Neurological rehablitation achievements are accounted by dailysame care sets or fix payment amounts. Both remuneration forms have the disadvantage that differences in casemix and burden of care are considered only insufficiently. In order to account the differences of costs in casemix, therapy and nurture more specifically, the author developed a dynamic classification system for the neurological rehabilitation. METHOD: The model is based on the correlation between the functional independence measurement and the burden of care. Patients can be assigned to three groups of costs ad admission. The cost element can be adapted by weekly FIM-assessment. Progresses can be controlled via prognosis-oriented goal values from a database. RESULT: The FIM-oriented classification allows a dynamic cost management and a individualized prognosis-oriented management of the length of stay.


With an increasing number of constraints to be satisfied, the task of locating a new road has become very complicated. Advocacy of some of these constraints is often taken up by local self interest groups, who are often very vocal in advancing their particular objectives. This paper documents the technique of two way communication attempted on some road projects around Sydney. It provides information on the method, outlines the results and discusses possible future directions (A).


PURPOSE: A method for mounting a ball grid array(BGA) package is provided to make a solder ball have a sandglass type after a mounting process and to guarantee the reliability of a solder joint of the solder ball by using tape with a hole of a sandglass type. CONSTITUTION: A ball land(11) is formed on a printed circuit board(PCB)(20), corresponding to the solder ball(6). The tape having the hole(50) of a sandglass type in a position corresponding to the solder ball is attached to the PCB so that the ball land is exposed by the hole. Flux is applied on the exposed ball land. The BGA package is so disposed to make the solder ball come in contact with the hole of the tape. The solder ball is reflowed so that the bottom surface of the package comes in contact with the tape while the solder ball flows to the inside of the hole of a sandglass type.


Bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts were fabricated following a three-step synthesis method which consisted of i) liquid phase exfoliation of graphite in the presence of nitrogen-containing manganese macro¬cyclic complexes and using DMF as the dispersion medium under formation of few-layer graphene sheets. Subsequently, ii) solvent re¬moval by vacuum-filtration and drying, and iii) pyrolysis of the resulting composites under an inert gas atmosphere with subsequent mild calcination yielded manganese oxides embedded within a graphitic carbon matrix (MnOX/G). We further demonstrate that traces of iron impurities in the used graphite result in enhanced electrocatalytic acti¬vity of the MnOX/G towards both the oxygen reduction and the oxygen evolution reactions owing to synergistic interaction of the iron impuri¬ties with the species formed upon thermal decomposition of manga¬nese macrocyclic complexes.


: Several vehicles in tropical Africa, such as Nigeria, operate with open window, and this is expected to affect aerodynamics of the vehicles. Based on established theory, Aerodynamic drag is a major component of energy losses which limit the energy available to propel a vehicle. The goal of this study is to determine the effect of open window on the aerodynamics of a typical minibus. ANSYS™ FLUENT™, a Computational Fluid Dynamics program, is applied to conduct numerical study in this work; vehicle speed is taken as 100km/h. Results from this study show that a characteristic chaotic flow in experienced in and around the vehicle with open window, leading to corresponding development of a chaotic turbulent flow on the frontal exterior region adjacent to frontal window, as well as the occurrence of a characteristic horse-shoe shaped flow which is formed on the outside of the wheels. These phenomena die out towards the rear of the vehicle trail. The corresponding characteristic turbulent flow is limited for closed window vehicle. Furthermore, aerodynamic drag and lift coefficients for closed window scenario are determined as 0.5773 and -0.1161 respectively; these values are 10.29% and 56.43% lower than the corresponding values for open window vehicle. The implications of the findings are: (a) higher aerodynamic drag leads to increase energy loss, fuel consumption and CO 2 emission, and (b) higher aerodynamic lift leads to reduced tire grip and increased instability, especially at corners.


A direct secure communication using step-split Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) pair is presented. Alice will sends one qubit of the EPR pair to Bob first. Then Bob sends a receipt signal to Alice through public channel. Alice performs her encoding operations on the second qubit and sends the qubit to Bob. Bob performs a Bell type measurement to fraw Alice's information. If Eve want to eavesdrop Alice's information, she has to attack both qubits of the EPR pair, which results in that any effective eavesdropping attack can be detected. Because of the receipt signal, this protocol can be divided into every complete independent run, which shows the superiority of the quantum direct secure communication.


Contents: Dorota Praszalowicz: Introduction - Barbara M. Posadas/Roland L. Guyotte: Research Agenda Old and New Sending Money 'Home': Toward a Transnational History of Migrant Remittances - Leslie Page Moch: Ethnicity, Inclusion, and Exclusion: Poles in France and Bretons in Paris - Stan Nadel: European Immigrant Poverty in America - Suzanne M. Sinke: Love in All the Wrong Places: Relating Migration Patterns and Marriage in U.S. Immigration, 1945-2000 - Dominic A. Pacyga: Polish Immigrants and Chicago's Progressive Parks: Creating Public Space in the City - Wolfgang Helbich: The Pitfalls of Macrohistory: The Case of Waterloo, Quebec - Anna Sosnowska: Different. Polish and Post-Soviet Jewish Immigrants in New York City - Tobias Brinkmann: From Oswiecim to Ellis Island: Jewish and Other Transmigrants and the Evolution of Border Controls Along Germany's Eastern Border, 1885-1914 - Hasia Diner: Before "The Holocaust": American Jews Confront Catastrophe, 1945-1962 - David A. Jones: Neighbourhood on a Hill: the Traditional Polish American Neighbourhood: Has it Changed Forever? Has it a Future? The Examples of Worcester and Webster, Massachusetts - Agata Rajski: The Role of Religious Institutions in Building the Polish Community in Windsor, Ontario.


Male hypogonadism implies decreased function of one or more testicular cell population, i.e. germ, Leydig and/or Sertoli cells. In the normal prepubertal boy, Sertoli cells are very active, as indicated by high anti‐Müllerian hormone (AMH) and inhibin B secretion, whereas the functional activity of Leydig cells is minimal, as evidenced by low testosterone production, and germ cells do not undergo the full spermatogenic process. Klinefelter syndrome is the most frequent cause of hypogonadism in the adult male. In this review, we discuss whether the gonadal failure is already established during infancy and childhood. In Klinefelter syndrome, there is increased germ cells degeneration from mid‐foetal life – resulting in a decreased number at birth – which persists during infancy and childhood and becomes dramatic during puberty. Controversial results exist in the literature regarding Leydig cell function in Klinefelter boys: while some authors have found normal to low testosterone levels in infancy and childhood, others have reported normal to high values. Sertoli cell products AMH and inhibin B are normal in prepubertal boys and only decline during mid‐ to late puberty.


Research aims mengkajian the geographical soy sauce support industry in
the kebumen have aims to know the geography that supports industry in the
kebumen soy sauce
The methodology used is survey. The population in research is businessman
soy sauce about 9 entrepreneurs. Included in this study used technique purposive
sampling. The kind of data in research is the primary data was obtained
mengggunakan survey on businessman soy sauce and secondary data obtained
from development agency and research area of map. Using techniques survey
data collection for factors industry and the industrial site and documentation
geographical for factors. Processors for factors industry and the industry using
table , the percentage. The geographical arcview 3.3 use. Analysis of data factor
in a percentage of industry and the geographical into the room with the approach
The results showed that the soy sauce supported by the capital, labor,
energy sources, marketing, transportation, raw materials and water supply. Seen
from the industry theory weber soy sauce oriented in the market. Conformity land
to the soybean plant in the district of land kebumen conformity S3 ( conditional )
in accordance with broad 21.562,8 ha and N ( Less suitable ) with broad
107.862,8 ha,


The molecular polarisability and hyperpolarisability tensors of a group of donoracceptor polyene molecules are calculated using the time dependent Hartree-Fock code implemented in the MOPAC quantum chemistry program. The results agree with other theoretical and experimental calculations. The values obtained are then used to investigate mutual polarisation of collections of such molecules, e.g. as chromophore side chains in an optical polymer, using the electrostatic quadratic tensor model developed in the previous article. The performance of the model is first confirmed by comparison with MOPAC calculations of composite molecules containing a pair of chromophores, and then applied to linear polymer chains as well as lattices in 2 and 3 dimensions. An optimal chromophore packing density is determined to maximise the macroscopic susceptibilities of polymer materials of the type studied. This is lower than the density allowed by the structure of the polymer, because of the mutual depolarisation of chromophores at high packing densities. Current address: Applied Computing, Mathematics and Statistics Group, Lincoln University, Canterbury, NEW ZEALAND


High antibody affinity against the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain seems to be necessary (but not always sufficient) for the control of emerging immune-escape variants. Therefore, aiming at strong B cell somatic hypermutation - not only at high antibody titers - is a priority when utilizing vaccines that are not targeted at individual variants. Here, we developed a next-generation sequencing based SARS-CoV-2 B cell tracking protocol to rapidly determine the level of immunoglobulin somatic hypermutation at distinct points during the immunization period. The percentage of somatically hypermutated B cells in the SARS-CoV-2 specific repertoire was low after the primary vaccination series, evolved further over months and increased steeply after boosting. The third vaccination mobilized not only naïve, but also antigen-experienced B cell clones into further rapid somatic hypermutation trajectories indicating increased affinity. Together, the strongly mutated post-booster repertoires and antibodies deriving from this may explain why the booster, but not the primary vaccination series, offers some protection against immune-escape variants such as Omicron B.1.1.529. Brief summary Priming SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations generate antibodies from low-level matured B cells while the third vaccination strongly boosts somatic hypermutation potentially explaining different protection from immune-escape variants.


