Objective To investigate the clinical performances of Diaton tonometer(DT).Methods Intraocular pressure(IOP)was measured by DT and Goldmann applanation tonometer(GAT)on 206 eyes of 103 patients,and the correlation of IOP measured by DT and GAT were analyzed.Results The mean IOP by DT and GAT were(16.46±2.03)mmHg(1 kPa=7.5 mmHg)and(18.04±2.63)mmHg,respectively.There was no statistical difference in IOP between that by DT and that by GAT(F=0.091,P=0.918).The mean difference between these two kinds were(-1.05±2.12)mmHg,IOP by DT was lower than that by GAT,and there was a correlation between them(r=0.909,P=0.000).There were patients with ocular foreign body sensation,photophobia and lacrimation,and 136 eyes with positive fluorescein staining by GAT;No patient felt uncomfortable and 26 eyes were with positive corneal fluorescein staining by DT.Conclusion IOP measured by DT are highly correlated with that by GAT.DT has a high degree of comfort and can be used in clinical diagnosis.


Either C−H activation or C−C coupling is observed in reactions of titanocene with azines (R1R2CN−NCR1R2), which lead to the formation of complexes 2 and 3, respectively. The reaction with two different metallocene units can yield heterobimetallic bis(alkylideneamido) complexes (4).


Journal citations are increasingly used as indicators of the impact of scholarly work. Because many communication journals are not included in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), SSCI impact factors are potentially misleading for communication journals. The current paper reports a citation analysis of 30 communication journals based on Google Scholar. Journals are ranked in terms of citations and trend data are examined. The findings show that journal rankings based on citations are changing over time with National Communication Association and regional journals dropping in citation rankings and while some more focused specialty journals are increasing in the citation rankings. The results also show that Institute for Scientific Information citations are biased and do not accurately or evenly reflect citations to communication research.


Objective
To explore the relationships among the central nervous system, the lower urinary tract and urinary microbiome by a rat model of stress-induced voiding dysfunction.

Methods
Rats were randomly assigned to stress group (exposure to water-avoidance stress for 10 days), stress-withdrawal group (exposure to the stress and then withdrawal for 2 weeks) or control group. On day 11 for stress and control groups or 2 weeks after day 11 for stress-withdrawal group, the Light-dark box transition test, lower abdominal pain threshold, micturition frequency and cystometry measurements were determined. Urine specimens were collected and processed for 16S rDNA gene sequencing.

Results
Compared to control group, the water-avoidance stress dramatically decreased in the time spent in the light area (P<0.01) and decreased mechanical pain threshold in stress group, which were reversed in stress-withdrawal group. While there was no significant difference in the micturition frequency between the control and stress-withdrawal groups, the stress group (20.33±3.77) showed significantly more micturition frequencies than control (8.14±2.23) and stress-withdrawal group (9.67±1.89) (P<0.01). The stress dramatically increased voiding contractions in both the stress (7.33±1.79) and stress-withdrawal (4.83±1.06) groups compared to control rats (2.71±1.38) (P<0.05). However, the stress-withdrawal group showed less voiding contractions than the stress group (P=0.03). The bacteria diversity in stress group were dramatically higher than those of the other two groups (P<0.01). Almost all specimens of the control rats were dominated by Enterococcacae, whereas samples from the stress group contained more diverse bacteria. The diversity of microbiota in the stress-withdrawal group was between those of the other two groups. LEfSe identified genera differed significantly among groups: Lactococcus and Proteus were significantly increased in in the stress-withdrawal group; Halomonas, Aggregatibacter, Haemophilus, Pseudomonas and Streptococcus were significantly higher in the stress group.

Conclusions
Water-avoidance stress experiments demonstrated the impact of stress on bladder function and urinary microbiome, which tended to be ameliorated after a two-week withdrawal from stress. Further research is needed to understand the connections between central nervous system, bladder and urinary microbiome.

Key words:
Stress; Anxiety; Urinary microbiome; Lower urinary tract symptoms


ABSTRACT The objective of this study is to provide biomarker geochemistry information on shale between sheet-like salts from Qianjiang Depression of the Jianghan salt lake facies Basin, and illustrate the depositional conditions, source organic matter input and maturation. 7 shale samples from Eq34-10 rhythmic were analysed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The investigated biomarkers show that the shale oil are charactertized by an apperent odd-even preference of n-alkane, low Pr/Ph values and a high content of gammacerane and C30+ hopanes, maderate C21-/C21+ ratios, the high relative content of C27 5α(H), 14α(H), 17α(H)- steranes (20R), and an anomaly high C29 sterane ββ/(ββ + αα) value. These biomarker geochemistry characterizations suggested that the shale oils were derived from mixed aquatic organisms and land plants, and deposited in an anoxic and saline-hypersaline depositional environment.


The advances in digital fabrication technology have led to a new generation of integrated circuits capable of performing fast arithmetic operations, and opened the door to the consideration of algorithms that may be implemented with simple structures. When the number of data samples in the input block is prime or a product of primes, the Hartley transform can readily be mapped to circular convolutions and then implemented using transversal filter-type structures. Such a structure is simple and regular, and hence it is suitable for VLSI implementation. The Hartley transform is real-to-real and it is the same for both forward and inverse transformations. Hence, it is simpler and may therefore be somewhat faster than the DFT implemented by the same approach.


A study was designed to show the nature of weathering of an elastomer poly(ester-urethane), and to indicate methods of overcoming the deficiency. Unprotected polymer, when exposed to UV radiation in a Weatherometer, showed deterioration which is characterized by loss of tensile strength, some increase in modulus, and a decreased extensibility of surface skin.


Abstract In Bosnia and Herzegovina astronomy teaching is almost nonexistent. There are only several courses within universities and they are usually given by physicists who themselves have had only elementary courses in astrophysics. When educational outreach is in question, the situation is even more grim. On the other hand, there is a huge interest for astrophysics in the student population. There are several solutions and possibilities which I will present, together with a discussion of the main obstacles which need to be overcome.


We explored which learning outcomes supervisors of master's theses in two cultures wanted their students to achieve and how supervisors helped students to achieve these learning outcomes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten Chinese and ten Dutch supervisors from university language and culture departments. With regard to identified learning outcomes, the Chinese and the Dutch supervisors highly resembled each other: Both considered the development of research competencies (e.g., critical disposition, research process, academic writing) to be the core learning outcomes. Clear differences were nevertheless also observed and reflected in the intention of the Chinese supervisors to prepare their students for a future job versus the Dutch supervisors' aim of preparing students to function in a rapidly changing, increasingly complex and often uncertain world (i.e., research thinking, foster student well-being). With regard to the support reported to be provided by the supervisors, the Chinese and Dutch supervisors again resembled each other in that they both employed a variety of support types. They nevertheless differed in how they used certain types of support. For example, the Chinese supervisors generally reported more overt assessment and control as a reported form of support, while the Dutch supervisors reported being much more covert about this and frequently posing questions to monitor student process and well-being. Dutch supervisors, in contrast to Chinese supervisors, also considered providing emotional support to be important. Our findings thus provided a concrete picture of the actual integration of research into teaching. The differences found between the two groups of supervisors in this interview study may have their roots in differing educational traditions, differing social-economic conditions in the two countries and differing education systems. The differences identified can be particularly helpful for supervisors to become more aware of possible areas of conflict for students from different cultural backgrounds. In addition, the variety of intended learning outcomes and support reported by the Chinese and the Dutch supervisors provides a reference for teachers to integrate research into other types of university teaching, which could involve less student involvement and in parts of a research process. Comparing practices of master's thesis supervisors


A 10 Gb/s automatic gain control amplifier for use in optical receivers was implemented in a SiGe process with f/sub T/=45 GHz. Active peaking techniques were used to achieve a maximum gain of 48 dB with 7.8 GHz of bandwidth. The amplifier demonstrates less than 0.5 dB of peak-to-peak output amplitude variation over a 50 dB input amplitude range. It consumes 30 mW of power from a 3.3 V supply and remains functional at voltages as low as 2.7 V. The amplifier core occupies 0.1 mm/sup 2/ and requires no external components.


Constructing scientific arguments is an essential skill for members of society, especially in a world facing complex socioscientific issues. Educators can help students develop scientific argumentation skills; however, argumentation is a complex linguistic practice and little is known about how English language learners construct arguments in English. We investigated how undergraduate science students' English language proficiency and history were associated with their level of reasoning in scientific arguments (N = 166). We found that participants' English language experiences, including their proficiency and history, were associated with the level of reasoning demonstrated. These findings suggest a need to identify the associated barriers faced by students from diverse language backgrounds and design equitable educational supports and assessments.


