PurposeThe purpose of this study is to measure the gap and compare the quality of services provided by the Central Library of the University of Tehran and Allameh Tabataba'i University and identify the components of service that need improvement in these libraries.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, a descriptive survey method is used for data collection. The study sample contains 205 people selected out of 31,000 members of Tehran University and 100 people out of 15,000 members at Allameh Tabataba'i University. The LibQual tool is used to measure different levels of users' perceptions of library service quality.FindingsBased on the findings of the study, the level of service received at the University of Tehran was higher than the minimum expected level, and at Allameh Tabataba'i University, the level of service received was lower than the minimum level of expected, which indicates users' satisfaction at this index at the University of Tehran and users' dissatisfaction at Allameh Tabataba'i University. In the index of information control and library as a place in Tehran University, the level of service received was higher than the minimum level and in Allameh Tabataba'i University, the level of service received was lower than the minimum level, which indicates the satisfaction of users in this index at the University of Tehran and users' dissatisfaction at Allameh Tabataba'i University.Practical implicationsService quality, or quality of service, is the measurement and comparison of the size of service provided with users' expectations. The following principles illustrate the dimensions of service quality: Quality of service is much more difficult to measure than the quality of goods. The quality of service is based on users' expectations. Quality of service varies in status, meaning that the quality of a service is measured against the customer's initial expectations of that service (Parasuraman et al., 1985).Originality/valueBeing the first performance evaluation, community synchronization, economic justification, user satisfaction and customer orientation are the values of the present study.


This presentation addresses the role of information professionals in Big Data, Open Data and Open Research data. You see success stories of companies that work with data.


We report the first examples of enantiomerically pure P2N2 macrocycles containing either a diimino (1a) or diamino donor set, as well as their ruthenium(II) dichloro complexes. Unexpectedly, the di...


In order to adapt to different network bandwidth and processing capability of end user,a new approach based on shot description is proposed to extract substream of Scalable Video Coding(SVC).The shot description is acquired off-line,and then a binary tree for reference frame is set up.Substream extraction is implemented based on bitstream analysis and shot description.Experiments show that the proposed method can extract substream quickly and assure visual quality without loss of coding efficiency.


A rock drilling machine for adjusting the angle is provided to improve working efficiency by boring a hole horizontally for laying a sewer pipe without excavating the ground. A rock drilling machine includes a driving device(3) joined with a boom(1) of an excavator and rotates about a rotary shaft(2) to generate power by hydraulic pressure of the excavator, a rotary joint installed to an output shaft(4) of the driving device to supply air, a removable screw shaft joined with the rotary joint and equipped with a screw blade driving into the ground, and an air hammer crushing a rock with a rock crushing bit. The driving device comprises a body functioning as a support case, a hydraulic motor generating torque by receiving hydraulic pressure, a decelerator, the output shaft connected to a rotary shaft of the decelerator to transmit decelerated power, and support bearings supporting axial load exerted to the output shaft.


This purpose of this study is to identify students' attitudes at Al Ain University towards their preferred professors when registering their courses based on the educational or human aspects. The researchers used the descriptive survey method, whereby the two researchers developed a questionnaire consisting of (27) items. The study sample consisted of 750 male and female participants. Findings of the study showed that participants had positive attitudes toward their professors in the educational aspect. This study also showed that the relationship between the educational aspect and the human aspect in students' attitudes was statistically significant and positive. In addition to having educational competencies and the ability to manage these competencies efficiently, students stressed the importance of adhering to the human aspect that provides knowledge in a human and professional manner at the same time. This indicates that students prefer to choose professors who possess effective competence, human education and the moral aspect that determines their attitudes and preferences when they register courses in each academic semester.


The sustenance of the environment is one of the cardinal teachings of the Hindus tradition and, in this regard, the Hindus tradition points out clearly that a good environment is indispensable for a healthy life. This work seeks to explore some of the fundamental teachings of Hinduism that point to the implications of the relationship between human beings and their environment. For instance, the dharma ecology explains the mechanism for creating respect for nature and the consequences of not doing so. Essentially, this relationship and its corresponding consequence functions in line with the Karmic law of nature. The essence of this paper is to create awareness on the impending disaster that may result from the abuse of the eco-system such as the extinction of the earth's plants and animal species that may result from the current destruction of forests and coral reefs, and the depletion of the earth's ozone layer, which will expose life to excessive ultra-violet radiation that is damaging to genetic materials. This work used the qualitative method of research involving secondary method of data collection such as written literature, internet materials, among others. Interestingly, education and sensitization through networking and advertising can be used in enhancing the knowledge on how to relate favourably with the eco-system.


Selenium (Se) is an element monitored by water quality agencies worldwide. The challenge of assessing its presence in aquatic systems is its low concentrations (parts per trillion) and the need for determining its chemical speciation. A method was developed using an ion chromatograph (IC) paired with a quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) equipped with a hydrogen reaction cell to provide analysts with a rapid and sensitive method to measure Se speciation with suitable accuracy and precision. The Se species selenite (SeIV) and selenate (SeVI) were separated within a 5 min span using dilute nitric acid as a mobile phase in a step-wise gradient (50–400 mmol L−1) and quantified using 80Se isotope that yielded low limits of detection (<10 ng L−1). Spectral interference from plasma generated diatomic argon ions (40Ar2+; m/z = 80) on 80Se was eliminated by hydrogen gas (H2) in the reaction cell. Polyatomic 79Br1H+ (m/z = 80) did not interfere with 80Se for quantification of common aquatic Se species (SeVI and SeIV) due to different column retention times. Two organic species (methylselenocysteine and selenomethionine) commonly found in aquatic and terrestrial plant tissues were also tested to rule out possible chromatographic interference and explore the potential application to biological samples. Urban rainwater and Canadian river water samples were analyzed for Se species to demonstrate the applicability of the method. Owing to its ability to rapidly determine Se species in water samples at environmentally relevant concentrations, the method may be useful for monitoring agencies to routinely measure Se species in freshwater aquatic systems.


Da'wah, especially billisan has a significant role in making changes in society. Kyai as Dai, becomes central in these changes. The objectives of this research include: Examining the figure of the Dai, Muhyiddin Abdul Qodir Al-Manafi, How the Da'i Concept is in developing community resources, and, How it is the Implementation in developing community resources. The method used by researchers in this study is the descriptive method. The research results include the following. First: Muhyiddin is a figure of Kyai who was born and grew up in a family of scholars and has a lineage that is connected to the Prophet Muhammad. Second: reviving the sunnah, then developing it with the emphasis on building ukhuwah Islamiyyah and third: carrying out various activities or Community Resource Development movements to build, and strengthen understanding and practice of religion that is equitable for all levels of society. The impact of this research can be a basis for preaching that focuses on developing human resources.


The purpose of this Master's thesis is to implement a proposal of didactic
intervention that might be helpful when it comes to the design of Lesson Plans about
practical projects in Technology subject, year 1 of secondary education, integrating
good thinking through the Thinking Based Learning (TBL) method. Therefore we
analyse the TBL method and through thinking skills we apply it to the specifics of
the Technology subject, considering the shortcomings in regards to good thinking in
a Lesson Plan of year 1 of secondary. By using this didactic intervention the alumni
of Technology subject will achieve a better performance of the material. In any case,
this proposal is theoretical and its validity has to be determined once applied in
reality.


Sugarcane yield in China is low because of the shallow A-horizon soil layer, or as it is commonly called by farmers, the "plow soil layer", as well as low soil organic matter and fertilizer utilization efficiency. Fenlong-ridging deep tillage (FT), also called vertical rotary tillage, and amendment with biochar have been shown to improve soil quality and crop yield. In this study, field trials were conducted with newly planted and ratoon sugarcane to evaluate the effectiveness of FT, together with amendment with biochar and nitrogen fertilization, to improve sugarcane yield. The treatments were conventional tillage with chemical fertilizer without biochar (CT-CF, which was the control of this experiment), FT with chemical fertilizer without biochar (FT-CF), conventional tillage with chemical fertilizer mixed with biochar (CT-CFB), and FT with chemical fertilizer mixed with biochar (FT-CFB). FT-CFB treatment presented higher soil porosity, as well as higher contents of available N, P, K, total N, and organic matter, and lower soil bulk density. Similarly, results showed that FT-CFB presented higher sugarcane root fresh and dry weights, higher germination percentage, higher tiller number, and higher yield with statistically significant differences among treatments for both newly planted and ratoon sugarcane plants. Significant interactions between biochar and FT were observed for these crop traits. The interactions of FT and amendment with biochar improved the soil's physical and chemical properties and increased the available nutrients, resulting in improved root growth and sugarcane yield. The statistical results of the present study imply that Fenlong-ridging deep tillage combined with chemical fertilizer mixed with biochar (FT-CFB) application is a new promising farm management practice for improving the soil's physical and chemical properties and root growth, increasing total yield in China's sugarcane belt area.


The purpose of the present study is to test whether VOT values of the Korean plain stops in intervocalic position are encoded differently by individual speakers. In Scobbie (2006), the VOT values to the /p/-/b/ voicing contrast in Shetland Isles English were found to demonstrate a high degree of inter-speaker variation. More importantly such variation was not arbitrary: first, there was an inverse relationship between the amount of prevoicing for /b/ and the duration of aspiration for /p/. Second, the inter-speaker variation was shown to be similar between the subjects and their parents. These results suggest that the phonetic targets for VOT are specified in fine detail by speakers. The present study further explores this issue in terms of testing 1) whether the likelihood and the amount of voicing for the intervocalic plain stops in Korean show inter-speaker variation; 2) whether the likelihood and the exact amount of voicing for the intervocalic plain stops in Korean are closely related to the amount of aspiration for the Korean intervocalic aspirated stops. The results of the study suggest that the voicing of intervocalic plain stops in Korean varied according to the individual speakers, but it did not seem to be directly interrelated with the amount of aspiration of the aspirated stops in the same phonological position.