Introduction: Eyewitness reports of fireball sightings have increased in frequency over the last decade. The American Meteor Society recorded more than 3300 unique events in 2013 alone, a marked increase from 2300 recorded events in 2012, and a steady yearon-year rise from under 500 events in 2005. The 2013 figures include at least 92 events which were reported by more than 20 observers. Despite the large number of multiply reported events, there are few examples to date of meteorites which have been recovered primarily as the result of such eyewitness observations, and none where the observations have also enabled the reconstruction of orbits with any certainty. Gounelle et al. [1] determined an orbit for the Orgueil meteorite from historical eyewitness reports, however this calculation also depended on the prior recovery of the meteorite. The key elements required for a fireball observation to have reconstructive value are the location of the observer, the direction (altitude and azimuth) of the fireball from at least two locations along its path, and the duration of the visible flight of the fireball. Of these, obtaining an accurate estimate of direction is particularly difficult in an eye witness after-the-event report, as can be obtaining an unbiased estimate of the duration of a fireball [2]. A new approach to public meteor and fireball reporting has been developed, which makes use of smartphone technology, in particular inertial sensors and GPS to significantly increase the accuracy of reported locations and durations, and using animations of reconstructed fireballs to increase the accuracy of fireball duration and of qualitative observations including colour, brightness and fragmentation. A smartphone app, named Fireballs in the Sky, has been developed by Thoughtworks Inc in collaboration with Curtin University, and is freely available through the Google Play and iTunes app stores. The concept for the app formed part of a larger outreach initiative funded by Inspiring Australia in 2012 as a way of engaging members of the public with science in general, and with the work of Curtin University Planetary Science and the Desert Fireball Network (DFN) in particular. The DFN is establishing a network of cameras across Australia to enable the recovery of significant numbers of meteorite falls with associated orbits. The Fireballs in the Sky app gives users around the world the ability to collect their own data, upload it immediately, and receive rapid feedback on the observation, including corroborating reports, and orbitals. In addition to providing reports from areas where there is no network coverage, the app also augments the power of camera network internationally, as data are forwarded to relevant national organisations. Reporting sequence: Users of the app who wish to submit a fireball report will be guided through the following sequence when they wish to report a fireball: 1. Note whether a sonic boom was heard coincident with the sighting. A delayed boom heard later can be noted at any point during the reporting process.


A 40-year-old woman presented with a known case of osteogenic sarcoma of the right leg and underwent below-the-knee amputation. The preoperative workup was negative for distant metastases, and the patient was followed regularly. Two years later she developed dyspnea and chest pain. Computed tomography revealed diffuse left lung metastases with pleural involvement and nodular metastases in the right lung. Tc-99m methylene diphosphonate whole-body bone scanning revealed the amputated right leg with a clean stump but with widespread metastases in the right thigh involving soft tissue and bone, and the pelvis, left femur, and skull. In addition, diffuse left lung metastases involving both parietal pleura and lung parenchyma were seen. Tc-99m methylene diphosphonate uptake has been observed in the soft tissue and lungs in patients with osteogenic sarcoma but is rarely observed in practice with this degree of aggressiveness.


The effects of y-irradiation, 4 chemical mutagens and irradiation + mutagens on germination, seedling survival and seedling height in Sorghum subgldbrascens (2n = 20) and 5. purpureosericeum (2n = 10) are described.-M.S.M


With the size reduction of satellites, the need for miniaturized propulsion systems is increasing. This has led to research funding for the miniaturization of chemical and electric propulsion by NASA and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). Miniaturized electric propulsion research has been an active area of interest recently. Electric propulsion systems are interesting candidates for miniaturization due to efficiency and the reduction in onboard propellant and the ability to apply existing techniques in electronic fabrication. A miniature electrostatic thruster is being developed in LTCC at Boise State University. The thruster is composed of an antenna to create the plasma, a cylinder to contain the plasma and grids to extract the plasma beam at high velocity. In this work, the development of the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) antenna in LTCC will be presented. This antenna is fabricated using DuPont's 951 Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC). A Direct Write is used to apply silver p...


The present invention relates to a method for recovering tin from tin waste, and more particularly through the crude tin (crude Sn) precipitation step using sodium hydroxide, the electrolytic refining step, and a vacuum refining stage, recovering the tin of high purity from tin waste It relates to the way to do it.


An approach to the initiation, maintenance, and cessation of delinquency is outlined in which an adolescent's possible selves play a pivotal role. Possible selves are the individual's self-relevant expectations for the future. They include what a person hopes to become, expects to become, and fears that he or she might become. With respect to action control, a particularly important aspect of adolescents' configuration of possible selves is the balance between their expected possible selves and their feared possible selves. Balance occurs when expected possible selves (e.g., "I will get a good job") are offset by countervailing feared possible selves in the same domain (e.g., "I could be unemployed and on the street"). Without balance between expected and feared selves in important domains, both the initiation and the maintenance of delinquent activity are more likely. The dynamic interaction between the social environment, expectations of the self, and delinquency involvement is highlighted.


Alpha ( 1,3)galactosyltransferase is the major xenoantigen associated with hyperacute rejection of xenotransplants. Tumor vaccines engineered to express this gene may show promise in breaking tumor tolerance. However there has been a lack of alternative tumor models to the highly published B16 with which to study the immunology associated with a(l,3) galactosyltransferase modified tumor vaccines. Moreover, limited in vivo models exist to study the basic biology of a(l,3) galactosyltransferase in xenotransplantation experiments. Therefore, we have developed a gastrointestinal stromal tumor, CA320M, derived from C57ZBL6 a(l,3)galactosyltransferase knock-out mice. Mice were subject to intraperitoneal injections of 9,10-dimethyl-1,2-benz-anthracene and 3-methylcholanthrene. Resultant tumors were harvested and characterized in vitro and in vivo. CA320M cells transduced with a herpes simplex virus amplicon vector (HE7agall) carrying the. murine a(l,3)GT gene resulted in significant agal epitope expression. CA320M cells expressing agal were incubated with normal human serum (NHS) or serum collected from a(l,3)GT KO mice immunized against agal (MS). Flow cytometric analysis of NHS exposed agal expressing cells demonstrated up to 97% complement lysis. Cells exposed to MS demonstrated up to 35% cell killing. The approach, however, is based in part on the sensitivity of tumor cells to the effects of complement. Tumors expressing complement resistance factors such as membrane cofactor (CD46), decay accelerating factor (CD55) and protectin (CD59) have been shown to be more resistant to complement lysis. Anchored to the membrane by a glycosylphosphotidylinositol moiety (GPI-anchored), CD55 and CD59 can be cleaved by Bacillus thuringiensis phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C (PIPLC). The PIPLC


ABSTRACT In order to assess recent development and loss of wetlands in the coastal zone of Mississippi, a study was done of historical changes in land use and land cover on the mainland Mississippi coast. Nineteen U. S. Geological Survey quadrangles having land below the 15-foot contour (the coastal zone study area) were evaluated. The Cowardin classification system of over 200 categories was simplified for use in the study to 7 categories: water, marsh, forest, agriculture, developed, dredge spoil, and beach. Historical data were compiled from U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service classifications of the area done in the 1950s and the 1970s. The 1992 classification was done using 1991-92, 1:24,000 scale, color infrared aerial photography. All data were digitized and comparative analysis was done using ARC/Info. Interpretation of changes in land use/cover between the three data sets was hampered by inconsistencies in the original interpretations done of the 1950s and 1970s data. The 1992 interpretation is by far the most accurate and most consistent with respect to classification of individual use/cover types. The greatest marsh loss between the 1950s and 1992 occurred on the Waveland quadrangle (698 hectares) due to residential development, and on the Kreole and Grand Bay SW quadrangles (972 ha together) as a result of erosion and marsh deterioration. Over the entire study area, about 3,500 ha of marsh were lost between the 1950s and 1992 due to erosion (25%) and development (40%); the remaining losses resulted from conversion to forest or agriculture and overestimation of the original marsh acreage in the 1950s. This loss represents about 13% of the total coastal marsh area in mainland Mississippi. Developed land in the study area increased from 5,711 ha to 17,345 ha for the study period.


Parking will not be impacted. SDOT is working with King County Metro to evaluate existing bus zone locations and pedestrian connections. We will develop a proposal for new marked crosswalks and median islands this spring before project implementation.


Aims: To investigate whether the use of a novel synthetic medium in conjunction with impedimetric technology could provide a rapid and automated detection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in water samples.


Inhibition of histone deacetylase (HDAC) is a novel strategy for the treatment of leukemias via restoration of aberrantly silenced genes. In this study, we conducted a detailed analysis of anti‐leukemic effects of an HDAC inhibitor (HDI), depsipeptide (FK228), using myeloid leukemia cell lines HL‐60 and K562. DNA chip analysis revealed upregulation of TNF‐α mRNA and a number of molecules involved in TNF‐signaling such as TRAF‐6, caspases‐10, and ‐7 in depsipeptide‐treated HL‐60 cells, which prompted us to examine the involvement of the TNF/TNF receptor system in the anti‐leukemic effects of the drug. Upregulation of TNF‐α was induced by depsipeptide in HL‐60 and K562 cells, which expressed type I TNF receptors (TNF‐RI). Depsipeptide activated caspases‐8 and ‐10, which in turn cleave caspases‐3 and ‐7, leading to apoptotic cell death in both cell lines. Anti‐TNF‐α neutralizing antibody and short interfering RNA (siRNA) against TNF‐RI alleviated the activation of the caspase cascade and the induction of apoptosis, indicating the presence of an autocrine loop. Finally, we demonstrated that the enhanced production of TNF‐α by depsipeptide was due to transcriptional activation of the TNF‐α gene through hyperacetylation of histones H3 and H4 in its promoter region (−208 to +35). These results suggest that autocrine production of TNF‐α plays a role in the cytotoxicity of depsipeptide against a subset of leukemias. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This study aimed to investigate the path to the change of elementary students' mental models in the particles constituting the ice, water, and water vapor. The study was conducted through the microgenetic methods. Subjects have been interviewed during 6 sessions, once a day. During this period, the students were asked to represent the particles constituting the ice, water, and water vapor through clay activities and texts and images. Semi-structured interviews had been conducted in order to understand the mental model that students currently have and the mental models' change of path. The results of this study were as follows. Students' mental models showed different views of the same situation, changes the path were also varied.


