In this article guidelines are given to prospective authors of papers intended for publication in the South African Actuarial Journal (SAAJ) with regard to the standards of style applied by the Editor.


Abstract
Facilitating human development through education is deemed as a major task of modern welfare states. In view of this, it is important to assess and evaluate predictors of academic performance with the aim of planning a suitable educational system, supporting and fostering known predictors. This is especially relevant for India's unique context of the caste system, and regional-linguistic differences.
The emphasis of this dissertation is two-fold. As personality is a known predictor of academic performances, we first set out to assess the psychometric relevance and applicability of the five-factor model of personality which is acclaimed as universally applicable. To achieve this, two independent studies were conducted with the aim of psychometric evaluation of two widely used measures (BFI-10 and NEO-FFI-3) and both studies examined two socio-culturally distinct linguistic groups of Indian adolescent school students (N=1117). Secondly, we set out to examine adolescent education in the context of India's complex fabric of social stratification, especially the governmental ranking of class, viz., scheduled castes/tribes (SC-ST), other backward classes (OBC) and general class (GC). This was done through two studies: 1) a detailed review study on the role of social stratification on the education of Indian adolescents; and 2) a study on the impact of the three governmental classes on the academic performance of Indian adolescents (N=858) from the same school environment, while controlling for family income, age, and gender, as well as self-esteem and life satisfaction.
The twin studies of psychometric evaluation provided very limited support for a five-factor solution for the two measures, pointing to the potential influence of socio-cultural factors on the personality consolidation of Indian adolescents. The review study found that social stratification, as well as caste-based reservation, is a severe impediment for education in India. The third study found a positive relationship between the governmental class and academic performance of adolescent students, wherein a higher level of class predicted better academic performance when controlled for family income, self-esteem, and life satisfaction.
These findings point to the urgent need for further research on the predictors of education of Indian adolescents as well as a strategic action to eliminate the impact of caste affiliation on their education.


An easy-to-prepare and non-cytotoxic Schiff base receptor (L) is synthesized by condensation of pyridoxal with aniline. The anion sensing ability of L is explored by naked-eye, UV-vis and fluorescence methods. The receptor L shows a high selectivity and sensitivity for the sensing of fluoride anion among the other tested competitive anions. The sensor L shows both naked-eye detectable color change and significant 'turn-on' fluorescence at 550 nm in the presence of Fwith the detection limit as low as 0.4 μM. The fluoride recognition by L is supported by 1H NMR and DFT data. The detection of cytoplasmic fluoride was tested in human cancer cell HeLa through fluorescence imaging.


by Peter Ivie Reproducibility is becoming an increasingly challenging requirement of the scientific process. Compared to more human intensive scientific procedures, it would seem that scientific applications executed on computers could easily produce identical results despite slight changes to hardware, software, or simply timing. However, implicit dependencies on data and execution environment, coupled with ambiguous definitions of identity and equivalence throughout the process, make reproducibility rarely possible. To address this problem, I created PRUNE, the Preserving Run Environment. In PRUNE, every task to be executed is wrapped in a functional interface and coupled with a strictly defined environment. With this information PRUNE can directly execute each task. As a scientific workflow evolves in PRUNE, a growing but immutable tree of derived data is created. The provenance of every item in the system can be precisely described, facilitating sharing and modification between collaborating researchers, along with efficient management of limited storage space. I show that with a minimal amount of overhead, these capabilities can be available for large scale and complex workflows, such as an analysis of high-energy physics data, a bio-informatics application, and processing of U.S. census data. PRUNE also minimizes the cost of collaborative development of computational science.


: 'Proximity services' have been the subject of frequent debate for more than a decade in French speaking countries. They can be defined as services which meet individual or collective needs and which are 'local' in either spatial or relational terms. Based on the situation in France, this paper aims to describe the many options available in the field of 'proximity services' and examine the support offered by the public authorities for the existing practices, considering that this support is representative of the evolutive relations between State, market and civil society. The limited success of the free market puts the question of a renewal of public intervention, which would accommodate all options available in this area, without being confined to a marketization of this field of activity. For this matter, the political embeddedness of associations and cooperatives is decisive for the future.


We propose a multi-frame verification of relaxation based matching of clusters of SIFT keypoints. Mean shift clustering is performed to extract groups of SIFT keypoints which are homogeneous on location and orientation as well as gradient vectors. Relaxation based matching significantly enhances the reliability of correspondence, by preserving the structural consistency over matched clusters. The remnant false matches can be removed by verification by multi-frame verification. The consistency level of correspondence over multiple frames is used to distinguish false positives from true positives. Inter-frame homography is used to measure the deviation of the predicted matching vectors from the measured ones. Experiments on matching with Google street view images in San Francisco show that the proposed method achieves significant improvement when more than four consecutive frames are used for verification.


Caccetta-H\"aggkvist conjecture is a longstanding open problem on degree conditions that force an oriented graph to contain a directed cycle of a bounded length. Motivated by this conjecture, Kelly, K\"uhn and Osthus initiated a study of degree conditions forcing the containment of a directed cycle of a given length. In particular, they found the optimal minimum semidegree, i.e., the smaller of the minimum indegree and the minimum outdegree, that forces a large oriented graph to contain a directed cycle of a given length not divisible by $3$, and conjectured the optimal minimum semidegree for all the other cycles except the directed triangle. In this paper, we establish the best possible minimum semidegree that forces a large oriented graph to contain a directed cycle of a given length divisible by $3$ yet not equal to $3$, hence fully resolve the conjecture of Kelly, K\"uhn and Osthus. We also find an asymptotically optimal semidegree threshold of any cycle with a given orientation of its edges with the sole exception of a directed triangle.


Cell killing can be achieved in an acidic environment in tissue culture (medium pH < 7.0) by agents (nigericin, carbonylcyanide-3-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP)) which transport protons from the extracellular space into the cytoplasm. Cell killing is enhanced when these agents are used in combination with compounds (amiloride, 4,4'-diisothiocyanostilbene-2,2'-disulfonic acid (DIDS)) which inhibit the membrane-based exchangers responsible for the regulation of intracellular pH (pHi). We describe experiments which assess the ability of these agents to kill tumour cells in spheroids and in vivo. Both nigericin and CCCP were observed to penetrate tissue based on their ability to kill tumour cells in spheroids. The mean extracellular pH (pHe) of the KHT fibrosarcoma and the EMT-6 sarcoma were observed to be 0.21 and 0.32 pH units more acidic than the mean pHe in muscle tissue. Intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of the vasodilator hydralazine (1Omg kg') caused a reduction of the mean pHe of the KHT but not the EMT-6 tumour. Nigericin (2.5 mg kg-', i.p.) plus amiloride (10mg kg-', i.p.) followed 30 min later by hydralazine (10mg kg-, i.p.) reduced the surviving fraction of cells in the KHT and EMT-6 tumours, but had minimal effects on growth delay. When KHT tumours were treated with 15 Gy X-rays followed immediately by nigericin plus amiloride and hydralazine a reduced surviving fraction as well as an increase in tumour growth delay was observed compared to radiation alone. The administraion of nigericin (2.5 mg kg', i.p.) or the combination of nigericin (2.5 mg kg', i.p.) followed by hydralazine (10 mg kg-', intravenous (i.v.)) resulted in reductions of tumour pHi of 0.27 and 0.29 pH units respectively as determined by 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Our results show that the combination of nigericin and hydralazine (with or without amiloride) can kill cells in rodent solid tumours and that cell killing is associated with a reduction in the mean pHi of tumour cells.


ABSTRACT C-phycocyanin (CPC) has advantages of biocompatibility and photodynamic properties. With the aim to increase specificity to cancer cells, we prepared CPC nanoparticles (CPC NPs) and performed conjugation of hyaluronic acid (HA) on the CPC NPs . HA-conjugated CPC NPs (HA-CPC NPs) had an average size of 296.12 ± 5.6 nm with a spherical shape HA-CPC NPs effectively generated reactive oxygen species by 635 nm laser irradiation while maintaining the photodynamic characteristics of CPC. Although no cytotoxicity was observed in the cells treated with HA-CPC NPs without the laser irradiation, CT26 cells showed decreased viability significantly after treatment of HA-CPC NPs by photodynamic-mediated cytotoxicity under laser irradiation. In particular, HA-CPC NPs were effectively accumulated in the cytoplasm of CT26 cells, and their accumulation showed marked decrease by pretreatment of HA, indicating that HA-CPC NPs specifically targeted cancer cells. In this regard, we believe that HA-CPC NPs could become an attractive nano-platform for cancer cell-targeted photodynamic therapy.


Four-dimensional (4D) printing is a technology that allows fabricating complex structures that have the ability to change their shape based on various stimuli. Such structures are printed using smart materials, which mainly rely on shape memory polymers. Controlling the response of 4D printed structures becomes challenging when increasing the complexity of the design. This paper investigates the effect of the printing patterns on the deformation performance of polylactic acid (PLA) actuators. The actuators are printed using the fused deposition modelling method. Four different patterns, namely, rectilinear, grid, honeycomb, and triangular patterns are used to develop eight actuators' designs. The size of the patterns was varied in order to print the actuators using different infill percentages. The PLA actuators are activated using hot water of 85°C. The results show that the bending angle of the actuators is varied between 3.00° and 16.80°. The bending direction is affected by the size of the printing pattern, where the actuators bend towards the pattern with the bigger size. The results show that the proposed concept can be used in various pattern-based 4D printed robotics applications, where the actuation performance is tuned using the printing patterns, as well as the printing parameters.


Abstract The key idea of this work, is to use risk assessment to support the user in deciding which service should be used from the ones available in the life-cycle management system of InLife The risk of a specific situation affecting an industrial plant, characterized by the symptoms, is estimated from the information stored on the system concerning the probability of occurrence of the consequence and its impact. It is expected that this knowledge grows along the life-cycle of a industrial plant. Then, depending of the knowledge available and on the risk of the situation, the adequate service is suggested for promptly reaction in eliminating the problem or avoiding critical situations.