In this paper an efficient low-cost built-in self test (BIST) scheme is proposed for analog circuits. The key idea is to use rectangular pulses of random widths obtained directly from a digital linear feedback shift register to perform transient testing of the circuit under test. A small amount of synchronization and comparison circuitry is necessary to perform the BIST. A methodology for designing the BIST hardware is described and results are discussed. The method is seen to be both efficient and low cost.


A variable gain amplifier circuit of the present invention using the one end side of the pair of operation amplifiers to amplify the complementary part of the differential input signal. By using the two one-side amplifier, instead of a single differential amplifier, the linearity is improved significantly. In addition, the common mode feedback circuit is removed together with the harmonic distortion and other forms of the type resulting in a degradation of the quality of a signal output from the circuit. A variable gain amplifier, a differential amplifier, the common mode feedback circuit


In recent years a small number of peculiar coins has emerged from the southern shores of the Persian/Arabian Gulf imitating Athenian tetradrachms of the old style and sharing the oddity of being struck on a flan that had been folded before striking. This paper contains an overview of the pieces known so far and attempts to present some preliminary conclusions, while still awaiting a comprehensive study of this and related ancient coinages of the Arabian peninsula.


This chapter documents how Abraham von Franckenberg actively apprenticed some of his contacts and correspondents as spiritual alchemists, most notably Georg Lorenz Seidenbecher. In his later years, Franckenberg became increasingly interested in alchemical literature. Exiled in Danzig due to the Thirty Years' War, he encountered the young Seidenbecher in the summer of 1649. They met frequently, and Franckenberg gave Seidenbecher letters and manuscript texts to copy and internalise. Two letters to Tobias König and other texts that survive in an edition from the eighteenth century show how Franckenberg pointed his associates towards spiritual alchemy without giving it away too easily. Having left Danzig, Seidenbecher corresponded with Franckenberg until the latter's death in 1652.


increases in the proportions of the elderly within populations. Demographers expect population aging to become a widespread phenomenon in all world regions in the next few decades. This trend has raised concerns about the sustainability of public pension systems, such as the U.S. Social Security system. Failure to address these concerns could have adverse economic effects on a national and international scale, according to the International Monetary Fund. Population Council demographer John Bongaarts recently examined the situation in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States and offered policy options to make pension systems sustainable.


The aim of the research study was to carry out phytochemical and antibacterial studies of methanolic leaves extract and its fractions of Guiera senegalensis. The plant material was collected, identified, shed dried and pulverized to fine powder using pestle and mortar. The powdered plant material was subjected to maceration using methanol to obtained crude methanol leaf extract which was then partitioned using n-hexane, chloroform ethyl acetate and n-butanol. The extract and the fractions obtained were subjected to phytochemical screening using standard procedure, to detect the presence of secondary metabolites. The antibacterial assay of the extract and its fractions against S. aureus, B. subtilus, P.mirabilis and S. typhyrium were investigated using agar well diffusion method at different concentration (100 – 12.5 mg/mL). The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of various secondary metabolites which varies in the extract and fractions. The extract and its fractions showed significant (p< 0.05) antibacterial activities against all the test isolates with the methanol extract having the highest mean zone of inhibition ranging from 2.00±1.00d-24.00±1.00* mm then followed by ethyl acetate fraction with the mean zone of inhibitions from 4.00±1.00d-22.00±1.00* mm the n-butanol fraction and the chloroform fraction had mean zone from 4.00±1.00d-18.50±1.00* mm and 4.00±1.00d-17.60±1.00d mm respectively while n-hexane fraction recorded lower mean zone of inhibition from 4.00±1.00a-15.00±1.00* The standard drug Ciprofloxacin had mean zone of inhibition from 16.20±0.00-39.0±0.00 mm. The most sensitive organism was S. aureus, while the least sensitive organism was S. typhyrium. The study has validated the ethnomedicinal claim for the use of this plant in treatment of antibacterial infections.


New approaches for adaptation of the International Reference Ionosphere model IRI to current ionospheric parameters are used to improve determination of maximum usable frequency MUF and path length D for HF waves propagated via the ionosphere with an example of one European path. Parameters foF2 (maximum frequency of the F2 layer) and TEC (total electron content) are used as adaptive ones. In additional the analytical approximation is proposed for the IRI model residual error. Its influence on MUF and D errors is given.


Commons-based Peer Production is the process by which internet communities create media and software artefacts. Learning is integral to the success of these communities as it encourages contribution on an individual level, helps to build and sustain commitment on a group level and provides a means for adaption at an organisational level. While some communities have established ways to support organisational learning -- through a forum or thread reserved for community discussion -- few have investigated how more in-depth visual and analytic interfaces could help formalise this process. In this paper, we explore how social network visualisation can be used to encourage reflection and thus support organisational learning in online communities. We make the following contributions: First, we describe Commons-Based Peer Production, in terms of a socio-technical learning system that includes individual, group and organisational learning. Second, we present a novel visualisation environment that embeds social network visualisation in an asynchronous collaborative architecture. Third, we present results from an evaluation and discuss the potential for visualisation to support the process of organisational reflection in online communities.


The paper explains the process of the program design and application of Tiantie No. 6 BF charging control system. Automatic control program accurately controlling charging system was designed by studying and analyzing BF charging system. During practice, operation time was saved and charging speed increased. The problems occurring in practice were solved by making adjustment and taking relevant improvement measures. Good charging effect was achieved and BF normal production ensured.


Hypersonic inlet self-starting ability is of great importance for scramjet engines and hypersonic flight vehicles to operate stably and efficiently. However, the prediction of the hypersonic inlet self-starting limit is generally difficult. This paper proposes a flow-based prediction approach for the self-starting limiting internal contraction ratio of two-dimensional hypersonic inlets. The key lies in the establishment of a general approximate expression for the fluid dynamic blockage, caused by the migration of the primary separation bubble down the internal contraction portion of the inlet. Formulas for the fluid dynamic blockage and the limiting internal contraction ratio are given. The predicted results are in good agreement with the published experimental results on hypersonic inlet starting.


Sir, Eosinophilic fasciitis (EF) is a rare connective-tissue disorder clinically characterized by symmetrical and painful swelling associated to progressive induration and thickening of both skin and soft tissues, especially on the extremities. In contrast to other connective-tissue diseases, Raynaud's phenomenon, sclerodactily, and abnormal nailfold capillaroscope readings are usually absent as antinuclear antibody and extractable nuclear antigen. Furthermore, peripheral eosinophilia, hypergammaglobulinemia, and a high erythrocyte sedimentation rate can be found. Despite the absence of a consensus on EF diagnostic criteria, the association of both clinical and histological characteristics (ie, fascia thickening intermingled with an eosinophilic infiltrate) leads to the diagnosis. EF therapy has not yet been standardized. However, besides systemic steroids, currently considered as the elective treatment, immunosuppressive drugs (such as cyclosporine and methotrexate) are successfully administered to nonresponder patients. Moreover, both PUVA (psoralen combined with ultraviolet A) and extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) have been reported in recalcitrant cases. Herein, we describe a EF case treated with ECP and bosentan. A 50-year-old man presented with 1-year history of eosinophilia, malaise, arthromyalgia, and erythematous, edematous plaques (Figure 1) on the lower limbs. On the same areas, he complained of stiffness and swelling, as well. At blood examination, a slight eosinophilia 0.71 10/mm (9.8%) and lymphocyte percentage decrease (11.3%) were observed. In addition, positivity for antinuclear antibodies (1:1280) was found. To rule out hematological disorders, bone marrow biopsy and chest and abdomen computed tomography scan were performed with no sign of an internal disease. A biopsy on the leg revealed normal epidermis, edema in the medium and deep dermis, and muscular fascia thickened with an infiltrate of plasma cells (Figure 2). Despite the absence of the muscular component in the biopsy, the clinical–pathological correlation suggested EF diagnosis. Moreover, nail-fold capillaroscope readings were negative. Oral methylprednisolone (0.5 mg/kg/d) was administered in association with PUVA therapy (4 times a week). Two months afterward, 2 small (<0.5 cm) nummular and painful ulcers were observed on the left leg and hydrocolloid plaques were applied. Four months after the start of therapy, no improvement was observed, so PUVA therapy and oral steroids were stopped. ECP was started, scheduled in 1 cycle (on 2 consecutive days at 2-week intervals for 3 months, thereafter scheduled every 4 weeks for 10 months). The disease improved slightly after 4 cycles. However, the 2 ulcers did not improve. Bosentan therapy was administered (125 mg/d, increased 1 month later to 250 mg/d). Three months afterward, the stiffness had subsided, the plaques turned brownish, and ulcers appeared smaller. Twelve months from the start of both ECP and bosentan treatment, neither EF nor 529651 IJLXXX10.1177/1534734614529651The International Journal of Lower Extremity Wounds research-article2014


