioned topics into a common framework.


This paper introduces a modeling method of Three-stage Brushless Synchronous Machines. Three-stage Brushless Synchronous Machines' model is built by SimPowerSystems module and SIMULINK module in MATLAB. This model can be used to simulate both in electromotion-state and generating state. Compared with the common model, this model have the advantages of faster simulation speed and more intuitive.


[3H]-serotonin and [3H]-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) bind with a high affinity, KD = 12 nM and 6 nM, respectively, to distinct receptors of rat caudate membranes in vitro. Displacement experiments with unlabeled serotonin and LSD support the hypothesis of serotonin receptors existing in an agonist and antagonist state. Methysergide and Ergalgin display quite similar potencies in displacing [3H]-serotonin and [3H]-LSD from their specific binding sites (Ki = 46,7 and 53,4 nM; 22,3 and 36,5 nM, respectively). Contrary to pharmacological findings these binding results are in favour of mixed agonist/antagonist properties of these compounds.


Part I - An Other Beauty Introduction. 1. Feeling the Difference, Mario Perniola (University of Rome). 2. Breton's Post-Hegelian Modernism, Jean-Michel Rabate (University of Pennsylvania). 3. Postponing the Future: Marcel Duchamp and the Avant-Garde, Dalia Judovitz (Emory University). 4. When Less is More, More or Less: Subtraction and Addition in (Post)Modernist Poetics, Peter Williams (University of Sydney). Part III - The Impossible Place of Literature. Introduction. 5. Chora and Character: Mimesis of Difference in Plato's Timaeus, Max Statkiewicz. (University of Wisconsin, Madison). 6. The Place of Boredom: Blanchot Not Reading Proust, Pierre Lamarche. 7. Literature, Film, and Virtuality: Technology's Cutting Edge, Joel Black (University of Georgia). Part IV - The Rhetoric of the Political Introduction. 8. Rhetoric, Politics, Romance: Arendt and Heidegger, 1924-26, Theodore Kisiel (Northern Illinois University). 9. Hannah Arendt: Literary Criticism and the Political, David Halliburton (Stanford University) 10. The Politics of Fascism, or Consuming the Flesh of the Other, Michael Clifford (Mississippi State University). Part V - The Political Imaginary. Introduction. 11. Post-Colonialism and History: Are we Responsible for the Past?, Moira Gatens (University of Sydney). 12. Indigenous-Becoming in the Post-Colonial Polity, Paul Patton (University of New South Wales). 13. The Post-Colonial Threshold of Capacity: "The Other! The Other!", Alfred Lopez (Florida International University). Part VI - Extreme Beauty - Death, Glory. Introduction. 14. The Simulacrum of Death: Perniola Beyond Heidegger and Metaphysics?, Robert Burch (University of Alberta, Edmonton). 15. A Deadly Gift: To Derrida, from Kierkegaard and Bataille, Kenneth Itzkowitz. (Marietta College, Ohio). 16. Glory in Levinas and Derrida, Bettina Bergo (Loyola College, Baltimore).


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
The participation of the obturator nerve in 3:1 blockades is controversial. Superficial surgical interventions in the medial face of the thigh strike femoral and obturator nerves dermatomes with imprecise, overlapped or even absent limits. The correlation between clinical outcome and other diagnostic methods may be conclusive about the involvement of the obturator nerve.

CONTENTS
In general, regional block outcomes are confirmed more by the lack of dermatome sensitivity than by miotomes motor activity. As from the anatomic understanding of the pathway of plexus components of 3:1 blocks, clinical criteria aided by other diagnostic methods explain obturator nerve involvement.

CONCLUSIONS
The symbiosis between 3:1 block outcome and different diagnostic methods is interpretative and conclusive and, according to literature indications about the obturator nerve participation, 3:1 block with single injection does not justify its name.


In this paper we use a Cocktail fit done in Part 1 of The Dipion Cocktail, in order to compare the dipion mass spectrum within a pt range(intermediate pt) with an angular correlation measured in Au-Au collisions at √ sNN=200 GeV which contains the same pt range. In this part(Part 2) we show that the comparison of the angular correlations in the intermediate pt range is consistent only minijet production.


Canada's defense contribution is an engima. Canada possesses the second largest land area, the seventh most powerful industrial economy, and according to the most recent report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), enjoys the second highest standard of living in the world. It was a prominent founding member of NATO and a valued co-belligerent in the Korean War. Yet today it has fewer forces and contributes less to the alliance than Denmark. In wealth and population, Denmark is one-fifth the size of Canada. But fully mobilized, Denmark can put almost twice as many people in the field as Canada, and Danish forces are more deployable. If Canada would contribute to NATO commensurate with its wealth and population, it would do much to solve the problems of western defense. Indeed, were Canada simply to spend the NATO average on defense (3.7 percent of GNP) and if this contribution could be designed to fill gaps in a framework of NATO division of labor, Canadian increases would be sufficient to help trigger a transformation of NATO's inferiority in conventional forces into a genuine military balance with the Warsaw Pact, thereby altering the strategic equation in Europe and reducing decisively NATO's reliance on nuclear weapons. The current imbalance in conventional forces in central Europe represents the single most destabilizing factor in East-West relations. NATO's relative conven-


ObjectiveTo explore cutoff values for serum-ascites albumin gradient on predicting portal hypertensive ascites and varices.Methods 118 cases were included in this retrospective analysis.The cutoff values for serum-ascites albumin gradient in predicting portal hypertensive ascites and esophageal varices were determined by ROC curve.ResultsThe best value was 17 g/L for serum/ascites albumin gradient on predicting portal hypertensive ascites.The diagnostic sensitivity,specificity and accuracy were 84.29%,70.37% and 81.4%,respectively.While the diagnostic sensitivity,specificity and accuracy were 94.29%,44.44% and 79.3%,with a value of 11g/L.With the best cutoff value of 18 g/L,the sensitivity,specificity and accuracy were 92.86%,66.67% and 88.24% on predicting esophageal varices.ConclusionThe serum-ascites albumin gradient has a high diagnostic accuracy with a value of 17g / L than that of 11g/L for predicting portal hypertensive ascites.With a value of 18g/L,the serum-ascites albumin gradient is valuable for predicting esophageal varices.


The provision of support services to students as well as the effectiveness of these support services in meeting the pressing demands of the students in private universities is a function of the availability and utilization of recent Information and Communication Technology tools. Globalization and the ever-evolving nature of digital technology has made every facet of human endeavour (including education) at the mercy of these evolving ICT tools. This study therefore investigated the extent to which private universities in Oyo state, Nigeria provide support services to students using recent ICT tools; with a view to find out the effect of evolving ICTs in the achievement of effective student support system. A descriptive survey research design was adopted and questionnaires were used for data collection. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select two (2) out of the (5) functional private universities in Oyo State. One hundred and fifty-five (155) students were sampled, with all (15) ICT personnel, making a total of one-hundred and seventy (170) respondents. Findings from the study revealed that, the utilization of evolving ICTs have significant effect on effective student support system in private universities in Oyo state (r =-0.317, p<0.05). Recommendations on plausible remedies were therefore made to private universities in Oyo state on how student support system could be better improved on.