Sediment density and velocity at the eight sites that comprise the Ocean Drilling Program Leg 199 Pacific Paleogene transect were examined to determine the consistency of the various laboratory and logging measures of density and velocity and the extent to which these parameters vary as a function of sediment composition. Densities were provided in the laboratory by gamma ray attenuation (GRA) in whole-core sections using the GRA sensor and gravimetric and volumetric measurements of discrete samples and from the borehole by GRA using the litho-density tool. Laboratory velocities were obtained for whole-core sections using the P-wave logger and for discrete samples using insertion and contact probes. The consistency of bulk densities among the different techniques is very good; however, there is less agreement between the velocities determined by the P-wave logger and insertion and contact probes. Variation of density and velocity was compared with the results of the determination of the calcium carbonate content, mineralogy as estimated by light absorption spectroscopy, and bulk sediment geochemistry. Wet bulk density displays a significant dependence on sediment composition, with calcite content being the most important factor influencing density. The amount of opal in the sediment and depth are lesser influences. The sediment velocity does not display a clear relationship with the composition of the sediments. In situ estimates of density and velocity were determined by comparison of the laboratory and logging values of density and by using published relationships for the derivation of in situ density and velocity 1Busch, W.H., Vanden Berg, M.D., and Masau, P.E., 2006. Velocity and density of Paleogene equatorial sediments: variation with sediment composition. In Wilson, P.A., Lyle, M., and Firth, J.V. (Eds.), Proc. ODP, Sci. Results, 199, 1–31 [Online]. Available from World Wide Web: . [Cited YYYY-MM-DD] 2 Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of New Orleans, New Orleans LA 70148, USA. Correspondence author: email@example.com 3 Utah Energy Office, Utah Department of Natural Resources, Salt Lake City UT, USA. Initial receipt: 27 August 2004 Acceptance: 12 October 2005 Web publication: 15 March 2006 Ms 199SR-226 W.H. BUSCH ET AL. SEDIMENT VELOCITY AND DENSITY 2 from laboratory measurements. Comparison of laboratory and logging measurements produces equivocal results. A clear trend of increasing elastic rebound in the nannofossil ooze with increasing burial depth is lacking. A larger sample population and greater range of densities is needed to establish a trend in elastic rebound for pelagic clay and radiolarian ooze. The in situ estimates of density and velocity display a distinct character for the different lithologies recovered during Leg 199. Pelagic clay has low bulk density and low velocity. Radiolarian ooze is characterized by uniformly low wet bulk density and unusually high velocity, and nannofossil ooze displays a larger range in bulk density and a more consistent relationship between density and velocity. Because of the variability in velocity, acoustic impedance, calculated from the in situ estimates of the sediment properties, varies primarily as a function of wet bulk density.


Two field populations of Cochliobolus carbonum on corn (Zea mays) in the piedmont of North Carolina, where races 2 and 3 coexist, were sampled repeatedly (four times during 51 days in the Wilkes County field and three times during 32 days in the Yadkin County field) during 1987. Isolates were tested for lesion type and several polymorphic traits, including mating type, fertility, and fungicide tolerance. The relative fitness of race 3, as determined from frequency changes, was significantly lower than the fitness of race 2 in each field. The fitness values of race 3, with an estimated generation time of 7 days, were 0.82 and 0.84 versus 1.0 for race 2 [...]


On the basis of the theoretical notions of discursive ambience and ambient discourse, this article examines the recent history of language and ethnicity in Banyuwangi in the far east of Java. Over the last three decades (with roots going back to the 1920s and earlier) a redefinition of the language and culture of the "autochthonous" inhabitants of Banyuwangi has been occurring. Their status and constitution have been changing from a variety of Javanese into an autonomous language and ethnicity, called, after the name given to the language or dialect, Osing. At the same time, an idyllic and heroic picture of the regional past is being constructed and maintained. Prominent among the factors and agencies involved in these two ongoing processes is popular media culture. The regency of Banyuwangi and especially its capital (also named Banyuwangi) are being cast – albeit sporadically and incidentally and sometimes controversially – as an Osing region. At the centre of this historical process, people publicly render themselves – also sporadically and temporarily – Banyuwanginese by listening to and especially by singing, in karaoke-style, a genre of pop music with Osing lyrics and musical characteristics perceived as local.


This paper is dedicated to the analysis of the Precedent 443 of the Superior Labor Court, which deals with the discriminatory dismissal presumption of those labor with social stigma diseases from the perspective of judicial activism in the brazilian labor law and its objective influence on law and labor procedure law from the from the perspective of a not univocal constitutional hermeneutics. It aims, also, to conceptualize the stability institute in order to configure the dangers and misconceptions arising from it. Therefore, it concludes that the analogy that embodied the repeated judicial position was excessive. The research points out the logicaldeductive method operated by the aid of the literature review, case law and positioning applicable law.


We report here a previously unknown variation of omohyoid muscle (OM). The OM consists of two bellies that are united by an intermediate tendon. The inferior belly arises from the upper border of the scapula near the scapular notch, and occasionally from the superior transverse scapular ligament. It is a flat narrow band that inclines forward and slightly upwards across the lower part of the neck. It passes deep to the sternocleidomastoid muscle and lies superficial to the internal juguler vein (IJV), where it ends as an intermediate tendon. The superior belly begins at the intermediate tendon and passes almost vertically upwards from the tendon to insert on the lower border of the body of the hyoid bone (Standring, 2005). A 55-years-old male patient was operated on for carcinoma of the tongue. During the selective neck dissection of the left side, it was noticed that the inferior belly of the OM passed deep to the sternocleidomastoid muscle as usual, but surprisingly lied posterior to the IJV before ending at the intermediate tendon (Fig. 1). Although variations of the OM have previously been described (Tubbs et al., 2004; Standring, 2005), this variant has not been previously reported. According to the 1991 classification of the Committee for Head and Neck Surgery and Oncology of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, for neck dissections, the surgical landmark of the border between levels III–IV is defined as the OM (Robbins et al., 1991). During head and neck surgery especially in neck dissections, the OM thus has an important role. Selective neck dissections form the basis of our current surgical techniques, especially in patients with N0 and N1 necks (Mizen and Mitchell, 2005; Ferlito et al., 2006). In selective neck dissections only lymphatic tissues are removed and all other functional tissues are preserved (Lingeman, 1998). One of the most popular types of selective neck dissections is the supra-omohyoid neck dissection that addresses levels I–III in the N0 and N1 neck depending on the site of the oropharyngeal primary cancer (Medina and Byers, 1989; Woolgar, 1999). In this type of neck dissection the inferior border for resection is the OM. Any variation in this landmark increases the difficulty of the operation and the risk of surgical complication (Ferlito et al., 2006). IJV rupture is a serious complication in this operation (Calearo and Teatini, 1983). During selective neck dissections, injury of the IJV that leads to higher morbidity and mortality is usually seen in the lower part of the vein and the OM is the best landmark to identify IJV in this level. This anatomical variant should thus be remembered during neck dissections to avoid a serious and potentially fatal complication.


To the Editor: Phelan-McDermid syndrome (MIM #606232) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by dysmorphic features, hypotonia, normal growth, developmental delay and intellectual disability, speech delays, stereotyped repetitive movements and problems with sleep and socialization (Phelan&McDermid, 2011). Clinical features are highly variable, and many people with Phelan-McDermid Syndrome (PMS) are often diagnosed only with autistic spectrum disorder or schizophrenia (Harony-Nicolas et al., 2015). Genetic studies have identified a deleted region on the distal arm of chromosome 22q13 common to people with PMS. Deletion of this locus results in haploinsufficiency for the SHANK3/PROSAP2 protein affecting excitatory synapse formation (Messias, Kaley, & McKelvey, 2013; Phelan & McDermid, 2011). We present a patient previously diagnosed with Phelan-McDermid syndrome by oligo array who presented with cyclic depression and a catatonic episode leading to MRI imaging that was consistent with neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2). Due to the results on MRI and the known chromosome deletion, karyotype study was deemed appropriate to further investigate this finding. The patient is a 41-year-old woman with previously diagnosed Phelan-McDermid Syndrome using 180k oligo microarray analysis which confirmed a loss of chromosome region 22q13.32 to q13.33. This region contains 41 genes, including the SHANK3 gene on the distal end of 22q. She has a history of developmental delay and hypotonia since childhood withmoderatemental retardation (IQ: 51), and the array is consistentwith her presentation. When not in crises, she is verbal, friendly, and lucid. General functioning, mood, and behavior were stable until her first psychiatric hospitalization at age 32 after which she developed cyclic episodes of behavioral regression and decline in skills including bathing, dressing, and feeding. The episodes last for periods ofweekswhere she is nonverbal, confused, detached, and incontinent. She often stares at her hands, at times shaking or screaming, and refuses to eat. She has had numerous psychiatric admissions for the above. Shewas admitted after 6 weeks of a catatonic state which wasmore intense and of longer duration than prior episodes. MRI of the brain with gadolinium revealed multiple intracranial meningiomas/neuromas along with bilateral enhancing fociwithin the internal auditory canals and a nonenhancing, t2 hyperintense, mildly expansile lesion within the left dorsolateral medulla felt to represent an atypical non-enhancing ependymoma. Ophthalmology exam was normal, EEG did not reveal any seizure activity and intracranial pressurewas not increased on lumbar puncture.MRIof thecervical, thoracic, and lumbarspinedidnot reveal any abnormalities. The MRI brain imaging was diagnostic of bilateral acoustic neuromas and multiple meningiomas consistent with neurofibromatosis type 2. No additional physical findings of NF2 were present on clinical exam. After neurosurgical consult deemed no surgical intervention was needed and, after failing multiple medication treatments during inpatient psychiatry admission, she was treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) with significant improvement in her mood. Given the radiologic findings of NF2 and the patient's known chromosome 22 alteration, a larger structural abnormality also affecting theNF2genewas suspected. Therefore, karyotypewas obtained on both peripheral blood and skin fibroblasts, and both revealed ring chromosome 22. Rings of variable sizes were present in all analyzed blood cells (100 peripheral leukocytes). All rings were monosomic for the region noted to be absent in the array. Someof the rings had loss of chromosomematerial to q11.2 (proximal to that which the array revealed) which involved the NF2 locus. There were also rings that were double-sized due to sister


This paper briefly introduces secondary development platform of AutoCAD,then from adding a menu example,describes the technique of process using VB and VBA to develop AutoCAD2005.It also specifies on how to insert my own applicable programs in the menu macros,and the skills of automatically loading own menus when starting AutoCAD2005 program.


