s 177 Patients and methods: 378 elderly hypertensive patients > 60 years (mean age 70.4 6.3 years) treated with at least one antihypertensive agent and presenting with SMC but without dementia were prospectively recruited and underwent a combination of neuropsychological tests, a brain magnetic resonance imaging with semi-quantification of White Matter Hyperintensities (WMH), carotid echotracking, brachial endothelial function and ambulatory blood pressure (BP) assessments. Results: None of the 3 composite scores (Memory score, verbal fluency, visual memory capacity) was found associated with BP levels. On the other hand, age and gender-adjusted analyses showed a significant and positive association between memory score and calcium channel blockers (CCBs) use (users: +0.14 0.09 versus non-users: -0.12 0.06, p Z 0.016). Multivariate analyses also revealed that CCBs use was significantly associated with a better memory score, independently from age, male gender, WMH and carotid wall cross-sectional area, all of which were associated with worse memory scores. Conclusions: In elderly hypertensive treated patients with SMC, CCBs use was associated with better memory performances independently of BP level and macro and microvascular alterations, suggesting a specific neuroprotective effect of this pharmacological class. Interventional controlled trials are required to confirm the specific protective effect of CCBs on cognitive decline. P10.06 RESPONSES OF THE AMBULATORY ARTERIAL STIFFNESS INDEX AND OTHER MEASURES OF ARTERIAL FUNCTION TO ANTIHYPERTENSIVE DRUGS Y. Jin , L. Thijs , T. Richart , Y. Li , E. Doland , J. G. Wang , A. Protogerou , E. O'Brien , J. A. Staessen , M. E. Safar 7 Univeristy of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, Shanghai, China Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland Paris-Descartes University, Paris, France Objective: We used antihypertensive drugs as pharmacologic tools to clarify the physiologic meaning of the ambulatory arterial stiffness index (AASI) in comparison to pulse pressures (PP), the arterio-ventricular coupling index (AVCI), and aortic pulse wave velocity (aPWV). Methods: After a 4-week placebo period, 94 and 107 patients with uncomplicated hypertension were randomly assigned to treatment for one year with atenolol 50 mg/d (AT) or perindopril/indapamide 2/0.6 mg/d (PER/IND). From the individual readings in each patient's 24‐hour ambulatory BP recording, we determined 24‐hour systolic and diastolic BP. We computed PP as the difference between 24‐hour systolic and diastolic BP, AASI as unity minus the regression slope of diastolic on systolic BP, and AVCI as (T/t)/(1 +2T/3t)), where T is the heart period in seconds and t is the decay time of aortic BP during diastole. Results: Compared to PER/IND, in patients on AT, systolic BP and PP decreased less and AVCI lengthened more (P 0.009), whereas the changes in AASI and aPWV did not differ between the two treatment groups (P 0.25). In patients with the metabolic syndrome (NCEP-ATPIII criteria), AT and PER/IND lowered systolic BP similarly, but AT lowered diastolic BP more than PER/IND. Conversely, in patients without the metabolic syndrome, PER/IND lowered systolic BP more than AT, but diastolic BP to a similar extent. Conclusions: On antihypertensive drugs with a different hemodynamic profile, AASI and aPWV behaved similarly. The metabolic syndrome seems to modulate the impact of antihypertensive drugs on systolic BP and PP. P10.07 PERINDOPRIL THERAPY IMPROVES ENDOTHELIAL FUNCTION AND ARTERIAL STIFFNESS IN HEART FAILURE WITH PRESERVED SYSTOLIC


This article examines how landscape modification was key to the development of an urbanizing society within a valley in Chiapas, Mexico. The Late Preclassic (400 bc–ad 250) site of Noh K'uh demonstrates how both the altered and unaltered environment signified the importance of cosmological concepts within this society. In an area rich with mountains and caves, the natural landscape offered residents opportunities to create symbolically meaningful living spaces. Evidence from local settlements reveals how the cosmological universe played a guiding role during the site's peak growth period, suggesting that other common contributors (such as economic and militaristic needs) of expansion may have been secondary.


With its increasingly wide application in the fields of architecture and urban planning, intelligent design tools require a review on its essence, core value, and evolution. Based on her several years' experience of research and practice, the author points out that one of the essential characteristics of intelligent design tools is their ability to actively interact with humans (such as the assessment, optimization, and feedback of human designer's schemes). The core value of intelligent design tools lies in that they can liberate human designers from repetitive work and break down the barriers in communicating design knowledge and ideas. Human designers and intelligent design tools both have their own strengths in the real practices; the two should complement each other and make progress together. Being a product of inspiration and integration between emerging sciences, such as artificial intelligence, and traditional design disciplines, intelligent design tools will enjoy an ever-expanding realm of application. It will facilitate cross-disciplinary cooperation in Architecture, Urban Planning, and Landscape Architecture at varied scales, which not only promotes explorations on design philosophy and deep design values, but also help improve design quality and the overall efficiency of the industry.


be overcrowded or substandard in housing, but it has no other implications for disease. Moreover, they appear to consider that progress in industrial psy chology ceased with Rothlisberger and Dickson. One can, of course, see the authors' problem. Not knowing that first-class work is going on in the behavioural sciences, they feel that to deal with psychological and social factors (apart from a few "¿ hard― indices such as overcrowding) is to open the floodgates to a gush ofspeculation and gossip. Indeed, the dangers are all too well illustrated in some recent writings on the relations between sociology and medicine. But if serious exponents of social medicine abandon the field, others will not be slow to occupy it. There isnow beginningto be a scientific social psychiatry, in which the epidemiological method is regardedasonlyone ofa wide rangeofusefultech niques, and in which no artificial barrier is erected betweensocialand clinical events,sincethemanner oftheirinteraction isregardedasthemain material for study. Sociology is one of the basic sciences of this subject, asitshouldbe in socialmedicine;and,for thisreason,socialpsychiatry findsitself, by default, in the van of progress. Eventually, the parent disci pline will also realize that it can widen its outlook without lowering its standards, and perhaps this realization willbe reflected infuturetextson social medicine. J. K. WING. Problems and Progress in MediCal Care. Edited by GORDONMCLACHLAN. ig66. London: Oxford University Press. Pp. 339. Price 255.


