TRAFANE, LEANDRO GABRIEL M.Sc. Universidade Federal de Pelotas (FAEM/UFPel). December, 2014. Soybean industrial seed treatment and their effects on the quality during storage. Advisors: Lilian Vanussa Madruga de Tunes, Dr. The soybean seed treatment is an economically recommended technique to protect the seeds against biotic and abiotic factors that can decrease their physiological quality and genetic. This study aimed to analyze the seeds quality and vigor after being submitted to different seed treatment recipes and slurry volume. The experiment was done using soybean seeds of Variety NK7059RR. The seed treatment, germination test, accelerated aging test and emergence were set at the Seed Lab of Syngenta Seedcare Institute in Holambra-SP. Eleven seed treatment recipes were performed and analyzed statistically using completely randomized arrangement with factorial design 11 x 6. The treatments were: T1-untreated seeds; T2-Maxim Advanced + Cruiser 350FS + FloRite 1197; T3-Maxim Advanced + Cruiser 350FS + Avicta 500FS + FloRite 1197; T4-Maxim Advanced + Cruiser 350FS + Stimulate + FloRite 1197; T5Maxim Advanced + Cruiser 350FS + Avicta 500FS + Stimulate + FloRite 1197; T6Maxim Advanced + Cruiser 350FS + Booster Agrichem + FloRite 1197; T7-Maxim Advanced + Cruiser 350FS + Avicta 500FS + Booster Agrichem + FloRite 1197; T8Maxim Advanced + Cruiser 350FS + Avicta 500FS + Booster Agrichem + Stimulate + FloRite 1197; T9-Maxim Advanced + Cruiser 350FS + Água; T10-Maxim Advanced + Cruiser 350FS + Água; T11-Stimulate + Booster Agrichem. The seeds physiological quality can be affected by high slurry volumes applied as seed treatment. Overall the germination were above 80%, proving that it is possible to treat and storage soybean seeds up to 180 days before sowing. It is also possible recommend mixtures of products tested in this study, with slurry volume up to 1200ml / 100Kg seeds whereas from seeds batch with high standards of quality and vigor.


In the context of Narendra Modi's recent electoral victory, Moiz Tundawala questions the widespread belief that India's Constitution can impose checks and balances on power. A version of this article first appeared on Kafila.


The paper gives an algorithm for generating extended chaotic sequences,and the extended chaotic sequences are applied to digital image encryption.The algorithm is based on the n-order rational Bezier curve,and the generated sequences feature good randomization.With a nonlinear discretization of the sequences,we can get the relevant integer pseudo-random sequences.The experimental results indicate the algorithm has good encryption effect in encrypting and deerypting digital images.


In most institutions around the world, thesis and dissertation processing makes up just a fraction of the job duties of graduate school and library professionals.  However, an ETD submission and management system is a great tool that streamlines workflows and makes processing even more efficient.  In this workshop, we will introduce Vireo 4.0, the latest version of the open source Vireo ETD Submission and Management web application scheduled for release in summer of 2017.  This workshop is intended for anyone interested in ETD submission systems as well as current Vireo users. In the first hour, the presenters will provide a broad overview of Vireo, describing what it does, what it integrates with, and how it saves time and duplication of effort for students, graduate school professionals, librarians, and repository managers. Existing Vireo users may choose to enter at the second hour when we demonstrate the new and powerful features of Vireo 4.0 that make it the most flexible and customizable ETD submission system available today. Learning outcomes include: Familiarity with the basic functions of Vireo from student and staff perspectives Familiarity with the new organizational structure of Vireo and the creation of workflows Understanding of how to apply controlled vocabularies to select fields Strategies to create new workflows for more efficient ETD processing Knowing where to find documentation or get help


Safety considerations involving `icing-up' with solid air of the sample space of top-loading cryostat equipment are discussed, where uncontrolled de-icing may cause a flash-to-gas, leading to trapped volumes being placed under high pressure. Methods of prevention and resolution of freeze-ups are elaborated, and a case is made for using a helium leak detector as part of sample changing and a heating wire wrapped around the sample stick for de-icing.


Collaborative learning in collective adaptive systems is an active, open research area. In the Allow Ensembles project, we investigate this problem by a component called Evolutionary Knowledge. One problem arising in this context is that concepts of collaborative learning can hardly be studied without an actual real-world system. In this paper, we present our concept of a simulation tool of a real-world urban traffic system used as a framework to investigate collaborative learning. In contrast to existing ready-to-use traffic simulators, its purpose is not the accurate simulation of microscopic or macroscopic traffic flow models. Instead, it is used to generate data to train a knowledge model learning context parameters and their interrelations, which cannot be deduced from an analytical description of the system, but arise as emergent properties from the complexity of the system. Using the simulation we want to investigate the effects of different collaborative learning strategies on emergence in a complex urban mobility system applying different knowledge exchange patterns among entities. We describe the need for and the area of application of our simulator, show the differences to existing traffic simulation tools, and present an outline of its conceptual architecture.


The proliferation of the Internet of Things (IOT) and the increasing reliance on cloud computing are critically dependent on the reliable operation of Information Technology (IT) equipment. The associated increase in the power consumption by IT equipment is putting pressure on the data center administrators to expand the temperature-humidity operating envelope and in some cases resorting to airside economizers, thereby, exposing their mission critical IT equipment to gaseous and particulate contamination, especially in regions with high pollution levels. It is therefore incumbent on the IT equipment manufacturers to not only improve the performance of their products but to also make them more robust against the harsher environments in which their products are expected to operate. It is necessary to develop more accurate failure models and as well as more reliability qualification test methods for the known failure modes such as the creep corrosion on printed circuit boards (PCB). Creep corrosion is the corrosion of copper and sometimes silver metallization on PCBs and the creep of the associated corrosion products to the extent that the corrosion products electrically short circuits closely spaced metallized features on PCBs. An iNEMI task force has been successful in developing a flowers of sulfur (FOS) based method for the qualification testing of PCBs for robustness against creep corrosion. The test has proven successful in correctly predicting the high propensity to creep corrosion on PCBs from lots that suffered creep corrosion in the field. The test has also consistently shown very extensive creep corrosion on PCBs from an iNEMI experimental test lot with electroless nickel on immersion gold (ENIG) finish. Since the ENIG finished PCBs are very popular in the consumer electronics industry due to their excellent solderability, there is an urgent need to determine the root cause of their susceptibility to creep corrosion and to provide a solution that will make them more robust against creep corrosion. The morphology of the ENIG finish and the creep corrosion products were analyzed using a range of analytical tools including optical microscopy (OM), focused ion beam (FIB), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Preliminary cross-section analysis has shown that there is a gap formed between two nickel layers at the edge of the solder mask. The gap provides an easy path for copper ion migration and for copper sulfide creep. In an effort to improve the robustness against creep corrosion, ENIG finishes with various phosphorus content and post-treatments were studied. The paper will present the root cause of the severe creep corrosion on the ENIG finished PCBs and ways to improve their robustness against creep corrosion.


Limestone is exploited as dimensional building ston es for construction. Fire and high temperatures cause significant changes in physical & mineralogical properties of limestone in buildings and historic monuments. A strategy to inv estigate limestone is developed with reference to different limestones in Malta and in H ungary. The changes in properties of the limestones are assessed with respect to different t est conditions including homogenous heating and the standard fire curve. The startegy i ncludes an assessment of the physical parameters (density, porosity, water absorption, UP V, uniaxial compressive strength and indirect tensile strength); petrographic analysis (polarising microscope, XRD, SEM); colour and durability anlysis. A preliminary investigation of specific properties of limestone exposed to high temperatures is presented.


Patient-reported outcomes (PRO) are used as primary endpoints in medical research and their statistical analysis is an important methodological issue. Theoretical assumptions of the selected methodology and interpretation of its results are issues to take into account when selecting an appropriate statistical technique to analyse data. We present eight methods of analysis of a popular PRO tool under different assumptions that lead to different interpretations of the results. All methods were applied to responses obtained from two of the health dimensions of the SF–36 Health Survey. The proposed methods are: multiple linear regression (MLR), with least square and bootstrap estimations, tobit regression, ordinal logistic and probit regressions, beta-binomial regression (BBR), binomial-logit-normal regression (BLNR) and coarsening. Selection of an appropriate model depends not only on its distributional assumptions but also on the continuous or ordinal features of the response and the fact that they are constrained to a bounded interval. The BBR approach renders satisfactory results in a broad number of situations. MLR is not recommended, especially with skewed outcomes. Ordinal methods are only appropriate for outcomes with a few number of categories. Tobit regression is an acceptable option under normality assumptions and in the presence of moderate ceiling or floor effect. The BLNR and coarsening proposals are also acceptable, but only under certain distributional assumptions that are difficult to test a priori. Interpretation of the results is more convenient when using the BBR, BLNR and ordinal logistic regression approaches.


Negeri Sembilan Minangkabau shoreline is an area which is administratively a part of the territory of Malaysia . Although oceans apart and separate countries due to the Dutch and British colonial rule , most people Negeri Sembilan still acknowledge that their ancestors came from Minangkabau Indonesia. Language and customs of the inhabitants practiced Negeri Sembilan today has many similarities with the language and customs of the Minangkabau . Migration to Negeri Sembilan Minangkabau tradition associated with wander contained in the Minangkabau culture suggested that boys leave home as adults to seek the experience of living in the world and supplies . The arrival of the Minangkabau people to Negeri Sembilan in addition to bringing the customs prevailing in Minangkabau , they were also named the places which he opened with the names of their original villages come . The names of villages that later became the name of the tribe or pr eternal inheritance until now . Keywords : customs , migrate , migration
1


This study examined whether axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) with removal of many normal lymph nodes resulted in a reduced rate of axillary recurrence and better survival, as reported in recent studies.