Colleagues it is a pleasure to speak with you today. Fifty years. Much happened in 1965. Lyndon Johnson proclaimed the Great Society in his State of the Union address in January. Martin Luther King marched in Selma, and then Montgomery. Malcolm X was assassinated. The first American ground troops arrived in Vietnam. The first Students for a Democratic Society demonstration against the war drew 25,000 people in Washington. Bob Dylan released Bringing it All Back Home in March and then Highway 61 Revisited in August. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first person to walk in space. Japan and South Korea signed an overdue treaty. Sony and Cher released I Got You Babe, which went to number one all over the world, but Singapore became independent from Malaysia. There was war between India and Pakistan. Suharto crushed the Communist Party in Indonesia with the loss of a million lives. The white government in Rhodesia declared unilateral independence, and the British oil platform Sea Gem collapsed into the North Sea, but Julie Andrews won the Academy Award for the lead in Mary Poppins. In 1965 the Social Science Research Council, later the ESRC, was formed. And SRHE also began, five years after the Master Plan in California in the United States, and two years after the Robbins Report, amid a great expansion of higher education in Britain. Fifty years. Today I will not attempt to cover the whole field of research into higher education in our time, but to reflect on the main idea that was shaping higher education when SRHE was founded, an idea that still determines expectations about higher education, and continues to provide the discursive framework for much of our research—the utopian idea of society ordered as an educational meritocracy. I will discuss the two faces of the 1960s meritocratic ideal: higher education as human capital, as economic progress, and higher education as equality of opportunity, as social justice. These are the founding myths of modern higher education systems. They have proven to be resilient myths, and have travelled all over the world. In their different ways, each


Estimating metrics, such as effort, schedule and cost, needed for a software to be created and launched into market have significant economical effects. One of the most extensively utilized method for such estimation is a technique called Use Case Points. It is based on the use case modeling which is a popular and widely used technique for capturing and describing the functional requirements of a software system. In this paper multitude number of techniques have been proposed as the basis for improving estimation of the effort, schedule, and costs of software projects. These terms are conceptually similar but utilize different parameter values and metrics. Moreover, different versions of use case points have been proposed. This method suffers some limitations such as less accuracy, failure to consider software risks, failure to consider software quality aspects, failure to consider different levels of software security, and so on. The aim of this paper is to propose a new approach for cost estimation, based on use case points method, by considering all the existing risks related to software projects. The results indicate that the new estimation approach can produce relatively accurate estimates and also declare various aspects of project risks during project estimation. Our results also provide guidance for organizations that want to develop a software project.


Laboratory investigations suggest that a precise relationship exists between Poisson's ratio, pore pressure and fluid type. Values of Poisson's ratio for dry samples are significantly smaller than those for fluid‐saturated samples. The values are anomalously high for high pore pressure, with the possibility of differentiating between gas‐saturated, brine‐saturated and oil‐saturated porous rocks.


Aiming at the development of remaining oil after polymer flooding, the author develops an oil displacement technology, alternately injecting the slug of the gel and polymer/surfactant compound system, which can advanced improve the remained oil after polymer flooding. By using the artificial large flat-panel model, the oil displacement experiments are carried on to study the injection characteristics and the displacement efficiency of the alternately injecting the slug of gel and polymer/surfactant compound system, and whether the following water should be injected after polymer flooding has been discussed. The experimental results show that, the recovery of alternately injecting the gel and polymer/surfactant slug after polymer flooding could enhance recovery more than 10% on the basis of polymer flooding, the following water after polymer flooding has a little impact on the final recovery but increasing time and the difficulty of development. Therefore, these results provide the technology that alternately injecting the slug of the gel and polymer/surfactant could advance develop the residual oil and enhance the recovery after polymer flooding.


BLASTP is the most popular tool for comparative analysis of protein sequences. In recent years, an exponential increase in the size of protein sequence databases has required either exponentially more runtime or a cluster of machines to keep pace. To address this problem, we have designed and built a high-performance FPGA-accelerated version of BLASTP, Mercury BLASTP. In this paper, we focus on seed generation, the first stage of the BLASTP algorithm. Our seed generator is capable of processing database residues at up to 219 Mresidues/second for 2048- residue queries. The full Mercury BLASTP pipeline, including our seed generator, achieves a speedup of 37times over the popular NCBI BLASTP software on a 2.8 GHz Intel P4 CPU, with sensitivity more than 99% that of the software. Our architecture can be generalized to accelerate the seed generation stage in other important biocomputing applications.


Twenty briefly characterized or coded their impressions o[ each o[ 10 hypothetical people. Ten Ss coded each person while having available the other nine person-descriptions; 10 Ss coded'each person independently o[ the Olher person descriptions. Messages were decoded by two gro/lps o[ 1 () Ss who identified the intended person in each message. Message length and identification errors were recorded. Impressions coded in context were transmitted more e[ficiently thall those coded independently. Message length and errors were negatively correlated tor the context groups only. Implications tor [urther studies were discussed.


T HE WORLD economy has entered a period of stress and difficulty in which the international trading and financial systems, in particular, have already come under heavy pressure. This article seeks first to consider the implications of these developments for the trade of developing countries and secondly to argue that, notwithstanding manifold difficulties, this is also a time of opportunity, in which the developing countries, particularly the more advanced among them, can still derive substantial benefits from the multilateral trading system provided they are ready to make their own contribution to the management and liberalisation of the system.


With the integration of intelligent algorithm into the supply chain process, the fficiency of supply chain planning has been further improved through automatic prediction and decision-making. Although intelligent algorithms are developing, their challenges including real-time nature of supply chain planning and the complexity of scenarios hinder their true potential. In this study, we proposed an improved genetic algorithm (GA)-long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network prediction algorithm to solve various optimization planning problems for the supply chain from suppliers to production enterprises. Specifically, to determine stable suppliers, we first constructed the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) model to quantitatively evaluate each supplier, and the rationality of the index weight of the TOPSIS algorithm can be enhanced by the entropy method. Finally, the GA and LSTM were used to solve the decision-making and planning problem in raw material supply chain. Our results indicate that the algorithm we proposed can not only efficiently solve the decision planning problem in the raw material supply chain, but it also reasonably analyzes the suppliers quantitatively.


Introduction Degenerative, inflammatory, and posttraumatic arthritis of the ankle are the primary indications for total ankle arthroplasty Ankle arthrodesis has long been the "gold standard" for the surgical treatment Total Ankle Arthroplasty. implant survivorship has been reported to range from 70% to 98% at three to six years The combination of younger age and hindfoot arthrodesis or osteoarthritis may lead to a relative increase in failure rates after TAA Intraoperative complication include malaligment, fracture and tendon Postoperative complications include syndesmotic nonunion, wound problems, infections and component instability and lysis After TAA few difficulties mainly due to poor Talar and Tibial bone stock. It is difficult to stabilize the fusion and usually there is shortening after removal of the implant. Also there is a need for massive bone graft-allograft or autograft. In cases when there is significant bone loss there is a need for stable reconstruction and stabilization of the hindfoot. Bone grafting with structural bone graft may collapse and it has to be stabilized with screws or nail. Methods We developed technique which included distraction of the fusion area and inserting a Titanium cylindrical spinal cage filled with bone graft. Than guide wire was inserted in through the cage under fluoroscopy and a compression screw was introduced causing compression of the fusion area against the cage gaining stabilization of the fusion area. Results By 6 months all the patients were fused and could walk full weight bearing with no pain. Discussion and Conclusions Spinal cages are widely used in spine fusions in order to achieve stable spacer. Usually it has to be stabilized using posterior fusion stabilizing system. By performing distraction of the fusion area by spinal cage used as spacer and compression at the same time using compression screw we achieved primary good stability with minimal shortening


This report describes the composition of evolved gas and the material balance of the activation process of char.It was assumed that the activation process consisted of two stages; the thermal decomposition and the activation of char.Most part of the sulfur, which was introduced into char by sulfonation, was released as SO2 during the thermal decomposition of char at around 300-400°C. while, about 50% of the original sulfur contained in raw asphalt was released as H2S during the thermal decomposition of char at around 300-500°C., and about 25% of the original sulfur as H2S during the activation stage.The formation of hydrocarbons was observed evidently in addition to SO2and H2S during the thermal decomposition at around 400-600°C., while H2 and CO formed through water gas reaction occupied 90% of the total gas generated during the activation stage.The material balance of the activation stage was calculated from the total volume and composition of evolved gas as well as the ultimate analysis of asphalt, char and activated carbon.


Objectives: The objectives of the study were to study the antiplatelet aggregation activity of compounds isolated from extracts of Clausena dentata. Clausena (Rutaceae) is a genus of about 23 species of unarmed trees and shrubs. The stem bark of C. dentata is used in veterinary medicine for the treatment of wounds and sprains. Even though C. dentata has a lot of potential medical uses, the study of pharmacological properties is very scarce.
Methods: The plant C. dentata was collected from Kadagaman, near Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, and authenticated by Centre for Advanced Study in Botany, University of Madras, Chennai. The dry powder of stem bark was extracted with hexane, chloroform, and methanol. The extracts were subjected to qualitative phytochemical screening and column chromatography. Four compounds were isolated. All the isolated compounds were subjected to adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-induced platelet aggregation and compared with aspirin.
Results: The isolated compounds from C. dentata and standard aspirin showed significant antiplatelet activity against ADP-induced platelet aggregation.
Conclusion: The compounds, 3-(1,1-dimethylallyl)xanthyletin, dentatin, nordentatin, and carbazole showed significant antiplatelet aggregation activity. Among the compounds, nordentatin showed more activity of antiplatelet aggregation.