We consider real spectra, collections of Z=(2)–spaces indexed over Z Z withcompatibility conditions. We produce fibrations connecting the homotopy fixedpointsandthespacesinthesespectra. Wealsoevaluatethemapwhichistheanalogueof the forgetful functor from complex to reals composed with complexification.Our first fibration is used to connect the real 2


GaN films with Ga or N face and of n- or p-type doping were grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy. The wurtzite GaN exhibits a large polarization, with spontaneous and piezoelectric components. The direction of polarization, and thus polarization-induced electric fields, Fp is determined by the polarity of the sample. Contactless electroreflectance (CER) has already been employed to study the nature of band bending in GaAs samples. In this work, CER is used to study the band bending of the GaN samples. It was found that the phase of CER is determined by the type of doping, rather than by the polarity of the surface. Additionally, the photoreflectance (PR) spectra were also measured. Comparing CER with PR determines the type of doping.


I think that we have to focus on understanding physical processes at scales where they demonstrate organised behaviour, or – to put it in other words – at scales were patterns emerge. In recent years we have seen how the reductionist approach is incapable of predicting uncertain situations. Instead, we will have to focus on recognising dominant behaviour and on modelling this behaviour in the simplest terms possible. This brings us to the question how we can identify and conceptualise dominant and secondary behaviour in connection to a changing environment and subject to changed forcing.


We passively mode locked a fiber laser using SiN waveguides covered with graphene of different lengths, and observed two types of solitons, with single and multiple pulses. Grating couplers induce NPR, but graphene triggers mode-locking.


With the rapid development of big data foundation technology and data association mining technology, equipment design, use, management, improvement and upgrading become more digital, networked and intelligent. This change puts forward newer and higher requirements for real-time Condition Monitoring, fault diagnosis and life prediction in the process of equipment life cycle management. By exploring the application scope and key technology of digital twinning technology in the data management of equipment life cycle process, we can effectively meet the new requirements of the big data era for the data management of equipment life cycle, at the same time, it can provide reliable decision support for many problems in equipment life cycle management by exploring the challenges and difficulties in the application of digital twinning technology.


The dynamic response of simple beams in railway bridge is shown. The analysis takes into account the dynamics of bridge and four moving vehicles. Applying to the slender reinforced concrete slab bridge of Shinkansen, the dynamic bending moment and deflection are calculated, and they are compared with the results of the measurement of a Shinkansen bridge.


After the leading rich and developing (G-20) nations agreed to the Basel III standards in November 2010, regulatory attention shifted to the shadow banking sector, defined as "financial intermediaries that conduct maturity, credit and liquidity transformation without explicit access to central liquidity of public sector guarantees." In October 2011, the FSB issued its report "Shadow Banking: Strengthening Oversight and Regulation," which is updated annually and included how to better understand, measure and regulate the shadow banking sector.


The present invention, LC module for incorporation into the housing (2) of the vehicle control system (1), a method of manufacturing an LC module (1), and to motor vehicle control device corresponding with the LC module (1). LC module (1) includes a support plate (3), and at least one electrolytic capacitor (4), a coil (5). Further, electrolytic capacitor (4) and the coil (5), be arranged on both chambers (6, 7) of the LC module (1) is surrounded at least partially by pouring material (8). Further, the support plate (3) has a web (9) between the two chambers (6,7), the support plate (3), housing at least vehicle control system in the region of the web (9) (2) in a form-or frictional connection couplable.


Abstract The three-body problem for hydrogen bond (X–Y–X; Y=H or D) is discussed assuming symmetrical double minimum of the Morse potentials (X–Y). Two types for hydrogen bond energies are estimated by deriving the confocal elliptic differential equation, and the lowest energy for hydrogen bond may be estimated using the trial function of the linear combination of the lowest Morse wave functions by variation method. The repulsive potentials for X2 are determined by the expectation values E | z p | E $\langle E\vert {z}^{p}\vert E\rangle $ in continuum state for the Morse potential for X2. Figures of the potential curve for O–H–O and the hydrogen density distribution for O–D–O are displayed. The hydrogen bond energies for O–H–O, O–D–O, N–H–N, and N–D–N are obtained.


Electron-transfer reactions that are dissociative in nature can proceed via two mechanisms, stepwise and concerted. In this work, the mechanism of photoinduced dissociative electron transfer betwee...


Twenty‐five patients with chronic discoid, acute guttate or erythrodermic psoriasis were treated with retinoic acid in various preparations, topical and oral, and the clinical response was observed for up to 3 months. Only four patients showed distinct clinical improvement. The possible side effects of topical retinoic acid therapy are mentioned.


This chapter presents a theory for the coupled thermal and mechanical response of solids under circumstances in which the deformations are small and elastic, and the temperature changes from a reference temperature are small --- a framework known as the theory of linear thermoelasticity. The basic equations of the fully-coupled linear theory of anisotropic thermoelasticity are derived. These equations are then specialized for the case of isotropic materials. Finally, as a further specialization a weakly-coupled theory in which the temperature affects the mechanical response, but the deformation does not affect the thermal response, are discussed; this is a specialization which is of importance for many engineering applications, a few of which are illustrated in the examples.


Insert a case velamentous Cord It comes in Pregnancy Gemelar UIniovulvar Monochorionic Diamnotico. No complications were recorded at delivery and the twins, both female, are born healthy. A review of the literature is made and the rarity of this anomaly umbilical cord insertion to uniovular asocaido diamnotico monochorionic twin pregnancy is stressed. A comment about the incidence, mechanism of production of this anomaly and the impact it brings in some cases the fetus is performed.


Silica Gel--Its History and Formation. The Production of Silica Gel. Test Procedures and LC Column Packing. The Silica Gel Surface. The Exclusion Properties of Silica Gel. Solvent/Solute Interactions with the Silica Gel Surface. An Introduction to Bonded Phases. The Synthesis of Bonded Phases. The Characteristics of Reverse Phases. Solute/Solvent Interactions with the Surface of a Reverse Phase. The Mechanism of Solute Retention. Appendices. Index.