Dielectric protection of a transformer bushing crumbles as an element of temperature, oxidation, and dampness. This causes quickened maturing of oil and cellulosic strong protection, producing flaw gasses inside bushing oil and thus permanent failure. To counteract such disappointments, viable examinations and findings should be researched. Dissolved gas analysis (DGA) can give the sign of inner variations from the norm inside the transformer bushing. Also, frequency response analysis (FRA) is a generally acknowledged apparatus for mechanical disfigurement analysis inside power transformers. In spite of the fact that a substantial number of studies have been led on the identification of transformer twisting distortion by FRA method, the effect of bushing deficiencies on the transformer FRA signature has not been adequately examined. The objective of this paper is to propose exact intelligent method and additionally handy investigations showing the effect of bushing issues on the FRA signature.


Provided is a method of fabricating a nitride semiconductor light-emitting device comprising; providing a nitride semiconductor light-emitting device with a GaN layer, bringing the nitride semiconductor light-emitting device into contact with hydrogen separation metal, vibrating the nitride semiconductor light-emitting device and the hydrogen separation metal, removing hydrogen from the GaN layer of the nitride semiconductor light-emitting device and separating the hydrogen separation metal from the nitride semiconductor light-emitting device.


After several mystical visions of the nun, Pelagia, the holy icon of the Annunciation of the Panagia ("the All-Holy One", or the Virgin Mary) was found on the island of Tinos in 1823. According to tradition, Pelagia repeatedly witnessed the Panagia in her visions and received orders from her to find the icon and also to build her church. The icon was unearthed in the field where it had remained since the church, built on the ruins of a pagan temple, was destroyed in the tenth century. Two years before the icon was found, the Greek War of Independence broke out. The finding of the icon, the construction of the Church of the Annunciation of the Panagia, the enormous crowds of pilgrims, and the miracles worked by the icon, contributed to the outcome that the island was declared a sacred island, and Pelagia became sanctified. The ritual year of the miraculous icon on Tinos starts on 30 January with the festival dedicated to the Finding of the Holy Icon when the finding is ritually re-enacted, before it is carried in a procession repeating the first procession after the finding. After worshipping the tombs of the builders of the church, the celebration terminates with a popular ritual called the Phanarakia (lanterns), in which children are the main participants, running around in the streets of Tinos town while holding multicoloured lighted lamps, and singing hymns commemorating the finding of the holy icon. This article presents the festival and delves into its meaning and importance for the Greek people.


The relations among language, culture, and thought are complex. The empirical evidence from diverse domains suggests that culture affects language, language affects thought, and universally shared perception and cognition constrain the structure of language. Although neither language nor culture determines thought, both seem to highlight certain aspects of the world, with stronger influence when there are no clear perceptible categories. Research must delve into how language, culture, perception, and cognition interact with one another across different domains.


In the Yuanba area, many lost circulation accidents occur due to the complex geological structure, broken strata, and developed fractures, which seriously affect construction safety and drilling costs. Therefore, the Yuanba district is the focus of this paper. Firstly, a three-dimensional geomechanical model is established through multi-source information fusion to identify the main geological risk factors of lost circulation, according to the data on drilling and well logging in the operation area. Then a risk warning model and evaluation methods for loss circulation, based on geological engineering data fusion, are established, through which the characteristic parameters of various loss of circulation risks can be calculated in real time, parameters along the well trajectory can be extracted and compared, and thus, the risk of lost circulation is warned and analyzed in real time. The early warning of lost circulation risk can be achieved during drilling operations, which can improve the drilling efficiency and shorten the drilling cycle as a result.


This study aimed at developing SBPCI (Sidewalk Block Pavement Condition Index) with sidewalk pavement condition survey data of Seoul city in order to attain a quantitative evaluation method of sidewalk pavement condition. The distress patterns of sidewalk pavement were classified into four groups of Crack/Loss, Roughness, Aging, and Corner Break. AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) technique was employed on the basis of the raking process of 31 pavement managers in order to analyze the influence of the distress patterns on the sidewalk pavement condition. The AHP analysis result indicated the weight of pop out, roughness, surface abrasion, and corner break were 0.521, 0.244, 0.164, and 0.070, respectively, by distress type. A model equation was derived by using the sidewalk pavement condition data from 420 sections. The correlation analysis between the result of the model equation and distress type revealed that the correlation of corner break was low to be excluded from SBPCI model; while pop out, roughness, and surface abrasion were statistically significant to be used as three variables of the developed SBPCI model.


The research was conducted in Namo Village, Kulawi District, Sigi Regency. The aim was to know participation of indigenous people in forest management and the influence factor of forest management at Namo Village Kulawi District The method was survey. Sampling was conducted by Purposive Sampling technique. Data was collected by observation, interview, questionaire, and documentation and analyzed by the Likert scale. The results showed that the level of participation of indigenous people in forest management was categorized as high, 88%. People have dependency to meet the needs and the economy from the forest. Age, Low level of education and livelihood as a farmer have affected forest management and motivated people more participaton in forest management.


The integration of network simulation on-line supporting real-time network tuning and response to network faults is being explored. The overall impact is to provide a network that more actively adapts itself to the operational needs of the users. Value-added opportunities for on-line simulation supporting network management have been identified. A modular architecture for integration of COTS simulation with COTS real-time network management products has been developed, with variations and with specifications of some of the key interfaces. The architecture has been prototyped with multiple commercially available simulation engines.


Purpose
The purpose of this case study is to document the process of building a collection of works around transgender life-writing, following the identification of a significant gap in the existing collections.

Design/methodology/approach
This case study describes and evaluates a collection development project undertaken at Senate House Library, University of London. After evaluating four comparable case studies, guidelines were developed for acquisitions to the collection, based on subject, conservation needs and financial expense.

Findings
Twenty items were selected for the collection, dating from 1933 to 2015, including books and magazines in multiple languages. The items acquired for the collection push back against the genre's traditional preoccupation with transition. Writers describe their experiences as a racing driver and fighter pilot (Roberta Cowell), an NGO director (A. Revathi), a Buddhist monk (Michael Dillon), a professional tennis player and ophthalmologist (Renée Richards), and a travel writer, journalist and mountaineer (Jan Morris).

Research limitations/implications
Challenges included setting the scope of the collection, and questions around the cataloguing and arrangement of materials.

Practical implications
Items acquired for the collection entered the library separately and were processed individually by the library's cataloguing team as they arrived. Several issues arose during this stage of the project.

Social implications
To serve the needs of library users effectively, it is necessary to analyse the imbalances in collections as a routine practice.

Originality/value
The case study is original in focusing on a comparably small project with larger implications for the user experience and inclusivity of a library and its collections.


A series of comparable specimens of hornbeam wood were pretreated with diluted sodium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide, or peracetic acid sequences. Under identical conditions of kraft cooking, all pretreatments improved the digestibility of hornbeam wood. Pulps from pretreated wood differed much from that obtained from untreated wood. Pretreatments reduced the yield of the pulps, diminished their Kappa number noticeably, reduced the degree of polymerisation and increased extremely their brightness. One-step peroxide bleaching of pulps from pretreated wood gave a much higher brightness, compared to that of bleached pulp from sound wood. Bleached, unrefined pulps from sound and pretreated wood evidenced different fibre dimensions, as well as a different distribution according to length and width. Unexpected, however, was the higher consumption of energy for refining bleached pulps from pretreated wood. Pretreatments increased the rate of pulp interactions with water in the initial phase of wetting, but markedly reduced the final value of their swelling. Pretreatments also improved the breaking length and tear index of the sheets from bleached, refined pulps. From the viewpoint of improved pulp properties, the most efficient pretreatments were the sodium hydroxide/peracetic acid and sodium hydroxide/activated H2O2 sequences.


The utility model discloses an adjustable gauge stand for coaxiality alignment of large couplings. The gauge stand comprises a base, a telescopic vertical rod, a horizontal cross rod, a universal telescopic adjusting rod, a connecting rod, a vertical dial gauge, a horizontal dial gauge and a transverse locking unit, wherein the telescopic vertical rod is vertically arranged on the base, the horizontal cross rod is horizontally connected with the telescopic vertical rod through the transverse locking unit, the transverse locking unit locks extension and retraction of the horizontal cross rod along the horizontal direction of the telescopic vertical rod, the two ends of the universal telescopic adjusting rod are respectively connected to the top end of the telescopic vertical rod and the front end of the horizontal cross rod, the connecting rod is vertically arranged at the front end of the horizontal cross rod, the vertical dial gauge is vertically arranged at the front section of the horizontal cross rod, and the horizontal dial gauge is arranged on the connecting rod. The adjustable gauge stand overcomes the defects of a traditional magnetic gauge stand and is especially suitable for long-distance intermediate shaft coupling coaxiality alignment. The versatility and the alignment efficiency are effectively improved, the alignment precision is ensured and normal and reliable operation of equipment is ensured.