which personalizes the mix of racial, religious, cultural, and school variables active in Catholic schools. Further, they accent the resiliency and adaptability of African American children, demonstrate the overlap between school and family experiences, and describe the delicate balance attained by African American students and parents in negotiating their presence, and sometimes leadership roles, in Catholic schools. In the final chapter, Irvine provides a coherent synthesis of the lessons learned from Catholic schools about the education of African Americans and discusses their implications for public school reform. She organizes these lessons into three themes: curriculum and instruction, common values shared, and race and racial identity. She deduces that curriculum and pedagogy in Catholic schools are generally academic, structured, and very traditional. Additionally, she maintains, Catholic schools offer a strong set of clearly articulated, accepted values embraced by Catholic school educators, students, and parents. On the subject of race, Irvine concludes that African American children in Catholic schools learn a lot about race and their own racial identity as a result of the Catholic school experience; they also learn how other children, school personnel, and society define and value racial differences. However, she asserts that Catholic (and public) school personnel must make more of an effort to examine the overt and hidden racial messages in their curricula and maximize their formal and informal interactions with African American students. Irvine concludes her summative analysis of the African American Catholic school experience by sharing with readers some guidelines for the education of African American students based on the findings of these essays. As she attests, the first of these is that, despite the nature of that curriculum or the particular pedagogical approach, African American students profit from a demanding curriculum taught by individuals who are mission-oriented and who believe that African Americans must learn and achieve in school. Second, African American parents and their families must share the values and mission of the school and support the school in ways that are mutually agreed upon and negotiated. Third, schools must also acknowledge the identity of their students' African American heritage and understand that African Americans are not simply colorful prototypes of White students but students who strongly identify with their culture. What makes this book great reading is the depth and breadth of information and experiences offered; however, the recollections of individuals who attended Catholic schools in different regions of the United States and even the Caribbean or Africa would have added a broader dimension to this book. It would also have been helpful if the original sources of all these articles had been noted. Despite these limitations, Growing Up African American in Catholic Schools achieves its objectives. It strongly challenges the dominant theory that portrays African Americans as helpless victims in a marginalized culture that exists in constant opposition to Eurocentric beliefs and practices. It also succeeds in presenting a lucid historical and sociological treatment of the education of African Americans in Catholic schools. Irvine and Foster have compiled in this volume a collection of educational research and interpretation that is honest, noteworthy, insightful, and opportune. This book should prove useful to teachers and school administrators in public and private schools, especially African American teachers and school administrators who interact with African American students in Catholic schools. It is also strongly recommended for African American parents who are exploring Catholic schools as one of many options for the schooling of their children. Growing Up African American in Catholic Schools, edited by Jacqueline Jordan Irvine and Michele Foster. …


High level of serum triacylglycerol and cholesterol is an important risk factor for the progression of atherosclerosis. The severity of atherosclerosis can be markedly influenced by iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) overload or deficiency in aorta tissues of the rabbits. The changes of Fe and Zn in heart and aortic tissues of rabbits during the progression of atherosclerosis have not been well documented. Thus, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the changes of Fe and Zn in heart and aortic tissues of rabbits fed on high fat diet (HFD) for 12 weeks. The HFD group was fed a normal rabbit chow supplemented with 1.0% cholesterol plus 1.0% olive oil for a feeding period of 12 weeks. Fe and Zn concentrations were measured in two types of tissue from control and HFD rabbits using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). The Fe concentration was significantly (p < 0.05) increased in HFD rabbits (Mean ± SE; heart: 10.52 ± 1.04 and aorta: 3.01 ± 2.61; n = 25 specimens) compared with control rabbits (Mean ± SE; heart: 8.41 ± 0.01 and aorta: 2.25 ± 0.37; n = 20 specimens). The Fe concentration was increased with percentage normalized changes of 25.09% in heart and 33.78% in aortic tissues of HFD rabbits compared with control rabbits while the Zn concentration was significantly (p < 0.05) decreased with percentage normalized changes of 14.39% in heart and 18.37% in aortic tissues of HFD rabbits compared with control rabbits. AAS was used to elucidate the changes of Fe and Zn in heart and aortic tissues of HFD rabbits compared with control rabbits. The findings of this study can be summarized as follows; percentage normalized change of increase of Fe was 25.09% in heart tissue accompanied by percentage normalized change of decrease of Zn 14.39% in heart tissue while percentage normalized change of increase of Fe was 33.78% in heart tissue accompanied by percentage normalized change of decrease of Zn 18.37% in aortic tissue. This study suggests that the increase in Fe concentrations in heart and aortic tissues may accelerate atherosclerosis through the production of free radicals while the decrease in Zn concentrations may act as a protective factor against atherosclerosis perhaps by reducing lesion Fe content. These results suggest that the changes in Fe and Zn concentrations in heart and aortic tissues of rabbits are closely related to the progression of atherosclerosis.


M. Noguchi, PhD, M. Kume, PhD, Y. Murayama, PhD, M. Harada, MS and Y. Iizuka, MS Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, Dokkyo Medical University, Tochigi, Japan, Jobu University, Takasaki, Japan, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Tokyo, Japan INTRODUCTION: The eating habits of mothers are related to their children's eating habits. It is essential for mother to have healthy daily meals in order to bring up healthy children. The aim of this study is to describe the caloric intake of women raising children in infancy. METHODS: Two self-administered questionnaires were distributed to women who have children whose age were two to three years old in a regional town in Japan. One of the questionnaires was the Brieftype self-administered diet history questionnaire (BDHQ) and the other was about demographics. The BDHQ data can estimate caloric intake according to individual food classification. RESULTS: 116 women were the analysis subjects. The mean age of the women were 33.564.9 years old. The mean BMI was 21.263.4. There were 26 women who were underweight (with BMI below 18.5), 74 women who were in the normal weight status (with BMI 18.5 to 24.9) and 16 women who were overweight (with BMI more than 25). There were significant differences in intake calories from seafood (P1⁄4 .006) among the three groups. The mean of intake calories from seafood was 81.8 kcal for the underweight group, 101.5kcal for the normal weight group and 153.3kcal for the overweight group. There are no significant differences in energy amount among these three groups. But as a result of analysis between each individual's estimated required calories and actual intake calories, we found that the intake of 65(56.0%) women was less than 300kcal of required calories, and the intake of 8(6.8%) women was in excess of more than 300 kcal. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that many Japanese women raising children in infancy don't have an appropriate diet, and in particular, their lack of necessary intake is a problem. Effective and available health education to change eating habits of mothers is therefore, important. International Journal of Epidemiology, 2015, Vol. 44, Supplement 1 i101


A field theoretical method for the treatment of the often violated charge conservation laws in computational electrodynamics is presented. This approach explores the basic symmetry features of Maxwell theory and the analogy between the gauge field anomalies of quantum field theory and the violation of charge conservation law on the lattice, in Lorentz covariant Lagrangian formalism. A mathematical construction of the counter terms to the anomalous charge conservation law is proposed, and thereby a consistent theory for the Generalized Lagrange Multiplier method is presented, which has so far lacked a concrete theoretical framework. Based on the established theoretical framework, the method has been further extended and the question regarding whether method solves "right" equations is answered. This extended method with new insight is then applied to magnetohydrodynamics and recently proposed "shallow water" . In particular, a -based Godunov-type finite-volume solver for the "shallow water" system on the Cartesian grid has been developed, and the introduced theoretical framework for model is validated. In addition, associated new analytic features of the "shallow water" system is also presented.


Previously developed analytical formulations for piezoelectric composite plates are extended to account for the nonlinear effects of material property temperature dependence. Using manufacturer's experimental data, the temperature variation of the different piezoelectric properties are incorporated at the material level into the thermopiezoelectric constitutive equations. These constitutive equations are used in turn to formulate a layerwise laminate theory and to derive finite element equations, which are implemented into a bilinear four noded plate element. This unified representation leads to an inherent capability to model both the active and sensory response, as well as accounting for the coupled mechanical, electrical, and thermal behavior of piezoelectric composite plates. Numerical studies demonstrate the nonlinear effects introduced by the temperature dependence of material properties on the displacements, sensory voltages, and stresses of a simply supported composite plate with attached piezoceramic patches.


Over the last decade, economists have conducted numerous studies concerning trade barriers posed by national tariffs. In spite of this interest, few comprehensive analyses of transport barriers have been attempted. This seems surprising since transport costs, like tariffs, influence the magnitudes of trade flows, and types of goods exchanged internationally. Recent changes in United States import statistics permit estimation of the incidence of international transport and insurance charges by product and by country. Using these records, this study shows that the overall ad valorem incidence of India's transport costs is approximately 14 per cent, or more than double current MFN tariffs. However, the spread between transport charges and tariffs is greater on some products of special export interest to India. Analysis of the transport charges by processing stages shows that these costs escalate with increased fabrication. Thus, freight costs, like "tariffs, retard the growth of processing industries in Indi...


In order to perform long-term studies up to one week on a preselected single cell after micromanipulation (e.g. UVA and NIR microbeam exposure) in comparison with non-treated neighbor cells (control cells) we applied a variety of single cell diagnostic techniques and developed a special comet assay for single preselected cells. For that purpose adherent cells were grown in low concentrations and maintained in special sterile centimeter-sized glass cell chambers. After preselection, a single cell was marked by means of diamond-produced circles on the outer cell chamber window. During exposure to microbeams, NADH-attributed autofluorescence of the chosen cell was detected by fluorescence imaging and spectroscopy. In addition, cell morphology was video-monitored (formation of pseudopodia, membrane blebbing,...). Maintaining the microchamber in the incubator, the irradiated cell was examined 24 h later for cell division (clone formation) and modifications in autofluorescence and morphology (including daughter cells). In the case that no division occurred the vitality of the light-exposed cell and of the control cells were probed by intranuclear propidium iodide accumulation. After fixation, either electron microscopy or single cell gel electrophoresis (comet assay) was performed. To monitor comet formation indicating photoinduced DNA damage in the preselected single cell in comparison with the non-exposed neighbor cells the chamber was filled with low-melting gel and lysis solution and exposed to an electric field. In contrast to the conventional comet assay, where only randomly chosen cells of a suspension are investigated, the novel optimized electrophoresis technique should enhance the possibilities of DNA damage detection to a true single (preselected) cell level. The single cell techniques applied to UVA microexposed Chinese hamster ovary cells (364 nm, 1 mW, 3.5 W/cm2) revealed significant cell damage for J/cm2 fluences such as modifications of intracellular redox state, impaired cell division, formation of giant cells and cell shrinking, swelling of mitochondria and loss of cristae as well as DNA damage.