Objectives This study is to find out how fungiform papillae count, which represents the density of taste buds, is related to eating behavior of children and adolescents. Methods The authors measured fungiform papillae count, height, and weight of 50 healthy children aged from 2 to 15. To evaluate the severity of anorexia, parents of the subjects answered modified version of Korean Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (K-CEBQ). Children with weight of less than 50th percentile were assigned to low-weight group, while the others to high-weight group. Pearson's correlation test was conducted in order to evaluate the relationship between modified K-CEBQ score and fungiform papillae count. Results Low-weight children scored , while high-weight children scored . (p


Territorial borders of the future European Union imply an integration of the South-East Europe into the EU political and economic structures. Such "map of the European Union" should represent the "European perspective" to the countries of the South-East Europe. At the present time, no-one can foresee when exactly shall countries of the South-East Europe join the EU, however the conditions that must be met are more-less well known and harmonized within the European Commission. Given the political and economic structure of the South-East Europe area, it is primarily "attractive market" for many European producers, as well as for future European investors. To achieve that, it is necessary to create the pre-conditions in the countries of the South-East Europe. Thus, it is necessary to intensify the regional cooperation between the countries in this region, wither by establishing the "classic free-trade zone" or by liberalization of trade through the network of bilateral contracts on free trade. The cross-border cooperation programs should link up all assistance that would be, for this purpose, coming from the EU. The primary goal of this paper is to research the possibilities and priority-areas of the economic-regional and cross-border cooperation in the South-East Europe in the context of its faster integration in the EU, as well as from the perspective of the optimal synchronization of this cooperation with political and economic strategy fo the EU toward these countries. As it is well known, re-unification of the continent is the joint goal of all citizens of the Europe. Key words: cooperation, South East Europe, European Union


Recent investigations in the foundations of physics have shown that a quantum mechanical influence function satisfies a generalized d'Alembert functional equation. The present paper derives the solutions for this equation on a topological linear space


English teaching,by means of language teaching,aims to explore the social and cultural connotation recorded and expressed by the target language.The final goal of college English teaching is to help the students achieve the successful intercultural communication in pure English.Cultural differences must have an effect on college English teaching,so the smooth communication depends on not only the good language structure but also the cultural background knowledge.Therefore,college English teachers should develop the students'intercultural communicative awareness and intercultural communicative competence intentionally.


Community Based Rehabilitation is hard work: visiting individuals and their families at home, identifying those with eye problems and those who are blind, encouraging and referring those whose sight can be improved or restored, providing care and guidance for the irretrievably blind and supporting the rehabilitation of those who return to their families and community after hospital and clinic care

Concepts of prevention of blindness in developing countries have now drastically changed with the introduction of intraocular lenses (IOLs). Now we can consider unilateral cataracts as well as bilateral cataracts. After all, if we operate on unilateral cataract, blindness has been prevented if the second eye should lose sight! What a pity this was not the case when the CBR programme in Mbarara, South West Uganda was initiated in October 1995 – perhaps then results could have been even more convincing – that CBR has a role to play in prevention of blindness. Since many unilateral cataracts were left untreated we are now trying to find them again.

Much of CBR is not easily measurable or quantifiable:

How will we know if the school lesson given by the Community Rehabilitation Worker (CRW) is the reason why the former schoolgirl will come to the eye clinic when she gets cataract in 50 years time?

Assessment day at the Health Unit with patients holding the survey forms

Photo: Liz Moulton


Introduction. 1: The Instruments and Tasks of Economic Policy. 2: Economic Policy: Processes, Institutions and the Australian State. 3: Explaining Economic Policy. 4: Historical Dimensions of Australias Political Economy. 5: A Watershed in Political Economy. 6: The new orthodoxies of Economic Management. 7: The Political Economy of Macroeconomic Policy. 8: Wages policy, industrial relations and the limits of corporation. 9: The Political Economy of Microeconomic Policy. 10: More on Outcomes: Inequality, Investment and Trade. 11: Rethinking Economic Policy


The problem examined in this article is a cameras self-calibration having the varying intrinsic parameters with an unknown planar scene. This method is based on the use of two points through which passes a circle. The planar scene considered permits to calculate the projection matrices of any two points of the scene in used images. These matrices can minimize a non-linear cost function to optimize the initial intrinsic parameters.


Spacecraft structures are subjected to aerodynamic heating during launch and re-entry phases of their operations. The design of these structures poses several challenges to structural designer since the aerodynamic heating, which is the predominant load (Kelly et al., 1983; Shih et al., 1988), induces elevated temperatures that can affect the structural behaviour in several harmful ways: degradation of the elastic material properties, reduction of allowable stresses and generation of high thermal stress due to restrained local thermal expansion/contractions. The success of a re-entry spatial mission in the Earth atmosphere, as well known, is strongly related to the performances of the Thermal Protection Systems (TPSs), which play the most important role (Thornton, 1996). The TPS is the most critical component of a spacecraft since if they are somehow damaged during the mission, a chain reaction can be triggered, leading to a quick propagation of the damage on the whole structure, inestimable economic losses and, above all, losses of human lives. The task of a TPS is to protect the substructure of the vehicle against local and global overheating. In order to ensure the feasibility of interplanetary missions, and in general for the qualification of the critical parts of reentry vehicles, TPS concepts have to be first qualified on-ground and then tested and validated in flight conditions. Thus, Plasma Wind Tunnel facilities have a key role during this qualification process. They should be able to simulate hypersonic air flows encountered during re-entry into Earth atmosphere and to test TPS concepts on full scale demonstrator. Nevertheless, reproducing hypersonic conditions in the wind tunnels is harder, if not impossible, with respect to other motion conditions. As matter of fact, it is very complicated to reproduce simultaneously the enthalpy, the hypersonic speed, the chemical composition of gases and the dimensions of the model, which are the main factors which characterize the motion. As a consequence, a choose is needed between wind tunnels designed for the aerodynamic simulation and those ones designed for the thermal simulation.


Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) can be used to solve decision-making problems in changing and complex environments. It is widely envisioned to have great potential for enabling autonomous driving. However, the large and continuous state and action spaces of autonomous driving tasks in general lead to low exploration efficiency and significantly affect the model training speed. In this paper, we propose a novel autonomous driving framework based on DRL with an intervention module. The module utilizes historical information to predict the status of future states so that evaluation of potential actions can be inferred. By this means, an intrinsic reward is generated to prevent DRL agent from entering poor states with useless exploration. Integrating our DRL model with a perception module which utilizes supervised multi-task learning to extract useful features from raw sensor data, the proposed framework can notably improve the efficiency of DRL training. A case study on the open racing car simulator (TORCS), with inputs from both distance sensors and vision sensors, is carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.


Background and objective: The health literacy includes person's capacity to learn and interpret information. Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy is the most common medical condition in pregnancy first three months that can be stressful for pregnant women and the family. The important role of health literacy in understands the risks before birth by mothers. The objective of this study was determining the health literacy of women with nausea and vomiting in pregnancy. Methods:In a cross-sectional study, 100pregnant women who referred to treatment centers in Neishabur County in year 2015 were investigated using the short test of functional health literacy and modified-PUQE. After confirming the validity and reliability were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results: According to the findings, the age average of participants was25.80%, 81.7%of samples were housewife,21.7%below high school diploma,and47%had average income.45.8 %of subjects had inadequate literacy level,35.6%border health literacy and18.6%had enough health literacy. Health literacy had significant association with Chi-Square Tests with, mother's education level and age (p<0.05). Pearson is showed also a significant association between health literacy and severity of nausea and vomiting (P<0.001).This study also indicated that thereafter the health staff (71.7%) were the most important reference for obtaining health information for the responders. Conclusion: The present study indicated that the limited health literacy. The may affect mothers' perception of risk and their desire to follow the recommendations pregnancy. So should considered health literacy especially in pregnant women with lower levels of education and severe nausea.   Paper Type:Research Article.


The mitochondria, the energy-producing organelles of complex cells, are believed to have once been free-living bacteria that were simply eaten by an ancestral cell. But in last week9s issue of
 Nature , researchers argue that the first complex cell, or eukaryote, was a partnership between two mutually dependent microbes. The host cell was a methanogen, a microbe that consumes hydrogen and carbon dioxide and produces methane, and the future mitochondrion was a bacterium that made hydrogen and carbon dioxide as waste products.


In multi-environment trial (MET) data analysis, breeders are usually interested in performance of genotype across target environment (broad adaptation) and performance of genotype at individual environment (specific adaptation). Hence, the main objective of this study was to predict genetic potential of durum wheat across environment and to observe improvement in heritability across different statistical methods. MET data of durum wheat was taken from Debre zeit Agricultural Research Center (DzARC) of Ethiopian Institutes of Agricultural Research (EIAR) which was planted in 2011 and 2012 year of main season. Then, for the data analysis the standard linear mixed model (LMM) is applied using ASREML packages of R software considering spatial field trend at individual trial and factor analytic model among trial. The result of this study (Table 1) show that on average, DSP2009Off.F4.1H.378-meh.4H.187 genotype perform better than all other genotypes while, the performance of UC1113GPCLR198001/59 genotype is less compared to other genotypes. In addition, when looking at improvement in heritability (Figure 1) across three different statistical methods spatial field trend plus MET together indicate high improvement in heritability than the classical methods.


List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Playing with Leviathan: Job and the Aesthetic Turn in Biblical Exegesis 2. "Jonah Historically Regarded": Improvisations on Kitto's Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature 3. "Call Me Ishmael": The Bible and the Orient 4. Ahab, Idolatry, and the Question of Possession: Biblical Politics 5. Rachel's Inconsolable Cry: The Rise of Women's Bibles Epilogue Notes Index


We lay out here theoretical principles to spectroscopically monitor tungsten net erosion in-situ in a tokamak divertor and review key parameters necessary to predict tungsten erosion and the subsequent divertor lifetime in ITER and future fusion reactors. In high-density attached divertor plasma conditions relevant for fusion reactors (n# > 10'(m*+), the fraction of promptly redeposited tungsten impurities is large (~1) and determines the overall tungsten net erosion. The width of the electric sheath in a tokamak divertor is of the order of several main ion Larmor radii due to the magnetic field lines intersecting the material surfaces at grazing incidence [1], and a vast majority of sputtered tungsten impurities are ionized within the sheath region. In contrast, we show that only tungsten impurities which are ionized multiple times out of the sheath region do not redeposit. As a consequence, the fraction of tungsten impurities which do not promptly redeposit is directly proportional to the fraction of tungsten impurities which are ionized into the higher charge states 4+ and 5+. Therefore, the spectroscopic monitoring of the photonic emissions from tungsten atoms ionized into these high charge states provides an estimation of the amount of sputtered tungsten impurities that do not promptly redeposit and cause the net erosion of tungsten surfaces in divertor.