Region of interest (ROI) encoding is an important image encoding idea. This method solves the conflict between image quality and compression ratio, and it is appropriate to medical image encoding application. This paper presents a method of ROI encoding based on SPIHT. It adds ROI mask information instead of lifting the wavelet coefficients. The ROI is coded and transmitted in earlier stages with higher fidelity than the rest of the image, making the ROI takes precedence over other regions of the coding and transmission.


Introduction: Although air (helicopter) transfer is largely accepted as improving outcomes in time sensitive conditions including acute ischemic stroke (AIS), inappropriate triage of these patients...


Abstract—The key role in phenomenological modelling of cyclic plasticity is good understanding of stress-strain behaviour of given material. There are many models describing behaviour of materials using numerous parameters and constants. Combination of individual parameters in those material models significantly determines whether observed and predicted results are in compliance. Parameter identification techniques such as random gradient, genetic algorithm and sensitivity analysis are used for identification of parameters using numerical modelling and simulation. In this paper genetic algorithm and sensitivity analysis are used to study effect of 4 parameters of modified AbdelKarim-Ohno cyclic plasticity model. Results predicted by Finite Element (FE) simulation are compared with experimental data from biaxial ratcheting test with semi-elliptical loading path.


Biologically, the link between uoride in tap water and bone cancer in
children is highly plausible, as half of ingested uoride is deposited in
bones and uoride is con rmed as a mitogenic and genotoxic agent.
The reviewed literature does not clearly


In this article is a report of SnO2 deposition by aerosol-assisted (AA)CVD from tin complexes, [Sn(18-Cr-6)Cl4] and [Sn(H2O)2Cl4](18-Cr-6). The structure and properties of the precursors, used to synthesize SnO2 layers by AACVD for the first time, are characterized with the help of X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared (IR), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Each complex is deposited by AACVD at 250, 400, and 500 °C in a flow of N2. The resulting films are studied by XRD and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Gas-sensing properties of the deposited layers are tested to 10 ppm NO2 in air. The maximum sensor response to the analyte is measured at 300 °C.


Researchers from both academia and industry agree that future CMPs will accommodate large shared on-chip last-level caches. However, the exponential increase in multicore processor cache sizes accompanied by growing on-chip wire delays make it difficult to implement traditional caches with a single, uniform access latency. Non-Uniform Cache Access (NUCA) designs have been proposed to address this situation. A NUCA cache divides the whole cache memory into smaller banks that are distributed along the chip and can be accessed independently. Response time in NUCA caches does not only depend on the latency of the actual bank, but also on the time required to reach the bank that has the requested data and to send it to the core. So, the NUCA cache allows those banks that are located next to the cores to have lower access latencies than the banks that are further away, thus mitigating the effects of the cache's internal wires. These cache architectures have been traditionally classified based on their placement decisions as static (S-NUCA) or dynamic (DNUCA). In this thesis, we have focused on D-NUCA as it exploits the dynamic features that NUCA caches offer, like data migration. The flexibility that D-NUCA provides, however, raises new challenges that hardens the management of this kind of cache architectures in CMP systems. We have identified these new challenges and tackled them from the point of view of the four NUCA policies: replacement, access, placement and migration. First, we focus on the challenges introduced by the replacement policy in D-NUCA. Data migration makes most frequently accessed data blocks to be concentrated on the banks that are closer to the processors. This creates big differences in the average usage rate of the NUCA banks, being the banks that are close to the processors the most accessed banks, while the banks that are further away are not accessed so often. Upon a replacement in a particular bank of the NUCA cache, the probabilities of the evicted data block to be reused by the program will differ if its last location in the NUCA cache was a bank that are close to the processors, or not. The decentralized nature of NUCA, however, prevents a NUCA bank from knowing that other bank is constantly evicting data blocks that are later being reused. We propose three different techniques to dealwith the replacement policy, being The Auction the most successful one. Then, we deal with the challenges in the access policy. As data blocks can be mapped in multiple banks within the NUCA cache. Finding the requesting data in a D-NUCA cache is a difficult task. In addition, data can freely move between these banks, thus the search scheme must look up all banks where the requesting data block can be mapped to ascertain if it is in the NUCA cache, or not. We have proposed HK-NUCA. This is a search scheme that uses home knowledge to effectively reduce the average number of messages introduced to the on-chip network to satisfy a memory request. With regard to the placement policy, this thesis shows the implementation of a hybrid NUCA cache. We have proposed a novel placement policy that accomodates both memory technologies, SRAM and eDRAM, in a single NUCA cache. Finally, in order to deal with the migration policy in D-NUCA caches, we propose The Migration Prefetcher. This is a technique that anticipates data migrations. Summarizing, in this thesis we propose different techniques to efficiently manage future D-NUCA cache architectures on CMPs. We demonstrate the effectivity of our techniques to deal with the challenges introduced by D-NUCA caches. Our techniques outperform existing solutions in the literature, and are in most cases more energy efficient.


This work argues that in spite of the dramatic wartime changes in women's lives World War II did not mark a radical shift in gender roles and after its end old patterns were soon restored. Wartime workers and their soldier sweethearts soon reappeared as home-making mums and bread-winning dads. This is an examination of the impact of war on the private and public lives of New Zealand women. It considers paid and unpaid work and the domestic roles of women as mothers, wives and lovers using examples from real lives. Deborah Montgomerie's main argument is that despite the changes, the war was essentially a conservative period, pointing out that understanding the continuities in gender relations is as important as cataloguing female "firsts". Her book aims to challenge accepted wisdom and offer a fresh view of a period often viewed through the blurry lens of nostalgia and anecdote.


A new analysis of the open-circuit microstrip termination is described which enables all of the reflection, transmission, radiation and surface wave effects to be calculated. The formulation is based on a continuous eigenvalue mode spectrum and provides the most complete treatment of this particular microstrip discontinuity to date. The results are compared with experimental and other data. Finally the importance of the technique for calculating the coupling limitations between isolated printed circuits or microstrip antenna elements and increasing the accuracy of existing circuit design procedures is briefly considered.


One of the main issues related to the optimization of the MV (middle voltage) network is to reduce losses of active and reactive power. Lower losses of active and reactive power give not only economic advantage, but also improvement of energy quality. The object of regulation that can be used for these purposes are transformer with On-Load Tap Changer and capacitor's banks. This paper presents results of analysis of the possibility of using capacitor banks installed inside the MV network (in industrial consumer) in order to minimize power losses in the power network. The results of analysis allowed to determine which of the criteria adjustment: constant voltage or maintain constant values of power factor tgφ, in individual buses is better. It was also pointed to the necessity of the coordination between actions of regulators of the transformer and capacitor banks.


On the basis of the original hydraulic feeding loop of power sliding table of the modular machine tool, a new double feeding speed exchange loop is proposed to realize the movement of the sliding table. The new loop enlarges the speed range, and breaks the limit of only one feeding speed in the original one, as well as the two feeding speeds being noninterference at exchange. The PLC is adopted in design of the control system, thus provides the base for intelligentization of the hydraulic system.


In the light of the demands for personnel cultivation in the era of the knowledge economy, the ideological work for the undergraduates should grasp the characteristics of the students' thought and behavior, broaden the contents of the ideological education and build its operational mechanism.


In 1978 the DOK long-term field experiment was installed at Therwil close to Basel comparing the farming systems "bio-Dynamic", "bio-Organic" and "(K)conventional". In the first years of the trial, crop yield and feasibility of organic farming were investigated. Soils were analysed with respect to long-term effects on fertility and were evaluated in the view of farming effects on the environment. Today the interrelation of diversity and efficiency and the quality of organic products is the research focus. Long-term trials like the DOK-trial offer unique opportunities for this kind of research.
The DOK-trial compares the three systems mentioned above on the basis of the same intensity of organic fertilization (i.e. the same number of animals per area), the same crop rotation and the same soil tillage. Fertilization and plant protection are different and done according to the farming system. A minerally fertilized conventional treatment is mimicking stockless farming and unfertilized plots serve as controls.
Crop yields of the organic systems averaged over 21 experimental years at 80% of the conventional ones. The fertilizer input, however, was 34 – 51% lower, indicating an efficient production. The organic farming systems used 20 – 56% less energy to produce a crop unit and per land area this difference was 36 – 53%.
Maintenance of soil fertility is important for a sustainable land use. In DOK field plots the organically treated soils were biologically more active than conventional, whereas chemical and physical soil parameters differed less significantly. Soil organic matter after 21 years shows substantially higher values in farming systems with manure fertilization and especially in biodynamic field plots fertilized with composted farmyard manure. Organic farming systems are suggested to utilize non-renewable resources more efficiently due to a higher inherent soil fertility.


A novel zinc/aluminium-layered double hydroxide-2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy) propionate (Zn/Al-LDH-DPPA) nanocomposite to modify with multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) paste electrode for simultaneously determination of uric acid and bisphenol A. The Zn/Al-LDH-DPPA/MWCNT morphology was carried out by a scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope, electrode-electrolyte interface properties were examined by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and electrochemical responses thoroughly investigated by square-wave voltammetry. The electrode established linear plot for uric acid and bisphenol A from 5.0 x 10 —6 M to 7.0 x 10 —4 M (R 2 = 0.9980) and (R 2 = 0.9960) and the detection limits were 7.95 x 10 —7 M and 8.71 x 10 —7 M (S/N=3). The as-prepared sensor is reproducible, highly stable, sensitive as well as ascribed good anti-interference ability. The Zn/Al-LDH-DPPA/MWCNT electrode is applicable to evaluate simultaneously determination of UA and BPA in lake, river and, urine samples with good percentage recovery.