This article shows the influence of growth regulators and methods of their application on the passage of the main interphase periods and growth processes during melon cultivation. The use of growth regulators is one of the promising directions in the cultivation of melons. In the acutely arid areas of the Volgograd Volga region, the use of mineral fertilizers for melon crops, in bagar conditions, was not effective, since there was an acute shortage of moisture in the soil. Therefore, the most effective and promising for creating favorable conditions for the growth and development of melon plants, with the possibility of leveling negative environmental factors, is the use of foliar treatments in the cultivation technology with growth regulators. The studied drugs of the new generation have a wide range of physiological activity. They are designed to influence the parameters of growth and development of plants as a whole in various phases, as well as their organs, as well as the parameters of plant response to environmental factors.Results. Studies have revealed the dependence of the growth processes of melon plants on the methods of using growth regulators, the length of the lashes in the variants of using growth regulators for processing plants during vegetation is longer compared to soaking seeds, with their maximum length in the Phytozont variant (plant treatment) is 12.7-51.3% longer compared to other studied preparations.


A negative relationship apparently exists between Black children and the mathematics education process. Because Black students rarely participate in higher mathematics learning, an examination of the ways in which the cognitive and affective styles of Blacks are related to the type of mathematics instruction provided in elementary and secondary schools is clearly necessary. This article will analyze the education of Black children in mathematics, and related considerations that focus on the performance of Blacks in the mathematics classroom. One of the most segregated places in American society is the mathematics classroom. Remedial math classrooms contain disproportionate numbers of Black students, while algebra, geometry, and advanced math classes mainly serve White students (Johnson, 1984; Jones et al., 1984; Matthews et al., 1984; NAEP, 1979; Peng et al., 1981; Stiff, 1985). Blacks have less access to advanced study in mathematics than before the mid-1960s. Most Black students cannot take advantage of career opportunities in science and the technologies because they lack knowledge and skills in higher


Women are drawing together the concepts of space, style, and medium and using these concepts collectively as a foundation for a new discursive tradition in the online autobiography. This dissertation, positioned in postmodern feminism, draws on a variety of disciplines to argue the development or evolution of a new women's discourse. While a broad base of material exists which acknowledges the presence of women's discourse (formed by combining women's writing and women's genres), very little information explores its evolution, particularly in/on the new medium of the World Wide Web (WWW). A combination of extant social and literary theories supports the idea that women are developing a new e-criture feminine via the online diary. Both the virtual medium and the historically women's genre echo the very tenets of this new writing style: privacy, individuality, and a lack of (restraining) conventions. This dissertation will contextualize the phenomenon of women publishing online diaries in the poststructuralist ideologies of Woolf, DuPlessis, and Cixous. Following an iv explication of women's space, women's style, and women's medium, this dissertation will demonstrate that women successfully concatenate these concepts in their online journals, resulting in the creation of a new feminine discourse. The goal of this project is to provide readers with a theoretical explication of this new discursive tradition. Certainly, a number of critical and academic works exist which address the "gendering" of the written medium, the phenomenon of women publishing online, the importance of women developing their own voices. What is missing from academic dialogue, however, is the assertion that these individual elements unite to create a new discursive tradition that is at once literary and rhetorical. Using the work of Woolf, DuPlessis, and Cixous, this dissertation presents, explicates, and ties together these elements in an effort to introduce and theorize the significance of this new discursive tradition within the context of postmodern feminism/s. Ultimately, this dissertation seeks to demonstrate that women are experiencing the organic concatenation of the concepts of space (Woolf), style (DuPlessis), and medium (Cixous) as they relate to the Web in order to develop an important new women's discursive tradition.


Knowledge creation requires identifying and pursuing promising ideas—ideas that in their nascent form may not seem like much but that with development could grow into something big. The goal of our research is to develop a tool to explore the concept of promisingness and "big ideas," especially elementary school students' ability to make "promisingness judgments" regarding ideas in peer discourse. Toward this end we developed a "Big Ideas" tool to facilitate students' selection of the ideas they thought were promising in their online discourse. A study conducted in two Grade 5/6 classes examined the nature of "big ideas" selected from the online discourse of younger Grade 4 students. A preliminary analysis indicated that students tended to identify as promising important facts and questions in the Grade 4 discourse. This study will inform future work in designing tools, language, and techniques to facilitate the concept of promisingness.


As an example of what happens with physically relevant theories like effective gravity, we consider the covariant relativistic theory of a scalar field of arbitrarily higher differential order. A procedure based on the Legendre transformation and suitable field redefinitions allows to recast it as a theory of second order with one explicit independent field for each degree of freedom. The physical and ghost fields are then apparent. The full (classical) equivalence of both Higher and Lower Derivative versions is shown. An artifact of the method is the appearance of irrelevant spurious fields which are devoid of any dynamical content.


For decades, developing countries, including South Africa, have failed to provide their communities with adequate shelter. Unfortunately, this has resulted in ever-increasing public housing problems. There is a pressing need to intervene and alleviate these problems through sustainable methods and approaches. One such solution could entail the development of relevant public housing policies that would accommodate the needs of the poor and those unable to afford the luxuries of private housing. This article therefore considers the development of housing policy in South Africa, in comparison with that in two other countries of similar socio-economic standing, with the objective of identifying some positive measures that could help developing countries to improve their public housing.


Objective To investigate how cochlear patency as seen on preoperative CT and MRI scans correlates with findings at surgery in cochlear implant patients. Material and Methods CT and MRI scans of 25 patients were reviewed by 3 independent observers. The reviewers classified the cochlear patency and recorded the location of any suspected decrease in patency. Their results were compared with the findings noted during surgery. Results Decreased cochlear patency was found in six patients at surgery. The mean sensitivity/specificity of CT and MRI assessment was 33%/88% and 41%/91%, respectively. Conclusion Our study suggests that CT, using axial and semi-longitudinal planes, is equivalent to MRI in predicting cochlear patency.


This review considers the broad set of corrosive degradations that can occur in PWR steam generators. The general status is reviewed, and potential future problems are identified. Recommendations for future work in each category are given. Main categories in this review include thick sections, tubing, and water chemistry. Tubing materials included are Alloys 600MA, 600TT, 690TT, 800NG, and Type 321 stainless steels. It appears that the Alloys 690TTand 800 give the best performance in vertical SGs and that the Type 321 gives adequate lifetimes for the horizontal steam generators. For tubing, the most likely location for degradation, mainly by stress corrosion cracking (SCC), is at the top of the tubesheet (ITS) of vertical steam generators, especially from the secondary side owing to both the superheated crevices and in some cases denting. These locations are the most likely to concentrate impurities, especially lead and possibly reduced sulfate species, which are inimical to both Alloys 690TT and 800. Available data from operating plants and from laboratory studies of these two alloys suggest that low potential stress corrosion cracking (LPSCC) is not a major concern at present although the presence of cold work, due to surface abuse or bulk deformation, may produce such SCC at longer exposure times. The line contact tube supports are expected, in principle, to be improvements over ones with drilled holes. However, in the long term this degree of improvement is not so clear since the interstices in some plants can fill with deposits; the possible concentration of impurities here is not clear but should be expected. Special attention should be paid to Alloys 690TT and 800 when exposed to lead since, in addition to their possible (neither has cracked in service so far) susceptibility to SCC, based on laboratory data, these alloys produce relatively thick scales when exposed to nominal concentrations of lead.There appears to be little question that degradation could occur in the future in modern steam generators. Only the mode of such degradations may differ from those in the past. There is substantially insufficient information upon which to predict future performance; however, the directions and types of work required are quite clear.