This article examines offences committed by persons or entities under the Malaysian Wildlife Conservation Act 2010. The problem is that although there is already legislation being currently enforced yet offences on animals and wildlife is on the rise in Malaysia. Among the common offences are wildlife smuggling, sale of unlawfully hunted wildlife, hunting without permit, unlawful delivery of wildlife using courier services and keeping or using protected animals without authorization which is the more rampant of the offences. This paper discusses the rationale for the 2010 Act, licensing and permit requirements and the types of offences committed under the Act. The article also explores the charges levied against parties violating the Act and penalties imposed. The conclusion that can be made from this paper is that offences committed under the 2010 Act were quite rampant as showed in the tables.


The Illuminators is a documentary feature film recounting how Lapland was electrified, but also about sons following in their father's footsteps. (Trailer for the film can be viewed at goo.gl/ttrtpq). I worked on the film as the writer and director from 2015 to 2017. Two students from Lapland UAS (Jani Viitala ja Arttu Tuovinen) did their work practice during the film production under my supervision. The possibility to combine my filmmaking career with my work at Lapland UAS has been tremendously beneficial to all parties: myself, the university and the students. In this article I analyse the creative process for the film and explore the theme of co-operation in arctic environment in the story of the film (i.e. electrification of Lapland) and also in the film production itself.


The paper examines problems of exhibiting, storing and preserving of media art. I demonstrate the challenges of exposure and maintenance of artworks with non-human habitats using the example of Elvin Flamingo's bio art installation Plant~Animals (2021-). Bioethics will be discussed in relation to bio art display and conservation, as well as the study of co-authorship. The paper aims to show that posthumanist rhetoric has a significant role in the preservation of Elvin Flamingo's works of art. I investigate various conservation strategies for works from the Symbiosity of Creation series, including the use of virtual reality in the preservation of media art.


The title complex, [Rh(C7H8)(C4H8O)2]BF4, contains a rhodium(I) centre coordinated in a square-planar manner by two tetrahydrofuran molecules and the mid-points of the double bonds of an η4-coordinated norbornadiene ligand.


Evidence of historic Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis have prompted hydrodynamic modeling efforts to identify potential flow patterns and coastal hazards for plausible future events. In this study we identify the methods used to derive potential seismic source scenarios and present a thorough evaluation of finite element simulations of the tsunamis associated with those scenarios. The first part of this paper deals with regional impacts of potential tsunamis, while the second part evaluates the fate of the modeled waves from the local perspectives of Seaside, OR and Newport, OR. Both parts are composed of physical as well as numerical interpretations of the simulations. Note: A more comprehensive version of this article, http://www.ccalmr.ogi.edu/STH/online/volume17/numberl/mbp/ is available from the Science of Tsunami Hazards web site. The web version contains more extensive results and analyses for each of the tsunami scenarios considered in this study, and includes selected color plots and animations. Science of Tsunami Hazards, Vol 17, NO. 1 (1999) Page 3


This workshop follows a history of successful workshops at OOPSLA around topics in software engineering for pervasive systems. It is known to spawn fruitful and lively discussions from a variety of participants from industry and academia.Sensor networks and Pervasive Computing solutions offer the potential to significantly change business processes, across all industries. Computing and connectivity gets woven into everyday life. Technologies in this space are constantly changing. New wireless protocols, operating systems, and new applications are emerging. Architectures are very highly distributed and often influenced by physical characteristics. The embedded functionality needs to get complemented with corresponding back-end components and services. This workshop will bring together practitioners who have actively been involved in the development of sensor networks and pervasive computing solutions, researchers who have been working in this area, and professionals who have been involved in the definition of standards. The goals are (1) to identify recurring architecture themes and patterns, (2) to raise issues and identify gaps for implementation that need to be resolved; and (3) to discuss new ideas and changes to object technology to better support Sensor Networks and Pervasive Computing Topics of interest include but are not limited to the theory and practice of pervasive sensor networks, emerging standards, development methods, security and privacy, architecture, infrastructure, middleware, quality of service, energy efficiency, adaptability and learning, energy conservation, peer-to-peer systems, mobile agents, integration of heterogeneous components, application case studies, experience reports, adaptation and learning, alternative programming models such as Aspect- and and Ambient-Oriented Programming, modeling, simulation, verification and testing.


In reply to Patrick Bernhard's critical review of my recent book I will make some brief general observations about the study of totalitarian and would-be totalitarian regimes. Some preliminary remarks are necessary. Bernhard locates his review within the context of the debate over Italians' consensus for Fascism – a debate continuing in Italy, with highs and lows, since the mid-1970s. His own approach is clearly very much influenced by the methodologies of cultural history; he looks for emotions, sentiments, practices and experiences in order to form a picture of how Italians lived under the regime. He approves of the history that finds these. There is much to commend this approach, and I would certainly not argue against its value – cultural studies do, indeed, have a great deal to offer. But the methodology of cultural studies is not, and cannot be, the only approach, nor its absence the only criterion for criticism.


To improve the application effect of technology of mixed juice carbonation-clarification by boiler flue gas, the influences of temperature, pH value, treatment time and CO2 concentration on carbonation clarification of mixed juice with CO2 of boiler flue gas was studied and optimized by orthogonal test based on single factor test. The results showed that the optimum conditions of mixed juice carbonation clarification were as such: temperature 50℃, pH 11.0, time 8 min and CO2 concentration 22%. The optimum conditions could provide theoretical introduction for its further usage in sugar mills.


Intravenous fluid (IVF) therapy has been used in clinical medicine since the 1830s during the European cholera epidemic (Severs 2015). Many indications exist for IVF therapy in the critically ill population. Intravascular volume replacement is the most common reason for using large volumes of IVF in the ICU, with sepsis, trauma, burn, and perioperative volume loss requiring replacement. Hypovolemia occurs with reduction of extracellular volume and requires replacement with IVF. Electrolyte repletion, management of acidosis, and prevention and management of drug-induced toxicities are other examples of common indications for IVF (Severs 2015). Many IVFs have been developed to optimize composition and administration in patients requiring treatment. These solutions are classified as crystalloids and colloids. Crystalloid solutions contain small solutes with various amounts of water. The prototypical crystalloid solution is 0.9% sodium chloride (normal saline), with lactated Ringer solution and other various "balanced crystalloid" solutions available for IVF therapy. Intravascular volume expansion from normal saline is maintained for up to 6 hours, with close to one-half of the infusate located in the interstitium (Severs 2015). Colloid solutions contain large molecules that more effectively maintain intravascular volume by exerting an oncotic pressure. Available colloids include iso-oncotic (4%–5%) and hyperoncotic (20%–25%) albumin solutions, semisynthetic colloids like hydroxyethyl starch, dextrans, gelatins, and blood products. Despite the longstanding use of available IVFs, considerable debate exists regarding the optimal fluid choice, dose, and method of administration in the critically ill population. This chapter aims to discuss recent advances in knowledge of IVF therapy and provide insight into optimal use of various fluid choices in this population. Reviewed by Serena A. Harris, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCCCP; Ohoud A. Aljuhani, Pharm.D., BCCCP; and Abigail D. Antigua, Pharm.D., BCCCP


The seismic response analysis and exprimental study for five typical types of electrotechnical box of NPP have been completed. Structural free vibration characterization and seismic response were calculated by means of beam-platelinear mathematical model of finite element method. Seismic tests have beencarried out for three typical types of electrotechnical box. Structural natural frequency and acceleration response from seismic tests were measured. Calculation results fairly meet test data. Thus effectiveness of the mathematical model is further verified.


The purpose of this study is to analyse the effectiveness of time management training on academic stress employees who are registered as students at private universities in Bandarlampung. This study was conducted in Bandarlampung with a population of 60 fulltime employees. The sample are employee who actively works and holds managerial positions in the company and registered as a student at the university. This study is quantitative method using smartPLS 3.0. software. The results revealed 2 major finding. (1) time management training had a negative and significant effect on employee's academic stress; (2) By understanding the concept of time management, and setting goals and priorities abilities be able to reduce the employee's academic stress. Keywords : Time Mangement Traning, Academic Stress, Fulltime Employee


We propose a cooperative patching architecture to achieve continuous live video streaming to a set of cooperative but unreliable end hosts. In this design, each end host caches an initial portion of the video content before playback. It then keeps the video that has been played out for a certain time before discarding it. An end host maintains a list of patching parents, and retrieves lost data from one of its patching parents. Any end host that has the requested video content can be a patching parent. Several parent selection algorithms are proposed and evaluated in this paper. This architecture relieves server load by completely shifting video patching responsibility to the client side. Video content is replicated in multiple locations across the overlay network to provide fast and timely data recovery. Cooperative patching is especially advantageous for legacy video systems, since it does not require modification of the video server. Simulation experiments demonstrate that our design can achieve continuous video streaming with moderate cost


Over the past few decades, designers are considering a range of applications ranging from mobile communications to automatic machine learning. Speeches are less commonly used in the electronic and computer field due to the complexity and variety of signals and sounds. By the use of modern algorithms and methods, speech signals are processed to recognize text. In this project, we will build a online speech to text engine. The program receives speech during the run through the microphone and uses sample speech to recognize the text. The known text can be saved to a file. This is being developed on Java platform using the eclipse workbench. Our speech-to-text program directly gets and converts speech into text. It can add other great applications, giving users a different choice of data input. A text-to-speech system can also improve accessibility of the system by providing data access options for users who are blind, deaf or disabled. Voice SMS application allows the user to record and convert spoken messages into an text message. The user can send messages to the phone number which is entered. Speech recognition is done through the Internet, connecting to Google's server. The application is based on input messages in English. Speech recognition uses a technique based on hidden Markov models (HMM - Hidden Markov Model). It is currently the most effective and flexible method of speech recognition.