A new criterion based on the critical plane approach has been developed for multiaxial non-proportional fatigue failure. The criterion correctly takes into account the influence of phase shift and mean values under combined bending and torsion loading. From a certain point of view, the criterion with such a defined non-proportionality measure can be understood as a combination of the two approaches: critical plane and integral approach. The criterion has the following form
 $ \tau_{\alpha^*(eqnp)} = (\tau_{\alpha^*(a)} + c_1 \sigma_{\alpha^*(a)} + c_2\sigma_{\alpha^*(m)}) \Bigl(1 + \frac{t_{-1}}{b_{-1}}H^n\Bigr) \leq c_3 $
 where the multiplicand of the equivalent shear stress $ \tau_{\alpha^*(eqnp)}$ contains the amplitude of the shear stress $ \tau_{\alpha^*(a)}$, the amplitude $ \sigma_{\alpha^*(a)}$ and mean value $ \sigma_{\alpha^*(m)}$ of the normal stress acting in the critical plane. The multiplier contains the loading non-proportionality measure $ H$. Taking into account the fact of different sensitivity of various materials to loading non-proportionality, the equation also includes the material data: $ t_{-1}$ – fatigue limit in torsion, $ b_{-1}$ – fatigue limit in bending.
 The predictive capability of the criterion was demonstrated by analyzing 67 experimental results from the literature. The predicted results are generally in good agreement with the experimental ones.


Background: Intradialitic hypertension is a frequent complication of hemodialysis processes with the greatest prevalence of 40% (IRR, 2014). Intradialitic hypertension is one of the biggest causes of death in both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients by 59%. Intradialitic hypertension can be affected by several factors. Objective: to know the factors that influence the incidence of intradialitic hypertension in patients with chronic renal failure in Hemodialisa Installation of Dr. Soedirman Kebumen Hospital. Methods: This study used an observational analytic method, a prospective cohort approach. The sample of research is 40 respondents with Consequtive sampling technique. Document analysis using descriptive analysis and bivariate analysis using chi square test. Result: chi square test with significant value <0,05. Obtained p value = 0.6, age does not affect intradialitik hypertension. IDWG with p value = 0.04, there is influence with intradialitik hypertension. The duration of hemodialysis with p value = 0.7, did not affect intradialitic hypertension. Antihypertensive drugs do not affect intradialitic hypertension with p value = 0.2 Conclusion: IDWG is a factor that influence Intradialitic Hypertension. Recommendation: A similar study can be done with more samples with dry weight variables and ultrafiltration


Modeling of multiroom structural fires is possible with a variety of available computer codes, thus permitting calculations of temperature and smoke level in different rooms as the fire progresses from one room to the next. The accuracy and applicability of the results is greatly enhanced though the comparison of the calculations with experimental data. A criterion is suggested and confirmed that permits fire spread from room to room on the basis of the initiation of the next room's fire to be at the instant of flashover of the previous adjacent room (which is connected to the next room via an open doorway). An even simpler approach with single room calculations, each up to the onset of flashover, then the next room begins to fire up from cold, is also considered, and shown to provide very useful cost-effective results.


The techniques of total spectral energy and electrical measurements of high-current pulsed arc discharge are presented and substantiated. On the example of a flash lamp, three working circuits were reviewed and the following values were obtained: time dependences for circuit electrical parameters, values of the energy deposition into plasma, and radiative efficiencies for different spectral ranges.


This paper reports on the imaging of a phase object using a differentiation filter. The differentiation filter consists of a photographic recording on a film where the amplitude transmittance changes gradually in a continuous manner. The filter is placed in the Fourier plane of a lens, and the differentiation image is taken by a CCD camera. This technique is applicable for objects with wide range of phase variations. A computer was used for image integration and to construct the 3D image. We have presented experimental results for a wedged phase object.


This essay presents somaesthetics of discomfort as an extension of the field of somaesthetics as developed by Shusterman. Using the work of Peirce and Dewey as a foundation upon which Shusterman and Johnson have considered the body as the basis of aesthetics, I propose that somaesthetics of discomfort provides a means of enhancing bodily awareness and reflection useful for domains of inquiry, such as healthcare and design. Taking Peirce's notion of the irritation of doubt in a literal sense, I explore bodily discomfort as the inception of inquiry. I consider work done by phenomenologists concerning experiences of comfort and discomfort, which includes definitions of each. My argument follows the perspective put forth by Peirce, Dewey, and contemporary pragmatists that experience is qualitative and that feeling is at the root of reflection. I explain how discomfort may be considered a type of aesthetic experience and provide examples of bodily discomfort as somaesthetic. In closing, I consider somaesthetic focus on discomfort as fostering moral imagination and empathy.


Gamma radiation induces changes in physical, optical, and structural properties in chalcogenide glasses., Previous research has focused on As{sub 2}S{sub 3} and families of glasses containing Ge. For the first time, we present composition and dose dependent data on the As-S binary glass series. Binary As{sub x}S{sub 100-x} (x = 30, 33, 36, 40, and 42) glasses were irradiated with gamma radiation using a {sup 60}Co source at 2.8 Gy/s to accumulated doses of 1, 2, 3, and 4 MGy. The irradiated samples were characterized at each dose level for density, refractive index, x-ray diffraction, and Raman spectrum. These results are compared to those of as-made and 1 year aged samples. We report an initial increase in density followed by a decrease as a function of dose that contradicts the expected compositional dependence of molar volume of these glasses. This unusual behavior is explained based on microvoid formation and nanoscale phase-separation induced by the irradiation in these glasses. XRD, Raman, and EPR data provide supporting evidence, underscoring the importance of optimally- or overly-constrained structures for stability under aging or irradiation.


We often talk about managing learner's expectations, whether that be around attendance, achievement, career aspirations, university choices, further training or life generally. But the major issue with this is that we as educators are 'managing' someone else's expectations, when we don't necessarily have a true understanding of what is occurring with that person, writes Dr Duncan Cross, Associate Teaching Professor at the University of Bolton.


Little-known scientific facts related to the circumstances of writing and defending the dissertation for the Medico-Surgical Academy Eduard Blaschke entitled "Medical topography of the Novo-Arkhangelsk port, the main Russian settlement in North America were considered. Medical topographic descriptions of various territories and settlements of the Russian Empire were numerous in the 18th19th centuries, but dissertation studies of this kind are rare. The authors of the article carried out a bibliographic work covering a wide range of reliable sources in order to identify the earliest dissertation research in the field of medical geography. According to updated information, E. Blaschkes work stored in the library of the Kirov Military Medical Academy was the first scientific work in the history of the Medical and Surgical Academy in the field of medical geography, presented as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine. The dissertation was written based on E. Blaschkes materials and stay in the Russian colonial possessions in North America as the head doctor of the Novo-Arkhangelsk Hospital. Local living conditions, lifestyle, occupation, and nature of work and leisure of the population were systematically described, and as a result, due to all these reasons, since endemic diseases can be associated not only with climatic causes the endemic specificity of the incidence of the inhabitants of this region, and with a wider range of local territorial factors. E. Blaschkes medical-geographical research was of great scientific and practical importance for its time. It was timely and relevant, but today this work is not known to a wide range of specialists, which, of course, has a significant gap in the knowledge of the history of the formation and development of medical geography, which needs to be replenished. The historical research conducted by the authors of the article allows us to highly appreciate the role of graduates of the Medical and Surgical Academy in healthcare systems organization in the Russian colonial possessions in America: all the chief doctors of the central hospital of the settlements were its graduates. Of particular interest is the experience of E. Blaschke in combating the smallpox epidemic in the Aleutian Islands and the local populations mass vaccination.