Older people are considered to be the fastest growing population group worldwide. As people age many are affected with physical illnesses and neurological conditions that are associated with deterioration in physical ability, function and wellbeing. With advancing age it is not unusual for seating needs to emerge at home or within institutional care. Clinical, anecdotal evidence suggestive that current seating provision is not meeting the needs of elders. Often they are compromised in terms of their comfort, postural and pressure care needs. Clinical practice and decision making have generally depended on expert opinion combined with individual practitioner experience and preferences. Research literature describes the use of seating systems to increase comfort and quality of life (Telfer, 2010), improve upper extremity function (Stavness, 2006), and improve respiratory function and/or prevent or delay deformities (Holmes, 2003). Littleton (2011) demonstrated the positive effect of sitting and side lying on respiratory measurements (oxygen saturation, heart rate, respiratory rate and chest wall excursion). Emerging from the literature, this paper reports on a pilot, randomised controlled trial to explore the impact of personalised prescribed seating on elders within a nursing home environment. This research paper outlines the methods and results of a clinical trial examining the effectiveness of individualized seating assessment and provision within long term care facilities and how appropriate provision can impact significantly on the health and wellbeing of patients and their caregivers. It will identify the key principles of correct positioning, seating and mobility and the influence this can have on health of older people. Guidance is available on most aspects of pressure ulcer prevention and management however few research papers specifically address the particular issues of seating for patients who are seated for long periods. When pressure ulcer prevention and management are discussed, the specific issues most often addressed are the use of pressure-redistributing beds and mattresses, risk assessment, patient repositioning and local management of established pressure ulcers (EPUAP, 2009). OBJECTIVES


Kraft bamboo pulp was re ned by PFI beater, the changes of di erent component of bamboo pulp were analyzed. e species and changes during re ning of native nes were researched. e origin of secondary nes and the a ect on pulp and paper properties were explored. We found that after the secondary ne was screened the strength properties of paper would be a ected greatly, however the bulk value was improved.


Ultrafine Mg nanoparticles of around 40 nm in size were prepared by an acetylene plasma metal reaction, which is a revised approach of the traditional hydrogen plasma metal reaction. The morphology and the cyclic hydrogenation properties were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), specific surface area (BET) tests, and the kinetics of hydrogenation and dehydrogenation. Because of the short diffusion distance and the large specific surface area, the kinetics of hydrogenation and dehydrogenation of the small Mg nanoparticles improved. The nanostructured carbon cover on the Mg nanoparticles decreased the amount of Mg nanoparticle oxidation and also prevented the growth of Mg nanoparticles during the hydrogenation and dehydrogenation process. Therefore, the Mg ultrafine nanoparticles exhibited excellent cycling stability. Cycling tests showed little loss in hydrogen storage capacity after 30 cycles.


Let pi: P --> Q be an affine projection map between two polytopes P and Q. Billera and Sturmfels introduced in 1992 the concept of polyhedral subdivisions of Q induced by pi (or pi-induced) and the fiber polytope of the projection: a polytope Sygma(P,pi) of dimension dim(P)-dim(Q) whose faces are in correspondence with the coherent pi-induced subdivisions (or pi-coherent subdivisions). In this paper we investigate the structure of the poset of pi-induced refinements of a pi-induced subdivision. In particular, we define the refinement polytope associated to any pi-induced subdivision S, which is a generalization of the fiber polytope and shares most of its properties. As applications to the theory we prove that if a point configuration has non-regular subdivisions then it has non-regular triangulations and we provide simple proofs of the existence of non-regular subdivisions for many particular point configurations.


ObjectiveThe topic "A Day in the Life of a Psychiatry Resident" is an opportunity to explore residents' experiences to inform the delivery of education.MethodsAn open-ended, qualitative approach was used in a pilot project to explore contemporary residents' experiences with education, similar to a patient-centered model of health care.ResultsKey themes for residents include balancing multiple roles at work, balancing work and home, identity formation, diversity (gender, ethnic, cultural, learner styles, and other dimensions), and challenges in training with advances in the field (e.g., neuroscience, technology, culture, spirituality). Contemporary residents have some issues as did their predecessors, but they also have unique experiences, issues, talents, and interests.ConclusionsA larger qualitative analysis of these issues, followed by testing of theories by quantitative methods, is indicated.


AbstractThis study examines heat advection due to mixed Rossby gravity waves in the equatorial Indian Ocean using moored buoy observations at (0°, 80.5°E) and (0°, 90°E) and an ocean general circulation model (OGCM) output. Variability associated with mixed Rossby gravity waves is defined as that at periods of 10–30 days, where both observations and the OGCM results show high energy in meridional velocity and meridional gradient of temperature. The 10–30-day variability in meridional velocity causes convergence of heat flux onto the equator, the net effect of which amounts to 2.5°C month−1 warming at the depth of the thermocline. Detailed analysis shows that the wave structure manifested in temperature and velocity is tilted in the x–z plane, which causes the phase lag between meridional velocity and meridional temperature gradient to be a half cycle on the equator and results in sizable thermocline warming. An experiment with a linear continuously stratified model shows that the contributions of many bar...


The use of reliable computational tools is fundamental to investigate different aspects of microwave breast cancer imaging. From the development of high-definition and realistic numerical breast models, different coupling mechanisms and the reaction of different tissues to microwave signals can be characterized. In this paper, field penetration inside four numerical breast phantoms with varying adipose content is evaluated in the frequency range 0.5-10 GHz across sagittal cuts.


• authorization and access control, authentication • certification authorities, PKI • ciphers and digital signatures • component software trust and security • criteria and evaluation • database security • e-government • electronic commerce, electronic payment systems (liability and privacy issues) • fraud control • information security accreditation of enterprises • information security management issues • information security standards • intellectual property protection • Internet and Intranet security • intrusion detection • key management and key recovery • network security • operating system security • personal mobile security • protocols and its logical analysis • risk evaluation and analysis • secret sharing • secure WWW applications • security modelling • smart cards • social, legal and ethical implication of security technologies • usability and security.