This thesis deals with the ways distinct types of parties in government or in opposition have adapted their strategies of competition to handle EU integration. The thesis draws on data from four countries – Britain, France, Ireland and Spain – over the past 15 years of electoral politics. The thesis provides a comparative and longitudinal analysis of their strategies of politicisation and of depoliticisation in relation with the parties" different statuses within their party systems (incumbent, mainstream opposition and peripheral opposition) and in three distinct arenas (national elections, European elections and EU referendums). It investigates how these parties have handled EU issues in three complementary dimensions of their activities: in their strategies of political communication, in intra-party debates over the EU and in their responses to the consolidation of the European electoral arena. The thesis uses a mixmethod approach based on claims-making analysis, thick qualitative comparisons and descriptive statistics. Contradicting the idea of a gradual europeanisation, it first provides evidence for the stable marginalisation and nationalisation of EU affairs. Second, while the rise of euroscepticism is often discussed, the thesis demonstrates that conflicts over EU matters are rarely prominent in practice, and that they remain sporadic and confined to certain electoral channels, with mainstream parties actively compartmentalising the potential divisive effects of EU issues within their organisations. Third, it points to the centrality of the twofold behaviour of opposition parties, explaining why the politicisation of EU matters has remained contextual and less linked to the role of radical parties than is usually recognised. It finally delineates a process of increasing seclusion between the national and European political arenas that can be observed through the trajectories of MEPs careers in relation to their domestic political spaces or through the disengagement of national parties from campaigning in EU elections. Jury: Alexander H. Trechsel (EUI, Supervisor), Mathieu Petithomme (candidate), Florence Haegel (SciencesPo), Stefano Bartolini (EUI), Robert Ladrech (Keele University)


For the last two decades polymeric membranes have been used in several gas separation processes. For the high selectivity and permeability various types of membranes have been developed. Thin layers to high dense and hollow fiber to asymmetric wounded materials to determine the effective separation of CO2 from CH4 were used. Ideal membrane materials must have provisions of durability, chemical and thermal resistance, effective separation and economical production and operation. In this review it is observed that most of the polymeric materials face plasticization problem in the separation of CO2 from CH4. This is due to the condensable nature of carbon dioxide that causes swelling in most of the polymeric membranes due to which the efficiency of selectivity and permeability is affected. Most extensive works have been carried out in developing the chemical structure and compositions of polymeric materials to improve the separation properties. Cross-linking and blending of molecular sieving called "mixed-matrix" are the most useful approaches applied in this regard, but no where it is found to be fully effective and ideal polymeric membranes commercially fit to replace the existing systems of CO2 separation from the natural gas. Still area is open to work on to produce more worth full materials and switch towards liquid membranes and hybrid systems.


The profile of five fatty acids in samples of Longissimus dorsi muscle tissue was evaluated on 120 bovine animals from 40 meat enterprises producing high quality carcasses in lowland tropical areas declared free of hoof-and-mouth disease by vaccination. Regarding the profile of long chain fatty acids it was found that the general average of ether extract was 7.41 ± 3.61% with a high cv (48.8%). Additionally, for this variable were established differences (P< 0.001) due to forage type, feed supplement, type of breed and meat enterprise. Similarly, there were differences (P< 0.005) in regard to the effect of gender, carcass classification, and use of hormones. For total fatty acids an average of 58.11 ± 8.44% was found, distributed with mean values for saturated fatty acids of 30.61 ± 4.96% and for unsaturated fatty acids of 27.49 ± 4.23 %, of which 22.87 ± 4.04% is composed of monounsaturated fatty acids and 4.61 ± 0.79% of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Ether extract values were higher with the Brangus breed (17,68 ± 3,75%) followed by Zebu x Bos taurus and Zebu Brahman crosses with values of 7,51 ± 4,76 and 7,30 ± 5,07%, respectively. The pure Romosinuano racial type and the crosses of Zebu x Brown Swiss and Zebu x Romosinuano showed the lowest values for this variable.


Toxoplasma gondii parasite has three contagious stages: the oocytes, which is introduced into the external environment with the feces of the infected cats, which later form the spores. The current study depended on detection of T. gondii parasite used to Polymerase chain reaction, as well as the lack of time and effort required to perform them, the result of the test, 10 samples were selected for dissection and investigation of B1 (399bp) in their organs (liver, eye and intestine) using the normal polymerase chain reaction technique. There were (4) samples (40%) of the birds containing the tissues on the gene B1 (399bp) and recorded the highest incidence of the gene in the samples of the liver, where 30% (three samples) and one sample in the small intestine by 10% B1 in the eye samples, the results of the statistical analysis indicated that there were significant differences in the ratio of TWA D gene B1 in the tissues of the bird members under the level of probability of P⩽0.05, In the study of histopathological changes in turkey birds members, the presence of Lesions lesions associated with infection in both the liver and the small intestine was characterized by the presence of congestion in the blood vessels, as well as the expansion of the jibaniat with the loss of the engineering structure of the liver. In the tissue with a degenerative degeneration.


The thermal decomposition of iron phosphate trihydrate FePO4·3H2O was investigated in air using TG-DTG/DTA. The FePO4·3H2O decomposes in two steps, and the final decomposition product (FePO4) was studied by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The activation energies of the second dehydration reaction of FePO4·3H2O were calculated through the isoconversional methods of Ozawa and Kissinger−Akahira−Sunose (KAS), and the possible conversion functions have been estimated through the Coats−Redfern method. The specificity of thermal decomposition was characterized by identification of the bonds to be selectively activated due to energy absorption at the vibrational level, which was assigned by comparing the calculated wavenumbers with the observed wavenumbers in FTIR spectra. The kinetic model that better describes the second reaction of dehydration for FePO4·3H2O is the Fn model as a simple n-order reaction, and the correspondi...


Performers from non-Western locations have a number of options when attempting to access Western music markets. This case analyzes the manner in which a performer from a tiny national market, remote from the Western music industry's North Atlantic center, succeeded in deploying her heritage and location to gain a foothold in regional and international markets without the involvement of a powerful Western company and/or patron to mold and mediate her access.


One example of the impact of neoliberalism on urbanization is that of the Business Improvement District (BID), where business and property owners collectively manage a district to ensure that it has an appropriate 'business climate'. The responses of BIDs to the language practices of the homeless, such as panhandling, tend to be ambivalent because homelessness is an issue that requires sensitivity. Nevertheless, overly aggressive panhandling can have adverse repercussions for businesses. This paper focuses on San Francisco's Union Square, which is the city's commercial retail center, and makes two key points. One, language policy needs to be viewed as planned, unplanned or transgressive, where these characterizations are necessarily from the perspective of an specific actor, such as the Union Square BID. Two, there are interesting attempts to transform panhandling practices from above, pushing these towards neoliberalism with the consequence that the panhandlers themselves sometimes respond by reimagining panhandling as work or a business.


Lake eutrophication and algal bloom is one of the most important environmental problems facing China's lakes, and it is also the focus of lake eutrophication control of the world's attention. The monitoring data on chlorophyll concentration was analyzed every one month, combined with corresponding weather conditions from 2004 to 2006. According to the degree of eutrophication in Taihu Lake, it is divided into five Lakes: heavy eutrophication region V, eutrophication region IV, middle-level eutrophication region III, light eutrophication region II and nutrition region I. Based on fuzzy factor optimization method, the average wind speed, average pressure, average temperature and sunshine hours was selected to discuss the influence mechanism of meteorological factors on the algae bloom in Taihu Lake. Considered the four meteorological factors as the input layer nodes, BP neural network model was applied to build the zoning monitoring and early warning model of blue algae in Taihu Lake.


In the class II region of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), four genes implicated in MHC class I‐mediated antigen processing have been described. Two genes (TAP 1 and TAP 2) code for multimembrane‐spanning ATP‐binding transporter proteins and two genes (LMP 2 and LMP 7) code for subunits of the proteasome. While TAP 1 and TAP 2 have been shown to transport antigenic peptides from the cytosol into the endoplasmic reticulum, where the peptides associate with MHC class I molecules, the role of LMP 2/7 in antigen presentation is less clear. Using antigen processing mutant T2 cells that lack TAP 1/2 and LMP 2/7 genes, it was recently shown that expression of TAP 1/2 alone was sufficient for processing and presentation of the influenza matrix protein M1 as well as the minor histocompatibility antigen HA‐2 by HLA‐A2. To understand if presentation of a broader range of viral antigens occurs in the absence of LMP 2/7, we transfected T2 cells with TAP 1, TAP 2 and either of the H‐2Kb, Db or Kd genes and tested their ability to present vesicular stomatitis vires and influenza virus antigens to virus‐specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes. We found that T2 cells, expressing TAP 1/2 gene products, presented all tested viral antigens restricted through either the H‐2Kb, Db or Kd class I molecules. We conclude that the proteasome subunits LMP 2/7 as well as other gene products in the MHC class II region, except from TAP 1/2, are not generally necessary for presentation of a broader panel of viral antigens to cytotoxic T cells. However, the present results do not exclude that LMP 2/7 in a more subtle way may, or in rare cases completely, affect processing of antigen for presentation by MHC class I molecules.