Batch electrocoagulation (EC) experiments were carried out to evaluate the removal of COD and O&G from wastewater using aluminum electrodes. The effects of operating parameters such as current intensity, initial COD concentration, contact time and NaCl concentration on COD and O&G removal efficiency had been investigated. It was found that increasing current intensity increased COD and O&G removal efficiency. Initial COD concentration had a little effect on removal efficiencies. Results showed that the best performance was obtained using aluminum electrode at a current intensity of 1.3 Ampere and 11.6 volt in 15 min contact time for 1500 mg/L initial COD concentration and 0.5 gm/L NaCl concentration. Under these conditions, COD removal efficiency reached 95.07% and the cost of energy, chemicals and material consumption was 0.84 LE/m/gm COD removal. Similarly, the cost of treatment of cubic meter for carwash station wastewater equals .32 LE/gm COD removal after 7.5 min at 11.6 volt and 1.3 Ampere, using aluminum electrodes with removal efficiency of


The development of globalization brings various impacts on labour and immigration law in Indonesia. The most frequent immigration violations are the abuse of immigration residence permits by foreign workers, especially in energy and mining companies. The Turnkey Project Mangement between Indonesia and China has a systemic impact, especially on foreign capital ownership, infrastructure, and labour. Examples of cases of foreign workers in energy and mining companies are located in Kendari City, Southeast Sulawesi Province. Based on data released by the Ministry of Manpower as of April 6, 2018, there are at least 927 Chinese who work illegally in a number of mining companies. The foreign workers is mostly employed in Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry with a total of 632 people. Another case also occurred in Lahat, South Sumatra Province. There are at least about 671 Chinese citizens who work illegally in PT. Priamanaya Energy. Of these, at least 90% of foreign workers work in Indonesia in the energy and mining sectors. Most of them are illegal foreign workers who do not have a Limited Stay Permit Working from the Immigration Office and Permit for Working Foreign Workers from the Ministry of Manpower. Most of their modes are to use Visa Free Visa Policy that should not be for work. Based on the results of the discussion, can be explained as follows. First, the process of law enforcement on the abuse of immigration residence permit is done in two ways, namely Immigration Administrative Act and Investigation (Pro Justitia). Immigration Administrative Action is arranged in Article 75 paragraph (2) on Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 6 of 2011 concerning Immigration. This action takes place outside the judicial process and is subject to immigration administrative violations. Meanwhile, the Investigation is a legal action from the Civil Servant Investigator of Immigration against the alleged criminal act of immigration. The case of improper immigration permit abuses by foreign workers is regulated in Article 122 of Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 6 of 2011 concerning Immigration. Second, in practice officers more often apply immigration administrative measures in resolving immigration residence cases. Based on the Performance Report of Directorate General of Immigration of 2017 stated that there are 1,992 Chinese conducted Immigration Administrative Actions, in the form of Deportation. About 80% of them are illegal workers in the energy and mining sectors. Investigative Actions is rarely implemented, as it is considered ineffective, requiring a relatively long time in the process. Then, budget allocations are still inadequate and human resources Civil Servant Investigator of Immigration is very limited evenly in all regions. In 2017, the number of investigative actions is only 286 people. It was very different from the number of immigration administrative actions. This is because law enforcement on the abuse of immigration stay permits is often limited by the number of Immigration Officers and the lack of coordination and cooperation among cross-sectoral agencies. In addition, the lack of immigration Civil Servant Investigator of Immigration that controls foreign languages other than English and limited operational support facilities. Finally, there are still many uncooperative people sending out reports or complaints about the existence or activities of troubled foreign migrant workers. Keywords— law enforcement, foreign workers, energy and


Ornithine decarboxylase activity in some rat tissues was shown to grow at remote times after gamma irradiation (60Co) with nonlethal doses. The authors suggest that ornithine decarboxylase activity should be used as a biochemical marker of remote effects of ionizing radiation.


We prove that the representability of a Boolean function by a repetition-free formula can be verified by a circuit of linear complexity.


Abstract: The knowledge related to floristic composition and all strata, including herbaceous, are needed to characterize and understand the dynamics of tropical forests. This study aimed to investigate the floristic composition of herbs in an area of ?? tropical rain forest of Mato Grosso, producing a list of herbaceous species are on site. All individuals and herbaceous hemiepiphytes above 5 cm were recorded. Inventoried 7,965 individuals, representing 70 species. The angiosperms were represented by 10 families, with the most representative families in number of species Cyperaceae and Poaceae. Ferns were represented by 13 families, the family Pteridaceae as the richest in species. These results reinforce the need to increase the sampling effort for the herbaceous layer, especially floristic surveys for Southern Amazon as of 70 species inventoried 11espies not have records for the state of Mato Grosso. The Amazon of Mato Grosso suffers severe pressure from deforestation, as part of the region known as the Arc of Deforestation. This fact combined with the results of this work shows the urgency to intensify the sampling effort in this region that presents itself as a void in terms of surveys of plant diversity. Keywords : floristic composition, plant diversity, ferns


This paper investigates whether foreign capital is smarter money using multifractal cross-correlation analysis (MFCCA) and nonlinear Granger Causality test. Using multifractal detrended fluctuation...


Data from the literature suggest that the nutritional environment can modify major metabolic functions of fungi and possibly their aggressivity towards keratinous structures. Trichophyton rubrum (TR), Microsporum canis (MC), Scopulariopsis brevicaulis (SB), Aspergillus fumigatus (AF) and Penicillium spec. (P) were inoculated on media of different nutritional value, in presence of nail fragments. The activity of the fungi was evaluated at two and four weeks for intensity and depth of invasion of nail samples. Nail invasion was most pronounced by MC, especially when grown on rice agar or peptone agar. Nail invasion by the other fungi tested was less important, Sabouraud glucose and rice agar were most favorable. Our results indicate that nutritional factors can, at least in some fungus species, alter their rate of nail invasion.