 When embryos were incubated in 34 C, heat-shock proteins, were turned on as a homeostatic response (Krone et al., 1997).  Some heat-shock proteins have constitutive ability to turn on up-regulation of gene transcription.  One-eyed pinhead could also be constitutively turned on and affect the entire TGFβ signaling pathway.  As mentioned in introduction, one-eyed pinhead worked with squint nodals, which had been identified as temperature sensitive (Pei, 2007).  The penetrance of one-eye pinhead oepm134 mutants would be varied under different temperatures.  In comparison of percentages in combined data, higher penetrance of open neural tubes were found.  The percentages of elongated (20%) and divided neural tubes (17%) were significantly higher in 34 C than that of open neural tubes (6% and 14%) in 28.5 C.  The percent of closed neural tube was decreased from 79% in 28.5 C to 63% in 34 C. The data suggested that the higher the temperature, the more abnormalities occurred due to the constitutive effect of heat-shock proteins.  The hypothesis was supported that the penetrance of one-eye pinhead (oep) gene expression was temperature-sensitive.  This experiment solved the question of TGFβ signaling pathway and its temperature sensitivity. The Relation of Nodal Signaling Pathway and its Temperature Sensitivity


An algorithm for generating an optimum CMM inspection path is developed to improve the throughput of CMMs. In this algorithm, a modified 3-D ray tracing technique is applied to an octree database of a CMM configuration space to detect obstacles between any two target points. After an obstacle is detected, collision-free silhouette contour vertices of the object are generated, from a selection criterion, as potential points of a vertex path. As the ray advances, a sequential-decision-making technique is used to derive the suboptimum vertex path from possible collision-free vertex paths. After the suboptimum vertex path is generated, a selection strategy is employed to ensure a correct edge path sequence for deriving an optimum edge point path


In order to evaluate the quality of peaches non-destructively, the surface color and spectral reflectances of KURAKATAWASE, MIBAEKTO, and OKUBO cultivar were measured. Also an attempt was made to correlate reflectance characteristics and tristimulus values with quality evaluation parameters such as chlorophyll content, soluble solids, anthocyanin content, and firmness. Further analysis of the correlation coefficients showed that spectral reflectance would be effective for the quality evaluation of peaches.


BACKGROUND Tympanic membrane perforation is a common pediatric otolaryngology diagnosis that most frequently occurs after myringotomy tube extrusion, complicated otitis media, or traumatic perforation. Repair is often necessary if it does not heal spontaneously. Untreated perforations can lead to conductive hearing loss, speech delays, chronic otorrhea, the need for precautions during water sports, and migration of squamous epithelium into the middle ear space where it can form cholesteatoma. Repair is typically performed with autologous fascia and/or cartilage grafts and can be described as a tympanoplasty or myringoplasty. The reported success of repair ranges from 35% to 94%, which is lower than in the adult population. This difference may be due to relatively more frequent upperrespiratory tract infections or persistent Eustachian tube dysfunction in children. The variability in criteria for surgical and audiologic success contributes to the wide range reported in the literature. Most studies on this topic do not exactly follow the American Academy of Otolaryngology– Head and Neck Surgery 1995 guidelines for the evaluation of treatment results of conductive hearing loss. Duration, size, and location of the perforation; status of the contralateral middle ear; Eustachian tube function; adenoid hypertrophy; and surgeon experience can all influence the outcome. Disagreement exists regarding the optimal age to repair tympanic membrane perforations and whether there is benefit to waiting until the child is past a certain age. Many different algorithms for timing repair have been proposed. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the literature to determine the optimal time to repair tympanic membrane perforations in the pediatric population. LITERATURE REVIEW Preceding studies that recommended delaying tympanic membrane repair to 7 to 11 years of age lacked longterm follow-up. In 2007, Yung et al. published results from a full year after primary repair of central perforations due to chronic otitis media. Previous studies may have missed late failures. Fifteen children aged 4 to 8 years were compared to 36 children aged 9 to 13 years, and success was defined as an "intact tympanic membrane, free from OME, atelectasis, ear discharge, and myringitis, and with no worsening of hearing." Success was achieved 63% of the time. They found no difference in outcome between the older and younger age groups for either the full definition of success or for any of the components of the definition. The majority of publications evaluating pediatric age assessed repair with fascia grafts. After positive reports of perforation closure with cartilage grafts in adults, Friedman et al. compared type I cartilage tympanoplasty outcomes in a total of 119 patients in three age groups: age 4 to 7, 7 to 10, and 10 to 13 years. They found no difference in graft take or audiological outcomes between the three groups. Their overall success ranked high at 95% at an average of 1.5 years after surgery. Their clinical algorithm is to perform tympanoplasty after 4 years of age. If the contralateral middle ear is abnormal, they will treat the nose, consider adenoidectomy, and delay tympanoplasty until age 7. A prolonged delay of tympanic membrane repair may have negative long-term effects. An analysis by Knapik et al. of a cohort of 201 patients without dysmorphic syndromes who underwent tympanoplasty alone found no difference in anatomic outcomes between 0 to 11 years olds compared to 12 to 18 year olds. Anatomic failures were defined as ears with "perforations, middle ear cholesteatoma or tympanic membrane retractions higher than grade 1." Although there was no difference in air–bone gaps between the two age strata, preoperative and postoperative bone conduction thresholds were significantly worse in the older cohort. Knapik et al postulated that this may be due to recurring infections in the setting of a chronic perforation that result in long-term irreversible inner ear damage. Complications can also occur as a result of the procedure itself. Ribeiro et al. divided 79 tympanoplasties From the Division of Head and Neck Surgery and Communication Sciences, Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center (M.A.R., D.K.), Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A.


We report a method for the efficient evaluation of analytic infrared intensities within a generalized Kohn\char21{}Sham density functional theory using Gaussian orbitals and periodic boundary conditions. A discretized form of the Berry phase is used to evaluate a periodic dipole moment and its derivatives with respect to in-phase nuclear coordinate displacements. Benchmark calculations are presented for one-dimensional chains of water molecules and poly($p$-phenylene vinylene).