Dysmenorrhea is the pain experienced during menstruation that causes women to experience varying degrees of cramps. It presents as discomfort, while others suffer pain that can stop daily activities for some women. Therefore, to reduce the use of drugs, herbal methods are used, boiled water for the wood secang, so that side effects can minimize for the body. This research aims to analyze the reduction of Visual Descriptor Scale (VDS) of adolescence with dysmenorrhea in Makassar. This research lasted for one year with several stages, including the first stage; identify research samples based on criteria. The second stage, making informed consent and choice of respondents. The third stage, using a Quasi-Experimental design with a pretest and post-test approach in one treatment group, namely adolescents with dysmenorrhea, measured VDS before giving the boiled water for secang wood and after giving it. The fifth stage, assessing the decrease of VDS before and after treatment. This study indicated that the average intensity of the respondents' menstrual pain before giving the boiled water of secang wood was 4.5, where the lowest menstrual pain intensity was two. The highest was 8, while after giving secang wood boiled water was 3.0, where the pain intensity was the lowest menstrual period was 0, and the highest was 6. The Paired T-Test results obtained a p-value of 0.000 <0.05 so that the boiled water of secang wood affects reducing pain intensity in young females.


The objectives of this study are (1) to find out the effect of technology-based financing models in helping entrepreneurial capital problems in society, Indonesia, (2) Knowing the types of technology-based financing models to help entrepreneurial capital problems in society, Indonesia, (3) Helping MSMEs capital in the future, (4) Helping solutions to business capital problems in entrepreneurial activities. Qualitative descriptive research is aimed at describing and describing existing phenomena, both natural and human engineering, which pay more attention to the characteristics, quality, and interrelationship between activities. In addition, this study does not provide treatment, manipulation or alteration on the variables studied, but describes a condition that is. Data collection techniques are derived from secondary data while the research instrument utilizing the results of the research that has been done both comes from journals, the Internet and books. From several research results illustrate that: (1) activities related to finance and technology are indeed needed by MSMEs with the current situation, (2) There is a relationship between financial and technological models (fintech) in helping MSME entrepreneurial capital problems, (3) Models financial and technology (fintech) consists of several kinds, among others: (a) crowd funding and peer to peer lending, (b) Market aggregator, (c) Risk and Investment Management and (d) Payment, settlement and clearing. (4) The results of research that greatly help MSME entrepreneurs in obtaining capital to maintain and improve business are financial and technology models (fintech) which lead to Crowd funding and Peer to Peer (P2P) lending, (5 in Indonesia are more familiar with P2P where has been implemented in activities including: (a) Agricultural Capital Startup, (b) Livestock Capital Startup and (c) Fisheries Capital Startup, (6) Future capital challenges have definite answers to the development of alias finance and technology fintech.


The root system is essential for taking up nutrients while providing anchorage to the plant. The controlled environment experiment was conducted to study root morphological traits, plant growth, yield and nitrogen (N) up-take in different wheat species. Seven genotypes including cultivated emmer (Triticum dicoccum), spelt (T. spelta L.) and modern bread wheat (T. aestivum) under three N levels were examined. A split-plot design was used in the experiment where the main plot factor was N levels and the sub-plot factor was genotypes and replicated three times. Root samples at five depth layers were scanned and analysed using WinRHIZO software at anthesis and maturity. Total root length, root volume, root biomass, root diameter, root length density, rooting depth and root N uptake efficiency were recorded. Plant N uptake, N uptake efficiency, N utilisation efficiency and N use efficiency were calculated at maturity (excluding N in roots). Neither interaction effect between main factors nor N level were significant for all measured root traits except N uptake efficiency of roots. Similar results were observed for growth and yield traits together with plant N uptake, N uptake efficiency, N utilisation efficiency and N use efficiency. All measured parameters were significantly different among genotypes. Spelt genotypes recorded the highest total root length, root volume, root biomass and root length density at all depth layers while emmer genotypes recorded the greatest root N uptake efficiency. Plant N uptake was significantly different between genotypes where all spelt genotypes had high plant N uptake followed by bread wheat and emmer. Plant N uptake of the genotypes had a very strong positive correlation with total root length, root volume, root biomass and rooting depth of the genotypes. Therefore, it could be concluded that the high plant N uptake of spelt may be due to the robust and vigorous growth of root systems.


G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) which are seven-transmembrane allosteric machine constitutes largest and diverse family of membrane proteins. GPCR participate in activating a diverse range of signaling pathways, in response to ligand perturbation which ranges from neurotransmitters, hormones to photons. The role of GPCRs in a wide range of key physiological processes and their ubiquity in mammalian genome makes them attractive pharmaceutical targets. Signal transduction in GPCR occur mainly, via G proteins and leads to a cascade of signaling. In addition to the orthosteric site, GPCRs also possesses a topographically distinct allosteric site which contributes to allosteric modulation, i.e long distant ligand binding for activating G proteins and trigger GDP release. The mechanism that governs allosteric activation triggering GDP release is yet uncertain. Differential ligands bind to GPCR's orthosteric sites and can modulate allosteric signaling. Ligands that increase or decrease the GPCR signaling are classified as agonists and antagonists respectively. Compared to orthosteric ligand allosteric modulator through electrostatic repulsion, steric hindrance or conformational stability can select subsets of signaling responses. We in this study are trying to understand the basis of ligand-biased signaling or functional selectivity that leads to long-distance signaling in a receptor. Using the information from crystal structures of the receptor, combined with molecular dynamics simulations, we performed a systematic analysis to identify the basis of


The Mbeya range forest reserves (MRFRs) of the southern highland of Tanzania are an important hotspot for biodiversity conservation. However, its avian biodiversity has hardly ever been studied. Thus, for the first time, this study presents the inventory of bird species from MRFRs, demonstrating community structure, functional group, and conservation status. The study was carried out in four forest areas (i.e., Idugumbi, Kawetire, Mount Loleza, and Muvwa) within the MRFRs. The bird survey was carried out monthly between March 2018 and June 2018. Standardised line and point counts, as well as mist netting, were used to collect data. A total of 1052 individual birds, representing 41 species and 22 families, were recorded. Relative abundance, Shannon and Simpson species diversity, and species richness were high in Idugumbi forest and lowest in Kawetire forest. Species diversity differed significantly between the four forest areas. Moreover, Idugumbi and Muvwa had relatively low species composition dissimilarity compared to other forest areas. Different bird functional groups, i.e., insectivores, granivores, nectarivores, carnivores, frugivores, or combinations of these, were recorded in MRFRs. The insectivores were twice as abundant as granivores and nectarivores. The multi–layered vegetation structure of native plants in the Idugumbi forest appears to benefit and contribute to bird communities. The study reveals that MRFRs are an important hotspot for bird species that require ecological monitoring and protection. As a result, appropriate land–use practices near MRFRs should be followed to ensure long–term avian conservation.


The purpose of this study is to develop a novel approach to offshore wave load analysis and apply it to the problem of ringing of gravity base structures. Ringing is a transient structural response at the natural frequency of the structure, that has been observed in model tests of gravity base structures. The observed response has relatively high frequencies compared to the dominant frequency of the wave field, indicating that non-linearity in the load process might determine its occurrence. In this study, Newman's long wave-length force-model is used for calculating the wave loads up to third order. We have re-formulated Newman's results in terms of the frequency components of the ocean surface elevation process and their Hilbert transforms. This allows us to generate response surfaces for both static and dynamic responses as functions of the spectral components of the ocean surface. As the spectral components are uncorrelated, linear processes, it is straightforward to treat the response surfaces as limit states in a FORM (first-order reliability method) type of analysis. This provides a very efficient means of calculating: - the ocean surface history most likely to generate an extreme ringing response: the designer wave for ringing; - the complicated relationship between ringing and the waves that generate ringing; and - statistics of ringing response within a sea state. We have demonstrated the capability of the method to predict ringing of a single vertical column and, thereby, to clarify the process leading to ringing. Some ringing response has been observed even by including only the second-order excitation. However, the effects of the third-order one are very significant. Omitting the thirdorder excitation leads to a large underestimate of extreme response. In particular, the third-order terms lead to an impulsive loading that excites a strong ringing response. A number of extreme responses have been calculated for different exceedance probabilities of individual maxima for sea states of different durations. The method has proved to be very efficient and straightforward.


Acetylcholine (ACh.), when applied in minute amounts to the eserinized cerebral cortex, induces marked excitatory effects; 1 it was inferred that the ACh. stimulates or facilitates various cortical synapses. The experiments here reported indicate that ACh., on direct application in extreme dilutions, stimulates a motor nucleus, namely the hypoglossal nucleus; this nucleus is readily accessible, as the trigonum hypoglossi, immediately beneath the floor of the fourth ventricle. 2 Methods. Decerebration under ether was by the Sherrington decerebrator. Both common carotids were tied or, in other experiments, both internal carotids were tied and also the branches of external carotids, but leaving lingual arteries intact; essentially similar results were obtained in both preparations. The skull was held in a special clamp, so that the entire tongue could be observed. The floor of fourth ventricle was exposed by removing median parts of cerebellum. Acetylcholine chloride (ACh. Cl) (Merck) was dissolved in buffered Ringer-Locke solution and was applied in small rectangles 2 mm x 6 mm of spot test paper to the XII nuclei of both sides. Results. Preliminary localization of effects from the XII nucleus was by unipolar faradization with a fine silver wire, ending in a minute bulb; the diffuse electrode was a saline-soaked pad on animal's back. Secondary distances varied from 35 to 50 cm, using a large Palmer inductorium (Fig. 1). The following effects of ACh. were obtained in a decerebrate cat (3100 g), having lingual arteries intact. Preliminary eserinization was by 0.25 mg eserine sulphate (Merck) intravenously. A rectangle of spot test paper soaked in ACh. Cl. 1:50 millions was applied to both XII nuclei: in 4 sec. a slight median furrowing appeared at base of tongue between circumvallate papillae (Fig. 2); the furrowing, which coincided with inspiration, increased and was accompanied by simultaneous retraction of tongue base, elevation of soft palate and dilatation of remainder of mouth cavity.