Resumen en: What compelling forces drive Dominican women to risk their lives in an undocumented journey to Puerto Rico? To answer this question, this essay explore...


A novel framework for residential smart energy systems is proposed. The model integrates the consumer behavior in the dynamics of the technological and environmental components of the system. The objective is to classify and optimize the whole system, which includes the dynamics of the consumer. The framework is based on Markov process, model detection and Hidden Markov Model Theory. The behavior of the consumer is classified from a sequence of available observations within a set of reference classes. The detected class is used as prior information to detect the state of the system and provide feedback to the consumer to reduce the probability that undesirable states occur within a time window.


Owing to the insufficient evidence of causality,exploring the essence of the law by means of the scientific method based on causality has problems.Giving up causality and applying the scientific method which pursues maximum probability will result in pragmatism of law,while sticking to the thought of causality,even if the Hume problem can be solved,will lead to the complete determinism and a loss of free will of human.This paper asserts that the philosophy research of law should pay the same respect to rationality and non-rationality,and attach importance to the value of human as well as the objectivity.


43% (10 to 82) 95% (87 to 98) 43% (10 to 82) 95% (86 to 98) Infarctions alone and with other pathologies 30% (13 to 53) 100% (94 to 100) 100% (59 to 100) 78% (67 to 87) DLB probable Lewy bodies alone and with neuritic plaques 22% (3 to 60) 100% (95 to 100) 100% (16 to 100) 91% (82 to 96) Lewy bodies alone and with other pathologies 16% (2 to 48) 100% (95 to 100) 100% (16 to 100) 87% (77 to 94)


The control of grid-connected inverters is recently executed with digital microprocessors due to the advances in digital signal processing technology. However, the digital realisation has a drawback of the phase lag induced by the time-delay. This phase lag challenges the stability and robustness of the controller of the inverters. In view of the challenge, this paper presents a comprehensive review of time-delay compensation techniques employed in both model-free (MF), and model-based (MB) controls of an inverter in grid connection. MF techniques mainly use proportional-integral, and proportional resonance controllers with some techniques to reduce time-delay. Meanwhile, for MB, this paper discusses the commonly used control techniques, which are the Smith predictor, modified Smith predictor, deadbeat controller and model predictive controller. Several related techniques from the literature that have been adopted to mitigate the delays are tabulated comprehensively, and critical issues regarding the MF and MB techniques are also discussed. Finally, this paper presents a on which suggests a hybrid technique from the and to give a for


Survivability has emerged as a new phase for the development of network security technique, and how to improve the system survivability using effective strategy is an important problem. In this paper, by analyzing the fuzzy matrix game (FMG) theory and network survivability mechanism, a novel strategy selection model for network survivability based on FMG theory and its dynamic analysis method are presented from the macroscopically view. The result of instance analysis and validation show that the proposed method can provide guarantee conditions for network survivability effectively.


In this paper, focusing on the health of people posted on Twitter, we propose a method for determining urgency and disease using morpheme analysis of natural language processing model Bert and morpheme analysis tool Janome. SNS, like Twitter, spreads power and sometimes has an influential role in communicating information such as catastrophic disasters or health abnormalities to people they know. By analyzing this information, one can expect to notice the disease of an acquaintance sooner.


Existing tree construction mechanisms are classified into source‐based trees and center‐based trees. The source‐based trees produce a source‐rooted tree with a low delay. However, for the applications with multiple senders, the management overheads for routing tables and resource reservations are too high. The center‐based trees are easy to implement and manage, but a priori configuration of candidate center nodes is required, and the optimization nature such as tree cost and delay is not considered. In this paper, we propose a new multicast tree building algorithm. The proposed algorithm basically builds a non‐center based shared tree. In particular, any center node is not pre‐configured. In the proposed algorithm, a multicast node among current tree nodes is suitably assigned to each incoming user. Such a node is selected in a fashion that tree cost and the maximum end‐to‐end delay on the tree are jointly minimized. The existing and proposed algorithms are compared by experiments. In the simulation results, it is shown that the proposed algorithm approximately provides the cost saving of 30 % and the delay saving of 10 %, compared to the existing approaches. In conclusion, we see that the cost and delay aspects for multicast trees can be improved at the cost of additional computations.


New strict optical orthogonal codes (SOOCs) are presented, which can possess any number of pulses in each codeword while maintaining the minimum auto- and cross-correlation constraint for incoherent optical processing. The proposed nonconstant-weight SOOCs (NCW-SOOCs) can be used to support data transmissions cost effectively with different quality of services in optical code-division-multiplexing systems. The design of NCW-SOOCs is discussed.


Iodobenzene-catalyzed synthesis of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines from aryl ketones with mCPBA as a cooxidant in ionic liquid is described. The method is simple, rapid and practical, generating Imidazo[1,2-a]pyridines from the aryl ketone without isolation of α-tosyloxyketones in good to excellent yields.


MUTUAL IMPEDANCE CONSIDERATIONS IN TWO DIMENSIONAL PLANAR ACOUSTIC ARRAYS WITH SQUARE PISTON ELEMENTS Mustafa Oğuzhan Saçma M.S. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering Advisor: Hayrettin Köymen December, 2015 Large acoustic arrays have tremendous value in military and civil applications for producing well-formed beams. In order to realize the potential gains of these applications enabled by large acoustic arrays, it is essential to calculate and take into account the acoustic coupling of the sonar arrays. Although many studies have been conducted on this phenomenon, the practical and theoretical studies in public literature remain inadequate especially on mutual radiation impedance of the acoustic sonar arrays. In order to address this need, self and mutual radiation impedances of square piston elements in two-dimensional planar acoustic arrays are investigated in this thesis. Impedance matrices are formed from the self and mutual radiation impedances of these elements. Operation of arrays and possible mutual radiation impedances are analyzed through the active simulations of planar arrays. Importantly, the mutual impedance data is tested on a generic equivalent circuit model of a piston transducer. Resonance of these transducers and Rayleigh-Bloch waves are also observed as the outcome of these tests.


An adiabatic experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of channel geometry on gas-liquid two-phase flow characteristics in microchannels. A mixture of water and nitrogen gas was pumped through a 96 μm × 96 μm square microchannel and the flow pattern, void fraction and pressure drop data were obtained and compared with those previously obtained in a 100 μm circular microchannel. The frictional pressure drop was determined from the measured total pressure drop, and the two-phase flow pattern and void fraction were determined from image analysis of the video recordings. In the square channel, 136 runs were performed over a range of 0.09 ≤ jG,AVG ≤ 62 m/s for the average superficial gas velocity and 0.01 ≤ jL ≤ 4 m/s for the superficial liquid velocity. The frictional pressure drop data showed that the calculations based on a separated–flow model were best at estimating the frictional pressure drop for both microchannels. No particular effect of the channel shape was found for the two-phase frictional pressure drop. The void fraction-to-volumetric quality relationship was also found to be similar for both shapes of microchannels, exhibiting an exponential increase in void fraction with increasing volumetric quality. The empirical correlation that describes the void fraction-to-volumetric quality relationship for the square microchannel was developed earlier from the measured data for the circular microchannel. Observations of the recorded images indicated the two-phase flow patterns to be primarily intermittent with liquid and gas slugs. The liquid film surrounding the gas core displayed a smooth or ring-like structure. The probability of each interfacial structure occurring was examined in detail to develop a novel flow pattern map consisting of four regions named slug-ring flow, ring-slug flow, multiple flow and semiannular flow. Between the square and circular microchannels, the two-phase flow maps exhibited transition boundaries that were shifted depending on the channel shape. The region of ring-slug flow that appears in the circular microchannel collapsed in the square microchannel, possibly due to the suppression of the liquid-ring film in the corners of the square channel.Copyright © 2003 by ASME


The article examines historical role of intelligentsia as a carrier of civil and national selfconsciousness, which is conditional upon ethnic variety, organization of society, specific nature of the national mentality, and as a result Russia becomes a united spiritual and sociocultural space.


Abstract: Enforced disappearance in Africa occurs on a daily basis and no one is immune from becoming a victim. The practice, which commenced during the colonial times, continues today. Governments routinely use enforced disappearance as a tool to oppress the opposition and instill fear among the population in order to retain power. It is also used in the context of migration, as well as in many other contexts and against a variety of victims. As enforced disappearance is a crime committed by State officials with an interest in concealing it, the statistics on its prevalence are limited and do not show the full extent of the crime in Africa. Further, the lack of political will to acknowledge the use of this practice means that many African States lack policies and laws to prevent, investigate and punish the perpetrators of enforced disappearance. In the last two years, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights adopted two resolutions raising awareness of the crime and paving the way for drafting and adopting specific guidelines to address this crime, which would be a first step in setting up a holistic framework to eradicate enforced disappearances on the continent.


Provided is an information processing device, comprising: a state determination unit which determines the state of a document of interest; a comparison unit which, if it is determined that the document of interest is in an abnormal state, compares a registered number which is registered among numbers which are associated with documents which have previously been determined to be abnormal, with the number which is associated with the document of interest, and obtains a comparison result; and a counter update unit which, if the comparison result is no match, updates a prescribed counter.