IntroductionJustice means to specify basic rights and duties and to determine the appropriate distributive shares (Rawls, 1971). Within the context of the rule of law, the notion of justice presumes an egalitarian society. An egalitarian society can mean to each the same, or to each according to some distinctive particularities (Perelman, 1963). Justice is as necessary to a nation-state as oxygen is to human beings, and in its absence societies cannot thrive or stay alive for long (Iqbal, 2006). A state may not be called a state in its true sense, if it has failed to discharge its functions concerning the administration of justice (Chaudhry, 2012). Justice is necessary for the maintenance of public harmony and conflict resolution, sustained peace and safety, ensure development and good governance, and enable enforcement of rights(Armytage, 2012). It is considered a very sacred duty of the state in Islam, which will perform it in consonance with the injunctions of Allah in most sincere and resolute way. Allah Almighty has ordained in the Holy Quran: "O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for Allah, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. But Just: that is next to piety: and fear Allah, for Allah is well acquainted with all that ye do." (Chapter 5, Verse 8).Despite of all the importance justice system is still confronted with many problems all over the world. Overcrowded dockets, legal costs, and delays are the problems lamented almost all over the world (Hazra & Micevska, 2004). One of the grey areas, where our justice delivery system has failed to come up to the people's expectations is that the judiciary has failed to deliver justice expeditiously (Krishnan & Kumar, 2011). Which is the most horrible and repeatedly complained about and the same is considered the main reason for the prevalent dissatisfaction with the legal system (Adler, Felstiner, Hensler, & Peterson, 1982).It is worth mentioning that a law suit cannot be decided overnight and needs an adequate span of time in between the first presentation of the case to a court and obtaining a final judgment (Council of European, 2006). For the disposal of a case in order to conduct inquiries, to collect evidence, to clarify all the questions of law, and to establish the relationship between the parties and thus for the courts to conclude a reasonable decision (Anderson & Gray, 2006)That is why we need to define delay; so that to distinguish undue or unreasonable delay and the delay necessary for procedural observance, also to establish its existence, depict its prevalence and to discover its causes, because in the absence of a definition; delay is a matter of individual perception (Martin, Prescott, Hudson, & Courts, 1981). What is conceived as quick and efficient by a court or a party may be wrong to the other side (Adler, et al., 1982). Delay in justice refers to the time spent in the disposition of case, extra to the time within which the decision of the court was reasonably expected (Balakrishnan, 2007).Although the problem of delay is a universally present but in Pakistan the position has worsened to such an alarming extent which is eroding the very system of administration of justice. It has undercut the public confidence in the judiciary (Iqbal, 2006). Secondly it is more prevailing in civil justice than the criminal justice(Law & Justice Commission of Pakistan, 2003). The gravity of the situation can be determined from the pendency of around 2.5 million of cases in the courts of Pakistan which are estimated to take approximately 15 years to be cleared even if new cases were not registered (Akhtar, Alam, Shafiq, & Detho, 2008). Normally an ordinary civil suit is decided in twenty years and another five years are required for the execution of the decree (International Crisis Group, 2008). The situation is particularly threatening at the lower courts level where the litigants come in the first instance to get justice. …


Temporally and spectrally resolved x-ray emission is an important diagnostic tool for the study of target heating and compression induced by sub-nanosecond laser pulses. In this paper we describe the use of the Livermore 15 psec x-ray streak camera to record x-ray emissions in the 1-10 keV range. In particular, we report significant progress during the past year in defining the camera as a quantitative diagnostic instrument, and its implementation for multi-channel, time resolved K-edge filter measurements. Data will be presented which describe x-ray emission from a laser imploded 87 pm diameter glass shell. Channels centered at 2.6, 4.0 and 5.3 keV provide temporal information which we relate to the absorption and compression phases of laser heating. The relative spectral content is found to be in agreement with standard, time integrated measurements.


User values are a significant part of designing software, but are not always considered the main focus. When performing decision-making activities, user values can get lost among the designers' own biases. This work studies the integration of user values with a design rationale technique, namely Questions, Options, and Criteria (QOC), and also how this integration reflects on a resulting design artifact (a MoLIC interaction diagram). We performed two separate studies with Computer Science students in Rio de Janeiro. We found that user values can be integrated into design rationale using different notations, such as highlighting the values (through circling or underlining) stated in the options or criteria. The decisions made with the QOC method using user values did result in relevant impacts on MoLIC diagrams. Participants who designed for a persona with strong values had richer results than those who used a "generic" persona. In a second study, we found that designers can recognize when user values are embedded into design artifacts. These results are encouraging to continue research regarding user values, with possibilities of developing new methods or updating existing techniques and notations such as QOC or MoLIC to support user values.


Nutrient status in gladiolus corms were assessed following GA3 treatment and number of bud of corm (cut as well as whole corm). The experiment was laid out in randomized block design involve factorial combination with three replications. Result revealed that 5 bud and GA3 200 ppm showed maximum (10.99% and 9.24%) nitrogen uptake whereas phosphorus accumulation (17.26% and 21.88%) was recorded maximum in 200 ppm GA3 and 6 bud corm and 5 bud with 200 ppm GA3 gave maximum (11.93% and 15.87%) potassium content. Minimum (3.36% and 5.37%) nitrogen accumulation was exhibited with 1 bud and control and 2 bud and 100 ppm GA3 application, in context of phosphorus, minimum (4.25%) and (7.11%) was observed with 1 bud and control (distilled water) cormsand also potassium uptake was least (2.75%) and (3.90%) in 1 bud and 200 ppm GA3. Similarly corm and cormel parameters were influenced by whole corms which were treated with 200 ppm GA3 in the both year of experiment. Hence, whole corm as well as higher concentrations of GA3 (200 ppm) enhanced uptake of N, P, K in harvested gladiolus corm as well as corm yield due to potential ofenhancing the source-sink relationship.


Preface Acknowledgements Note on the Translations of the Poems Part I: Background 1. Genesis and Narrative of Winterreise 2. Winterreise in Context 3. Text-Music Relationships: Five Propositions 4. Musico-Poetic Associations: Principles of Analysis Part II: Songs 5. The Emergence of Death as a Positive Option: "Der greise Kopf" 6. Death Contemplated: "Die Krahe" 7. From Hope for the Past to Hope for the Future: "Letzte Hoffnung" 8. Reflecting Lost Hope: "Im Dorfe," "Der sturmische Morgen," and "Tauschung" 9. Choosing Death: "Der Wegweiser" 10. Death Eludes the Wanderer: "Das Wirtshaus" 11. Reflecting on the Inability to Find Death: "Mut," "Die Nebensonnen," and "Der Leiermann" Part III: Cycle 12. The Song Cycle as a Genre: Some Recent Views 13. Winterreise as a Cycle 14. Epilogue: The Meaning of Death in Winterreise Notes References Index


The inelastic scattering of neutrons by liquid /sup 3/He at 0.2 K and saturated vapor pressure has been measured for momentum transfers in the range 10 A/sup -1/


In regard to the balance management for high capacity Lithium-ion battery packs in space, an active balance circuit based on the topology of multi-winding transformer is proposed in the article. The circuit can control the magnitude of the balance current by fixed duty cycle control, to achieve charge balance function. The circuit can effectively improve the balance speed of the high-capacity battery packs, meeting the requirement of balance function and reducing the energy loss of the battery packs, Meanwhile, increasing the service life of the battery packs. The novel balance system can realize modular and scalable. A Simulink model was built for the program. The simulation results prove the correctness and effectiveness of the circuit.