OBJECTIVES
The accessibility of legal cannabis in Canada may influence how consumers source their cannabis. The aims of this study were to examine 1) the distance between respondents home to legal retail stores 2) the cannabis sources used in the past 12 months; 3) the association between cannabis sources used and distance to legal retail stores.

METHODS
Data were analyzed from Canadian respondents participating in the International Cannabis Policy Study from 2019 to 2021. Respondents were 15,311 past 12-month cannabis consumers of legal age to purchase cannabis. Weighted logistic regression models examined cannabis sources used and their association with the Euclidean distance to the nearest legal store, province of residence, and year (n=12,928).

RESULTS
Respondents lived closer to a legal retail store in 2021 (1.5 km) vs. 2019 (6.8 km) as the number of retail stores increased. Respondents in 2020 and 2021 had higher odds of obtaining cannabis from legal sources (e.g., legal stores: 47.9% and 60.0% vs. 38.6%, respectively, AOR ranged 1.41-2.42) and lower odds of obtaining cannabis from illegal sources versus 2019 (e.g., dealers: 22.6% and 19.9% vs. 29.1%, respectively, AOR ranged 0.65-0.54). Respondents who lived closest to legal stores had higher odds of sourcing from legal stores, and lower odds of sourcing from legal websites or growing their own cannabis.

CONCLUSIONS
Legal cannabis stores are increasingly accessible to people living in Canada three years after legalization. Household proximity to a legal cannabis store was associated with sourcing cannabis from legal retail stores, but only among those who live very close (<3km). Findings suggest that proximity to legal cannabis stores may aid uptake of the legal market yet there may be diminishing returns after a certain point.


The use of immunotherapy (IT) in cancer has recently resulted in impressive responses. Yet, their usages, especially those involving cytokine therapies, have also resulted in the induction of severe systemic toxicities often not previously characterized in their preclinical animal studies. Our laboratory has demonstrated that treatment of EL4 lymphoma with a combination immunotherapy consisting of monoclonal agonistic antibody CD40 and IL-2 resulted in significant anti-tumor responses leading to overall increases in survival using young inbred mice (2-6 months of age). Yet, the majority of hematological cancers occur in aged individuals, with most diagnoses occurring past the age of 60. We now demonstrate that systemic immunotherapy administration in aged (>16 months of age), but not young, mice resulted in the induction of a rapid cytokine release syndrome, also known as "cytokine storm", culminating in multi-organ damage (liver, lung, and gut) leading to rapid lethality by day 2 of treatment. Aging is accompanied by an overall redistribution of body mass, with a decrease in lean muscle mass and increase in adiposity. Similarly, we found that normal aging in inbred mice housed under specific pathogen free conditions was accompanied by increases in visceral fat that was similar to young obese (ob/ob or diet-induced obese [DIO]) mice. We therefore assessed the impact of aging and obesity on inflammatory responses to cancer immunotherapeutics. We determined the effects of increased body fat on systemic immunotherapy tolerance in aged mice compared to young obese mice. Both young ob/ob and DIO generated pro-inflammatory cytokine (ie TNFa and IL6) levels and organ pathologies comparable to aged WT mice following immunotherapy, culminating in rapid lethality after several days of therapy. We observed that young obese mice exhibited greater ratios of M1/M2 macrophages within the peritoneal and visceral adipose tissues and higher percentages of TNFa+ macrophages in comparison to young lean mice with immunotherapy. Administration of aCD40/IL-2 with macrophage depletion or TNF-blockade prevented the development of cytokine storms within young obese mice, providing protection from lethality, suggesting that the toxicity was macrophage mediated through increases in TNFa. Calorie-restricted aged mice contain less visceral fat and upon aCD40/IL-2 administration displayed reduced cytokine levels, protection from organ pathology, and protection from lethality. Our data demonstrates adiposity as a critical factor in the age-associated inflammatory pathologic responses to systemic anti-cancer immunotherapy and may have a significant impact when immunotherapy is used clinically within cancer therapy regimens. These data also underscore the critical importance of taking aging and body fat into consideration with preclinical assessments. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


. The relative impact of individual and combined uncertainties of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentration and the shape parameter of the cloud drop size distribution (CDSD) in the presence of initial and boundary condition uncertainty (IBC) on convection forecasts is quantified using the operational convection-permitting model ICON-D2. We performed 180-member ensemble simulations for five real case studies representing different synoptic forcing situations over Germany and inspect the precipitation variability on different spatial and temporal scales. During weak synoptic control, the relative impact 5 of combined microphysical perturbations on area-averaged daily precipitation comprises about ± 12 % which is around one-third the variability caused by operational IBC perturbations. The combined microphysical perturbations exceed the impact of individual CCN or CDSD perturbations. High CCN concentrations combined with a narrow CDSD show the largest decrease in precipitation. The combination of IBC and microphysical perturbations affect the extremes of daily spatially averaged rainfall of individual members by extending the tails of the forecast distribution by 5% in weakly forced conditions. The responses are 10 relatively insensitive in strong forcing situations. Visual inspection and objective analysis of the spatial variability of hourly rainfall rates reveal that IBC and microphysical perturbations alter the spatial variability of precipitation forecasts differently. Microphysical perturbations slightly shift convective cells but affect precipitation intensities while IBC perturbations scramble the location of convection during weak control. Cloud and rain water content is more sensitive to microphysical perturbations than precipitation but slightly less dependent on the synoptic control. In contrast to the impact on precipitation, an increase in 15 CCN concentration and shape parameter of CDSD Acknowledgements. This research has been performed within projects B3 of the Transregional Collaborative Research Center SFB/TRR 165 "Waves to Weather" funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The authors wish to thank the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) for providing the ICON model code and analyses datasets and Robert Redl and Fabian Jakub (LMU) for technical help.


Relativistic protocols have been proposed to overcome certain impossibility results in classical and quantum cryptography. In such a setting, one takes the location of honest players into account, and uses the signalling limit given by the speed of light to constraint the abilities of dishonest agents. However, composing such protocols with each other to construct new cryptographic resources is known to be insecure in some cases. To make general statements about such constructions, a composable framework for modelling cryptographic security in Minkowski space is required. Here, we introduce a framework for performing such a modular security analysis of classical and quantum cryptographic schemes in Minkowski space. As an application, we show that (1) fair and unbiased coin flipping can be constructed from a simple resource called channel with delay; (2) biased coin flipping, bit commitment and channel with delay through any classical, quantum or post-quantum relativistic protocols are all impossible without further setup assumptions; (3) it is impossible to securely increase the delay of a channel, given several short-delay channels as ingredients. Results (1) and (3) imply in particular the non-composability of existing relativistic bit commitment and coin flipping protocols.


Purpose – The purpose of this research is a comparative analysis of computer‐aided facilties management (CAFM) implementation projects and procedures in the German‐speaking countries in order to derive appropriate implementation models. Since the 1990s CAFM has provided efficient information technology (IT) tools for mapping, evaluation and control of facility management (FM) structures and processes. Despite the multitude of vendors and users in different branches, there is still a lack of transparent and systematic case studies regarding successful CAFM implementations and uncertainty about the market situation.Design/methodology/approach – In the survey a systematic approach (structured interviews) was used allowing a comparison between cases in different application fields. Because of the geographical location of the project partners, the entire German speaking area could be covered and thus the results of the analysis reflect the state of the art of CAFM implementation and use in the German‐speaking ...


The present invention relates to a liquid medium plasma discharge generator, gaps filled with liquid medium, placing the intermediate on one or more holes or slits are formed a dielectric diaphragm member of the gap between the power and ground electrodes by minimizes conduction current amount, and an object thereof is to provide a high electric field (electric field) microtubules liquid medium plasma discharge generating apparatus capable of applying even a small amount of power. The present invention for achieving the above object, a body, provided on one side of the inside of the main body, and the power electrode to receive power, provided in said main body, one or more holes or slits (Slit) is formed a diaphragm member formed of a dielectric that is, the and a liquid medium filled in the main body, further it can comprise a ground electrode opposed to the power electrode sandwiching said diaphragm member within the body, this when the diaphragm member is disposed in contact with the ground electrode. .TECHNICAL


In order to provide a methodological support for situation forecast in antimissile operation, this paper carries on the target intention prediction by using the DS evidence theory. By taking the weight of relevant evidence, the traditional combination rules of DS evidence theory is improved, the key factors of target intention prediction of ballistic missile in the course of flight are extracted, the procedure of target intention prediction based on DS evidence theory is given, and finally, the model is simulated by combining with the scenario, thus computing the basic probability assignment of each target intention and giving the decision. Simulation results show that it is available for DS evidence theory applying to the target intention prediction of ballistic missile, which can provide an auxiliary decision-making basis for anti-missile operation.


This package installs and interfaces the naive Bayesian classifier for 16S rRNA sequences developed by the Ribosomal Database Project (RDP). With this package the classifier trained with the standard training set can be used or a custom classifier can be trained.