In this letter,we investigate the properties of the photonic grapheme which has the similar microstructure with the electric grapheme.In photonic graphene,there exist the Dirac points in the energy bands on hexagonal conrners of the honeycomb lattice Brillouin zone.The presence of Dirac point leads to a new "pseudo-diffusive" transport regime.We realize the narrow electromagnetic beam by using grounded coplanar waveguide with better direction.The extremal transmission of the microwave near the Dirac point has been demonstrated by means of the numerical simulation.Furthermore,we verify experimentally that some certain electromagnetic field modes for photonic bands cannot be excited in the photonic crystal slab.


Creatine as an ergogenic resource in highintensity interval training: a systematic review Several studies report creatine's ergogenic action in various types of sports. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to verify, through a systematic review, the possible ergogenic effects of creatine supplementation in highintensity interval training. A systematic review was performed, consisting of 16 original essays, both in Brazil and abroad, published from year 2000 on. Most of the studies were experimental, with the use of creatine and a placebo, and the sample's population was composed, mostly, of physically active male individuals. The supplement protocol was diversified in the studies, varying from 2 to 30 g, as well as the experiment durations, with periods from 24 h to 10 weeks of intervention. The tests mostly used to assess performance improvement were Wingate test, maximum strength test, running and swimming. Most of the studies demonstrated that creatine supplementation presented positive results in anaerobic performance, in the increase of the maximum repetition capacity in the maximum strength test, in the increase of the maximum isometric strength, in fatigue reduction and in the increase of lean body mass. The results found in the studies show that creatine supplementation, when properly done, may have ergogenic effects and improve performance in high-intensity interval training.


Equity participation in joint ventures as envisaged in Shari'ah consists of a business relationship based on mutual sharing of gains and liability. Such partnerships as prevalent in every sphere of commerce generally involve the possibility of unlimited gains for each partner in theory, without limitations attached to the amount of return to any single partner. A central pillar of the equity structure in Shari'ah is the unbridled operation of the profit sharing ratio. Restriction of its application to a stipulated level of profits, thereby enabling a partner to claim unlimited profits while the profit share of the other is restricted to a maximum ceiling cannot be regarded to be consistent with the theory of equity participation. While such measures could realise some temporary benefit to Islamic banks, with continued practice, they could become deep-rooted in the concept of equity financing itself, thus making it operate subservient to debt financing norms. Islamic banks should attempt to alienate their identity from being lending institutions, a pioneer step towards which would be to implement a dynamic profit and loss sharing mechanism .


According to the World Health Organisation, alcohol consumption in Iceland and other western countries has increased and is now considered the third major influence on poor health of individuals worldwide. Number of individuals who consume alcohol can develop alcoholism which is considered to have dramatic influence on the individual and the people around him. The purpose of this thesis was to explore whether and how exposure to alcoholism can influence children's development. Possible solutions in Iceland and other countries for children exposed to parental alcoholism were examined as well as useful methods nurses can assist and support these children were indentified. Comparison research outcomes on children exposed to parental alcoholism show increased risk for these children developing problems associated with development, learning abilities, behaviour in addition to emotional and psychological health of the individual. Children exposed to parental alcoholism may find it more difficult to bond with others and build romantic relationship later in life. They are also less likely to achieve acceptable self-control which is considered linked to positive development. Some children seem to develop a kind of resilience to be able to deal with increased pressure without giving in. Sadly this does not include all children and therefore it is vital to react early and help these children build up defences against countering the risk.


Bacteriophages Clmll, ClmX and ClmXC for Clavibacter (Cl.) michiganense subsp. nebraskense were characterized with respect to biological and physical properties. All phages produced clear plaques on strain CN18-5, the original propagating host. On strain CN76-2, ClmX produced predominantly turbid plaques with a few clear plaques, from which ClmXC was derived. The host range of the three phages was restricted to strains of Cl. michiganense subsp. nebraskense. Adsorption rate constants and burst sizes of the three phages were in the range of 2.9 to 9.4×10-9ml/min and 6 to 19 virions/cell, respectively. All phages were morphologically similar with a hexagonal head about 60nm in width and a flexuous tail approximately 235nm long. The type of nucleic acid was double-stranded DNA. Agarose gel elctrophoresis of restriction endonuclease digests of the phage DNAs indicated that the three phages are similar, but distinguishable in DNA structure. C1mXC was probably a deletion mutant of ClmX.


This study draws on distributive justice, human capital, and stigmatization theories to hypothesize relationships between relative pay gap and patterns of job mobility. Our study also expands the criterion space of job mobility by contrasting different job destinations when information technology IT professionals make job moves. We examine three job moves: a turnover to another IT job in a different firm, b turnaway-within to a non-IT job, and c turnaway-between to a different firm and a non-IT job. We analyze work histories spanning 28 years for 359 IT professionals drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We report three major findings. First, as hypothesized, larger relative pay gaps significantly increase the likelihood of job mobility. Second, IT males and IT females have different job mobility patterns. IT males are more likely to turn over than turn away-between when faced with a relative pay gap. Further, and contrary to predictions from human capital theory, IT males are more likely to turn away-within than turn over. This surprising finding suggests that the ubiquitous use of IT in other business functions may have increased the value of IT skills for non-IT jobs and reduced the friction of moving from IT to other non-IT positions. Third, and consistent with stigmatization arguments, IT females are more likely to turn away from IT than to turn over when faced with a relative pay gap. In fact, to reduce relative pay gaps, IT females tend to take on lower-status jobs that pay less than their IT jobs. We conclude this study with important theoretical, practical, and policy implications.


This article addresses accountability issues that affect music education policy and implementation in the neoliberal education system. Using examples from education reform in Ontario, Canada, the author argues that two forms of accountability imbalances fostered by the neoliberal state—hierarchical answerability over communicative reason and top-down over bottom-up policymaking—allow the use of music curricula for political ends, to the detriment of curricular integrity and classroom delivery. The article also discusses how central governments that are responsible for developing standardized music curricula and allocating resources in an accountability vacuum may tacitly establish that "basic" subjects such as literacy, numeracy, and science are "more mandatory" than a mandated music curricula. The article concludes by recommending ways in which the centralized development of music education policy and resource allocation can be made more equitable both for those who encounter the curriculum at the local level and for the subject.