The Nantucket pine tip moth (NPTM) (Rhyacionia frustrana Comstock) is a regeneration pest of young loblolly pines (Pinus taeda L.) that causes tree deformity, shoot dieback, and growth declines. Different silvicultural techniques are used to grow loblolly pine more effectively, including improved genotypes. Some scientists and growers have hypothesized that more expensive full-sibling families (control-pollinated [CP]) seedlings may be more susceptible to NPTM than open-pollinated (OP) families. The study objective was to assess the susceptibility to NPTM of seven loblolly OP and CP families commonly planted in the southeastern United States by observing NPTM infestation rates and pine growth metrics (height, groundline diameter, volume index, and stem form) over two growing seasons. The NPTM infestation rates varied throughout both growing seasons; however, there was no difference in infestation rates among any of the families. Pine growth metrics varied among families at the time of planting; however, growth metrics did not vary after the first and second growing seasons. Results of this study suggest that NPTM management tactics, such as insecticide use, should not be prioritized based on loblolly pine families alone, as the CP families assessed in this study were not more susceptible to NPTM than OP families.
 Study Implications: In this study, five open-pollinated half-sibling families and two control-pollinated full-sibling families had no differences in Nantucket pine tip moth (NPTM) infestation rates through two growing seasons (2019–2020). High infestation rates (greater than the 3-year 30% NPTM infestation rate economic injury levels) in September and October for both years and each genotype indicated that NPTM control measures may be warranted for young plantations in the Atlantic Lower Coastal Plain. Growth and stem form differences by genotype had not occurred after two growing seasons but may develop as these stands age and merits their future monitoring.


The use of contracts to coordinate the relationship between a grape grower and a winery has become common practice in DOC Rioja. In this paper, the role and the characteristics of contracts in coordinating the supply of grapes between independent wine grape growers and wineries in DOC Rioja is examined. A review of existing theories on contractual choice in the wine industry indicates that although contracts are important to facilitate the coordination of the relationship, they are subject to a number of problems such as the measurement of grape quality. Finally, we distil the main lessons of this research and present them as advice for wineries and grape growers designing contracts.


Currently, the approaches from the results of word or document vectorization significantly achieve their success in large-scaled language processing, such as high-quality neural network machine translation trained on a large-scale parallel corpus. The data driven approach with minimum concern in language knowledge efficiently captures its syntactic information. However, there are some deficiency occurred in capturing the semantic information, such as in the similarity measure when performs on both sides of the language interpretation. We propose an add-on process to correct the similarity measure of the concepts defined in WordNet. Similarity measure is the fundamental procedure for language processing highly depending on the context integration and its representation method.


Abstract Visual methods, like photovoice and photo-elicitation, have attracted modest attention in gerontological inquiry with diverse and vulnerable community-dwelling older adults. Visual methods are based on the idea of inserting images, produced by informants or not, into research interviews, allowing informants to be the experts of knowledge and meaning-making while the researcher becomes the student. The empowerment of informants as subject-collaborators in the research process is a distinctive feature of visual methods. Benefits include revealing unique insights into diverse phenomena by evoking elements of human consciousness, feelings, and memories that words may not easily express and surveys may not easily capture. This symposium presents qualitative research using visual methods to illuminate the lived experiences, voices, and perspectives of diverse and vulnerable older adults living in New Jersey, Connecticut, and California. Reyes' research critiques how the operationalization of mainstream notions of civic participation becomes exclusionary and provides a more inclusive understanding of how civic participation is enacted and performed through the practices of Latinx and African American older adults living in New Jersey. Versey's research with homeless older adults subverts the attention often focused within cities by interrogating the meaning of place with informants whose needs and desires are often overlooked or obscured by residing in a small, rural town in central Connecticut. Yeh's research on aging in place inequalities chronicles the everyday lives of housed and unhoused older San Franciscans to reveal their tactics for negotiating a moving tension between the daily interiority of identity and contingencies of a changing environment. Qualitative Research Interest Group Sponsored Symposium.


Tasks carried out by public administration in the field of protection of children from domestic violence in the context of compliance with the standards arising from the Convention on the Rights of the Child A child's right to protection from domestic violence can be interpreted from a number of international legal instruments such as the Geneva Declaration adopted in 1924 by the League of Nations or the Declaration on the Rights of the Child adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1959. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1989, refers most widely to it. It contains a number of principles indicating the need for the State to safeguard the rights of the child to protection from harm by family members. They relate to the rights of children to: live, be in the care of their parents, establish foster care for them, be free from interference in their private, family or domestic life and strictly protect them from domestic violence. The Republic of Poland, as a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, is obliged to observe the provisions indicated therein. The aim of this article is to analyze the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child concerning the right of the child to be free from domestic violence, as well as to analyze and evaluate the legal regulations in force in Poland related to the performance of public administration's tasks in the field of protection of the child from domestic violence, in terms of their compliance with the standards resulting from the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The research was conducted on the basis of the formal and dogmatic method, the method of critical analysis of literature and the historical method. Słowa kluczowe: Konwencja o Prawach Dziecka, prawa dziecka, przeciwdziałanie


Official statisticians have been dealing with a diversity of data sources for decades. However, new sources of data in the Big Data domain provide an opportunity to deliver a more efficient and effective statistical service. This paper outlines a number of considerations for the official statistician when deciding whether to embrace a particular new data source in the regular production of official statistics. The principal considerations are relevance, business benefit, and the validity of using the source for official statistics in finite population inferences or analytic inferences. The paper also describes the Big Data Flagship Project of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which has been established to provide the opportunity for the ABS to gain practical experience in assessing the business, statistical, technical, computational and other issues in using Big Data. In addition, ABS participation in national and international activities in this area will help it share experience and knowledge, while collaboration with academics will enable ABS to better acquire the capability to address business problems using the new sources of data as part of the solution.


One of the key policies that aims to enable parents to achieve a better work–life balance is to increase childcare support. But for many families childcare is no longer a simplistic choice between care provided by a family member (usually the mother) and non-family care (Janta, 2014). There are research studies showing that the majority of mothers prefer to care for their young children themselves - almost invariably up to the age of three, very often up to school age, and in some cases all the way up to school-leaving age (Hakim, 2009). In line with the EU strategies for 2020 and the need for an integrated approach to Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) the article provides a diagnosis of the situation in Romania on the development of ECEC. In addition to a literature review of the Romanian situation in the EU context, the first part of the article analysed the main drivers for ECEC development in Romania. The second part of the article shows the results of quantitative and qualitative research studies developed by the author on the topic of the article as a researcher at the INCSMPS (National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection). Results show that ECEC arrangements are related to age of the child, parents' preferences, and labour market opportunities. Childcare provision cannot be developed in isolation and should be explored in the context of other systems that interact with the care of children and the family unit.