1. Following Lorentz, we suppose throughout that Ω(n) is a non-negati ve non-decreasing function of the non-negative integer n such that Ω(n)→ ∞ as n → ∞. Consider the summability method given by the sequence-to-sequence transformation corresponding to the matrix A = (ank). We say that Ω(n) is a summability function for A (or absolute summability function for A) if the following holds: Any bounded sequence {sn} such that the number of values of ν with ν ≤ n, sν ≠ 0 does not exceed Ω(n) is summable A (or is absolutely summable A, respectively). These definitions are due to Lorentz (4), (6). We shall be concerned with the case in which A is a regular Hausdorff method, say A = H = (H, μn). Then H is given by the matrix (hnk) with with X(0) = X(0 + ) = 0, X(1) = 1;(see e.g.(1), chapter XI). We shall suppose throughout that these conditions are satisfied. It is known that H is then necessarily also absolutely regular.


........................................................................................................................................ 17 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 17 Materials and Methods .................................................................................................................. 18 Animals, management and experimental design....................................................................... 18 Data analysis ............................................................................................................................. 19 Results ........................................................................................................................................... 20 Ewes .......................................................................................................................................... 20 Lambs . ..................................................................................................................................... 21 Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 22 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 23 Literature Cited ............................................................................................................................. 24 CHAPTER 3. Inheritance of fecal egg count, packed cell volume, and body weight, and their relationship with production traits in sheep infected with Haemonchus contortus ......................................................................................... 36 Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 36 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 36 Materials and Methods .................................................................................................................. 37........................................................................................................................................ 36 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 36 Materials and Methods .................................................................................................................. 37 Animals, management and experimental design....................................................................... 37 Data analysis ............................................................................................................................. 38


The present invention provides a transparent coating method, in the first step of coating different conditions (14A) and a second step of baking and drying without continuously applied in the final coated substrate film (21 (14B) of ) applied on the clear coating, the undried and clear coating film is baked and dried to form a clear coating film, wherein the second step coating conditions and coating conditions as compared to the first step , NV clearcoat coating large and small average particle diameter of the clear coating, and the clear coating film thickness.


The present work aims to prepare mesoporous hydroxylapatite/activated carbon (meso-HA/AC) bead-on-string nanofibers and evaluate their sorption towards Co(II) via sorption kinetics and isotherms. Using polyvinyl alcohol/hydroxylapatite/glucose electrospun nanofibers as the precursor, meso-HA/AC nanofibers are prepared by a hydrothermal process. The nanofibers show bead-on-string structures with mesoporous characteristics, main pores around 29 nm in size, and a specific surface area of 30.014 m2 g−1. Moreover, the rod-like HA crystals assemble into bundles and insert into the two neighboring activated carbon beads. The sorption of Co(II) onto meso-HA/AC nanofibers is strongly dependent on pH and ionic strength. The pseudo-second-order model is valid to describe the sorption of Co(II) onto meso-HA/AC nanofibers, and the intraparticle diffusion is not the sole rate-controlling step. Both Langmuir and Freundlich models can well describe the sorption isotherms, and the Langmuir model is slightly better than the Freundlich model. Moreover, the thermodynamic parameters imply that the sorption process is spontaneous and endothermic. The meso-HA/AC bead-on-string nanofibers may have potential as a highly effective material for the removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solution.


The applications of current, magnetic field, vibration, microgravity and hypergravity field in the metal solidification process, as well as the effect of outfield on solid-state phase transition of metal in recent years were summarized. The mechanism of the effect of outfield on solidification process and solid-state phase transition was analyzed and reviewed; furthermore, the future trend of outfield technology was presented.


This paper is based on prospect theory to study the user's travel choice behavior in adverse weather conditions. It takes into account of both the past travel experience (a priori information) and the current available information (the meteorological information which can be updated by Bayesian theory.) To tackle the increasing uncertainties in adverse weather, the concept of reserved time is proposed to measure the accuracy and reliability of the information that the users acquired; two functions and one reference point are constructed; finally, a theoretical model of path selection is designed under the framework of prospect theory.


This study aimed to investigate the impact of the Lagos Eko Secondary Education Project (LESEP) on the average academic performance of students in the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in Agege Local Government Area (LGA) of Lagos State, Nigeria. Convincing evidence was required that showed the WASSCE results of students in Pre-LESEP period differed significantly from the WASSCE results of students in Post-LESEP period in the three core subjects of Mathematics, English, and Biology. Simple random sampling techniques were used in this study. Any student who had written WASSCE within Agege LGA was a potential respondent. Six schools were selected from among the public secondary schools existing in Agege LGA. The WASSCE results and summary of the results were collected personally from the schools with the assistance of the Vice Principals. The data was carefully studied and checked for any omission. Short Research Article Akinwande and Okunola; JSRR, 5(5): 410-418, 2015; Article no.JSRR.2015.107 411 The analysis of the data was carried out using simple percentages and R software package which is publicly available and free. All the hypotheses were tested at 5% level of significance. The results show that the students' average academic performances in the core subjects are significantly better in Post-LESEP than in Pre-LESEP. Also students' performance in WASSCE rose from 7% in 2007 to 39% in 2012. In light of this significant achievement, it was recommended that Lagos Eko Project Training Programmes be extended beyond the core subjects. Teacher training must be continuous and on a regular basis for all teachers not just core subject teachers. When other teachers are given the opportunity to go through the same type of training, it should improve the overall performance of the students.


Chemical activity parameters for aluminum nanopowder in mixtures with zinc, graphite, silicon, iron and copper powders are explored. The study of the phase content of combustion products shows that these mixtures can be used to produce precursors for ceramic materials.


Aim : Our aim was to evaluate digital fracture of enlarged styloid as a clinical therapeutic manoeuvre , in office setting, in relieving symptoms of stylalgia , to avoid surgery or long term medications in stylalgia cases and to reduce O.P.D workload , investigations & reduce the cost of treatment. Methodology: The study was conducted from June 2008 to April 2015.During this study period, total 71 numbers of patients presenting randomly to our outpatient department (OPD) were included. Therapeutic fracture of enlarged styloids done in O.P.D and cases were observed for a period ranging from minimum 1 month to maximum 5 yrs. Results: Initially we had 82 cases of stylalgia, among them 11 had enlarged styloids so thick or so flexible that therapeutic fracture couldn't be done, those were taken for other modality like surgery or long term medication. Among those 11 cases 7 were males. Male styloids were found to be more tough. In rest 71 cases, actually in whom styloid fracture could be done , male were 13 (18.3%) and female were 58(81.7%). In 53 cases(64.6%) styloids were enlarged bilaterally . among them 20(24.4%) were having bilateral symptoms. We achieved success rate within range 56.3% to 70.4%.Those got either complete or considerable improvement. 30% patients needed either surgery or long term medical therapy. Overall success rate in males were 38.5% and 77.6% in females. Conclusion: with this simple O.P.D manoeuvre we could avoid surgery and long term medication in majority of cases of stylalgia. INTRODUCTION: The term 'Stylalgia' was coined by Watt W. Eagle in 1937. Symptoms may include facial pain, ear pain, dysphagia, voice change and globus sensation that may cause frequent swallowing. These occur secondary to elongation of styloid process producing compression and irritation of adjacent structures. All these commonly called as ' Eagle's syndrome'.It is a rare disease and mostly remains underdiagnosed. Most of the authors have seen and treated few cases each. The styloid process is found to be enlarged in 4% of population (normal length being 25-30 mm). But not all cases of enlarged styloid present with stylalgia. The diagnosis of stylalgia is clinical. In a patient of suspected stylalgia, the clinical diagnosis is certain, if the enlarged styloid process is palpated through the tonsillar fossa. Pain and symptoms can be reproduced with pressure over the enlarged styloid. Different treatment options have been described conventionally for symptomatic patients. Initially conservative treatment options are tried conventionally which includes different analgesics, steroids either single or in combinations, antiepileptics like carbamazepine, amitriptillin, gabapentin etc. in long terms in varying dosage . Some have tried local steroid injections with or without local anaesthetic with varying results. Surgery is planned in patients who do not respond to the medical line of management. Elongated styloid process can be excised, but some do not agree for excision of styloid process [13,14,16]. Excision Indian Journal of Basic and Applied Medical Research; December 2018: Vol. www.ijbamr.com P ISSN: 2250 of styloid process can be done by trans is also resected endoscopically through transoral route We accidentally fractured the styloid process of one lady suffering from stylalgia, whose got fractured during the process of routine palpation us to conduct this study in hospital OPD. Symptomatic patients with enlarged and palpable styloid process were included. were not diagnosed properly and were treated as cases of chronic pharyngitis, globus pharyngitis, etc. were taking long term medicines for stylalgia As the diagnosis of Eagle's syndrome is clinical symptoms on palpation of enlarged styloid, we did not do any extra investigation for confirmation. The OPD of SSKM hospital Kolkata is and as in case of Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo ,where the diagnosis done in clinical OPD setting, we planned the study fully in office setting. We did investigation mandatory. ANATOMICAL CONSIDERATIONS: The styloid process is embryologically derived from the Richert's Cartilage i.e the skeletal derivative of second branchial arch. It extends dorsally upto the cartilaginous ear capsule. The dorsal part of the cartilage is ossified to form the stapes of middle ear. The succeeding stylo-hyoid ligament where the cartilage cells disappear. The styloid process is slender and pointed, and projects antero bone. Length varies from few millimetres to an average 2.5 cm. Often it is almost straight, it can show a curvature, antero-medial concavity is most common The proximal or tympanohyal part is ensheathed by tympanic plate and the muscles and li to it's distal part (stylohyal). The styloid process is covered laterally by the parotid gland, facial nerve crosses it's base, the external carotid artery crosses it's tip and medially the process is separated from the beginning of internal jug attachment of stylopharyngeus muscle. styloid process due to the persistence of cartilaginous of stylohyoid ligament by unknown mechanism and growth of osseous tissue at the insertion of stylohyoid ligament. Glossopharyngeal nerve, vagus and 3rd branch of trigeminal nerve and chorda tympani can stimulated by the elongated styloid process and induce pain sensation,headachae, dysphagia etc. -8, Issue -284X , E ISSN : 2250-2858 -oral approach or external approach. In present days . and her symptoms improved dramatically Most of the patients . 3,11 and the diagnosis can be confirmed by reproducing overburdened with average 500 or more patients everyday, f , treatment, not make any laboratory


The paper presents a novel analysis of a nonminimum supersonic vehicle dynamics. First, a mapping of operating points of a hypothetical short-range tactical missile (SRTM) system is obtained using zero dynamics concept for nonlinear systems within flight envelop and under flight constraints. Then the characteristics of nonminimum phase, model topologies, and poles mappings are derived via linearization of the SRTM dynamics. The analysis shows that the dynamics of SRTM system are often nonminimum phase leading to internal instability and introducing a performance bound on the flight control system.