Abstract Introduction: Primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) has a prevalence of around 1% and requires surgery for definite treatment. On the other hand, familial hypocalciuric hypercalcaemia (FHH) is much rarer and does not need specific treatment. There may be considerable overlap in biochemical features in these conditions. Urine calcium indices are used to help with the differential diagnosis, but their reliability in making this distinction is not clear. The aim of this retrospective cohort study was to review urinary calcium values in patients with proven PHPT and those with genetically proven FHH. Methods: Over six years (2011-2016), 265 patients with PHPT underwent surgery. Of these, 14 patients with intermittent or persistent hypercalcaemia within 6 months after surgery were excluded leaving 251 patients (female to male ratio 5:1) for final analysis. In the FHH arm, only genetically proven cases (n = 10) were included. Results: In the PHPT arm, pre-operative data was available for 24 hr urine calcium excretion (UCE) and fractional excretion of calcium (FeCa) in 93 patients; 24 hr UCE only in 95 patients; and FeCa only in 43 patients. 24 hr UCE was low (i.e. <2.5 mmol/L/24 hr) in 8 of 188 patients (sensitivity for PHPT - 95.7%). FeCa was low (<0.01) in 16 of 136 patients (sensitivity for PHPT - 88.2%). Most of the false negative (for PHPT) readings (all of 24 hr UCE and 87.5% of FeCa) could be explained by low vitamin D levels (<50 nmol/L), chronic kidney disease 3b or worse and drugs such as indapamide. In the subgroup of 93 patients who had both 24hr UCE and FeCa, low FeCa was seen in 10 patients, low 24 hr UCE in 5 patients and only one patient had low levels of both tests. In the FHH arm, both 24 hr UCE and FeCa results were available for 6 patients; 24 hr UCE only for 2 patients and FeCa only for 2 patients. Five of eight patients with 24 hr UCE had at least one normal or high level of urinary calcium and three of eight patients with FeCa had levels consistent with a diagnosis of PHPT. Conclusions: Vitamin D deficiency and chronic kidney disease should be considered as causes of low urine calcium excretion in patients with features of primary hyperparathyroidism. A significant proportion of gene positive FHH patients may have normal or high urinary calcium excretion at some stage. Research into better discrimination between these conditions would be clinically useful.


Zirconium-containing medium-pore, Al-free molecular sieves (Si/Zr molar ratios > 50) with MFI structure have been synthesized both in alkaline and HF/CH3NH2 medium. The samples synthesized in HF/CH3NH2 medium exhibit a high crystallinity, bigger particle size, lower surface area and lower catalytic activity in the hydroxylation of phenol as compared to those synthesized in alkaline medium. An expansion in unit cell volume (XRD), an absorption at 965 cm-1 (FTIR) and at 212 nm (UV-Visible) as well as the catalytic activity data indicate that upto 0.6 zirconium atom per unit cell (Si/Zr=158) could be substituted isomorphously within the silicalite-1 framework. The IR study of adsorbed pyridine has shown that strong Lewis acid and weak Bronsted acid sites exist on all zirconium silicate samples, synthesized in alkaline medium. The relative stability of cluster models representing various possible lattice structures and the ordering of molecular orbitals derived from extended Huckel molecular orbital calculations are discussed to understand the nature of active sites in the zirconium silicates.


To analyze the performance of leaf spring of tandem suspension of heavy-duty truck,a leaf spring model of multi-body dynamics in tandem suspension for a heavy-duty truck is built with the method of the discrete beam element,and it is a model to solve the problems of the large deformation,non-linear contact and dry friction.The true vertical stiffness change and the hysteresis characteristics of leaf spring can be obtained by adjusting the parameters of the discrete beam in the simulation tests.The characteristic curve of the model can be the same as or similar to the actual leaf spring.The results show that discrete beam method is a better method for describing the real performance of leaf spring of tandem suspension of heavy-duty truck and provide the reliable and convenient leaf spring model for the full vehicle dynamics model.


Previously, we reported that epigenetic therapy with cladribine, SAHA, and rituximab (SCR) for newly diagnosed mantle cell lymphoma was remarkably effective, with 100% overall response rate, 85-90% CR rate, and durable responses( Hasanali, AACR,2013 LBA140). Over 40 patients now have been enrolled with all patients completing therapy. Final response and CR rates will be reported at the meeting. This abstract will focus on the correlative studies performed as part of this trial.

Cladribine, a purine analog with reported epigenetic activity was shown here by HELP assays to inhibit DNA methylation in vivo in 6 patients with leukemic MCL. Similar activity was also observed in two MCL and two CLL patients treated with cladribine without vorinostat off trial, suggesting cladribine is a DNA hypomethylating agent. Due to cladribine's ability to inhibit the enzyme SAH hydrolase and thus inhibit the donation of methyl groups by S-adenosyl methionine (SAM), we assayed the ability of cladibine to inhibit histone methylation in vitro by Western blot analysis and in vitro assays of histone methyltransferase (HMT) activity on H3lys9 and H3lys27. Both assays demonstrated inhibition of methylated histones (Western) and HMT activity using MCL cell cells and nuclear extract at concentrations of cladribine in the 10-20 um range, higher than the in vivo concentration of 10-20 nm. These observations could be due to the lack of sensitivity of these assays, and more sensitive assays are in development.

Studies to help elucidate the mechanism of action of synergy of epigenetic drugs with the monoclonal antibody rituximab were performed. Using cells from patients with leukemic MCL treated with SCR, we assayed for characteristic changes of apoptosis using Western blotting and TUNEL assays. None were detected. We were unable to observe complement mediated cytoxicity in vitro using human serum and rituximab with added cladribine or vorinostat. With ADCC being the primary mechanism of presumed combined epigenetic and rituximab synergy, we investigated ADCC further. CD137 transcriptional upregulation was seen in several but not all treated patients, and some patients showed up regulation of perforin and granzyme mRNA by QRTPCR. An NK cell line, NKL, showed transcriptional upregulation of CD137 after treatment with cladribine and vorinostat.

A polymorphism at an intron-exon junction effects the nuclear localization of cyclin D1 by removing a nuclear export signal. Although there is published evidence supporting the role of nuclear cyclin D1 in increased oncogenesis, the role of this polymorphism in MCL remains controversial. Samples from peripheral blood of patients on trial were genotyped at the cyclin D1 locus as AA, AG, or GG, with the A allele being the loss of function allele. The presence of the A allele strongly correlated with the blastic phenotype and the lack of complete remission after SCR therapy, with both being statistically significant ([table 1][1]). Immunofluorescent studies with cyclin D1 antibodies showed nuclear and cytoplasmic localization as predicted in patients with the AA and GG genotypes ([Fig 1][2]). The heterozygotes are under investigation and will be reported.

View this table:

![Figure][3]

The mechanism of resistance to SCR was studied in a patient with blastic, leukemic MCL. A 63 male achieved complete remission after two cycles of SCR. Subsequently, he developed neurologic symptoms and was found to have CNS disease. At autopsy, CD20+ disease was found in his CNS and CD20- disease was found systemically. A cell line was established from his peripheral blood that showed significantly reduced levels of CD20 mRNA. Treatment of these cells with a variety of epigenetic drugs was unable to upregulate CD20 mRNA. These cells have been in continuous culture for over 1 year and continue to show diminished levels of CD20 mRNA and protein. Epigenetic changes at the promoter are being studied by chromatin immunoprecipation (ChiP) assays.

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: #T1
 [2]: #F1
 [3]: pending:yes


This article discusses about the use of computer laboratories and computer softwares that may contribute to the knowledge construction of concepts linked to the subjects of Sciences and Mathematics.  For this reason, a research was performed in two state schools in Barbosa Ferraz - PR, in order to verify with what frequency computer laboratories were used by teachers and, mainly, to evidence which type of tools were explored in these laboratories. Results show that the use of laboratory in these teaching establishments has been almost resumed to internet research. In that sense, we believe it is necessary to create means for these resources, so important nowadays, to be more efficiently explored, providing conditions for technology to collaborate with the knowledge construction in a significant way.


The microinjection process has been improved by pinpoint use of the photosensitizing (PS) effect to degenerate cell membranes prior to injection. This avoids mechanical perforation of the membrane when the pipette tip makes contact with the cell. Titanium oxide was used as a photocatalytic coating for capillaries in this experiment. It catalyzes reactive oxygen species under UV light and degenerates cell membranes by oxidation. This process was evaluated by injecting water-soluble fluorescent Lucifer Yellow (LY) CH dye into rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells. The injections were automated by a programmable motorized manipulator. The success rate was 57% for injections done using an 180 nm-thick titanium-oxide coated capillary under UV light and 43% for a capillary with a costing 120 nm thick. Without UV light, the success rates dropped to 20% for the capillary with the 180 nm coating, and 6% for the capillary with the 120 nm coating. These results suggest that using the PS-effect with microinjections increases injection-success rates and reduces the rate of cell injury caused by injection.


Cell-free extracts prepared from rad1-19, rd2-2, rad3-1, rad4-3, rad7-1, rad10-1, rd14-1, rad16-1, and cyc1-1 (rad7) mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae all catalyze the preferential excision of thymine-containing pyrimidine dimers from ultraviolet-irradiated DNA specifically incised with M. luteus ultraviolet deoxyribonucleic acid incising activity.