This study explored how grandparents influence their late adolescent grandchildren's psychological adjustment. Late adolescent participants ( N = 474, 60% female, 63% Caucasian) reported their current relationship quality and degree of contact during elementary school for each living grandparent. Hierarchical linear regressions, controlling for demographic characteristics and parental acceptance, found that grandparent relationship quality, but not grandparent contact, was linked to multiple late adolescent outcomes (e.g., depressive symptoms, self-worth, perceived competence in close friendships, and romantic relationships). Significant associations examining both maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather relationship quality were supported, but fewer associations were found for maternal grandfathers and paternal grandmothers. Moderation analyses found more contact during childhood strengthened some of the positive associations between grandparent relationship quality and grandchildren's self-worth and perceived competence in close friendships. The need for more research examining how specific grandparent factors are linked to grandchildren's outcomes across developmental periods and contexts is discussed.


Subsea pipelines which present free Induced Vibration (VIV), which can damage and cause possible failure by this work, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is used to evaluat shedding forces. Seabed effects are also (D) is used to build two-dimensional numerical wall are carried out for the Reynolds number around 20000. Drag and lift forces are evaluated. circular section and the wall were considered An open source code (OpenFOAM ® ) Simulation results were compared with the literature. e/D>1. For 1<e/D<0.5, even though 0.3<e/D<0.1, vortex shedding is not observed. In general, the procedure here presented has shown good results for drag and lift forces.


The microsporidian spore stage of the nerve parasite, Spraguea lophii, consists of outer envelope stabilized in part by keratins, including K4 and K13. The nonepidermal K4 and K13 keratins were found only in the spore envelope and were absent in the internal microsporidian sporoplasm. At the time of spore activation, the keratin‐based outer spore envelope assemblage dissociated and became phosphorylated when the spores were placed in the presence of labeled ATP. Verapamil or lanthanum, agents which block S. lophii spore activation, also blocked spore envelope keratin disassembly and phosphorylation when the spores were incubated in activation medium with labeled ATP. However, after the removal of the verapamil or lanthanum, the spores regained the capacity to activate in discharge medium and the keratin analogues appeared to dissociate and phosphorylate.


Architecture description languages (ADLs) are developed to precisely and formally describe software conceptual architecture that is distinguished from the system's implementation. Due to the gap between an architecture model and its implementation, the benefits of ADLs cannot be fully realized without a systematic mapping from an architectural description to an implementation. However, the implementation of an architecture model is not only error-prone, but also hard to verify. Some ADLs support code generation from software architecture. However, most of them cannot enforce communication integrity in the implementation. In this paper, we present a methodology to translate software architecture designs to ArchJava automatically and the communication integrity is guaranteed by ArchJava.


By means of a high speed level recorder sound transmission vs. frequency characteristics have been measured between points in rooms having different acoustic characteristics. The measurements show that by a suitable choice of measuring conditions it is possible to determine not only frequency distortion and pressure levels at different parts of an auditorium, but reverberation characteristics as well.


This paper presents a method for visual display of acoustical waveforms with which different phonemes are more readily distinguished than with spectrograms. The visual display is based on the interval between successive up crossings of the zero axis in the waveform. Although zero crossings and tip crossings have been used by several investigators since Licklinder's studies demonstrating that zero‐crossing information is sufficient for intelligibility of speech, most investigators have ignored an essential property of up‐crossing analysis. Analysis of up crossings is a time domain technique and as such, allows a perfect resolution of events in time, a resolution which is lost if the up‐crossing data is averaged over intervals of time. Such precise time resolution is critical for the recognition of certain distinguishing features in various consonants. These features permit a visual display in which the phonemes can easily be distinguished, even in connected speech. Furthermore, the important features for d...


This paper is focused on a new approach, which was aimed to ease up the development of Fe-Cr-Co-Mo permanent magnets. Tri-arc melting technique under inert atmosphere of argon was used for the development of Fe-Cr-Co-Mo alloy. Solution treatment was done at a temperature of 1250 °C for 5 h followed by water quenching and then samples were subjected to thermomagnetic treatment (TMT) at 630 °C at predetermined cooling rates. The influence of TMT and cooling rates on the final magnetic properties of the alloy were investigated. Microstructural, X-ray diffraction, and magnetic characterization were carried out. It was observed that cooling rates and TMT temperature both affect the magnetic properties of material. Spinodal structure was observed at 50 k magnification of scanning electron microscope: rod like α1 phase (FeCo-rich) is embedded in the matrix of α2-phase (Cr-rich). The average length of the α1 rod like particles is 150 ± 30 nm and the diameter is 30 ± 10 nm. Resultant magnetic properties are as 900 Oe (Hc), 10.4 kG (Br), and 4.3 MGOe (BHmax) with a two-step aging process and 810 Oe (Hc), 10.6 kG (Br), and 3.6 MGOe (BHmax) with continuous cooling up to 540 °C. The current method provides a quick and low cost manufacturing route for the Fe-Cr-Co-Mo permanent magnets with magnetic properties comparable with that of AlNiCo with the added advantage of having high ductility.


As technology scaling drives the no.of processors upward, current on-chip routers consume substantial portions of chip area, performance, cost & power budgets. Recent work proposes to apply well-known routing technique, which eliminate buffers & hence buffers power (static & dynamic) at the cost of some misrouting or deflection called bufferless deflection routing. While bufferless NoC design has shown promising area and power reductions and offers similar performance to conventional buffered for many workloads. Such design provides lower throughput, unnecessary networkhops and wasting power at high network loads. To address this issue we propose an innovative NoC router design called Single Side Buffered Defection (SSBD)router. Compared to previous bufferless deflection router SSBD contributes (i) a router microarchitecture with a double-width ejection path and enhanced arbitration with in-router prioritization. (ii)small side buffers to hold some traffic that would have otherwise been deflected.


Hot press (HP) technology is used to explore the feasibility of preparing small civil superalloy parts in this paper. Microstructure of the samples was characterized by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, electron-probe microanalysis, and so on. The results show that when HPing temperature is 1080 °C, the tensile properties of the materials are best. Its ultimate tensile strength and elongation are 1414 ± 19 MPa and 31.1 ± 3.5%, respectively, values comparable to that of materials prepared by hot isostatic pressing (HIP). When HPing temperature is lower or higher than 1080 °C, the pore or prior particle boundaries (PPBs) are the main defects affecting superalloy tensile properties. The cracks are prone to initiate from pores or PPB precipitates, and propagate along particle boundaries, presenting lower tensile properties and inter-particle fracture predominately.


The purpose of this investigation is the study of THz influence on female fruit fly fertility and offspring development dynamics. The material is virgin females Oregon R line. Flies (n = 200) were stressed by limited space without food during 2.5 hours. Some of flies (n = 100) were irradiated by THz radiation generator in frequency range 0.1 2.2 THz during 30 min. The results were compared with the offspring of laboratory control (n = 100). Objectively. Stress induces a rejection of offspring maturation dynamics to imago from laboratory control. THz radiation induces different effects. The dynamics of female maturation coincides with laboratory control. The number of imago males decreased. Conclusion. THz radiation causes a deviation from theoretically expected 1:1 gender ratio.


[Abstract] We have been developing and utilizing text-based CAI teaching materials. Recent development of personal computer-related multimedia environment has made it possible to use figures and tables with ease along with text. We have used a personal computer-based multimedia environment for CAI study in the civil engineering field. We aimed at the creation of CAI teaching materials which would provide exercise and explanation of multiple-choice problems to enable independent study by students and reduce the workload of teachers. In this report, we descrive about the utilizing and developing methed of the matelials.


The impact of the new rural space developments on spatial quality in the Espirito Santo State mountain region has been intensified in the past decade. It brings pressure to bear on the economy, the environment and the cultural identity with consequences to the health and safety of the region. This research contribution is the suggestion of an additional action programme to the 'Espirito Santo mountain region sustainable development association' ADEMES. A development-oriented approach addressed to make a better use of the Serrana Region's cultural landscape to improve the quality of its changing rural space.


. Down-up algebras A = A ( (cid:11);(cid:12);γ ) were introduced by G. Benkart and T. Roby to better understand the structure of certain posets. In this paper, we prove that (cid:12) (cid:54) = 0 is equivalent to A being right (or left) Noetherian, and also to A being a domain. Furthermore, when this occurs, we show that A is Auslander-regular and has global dimension 3.


This paper investigates the application of Fibre Bragg sensing for monitoring of induction machine frame strain. The underlying purpose is to examine the feasibility of frame surface attached fibre optic sensing to be used for condition monitoring purposes, i.e. for recognition of signatures characteristic of healthy and/or faulty machine operating conditions. To this end an experimental study is reported that compares the fibre optic monitored circumferential strain signal spectral content with that of synchronously monitored frame acceleration and shaft torque signals on a laboratory induction machine operating with and without electrical fault. It is shown that the signature of electrical unbalance and fault, as well as that of mechanical effects on the shaft can be effectively recognised in the frame strain signal monitored by the fibre optic strain sensor.