Eighteenth-century Edinburgh was the cradle of the Scottish Enlightenment. The lives and ideas of its prominent figures have received extensive treatment, but little attention has been paid to the society which produced them. In this comprehensive study of Edinburgh over a century of social change, R. A. Houston offers unrivalled breadth of analysis of the ways in which urban life was transformed. Chapters on social relationships, the use of space, the place of the poor in Scotland's capital, religious values and attitudes to urban living, riot and popular protest, and developments in political economy build up to a powerful argument about social change. As well as providing unique depth of context for Englightenment studies, this book explains how broader changes in social attitudes and values took root in a century which witnessed dramatic political, economic, and intellectual developments. It is a major contribution not only to Scottish but also to British history.


Strong and ongoing growth in mobility, especially in road traffic, means that transport trends are unsustainable if only current policies are pursued. The EC 4th Framework project TRANSLAND addressed these issues. The focus of the work was on the development of innovative policies for integrated land-use transportation planning at the urban level, and the related enabling institutional conditions. Because urban areas cannot be considered in isolation their interaction with their regional, national and international environment were also considered, and because many planning procedures are vertically coordinated on different administration levels, the inter- and supra- urban level were also taken into account. Central and fundamental themes to the approach of the project were two closely related and inter-connected concepts that may be labeled as 'what' and 'how'. 'What' relates to land-use/transport systems, policies and measures, while 'how' relates to the coordination of transport and land-use policies under different institutional arrangements. The project sought to review the state of the art in the theory of land-use transport interaction at the urban/regional level and to develop a conceptual framework for the analysis of current practice. Through a case-study approach a review of practices in urban land-use/transport planning in European countries was conducted to examine the development, implementation and impact of integrated land-use/transport. From a synthesize of these results the project sought to identify best practices in the field of integrating transport and land-use planning, taking into account sustainability objectives, and to analyze their transferability (towards other countries/settings/spatial levels), including legal and regulatory requirements. The second main output of the study was a selection and prioritization of the principal research areas and which constituted input for the future research agenda of the EC. Through these activities TRANSLAND has provided a comprehensive overview of the current state of the art and state of the practice in transport and land use planning in the EU. Some innovative policies and best practices were highlighted through the evaluation of twenty-six case studies. This work continues in the on-going TRANSPLUS project. The study developed a structured overview of issues in land-use transport integration at the urban level, analyzing the outcomes of the reviews of the state of the art and current practices in Europe. The aim of the structured overview was to present a clear and exhaustive vision of the issues at stake. TRANSLAND went on to clarify the need for further research concerning the interaction between transport and land use.


Historiography is always a dialogue between past and present. At the end of the twentieth century, increasing numbers announced the crisis or even the imminent end of the 'work society'. Some commentators viewed this as a threat, while others argued that the crisis was an opportunity, and that we were on the verge of a 'leisure society'. On their quest to fij ind support for either perspective, many authors have looked to the past. They wanted to know whether work was decisive for identity, prestige and self-respect everywhere and for all time, and from what point in time, where, and under what conditions the work ethic evolved. In the greater debate about why some nations have been economically successful, while others have remained poor, David Landes and Niall Ferguson attribute immense importance to cultural values, especially about 'the peculiar ethic of hard work and thrift', to explain why 'Western civilization' has managed to dominate the rest of the world. Ferguson has even labelled the Western work ethic as 'one of the six killer apps of western power'. Whatever their position may be in these (and other) debates, most authors tend to invoke the standard historical account, which fij igures in a specifij ic tradition with a rigidly circumscribed agenda, especially the quest for what is described as The Rise of the West, the birth of modernity or the origins of capitalism. This account distinguishes clearly between Classical Antiquity, when the elite deprecated work in general and manual work in particular, from subsequent periods, when a new and more favourable view gained ground. It emphasizes the revolutionary role of Christianity in this respect and presents the modern Western work ethic as the outcome of a slow but linear and cumulative process spanning the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times. In Worthy Effforts we critically examine this Grand Narrative, in which monasticism, urban expansion, humanism, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment generally fij igure as major milestones and signposts. The guideline is the heuristic question: who said what, when and how, in which circumstances, to whom, and why? The book is a systematic search


Objective: To detect the expressions of Axin1 and Cyclin D1 mRNA in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma( CSCC) in order to determine the relationship with the development of CSCC. Methods: The levels of Axin1 and Cyclin D1 mRNA in 40 samples of CSCC,adjacent skin of the CSCC lesions and 40 normal control skin samples were detected by real- time quantitative polymerase chain reaction( PCR). Results: The level of Axin1 mRNA in lesions,adjacent skin and normal skin was reduced in a declined order,with significant differences( P 0. 05) and the level of Cyclin D1 mRNA was increased in turn( P 0. 05).The less differentiated the CSCC was,the higher level of Cyclin D1 mRNA among different pathological grades( P 0. 05),but there was no significant difference in the level of Axin1 mRNA among different pathological grades( P 0. 05). Conclusion: Axin1 and Cyclin D1 in CSCC may play an important role in the development of CSCC,especially Cyclin D1.


There is strong evidence that emotional states affect the Human's performance and decision-making. Therefore, understanding Human emotions has become of great concern in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). One way to an online emotion recognition is through keystroke dynamics. Keystroke Dynamics focuses on the particular way a person types on a keyboard. To provide insight, assess recent works, and guide future researches in this field, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is conducted. An SLR adopts a rigorous procedure with the definition of a formal review protocol.The primary aim of this paper is to highlight the effectiveness of using keystroke dynamics biometrics in recognizing emotions by systematically presenting research efforts in the past decade. We provide insight into such an approach by summarizing and discussing the data acquisition procedures, datasets, extracted features, classification methods, and performance measures used in previous researches.In light of these findings and the noticed scarcity of datasets related to emotion recognition through keystroke dynamics, we develop and host an interactive web application to construct a new dataset. The findings of this work reveal new interesting research directions and may motivate the research community to develop automatic emotion recognition systems based on keystroke dynamics.


At various growth stages of aonla (Emblica officinalis Gaertn) a total of 31 and 28 arthropods were recorded respectively, during 2004 and 2005 under prevailing agro-climatic conditions of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Among all arthropods, 5 sap feeders belong to 5 families of order Hemiptera, 6 defoliators (4 in 2005) belong to 5 families of orders Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, 2 gall forming insects belong to 2 families of orders Diptera and Lepidoptera, 2 borers belong to 2 families of order Lepidoptera, 12 natural enemies (11 in 2005) belong to 9 families of 5 orders (Coleoptera, Diptera, Neuroptera, Mantodea and Araneae), 3 pollinators belong to one family of order Hymenoptera and one other arthropod of order Hymenoptera were recorded. Among different group of arthropod one sap feeder i.e. plant hopper (Seliza truncata Walker) and one defoliator i.e. bag worm (Eumeta sp.) were reported for the first time on aonla.


This paper analyzes the source of the economies of scale of construction enterprises and introduces four major ways of using the economies of scale:accumulation, reunity, combination and cooperation. At last it proposes three problems to which Chinese construction enterprises should pay attention when they achieve the economies of scale. This paper is expected to contribute the development of Chinese construction enterprises.


Abstract A new species Euryopis mallah sp. n. (Araneae: Theridiidae) is described from Iran based on both sexes. A correctional note on the female copulatory organ is given. The observation of ant hunting behaviour is reported.


difficult. The prevalence of natural anticoagulants deficiencies (protein C, protein S and antithrombin) is low and probably under diagnosed. The molecular study of respective genes (PROC, PROS1 and SERPINC1) increase the diagnostic capacity, allow establishing a genotype/phenotype correlation and to identify patients at venous thrombosis risk. Pathogenic variants were detected in patients with normal plasma levels, confirming the failure to detect qualitative changes by the available functional assays. The molecular study should be considered in patients with a significant personal/family history of thrombosis, and "normal/borderline" levels of these proteins [10]. The contribution of NGS-studies based on known and candidate genes, have been published and these would help to reveal the precise mechanism by which these genes influence the risk of deep vein thrombosis [4,11]. The double heterozygosity in several implicated genes is often the possible explanation of thrombotic phenotype observed in some patients [12].