Background: Probiotics are dietary supplements have found their usage mainly for gastrointestinal problems. Recently, oral health benefits of probiotics are investigated and their use for prevention of oral diseases such as dental caries, periodontal problem, and halitosis are established. Aim: The aim of the study is to assess the knowledge and attitude about probiotics among private dental practitioners in Alkharj, Saudi Arabia. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted on a total of 170 dentists practicing in alkharj. The subjects completed a questionnaire that consisted of information related to assess the awareness, knowledge, and attitude about probiotics. The collected data were expressed as number and percentages. Results: 96.47% of dentists were aware of the probiotics, while 82.3% of dentists think probiotics helps in improving health. 76.2% have used probiotics for some reason. 81.7% were of the intention to use probiotics for prevention of oral disease. Conclusion: This study revealed good awareness of probiotics among dentists in Alkharj. Lack of adequate knowledge about use of probiotics for oral health needs to be addressed.


Implementation of patient feedback is considered as a critical part of effective and efficient management. This study is a retrospective survey after to ensure the medical convergence analysis of contents on customer dissatisfaction using medical services. The data were collected from dissatisfaction 319 case at a affiliated hospital. The result indicate that a repeat visit than the initial visit, outpatients were more dissatisfied than the inpatients. The type of dissatisfaction were more dissatisfied of the in communication and explanation of medical service, nursing service and procedure of administrative services. In the classification of disease the percentages of dissatisfaction in the digestive system and neoplasm were high in both groups( p <0.05). Based on the study to improve the quality of medical service. Prevent the recurrence of dissatisfaction and to establish a customer-oriented business strategy. Characterized by dissatisfaction factors and contents of each patient and should be structured to specific disease types of services through continuous medical convergence research.


This article examines the brief history of the Serbian consulate in Serres in 1897–1899 as a failed attempt at state-building. Drawing on evidence from recently published materials by the Serbian State Archives, the article argues that the Serbian consuls in Serres, Branislav Nušić and Sima Avramović, played an important role in the efforts to promote Serbian national identity and defend Serbian political interests in Ottoman Macedonia. The consulate in Serres was part of an expanding Serbian diplomatic network in Macedonia, which proved instrumental to other Serbian initiatives, such as the creation of new schools and the appointment of Serbian priests in the region. The Serbian consular activities in Serres formed an aspect of a wide-ranging transnational strategy of deploying consulates across Macedonia in the wake of the Serbian-Bulgarian War of 1885. Such institutions served to advance national interests and protect national subjects outside the borders of the fledgling Balkan states. Reviewing recent scholarship on Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece, the article concludes by comparing the Serbian example to those of other Balkan nations and suggesting further venues for comparative and entangled historical research.


In this study, we report a 4-fold improvement in fluorescence detection sensitivity as a result of integration of a thin-film mirror onto an Ormocomp-based electrophoresis separation chip. We report fabrication and performance characterization of planar thin-film Al mirrors embedded under the polymer microchannels. Furthermore, we present preliminary work on fabrication of concave thin-film mirrors inside microchannels by utilizing the light sensitivity of the Ormocomp photoresist during microchannel patterning by optical lithography.


Received: 21 May 2015 Accepted: 4 November 2015 Dear Sir, Stiff leg syndrome (SLS) is an uncommon focal variant of the stiff person syndrome and is characterized by stiffness and painful spasms of the lower limbs, with no axial involvement. Typical electrophysiological findings include continuous motor unit activity (CMUA) at rest and abnormally increased exteroceptive reflexes [1,2]. The results of antiglutamic acid decarboxylase (anti-GAD) antibody testing are usually negative [3]. We report on two patients who developed SLS after epidural anesthesia.


The term mobile FSO refers to wireless optical nodes with mobility capabilities. Mobile FSO has emerged as a way to combat some of limitations facing FSO links, i.e. incompatibility of transmitters and receivers relative to movement and misalignment. In this paper we utilize an angular diversity model for characterizing the performance of mobile FSO over atmospheric turbulence. Switch-and-examine combining (SEC) technique is our suggestion for the diversity combining solution in such unbalanced multi-transceiving configuration. The channel fading is modeled as a lognormal distribution with spatially correlated samples. Analytical/ statistical discussion on the resultant output is presented and bit error performance and processing load are numerically evaluated and compared to a selection combining (SC) diversity.


Empirical evidence shows that a financial distress, faced by a bank or the whole economy, might cause large-scale withdrawals of deposits even when bank deposits are protected by deposit insurance, implicitly or explicitly guaranteed by a government. Building on Kiema and Jokivuolle (2015), we present a new model of such partial bank runs. In our model withdrawals are caused by the fear that both the bank and the government's deposit guarantee might fail in the future. Our focus is on a guarantee rather than on insurance, since the assets of deposit insurance funds might not be sufficient in large-scale systemic crises. Guarantee failure is possible because, being sovereign, the government may choose not to keep its promises. This option causes a fixed welfare cost (e.g. a reputational cost), which in a sufficiently severe crisis may be smaller than the costs from deposit guarantee payments. We also assume that, being welfare-maximizing, the government recapitalizes the bank during the early stage of the bank run. When decisions concerning deposit guarantee payments are made, recapitalization costs are already sunk costs, but the partial bank run has reduced the coverage costs that the remaining deposits might cause for the government. In this way, the depositors who withdraw funds during a partial bank run decrease the danger of a deposit guarantee failure and increase the incentives of the remaining depositors to keep their deposits in the bank. We apply our framework to the European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS), and we view the reliability of the Single Resolution Fund and its backstop as the counterpart to the reliability of the government's promises. It turns out that in an asymmetric shock that affects only a single eurozone country, the EDIS improves bank stability, but its effects might be ambiguous in a systemic crisis that affects the whole Banking Union.


On November 13, 1945, Honolulu residents awoke to news of a mass riot the previous evening by over one thousand sailors in the Damon Tract area in Honolulu. Although it was one of the largest postwar military uprisings on American soil, the riot itself has not been carefully examined in the historical record due other events and interests locally and nationally, as the media continued to operate within a highly militarized state. Remembering and understanding the Damon Tract riot became secondary to America's Cold War interests in the Pacific, the growth of tourism in the Islands, and efforts to garner statehood for Hawai'i that depended on unifying these historically contentious identities at the expense of acknowledging conflict that existed in the past.


Renewable energy sources (RES) play a key role in achieving the European Union's energy and climate objectives. As a member of the European Union, Croatia has committed to adopting European Directive 2009/28/EC, a directive on promoting the use of RES. Croatia shows good potential for the use of different types of RES. In the period 2009–2019, the share of renewable energy in energy consumption increased from 23.6 to 28.5 percent. The Croatian energy strategy aims to increase the national share of renewable energy to at least 32 percent by 2030. Acceptance and public support are essential for renewable energy to be introduced into energy policy and particularly to encourage renewable energy implementation in the residential sector. The purpose of the paper is to explore the public perception of renewable energy and citizens' willingness to pay for the use of RES. Data were collected through a 2021 survey of citizens 18 years and older. The survey results show a low level of implementation of RES technology in the residential sector; more than 80 percent of respondents did not use any sources of renewable energy in their households. Results related to respondents' knowledge of different sources of renewable energy suggest they have the most knowledge of solar, wind, and hydropower energy. Respondents believe that combating climate change, reducing dependency on energy imports, reducing environmental impacts, and improving health are the most important benefits of RES implementation. The survey reveals general support for RES among respondents; almost 89 percent of them would purchase renewable energy from local suppliers. In addition, 79 percent of survey participants were willing to pay for the introduction of RES technology into their households. The research shows that environmental concerns are the primary reason for citizens' higher willingness to pay for RES.


With the theoretical and practical development in tourism,the happy tourism becomes a new topic for discussion.Based on the analysis of ambit and matter at happiness,this paper shows that happy life is humans' highest ambition and tourism is the best mode to seek for happiness.The happy tourism is an idea or a series of tourism for tourist to gain happiness by providing good service and using natural beauty under the guide of modern tourism theory.For objective requirement of happy tourism,based on the present conditions of tourism resources in Linyi,complying with rudder of pilot development and upgrading step by step,we plan to develop three items of happy tourism:happy tourism around water in city,happy tourism beautifying the spirit in mountainous area,happy tourism enjoying custom in the countryside.


This is a chapter on the self-educated and formally trained middle class and ex-working class activists and leaders of the ILP.


Intermittent parathyroid hormone (PTH) administration is used to treat osteoporosis; however, the secondary benefits of PTH treatment are under explored. PTH elicits vasodilation in the systemic vasculature, implying improved delivery of blood flow to various tissues. Intermittent administration of PTH 1–84 and PTH 1–34 for 15 days augmented and tended to augment vasodilation of the femoral principal nutrient artery in young (p<0.05; Prisby et al., 2013) and old (p=0.07; Lee et al., ASBMR 2014) rats, respectively. Further, intermittent PTH 1–84 administration enhanced skeletal tibial perfusion in mice (Roche et al., 2014). Given the influence of PTH on the vascular system, we sought to determine if short‐term intermittent PTH administration alters organ and tissue perfusion.