Abstract Levels of development vary widely within countries in the Americas. We argue that part of this variation has its roots in the colonial era, when colonizers engaged in different economic activities in different regions of a country. We present evidence consistent with the view that "bad" activities (those that depended heavily on labor exploitation) led to lower economic development today than "good" activities (those that did not rely on labor exploitation). Our results also suggest that differences in political representation (but not in income inequality or human capital) could be the intermediating factor between colonial activities and current development.


The study discusses the teachers' concept in developing the students' social characteristics at senior vocational schools (SMK) in Pidie District. The study used field research with qualitative approach, taking place at SMK Negeri 1 Sigli and SMK Mutiara. The subjects of the study included the school principals, administration staff, and teachers of Islamic education. Data were collected by interview and observation. The data were then analyzed through data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The results of the study showed that the students' social characteristics were developed by encouraging the students to have mutual respect and mutual care, to be confident, to perform good deeds, to interact socially, to remind one another, and to be responsible. These social characteristics were promoted through individual approach, the role of teachers as parents at school, improving communication, giving rewards, sanctions, and punishments, and cooperating with the parents. On the other hand, the problems in developing these characteristics included lack of religious education at home, poor living environment, unhealthy peer relationship, and limited lesson hours of Islamic education at school.


Based on the calculation of pollution receiving capacity under different discharge conditions in four water function districts in the Huainan-Bengbu section of the Huaihe River, pollution status of each function district was analyzed. Schemes for total amount control of pollutants and decrease of amount of pollutants into the river under different discharge conditions were proposed according to the present amount of pollutants discharged into the river.


We investigate the single virtual photon–photon scattering into two pions up to 1.5 GeV for the low spacelike virtualities in the dispersive formalism. In order to account for the rescattering effects in both Sand D-waves, we adopt the Omnès representation. The unsubtracted dispersion relations describe well the cross-section data and predicts charged pion dipole polarizability (α1 − β1)π± = 6.1× 10−4 fm consistent with the recent COMPASS measurement and χPT. However, for the neutral pion, the dipole polarizability turns out to be far away from χPT value. In these proceedings, we show how a once-subtracted dispersion relation can potentially cure this problem. Besides, the preliminary error analysis is given.


Several factors have made the zebrafish an attractive vertebrate model for the study of motor development. First, forward genetics can be applied to zebrafish to identify genes that are essential for proper behaviors (Granato et al., 1996). Second, embryos are transparent, allowing the visualization of dynamic events, such as Ca 2+ transients and axonal outgrowth in live fish (Fetcho and O'Malley, 1997; Lewis and Eisen, 2003). Third, electrophysiological techniques can be used to analyze the physiology of embryonic neurons and muscles to dissect embryonic behaviors (Drapeau et al., 2002). Fourth, zebrafish embryos exhibit readily assayable and well-characterized behaviors (Eaton and Farley, 1973; Saint-Amant and Drapeau, 1998). Zebrafish embryos display three stereotyped behaviors by 36 hours post-fertilization (hpf) (Saint-Amant and Drapeau, 1998). The earliest behavior consists of repetitive spontaneous alternating coiling of the tail, much like a metronome. This simple slow coiling behavior is independent of stimulation and starts at 17 hpf, reaches a peak frequency of 1 Hz at 19 hpf, and declines to less than 0.1 Hz by 26 hpf. After 21 hpf, embryos start to respond to mechanosensory stimulation with coils that are stronger than spontaneous coils. Typically embryos respond with two alternating coils. By 26 hpf mechanosensory stimulation initiates swimming episodes. The frequency of muscle contractions during swimming increases from 7 Hz at 26 hpf to 30 Hz at 36 hpf, the latter being similar to the frequency of swimming of adult zebrafish (Buss and Drapeau, 2001). The production of any touch response can be divided into several steps from sensory perception to muscle activation (reviewed by Roberts, 2000; Berchtold et al., 2000). In zebrafish, two types of mechanosensory neurons sense touch stimuli. Head and yolk stimulation acts through trigeminal neurons, whereas tail stimulation activates Rohon-Beard neurons (Drapeau et al., 2002). Once triggered by sensory input, interneuronal networks located in the hindbrain and spinal cord produce the appropriate motor rhythm (Fetcho, 1992). Motoneurons are activated by these central networks, release acetylcholine at neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) and depolarize the muscle membrane (Buss and Drapeau, 2002; Li et al., 2003). In muscle, depolarization is sensed by voltagedependent L-type Ca 2+ channels, such as dihydropyridine receptors, and activates ryanodine receptors in the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) membrane to release Ca 2+ from the SR to the cytosol (Fill and Copello, 2002). Increased cytosolic Ca2+ activates troponin C that initiates actin/myosin sliding, thus contracting the muscles (Gordon et al., 2000). Cytosolic Ca2+ levels are rapidly decreased by sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca 2+-ATPase 1 (SERCA1), a Ca2+ pump expressed in skeletal muscle, which enables relaxation (McLennan et al., 1997). When wild-type zebrafish embryos are touched at 24 hours post-fertilization (hpf), they typically perform two rapid alternating coils of the tail. By contrast, accordion(acc) mutants fail to coil their tails normally but contract the bilateral trunk muscles simultaneously to shorten the trunk, resulting in a pronounced dorsal bend. Electrophysiological recordings from muscles showed that the output from the central nervous system is normal in mutants, suggesting a defect in muscles is responsible. In fact, relaxation in acc muscle is significantly slower than normal. In vivo imaging of muscle Ca2+ transients revealed that cytosolic Ca2+ decay was significantly slower in acc muscle. Thus, it appears that the mutant behavior is caused by a muscle relaxation defect due to the impairment of Ca2+ re-uptake. Indeed, accmutants carry a mutation in atp2a1gene that encodes the sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase 1 (SERCA1), a Ca 2+ pump found in the muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) that is responsible for pumping Ca2+ from the cytosol back to the SR. As SERCA1 mutations in humans lead to Brody disease, an exerciseinduced muscle relaxation disorder, zebrafish accordion mutants could be a useful animal model for this condition.


Three great agricultural reclamation enterprises of China are now putting the"go global"strategy into practice actively."Go global"strategy is essentially the overseas upward-extension of industrial chain of natural rubber.From the perspective of resource industrial chain it is necessary to construct international industrial chain to resolve the dilemma of industrial development of chinese natural rubber.This paper puts forward the construction model of Hainan-ASEAN spatial industrial chain of natural rubber with three great agricultural reclamation enterprises(with focus on Hainan agricultural reclamation)at its core.This research can provide theoretical guiding for "go global"strategy of natural rubber.


In the South-Eastern part of the North Sea, known as the German Bight, the Helmholz-Zentrum Geesthacht (HZG, former GKSS Research Center) is currently realizing the experimental observation Network COSYNA for: Coastal Observing System for Northern and Arctic Seas. The observation area underlies extensive industrial use like oil and gas production, wind farming, transportation of all kind of goods, fishery, tourism but waste disposal as well, and many other industrial activities. Additionally the observation area of COSYNA covers one of the world wide hot spots in ship traffic that lies within that part of the coastal sea. The synoptic control near real time of the complex ecology inside the COSYNA water body is one of the leading objectives. The main physical dynamic is governed by tidal forces overlaid by episodic storm events, which may double the tidal heave within the observation area. All these conditions long for a synoptic, near real time survey of the current system what is achieved by a network of three HF radar stations at well chosen positions on the coasts of the German Bight. This network of High-Frequency over-the-horizon (HF) radars is currently consisting of three WERA (WEllen RAdar) systems installed on the islands of Wangerooge and Sylt, and close to the harbour of Buesum (Fig. 1). As WERA uses FMCW modulation for range resolution, there is no blind range in the vicinity to the antennas and data are available very close to the coast. Azimuthal and range resolutions are: 3 degrees and 1.5 km, respectively with a maximum range of 120 km. Ocean current maps are measured three times an hour. Operation of the COSYNA HF radar systems started during summer 2010. The three radial components of the current field as measured by the WERA radars are each transferred to a server at HZG, where they are quality checked and combined to give area-covering 2D maps. Radial components and 2D maps are archived in a data base and provided to the numerical model system. COSYNA provides a web-based interface to make the 2D maps, as well as the model now- and forecasts available to the public. This paper describes details of the HF radar network including the procedures to reduce the impact of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) on the measured ocean current maps and to control the quality of the data. The radar processing described here may not remove all RFI and target echoes in all cases. An additional quality check of the ocean current data is implemented to identify and flag these situations. This procedure checks the past temporal variability between measurements. If the variability exceeds a threshold, the data is flagged as "probably bad". The radial components and the 2D current vectors are neither removed nor interpolated to avoid providing "manipulated data" to the model / data assimilation system, which can handle these situations in a better way, as the flagged measureme


Hepatic glycogen storage diseases (GSDs) are genetic diseases associated with fasting hypoglycemia. Periodic intake of uncooked cornstarch is one of the treatment strategies available for those disorders. For reasons that are still not clear, patients with hepatic GSDs may be overweight.Aims:To assess nutritional status and body composition in patients with hepatic GSDs receiving uncooked cornstarch.Methods:The sample included 25 patients with hepatic GSD (type Ia = 14; Ib = 6; III = 3; IXα = 1; IXβ = 1), with a median age of 11.0 years (interquartile range [IQR] = 9.0-17.5), matched by age and gender with 25 healthy controls (median age = 12.0 years, IQR = 10.0-17.5). Clinical, biochemical, and treatment-related variables were obtained from medical records. Nutritional status and body composition were prospectively evaluated by bioelectrical impedance.Results:Patients and controls did not differ with regard to age and gender. Height was significantly reduced in patients (median = 1.43 m, IQR = 1.25-1.54)...