Primary aim of this dissertation is to research, present, critically reconsider and compare with similar theories ecological ethics (ecoethics) by American forester, ecologist and author Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) – based on the concepts of land ethic and ecological conscience – by using primarily subject-matter and methodological features of integrative bioethics as an innovative concept within contemporary bioethical discussions. Research of Leopold's opus and intellectual influences that shaped his attitudes will be upgraded by considering Leopold's ecoethical ideas in relation to the work of Van Rensselaer Potter, the American "father of bioethics", who considered himself as Leopold's follower, as well as in relation to the development of bioethical theory and bioethical movement, with emphasis on biocentric tendencies that mark the concept of integrative bioethics, as well. In context of exploring the notions of life, nature, human, subjectivity, rationality, consciousness, conscience, freedom and responsibility within Leopold's work and Leopoldian tradition, as an argumentative support there will be used the existential-phenomenological reflection of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Thomas Fuchs, the ethical thought of Immanuel Kant and Milan Kangrga, the ecosophical and deep ecological thought of Arne Naess, the social ecological thought of Ivan Cifric, the philosophy of responsibility of Hans Jonas, and the bioethical thought of Fritz Jahr, a European "father of bioethics" – all of them very important authors regarding Euro-continental tradition of bioethics. Leopold's ethical imperatives, inscribed into his land ethic, will be problematized especially in relation to Kant's and Jahr's ethical imperatives, in order to formulate a biocentrically founded integrative-bioethical imperative (as a fundamental principle of bio/ethics which would response to the challenges of today and future), as well as to contribute accordingly to further expansion and articulation of the orientational field of integrative bioethics. In each of the research thematic units of the dissertation, materials in the form of literature relevant to a particular topic will be used, and in the preparatory part, the collection and/or systematization of the necessary materials will be approached. Reading and interpreting the literature will be approached by critical, analytical and synthetic, as well as the comparative methods, which will examine the viability of the hypotheses and draw conclusions. In general, the research will be based on the methodological assumptions of integrative bioethics (interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, pluriperspectivity, integrativity). Dissertation will be divided into four basic thematic units which will further be divided according to the requirements of the research. The introductory chapter, which precedes these four units, will explain the basic framework and basic (hypo)theses, as well as the context of considering the main topic of the paper. It includes issues of the scientific/technical civilization and the global environmental crisis, as well as the ecoethical/bioethical responses to these challenges. The first unit will consist of research into the life and work of Aldo Leopold, i.e. Leopold's thought development, with a review of tendencies, authors and schools that influenced his work (Lorbiecki 2016), focusing on the impact of environmental thought of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau (Worster 1994) and other American thinkers. Exploring, questioning, and potentially challenging a given claims suggests that the Leopold was writing under the influence of American pragmatism and Darwinist social evolutionism presented by Arthur Twining Hadley (Callicott 2009). This will be followed by a systematic review of the Leopold's work, with an emphasis on the collection of essays A Sand County Almanac (Leopold 1949) and the concepts of "land ethic" and "ecological conscience" which will be interpreted as a paradigmatic form of biocentric approach to the non-human living beings, the natural environment of humankind and to the nature in general. In the second large part of the paper, the research focus will be shifted to the influence of Leopold's thought on Van Rensselaer Potter, an American "father of bioethics" (Potter 1971, Potter 1988) and, consequently, the development of the bioethical movement. The biocentric character of Leopold's ecoethics will be emphasized (as opposed to the anthropocentric model), which was most likely the crucial motive for Potter's fascination with Leopold. Consideration of the relationship between Leopold and Potter will be extended to the exploration of conceptual similarities between Leopold and the European "father of bioethics", Fritz Jahr (Rincic, Muzur 2012). Leopold's ecoethical imperative ("Right action is anything that contributes to the preservation of stability, integrity and preservation of life, and everything else is wrong"; Leopold 1949) will be related to Jahr's bioethical imperative (Rincic, Muzur 2012), but also to Kant's categorical imperative (Kant 1990), the categorical imperative of Jonas's ethics of responsibility (Jonas 1990) and the imperatives of Schweitzer's ethic of reverence for life (Cicovacki 2009), in order to formulate a unifying integrative-bioethical imperative. The third part of the paper will be devoted to the comparison (and articulation of fruitful correlation) of Leopold's ecoethics and the thoughts of Arne Naess, the founder of "deep ecology" or "ecosophy" (Naess 2002, Naeess 2005, Markus 2006), following the previous interpretation of Leopold's ecoethics as a biocentric conception. The focus will be on the concepts of anthropocentrism and biocentrism, as well as on the concepts of consciousness and conscience, but also on other concepts relevant in this context (life, nature, man, subjectivity, intelligence, freedom, responsibility). Also, it will be inevitable to compare Leopold's and Naess's "revolutionary" understanding of these concepts with traditional ethical understandings (Kant 1990, Kangrga 1966, Kangrga 2004). However, the basic research motive of this thematic unit is the juxtaposition of anthropocentrism and biocentrism, primarily in terms of consciousness and intelligence. In that sense, the discussion will also include questions about the relationship between the individual human psyche and the evolutionary ecological balance, i.e. the issues of organic mereological (Potrc 2017) unity of micro- (individual), meso- (social and natural community) and macro-levels (biotic community) of cosmological totality. An attempt will be made to prove that selfishness (as the action of the "disjointed self") present in the human community extends analogously to human action towards non-human beings of the Earth or nature in general. The fourth and last part of the dissertation will be a summary of previous research, presented with regard to the concept of integrative bioethics, which is characterized by interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, pluriperspectivity and integrativity (Covic 2004, Juric 2010). The notion of "bioethical sensibility" (Zagorac 2018) will also be introduced to indicate the fact that Leopold's insights (which can be interpreted as insisting on the development of "bioethical sensibility") correspond to integrative bioethics and can contribute to the expansion and articulation of the biocentric approach present in integrative bioethics.