The exibility of nested transactions is generally provided at the expense of a more complex locking mechanism which must deal with expensive lock inheritance. In this paper, we give a solution for eecient lock inheritance. Our solution does not change the original nested transactions model but does revisit its locking rules using set-oriented semantics. This allows us to trade the cost of lock propagation at sub-transaction commit for a potentially more complex connict detection. Then we propose an eecient lock implementation which maintains the overhead of lock requests comparable to the traditional overhead in at transactions. We conducted a number of comparative measurements in order to evaluate our trade-oo. Our benchmarks show a cut oo from 7% to 60% of the global time spent in lock operations, which includes lock requests, locks inheritance and release of locks.


Referring image segmentation aims to segment the target object from the image according to the description of language expression. Due to the diversity of language expressions, word sequences in different orders often express different semantic information. The previous methods focus more on matching different words to different visual regions in the image separately, ignoring the global semantic understanding of language expression based on the sequence structure. To address this problem, we redesign a new recurrent network structure for referring image segmentation, called Cross-Modal Recurrent Semantic Comprehension Network (CRSCNet), to obtain a more comprehensive global semantic understanding through iterative cross-modal semantic reasoning. Specifically, in each iteration, we first propose a Dynamic SepConv to extract relevant visual features guided by language and further propose Language Attentional Feature Modulation to improve the feature discriminability, then propose a Cross-Modal Semantic Reasoning module to perform global semantic reasoning by capturing both linguistic and visual information, and finally updates and corrects the visual features of the predicted object based on semantic information. Moreover, we further propose a Cross-Modal ASPP to capture richer visual information referred to in the global semantics of the language expression from larger receptive fields. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed network significantly outperforms previous state-of-the-art methods on multiple datasets.


The electro-hydraulic control system including hardware and software of The Metal Belt Continuously Variable Transmission is the key part which decides the performance.The paper analyses the composition and principle of the computer control part on the Electro-hydraulic Control System of The Metal Belt Continuously Variable Transmission.The hardware and software are designed,the test-bed experiment is erected and the experiment is carried out lastly.The result indicates that the controller designed has a better tracking performance,so the validity of the control method is proved.


Consulting related state regulation,conditions of forest conservation in revegetation,classification form and management effect were investigated in Xishan area Linfer.The results showed that revegetation had been recovered to some extend in the area after a period of time for forest conservation and in some sections with better preservation of the original survival vegetation for years,it showed some positive community succession features.The forest conservation could be classified as projects in water and soil conservation area,projects in area of state government sub sidized program of farmland reversion to forest / grassland,projects in area of local ecological forest and project of private household 4-waste contract.The sand portection rates in the sealed Xishan hilly area were 44.7%~57.7%,with an average of 52.7%,and indexes of precipitation,temperature and humidity have been improved to some extend.


This study investigates a novel timber dowel‐type connection system using superelastic shape memory alloy (SMA) bar and tubes as dowels, in order to provide self‐centering effect. Double‐shear connections with SMA and mild steel dowels were tested under dynamic loadings at different displacement levels. The results showed that SMA dowel‐type connections have good self‐centering behaviours and can mitigate the residual deformation effectively compared with steel dowel‐type connections after excessive deformation; although the steel dowel‐type connections present higher strength. These tests reveal that the connection with tube dowels show higher equivalent viscous damping ratio than those use solid bar as tube would allow larger deformation to dissipate energy. To demonstrate application of the benefit of this system, an analytical model of a 3‐storey timber framed structure was built for parametric study. The results showed that the structures with conventional dowel‐type type connections exhibit large unrecoverable deformation after timber framed structures experience an earthquake. In comparison, those with the connections developed in this project show limited unrecoverable deformation due to the self‐centering capacity of the connections.


The invention relates to a manufacturing method and a finished product of a curtain component. The manufacturing method comprises the following steps of: manufacturing a plurality of paper fiber substrates, wherein the prepared paper fiber substrates is made by mixing 91-95% of pulp, 3-5% of methyl resin, and 2-4% of drying agent, the thickness thereof is 0.08-12mm; respectively coating resin on the paper fiber substrates; superposing the plurality of paper fiber substrates and performing compression molding to obtain composite fiber paper; and drying and molding to obtain the curtain component, wherein the used paper fiber substrates are added with methyl resin when prepared; the molded curtain component has moisture resistance; and when the composite fiber paper obtained by coating the resin in a multilayer mode and performing compression molding is used for molding the curtain component, a good moisture-resistant effect and practicality can be achieved. Therefore, the paper which meets the environment-friendly requirement can be successfully made into the curtain component, and the requirements of practicality and environmental friendliness are met.


Objective To establish an ultra performance liquid chromatography method for the determination of 7 kinds of antibiotics(minocycline hydrochloride,ox tetracycline,tetracycline hydrochloride,chlortetracycline hydrochloride,doxycycline hydrochloride,chloramphenicol,metronidazole) in anti-acne cosmetics.Methods Seven kinds of antibiotics were separated on a Waters UPLC BEH C18 column by gradient elution using A(methanol/acetonitrile = 1/2) and B(1% formic acid aqueous solution) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.2 ml/min,with the detection wavelength of 268 nm.Results The detection limits were 0.3-0.5 ng,the calibration curves were linear in the range of 2-100 ng(1-50 mg/L),the precision was not more than 4.8% and the rate of recovery were 82.5%-105.6%.Conclusion The method established in the present paper is rapid,sensitive and suitable for the determination of 7 kinds of antibiotics in anti-acne cosmetics.


This research was performed to establish basic technology of chemical control and the degree of contamination of P. brassicae by researching the soil contamination of the regions well known as the major producer of summer Chinese cabbage. As places well known for summer Chinese cabbage, 12 out of 15 in Pyeongchang-gun. Seven out of 11 regions in Samcheok-si and Taebaek-si resulted positive for P. brassicae contamination. It was found out that the soil contamination rate of P. brassicae was 80 % in Pyeongchang-gun, 63.6 % in Samcheok-si and Taebaek-si. The 10 places where the Chinese cabbage clubroot was verifiable by naked eye were 100 % confirmed by the PCR test of the P. brassicae soil contamination. Thus, the P. brassicae soil contamination could be diagnosed by the simple PCR test and it could be utilized as an index for deciding chemical control.


Two microsporidian pathogens that afflict the western honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) are Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae, the latter of which has been linked with colony declines (Fries et al., 2013). In New Zealand, N. apis was probably introduced along with bees in the late 1830s or soon thereafter. N. ceranae has been identified as being present in New Zealand (Bingham, 2010, 2011), though apiarists have debated the presence and persistence of this pathogen in New Zealand. The origin and introduction pathway of N. ceranae into New Zealand is unknown. Our first aim in this study was to confirm the presence of N. ceranae in New Zealand. Secondly, we sequenced a section of the 16S rRNA gene of both N. ceranae and N. apis in order to make a phylogenetic comparison of both Nosema spp. in New Zealand with those from other countries. We obtained samples of honey bees from commercial apiarists who had experienced hive loss or decline with either N. apis or N. ceranae-like symptoms. We focused our sampling specifically on the Coromandel/ Thames of New Zealand as this was the location of initial N. ceranae incursion (Bingham, 2010). DNA was extracted from the bees using a protocol modified from Lester et al. (2014). Polymerase chain reactions to amplify N. apis DNA were carried out using the V1f and 530R primer pair which is specific for the 16S rRNA gene of microsporidia (Evison et al., 2012). The corresponding reaction to amplify N. ceranae DNA was completed using the 218MITOC primer pair (MartinHernandez et al., 2007) which is specific to the 16S rRNA gene of N. ceranae. Resulting sequences were BLAST searched to examine their similarity with sequences deposited in GenBank for N. apis and N. ceranae. Phylogenetic analysis was carried out using MEGA version 6 (Tamura, Stecher, Peterson, Filipski, & Kumar, 2013). Sequences of the 16S rRNA gene from Nosema in other countries were aligned with our sequence using the ClustalW gap function on MEGA6. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic trees were constructed using the Jukes–Cantor model (N. ceranae) and the Tamura three-parameter model (N. apis) as these models were most suited to the corresponding data (Tamura, 1992; Tamura et al., 2013). A bootstrap test of phylogeny was conducted using 1000 replications. We observed N. ceranae to have persisted in New Zealand in A. mellifera. Two 16S rRNA partial gene sequences were produced for N. ceranae after testing of approximately 50 bee samples from four different regions of the North Island, New Zealand (Table 1). Both of the positive samples came from the same apiary in the Thames region. The length of these sequences was 159 bp. The two sequences had a high probability match (99% identity) to N. ceranae sequences on GenBank. Two major haplotype clades for N. ceranae were observed worldwide, with a single haplotype from Morocco forming a third clade (Figure 1(a)). The New Zealand samples clustered together with those from Iran, Lithuania, Mexico, Italy, and Argentina. The second major haplotype included samples from the USA, Australia, France, and Taiwan. The presence of N. ceranae was in agreement with Bingham (2010). Together, these results indicate that N. ceranae has persisted throughout several years in New Zealand. Although this pathogen has been associated with honey bee colony collapse elsewhere, there are no confirmed reports of such effects here. The New Zealand N. ceranae strain was most similar to that observed in Iran, Lithuania, Poland, Mexico, Italy, Argentina or regions in close proximity to these countries. It is possible that the New Zealand strain came from one of these regions, though we cannot rule out its origin from other regions as it is also likely that this strain has a wider, unrecognized geographic distribution due to incomplete global sampling. The N. ceranae sequences from New Zealand did not cluster with those from Australia, perhaps indicating that the country's nearest geographic neighbor


ABSTRACTIn Argentina there exist children's dining rooms where infants and their mothers take lunch at noon and glasses of milk in the afternoon. These dining rooms are established in rural or marginal urban areas. Solar ovens are an interesting option for cooking with less expense of money, and they diminish environmental impact in these zones. A solar oven with downward and upward solar gain was built and tested. Upward solar gain is through Fresnel reflectors. The use of Fresnel reflectors resulted in higher heating power as compared to a solar oven with upper reflectors only. The performance with different numbers of Fresnel units was compared with a single-reflector solar oven with no lower Fresnel reflectors. Oven power was analysed and the result indicates that power grows as the number of Fresnel reflectors increases: it grows by 55% using 3 to 9 Fresnel reflectors, and by 34.6% with 3 to 6 Fresnel reflectors. These values are enough to cook several rations of food, and make this oven appropriate ...