In this note, we describe a connection between the enumerative geometry of curves in K3 surfaces and the chiral ring of an auxiliary superconformal field theory. We consider the invariants calculated by Yau--Zaslow (capturing the Euler characters of the moduli spaces of D2-branes on curves of given genus), together with their refinements to carry additional quantum numbers by Katz--Klemm--Vafa (KKV), and Katz--Klemm--Pandharipande (KKP). We show that these invariants can be reproduced by studying the Ramond ground states of an auxiliary chiral superconformal field theory which has recently been observed to give rise to mock modular moonshine for a variety of sporadic simple groups that are subgroups of Conway's group. We also study equivariant versions of these invariants. A K3 sigma model is specified by a choice of 4-plane in the K3 D-brane charge lattice. Symmetries of K3 sigma models are naturally identified with 4-plane preserving subgroups of the Conway group, according to the work of Gaberdiel--Hohenegger--Volpato, and one may consider corresponding equivariant refined K3 Gopakumar--Vafa invariants. The same symmetries naturally arise in the auxiliary CFT state space, affording a suggestive alternative view of the same computation. We comment on a lift of this story to the generating function of elliptic genera of symmetric products of K3 surfaces.


Mr. President, SEG members, and friends: I appointed Stuart Simmons as a postdoctoral fellow in the geology department at the University of Auckland in 1986. This was, in effect, also a joint position at the associated Geothermal Institute. His task then was to study an epithermal gold prospect in central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Stuart came with a very good degree from Minnesota, a great deal of enthusiasm, and a love for the Minnesota Twins. He taught his colleagues at the Geothermal Institute, or indeed anyone willing to listen, about knuckle-balls and the like, whereas we explained to him the mysteries of a rugby scrum. He never quite graduated to understanding the difference between a leg break and a googly, however. His undergraduate looks and dress together with his enthusiasms mildly offended one …


Studies on ecosystem services are receiving increasingly more attention.The ecosystem services value is a core index which can be measured to evaluate sustainable development of a country or a region,and is also critical in the green GDP accounting.Beijing Municipality in China has a large population and a high urbanization level,unavoidably accompanying some eco-environment problems during such processes,e.g.,reduction in green space and increase in building leading to a growing urban heat island effect in the center of city,mining,soil erosion,and vegetation degradation in the mountain areas.Based on land use data in 1988,1995,2000 and 2005,and the Costanza's method and the coefficients proposed by Gao-di Xie,this paper examined the effects of land use change on ecosystem services value from the perspective of ecosystem services in four ecological areas in Beijing.Results indicated that cropland was converted into build up areas in the center and western plains as well as platform areas,and cropland was converted into build up areas and water bodies in the eastern plain areas while cropland was converted into build up areas and woodland in the mountain areas.The equivalent factor of ecosystem services value was calculated in terms of the price of grain from 1988 to 2005 in Beijing,showing 998.76 yuan.As such,the ecosystem services value of Beijing was found to be 28.184×109 yuan,28.255×109 yuan,28.211×109 yuan and 27.759×109 yuan in 1988,1995,2000,and 2005,respectively.It dropped after the first rise between 1988 and 1995,which was due mainly to increases in water in the eastern plains areas.During the study period,the proportion of the value of infield decreased throughout the study area,whereas the proportion of the value of woodland,grassland and water area increased in the center of city.The grassland in the mountain areas rose.In the eastern plains,the proportion of the value of woodland and grassland decreased first and then increased,contrary to water bodies.The change was found to be the same as the eastern plain areas in western plains and platform areas with the exception of grassland showing an increasing trend.The average of ecosystem services value of 1 hm2 was found to be:mountain areas eastern plain areas western plains and platform areas the center of city.Compared with GDP,the ecosystem services value of Beijing accounted for about 4% of GDP in 2005,and it showed a deceasing trend from 1988 to 2005.As a result,ecosystem services value is recommended to be taken into account in the formulation of land use planning,especially the conservation of water and woodland of high coefficients of ecosystem services value in order to achieve sustainable development of Beijing.


This study aims to examine The Influence of Compensation Justice, Government Internal Control Systems, and Organizational Ethics Factors, Against Corruption in The Government Sector with Law Enforcement as a Moderating Variable. The object of research is the work unit within the Human Resources Development Agency of Transportation by the number of respondents as many as 101 people were deliberately selected employees who handle financing activities, budgeting activities, assets management, and human resource departments. The type of data used is primary data and using multiple regression analysis was processed using SPSS 26.0. This study was designed using descriptive causal analysis and test the hypothesis by taking a test unit at the Human Resources Development Agency of Transportation. Data obtained through questionnaires, the sample is selected with the specific purpose (purposive sampling) and the data were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The results showed that the Organizational Ethics, and Government Internal Control System moderated by Law Enforcement give effect to Corruption, while the Compensation Justice, Government Internal Control System and Compensation Justice, Organizational Ethics moderated by Law Enforcement do not affect the Corruption. Based on the results, the training, education,  and develop the code of ethics can improve the quality of human resources of The Government Internal Supervisory Apparatus.


Currently police agencies are employing variants of three basic forms of physical ability testing: job simulation exercises, physical agility and/or stamina tests, and norm referenced physical fitness or "wellness" tests. Although job simulation exercises superficially appear most defensible, they lack benchmark standards of minimal performance levels. Physical agility tests can be administered more economically, safely, and conveniently, but generally have substantial adverse impact. Norm referenced wellness tests are gaining in popularity because they solve some of the problems of both simulation exercises and physical agility tests, but are probably least defensible as directly job related. A dominant methodology has yet to emerge from either usage or court decisions.


Sixty-three patients with delayed neurologic deficit due to post-traumatic osteoporotic burst fractutes underwent various kinds of operative methods. Anterior decompression and fusion was performed on eleven patients, posterior decompression and fusion on twenty-five patients, posterior fusion on six patients, posterior spinal shortening on five patients, and vertebroplasty on sixteen patients. Neurologic deficit recovered in all groups but posterior decompression and fusion provided the best results statistically. Posterior spinal shortening improved the correction rate of kyphosis, which did not differ significantly in other groups. Postoperative back pain was less in all patients even though kyphosis remained. Posterior fusion and vertebroplasty provided less blood loss and shorter operative time than other groups. We recommend posterior fusion with vertebroplasty in the absence of posterior compression of the spinal cord. Anterior decompression / fusion or posterior spinal shortening is recommended over surgery for this disease.


The blackout problem suffered by hypersonic vehicles as they re-enter the atmosphere is essential for effective communication of hypersonic vehicles. Aiming to solve this problem, in this paper, we proposed an antenna–sheath–plasma layer configuration, in which a thin plasma layer covered cylindrical metal antenna model is employed to investigate the radiation enhancement phenomenon by solving the dispersion equation of electromagnetic mode under optimized parameter conditions. Analytical results show that when the neutral gas pressure is low ( p = 0.5 mTorr) and the antenna radius is triple the plasma skin depth, the thickness of the sheath between the surface of metal cylindrical antenna and plasma layer is about several Debye lengths, the azimuthally symmetric wave ( m = 0 mode) that propagates along the antenna surface belongs to the fast wave (the phase velocity is greater than the light speed), there exists a critical plasma frequency w pe (or plasma density n 0 ), above which the propagating mode becomes evanescent wave; for the propagation characteristic, there exists a critical normalized sheath thickness ( i / l De ) pha (or ( i / l De ) att ), above which the phase constant (or the attenuation constant) begins to increase (or decrease) sharply, which indicates a significant change in the propagation property of the propagating mode; most importantly, when the wave frequency w /2 π = 1 GHz, sheath thickness is one tenth of the whole plasma layer thickness, owing to the electron plasma frequency resonance and antenna-sheath-plasma resonance effect, the maximum radiation intensity of the symmetric wave exhibits an elliptical-like profile near w pe / w = 1 and w pe / w ≈ 1.33, respectively, while only a single-point radiation enhancement occurs at frequencies far from GHz range. These conclusions not only provide a method to solve or alleviate the blackout problem of GHz frequency communication faced by the hypersonic vehicles when they re-enter the atmosphere, but also have potential applications in high-resolution imaging induced by plasmonic micro-nano sized enhanced radiation and high-resolution phased array antennas.


ABSTRACT This article reviews the fundamental ideology of syndicate criminal activity in American law enforcement. It makes the argument that this ideology is flawed by both a lack of objective empirical support and biasing socio-political influences. Traditional models of syndicate crime failed to anticipate the current methods associated with drug trafficking. These traditional models, as a consequence, are a poor policy platform for current American anti-narcotics strategies. Historic criticisms of these traditional models are discussed and several alternative paradigms are reviewed as offering more heuristic descriptions of criminal syndication.


Abstract Non- and mono-ortho CBs as well as also highly toxic by-side impurities such as chlorodibenzofurans, chlorodibenzo-p-dioxins, and chloronaphthalenes after a subsequent 2D-HPLC and HRGC-HRMS separation, detection, and identification were quantified in technical chlorobiphenyl Chlorofen formulation. Chlorofen is highly chlorinated CB mixture and its compositional profile of mono-ortho CBs is occupied by 2,3,3′,4,4′,5′-HxCB (no. 157) with 96.6% and followed by 2,3,3′,4,4′,5-HxCB (no. 156) with 3.3% and 2,3′,4,4′,5,5′-HxCB (no. 167) with <0.1%, while nos. 105, 114, 118, 123, and 189 remained undetected (<10 µg/g). Amongst non-ortho CBs only a trace of 3,3′,4,4′-TeCB (no. 77) was found at 15 µg/g, while CBs nos. 81, 126, and 169 were absent. TCDD TEQ for mono- and non-ortho CBs in Chlorofen was 2320 and 1.5 ng/g, respectively, while for CDFs and CNs were 45 and 731 ng/g, respectively, and for both types of contaminants most contributing were OcCDF and OcCN. No tetra- to OcCDD was found in Chlorofen.