Problem behavior is functional!  Function/purpose is much more important than what the behavior looks like.  Form does not say anything about the function (purpose) of the behavior.  One form of behavior can have different functions in different contexts.  Different forms of behavior can have the same function. Functional assessment of behavior is a process for identifying clear, predictive relationships between events in the child's environment and the occurrences of a target behavior.


By studying the nature of the cochlea's ability to produce an acoustic response to electrical current stimuli the authors analyze the mechanism of the active process present in mammalian hearing. A microelectrode is inserted into scala media and sinusoidal electrical current is passed through the organ of Corti. This produces an acoustic emission at the frequency of electrical stimulation. The authors investigated the effect of acoustic trauma on the magnitude and phase of the electrically evoked emissions. Gerbils were exposed to traumatizing tones of 110 dB SPL for 7 min at 4500, 1800, and 800 Hz. The experimental results show that for low electrical frequency, below the characteristic frequency of the electrode location, emissions increase in magnitude. For high electrical frequency, near the characteristic frequency of the electrode, emissions decrease in magnitude due to acoustic trauma. The effects are more pronounced when the locations including the electrode place are traumatized.<<ETX>>


The Oil and Gas Wireless Sensor Networks Market report is a compilation of intelligent, broad research studies that will help players and stakeholders to make informed business decisions in the future. It offers detailed research and analysis of key aspects of the Oil and Gas Wireless Sensor Networks market. Readers will be able to gain a deeper understanding of the competitive landscape and its global Oil and Gas Wireless Sensor Networks market. Buyers of the reports will have access to accurate PESTLE, SWOT, and other types of analysis on the global Oil and Gas Wireless Sensor Networks market. Moreover, it offers highly accurate estimations on the CAGR, market share, and market size of key regions and countries. Players can use this study to explore untapped Oil and Gas Wireless Sensor Networks markets to extend their reach and create sales opportunities.


In particle collider experiments a huge amount of information is produced, but only a small part is relevant for physics characterization. An efficient filtering (trigger) system is required to guarantee that valuable signatures will be recorded and most of the background noise rejected. In previous works the standard linear independent component analysis (ICA) model was used for feature extraction and good results were obtained, but it is known that the measured signals are modified by some sort of nonlinear phenomena. Another characteristic of our particular application is that there exists more sensors than original sources (the problem is over determined). In this work is proposed a novel structural model for the over determined Non-linear ICA problem. Multi-layer perceptron networks were applied for nonlinear mixing function estimation. The extracted nonlinear independent components were used to feed a neural filter that performs online particle classification with high discrimination performance.


Radio-over-copper is a niche idea that has potential to become a cornerstone in the deployment of dense 5G networks. We address one of the remaining hurdles and present an architecture for transparent crosstalk mitigation in long term evolution (LTE)-over-copper systems. By taking advantage of reference symbols present in the downlink LTE signals, we propose two methods for estimating the copper channel. System performance is evaluated using channel measurements and error vector magnitude calculations with promising results.


In the abundant literature on the liquid-phase of hydrocarbons by dioxygen, many references can be found to the rate-influencing role of water (formed or added during the oxidation). Most of them relate to the inhibitory effect of water then present in high excess. For example, it has been reported that the autoxidation of different alkylbenzenes and [alpha]-phenylcarbinols is entirely prevented by an excess of water. On the other hand, it has also been stated that, of the polar molecules, water is able to form H-bonds with inhibitors such as phenols and aromatic amines; the inhibiting group is then blocked and the H-bonded inhibitor molecules do not react with the peroxy radicals. The inhibitory activity is therefore diminished, and the overall rate of the inhibited reaction will be increased by the presence of water. No references are in the literature with respect to real catalysis by water in the liquid-phase oxidation of hydrocarbons in the absence of metal ions. In the presence of metal ions, however, water may exert a rate-influencing effect, but this is always connected with the formation of aquo and hydroxo complexes, i.e., the catalytic species is modified. In this paper, the authors present examples to show thatmore » water is a real catalyst when applied in small quantities during the oxidation of hydrocarbons with dioxygen. 8 refs., 1 fig., 2 tabs.« less


One aspect of taxation in Florida is unique in that state policymakers have created several different tourist development taxes, generally allowing local governments to adopt up to four of these ad valorem levies (which can total 5%) on transient rentals. The rentals include, but are not limited to, hotel stays. In this article, we estimate the elasticity of this local tax base with respect to the rate for Florida counties with rate changes between 1998 and 2012. Results indicate several significant and large short-term declines from periodic county-level increases in the tax rate, but no significant long-term effects.


In article the history of collection of art gallery formation in Kozmodemyansk and the visible role of its founder A. V. Grigorjev is considered. On the basis of the analysis of works of painting of domestic artists is shown is claimed that the art collection of the museum brightly shows not only the main stages of development of art, but also a rich variety of its genre palette.


A mathematical model is developed to simulate the behavior of a natural circulation drum boiler. The present study investigates not only the fluid dynamics of the boiler and the heat conduction process in the drum shell but also the generated effective stresses in the drum metal wall. The model is established 1220 Xuandai Ngo et al. based on physical laws. The results obtained by the simulation could address the understanding of interactions of state variables inside out. The performance parameters can n be estimated at any operating conditions, which include the drum pressure, the volume of entire water, the steam quality at the riser top, the liquid level in the drum, and the distribution of temperature and stress in the drum shell. This study demonstrates that the model can describe the complex behavior of the natural circulation drum boiler with the given operating scenarios before actual plant implementation. The simulation result has been validated with the start-up data from a 2MWe circulating fluidized bed power plant.


In Louisiana, sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) N rate recommendations are established based on N response trials and further refined for specific crop age and soil type. Without accounting for current growing conditions and soil N levels, these recommendations can potentially lead to under- or over-application of N fertilizers. The objective of this study was to determine if N response index at harvest (RIHₐᵣᵥₑₛₜ) can be predicted using normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) response index value (RINDVI). Sensor and yield data were collected from different N field trials from 2008 to 2010 in St. Gabriel and Jeanerette, LA. Nitrogen fertilization treatments ranged between 0 to 201 kg N ha⁻¹. A GreenSeeker Hand Held Optical Active Sensor (Trimble Navigation, Ltd., Sunnyvale, CA) was used to obtain NDVI readings for each of three consecutive weeks beginning 3 wk after fertilization. There was a strong relationship between RINDVI and RIHₐᵣᵥₑₛₜ using the traditional method of determining RI, comparing plots that received high N rates to check plots, with coefficient of determination (r²) values of 0.92 for cane tonnage and 0.81 for sugar yield (P < 0.05). When using a modified RI value, which compared all N rates to the check plot, relationships between RINDVI and RIHₐᵣᵥₑₛₜ were comparable, with r² values of 0.85 and 0.81 for cane tonnage and sugar yields, respectively (P < 0.05). Our results suggest that NDVI collected 4 wk after N fertilization can be used to predict sugarcane yield response to fertilizer N using the relationships established by either the traditional or modified RI methods.


Investment in education and health sector, as human capital, has an important role in economic growth and its enhancement in many countries. Lots of studies have been carried out in this field; however, the effect of simultaneous analysis of education and health, as well as the private and state sectors in economic growth of Iran has not been investigated. Thus, in the present study mutual relationship between private and state educational and health care expenditures with the economic growth of Iran from 1965 to 2014 has been surveyed. Therefore, in the present paper variables were tested by using Integration Adjusted Dickey – Fuller test. Then for choosing appropriate causality test, the co-integration between variables was tested by ARDL method. Then, by using Granger, Toda and Yamamato causality tests, the two ways causal relationship between variables was assessed. First, findings showed a lack of long-run relationship between variables. Second, the results of causality tests indicated that there is no causal relationship between private and state educational expenditures with economic growth because educational system faces serious problems such as discordance between the educational system and needs of society and labor market. Also, the obtained results delineated that there is no causal relationship between private sector and state sector health care expenditures with economic growth.


The design of the second-generation Actros truck from Mercedes-Benz is described. The truck has a full-width cab suitable for long-distance work. The new-look cab is characterised by a reduced drag factor and reduced cab noise. It incorporates larger, more comfortable beds, improved lighting, new heating and ventilating and air conditioning systems, a new instrument panel and a new vehicle information system. Actros's CAN bus wiring has been extended to almost all parts of the vehicle, allowing greater control. The truck includes a 500 series engine. Test drives with two tractor semi-trailers, loaded to 40 tonnes, are reported.


__________________________________________________________________________ Introduction: People spend about 90% of their time indoors. Most health problems associated with indoor air quality are caused by fungi. It is estimated fungi account for 70% of total indoor air microbial pollution. Purpose: To analyze fungal pathogens isolated from indoor air of Branicki Palace in Białystok, Poland Materials and methods: The research mycological material consisted of air collected from various rooms in Branicki Palace. Humidity and temperature of the tested rooms were also measured. The monitoring of airborne fungi pollution was done using a SAS SUPER 100 (pbi international) with international measure standards (EN 50081-1, EN 500 50082-1). Biological monitoring of wall surface contamination was performed using the Count-Tact applicator with Count-Tact plates. Results: A total of 1140 CFU per m 3 of air were cultured in autumn and 580 CFU in winter. From the walls, a total of 124 CFU were cultured in autumn and 397 CFU in winter. CFU values in the investigated rooms ranged from 10 to 220 (mean 47 CFU) in autumn, and from 10 to 90 (mean 29 CFU) in winter. The most commonly isolated pathogens were: Candida albicans, Aspergillus sp., nonCandida albicans, and Penicillium sp.. The number of colonies isolated from the walls of all rooms in winter was greater than in autumn. The most commonly isolated pathogens were: Aspergillus sp. and C. albicans in autumn; C. albicans and non-C. albicans in winter. Conclusions: In winter, the number of colonies isolated from walls in all rooms was significantly greater compared with autumn. Candida albicans, Aspergillus sp. and Penicillium sp. were the most commonly isolated fungal air pathogens, regardless of season. C. albicans and Aspergillus sp. were most commonly isolated from walls in autumn, while C. albicans and non-C.albicans in winter.