OBJECTIVE
To establish a HepG2 cell line stably expressing the human cytochrome P450 1A2 and to study its metabolic activity.

METHODS
The human wild-type CYP1A2 cDNA was subcloned into a mammalian expression vector pREP9. A transgenic cell line was established by transfecting the recombinant plasmid of pREP9-CYP1A2 to HepG2 cells. The expression of CYP1A2 mRNA was validated by RT PCR. The metabolic activation of HepG2 CYP1A2 cells on aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) was assayed by cytotoxicity test.

RESULT
The HepG2-CYP1A2 cells expressed CYP1A2 mRNA and could increase the cytotoxicity to AFB1 in comparison with that of wild type HepG2 cells.

CONCLUSION
The established HepG2-CYP1A2 can express the mRNA and has the metabolic activity to AFB1. The cell line may be useful for testing the toxicity and metabolism of xenobiotics, which might possibly be activated or metabolized by CYP1A2.


Depression needs to be understood within interdisciplinary scientific, biopsychosocial, therapeutic frameworks, but it also has a moral dimension. The tendency to oppose moral and therapeutic perspectives, as well as to replace moral outlooks with mental-health outlooks, handicaps thinking about depression and many other topics. John Stuart Mill's midlife crisis illustrates how an experience of depression can be both a sickness and a source of moral insight. Furthermore, therapy has a moral dimension, and conversely a humane outlook is interwoven with health-oriented approaches and avoids excessive blaming and guilt. Complicating matters, depression sometimes undermines moral autonomy, and there is a continuum between healthy and unhealthy depression.


In this study, critical temperature, pH value, water content, and water activity inducing the acceleration of fresh noodle deterioration were determined. Total plate count (TPC) and L* value were selected as the visualized parameters to characterize the deterioration of fresh noodles based on our previous study. Results showed that the critical temperature leading to the initial acceleration of fresh noodles was 20°C–25°C, critical water content was between 23% and 24%; the fastest darkening rate was detected at pH 8.0–8.5, while microorganisms kept a high growth rate during the whole range of initial pH 6–10. In addition, shelf-life model was built based on the deteriorating dynamics at room temperature, showing that microbial growth could be well fitted by both Gompertz and Logistic model, with higher fitting precision for Gompertz model and the fitting equation was y = 4.364 exp[−exp (1.032–0.086t)], R2 = .98855; Meanwhile, the darkening of fresh noodles could be fitted by quadratic polynomial model, with the fitting equation y = 76.0629 − 0.0165x + 5.98587x2, R2 = .9814.

Practical applications
This article presents the dynamics during the deterioration of fresh noodles and the critical conditions (moisture content and water activity, pH value, and storage temperature) accelerating the deterioration process. In addition, shelf-life model was built based on the deteriorating dynamics of fresh noodles at room temperature. Based on these results, a shelf-life stable fresh noodle product can be developed by applying different processing techniques and by keeping it in appropriate conditions, which will provide great guiding significance for the production and preservation of these products.


14.00 The article is focused on social rights, starting from the course taken by the emergence of citizenship in modem societies, and the consequent duty imposed on the State to guarantes the enforcement of such rights. Consistently, with this view, the author analyses the re-establishment of the citizen's consciousness as a factor absolutely necessary to the democratic transition now undergone by Brazilian society, since in the framework of foregoing regimes there has been a systematic denial of citizenship as a set of civil, politica1 and social rights. Two distinct patterns of development of social rights in modem States – both within liberal and authoritarian capitalism - are also studied, being appraised the present 'limitations presenting the complete recognition of citizenship in modern society. The article concludes with a study of the evolution of social rights in Brazil, analysing the country's Constitutions and institutional practices. This discussion purports an examination of needs and possibilities of a reversal in the present situation, as part of the consolidation of the Brazilian democratical process. Normal 0 21 false false false PT-BR X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */
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Recently, a number of photopolymers for recording volume phase hologram have been proposed. We have developed the novel photopolymerizable materials for recording the transmission and reflection volume holograms. These hologram recording materials are composed of lower-refractive index binding polymers, higher-refractive index monomers, plasticizers, photoinitiators, and photosensitive dyes. In this paper, the experimental result for the holograms using these materials would be presented. These materials can record both transmission and reflection volume holograms with high sensitivity, high diffraction efficiency, high resolution, and high heat resistance. These holograms were self-developing and white light was sufficient for fixing. After recording holograms, no treating to fix such as heat processing or postexposure of UV were needed. The optical and thermal properties of obtained hologram are written as follow. The diffraction efficiencies were over 90 percent. Transmittance was about 90 percent. Sensitivities were less than 10 mJ/cm2 from UV light to Ar ion laser. And these holograms have the heat resistance over 100 degrees C. The mechanisms of refractive index modulation in photopolymerization of the materials are also discussed.


Reading was one of the four language skills LSRWListening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. It was the complex cognitive process of decoding symbols to derive meaning. The process of reading required continuous practice, development and refinement.Reading wasan essential skill for success. But reading is one of the challenging areas in the education system.The present study was an experimental study. 15 student teachers formed the sample.Modified version of Metacognitive Reading Strategy Questionnaire developed by Taraban, Kerr and Rynearson (2004) was used.Mean and standard deviation were calculated.The mean score of the Posttest was higher than thePretest. It implied that the intervention on metacognitive strategies use was effective.Students were able to make connections and apply reading strategies to other subjects too.Teachers should assist their students to use metacognitive strategies while reading textbook for maximum acquisition of knowledge.


This study was aimed at identifying an evaluative factor in perceived risk that was independent of the previously identified Dread and Knowledge factors. The methodology used was that developed by Slovic, Fischhoff, and Lichtenstein (1985a) with the addition of four new dimensions: personal position, economic justification, justification through well-being, and beneficial to society. This evaluative factor was identified, and loads the four above-mentioned dimensions while excluding 11 others. This evaluative factor primarily emerges as a major determinant in subjects' demands for risk control legislation.


Simple Summary The need to establish a social hierarchy represents a period of severe stress for sows when they are introduced into new groups because of the associated aggressive behavior. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of providing access to straw in racks and manila ropes (IMPROVED) on aggressive behavior after mixing, compared to a typical minimal enrichment gestation system (CONTROL), and to understand the effect of parity order and backfat on the level of the aggression. The overall average number of fights and the initiated aggressive behavior in the three observation days were greater in the CONTROL pens, although within time, we found a significant effect of treatment only on the number of fights performed 3 weeks post-mixing. The effect of backfat thickness revealed an effect only on the observations of initiated aggressive behavior, which was most frequently performed by sow with a low backfat thickness. Parity order did not have a significant effect on the display of any of the aggressive behaviors. These results suggest that aggression at mixing is unavoidable and, indeed, is essential to ensuring the establishment of the dominance hierarchy and thereby achieving group stability. Nevertheless, optimal enrichment materials could have a beneficial effect on at least reducing its frequency. Abstract For sows introduced into new groups, the aggressive behavior associated with establishing a social hierarchy represents a period of severe stress. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of providing sows with an improved pen environment (straw in racks and ropes) on aggressive behavior after mixing and to understand the role played by sow back fat thickness and parity order. At 29 d post-service, sows were mixed into IMPROVED or CONTROL pens with individual feeding stalls (6 groups/treatment, 20 sows/group). Aggressive behavior was recorded for 2 h at mixing (T0) and 24 h (T1) and 3 weeks post-mixing (T21). Overall, the sows in the CONTROL pens performed more fighting behavior compared to the IMPROVED sows (p < 0.001). This difference was significant only at T21 (p < 0.001). Additionally, the sows in the CONTROL pens generally initiated more aggressive behaviors than the sows in the IMPROVED pens (p = 0.02). The sows with a low back fat thickness initiated more aggressive behaviors, but parity had no significant effect on any of the aggressive behaviors. These results indicate a beneficial effect of improvements to the pen environment on the aggression performed by group-housed sows between the time of mixing and three weeks later. The effect was reduced on the day of mixing, which is in accordance with the necessity for sows to employ aggression to establish the dominance hierarchy.


Estimating process derivatives in an on-line optimization scheme has been widely addressed in last few decades. This is due to the fact that earlier methods have encountered major drawbacks in the past. This paper reviews these methods and investigates a new method based on Genetic Algorithms (GA's) for estimating these derivatives within the well-known Integrated System Optimization and parameter Estimation (ISOPE) algorithm. A comparison study is given at the end using simulations on a Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) system. The discussion of the results shows the advantages and disadvantages of each method.