Objective:To construct the secondary transplantation murine model for chronic myeloid leukemia(CML)-like disease mediated by bcr-abl retroviral vector in order to provide a reliable basis for further investigation into its carcinogenic and therapeutic mechanisms.Methods:The bone marrow cells or spleen cells were collected from the successfully established murine model bearing bcr-abl retroviral vector-mediated CML-like disease and subsequently injected intravenously into female BALB/c recipient mice which received sublethal γ-ray irradiation(450 cGy).Morphological observation of murine hematopoietic tissues,detection of the Y chromosome and its specific sex determining gene Sry and determination of the mRNA and protein expression levels of bcr-abl fusion gene were performed to analyze and identify the features of the murine secondary transplantation model.Results:The spleen colonies were visible in appearance and bulk of spleen colonies could be seen in serial sections on day 12 after transplantation.The chromosome was looked like Y chromosome and its specific Sry gene were detected in bone marrow cells of the female recipient mice at 4 to 5 weeks after transplantation and the bcr-abl fusion gene was detected in the bone marrow and spleen.At 10 to 12 weeks post-transplantation,the white blood cells in the peripheral blood were significantly increased by 4 to 8 times than that of the normal control mice and the concentration of granulocytes were elevated to 20×10-9 to 32×10-9/L.The proportion of the blast cells in the blood smear reached 10% to 20%;results from bone marrow slides showed that the cell population of the granulocytic lineage was also increased significantly;the blast cells were easy to found;leukocytes infiltration could be observed in the liver and spleen.At the same time the bcr-abl fusion gene was detected in the liver and the bcr-abl fusion protein was detected in the bone marrow.The proportion of blast cells was over 30% in the blood smear at 18th week after transplantation.Mice had blast crisis and eventually died due to lung hemorrhage.Conclusion:This study successfully established the secondary murine transplantation model of bcr-abl retroviral vector-mediated CML-like disease,which could be used in the subsequent studies on CML signaling pathway and therapeutic mechanism.


Abstract : The purpose of our study is to determine if: (1) success in collecting nipple aspirate fluid (NAF) biomarkers increases with experience, (2) NAF biomarkers (cytology, ploidy, cell cycle parameters, and prostate-specific antigen, PSA) change in response to treatment with tamoxifen (TAM) or raloxifene (RAL), and (3) NAF biomarker changes are associated with future breast cancer risk. Our hypothesis is that NAF biomarkers will change favorably or unfavorably in response to treatment with TAM or RAL, and that the biomarker change(s) will predate clinical findings observed on mammography or physical examination. Postmenopausal women at increased breast cancer risk are enrolled in the Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR) trial and randomized to TAM or RAL. Prior to starting medication, subjects who elect to participate undergo breast nipple aspiration. A repeat aspiration is performed 6 months after initiating medication. This multiinstitutional trial currently involves three centers (Thomas Jefferson University, UCLA and Fox Chase Cancer Center). Enrollment to date is II, and 7 subjects have completed the trial. Analysis of the data has not yet been performed. A fourth site, MD Anderson Cancer Center, is currently considering joining the study. If our hypothesis proves correct, then nipple aspiration may provide a useful noninvasive method to evaluate response to treatment.


As higher precision machining is required, reducing thermal deformation of a machine tool becomes more important. Today, there are much study about the thermal deformation of machine tool; a compulsory cooling of main spindle or ball screw, a feed back control of thermal expansion, an isolation of heat source and etc. However, it is necessary to use a cooling system, a controller of temperature and a sensor of temperature or heat flux for attaining these countermeasure. After all, it costs high. Therefore, in this report, a new design of lathe structure for reducing thermal deformation has been experimentally investigated. Concepts of this design aim at a suitable cost of machine tool, low running cost, low maintenance cost and high machining accuracy. Three countermeasures which are a design of zero-center on three directions, a self compulsory cooling and a design of themal synchronism were proposed for reducing thermal deformation with low cost. It is concluded from the results that the proposed countermeasures are reasonable and effective in order to reduce thermal deformation.


Sorghum allelopathy has long been utilized as a bio-control technique for unwanted flora in economic crops and circumvent undue dependency on chemical weed control. An experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2017 to examine the integration of sorghum water extract (SWE), sorghum mulch (SM) and half dose of post emergence herbicide mesotrione + atrazine (MA50) for controlling jungle rice in hybrid maize (HC-8080). The treatments included; T0: Check, T1: Full dose (1250 ml ha) of mesotrione + atrazine (MA100), T2: Half dose (625 ml ha) of mesotrione + atrazine (MA50), T3: SWE @ 15 L ha + 625 ml ha (1/2 dose) of mesotrione + atrazine (MA50), T4: SM @ 8 t ha + 625 ml ha (1/2 dose) of mesotrione + atrazine (MA50), T5: SM @ 8 t ha + SWE @ 15 L ha and T6: SM @ 8 t ha + SWE @ 15 L ha + 625 ml ha (1/2 dose) of mesotrione + atrazine (MA50). The results of the study unveiled that combination of SWE + SM + MA50 reduced the fresh weed biomass by 84.82% and dry weed biomass by 87.37% and increased all the agronomic parameters eventually registering maximum kernel yield (4.80 t ha). Overall, the response of this treatment was similar as that of standard herbicide dose. Therefore it was concluded that standard dose of mesotrione + atrazine herbicide can be reduced to half with the integration of sorghum water extract and sorghum mulch which will ensure efficient and eco-friendly control of jungle rice.


Objective To provide reference for clinical treatment of selection of antimicrobial agents by summarying and analyzing sputum samples and assessing the distribution and resistance of pathogens in patients with lower respiratory tract infection pathogens from elderly subjects.Methods Bacterial and fungi were cultured,and identified,and susceptibility test was done with the pathogens in sputum samples from the patients with lower respiratory tract infection from elderly subjects from January to February in 2008.The separation was done by BioMerieux French company VITEK-32 automatic microbial identification device.Results A total of 1100 sputum samples were collected and 224 pathogens were separated.Among all the isolated strains,56 strains(25.0%) were Gram-positive bacteria(G+),136 strains(60.7%) Gram-negative bacteria(G-) and Fungi 32 strains(14.3%).G-was generally resistant to penicillin-type,while cephalosporins Ⅰ and Ⅱ(60%) less resistant to β-lactam plus suppression of drug-resistant enzyme complex agents(40%),and moderately resistant to fluoro quinolone,doxycycline(50%),and not resistant to teicoplanin,vancomycin resistance.G-was generally resistant to cephalosporins Ⅰ and Ⅱ(80%),highly resistant to cephalosporinsⅢ and Ⅳ( 60%),and moderately resistant to fluoroquinolones,aminoglycosides(semi-synthetic),doxycycline,β-lactam plus inhibition enzyme complex(60%),and not resistant to carbon green vinyl enzyme and polymyxin.Conclusion The pathogens are mainly opportunistic pathogens.G-and fungi infection and bacterial drug resistance rate are relatively high.Clinicians should pay attention to etiology inspection and monitoring of drug sensitivity to select and apply the antimicrobial agents more reasonably.


For most real life problems it is difficult to find a classifier with optimal accuracy. This motivates the rush towards new classifiers that can take advantage of the experience of an expert. In this paper we propose a method to include nonlinear prior knowledge in Generalized Eigenvalues Support Vector Machine. The expression of nonlinear kernels and nonlinear knowledge as a set of linear constraints allows us to have a nonlinear classifier which has a lower complexity and halves the misclassification error with respect to the original generalized eigenvalues method. The Wisconsin Prognostic Breast Cancer data set is used as a case study to analyze the performance of our approach, comparing our results with state of the art SVM classifiers. Sensitivity and specificity results for some publicly available data sets well compare with the other considered methods.


Artificial fish-swarm algorithm (AFSA) is a nove1 optimizing method proposed lately. An Artificial Fish-swarm Algorithm for the RBF neural networks and a model based on this method were presented of the first time here. A short-term load forecasting technique for power system based on artificial fish-swarm algorithm of neural network is presented. Theoretical analysis and computer simulation results demonstrate that the forecasting method has the advantage of higher forecasting accuracy and smaller forecasting error. The method should be popularized.


In many research contexts where a multilevel data structure is present, researchers have to aggregate individual responses to the group level (e.g., team climate) to test specific hypotheses. An established way of justifying this aggregation is to show sufficient within-group agreement. An increasingly common measure of within-group agreement is the Average Deviation Index (ADM). The study elaborates on the properties of the ADM within small groups. This is a crucial topic, as many multilevel studies incorporate teams of fewer than ten members. Comparing practical and critical values for interpreting ADM magnitudes shows that in small groups the ADM is more likely to overestimate the agreement by receiving a smaller ADM value by chance. We assume the calculation procedure of the ADM to be one reason for the overestimation and therefore propose an adjusted calculation. After exploring the properties of the adjustment with simulated data, the original and adjusted calculations are applied to an empirical example with multiple ratings from 48 experts. Compared to the original ADM, using the adjusted ADM leads to a less biased agreement estimate within smaller groups. However, researchers are encouraged to use practical as well as critical values to interpret the level of agreement when using the ADM.


In the context of tough geopolitical and economic competition, the development of Russian-Uzbek economic cooperation is of particular importance in terms of promoting Eurasian integration and forming the economic partnership belt of Russia. The economic potential, the level of diversification of industries and their technological effectiveness, and a balanced strategy of foreign economic cooperation of Uzbekistan contribute to the achievement of these goals to the greatest extent. In this context, the article aims to identify promising areas for the development of economic cooperation based on a comprehensive assessment of the state, risks and potential of economic cooperation. The study uses methods of economic analysis, systematic assessment of the state and prospects of development of various areas of cooperation between countries. The main factor in increasing the intensity of trade and economic cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan is the new track of political and economic guidelines, changes in domestic economic policy, and the liberalization of currency exchange operations. Internal reforms have become a stimulating platform for activating bilateral agreements on expanding cooperation, which is reflected in the growth of mutual trade turnover, promotion and activation of investment and industrial cooperation projects. The intensification of Russian-Uzbek economic cooperation will help balance the centers of power in regional integration.


for this group of cases, and he holds that there is an intimate connection between the 'masculinity complex,' infantile masturbation of the clitoris, and urethral erotism.