Purpose : Leptin is a highly hydrophobic 16-kDa protein encoded by the ob gene which is expre- ssed in adipocytes and participates in the regulation of food intake and energy expenditure. The aims of the present study were to examine the comparison of leptin levels between type I dia- betes mellitus(DM) patients who received exogenous insulin therapy and healthy children, and to find out correlating factors with leptin level in type I DM. Methods : The study was conducted on 34 patients with type I DM and 29 healthy children. Body weight, height, leptin level and body fat percent were measured in both groups. The glycosylated hemoglobin value, C-peptide, insulin level and serum cholesterol were also measured in type I DM. Results : There was no statistically significant difference in mean age, sex distribution and body mass index between the experimental groups, but body fat percent in type I DM was signi- ficantly lower than that of healthy children. The mean leptin levels in male(9.4±6.3ng/mL) and female(17.8±10.2ng/mL) type I DM were significantly higher than in male(6.3±5.7ng/mL) and female(10.2±0.9ng/mL) healthy children(male : P=0.045, female : P=0.005). Serum leptin levels were strongly correlated with the body fat percent(Pearson coefficient)(r=0.712). Conclusion : Serum leptin level in type I DM strongly correlated with the body fat percent. Despite lowered body fat percent in type I DM, the leptin level was significantly higher than values in healthy children. The mean leptin level in type I DM were significantly higher than value in healthy children, but body fat percent of type I DM was lower than value in healthy children who were adjusted for sex, age and body mass index. (J Korean Pediatr Soc 1999;43: 550-555)


ISSN: 2410-8790 Pandey et al / Current Science Perspectives 2(3) (2016) 52-56 iscientic.org. www.bosaljournals/csp/ 53 email@example.com varies the waste content of Bhopal as compare to others cities (Nagayama, 2010). The generation of solid waste depends upon the standard living of people, economical condition, the rate of literacy of population and historical or religious value of places (Agarwal et al., 2005; MOUD, 2005; Kumar and Goel, 2009). Municipal solid waste in bhopal comprise a big portion of biomass material such as paper, food, wood waste, clothes rage, plastics, vegetable, rubbers, polythene, tyres, and others daily used discarded materials. Since lacking of proper facilities in Bhopal city these discarded wastes are not dumped at ultimate place of rest so it creates a lot of hazardous environmental condition, sanitary losses of surrounding and distorting the aesthetic beauty of surrounding (Abbas et al., 2015; Adesola et al., 2016; Babarinde and Onyiaocha, 2016; Bilal et al., 2014; Bokhari et al., 2013; CPCB, 2004; Iqbal et al., 2013; Iqbal, 2016; Iqbal and Bhatti, 2014, 2015; Iqbal et al., 2014; Iqbal and Khera, 2015; Nagayama, 2010; Sharholy et al., 2008). Municipal solid waste is the result of human daily activities whether ineffective and inappropriate management system is used. So it may cause the environmental pollution and endangers the mankind's health, wealth and other living and non living component of eco system (Iqbal and Nisar, 2015; Jamal et al., 2015; MSWM, 2003; Manzoor et al., 2013; Qureshi et al., 2015; Saeed et al., 2015; Ukpaka, 2016; Ukpaka et al., 2015; Ullah et al., 2013; Younas et al., 2015). On other hand, the conventional source of energy like fossil fuels and petroleum are depleting at rapid rates and it will sufficient only for 200 years farther if we are getting exploit it at the current rates (MSWM, 2003; Nagayama, 2010). Due to this threatening situation whole nation are seeking for an alternative source of energy. In this regard municipal solid waste can be taken as an opportunity to be a potential source of energy for power generation that can fulfill our energy demands or can be utilized properly in industries and agriculture sectors (Dasgupta, 2014; OECD, 1995; CPCB, 2000; 2004ab). To satisfying the energy demands through the use of renewable energy sources is a main agenda of government of india as well as state government, because it is directly concerned to the environmental issue, climate change and achieve the objective of sustainable developments (Akolkar, 2005; USAEAR., 2005). At present, to handle the solid waste properly in efficient way is a big challenge for municipal corporation Bhopal and government of Madhya Pradesh (Akolkar, 2005; GOI, 2003). The main objective of this paper is to give an overview of potential energy content of municipal solid waste in bhopal city so that energy can be derived from that waste as source of renewable energy. The analysis of generation and composition capacity of municipal solid waste will be main focus to establish amount of energy that can be extracted from municipal solid waste in Bhopal [5]. MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE STATUS OF BHOPAL TILL END OF 2014 Municipal solid waste often called garbage is used to produce energy at solid waste to energy plants. The generation of energy from the waste varies from one place to another place worldwide hence energy content of Bhopal is different from the other cities. Metro cities like delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, chenni, hydrabad, bangluru etc. produces more and more waste and also utilized these waste for energy generation effectively as comparison to other cities of india. In Bhopal city urbanization is going on at rapidly rates hence the waste generation are increasing day by day. Bhopal has about 285.88sqkm of area with about 1844000 populations, according to census 2011 but at present population of Bhopal are more than 20 lacks (Oct. 2015). Average waste generation is about 365gm per capita per day and 700 tons per day (2015). As per a projection, the waste generation quantities are estimated to increase 886.5 metric tonnes per day in year 2021 from 569 metric tons in 2011 in Bhopal (Henry, 2006). BMC is planning and implementing various solutions for proper waste disposal in Bhopal city. Since the last three years, the Corporation has established door to door collection scheme in which about 6000 rag pickers and 300 rickshaw pullers are engaged for waste collection. Out of the 4.5 lacks households in Bhopal, waste is collected from at least 2.5 lacks households daily. This waste is either unloaded in the nearby dustbins or at the collection centre from where the municipal vehicles lift the garbage and dumps it at the Bhanpura dumpsite which is situated at Vidisha road of the city. Moreover, the habits of people throwing garbage here and there, leads to even more pollution in the city and an increased problem of management of garbage (CPCB, 2000; Goel, 2008). More than three decade old and about 90% filled to its capacity, this site is now inside municipal limits. Thus, there is a need for various technological options to cap the dumpsite scientifically and create a scientific landfill outside the municipal limits. For proper engaging these huge amount of municipal waste in Bhopal whole Bhopal city is divided in 18 municipal zonal offices for proper collection, transportation and disposal of these solid waste. BMC has identified and allotted a 60 acre land in Adampur for developing scientific landfill by using these waste to resolve the problems municipal solid waste in Bhopal city (GOI, 2003; NEERI, 2005). QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF MSW OF BHOPAL ISSN: 2410-8790 Pandey et al / Current Science Perspectives 2(3) (2016) 52-56 iscientic.org. www.bosaljournals/csp/ 54 email@example.com There are many categories of MSW such as food waste, rubbish, commercial waste, industrial waste, institutional waste, street sweeping waste, construction and demolition waste, sanitation waste, worship waste. MSW contains recyclables (paper, plastic, polythene, glass, metals, etc.), toxic substances (paints, pesticides, used batteries, medicines, and electronics waste), compostable organic matter (fruit and vegetable peels, food waste) and soiled waste (blood stained cotton, sanitary napkins, disposable syringes (Nagayama, 2010). Characterization of the municipal waste shows that Bhopal has the highest proportion of mixed residue as organic material mixed with soil, mud, sand and other inert materials to the extent of 60%. This material has an organic content measured as volatile solids of approximately 20% and demonstrates the high inert or inorganic content of the waste. In these waste 21% carbonic material, 50% ash and dust, 9% paper and 13% plastic are broad composition of the garbage. The inert material is mostly dust, sand, sediments and soil, and is a large fraction of Indian MSW due to the largely unpaved areas. Fig. 1 shows chemical characteristics of MSW of Bhopal (BMC, 2014). The quantity of MSW generated depends on a number of factors such as food habits, high standard of living, degree of commercial activities, education back ground of population, religious value of place, seasonal and climate patterns. Data on quantity variation and generation are useful in planning for collection, treatment and disposal systems. Due to increasing the urbanization and changing life styles of people of Bhopal, solid waste generates more than it used to generate earlier (USAEAR., 2005; CPCB, 2004). Presently, about 90 million tons of solid waste are generated annually as by products of industrial, mining, municipal, agricultural and other processes in india and in which which bhopal individual contribute 700 tons per day and 255500 tons of municipal solid waste annually. Per capita generation rate of MSW in India ranges from 0.3 to 1.5 kg/ day and amount of MSW generated per capita is estimated to increase at a rate of 1–1.33% annually (MSWM, 2003). The composition and the quantity of MSW generated in Bhopal decide the basis on which the management system needs to be planned, designed and operated. The composition of MSW at generation sources and collection points was determined on a wet weight basis and it consists mainly of a large organic fraction (40–60%), ash and fine earth (20–30%), paper (9–12%) plastic(12-15%), glass and metals (each less than 1%) (EPA, 2010; MOUD, 2005; CPCB, 2000ab). REMARKS AND CONCLUSIONS More than 92% of the MSW generated in country is directly disposed on open dumping in an unsecure and unplanned manner Basically in India it has an agricultural country and particularly cities are congested and crowded and required special attention to MSW management Currently there is no any specific site for segregation of solid waste in Bhopal. It is manually done by Rag pickers at the origin site of solid waste at very small level. There is Fig. 1: Physical composition of solid waste in Bhopal city as average percentage value of total waste generated in India's city.. 9.01


The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is applied to simulation of fluid flows in anisotropic porous media with the Brinkman equation. The Brinkman equation is recovered from a kinetic equation for the distribution function that has a forcing term to introduce anisotropy of the permeability of the porous media. Since the forcing term contains the drag force proportional to the fluid velocity, the LBM needs matrix calculation to obtain the fluid velocity through the definition of the momentum. The velocity profiles of the LBM show good agreement with analytical solutions for the Poiseuille flow and for the Couette flow filled with anisotropic porous media. The contour lines of the stream functions obtained by the LBM show good agreement with those of the finite difference method (FDM) in the numerical simulation of a lid-driven cavity flow for different fundamental parameters, e.g., Darcy number, inclination of the principal permeability direction, and permeability ratio. By increasing grid size, the LBM is able to decrease the compressibility effect, and reduces the deviation of the maximum values of the stream function between the LBM and the FDM. On the same grid size, the LBM takes less time than the conventional FDM to get the steady solutions. This paper leads to the conclusion that the LBM can simulate incompressible flow in anisotropic porous media at the representative elementary volume scale.