Although physical properties of natural gas are readily available in the literature, the determination of such properties using a hand-held calculator can be of great convenience to the engineer. Two typical examples of gas properties often required in gas transmission and reservoir engineering calculations are compressibility factor (z factor) and viscosity (..mu..). In this article, programs developed for determining these properties are described.


Convolution is a primary mathematical operation used in many signal processing and analysis algorithms. High dependence of the complex systems on the correct operation of the convolver demands its continual improvements mostly related to the decrease of resource consumption. The paper proposes a model of 2D convolution massively used in the algorithms of image processing. The paper provides a detailed description of the model structure with focus on the implementation aspect. The model is particularly applied to the convolutional layer of Convolutional Neural Network, currently the most known image-based deep learning method. The key difference of the proposed model compared with other common implementations lies in the placement of line buffers. The correctness of the model design is validated through the simulation discussed at the end of paper.


One might be forgiven for thinking that any consideration of Adorno and analysis could, all too easily, be confined to a good deal of intellectual handwringing.* And indeed, a sensible way to begin such discussion might well involve weighing carefully Adorno's scattered pronouncements on analysis against the relatively few examples we have of his own analytical work. This might be followed by commenting on the obvious inadequacies of the latter for a contemporary analytical practice, while moving on nevertheless to suggest that the promise held out by Adorno's wider theory remains tantalising. In conclusion, one might lament the apparently unbridgeable gap between the critical theory contained in the aesthetics and any approach to the musical text that preserves some kind of analytical rigour. I do intend to do a little of this kind of hand-wringing in the following pages, but not very much of it, as I shall proceed before too long and indeed perhaps rashlyto undertake some actual music analysis. For my own feeling is that either Adorno's theory as a whole does affect the way we go about analysing music or it doesn't. If it does, then we should be exploring this in dialogue with musical analysis itself, rather than clinging on to theoretical discussion as an endless 'putting off' of the moment when we have to get our hands dirty with musical specifics. If on the other hand it has no effect on the way we analyse, then we can all go home and carry on much as before with analysis being to a great extent independent of an aesthetic, sociological or critical enquiry of


One of the most fascinating aspects of Chinese English in the contemporary age is the growing practice of code-mixing on China's Internet. This study uses participant observation to explore the 'mixing' practices of Chinese netizens in online social networking communities, by focusing on code-mixing in domains of government administration, pop culture and social interaction. The results of the study suggest that a mixed-code variety of Chinese English is gaining popularity in China's homegrown social networks. For the young generation in mainland China, 'mixing' has become part of their everyday communication practices as they build multicultural identities, transform the traditional social relationships and practice their social responsibilities, using new communication technologies as well as their linguistic and cultural repertoires.


Child protection conferences are key meetings in the social work child protection process in England. They provide the context where decisions are made about how best to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and constitute an important opportunity for social work services to work in partnership with parents; yet there is little research about what happens interactionally in these meetings and particularly about parents' participation. Using interactional sociolinguistics, we analyse the data from three audio-recorded child protection conferences, focussing on sequences where concerns are raised and responded to, to illuminate how parent involvement is accomplished interactionally. We look specifically at the linguistic and discursive features of turns and the management of the floor, connecting the sequential nature of the account sequences to presence and participation. The analysis shows a contrast between professionals' participation versus parents' presence in this asymmetrical event, suggesting a marginalisation of parents' contributions and a mismatch between the principle of partnership working with parents and practice in this area of child protection social work.


Dermatologists have always led the medical world in counseling their patients about the dangers of indoor tanning.8 Recent medical literature has strongly supported this stance. Use of tanning beds, even once in a lifetime, increases the risk for melanoma, especially in individuals younger than 45 years.9 Use of indoor tanning devices also is associated with squamous and basal cell carcinomas. The association with skin cancer is strongest for individuals having used tanning beds in their youth.10 In July 2009, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer placed UV-emitting tanning devices, including tanning beds and lamps, on their list of radiation devices that can cause cancer. Among the major hazards of indoor tanning are skin cancer formation, especially melanoma of the skin and eyes; dependency; cataract formation; allergy; and photoaging.11,12 This recognition of the carcinogenic effects of UV light from indoor tanning has been met with a modest increase in legislation reducing adolescent access to indoor tanning. While legislation provides some impediment to access to indoor tanning facilities by teenagers, 32% of the 22 cities with youth access legislation evaluated have no inspections and 32% conduct inspections less than once a year.13 Strong legislation banning access to indoor tanning for those younger than 18 years needs to be enacted across the United States and should be paired with stricter enforcement of such legislation. These basic measures will lay some groundwork toward blunting the annual increase of melanoma incidence reported in the United States in the last 2 decades.


Reasonable Transmission network planning scheme is important for the economic and stable operation of power system. In this paper, a comprehensive evaluation index system has been constructed with considering four aspects. Aiming at the current problem of weight calculation in the comprehensive decision-making, and considering the limitations of the traditional fuzzy evaluation methods, a comprehensive evaluation method of the transmission network planning scheme based on the intuitionistic fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (IFAHP) is proposed. This method takes the hesitation of decision makers into account and improves the objectivity and rationality of the evaluation results. Finally, taking the IEEE Garver-6 node system as an example, the validity and feasibility of the comprehensive index system and intuitionistic fuzzy analytic hierarchy process were verified.


The demand for better results among school leavers in Botswana, like in many other places in the world, has been increasing in recent years, but what do the scores students get in examinations really mean? Do they mean such school leavers are adequately equipped to join the world of work and fully participate in the development process? Is classroom instruction geared towards achieving the goals of the syllabus or it is a mere examination preparedness exercise? To what extent can mid-year and final examinations be taken as a valid measure of the syllabus? To find the answers to these questions and others, the study, which was survey inferential in nature, comparatively content analysed the subject matter content as well as cognitive skill content of the midyear as well as the final examinations, and the subject matter content as well as well as cognitive skill content of English language syllabi. The data was then analysed using SPSS by conducting Pearson correlation and Fisher's z-score transformations tests. Both literature review and findings for this study indicated a tendency among instructors to teach more to fulfil the requirements of the examinations than those of the syllabus. Correlation between the content of the mid-year examinations and that of BGCSE was found to be significant in most cases. It was recommended that teachers be engaged in in-service courses that emphasize test development and that assessment of English should include oral exams. Article visualizations:


Epidemiological studies suggest that the observed association between urbanicity and psychosis may be explained in part by social deprivation, reduced social capital affecting cohesion and trust, and minority group and ethnic density effects, which in turn may represent aspects of "social defeat." In addition, urbanicity is also associated with pollution, noise, and lack of green space, which may negatively impact a range of health outcomes. This chapter reviews the neuroimaging literature on brain function, structure, and connectivity in relation to urbanicity. Research in patients with psychosis has mostly shown associations of urbanicity with brain functioning, rather than structure or connectivity. Neuroimaging research in healthy individuals may support altered social stress processing as a possible explanatory mechanism. Altered reward processing associated with urbanicity may provide an explanation for the possible influence of urban environments on dopamine dysregulation and the pathogenesis of psychosis. Mentalizing and sensory gating deficits may also mediate some of the negative effects of the city on mental health. A sustained effort toward exact replication is required to further develop this promising field.


The antiferromagnetic Ising model on a square lattice is studied by the dynamic pair approximation, and the competition between the Glauber and Kawasaki dynamics is examined at zero temperature $T=0$. In the phase diagram drawn as a function of the competing parameter $p$, the important result such as the self-organization is found, and the effects of the spin-exchange strength in the Kawasaki process on the ordered ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic states are discussed. We find that the exchange in the Kawasaki dynamics favors the ordered ferromagnetic state.


Multicarrier code‐division multiple access (MC‐CDMA) is an efficient method for high‐speed data transmission. MC‐CDMA systems are mostly affected with high peak‐to‐average power ratio (PAPR) and this may reduce the spectral efficiency of the system. This paper presented the PAPR reduction of a MC‐CDMA using partial transmit sequence (PTS) method via whale optimization algorithm (WOA) and modified brain storm optimization (MBSO). For quadrature phase‐shift keying (QPSK) modulation, our proposed method uses pseudorandom sequence (PRS) at dissimilar amount of active users. MBSO algorithm optimizes time delay and carrier frequency offset (CFO), and thus, we can minimizes the intercarrier interference from the carrier signal. Thus, we can achieve high‐speed data transmission in MC‐CDMA with PTS system. The results show that 64‐bit QPSK has superior performances in case of bit error rate, PAPR, spectral efficiency, maximum likelihood sequence estimation, normalized mean square error, minimum mean square error, CFO, and mean square error. Hence, the performance variations for the abovementioned parameters are 60%, 23%, 12%, 15%, 40%, 5%, 14%, and 3%, respectively. These all the outcomes are taken for dissimilar modulation and the different channels.


Time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) is a powerful technique for time-resolved measurement of fast and weak light signals used in a variety of scientific fields, including biology, medicine, and quantum cryptography. Unfortunately, given its repetitive nature, TCSPC is recognized as a relatively slow technique. In the last ten years, attempts have been made to speed it up by developing multichannel integrated architectures. Yet, for the solutions proposed thus far, the measurement speed has not increased proportionally to the number of channels, reducing the benefits of a multichannel approach. Recent theoretical studies and prototypes have shown that it is possible to implement a new multichannel architecture, so-called router-based architecture, capable of optimizing the efficiency of data transfer from the integrated chip to the data processor, increasing the overall measurement speed. However, the first implementations failed to achieve the theoretical results due to implementation flaws. In this paper, we present a new logic for the router-based architecture that can operate at the same laser frequency and solve the issues of the previous implementation. Alongside the new logic, we present a new integrated low-jitter delay line combined with a new method for timing-signal distribution that allows the proper management of the pixel timing information. The new implementation is a step closer to realizing a router-based architecture that achieves the expected theoretical results. Simulations and bench tests support the results here reported.