The use of ammonium nitrate as an oxidizing agent in hydrothermal oxidation of organic compounds was investigated. The oxidation of model compounds, methanol, acetic acid, and phenol, was studied at 500 °C and 345 bar. High organic, ammonia, and nitrate removal was achieved at stoichiometric concentrations. The oxidation of ammonia by nitrate was much faster than the oxidation of either methanol or acetic acid and only slightly faster than phenol. Nitrogen products included N2, N2O, and NO2- as well as toxic NO and trace amounts of NO2. Carbon products were CO2, HCO3-, CO32-, and CO. The co-oxidant system with hydrogen peroxide and ammonium nitrate was studied to eliminate the NOx production. Stoichiometric concentrations of hydrogen peroxide to the carbon concentrations resulted in undetectable NOx levels.


The present invention relates to distance and / or shape means a non-contact measurement of the object (9) (1), wherein the light source (2) generating the measurement object irradiated (9) of the illumination beam, and to provide a detector (11 ) for detecting the reflected portion of the illumination beam on the object, which is potentially powerful and compact structure wherein the first optical means (13) and a second optical means disposed in the beam path of the illumination beam, wherein the illumination beam It may first means of the first optical means (13) in a fan-like sector diffusion plane parallel to the propagation direction, and then the illumination may be substantially parallel light beams by the second optical means causes. In a preferred embodiment, the second optical means is constituted by a Fresnel lens (5). The present invention further relates to a method related.


This paper examines the impact macroeconomic policies in a system where the product market is modelled as an oligopolistic supergame in which potential entrants incur sunk entry costs. It is shown that policies which affect the interest rate, influence both the degree of competition in the industry and the structure of the industry. Moreover, it is demonstrated that when sunk entry costs are introduced in to the model firms respond in an asymmetric manner to policy changes. These results suggest that the economy may exhibit hysteresis.


The clamour for socio-political restructuring of Nigeria has reached its climax, hence scholars of diverse field have engaged themselves in the debate, resulting to barrage of extant literatures. The major concentration of these literatures is the socio-political and economic restructuring, which may lead to regionalization, resource control and/or secession. The current work envisions some hiccups in this model and opt for an alternative restructuring paradigm that will address the fundamental questions of human life, integrity and social justice. In adopting socio-anthropological and historical methods, this work took serious survey of extant literatures in form of archival, internet materials and books on Igbo community living. It therefore, discovers that the socio-political restructuring will not solve the problem of ethnicity, religious politics and bigotry. Hence it concludes that a viable option for Nigeria restructuring is moral, values and mental restructuring/orientations via Igbo community living archetype.


In this work, a FEM-based algorithm for calculating the electrothermal coupling process with the Sparse Approximate Inverse Preconditioner (SAI) for the problem of not convergence or slow converfence is presented. Firstly, electrothermal coupling problems are analyzed and corresponding coupling equations are presented. Secondly, some no convergence situations are discussed. Then, treatments for Applying SAI are proposed. Finally, numerical experiments are presented to validate the efficiency of this algorithm.


Abstract The following analyses were made in response to some inquiries coming from practical poultrymen in Kentucky concerning the possible loss of nitrogen accompanying the drying of chicken manure. The material used was the fresh droppings obtained from 2-year-old White Leghorn hens and cockerels that were being fed a ration consisting of a mash containing 2 parts of shipstuff, 2 parts of cornmeal and 1 part of meat scrap, which was before them constantly. Cracked yellow corn was fed morning and evening and a liberal amount of buttermilk was supplied daily. These chickens were permitted to range on a half-acre grassplot and received grit and ground limestone ad libitum. After thoroughly mixing the wet droppings, 40 grams each were weighed into porcelain evaporating dishes and dried to constant weight as follows: One at 100° C. in an electric oven, one in another electric oven at 50° C. and the third in . . .


The effects of temperature and solar radiation on milling and appearance quality of rice (Oryza sativa L.) were evaluated to find the optimal temperature and solar radiation for optimizing milling and appearance quality of rice in the lower reaches of Huai River. Field experiments were conducted with two medium-maturing japonica soft rice varieties (SMR), two late-maturing japonica soft rice varieties (SLR) and two late-maturing japonica non-soft rice varieties (LR) as experimental materials. Seeds were sown on 10 May (T1), 17 May (T2), 24 May (T3), 31 May (T4), 7 June (T5), 14 June (T6), and 21 June (T7) in 2017 and 2018. Compared with solar radiation, temperature was the main environmental factor affecting the milling and appearance quality of rice in the lower reaches of Huai River. Under the condition of ensuring relatively high-yield, the milling quality of SMR and SLR can reach the second grade of China's national standard of high quality paddy. The mean daily temperature (Tmean) range were 20.2–22.7 °C and 20.4–22.0 °C respectively. The temperature range for LR to obtain a relatively high-yield, good milling and appearance quality was 20.4–20.7 °C. The optimal sowing dates of SMR, SLR and LR were 15 May to 1 June, 15 May to 20 May and 15 May to 20 May, respectively.


Because Old English poetry is formulaic, our study of it must begin with the exciting and useful techniques developed by students of oral verse, but because this poetry is also literature, our study need not end there. Indeed, I believe that a recognition that Old English poetry is both formulaic and lettered would lead to an even more exciting and fruitful development in our discipline, for the most significant contribution of the formulaic and thematic studies made thus far has been the demonstration that the Old English poetic language carried with it a richness of reference that allows us to approach these poems with an aesthetic sympathy unknown to critics in the days of Sedgefield [Benson, pp. 340-41].


Aim:  Genetic thrombophilias are known to contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes. Studies in Western populations show that 5, 10‐methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) 677C>T and Factor V (F5) 1691G>A (Leiden) polymorphisms are commonly associated with pre‐eclampsia and recurrent spontaneous pregnancy loss. The objective of this study was to investigate the association of MTHFR 677C>T (rs1801133); 1298A>C (rs1801131) and F5 1691G>A (rs6025); 4070A>G (rs1800595) polymorphisms with pre‐eclampsia and recurrent pregnancy loss among Sinhalese women in Sri Lanka.


males and 1.37 (95%-IC: 1.26 – 1.48) in females, while radon related RRs were not statically significant. Adjusting for socio-demographic factors, the RRs by occupation decreased by 16% and 4% on average in men and women, and by 4% and 6% when adjusting for smoking, but remained statistically significant. Conclusions The results suggest the presence of occupational exposures to lung carcinogens in addition to non-occupational factors. Longer follow-up and analysis by histological types of lung cancer are needed to improve the estimates of occupational lung cancer.


Conformational change induced by Mg2+-ATP in the local area containing a specific thiol group, SH2, in skeletal myosin was regulated by physiological level of free Ca2+ concentration (pCa ranging from 8 to 4) . The curve relating conformational change to pCa in the presence of Mg2+-ATP has a characteristic sigmoid shape, showing an inflection point at pCa 5. This result suggests the presence of a Ca2+-dependent regulatory mechanism in skeletal myosin. Recently it has been suggested that a specific thiol group of myosin, SH2, is located near the (subf ragment-1)-(subf ragment-2) junction,' and that the local area containing SH2 (SH2 region) is assumed to act as a hinge in the drive stroke action of the myosin head during the sliding process.2>-4> On the other hand, the myosinlinked Ca2+ regulatory system in molluscum musclej~ 6> is widely accepted. Influenced by this work, there have appeared papers which demonstrate that a physiological level of free Ca2+ concentration affects the conformation of skeletal myosin.7~-11> This study reports on the Ca2+ regulation of the conformational change in the SH2 region. The result has revealed that a physiological change of free Ca2+ concentration, coupled with the excitation-contraction process, regulates the conformational change in the SH2 region in the presence of Mg2+-ATP. Myosin was prepared from rabbit skeletal muscle according to the method described by Kielley and Bradley.12~ As reported previously,2) chemical modification of extremely reactive specific thiol group, SH1, of myosin with N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) has been performed. SH1-NEM modified myosin (myosin*) has the ability to cause superprecipitation, actin-activated ATPase13~ and isometric tension development similar to a normal actomyosin thread.14~ Therefore, myosin* was used for the reactivity study of SH2. As previously reported,2>" the rate of SHE modification with NEM which


This paper presents a method for eliminating adjacent-channel interference (ACI) in satellite-based General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) systems using a new fuzzy adaptive filters (FAF). We validate the reasons for using such a filter by analyzing the Bayesian detector in which some parameter uncertainties exist. A clustering method is used to adaptively design the parameters of the FAF. Simulation results show that the detector based on the new FAF perform better than the maximal-likelihood block phase estimation detector.