Conflicts between human development of the landscape and conservation of biodiversiry will continue to grow. Given this reality, there have been a number of attempts to model the optimal selection of conservation reserve sites such that maximum biodiversity protection can be attained within a limited budget for land acquisition. Here we adapt the Location‐Allocation module of ARC/INFO to solve the problem of representing, or covering, as many species as possible in a fixed number of selected reserve sites. Resident ARC/INFO solution routines are applied to an innovative 'logical' network that converts the problem of optimal reserve selection into a problem of optimal facility placement, which the Location‐Allocation module can recognize and solve. Use of this unique logical network structure as input to ARC/INFO's internal solvers makes possible, compared to previous methods, a much tighter integration of spatial optimization tools with mapping and database tools, all of which are internal to the GIS and accessed via a menu‐driven interface. The main advantage is that users of public domain data (such as the US Gap Analysis data) can conduct their own explorations of possible reserve systems without having to acquire and master optimization packages and reformat model output data for GIS display and post‐analysis of solutions. Our sample application uses species data from south‐western California. We also present a second major form of species‐covering model grounded in the same logical network. This enhanced modcl accommodates weighting of species by their conservation importance, thus allowing reserve systems to be designed around the protection of the most threatened or vulnerable biota.


It is widely recognised that community-wide support and learning is important to ensure that people are adequately prepared for natural disasters. To enhance preparedness of citizens, a critical theme is how to utilise the benefit of information Communication Technology (ICT) in the scheme of ICT-based learning programmes to raise citizens' perceptions of disaster risk and how to enable citizens to be ready for the future disasters. And in so doing, collaboration with the public sector, local disaster management NPOs and other stakeholders would be important topic. However, for such training programmes to be meaningful is important that they are based on citizens' sense of urgency about all aspects of disasters and a clear understanding by policy makers of what elements should be prioritised in the programme. This study first recognises the existence of a gap between citizens' perceptions of the real and the virtual scape of natural disasters, and then, based on data from a survey of citizens' attitudes in X city in Japan, quantitatively captures the factors and elements of disasters that influence citizens' perceptions of city resilient, and suggests implications for policy makers and relevant stakeholders. The results will be presented to policy makers and stakeholders. This is expected to provide models and scales of analysis for ICT implementation in disaster prevention and mitigation, i.e. coping with natural disasters brought about by climate change.


The aim of the study was the influence of transport conditions of antrum biopsies on the diagnostis of Helicobacter pylori infection by mean of bacteriological methods. We compare bacteriological to anatomopathological methods of Helicobacter pylori infection during two periods which differed by the transport conditions for antrum biopsies. During the first period (P1), 57 specimens were carried to the laboratory at room temperature and physiological serum immersion was inconstant. During the second period (P2), 56 specimens were all correctly immerged into 5 ml of physiological serum, in a 15 mm diameter tube which was vertically maintained in ice. Anatomopathological methods were considered as the reference method for the diagnostic of Helicobacter pylori infection. The sensibility of bacteriological culture was increased from 59% (P1) to 84% (P2) (p < 0.05) when specificity was unchanged. Furthermore sensibility of bacteriological direct examination was increased from 41% (P1) to 61% (P2). Complete biopsy immersion and ice transport of samples appear as necessary conditions for the optimal diagnostic of Helicobacter infections by mean of bacteriological methods.


Traffic signals in urban areas are often coordinated (linked) together on "fixed time" plans that are pre-set to suit average conditions. "SCOOT" (spilt, cycle and offset optimisation technique) is a new method of coordination that adjusts the signal timings in frequent, small increments to match the latest traffic situation. Data from vehicle detectors are analysed by an on-line computer which contains programs that calculate and implement those timings that are predicted to minimise congestion. SCOOT is designed for general application within computerised urban traffic control systems. The research and development of SCOOT has been carried out in the UK by the TRRL and the Department of Transport and industry in collaboration with the Ferranti, GEC and Plessey Traffic Systems Companies. As part of this work, scoot systems have been implemented in Glasgow and Coventry and traffic surveys have been conducted by TRRL on a totla of 62 signals. It is concluded that SCOOT reduces vehicle delay by an average of about 12 per cent compared with up-to-date optimised fixed time plans; further substantial benefits are likely where, as is often the case, the fixed time plans are based on old traffic data. See also TRIS 385877. This paper was first presented at the International Conference on Road Traffic Signalling in London during April 1982. (Author/TRRL)


A Bayesian model for assessing uncertain and variable economics of proposed environmentally conscious and other manufacturing processes from available information is described in this paper. Economic risks may stem from environmental, health, and safety liabilities; potential product losses; and other intangibles. Benefits and costs may be uncertain due to lack of information and experience within the available time and budget, or may be inherently variable in nature. Bayesian inference allows the integrated use of available numeric data, related data, summary statistics, and professional judgment. The Principle of Maximum Entropy is used as a basis for incorporation of subjective information. A Bayesian Pareto incident-size distribution is used to model size distributions for individual costs. Sensitivity analysis is used to help identify primary elements of project economic risk. Probability distributions for planning period costs, exceedance probabilities, and other risk indicators for alternative paint-stripping projects were computed and compared for an example industrial facility. The relative importance of variability and uncertainty as a function of planning-period length is probed.


OBJECTIVE
An analysis of prenatal diagnostics of birth defects in the Czech Republic in 2004 and a comparison to data from 1996 - 2003.

TYPE OF STUDY
A retrospective analysis of data from a Register of Prenatal Diagnostics of the Czech Republic.

METHODOLOGY
Data on birth defects in the Czech Republic from particular departments of medical genetics and prenatal diagnostics from 1996 to 2004 time period was used. An analysis of data on prenatal diagnostics of selected type of birth defects was performed.

RESULTS
During 1996 to 2004 period, a total of 4,126 prenatally diagnosed and terminated cases were reported. In 2004, 597 cases were reported, which presents 61.1 cases per 10 000 live births. (The mean rate from the total period under the study was 49.8 per 10 000 live births.)

CONCLUSIONS
Current data on birth defects in a 9-year period in the Czech Republic are presented. The role of prenatal diagnostics in decrease of some severe types of birth defects is underlined.


The management of patients with primary intrahepatic stones may be complex as the natural history is frequently complicated by further episodes of cholangitis after initial treatment because of residual or recurrent intrahepatic stones or strictures. 1 Curative segmental or lobar hepatic resection of atrophic segments and diseased ducts is possible in only the 20% of patients with localised stones or strictures. 2 Complete stone removal by resection is therefore not feasible in the majority of patients with bilateral lobar stones and strictures. Patients who subsequently develop cholangitis pose a major operative risk if secondary biliary cirrhosis, portal hypertension or the atrophy-hypertrophy complex has


Wetland types can be related to the relative importance of the climatological, surface-water and groundwater variable found in the wetland water balance equation. Using this assumption a 12-fold hydrological classification that includes ombrotrophic, rheotrophic, minerotrophic and omnitrophic wetland types is proposed. Each wetland class can also be assigned a hydrological vulnerability to a number of man's activities and various types of water pollution.

Using Scottish Natural Heritage data, compiled in relation to designation of Scottish Sites of Special Scientific Interest with a wetland component, the classification was tested to assess its usefulness as first stage in wetland hydrological vulnerability assessment. Despite limited site-specific data, each of 399 wetland were fairly confidently assigned to one of the 12 classes and thus a provisional assessment of its hydrological vulnerability could be made. It is believed that this classification may have universal application as a first stage in the generalized approach to wetland hydrological vulnerability assessment recently proposed by Lloyd et al. (1991; Journal of Environmental Management37, 87-102), particularly if it can be linked to a simple lumped hydrological model to test the sensitivity of individual wetlands within any given class.


The effect of hemisphere diffuser locations in a hall on acoustical parameters was investigated using a 1:50 and 1:25 scale models. The acoustical parameters of the hall with and without installed diffusers were compared. Comparisons between computer simulation determined values and values determined from scale model measurements were also made by using 1:50 scale models. The results of 1:50 scale model measurements showed that diffusers of the audience area decreased RT and EDT, and increased C80. Investigation of the computer model showed that the absorption coefficient used for the computer model should be decreased 25 and 30% of the original values measured in a reverberation chamber for the conditions with and without diffuser, respectively. The results of 1:25 scale model measurements showed that the RT indicated the highest correlation with the diffusion power, which is defined by the sum of each surface multiplied by the diffusion coefficients as similar manner to the absorption power. INTRODUCTION Sound diffusion by a wall structure is one of the main factors affecting the sound quality of concert halls. When the side walls and reflectors do not have sufficient diffusion, "acoustic glare" is perceived by listeners as a negative quality of the hall [1]. Tone coloration is also observed as perceptual effects of a single reflection [2]. This "distortion" can be explained as comb-filter effects due to interference between the direct sound and the reflection. Flutter echo also has a negative effect on the acoustic quality of a hall. Scattering surfaces prevent coloration is caused by a strong reflection and flutter echo is caused by multiple reflections. Also, the diffusion of a sound field affects the characteristics of the nature of the reverberation process. The effect of a scattering wall surface on diffusion in the laboratory can be assessed by determining the random-incidence scattering coefficient and diffusion coefficient [3, 4]. Jeon et al. [5] made systematic investigations to determine the optimum diffuser design for a concert hall by using hemisphere and box-type diffusers. However, the sound field in a concert hall including scattered reflections is different from the laboratory measurement condition. The audience does not locate close to the walls like the condition in which a scattering coefficient is measured. Therefore, there is a need to develop measurement and evaluation methods for determining the performance of the scattering characteristics of wall surfaces in concert halls in terms of the subjective perception of the diffused sound field. Two parameters are used as objective indices for indicating the degree of diffusion in sound fields. One is the sound diffusivity index SDI with visual inspection [6]. The other is IACCL3 [7] which is related to listener envelopment. However, these objective indices have not been fully verified through measurement in actual concert hall sound fields. More generally, conventional acoustical parameters have been used to evaluate the scattered sound field. Suzumura et al. [8] compared the sound fields with and without an array of circular columns in front of the side walls and the stage walls as diffusers in a 1:10 scale model of a concert hall. They found that columns in front of the side walls decrease IACC at seats close to these columns. In addition, ∆t1, which is defined by the delay time of the reflection with maximum amplitude in relation to the direct sound, is increased by the columns. Jeon et al. [9] investigated the effect of


The essay explores the idea of Dickensian topography, in relation both to Dickens's own preoccupation with topographical specificity in the novels and to the practices of literary tourism in "Dickens Country." It suggests that there is a kind of synergy between the experience of his novels and the confrontation with surviving sites connected with their actions and characters. Dickens himself, as a child, projected the imaginary characters and their adventures from his favourite eighteenth-century novelists onto the real places of his childhood home town of Chatham. In his own writing he mapped fictional events onto named real places, especially in London and Kent, with vivid topographical detailing. Hence arose the idea of a visitable Dickens Country, where Dickens enthusiasts, such as those associated with the Dickens Fellowship organisation, have a sense that they are closing in on the reality of Dickens's imaginary worlds, and even experiencing a kind of Dickensian presence.