The nations are worth as much as it is worth their economies. In today's global world, people gain or lose independence primarily by how successful their economy is . Of course, freedom and independence of a people is defended in all fields, but the economic success is the key to success to all the rest. A society that is for us and the former socialist countries, termed transition, represents a return to predatory capitalism and the way in hypocritical, orchestrated democracy; it is now the world of lasting evil and bigger injustice that undermine the state and relentlessly pushing them into ,,peripheral capitalism' (Ljubisa Mitrovic). The word 'economy' is of Greek origin and translated into our language it means' skill of housekeeping (economy)'. What we habitually continue to call economy in the world today and in Serbia, we can not call the skill of keeping. The term 'economy' has long been superseded, in his place is the term 'chrematistics' also a word of Greek origin that means inserted enrichment. This term in use is introduced by Aristotle. This ancient philosopher emphasized that the economy and chrematistics are antipodes and that chrematistics destructive to society. By its nature, it leads to the destruction of the economy. Practically, it can be called 'destroyers skill of keeping the economy.' Today in the world and Serbia do not have the economy, we have chrematistics (speculation on commodity markets , pyramid schemes, the development of the securities market , games on the stock market ... ) . Chrematistics the trick word, and that's why we can replace it with the term 'casino-economy.' A new form of monarchy, which is expressed as a new imperialism, is not based on ' cunning mind' (Hegel ) and the 'spirit of the law' ( Montesquieu ), but the 'cunning of the economy', which is dominated by raw (Hobbes ) laws of the market and where the economy becomes policies. Figure of societies of Eastern Europe, where the neoliberal social Darwinism, disenfranchising the largest population, has created an entire class of poor, who are now struggling to realize their right to work, confirms the emptiness of neoliberal democracy. As a result of chrematistics in transit societis 'capitalism without capitalists' is created (Mladen Lazic) in which the capital, grabed during social conflicts, mediated by political elites, by which the redistribution of accumulated social wealth ended up largely in private hands. If proved, and it is, that the current neo-liberal approach and form (paradigm ) does not give the expected, and so the required results, then the need to search for a new paradigm of development and more prominent. We need one another, a different view of society and especially its development, freed from the constraints and domination of the theory and methodology of the global powers imposed as the only desirable (required ). So, we need a self-reflective approach to social issues especially in orthodox societies. It is a request that it turned to itself and see their potential and opportunities. This paper is an attempt to draw attention to the devastating consequences of chrematistics in the world, and especially in our society, but also to make an effort to search for the 'principle of hope' and point out the different possible directions of development of Serbian society. We are convinced that, as the basis of Western civilization with the neo-liberal development model is the social doctrine of Catholicism, Orthodox civilization, which can and should be the centerpiece and developer 'planetrly humanism' (Danilo Z. Markovic) (which in the present Russia partly realized), there should be the social doctrine of Orthodoxy at the basis of Orthodox ethics and domestic economics.


Software monocultures are susceptible to large scalesecurity attacks as attacks on a single node can be effortlesslyscaled out to the rest of the system. Program diversity hasbeen explored as a means of defending systems from mass scalesecurity attacks and system failures. Existing diversity techniqueshave focused on reordering code blocks to alter the controlflow graph. In contrast, we focus on algorithmic diversity. Wepresent an algorithmic diversity approach that is fully automatedend to end by adopting techniques in program synthesis. Wedemonstrate how our approach can be deployed as a defenceagainst code reuse attacks and against common software faults.


Principle of operation Increased milling capacity, more complex carrier systems, coupled with the move from rail to road transport and hence smaller consignment size, have required constant modification and updating of existing cane tracking units. A brief history is provided of past developments and description given of design and operation of the present day instrument. Future possible developments are considered. Introduction A cane tracking device is required to provide demarcation and identification of each individual consignment of cane throughout its travel along the carrier system to the sampling point which is at or near the first mill. Cane tracking in its earliest mechanised form was achieved by gearing a wheel to the cane carrier drive shaft, and using the proportional rotation to operate signal lights at appropriate times, thus indicating the beginning and end of a cane consignment at the first mill. Increased milling capacity involving more complex carrier systems, coupled with the move from rail to road transport and hence smaller consignments, have demanded improved cane tracking techniques. The original electronic cane tracker was developed at the Jaagbaan Mill. Further development led to an improved modular type, which simplified the location and repair of faults. The present generation of cane trackers incorporate the latest type of integrated circuit on plug-in printed boards. This provides a compact, flexible, and more reliable instrument system.


Back pain in terms of socio-economic losses over the past 5 years has come to the first place among the causes of disability, and therefore the problem of rapid effective anesthesia and rehabilitation of this large group of patients is topical. In most cases, the main sources of back pain are the structures of the musculoskeletal system, and the reasons are their microtraumatization due to sudden unprepared movements, prolonged stay in a static position, heavy physical labor. The task of clinical and instrumental examination is to exclude specific causes of dorsalgia. It is also important to present the results of the survey in an accessible form, in particular to correctly interpret the data from neuroimaging research methods. Adequate anaesthesia for acute back pain, informing the patient about the favorable prognosis of the disease and early motor activation are essential to prevent the transition of the physiological feeling of pain into the pathological process - chronic pain syndrome. When dealing with chronic pain, the interaction of specialists of different profiles in the multidisciplinary team is required. Kinesiotherapy, ergotherapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy are the main methods of non-drug treatment of lower back painIt is recommended that the patient maintains the usual level of physical activity and then increases it. It is necessary to teach the patient to correctly perform movements in the social, professional and domestic spheres, to explain how to avoid unsafe movements that can provoke dorsalgia. The article presents the observation of a patient with chronic back pain. Success in treatment has been achieved through effective anesthesia through rational selection of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Dexalgin), local administration of local anesthetics to overcome kinesiophobia, and a combination of cognitive-behavioural therapy, kinesiotherapy, and ergotherapy.


Inequality in the provision of income under Article 8 PP 10/1983 Jo PP 45/1990 because the PP is strongly influenced by the current ruling authorities up to the legal product Conservative /Orthodox/elitist, law as a Political tool, Government tool, law closed because of the role and participation of small communities. In the reform era, the second provision of PP was irrelevant. The purpose is Article 8 PP10 / 1983 Jo PP45 / 1990 to prevent the divorce of civil servants and to create discriminatory law and injustice. Both of these Government Regulations (PP) are contrary to the principles of human rights, basic values of living and developing in the midst of society such as the appropriate Islamic law as ground norms, the 1945 Constitution Article 28D Jo Article 29 and the principle of modern democratic state (welfare state), the expectation of the article is for the smooth running of civil service duties, and as a means of enhancing the discipline of civil servants. However, both Articles of the two PPs substantially complicate marriage and civil servant divorce such as (UUP) because it restricts the marriage and civil servants divorce with strict requirements. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze the background and the purpose of setting one-third of the salary of a husband to a former postdivorce wife. This present study uses the legal constructivism method with non-positivistic paradigm (ontological, epistemological and axiology where the author is a facilitator). With the socio-legal research approach, and using primary and secondary data sources, primary legal materials, secondary legal materials, and non-legal materials.