Transmission and reception of pictorial information in digital form generally requires high data rates that impact on minimum channel bandwidths, on signal power levels, or both. The advent of optical fibers for signal transmission has reduced channel bandwidth constraints, however signal power requirements have oftentimes limited system performance in practical applications. Coherent signal detection techniques, (similar to those implemented in microwave radio systems), have positively impacted on the performance of optical front-ends used in certain digital receivers. In this paper, the use of multifrequency/multiphase signals for digital image transmission is proposed, in order to achieve high data throughput with moderate bandwidth and power requirements, while implementing coherent demodulation and a "direct bit detection" receiver. The proposed system utilizes 16 tone-quadriphase signals, to produce 64 signals, each representing 6 data bits. For image transmission at 6 bits per pixel, this scheme is attractive because bits represented by each signal, are recovered simultaneously using a novel "direct bit detection" scheme. It involves receiver coherent demodulation, dual correlations, and binary comparison operations made against zero thresholds. This results in a receiver signal processing algorithm that is independent of input signal-to-noise ratio. The receiver's bit error rate is derived and evaluated, and performance plots are presented showing system efficiency.


Transient‐receptor‐potential cation channel, subfamily M, member 3 (TRPM3) serves as a polymodal calcium sensor in diverse mammalian cell‐types. Mutation of the human TRPM3 gene (TRPM3) has been linked with inherited forms of early‐onset cataract with or without other eye abnormalities. Here, we have characterized the ocular phenotypes of germline "knock‐in" mice that harbor a human cataract‐associated isoleucine‐to‐methionine mutation (p.I65M) in TRPM3 (Trpm3‐mutant) compared with germline "knock‐out" mice that functionally lack TRPM3 (Trpm3‐null). Despite strong expression of Trpm3 in lens epithelial cells, neither heterozygous (Trpm3+/−) nor homozygous (Trpm3−/−) Trpm3‐null mice developed cataract; however, the latter exhibited a mild impairment of lens growth. In contrast, homozygous Trpm3‐M/M mutants developed severe, progressive, anterior pyramid‐like cataract with microphthalmia, whereas heterozygous Trpm3‐I/M and hemizygous Trpm3‐M/‐ mutants developed anterior pyramidal cataract with delayed onset and progression–consistent with a semi‐dominant lens phenotype. Histochemical staining revealed abnormal accumulation of calcium phosphate‐like deposits and collagen fibrils in Trpm3‐mutant lenses and immunoblotting detected increased αII‐spectrin cleavage products consistent with calpain hyper‐activation. Immunofluorescent confocal microscopy of Trpm3‐M/M mutant lenses revealed fiber cell membrane degeneration that was accompanied by accumulation of alpha‐smooth muscle actin positive (α‐SMA+ve) myofibroblast‐like cells and macrosialin positive (CD68+ve) macrophage‐like cells. Collectively, our mouse model data support an ocular disease association for TRPM3 in humans and suggest that (1) Trpm3 deficiency impaired lens growth but not lens transparency and (2) Trpm3 dysfunction resulted in progressive lens degeneration and calcification coupled with pro‐fibrotic (α‐SMA+ve) and immune (CD68+ve) cell responses.


ABSTRACT Two simple and sensitive methods are described for the quantitative determination of mebeverine hydrochloride as single ingredient. The first method depends on the application of quantitative 1H-NMR spectroscopy using deuterated chloroform and hexamine as an internal reference standard. The second method is based on measuring the native fluorescence of mebeverine hydrochloride in 0.1 N sulphuric acid at 360 nm with excitation at 290 nm. Furthermore simultaneous determinations of two component mixtures, mebeverine hydrochloride with sulpiride and isopropamide iodide with trifluoperazine hydrochloride are presented using first-derivative and second-derivative UV-spectrophotometry, respectively. The proposed methods have been successfully applied to the determination of the cited drugs in commercial tablets. Compared with the reference methods, the proposed methods are more sensitive, with good accuracy and reproducibility.


Algorithms for Sandhi Yoga (joining) and Vichchheda (Splitting) for Bangla language processing have been proposed. These algorithms may be extended to other Indian languages, including Sanskrit. These may also find wide use in teaching-learning of Bangla grammar.


This study investigated electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) reuse as a raw material in concrete mixes. A comprehensive experimental program consisting of two phases of testing was carried out. The first phase included the replacement of ordinary Portland (Type I) cement by unsieved dust with the percentages of 0, 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10%. The second phase included the replacement of quartz (filler) by sieved dust with the percentages of 0, 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10%. Leaching tests were carried out to find out if arsenic, chromium and lead were contained in concrete. The study concluded that the workability of fresh concrete increased with increasing the percentage of used dust. The use of 2.5% dust resulted in concrete with similar compressive strength and acceptable splitting strength when compared to that of the standard mix. The concrete mixes containing sieved and unsieved EAFD were able to contain arsenic and chromium. Additionally, the concrete mixes containing sieved EAFD were able to contain lead.


We consider the remote estimation of a stochastic piecewise linear signal, observed by a sensor, at a monitor. The sensor transmits a packet whenever the observed signal's slope changes. The packets are transmitted from the sensor to the monitor through an unreliable channel which randomly loses packets. The monitor sequentially estimates the signal using the information obtained from successfully received packets. The sensor does not have any feedback from the monitor. We derive an analytical expression for the average age of incorrect information, a recently proposed information freshness metric. The average age of incorrect information is shown to be a function of success probability of transmission and signal parameters representing the rate and clustering of slope changes. We obtain an upper bound on the mean absolute error of the remote estimate using the slope-weighted age of incorrect information. The age of incorrect information is also studied for a homogeneous multisensor scenario, where sensors use slotted ALOHA and the links between the sensors and the monitor are unreliable due to contention.


This paper outlines the development program for the Global Rescue Alarm Net (GRAN), which is being undertaken concurrently by the Coast Guard, Navy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. GRAN is a concept for providing real-time distress alerting and locating anywhere in the earth through the use of synchronous satellite relay. The program incorporates five separate tasks: Omega ambiguity resolution, ground station modification, Search and Rescue Communicator (SARCOM) production, Testing and Analysis. Future areas of study are also cited.


This study explored the potential of community radio stations to extend information and communication technology benefits to rural communities in South Africa. Using face-to-face interviews, document analysis, observation method, and community conversations, the study examined 10 community radio stations in 10 rural communities in South Africa and found that they are popular, accessible, and affordable, and enjoy the support of their owner-communities but lack the human and material resources necessary for extending ICT benefits to their stakeholder communities. Suggestions on how to more fully develop the community radio stations' potential are provided.