The objective of this paper is to substantiate the system of vocational education and training (VET) of fashion designers and technologists to perform computer modeling and design of the clothes. The use of the developed system of training specialists in fashion design, which provides for the use of CAD systems, contributes to the formation of readiness of future fashion designers to use specialized software in their professional activities. To increase the efficiency of VET, we used the following types of learning activities: development of creative collage, development of artistic sketches of clothes, design of templates for different sizes, use of programs for the 3D design of the clothes. A feature of this study is the selection of the software used in the design of the clothes, namely GraziaCAD and JULIVI CAD. The effectiveness of these types of tasks is confirmed by an experiment, in which 80 students from Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design took part (CG 44 students, EG 36 students). Comparing the results of incoming and outgoing control of the level of students' readiness, a decrease in the number of students with a low level of readiness for the use of ICT in the professional activities was noted: from 22.7 % to 11.4 % in CG and from 22.2 % to 5.6 % in EG. At the same time, the percentage of students with a high level of readiness increased in both groups: from 29.5 % to 38.6 % in CG and from 25.0 % to 66.7 % in EG. Also, it should be noted that the biggest changes in the number of students with a high level of knowledge took place in EG. This, with 95% reliability according to Pearson's criterion, means that the experimental educational program led to a significant increase in the level of readiness for the use of ICT in the EG, in comparison with the CG. This confirms the effectiveness of the proposed educational program. The results of the study confirm the effectiveness of the generally accepted international practice of using the digital design in VET in the field of fashion design and technologies.


The article is devoted to regularity defining of curing oligomers, and prepolymers with hydroxyl and isocyanate groups and double bonds reactive oligomers. The features of the spatial structure of elastic polyurethane based oligomers and prepolymers with the definition of the physical and chemical bonds share, as well as the chain interval length between grid points were researched. The possibility of oligodiendiole curing in the presence of a methacrylate component on the mechanism of radical polymerization was experimentally confirmed. To achieve the objectives rheokinetic method of analysis (rotational viscometer), thermometric and iodometric methods, IR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry were used.


This thesis is devoted to the development of ultrafast thin-disk lasers (TDL) oscillators and their use for intra-oscillator high-harmonic generation (HHG). The main motivation was to develop a simple and compact source of coherent extreme ultraviolet (XUV) light. Conventionally, coherent XUV radiation can be found in large scale synchrotron or free-electron laser facilities. Laser driven HHG systems have long strived to become a lab-scale alternative to these sources. The major challenge has been the low conversion efficiency of the HHG process and the high demands on the driving laser. With the advancing laser technology, this situation is rapidly improving and several state-of-the-art HHG systems can nowadays reach an XUV flux which is in certain aspects comparable to synchrotrons. The intra-laser-oscillator HHG approach is inspired by femtosecond enhancement cavities. Driving HHG inside an enhancement cavity allows for recycling the unconverted pulse energy, while increasing the available power by the cavity enhancement factor. An enhancement cavity, however, requires coherent coupling of the femtosecond pulses into the cavity which is a demanding task. The intra-oscillator HHG approach offers a simplified concept using directly the cavity of the laser instead of an external enhancement cavity. To achieve sufficiently high driving power for efficient intra-oscillator HHG, the existing TDL technology had to be significantly improved and optimized for intracavity performance. Within the scope of this thesis, a strong focus was placed on the development of the driving laser and significant progress has been achieved. To this purpose, we investigated and demonstrated Kerr lens modelocked TDL oscillators based on the gain material Yb:YAG, which achieved several records in terms of their output performance. Using our system we have demonstrated the shortest pulse duration of any TDL oscillator of 27 fs, as well as the highest average power in the sub-100-fs regime of 100 W and the highest peak power of 100 MW. The corresponding increase of intracavity performance of our laser allowed us to significantly improve the HHG operation in terms of the generated XUV flux and photon energies. Starting from 0.5 nW generated at 13 eV demonstrated five years ago, we have improved the XUV flux to 10 μW at 30 eV at the current state. Although this is not yet the highest performance among other HHG systems, the flux value is becoming competitive to the results of enhancement cavities operating at similar photon energy. The improved output performance of the demonstrated TDLs is also highly attractive for nonlinear conversion toward longer wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. A part of this thesis is, thus, dedicated to terahertz generation. We have demonstrated the first TDL driven terahertz generation in 2018, through optical rectification in GaP. Later, we used the tunability and the high average power of our self-built TDL oscillator to experimentally investigate in detail the properties of optical rectification in GaP driven by 1- μm high-power Yb-based lasers. Finally, having the experience from intra-oscillator HHG, we have shown that the high-power driving laser can be replaced by driving the THz generation directly inside the cavity of a small KLM bulk laser oscillator.


Active learning activities are becoming more prominent in the university setting, specifically in North America.  However, in some departments, large class sizes make application and engagement with these types of activities particularly challenging.  In response to this challenge, departments may look to supplemental programming for students, which can both aid in the comprehension of lecture material and offer tailored support focusing on subject-specific skill development.  This paper reflects on an English language professional skills development workshop series that used active learning activities to engage students within the Department of Management at a Canadian university.  It suggests that students not only enjoyed the active learning approach, but also felt that the workshops contributed to relevant language skill development.


This work presents the preliminary results for a retrofitting technique to use on the seismic reinforcement of ancient structures (buildings and others). The technique involves the replacement of masonry walls exterior or interior plasters or renders, with a retrofitting material that will significantly enhance the out-of-plane and in-plane mechanical behaviour of such walls, with major significance for the seismic response of the intervened structure. The reinforcement material (UHPPl) must respect the physical features and traits of the substratum in which it will be applied, as also its mechanical characteristics have the specific need to be consistent with the same substratum.


Objective To explore the impact of the measures taken to combat COVID-19 on the patterns of acute illness in children presenting to primary and secondary care for North West London. Design/setting/participants Retrospective analysis of 8 309 358 primary and secondary healthcare episodes of children <16 years registered with a North West London primary care practice between 2015 and 2021. Main outcome measures Numbers of primary care consultations, emergency department (ED) attendances and emergency admissions during the pandemic were compared with those in the preceding 5 years. Trends were examined by age and for International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision-coded diagnoses of: infectious diseases, and injuries and poisonings for admitted children. Results Comparing 2020 to the 2015–2019 mean, primary care consultations were 22% lower, ED attendances were 38% lower and admissions 35% lower. Following the first national lockdown in April 2020, primary care consultations were 39% lower compared with the April 2015–2019 mean, ED attendances were 72% lower and unscheduled hospital admissions were 63% lower. Admissions >48 hours were on average 13% lower overall during 2020, and 36% lower during April 2020. The reduction in admissions for infections (61% lower than 2015–2019 mean) between April and August 2020 was greater than for injuries (31% lower). Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with an overall reduction in childhood illness presentations to health services in North West London, most prominent during periods of national lockdown, and with a greater impact on infections than injuries. These reductions demonstrate the impact on children of measures taken to combat COVID-19 across the health system.


Abstract Tropaeolum majus (nasturtiums) were grown from seed in growth cabinets, under 380 and 750 ppmv CO2. Elevated CO2significantly increased nectar secretion rate, both in flowers milked of nectar daily and in once sampled, 3-d-old flowers. Elevated CO2did not affect time to flowering, total number of flowers produced, pollen to ovule ratio, or the total or individual concentrations of nectar amino acids. The dry weight and longevity of individual flowers was also unchanged. Nectar sugar content was unchanged by elevated CO2in a subset of flowers used to assess the 3-d-old nectar volume. This subset did not show the same increase in nectar volume under elevated CO2as the full set, resulting in the concentration of sugars remaining unchanged. Overall, the quantity rather than the quality of the nectar changed under elevated CO2while flower characteristics remained constant, implying that the identity of pollinators may remain the same while foraging behaviour (e.g. number of visits per plant, distance travelled) may change in the future.


The results of recent archeological research in the Loita-Mara area of Kenya offer new information on the timing and process of the development of pastoralism in East Africa. They suggest that a pattern of specialized pastoral production, similar to that of contemporary East African pastoralists such as the Maasai, was present in parts of East Africa 2,000 years ago. It may have developed as a result of new opportunities for increased pastoral production. A bimodal pattern of rainfall with a short dry season, similar to the modern climatic regime, appeared about 3,000 years ago, which allowed year-round milk production from cattle herds. The development of pastoralism in East Africa preceded agriculture and took place in a social and economic context of relationships between hunter-gatherers and pastoralists. Environmental opportunity, combined with cultural competition, may have provided the impetus toward pastoral specialization.


This article is an analytical examination of how the major changes that took place in Tanzania in 1992 in the constitutional set‐up and political practice and organization affected the freedoms of political association and assembly in the country. It begins by comparing the rights comprising the Tanzanian Bill of Rights with similar provisions in other instruments at the international and regional level, as well as the constitutions of neighbouring countries. Moreover, the provisions of the Eighth Constitutional Amendment Act 1992 (Act No 4 of 1992), which abolished the one‐party political system are considered in detail. It is concluded that broad enjoyment of the freedoms of political association and assembly is a pre‐requisite for the existence in a country of true democratic governance, because these freedoms are the bedrock of all other rights.