Wann-Nian Tzeng, Han Chu, Kang-Ning Shen, and Yu-Tzu Wang (2008) Hatching period and early-stage growth rate of the gold estuarine anchovy Stolephorus insularis in Taiwan as inferred from otolith daily growth increments. Zoological Studies 47(5): xxx-xxx. To understand the reproductive strategies and recruitment dynamics of the gold estuarine anchovy Stolephorus insularis in a subtropical area, their seasonal abundance was investigated, and their hatching period and growth rate were estimated from otolith daily growth increments. Specimens were collected from the Tatu River estuary on the west-central coast of Taiwan during 1997-1998. Juvenile fish dominated the catch composition, suggesting that the estuary is a nursery for newly recruited juveniles of S. insularis. The distribution of hatching dates for anchovy in subtropical Taiwan was similar to that of temperate zone fish, with a major spawning season in spring and a minor spawning season in autumn. This spawning strategy coincided with a new production cycle that was higher in spring than in autumn. Mean standard lengths and ages of the anchovy at recruitment were significantly larger for the autumn than for the spring and summer cohorts (all p < 0.001), while the somatic and otolith growth rates were higher in spring than in summer and autumn (all p < 0.001). Larval anchovy grew faster and reached their maximum growth rate (inflexion point of the growth curve) earlier during summer than during either spring or autumn. The growth rate after the inflexion point was lower in autumn than in either spring or summer. The


Sugar-mill wastewaters have potential to support microalgal biomass production for use as a biofuel feedstock (lipid source). Growth kinetics, light dynamics, and lipid production in multispecies-microalgae cultures collected from a sugar-mill pond are reported in this paper. Lipid content of the microalgae collected from the pond water was 14.5 % (w/w). Culturing the same microalgae in a photobioreactor on the pond wastewater supplemented with Gillard's F/2 and CO 2 , and irradiated with 151 to 337 μmol s –1 m –2 artificial light produced cells with lipid contents of 11 % (w/w) at 25 °C, 35 % (w/w) at 31 °C, and 28.6 % (w/w) at 33 °C. The maximum specific growth rates (µ max ) at 25 °C, 31 °C, and 33 °C were 0.64 d –1 , 2.5 d –1 , and 2.7 d –1 , respectively. Under these conditions, cell densities as high as 1020 g cell dry mass (CDM) m –3 were recorded. Total scalar irradiance attenuation coefficient (k 0 ) was 0.275 m –1 in clear water and 30.5 m –1 in the dense culture. The attenuation coefficient of irradiance due to biomass (k B ) was found to be a linear function of cell concentration in this work.


We tested a second stage moderated mediation model to examine the outcomes of job content plateaus among a sample of 122 hospital employees working in Kenya. Job content plateaus were negatively related to individually-focused organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBIs) and distributive justice. Distributive justice was negatively related to OCBIs and mediated the relationship between job content plateaus and OCBIs. Job satisfaction moderated the relationship between distributive justice and OCBIs such that employees experiencing distributive justice reported lower OCBIs when job satisfaction was high.


The paper intends to show that lexical and syntacti c l diversity in the expression of spatiotemporal relations via relative pronouns or/and con junctions in medieval French is a function – at least in certain cases, though these could be ve ry few – of enunciative and discursive peculiarities of the texts. To this end, we turn ou r attention to the medieval usage of où and quand and of the concurrent forms serving to express spa tial nd temporal localization respectively. We make a brief survey of their varia tions and changes relying on an examination of an Old French corpus which, though restricted, i s built up of texts of different genres, which pertain both to scripturality intended to be transm itted or performed vocally and to conceptional scripturality, or scripturality proper (one which c ould remain unmediated by voice). This survey shows that it is incumbent on où to have a variety of temporal usages, although it i s principally used as a locative pro-form. The most numerous occu rrences of temporal où, without antecedent, have been found in the genre of epic po etry (which represents basically the scripturality intended to be transmitted vocally). We assume that this distribution is due to the specificity of the enunciation in praesentia of the chansons de geste : a kind of enunciation which probably suggests the most perfect expression of the unity of space and time, from the point of view of the texts' interpretation, perform ance and perception.


Oxidant stress resulting from dopamine (DA) metabolism is suspected to contribute to the selective loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons in Parkinson's disease (PD).l-3 Oxidative deamination of DA by monoamine oxidase (MAO) yields hydrogen peroxide (HzO,) as a byproduct, which can be readily converted to hydroxyl radicals (.OH) capable of inducing lipid peroxidative damage. DA synthesis and degradation are increased in surviving nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons in PD,4.5 presumably exposing these neurons to elevated concentrations of H;02 and .OH. Increased lipid peroxidation levels in PD substantia nigra6 are indicative of regional oxidative damage occurring in PD, possibly resulting from elevated DA turnover. Neuronal oxidant stress has been modeled by increasing DA turnover in rat striatum, by in vitro incubation of synaptosomes with levodopa (LD),' or by administration of reserpineX or haloperido19 in vivo. Increased DA turnover in these studies resulted in increased concentrations of oxidized glutathione (GSSG). Glutathione, present in brain mainly in the reduced form (GSH),Io serves as an important intracellular antioxidant. GSH is a substrate for glutathione peroxidase, and reduces H202 to HzO while being oxidized to GSSG. GSSG concentration is therefore regarded as a sensitive indicator of oxidant stre~s.~JI The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether increasing DA turnover in vivo by LD administration to normal rats would result in evidence of oxidant stress as shown by increased striatal GSSG concentrations. Though LD


Pancreatic cancer is a rapidly progressing malignant tumor.There is an urgent need for early detection markers and novel therapeutic targets.The protein chip!has offered many opportunities and challenges.This review covers the development of protein chip in pancreatic cancer,including tumor markers for early diagnosis,therapeutic targets,differentiation between malignant and nonmalignant pancreatic diseases and so on.


Major depression is the most prevalent mental illness, often treated using different psychotherapy approaches. In this case study, we present a comprehensive account of the intervention process based on the principles of internal cohesion psychotherapy (ICP). We describe the case of a 26-year-old woman from Kosovo who was diagnosed with severe major depression and subsequently engaged in 11 ICP sessions. The ICP intervention mainly focused on the client's relationship with four systems, corresponding to the core elements of ICP: Intrapersonal, interpersonal, professional, and spiritual, considering three time points – the past, the present, and the future. The second evaluation, conducted during the eleventh session of ICP, found minimal depressive symptoms in the patient. This case study contributes to the ongoing discourse on the effectiveness of ICP as an eclectic approach in the treatment of major depression.


Urug Traditional Village which is located at Sukajaya Subdistrict in Bogor regency have a significant problem according to lack of religion education specifically for early age school group. The majority religion at Urug Traditional Village are moslem but their activities related to religion and social are still very limited and less interactive. For instance the religious activities like reading and learning Holy Quran is only held in one house and not at the mosque. Therefore it is very important to give an insight about the real value of Islam Religion for children in Urug Traditional Village through  educative game namely Iqropolly. The purpose of this program are: creating the Islamic atmosphere in Urug Traditional Village, Implementing the fun and religious activities and building social-interactive environtment for children specifically at Kiarapandak 02 elementary school. 3ME-N including learning, understanding, implementing and fun methode has been used in Iqropolly edugames also combines with playing and learning activities. Iqropolly has been one of  inovative edugames to stimulate the players, thus they can interact very well with others players. It also user friendly  for the players to internalize about  the islamic values and build a good character. According to the program evaluation after 4 (four) months the results showed that the children participants of this program is very responsive to the game Iqropolly. Learning outcomes of this program has reached until 78.4% in terms of good attitudes, reading Iqro, the practice of moslem praying, daily dua, reciting holy quran and knowledge about Islam. In addition, the iqropolly edugames has been proposed to obtain a patent and already published Iqropolly edugames guidance book with ISBN number.


Colourless single crystals of Ph3AsCl2 as well as of β-Ph3AsBr2 were obtained from acetonitrile solutions and were suitable for X-ray structure determinations. Ph3AsCl2: Space group P212121, Z = 4, lattice dimensions at -90 °C: a = 1247.9(2), b = 1267.5(1), c = 1033.4(1) pm, R x = 0.0484. β-Ph3AsBr2: Space group P1̄ , Z = 4, lattice dimensions at -80 °C: a = 949.1(1), b = 1189.7(1), c = 1693.7(2) pm, a = 98.32(1)°, ß = 103.64(1)°, γ = 109.44(1)°, R x - 0.0628. The structures consist of Ph3AsX2 molecules (X = Cl, Br) with trigonalbipyramidal coordination of the arsenic atom with the halogen atoms in the axial positions.


In today's world, many products are designed and produced to assist people in their daily activities. These products such as teaching aids and simple machineries are continuously designed and produced to accommodate the needs of consumers worldwide. However, due to the rapid development of the technology, the green aspects of the products are being neglected. Therefore, Malaysia Qualification Agency in their Qualification Framework has given great emphasis to the importance of demonstrating an understanding of the impact of engineering practices, taking into account the need for sustainable development in the Program learning outcome (PLO). The aim of this study is to look into the initiative towards the protection of the environment through the engineering products that have been designed and produced by students of Kolej Kemah Iran Tinggi MARA Balik Pulau, Pulau Pinang (KKTMBP). The research will be carried out by observing the engineering products produced by the students and the assessment will be done by the course coordinator according to the criteria given in order to substantiate the research. Through this research, the existence of initiatives among the students to apply sustainable environment values in designing their engineering products are evident.


Method and apparatus to realize multi-channel link calibration active antenna proposed by the present invention, the method comprising: selecting an active channel link transmitting antenna system transmits the test data to be calibrated; receiving the test data, the test feedback data to the output link of the active antenna system; collect test data from the feedback link; calibrate operation of the active antenna system transmitting multichannel links according to the collected test data. By the present invention can fully utilize existing hardware configuration, as compared with the conventional method of calibrating a multi-channel, reducing the calibration channel separate transceiver antennas or the calibration can effectively reduce PCB (printed circuit board) area, cost savings. The method is simple and feasible, cost effective solution to the power consumption, the volume of problems active antenna.


The analysis of an arbitrary number of signals plus noise passed through a nonlinearity is extended to the general class of \nu th-law devices. Closed-form approximations to a number of special cases of interest are obtained from the general result. Using the approximations a method for suppressing undesired intermodulation terms is suggested; it is confirmed by laboratory measurements.