The symmetry analysis of differential equations in the context of Lie point and nonlocal symmetries is rich in the literature. In this paper we present the computation of the exact symmetry transformations of dynamical systems from their reduced systems in three dimensions, using the Kepler problem as vehicle. We also note that this computational technique is applicable to systems that can be reduced to couple oscillator(s) and a conservation law.


The health situation of adolescent girls in Jaipur called for desperate intervention. All the girls were found to suffer from moderate (95 per cent) to severe anaemia (5 per cent). Only 20 per cent were normal in height and weight and others faced marginal to severe malnutrition problems. Medical and health check-ups also showed that the girls were suffering from iron-deficiency syndrome reproductive tract infections and other illnesses such as lack of defence mechanisms to combat diseases. The nutrient intake of these girls was below the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). At the same time they had low knowledge levels on the relation of food and puberty to health Concerned about this situation the Department of Home Science (Foods and Nutrition) of the University of Rajasthan Jaipur with the help of UNICEF implemented a pilot project on reducing iron-deficiency-anaemia among 160 adolescent girls in the urban slums of Jaipur City. Education materials on healthy foods anaemia health and puberty together with IEC packages consisting of flipbooks posters charts food games demonstrations and workbooks were provided to the target group. The use of vitamins and minerals for beauty and health during the stage of puberty as well as their importance to physical mental and emotional health were emphasised. (excerpt)


The article deals with the aspect of application of interactive forms and methods when teaching students business communication. It enables not only to improve the level of students' knowledge, skills and abilities but also to reveal their new opportunities, develop various capabilities which is essential to form students' rhetorical competence. The author pays special attention to the features of training exercises and role-playing games application in teaching students business communication. Training models for practicing preparation for business communication and role-playing games at the argumentation stage are presented in the article. Application of the above mentioned interactive techniques proves to be efficient as they help to form students' communicative competence in the course of training.


The whiskers,such as potassium titanate whisker\,aluminum borate whisker\,zinc oxide whisker et al,in polymer modifications were introduced generally and their applications in rubbers\,thermoplastic elastomers\,thermoplastic resins and thermoset resins were mainly reviewed in detail.


The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has taken a toll on human lives and health systems worldwide and is still affecting all medical practices years later. In particular, much medical staff had to sacrifice in areas where the medical system was overloaded in the early stages of the outbreak and the resulting shortage of medical resources. In the future, another pandemic disease seems to emerge, which should threaten otolaryngologists inevitably. It is necessary to understand viral aerosolization and practice recommendations for COVID-19. These can guarantee the most effective treatment for the patients during the pandemic and protect the safety of our medical staff and patients.


— ow days the use of web recommendation systems is increasing in order to provide the customized data for end users, hence this area becomes challenging for researchers. Basically there are two categories in which web recommendation systems are divided such as content based web recommendation system and collaborative web recommendation system. In collaborative recommendation systems, such systems trying to find out the users those are sharing the similar tastes for particular end user and also according to the linking of that user websites are recommended. On the other hand, content based recommendation systems recommending the websites those are same as websites liked by end user. We have studied recently the improved method of mining algorithm with aim of solving the problem of efficient and reliable web page recommendation. We have added user feedback as an additional (and parallel) source of information about reliability or relevance. The importance is changes according to number of visits to that particular web page as well as amount time user stay over the same page. We have used the feedback for researching in less time consumption. In this paper we are presenting the different types of web recommendation systems, different methods presented for web recommendation systems and then future work for the same.


ABSTRACT In this article, the assessment practice known as the "grade conference" is analysed using an interactionally oriented narrative approach. The aim is to explore the grade conference and what it entails for students when executed in their fourth year of compulsory school, as part of a trial of an educational reform where students receive grades from year four instead of year six. Two cases illustrate the way that students are positioned and ascribed different paths and prospects in and through stories located within the grade conference. Findings show that students are ascribed individual responsibilities and their positions as students are largely evaluated by individual characteristics in these stories. It is concluded that the grade conference is a practice that may influence the students' views of their potential in school, as the narratives about their paths and prospects discursively make different routes more or less viable.


chapters on property, information, and thought we get to the heart of the matter. Sof sky is interested in defending private prop erty from its supposed attackers. Conflicts emerge, however, when he outlines a system of just property, implying (but never stating) the need for institutions to keep track of and enforce such justice. Furthermore, it appears that contrary to what we have been led to think, he is not against social intercourse alto gether. In fact "property gives rise to social intercourse," but ideally it is the free market kind and not the "stifling warmth of the com munity" (p.85). One of the strengths of Sofsky's work is that, in addition to attention to the motiva tions of the state and corporations, he acknowledges the role that citizens have played and continue to play in the diminish ing of their own privacy. This is an essential piece of the privacy puzzle. In general, this book is a call for greater protection of privacy and a tirade against abstract forces of power that would strip it away for their coordinated end of ever greater control. An analysis of the formation of his opinions, though, would be more sociologically satisfying than are the opinions themselves.


BACKGROUND
Despite Stebbins' principle of the most efficient pollinator was proposed decades ago, most important pollinators are still mainly identified using the frequency of visits to flowers. This shortcoming faces us with a gap between the characterization of the flower visitors of a plant species and reliable estimation of the plant fitness consequences of the mutualistic interaction. The performance of a mutualistic visitor depends on its abundance, behaviour, its effectiveness (pollen removal and deposition per unit time), and efficiency (seed set per unit time) conditioned by the temporal matching between pollinators activity and temporal patterns of maturation of flowers sexual functions. Although recent attempts to provide a conceptual and methodological framework to characterize pollinators' performance, few have combined all key elements of visitors and plants to provide an accurate estimation of pollinators' performance under natural conditions.

METHODS
we complement information on flower biology and mating system of the subshrub Lepechinia floribunda (Lamiaceae) to provide a daily quantitative estimation of performance (effectiveness and efficiency) of the more abundant pollinators: native bumblebees (Bombus spp.) and leafcutter bees (Megachile sp.), and the exotic honeybee (Apis mellifera).

KEY RESULTS
Unlike honeybees or leafcutter bees, native bumblebees matched the daily pattern of nectar production and stigma receptivity, and showed higher effectiveness and efficiency. Despite the overabundance of honeybees, visits occurred mainly when stigmas were not receptive, thus reducing the honeybees' overall performance.

CONCLUSIONS
Bumblebees appear as the most important pollinators and potential historical mediators of reproductive trait evolution in L. floribunda. Because the production of seeds by bumblebees involved fewer pollen grains for plants and less investment in floral display than honeybees, contemporary and expected changes in pollinators abundance may affect future L. floribunda floral evolution. If bumblebees were to be further displaced by anthropogenic disturbance or by competition with honeybees, their lower efficiency will select for larger floral display increasing reproductive costs. This scenario may also impose selection to reduce dichogamy to match honeybee foraging activity.


The Editors wish to commend the following letter from Professor Selye and his co-editor of the Annual Reports on Stress. Professor Selye is well known to members of the Heberden Society through his Heberden Oration in 1950 and his important research work on stress in the aetiology and pathology of rheumatoid disease. These Annual Reports are of great interest and value and deserve the careful study and support of all workers in rheumatology.


Through the three-point bending test on 100 specimens(dimensions of 100mm×100mm×515mm) of steel fiber reinforced high strength concrete with various fiber volume fractions,the effects of fiber volume fraction and the relative notch depth upon the fracture energy were detected and analyzed.The results show that the steel fiber can obviously improve the anti-fracture property and ductility.The increment ratios of fracture energy,ductile index and ductility of the steel fiber reinforced high strength concrete increase linearly with the increase of the fiber volume fraction and decrease with the increase of the notch depth.The fracture energy of the specimens mainly depends on the work of external force.Based on the test results,the formulas for calculating the fracture energy and the work of acting forces were proposed.


For years there has been discussion in railroading about the role of outsourcing. Many industry observers believe that as railroads continue to sharply focus their efforts on hauling freight over long distances, they will outsource more work, particularly in the capital-intensive areas like car and locomotive repair. With car and locomotive owners pushing hard to squeeze maximum revenue from their assets, the focus remains on making cars available for service at the right locations and minimizing bad orders and down time. Contract repair shops are looking for ways to help railroads and fleet owners get maximum value from their assets; several repair shop representatives say the trend towards greater outsourcing of repair work by railroads is already taking place. The feeling within the repair industry is that railroads are more interested in moving freight than managing repair shops.