We fabricated the AWG of 70 × 60 µm2size us ing Si photonic wire waveguides, and success fully observed the clear demultiplexing charac teristics with a channel spacing of 11 nm and a crosstalk of −13 dB.


Since the founding of SCA the interface of communication and instruction has been seen as a central concern of the profession. Contempory interest has expanded the breadth and depth of focus in this area. This concern should receive even greater attention in the immediate future.


Australian artist Denise Green speaks about cultural globalisation and the similar metonymic thinking between Eastern and Aboriginal aesthetic ideas as expressed in their artwork, in contrast to conventional Western thinking. She states that she used the concept in creating a series of triptychs with images of roses in memory of her mother, whom she considered manifested in the roses.


1. Department of Emergency Medicine, New York Methodist Hospital, New York City, New York USA 2. Department of Emergency Medicine, Elmhurst Hospital Center, New York City, New York USA 3. Department of Emergency Medicine, Cabrini Medical Center, New York City, New York USA Correspondence: Steven H. Silber, DO, FACEP Department of Emergency Medicine New York Methodist Hospital 506 Sixth Street Brooklyn, New York 11215 E-mail: email@example.com


Clinical reports of nontantrumous head-banging in early childhood provide vivid descriptions of children repetitively striking their head against fixed objects such as a crib headboard or side railing.1-3 In contrast to head-banging related to childhood tantrums, nontantrumous head-banging in early childhood is characterized by compulsive repetitiveness in form and rhythm1,4 and occurs most often during periods of low arousal such as before sleep, when awakening, or when alone in a crib or playpen.2,4,5 Nontantrumous head-banging typically emerges before 12 months of age1,2,5 and declines rapidly by 36 months.2,6 Boys exhibiting nontantrumous head-banging outnumber girls by as much as a 3:1 ratio.1,2,5,6 Although there have been anecdotal reports of physical injury (such as abrasions, contusions, and calluses) among some young children, previous studies have not systematically addressed the question of whether nontantrumous head-banging in early childhood is associated with physical injury.2,3,7 The purpose of this study was to document the occurrence of physical injury related to nontantrumous head-banging among young children.


A novel joint transform correlator(JTC) is designed. In this technique, phase-encoding method is used to reduce the influence of the extraneous signals such as zero order term, the conjugate cross-correlations between reference and input targets, etc. To sharpen the correlation peaks, a modified logarithmic transform algorithm is proposed, which greatly improve the discrimination ability. Simulation results show the proposed system performs well in both noise-free and noisy environment.


L-3 Communications, Electron Devices Division (EDD) has developed an inductive output tube (IOT) with large instantaneous bandwidth for radar and communications applications. As in conventional IOTs, this wideband IOT (WBIOT) provides high efficiency, good linearity, and compact size through emission-gated modulation of the electron beam at the cathode surface. The extended interaction output circuit can be configured to meet required gain and bandwidth profiles.


The application of Systems Engineering to real world problems relies upon an understanding of lifecycle and process. Many attempts have been made to produce generic models of Systems Engineering process, which can then be applied to real world problems. More recent Systems Engineering (e.g. ISO/IEC 15288 and ANSI/EIA 632) standards have taken a more abstract approach. The standards describe a lifecycle and process framework, and give guidance on how to tailor the framework to specific problems. This paper explores the approach taken by the standards to describe Systems Engineering in this way. The difference between a project and a programme are defined; and the application of lifecycle tailoring to each is discussed. Finally, a generic lifecycle framework is described, and examples of its application given.


Seventeen in vivo and in vitro insertion mutations in the TR‐region of the octopine Ti plasmid B6S3 of Agrobacterium tumefaciens were constructed. They include mutations in each of the five TR transcripts. All mutants retained their oncogenic properties and induced tumors with wild‐type morphology. Determination of opines in tumors induced by mutant Agrobacterium strains showed that production of mannopine and agropine are TR‐linked traits. Two transcripts are necessary for the synthesis of mannopine and a third one for the conversion of mannopine into agropine. None of the mutations prevents the excretion of opines. In addition, none of the five transcripts is essential for transfer and integration of the TR‐region.


Parking structures are increasingly serving as entryways to large complexes and as such should be accorded the same high level of concern about security and access control as other more visible entries in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. A number of tools and design strategies exist to make them more secure. Some can be added at any time as a retrofit and others can must be incorporated into new construction. Simple devices can limit access through the use of automatic vehicle identification or card access systems. Monitoring is another preventive step. The most common is closed circuit television, but two new technologies are also promising: license plate recognition and digital photographic scans of customers comparing them to databases of known criminals.


The response time of solid state drives (SSDs) has dramatically reduced according to the spread of non-volatile memory express (NVMe) devices. These devices have response times of less than 100 micro seconds on average. The response time of all-flash-array systems has also drastically reduced through the use of NVMe SSDs. However, there are applications, particularly, virtual desktop infrastructure and in-memory database systems, that require storage systems with even shorter response time. Their workloads were found to contain many input-output (IO) concentrations. We define IO concentration by using a declarative style. Input-output (IO) concentrations are aggregations of IO accesses. They appear in narrow regions of the storage volume and continue for periods of up to about an hour. These narrow regions occupy a few percent of the logical unit number capacity, include most IO accesses, and appear at unpredictable logical block addresses. To drastically reduce the response time of these workloads, we developed automated tiered storage system called "automated tiered storage with fast memory and slow flash storage" (ATSMF). The memory component of ATSMF is a memory with a non-volatile feature. The system predicts the remaining duration of IO concentration, calculates the response-time increase during migration and response-time decrease after migration, and migrates the IO concentrations if the response-time decrease after migration surpasses the response-time increase during migration. Experimental results indicate that ATSMF is at least 20% faster than flash storage only and its memory access ratio is more than 50%.


This article will provide an overview of arbitration-related judgments rendered in 2015 by the courts of Ireland and the United Kingdom and consider whether they have adopted a supportive role to the arbitral process. There have been some interesting developments in both jurisdictions and the impact of these will be discussed.


Biomarker is a generic term. According to a working group at the United States National Institutes of Health, a biomarker is "a characteristic that is objectively measured and evaluated as an indicator of normal biological processes, pathogenic processes, or pharmacologic responses to a therapeutic intervention." An effective biomarker should allow precise and accurate measurements with a fast turnaround time at reasonable cost. Moreover, it should provide information that is not already available from careful clinical assessment, and its performance should be complementary to other tests. Ideally, a biomarker should assist decision-making and ultimately enhance clinical care. This article focuses on the potential place of blood biomarkers in a research career for junior investigators, but the principles apply to other biomarkers, such as imaging, clinical, or electrophysiological measurements.


The purpose of this study is to establish a policy of tolerance towards multicultural families, foreign emigrants, and North Korean defectors on Jeju Island. To analyze the problems of intolerance by interviewing them. To achieve this through objective, analyzed data of the reality on tolerance and intolerance and through organized discussions on multiculturalism and tolerance on Jeju Island. Through this study, the following implications can be made. Firstly, people on Jeju Island are fairly open and tolerant. Secondly, there is a correlation between fluency in Jeju dialect and the level of tolerance. Thirdly, it is important to overcome the cultural gap. Fourthly, there are several cases of intolerance when using transportation and shopping. Fifthly, there is a tendency of denigrating foreigners from poor developing countries. Sixthly, most people would like to recommend Jeju Island to friends and family members. Through this study, it can be concluded that understanding differences among members of multicultural society with 'regards, supports, and aids for coexistence as equivalent members of Jeju society' are necessary.


Abstract This paper addresses Mark Silk's theory of "unsecular media" through a case study of a visit the Dalai Lama made to the United States. Silk contends the themes (what he calls "topoi") media use to cover religion are derived from Western faiths. Thus, according to Silk, when Western religious principles are used to write about Western religious practices, those practices are generally evaluated positively. In the analysis that follows, I examine the extent to which Silk's topoi were used to report about Buddhism, an obviously "Eastern" religion. The basic findings suggest that Silk's topoi were readily applied in the stories analyzed here, but more important that the tone of coverage this produces was quite positive. These findings raise a very important question: Are the topoi that Silk has delineated the direct product of Western religion, or are they more accurately the reflection of general moral principles that are accepted by journalists and a large part of their audience?


We measured the effects of symmetrical spectacle blur on stereo thresholds using anaglyphlc dynamic random element stereograms (ADRES) across a two octave range of hypercyclopean spatial frequencies in three subjects. Symmetrical blur elevated subjects' stereo thresholds. The absolute and relative amount of threshold elevation increased with hypercyclopean spatial frequency.


The paper reviews the research on instructional leadership and, through identifying problems emerging in Indonesian school reform, suggests some sustainable solutions. There are some discrepancies in the processes of Indonesia's school reform, and the objectives of the national education reform do not seem to have been reflected in the actual implementation. School leadership is suggested to be a decisive factor in student attainment. There is a scarcity of research on Indonesian school reform, and this paper's study of instructional leadership emphasises the need to identify and overcome problems in order to move towards optimising student achievement.