The objectives of this research is to figure out the fulfillment of tourism components at Danau Perintis Tourist Attraction and to formulate the steeps in order to build Danau Perintis Tourist Attraction as the economical locomotive of  the local community. As the objectives, this research studies whether or not the tourism components which should be fulfill in atourist atraction has been fulfilled in Danau Perintis Tourit Attraction. The theory ini this research is tourism components which is consist of Attraction, Accesibility and Amenities. There are many obstacles that was found in Danau Perintis Tourist Attraction act as an economical locomotive of the local community, so that through this research and also based on the theory of this research there ara some solutions that can be recomended in order to create  the act of Danau Perintis Tourist Attraction to give a positive impact for the local community financially. The result based on those three tourism components with other supporting components are; there should be an attraction development sach as water ride facilities and also a maximum maintenance. Next is from the accesibility side, this tourist attraction has a good accesibility. It means this place is accesible easily for all tourist  from any areas. The last component is about amenities or facilities that should be completed.


This report presents findings from the first year of a two-year study of interactive efforts involving utilities and non-utility parties (NUPS) working together to prepare plans, develop Demand-Side Management (DSM) programs, or otherwise promote integrated planning and the use of cost-effective DSM measures. Of the ten cases covered in the current study, seven involved the collaborative approach to NUP involvement, which generally is marked by intensive utility-NUP interactions designed to reach consensus on a broad range of important issues; in collaboratives, outside consultants often are provided to enhance the technical capabilities of the NUPS. Another of the cases in this study involved a ``cooperative arrangement,`` whereby a utility and a NLT worked together in a focused short-term effort to develop a single DSM program. The intense interaction involved in this approach makes it very similar to a collaborative, except that both the scope and the duration of the effort were much more limited than in a normal collaborative. The ninth case concerned a task force run by state regulatory staff that was charged with the limited job of studying various cost-effectiveness tests available for assessing prospective DSM measures. All of these approaches (collaborative, cooperative arrangement, and task force) are typesmore » of interactive effort, as that term is used in this report. The final case concerned NUPs` attempts to encourage greater utility use of DSM in Florida but, to date, no interactive effort has been initiated there. Three main features of interactive efforts are described in this report: (1) the participants involved; (2) the context in which the efforts took place; and (3) key characteristics of the interactive process. This report also examines the outcomes achieved by the interactive efforts. These outcomes can be divided into two general categories: Product-related and participant-related.« less


More recently, there has been an increasing interest in the use of concentrated solar thermal energy for the production of electricity, but also for the use in cogeneration and trigeneration. In this sense, the increasing use of solar thermal energy in urban areas is expected, and its impact on the environment is inducing an increasing interest. The paper analyses the impact of concentrated solar power technology (linear Fresnel, parabolic trough, parabolic dish, and central tower) on the environment in terms of water consumption, land use, wasted heat, emissions of gases, emissions of pollutants that include the leakage of heat transfer fluid through pipelines and tanks, impact on flora and fauna, impact of noise and visual impact. The impact on the environment is different for different concentrated solar power technologies and depends on whether thermal energy storage is included in the plant. Water is mainly used for cooling the system, but also for cleaning the surface of the mirror. To reduce water consumption, other cooling technologies (e.g. air cooling) are being developed. The available data from the literature show large variances depending on the size of the plant, geographic location and applied technology.


Simple and cheap alcohols can promote the direct arylation of unactivated arenes with aryl iodides and bromides in the presence of potassium tert-butoxide. This transition-metal-free aromatic C-H transformation offers a cheap and easy practical way to synthesize biaryls under mild conditions.


The correct cost estimation for software companies and company executives and companies is very important task. In required effort prediction, estimated time of delivery and cost of the project with high accuracy is still vast challenge for projects masters. For many years, algorithmic models like Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) families were used for required effort prediction. Nowadays, intelligent methods have many applications in SCE. In this study, we firstly give introduction to software cost estimation (SCE) and requirements. Then, we proposed a new intelligent approach by means of additive regression model for classifying the training and testing instances on NASA projects. The results show that our proposed system is more effective. Performance is evaluated by comparing the COCOMO and additive regression based classifier results. Keywords: Software Cost Estimation, Data Mining, COCOMO, Additive Regressions;


This series of articles is designed to help you develop your continuing education as a dental nurse. The series examine different types of study days and courses that may be available to you and how to survive and complete the course. This article will help you make sense of course structures


In the editorial that officially launched Natureza & Conservacao (The Brazilian Journal of Nature Conservation, henceforth N&C) as a publication of the Brazilian scientific society,ABECO (Associacao Brasileira de Ciencia Ecologica e Conservacao, the Brazilian Society for Ecological Science and Conservation www.abeco.org.br), we pledged a journal that would publish scientifically sound papers that, hopefully, may provide solid background for decision-makers and effective conservation practice (Diniz-Filho & Loyola 2010). Since then, we have prioritized publication of studies that use general scientific principles and are of broad conservation interest, promoting the integration among researchers working in different environments, with distinct groups of organisms, and at multiple geographical and hierarchical levels. We believe that now is a good time to evaluate how we have done in the first two volumes.


The waterway of Jiangxinzhou to Wujiang section is the only hindering navigation section in Wuhu to Nanjing of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Because of the unsteadiness of the main stream, the navigation condition in this section tends to worse, in which the regulation work is sorely needed and more important. The major problem for channel regulation in this section is the design of regulation project. In this paper, the 2D numerical model for simulating the flow and sediment in the waterway of Jiangxinzhou-Wujiang section is used to analyze these questions. From the numerical simulation results, we know that the overall navigation regulation project can solve the problem of hindering navigation.


To realize high throughput out of a relatively low bandwidth, memory partitioning algorithms have been proposed to separate data arrays into multiple memory banks, from which multiple data can be accessed in parallel. However, previous partitioning schemes only considered the case of single-pattern and single-array. In this paper, we propose an efficient two-step memory partitioning strategy for multi-pattern access in multiple multidimensional arrays. First, a fast, low complexity and low difference-based data splitting algorithm provides a multi-bank solution for multiple patterns access. Then an area-efficiency bank merging algorithm reduce the area overhead caused by partitioning. Experimental results show that our memory splitting algorithm saves up to 83.0% in searching time finding a multi-bank solution, compared to the state-of-the-art approach and the storage overhead can be reduced by 34.5%. Meanwhile the area overheads are saved up to 18.86% and the whole partition time are saved up to 45.6% through our entire algorithm.


The objective of enhancing engineering students' reading skills may be achieved by utterly relying on researchbased knowledge on the nature of reading, and mingling it with methodological approaches relevant to the teaching context. The current article gives a general overview of the evolution of teaching reading research, reveals the predominant reading and comprehension models, and unveils their implications on reading instruction within the ESP course.


An attempt was made to establish relationships between soil-water functions, viz, intensity, capacity and rate with various physical and chemical characteristics of soils. Silt plus day content and cation exchange capacity of a soil were found to determine greatly the various soil-water functions. Multiple regression equations between each of the soil-water functions and silt plus clay and cation exchange capacity were established.