In some last decades, increasing air pollution and its consequences captivate attention of researchers from all over the world. Scientists have developed some alternate fuels to eliminate the exhaust pollutants. In this paper, idea of using compressed air as a power source in natural gas engines is presented and discussed to explore the concept of new energy vehicles. However, energy densityof air and output torque of compressed air engine (CAE) is limited, which confines its application and popularization. The present research on compressed air engine mainly focused on simulation and system integration. The air engine equipped with prechamber which works as a heating device for inlet air. Prechamber pressure rise, total heat release and maximum jet velocity all increases with increasing prechamber fuel mass fraction delivered into prechamber. An in-house model of air engine equipped with prechamber has been developed using the DIESEL-RK platform. Through analysis it can be obtained that optimization of single cylinder CAE showed positive slope towards efficiency and eliminate NOX emission to almost zero. Furthermore, this study revealed that the idea of using prechamber with CAE provide theoretical support to researchers in development of zeroemission vehicles and to make the technology more feasible.


China's 'Go Global' strategy has encouraged Chinese companies to seek to enhance China's resource security through acquisitions in foreign markets. Under the influence of this policy, Chinese companies have greatly increased outbound investment in recent years, and one consequence of this increased activity has been the generation of a range of commercial disputes. The choice of different methods of dispute settlement is in part influenced by the national legal cultures that have shaped the mind-sets of parties to these commercial disputes. Recent Chinese investment abroad has grown significantly and increasing economic engagement between China and other countries will inevitably involve some degree of conflict as different legal cultures interact. In understanding points of tension in the Sino-Australian investment relationship questions are raised concerning legal pluralism and the impact of legal culture on Chinese controlled companies operating in Australia. This paper discusses approaches taken in a number of recent commercial disputes involving Chinese companies in Australia and the slow movement that these cases reveal towards a more globalized commercial law.


A numerical method, based on integral representation of Maxwell's equations, is used to calculate the scattering properties of bacterial cells.


The New Zealand Family Planning (FP) Association initiated a program for men which allows participants to explore various issues related to sexuality and reproductive health. The program called "Being a Bloke" is held at a polytechnic attended by men aged 17 to the mid-30s to gain new job skills and at a secondary school for 16-17 year old students. The program coordinator finds that men are limited in the range of emotions society allows them to express. This impairs their capacity to imbue their relationships with emotional depth. It is difficult to assess the "Being a Bloke" program because it consists of a single session which concentrates on raising questions and inviting reflection. Since 1991 the FP Association has made a conscious effort to encourage men to use its services and men come to the clinics to obtain prescriptions for inexpensive condoms for vasectomy services for sexually transmitted disease check-ups to participate in contraceptive decision-making with their partner to support their partner in a unplanned pregnancy and for sexual problems. The high rate of vasectomy acceptance in New Zealand is thought to be connected to mens participation in the birth process. The FP Association has tried to make men feel welcome in the clinics while insuring that women remain comfortable and continue to receive excellent services.


A settlement is a dwelling place where cultural groups can settle down and establish their own way of life. The formation of the settlement is also the process of shaping space in the settlement. The settlement represents a landscape that is a bounded geographical space. Identity is viewed through the construction of space and social interaction.This study explores the contemporary meaning of the preservation and adaptive re-use of settlements by looking at the history of Treasure Hill.


Transfer occurs when previous experiences facilitate problem solving, and often experimental subjects are explicitly informed of the connection between earlier source information and the target problem. Spontaneous transfer occurs when subjects are uninformed of the connection between events, yet benefit from the prior experience. Maier's two-string problem was used in four conditions: two conditions providing uninformed "hints" for target solution, one explicit hint condition, and a control condition. Two separate experiments indicated significant informed transfer when subjects were explicitly told to think of a pendulum, and a spontaneous transfer effect approached significance for subjects who saw the string swing during the instructions. The results are discussed in terms of the subtle yet consistent appearance of spontaneous transfer across many studies.


Protonated n- and t-butyl Schiff base derivatives of some enals have been characterized and shown to undrego efficient cis-trans isomerization about both the CN and CC double bonds in stronge acid media (H2SO4 and CF3CO2H).


The dry cutting test of austenitic stainless steel 06Cr19Ni10 workpiece material was carried out with YBG205 coated tool. By scanning electron scanning microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrum (EDS), the wear morphology and wear mechanism of the tool were analysed. The results showed that when cutting the stainless steel 06Cr19Ni10 with YBG205 coated tool, the main wear morphologies of the tool were flank wear, boundary wear, and tip damage. The wear mechanism were mainly adhesive wear and diffusion wear.


Objective: To study a set of equipment for the medical staff helping them in venipuncture to see vein more clearer on LCD. Methods: Using the infrared radiate human tissue, the hemoglobin in the blood irradiated will change to oxygen-hemoglobin, therefore, reflective photo signal from vein will become darker compared with the signals from others tissue. At the receiving end, the CMOS photo detector converts reflective photo signal into electrical signals. The digital signal will be processed by computer so as to show them on the LCD. Results: The medical staff could easily distinguish human veins from other tissue during venipuncture throughthe assistant of infrared imaging equipment. Conclusion: We can identify vein using infrared reflective theory.


Research has shown there is a positive relationship between friendship activity and psychological well-being. The common interpretation of this correlation is that an increase in friendship activity improves psychological well-being. This article shows any of the following three interpretations are more plausible: (1) good psychological well-being causes an increase in friendship activity, (2) the relationship is spurious, or (3) the system is nonrecursive. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. This article is based on a 1981-1984 longitudinal study of white, nonmarried, elderly women who lived in a middle-class suburb of Chicago. Cross-lagged panel analysis is used to interpret the relationships between aggregate measures of friendship activity and Bradburn's affect balance scale.


Product bundling is a strategy by selling two or more products in one package and one price. Bundling has become an effective and profitable strategy. But bundling must still meet the needs of consumers themselves. In this study, the researcher attempted to create a desired service by combining available services and products into a bundling / service pack with the Product Service System (PSS) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method to fullfil the consumer's wishes. The 10 factors of purchase are cost, quality, variance, innovation, extra care, practical and efficient, brand image, prizes, promotions / discounts, and trends, from 35 respondents have interest rate at cost (3.94), quality (3.88) , 3.23), practical and efficient (3.34), brand image (2.22), prizes (3), promotions / discounts (3.65), and trends (1.8). From the voice of customer or consumer desire then made some bundling PSS to be able to meet consumer desires. Among fix murmer, fix pasti asli, fix canggih, fix tahun baruan, fix santai, fix ketolong, fix nyaman, fix bersih, fix LCGC, fix sejuk, fix total, fix aman, fix radiator. From the weighting results obtained 10 bundling PSS to be tested in relation to the fulfillment consumers needed by looking at the relationship between consumer desires and bundling PSS offered by the company with the QFD method. From the results of processing and research, the results are fix murmer (11.7%), fix pasti asli (14.1%), fix canggih (7.4%), fix tahun baruan (9.4%), fix santai (10.8%), fix ketolong (4.7%), fix nyaman (11.2%), fix bersih (9.9%), fix LCGC (14.8%), dan fix total (6.1%). The conclusion that PSS bundling Fix LCGC becomes an option to be proposed as a bundling of PSS that can satisfy the consumer's desire with a value of 14.8% of all PSS bundling tested. Keywords— Product and Service System; Quality Function Deployment; PSS; QFD; Product; Service.


Design of high-pressure feed-water pipeline from high temperature feed water heater to economizer in a home made supercritical 1000 MW unit have been concerned in this paper.The different feed-water pipeline size resulting from using different design pressure class between two designing institutes for the same pipeline are encountered during the course of installation.As a result,some transition pipes are forced to use to connect two different size pipes.For the stability and safety in operation of the system as well as the invested cost can be ensured and saved,being convenient to construction,a preliminary analysis on the design of the high-pressure feed-water pipeline between is conducted.


Ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) technology is ideally suited for the making of spatial light modulators (SLMs) because of its fast, low-voltage, low-power electrooptic effect. Its bistabilty and sharp dynamic threshold further make multiplexed addressing schemes attractive, promising SLMs with a large number of elements yet with an economical number of electronic drivers. We report here results of several implementations of the most common multiplexing scheme, "matrix addressing," and point out several properties of the FLC materials that are likely to influence the performance of matrix-addressed SLMs.


To the Editor: The editorial by Rebbeck et al. ([1][1]) is timely and important. Here, I share some thoughts on this debate. The X team (real but anonymous here) meets successfully most proposed criteria. X has published nine articles on mostly brand new (but also some replicated) gene-disease


The structural and dynamic properties of ethanol molecules in nanochannels of various diameters have been studied using molecular dynamics simulations. The properties of the ethanol molecules depended strongly on the nanochannel diameter. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were used to model the nanochannels. The average number of ethanol molecules inside a SWCNT increased monotonically with the SWCNT diameter. However, the average number of hydrogen bonds per ethanol molecule changed non-monotonically with the SWCNT diameter. The tube wall of the (6,6) SWCNT strongly constrained the ethanol molecules inside from rotating freely. As a result, an ethanol molecule within a (6,6) SWCNT formed more hydrogen bonds than one in a (7,7) or (8,8) SWCNT. These strong tube wall constraints also gave ethanol molecules in the (6,6) SWCNT the longest hydrogen bond lifetimes. More importantly, the diffusion rates of ethanol molecules inside a SWCNT first increased and then decreased as the SWCNT diameter increased. The non-monotonic dependence of the diffusion rate on the SWCNT diameter may be related to multiple factors, such as hydrogen-bonding properties, ethanol–tube interactions, reorientation properties, etc.


Planar metallic grating lenses for SW divergence and bound, plane-wave generation are utilized in the design of leaky-wave antennas (LWAs) for millimeter-wave frequencies of operation. By using a printed surface-wave launcher (SWL) feed and circular and straight metallic strips, cylindrical leaky-waves (LWs) can be excited on a planar grounded dielectric slab (GDS). Specifically, by the addition of these planar lenses SWs can be refracted, altering the phase velocity and field distribution of the guided wave, realizing a larger effective aperture. Increased gain values can be observed in the far field by such passive beam pattern control. These 2-D LWAs may be desirable for their compatibility with other planar designs, low cost, and directive beam patterns, thus making them attractive for radar systems and satellite communications.