Vocational overshadowing has been defined as an underemphasis on career concerns when personal problems coexist. This study explored whether vocational overshadowing occurred based on observers' perception of the setting (i.e., either career counseling center or mental health counseling center). Clinicians in-training viewed an analogue counseling session in which the only difference between the two vignettes was whether the session was conducted in a career counseling center versus a mental health counseling agency. The participants then completed measures of the working alliance, evaluation of session process, and level of client's neuroticism. Clinicians in-training perceived the working alliance, session factors (i.e., depth, smoothness, and arousal), and client's level of neuroticism similarly, regardless of the setting of the session. The only slight difference was in the participants' perceptions of the session conducted in a career center. Implications of these findings for research, practice, and education were discussed.


X. fastidiosa (Xf) is a Gram-negative, xylem-limited bacterium that causes Pierce's disease (PD) of grapevines (Chatterjee et al. 2008). Xf is transmitted to plants by insect vectors and once in the xylem, Xf is postulated to migrate, aggregate, and form biofilm that clogs the vessels leading to PD. We, and others, have studied Xf proteins and genetic mechanisms involved in these steps (Guilhabert and Kirkpatrick 2005, Meng et al. 2005, Feil et al. 2007, Li et al. 2007, Shi et al. 2007, da Silva Neto et al. 2008, Cursino et al. 2009, Cursino et al. 2011, Cursino et al. 2015) with the goal of better understanding PD virulence and for development of prevention strategies.


Abstract JAE's White Issue is long overdue. The notion that architectural experimentation requires a rigorous feedback between design and research has been at play in design pedagogy since at least the 1960s and 1970s, which included the seminal research studio by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas 1; the rise of operations research and systems engineering; the urban networks research of Shadrach Woods, the Smithsons, Constantinos Doxiadis, or Kenzo Tange; and the structure and materials research of Buckminster Fuller, Frei Otto, and Robert Le Ricolais, to name but a few. Concerns about the deterministic instrumentalism of systems thinking led to a new wave of humanism and composition, seen especially in the postmodernist uses of both historical examples and junkspace vernaculars as a Disneyesque brand image. The work of Venturi and Scott Brown, ironically, was to lead the way on the heels of the "duck vs. decorated shed" conclusions of Learning from Las Vegas.2 Unlike most postmodernists, however, Venturi and Scott Brown did not abandon research, and their understanding of the relationships between pop culture, branding, and marketing techniques remains sophisticated and timely.


Piersma et al., Eur. J. Immunol. 2010, in press A chronic immune response usually ends up producing collateral damage to the body as well as attacking the pathogen, but regulatory T cells (Treg) limit such damage. Acute infections can produce very vigorous immune reactions that are also capable of producing significant collateral damage, so does the same mechanism exist there? Yes, according to Piersma et al., who show that pathogen-specific Treg are induced in acute viral infections in healthy humans. IL-10 is essential in limiting collateral damage during an immune response, and although antigenspecific Treg can produce IL-10, it is unclear whether Treg play a role in this particular process. Piersma et al. investigated the immune response to acute influenza infection and found that many of the cells within the IL-10-producing, influenza-specific T-cell population function as Treg and exert their suppressive function upon stimulation with influenza. These Treg not only blocked the activation of CD4þ T cells, but also limited the expansion ofCD8þ T cells by interference with the IL-2 axis.


As a guideline for brightness and contrast control after taking pictures, we investigated the effects of brightness and contrast on emotions in black-and-white photographs. We measured JND(Just Noticeable Differences) to decide the change level in brightness and contrast at first. And then, for 88 black-and-white photographs, we made 10 brightness/contrast-changed versions based on JND s. Observing photographs, 321 people rated their emotions on positive-negative, dynamic-static and light-heavy dimensions with 7-point scales. The results showed that brightness and contrast in black-and-white photographs could affect the feelings based on positive-negative and light-heavy dimensions. It implied that emotional variations in dynamic-static dimension could be vulnerable to other visual properties.


Most pharmaceutical wastewaters contain amoxycillin trihydrate in trace or significant amounts. These compounds are toxic to aquatic life; and by extension to humans. Adsorption is one of the successful methods used to remove these pollutants from water. However, most pharmaceutical effluents occur in a wide range of pH which is a key parameter of adsorption process. This study aimed at evaluating the most feasible pH value for optimized adsorption of amoxycillin trihydrate using Maerua decumbens activated charcoal. M. decumbens charcoal and activated charcoal were prepared and characterized for functional groups. 500ml of 5g/L amoxycillin trihydrate sorbate was then subjected to batch adsorption at 300rpm for 2 hours. The sorbent weight used was 2.25g for both normal and activated charcoal. Parallel studies were conducted at 20C and 25C at varying pH values from 2.0 to 10.0. The initial (Co) and final concentrations (Ct) were analyzed by spectroscopic absorbance at 334.5nm. The activated sorbents had more functional groups compared to that of the normal M. decumbens. This led to more adsorption efficiency of up to 77% for the activated sorbent compared to 67% for the normal sorbent. Increase in pH values increased adsorption efficiency up to pH 8.0 after which adsorption efficiency decreased. The adsorption isotherms conducted revealed formation of both monolayers and multiple layers. These findings will greatly impact on wastewater purification strategies to eradicate water pollution globally.


The basic characteristics of the soil seed bank in flood plain grassland of the Fen River in Taiyuan region were investigated and studied. It was showed that there were 17 species of herb, 2 species of bush in this area. Among them, 15 species were annual which accounting for 78.9%, 14 species were typical wet land plant which accounting for 73.7%. They were dominant species in the soil seed bank. The maximum density of the seed was 33033 grains/m 2 and the minimum was 400 grains/m 2 which average density was 21461 grains/m 2. The density was depended on the ecology characteristics of the species or of the bearing fruits. The soil seed bank was affected by trends of the river flow, the soil moisture content and quality, the people activity etc. Horizontally, the further distance of the river to soil located , the higher density of seed bank was.


We demonstrate spatial resolution of ferromagnetic resonance in a microscopic sample of YIG using ferromagnetic resonance force microscopy (FMRFM). Measurements were performed on a small single crystal YIG film grown on a GGG substrate, roughly rectangular in shape 20 µm×~150 µm and 3 µm thick. The perpendicular and parallel force geometries of FMRFM, in conjunction with an external bias field both parallel and perpendicular to the film, were used to scan the sample. This enabled the detection of strong signals, even at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. The fundamental and higher-order magnetostatic modes were observed to have 26–29 Gauss separation. The intensity of these modes exhibited spatial variation as the magnetic tip was scanned over the sample, and this behavior is qualitatively explained by DE theory. An improved fabrication method for magnet on cantilever was employed, which yielded a spatial resolution of 15 µm. These results demonstrate the potential of FMRFM for investigating the spatial dependence of ferromagnetic resonance, and for studying the anisotropy fields and exchange coupling effects within multilayer films and small magnetic systems.


The present invention is a name "embedded system and method for detecting vapor volcanic ash cloud." For early detection of the aircraft has been flying machine fitted with pozzolanic ash plume concentration dangerous aircraft vapor cloud flow system and method. The method generally includes detecting infrared emission characteristic measurement of jet engine exhaust, and the step of generating a detection signal when the intensity of the spectrum peak wavelength at or near infrared emission exceeds a threshold value.


For a company seeking to do business online, advances in technology have made the process easier than ever before. However, while many companies stand to gain numerous benefits from online trading, they also face serious risks. Organisations need to ensure that their websites comply with legislation relating to trade practices, privacy, defamation, discrimination, confidentiality, contracts and transborder data flows. Penalties for failing to comply can range from the company being fined tens of thousands of dollars to executives spending time in prison. Even when the penalty is small, the offending company inevitably suffers considerable damage to its reputation and brand.


The main anesthetic concern with oral submucous fibrosis is progressive restriction of mouth opening due to fibrosis producing difficult airway. Securing airway by nasotracheal intubation and tracheostomy are associated with potential complications. Flexible fiberoscope is not available in all the institutes. Submental intubation using intubating laryngeal mask airway is an acceptable alternative technique in such situations. It also provides an unobstructed surgical field.


In an earlier article, Kifowit and Stamps [7] summarized a number of elementary proofs of divergence of the harmonic series. For a variety of reasons, some very nice proofs never made it into the final draft of that article. With this in mind, the collection of divergence proofs continues here. This informal note is a work in progress. On occasion, more proofs will be added. Accessibility to first-year calculus students is a common thread that will continue (usually) to connect the proofs.


This thesis aims to investigate the processes of institutional and strategic communication developed by the Consejo de Evaluacion, Acreditacion y Aseguramiento de la Calidad de la Educacion Superior (CEAACES). The importance of this study lies in the strategic context marked by the processes for the assurance of the quality of Higher Education and its development in recent years in Ecuador (2007-2017), this within the framework of the deep changes worldwide and regional regarding the implementation and internationalization of Higher Education.

The results and reflections that were obtained, through a qualitative methodology, are properly related to this context, which, like all radical change, is eminently conflictive. For this reason, we have investigated the processes of institutional communication carried out by CEAACES during a historically conflictive evaluation process, such as the recategorization process of the University of Guayaquil (2016-2017). The application of a SWOT method, among the main actors of the university community, gave us opinions and comments about the processes of institutional evaluation, which clearly corroborate our hypotheses.

Finally, we were able to conclude how the communication strategies of CEAACES first of all: (a) rejected the endogenous consequences of the conflict and, therefore, (b) were insufficient at the time of lowering the institutional conflict (authoritarianism) and (c) can promote processes more transparent and participatory.