Quadratic basis functions (QBFs) are implemented for solving the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation via the finite element method. This involves the introduction of a set of special testing functions compatible with the QBFs for evaluating the Laplacian operator. The results by using QBFs are significantly more accurate than those via linear basis functions. QBF approach leads to significantly more accurate results than conventionally used approaches based on linear basis functions. Importantly QBFs allow reducing the error of computing the exchange field by increasing the mesh density for structured and unstructured meshes. Numerical examples demonstrate the feasibility of the method.


The prediction of temperature distribution in well bore with electric submersible pump (ESP) is very important for the optimization design of ESP and indispensable for performance analysis of oil well. On the basis of temperature distribution model for normal well bore, a new model for calculating temperature distribution in ESP well bore was derived, in consideration of the heat transferred from well bore to formation and the heat produced from electric motor and electric cable. The temperature distribution of an ESP well of 1?800 m in depth was calculated with this model. The calculated result indicates that the produced liquid will be heated by the electric motor and cable, when the oil production of a well is stable. So the temperature distribution in the ESP well bore is mainly controlled by the heat from electric motor and electric cable.


Abstract Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are widely used for protection of gas turbine parts from high temperature and corrosion. In the present study, the new concept of TBCs with three-element-modified aluminide coatings was presented. In the first stage, the Pt and Pd were electroplated on MAR M247 nickel superalloy. In the next stage, the low-activity CVD aluminizing process with Zr or Hf doping was conducted. The ceramic layer containing yttria-stabilized zirconia was obtained by the plasma spray physical vapour deposition (PS-PVD) method. The microscopic examination showed the formation of aluminide coating containing up to 5 at% of Pt and 10 at% of Pd in (Ni, Pt, Pd)Al solid solution. The small concentration of Hf and Zr in diffusion zone of aluminide bond coat was noted as well. The outer ceramic layer was characterized by columnar structure typically formed during the PS-PVD process. The obtained results showed that the new concept of TBCs formed using new processes might be an attractive alternative to conventional coatings produced using the expensive electron beam physical vapour deposition (EB-PVD) method.


The article explores some questions about the effects of the phenomenon of marginalization (alienation, marginal areas, unadjusted) on the formation processes of marginalization of national contemporary consciousness and legal culture. A special effect is given to the problems of studying the defectiveness of legal awareness and legal culture of marginalized individuals.


In this we propose a novel weighted consensus function guided by clustering validation criteria to reconcile initial partitions to candidate consensus partitions from different perspectives, and then, introduce an agreement function to further reconcile those candidate consensus partitions to a final partition. As a result, the proposed weighted clustering ensemble algorithm provides an effective enabling technique for the joint use of different representations, which cuts the information loss in a single representation and exploits various information sources underlying temporal data. In addition, our approach tends to capture the intrinsic structure of a data set, e.g., the number of clusters. Our approach has been evaluated with benchmark time series, motion trajectory, and time-series data stream clustering tasks.


The presence of limit cycles in fixed-point arithmetic implementations of digital filters can significantly impair their performance. In this paper, an algorithm that can be utilized to determine the behavior of such limit cycles is given. Also this paper presents the formulation used to describe the filters in order to evaluate the quantization errors in any actual realization, order, type of quantization and the precision of the accumulator. Actual bounds on the amplitude, period and output of limit cycles are also shown. It is based on experimental results showing that all states in limit cycles are confined in a closed region, where the proposed algorithm make a study in depth. It is a processor oriented algorithm and characterizes the impact of limit cycles in significantly less computation time than other early formulations. The good performance of the algorithm is summarized in a table that compares the results with classical exhaustive formulation and theoretical scheme. Key-Words: Limit cycle, bound, nonlinear, digital filter, fixed-point, quantization errors.


This paper seeks to analyse the role that the media has played in the quest for transparent and accountable government in Nigeria since the General Yakubu Gowon era generally and under the Fourth Republic particularly. The period since 1975 in particular coincides with one in which Nigeria earned great amounts from her oil (Turner, 1978) and was noted both domestically and internationally as a corrupt nation. In 1975, the Gowon regime was overthrown by the military in a palace coup precisely because the regime was perceived as corrupt. The subsequent regimes were faced with the same problem of pandemic corruption in government. Public officials took huge bribes and the cost of public goods and services were inflated; government often paid for non-existent goods and services. What role did the media play or not play in the fight against corruption then?


Abstract Self assembly of alkyl phosphonic acids (APAs) on magnetron sputtered aluminium (MS-Al) has been investigated with particular attention on the role of the aluminium surface chemistry produced by conditioning through ambient atmospheric and ethanoic methyl phosphonic acid solution immersion. For the longest molecule investigated, decyl phosphonic acid, contact angle measurement revealed rapid formation of relatively disordered self assembled monolayers (SAMs) from a 5 mM ethanoic solution. Evidence of a reaction of the phosphonic acid head group in a condensation reaction with the hydrox yls at the alumina surface to form a phosphonate was obtained using polarisation modulation infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (PM-IRRAS). The concentration of hydrox yl groups in the ox ide at the surface of the M S-Al, determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), increased on immersion in ethanol owing to the presence of dissolved impurity water. Adsorption of hydrocarbon impurities is also evident. Preadsorption of methyl phosphonic acid inhibited ox ide growth and stabilised the wettability of the MS-Al stored in ethanol, although it did not increase the order of self assembled decyl phosphonic acid (DPA) compared with conditioning of the surface by atmospheric exposure.


An attempt to re-integrate a monument which preserved its original state for only a few years, and to describe a scheme of decoration which was never executed, calls for an explanation. The Council Hall, erected by the government which followed on the November revolution of 1494 in Florence, was the direct result of the new constitution and, at the same time, its expression in monumental form. The political ideas of the new regime determined the shape of the building and also the plan of its decoration in all its details. This is one of the rare cases where a clearly definable historical occurrence expressed itself immediately in a work of art or-to put the statement in reverse form-where the existence and significance of a work of art can be completely explained by reference to a political event. The Venetian constitution had admittedly served as a model for the reform of the Florentine Government in 1494, which a contemporary, Francesco Guicciardini, called "uno governo populare alla viniziana." Similarly, the Hall was built in deliberate imitation of the Sala del Gran Consiglio at Venice (completed in I419). We therefore witness a close contact between the two major powers of the Italian civilization of the period and, in contrast to earlier occasions, Venice appears in the r6le of the leader. This occurred at one of the most momentous epochs in the history of Florentine art. The Hall is the last great Quattrocento monument on Florentine soil. Had its decoration been executed, it would have been one of the earliest examples of the new style in Italy; and the designs for Leonardo's and Michelangelo's mural paintings prove sufficiently how different the course of the historical development might have been. The significance of these paintings has always been recognized, but it must be admitted that our understanding remains incomplete without a clear conception of the Hall for which they were commissioned and which would have been their setting. If one considers the above three facts, the historian's interest in a non-existing monument needs no justification. One is rather inclined to ask why this legitimate interest has not hitherto been more apparent. Apart from a collection of documents, no monograph on the building exists. It has received but casual attention from students of the history of art in dealing with Leonardo's and Michelangelo's cartoons, or in connection with the new structure by Vasari; and most of these students based their accounts only on Vasari's description. The one exception is A. Lensi's book on the Palazzo Vecchio (1929). It contains a short history of the Hall and, in addition to Vasari, the author uses the evidence of records and of Landucci's and Cambi's chronicles. But even Lensi does not attempt a reconstruction of the Hall.


Introduction The CHNRI method for setting health research priorities has crowdsourcing as the major component. It uses the collective opinion of a group of experts to generate, assess and prioritize between many competing health research ideas. It is difficult to compare the accuracy of human individual and collective opinions in predicting uncertain future outcomes before the outcomes are known. However, this limitation does not apply to existing knowledge, which is an important component underlying opinion. In this paper, we report several experiments to explore the quantitative properties of human collective knowledge and discuss their relevance to the CHNRI method. Methods We conducted a series of experiments in groups of about 160 (range: 122–175) undergraduate Year 2 medical students to compare their collective knowledge to their individual knowledge. We asked them to answer 10 questions on each of the following: (i) an area in which they have a degree of expertise (undergraduate Year 1 medical curriculum); (ii) an area in which they likely have some knowledge (general knowledge); and (iii) an area in which they are not expected to have any knowledge (astronomy). We also presented them with 20 pairs of well–known celebrities and asked them to identify the older person of the pair. In all these experiments our goal was to examine how the collective answer compares to the distribution of students' individual answers. Results When answering the questions in their own area of expertise, the collective answer (the median) was in the top 20.83% of the most accurate individual responses; in general knowledge, it was in the top 11.93%; and in an area with no expertise, the group answer was in the top 7.02%. However, the collective answer based on mean values fared much worse, ranging from top 75.60% to top 95.91%. Also, when confronted with guessing the older of the two celebrities, the collective response was correct in 18/20 cases (90%), while the 8 most successful individuals among the students had 19/20 correct answers (95%). However, when the system in which the students who were not sure of the correct answer were allowed to either choose an award of half of the point in all such instances, or withdraw from responding, in order to improve the score of the collective, the collective was correct in 19/20 cases (95%), while the 3 most successful individuals were correct in 17/20 cases (85%). Conclusions Our experiments showed that the collective knowledge of a group with expertise in the subject should always be very close to the true value. In most cases and under most assumption, the collective knowledge will be more accurate than the knowledge of an "average" individual, but there always seems to be a small group of individuals who manage to out–perform the collective. The accuracy of collective prediction may be enhanced by allowing the individuals with low confidence in their answer to withdraw from answering.