Most of the effort in electrospinning has been spent on the spinning of various single polymer·solvcnt systems. However, the high demand for materials with specific properties indicates the need to eiectrospin polymer blends. Electrospinning of blends containing a synthetic and a natural polymer enables us to combine the favourable characteristics of both (e.g. biocompatibility and sufficient mechanical strength) into one material, which is often necessary in for example medical applications. A morphological characterization of these blend nanofibres is however crucial because there is a broader range of polymer properties influencing the resulting nanofibres. In this work, chitosanlpolycaprolactone (CS/PCL) solutions were electrospun using an acetic acid/fonnie acid solvent system to create antibacterial biodegradable blend nanofibres. The fibres were characterized and the parameters influencing the stability of the production process were analysed. The fibre characterisation includes techniques such as SEM, thennal analysis (using differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical analysis) and vibrational spectroscopy (infrared spectroscopy). It was found that by adding CS to a PCL electrospinning solution, the fibre diametcrs and deviat ions can be lowered because of two possible causes. The first is the presence of more charges due to the polycationic nature, possibly reducing thc diameter by more extensive jet splaying. The second effect of CS is a significant increase in viscosity, enabling the production of electrospinnable solutions with a lower total polymer concentration. Also other specific blend fibre properties, identified by a variation of techniques, can be linked to the CS addition. Their analysis illustrates the influence of polymer blends on {he electrospinning process and the nanofibre morphology.


We have studied the effect of nonuniformity in graded index, channel waveguide dimensions on the phase‐matching condition for guided‐wave nonlinear frequency conversion. Both theoretical and experimental results using normalized waveguide parameters and quasi‐phase matching for second‐ harmonic generation in annealed proton‐exchanged LiNbO3 waveguides show the existence of an optimum waveguide design which is insensitive to inhomogeneities in the waveguide dimensions. Application of such a waveguide design using normalized approach can significantly relax the fabrication tolerance, leading to nonlinear guided‐wave devices with long interaction lengths and useful conversion efficiencies.


Abstract : With extensive literature on the treatment of uncertainty in cost estimates, and because several uncertainty software packages are now available, the Naval Center for Cost Analysis asked the Center for Naval Analyses to conduct a study with the objective of evaluating the procedures and software that it now employs. This report begins with a discussion of introductory analytical issues and then focuses on the software packages that were evaluated. Additional analytical questions are addressed in connection with those evaluations.


This paper introduced a method for locating welding_line lacuna by using x_ray.The method is based on the difference of ray energy attenuation between the examined object and its internal lacuna which will cause difference of ray intensity.This method is of higher measure precision and is easier to use than currently widely used method, such as solid photograph method and industrial TV method .So it has broad prospects for application.


In this article, the authors review the nitric oxide suppression methods by influencing on the generating process. The study showed the relations for degree of nitric oxide weakening in cooling flame intensification, water injecting to furnace, furnace gases recirculation using, fuels emulsification, staged or fuel combustion. The authors establish connections between a set of parameters, which have impact on finite nitric oxide concentration value. According to these relations, it can be possible to assess the influence of one factor or another. The study includes calculations of nitric oxide suppression degrees, which show a good agreement with the results of full-scale experiments. The results of the study can be used in power plants with low nitrogen oxides impact engineering.


An experiment was conducted to evaluate the growth and flowering of gerbera grown in various horticultural substrates combined with conventional media (composed of garden soil, silt and sand in equal proportions) which is commonly used for its commercial production in the country. Two horticultural by-products viz. coconut coir and spent mushroom compost were tested for their suitability to be used as growing media for cut flower production. No major differences in yield were observed between conventional media and both horticultural by-products; however, flower quality was improved when both of the substrates were used in combination with conventional media. Growing substrate choice also influenced flower stalk length and diameter which revealed positive correlation of these substrates with various attributes of flower quality but not flower yield. Moreover, incorporation of coconut coir and mushroom compost lowered pH and increased available organic matter and electrical conductivity of conventional media which improved nutrient uptake by the plants.


It is a common feature of modern automated voice-driven applications and services to record and transmit a user's spoken request. At the same time, several domains and applications may require keeping the content of the user's request confidential and at the same time preserving the speaker's identity. This requires a technology that allows the speaker's voice to be de-identified in the sense that the voice sounds natural and intelligible but does not reveal the identity of the speaker. In this paper we investigate different voice transformation strategies on a large population of speakers to disguise the speakers' identities while preserving the intelligibility of the voices. We apply two automatic speaker identification approaches to verify the success of de-identification with voice transformation, a GMM-based and a Phonetic approach. The evaluation based on the automatic speaker identification systems verifies that the proposed voice transformation technique enables transmission of the content of the users' spoken requests while successfully preserving their identities. Also, the results indicate that different speakers still sound distinct after the transformation. Furthermore, we carried out a human listening test that proved the transformed speech to be both intelligible and securely de-identified, as it hid the identity of the speakers even to listeners who knew the speakers very well.


In January 2005 a 56-year-old woman (G1P1) presented to her GP with vaginal discomfort, associated with frequency of micturition. She smoked 10 – 15 cigarettes per day. A mid-stream specimen of urine (MSSU) was negative and no further action was taken. No pelvic assessment was undertaken. In May 2005, she attended for a routine cervical smear. There was some 'difficulty' in passing a Cusco's speculum and she was referred to her local gynaecologist. At this time, a 4 cm mass was found arising from the anterior vaginal wall. An examination under anaesthesia (EUA) and cystoscopy was scheduled. While the bladder base appeared to be distended by the mass within the vagina, the mucosa was intact. Biopsy of the mass suggested a lipoleiomyosarcoma (see Figure 1), and the patient was referred to a surgeon in gynaecological oncology. An MRI confirmed the presence of a 5 cm solid mass, with heterogeneous signal, situated between the posterior aspect of the bladder and the anterior aspect of the upper vagina (see Figure 2). Although the bladder was compressed and displaced by this mass, there was no suggestion of frank invasion. An enlarged left common iliac lymph node (2.0 cm61.5 cm) was also noted. A CT of the chest and abdomen showed no para-aortic lymphadenopathy. In order to ensure complete removal, the patient was scheduled for anterior pelvic clearance, partial vaginectomy and urinary diversion (right-sided ileoconduit). The psychosexual dysfunction that can be associated with such surgery was discussed. A divorcee, she lived alone and did not seem concerned. The procedure went without complications and she made a good recovery. At laparotomy no enlarged lymph nodes (including common iliac) were found. Histology confirmed complete excision of lipoleiomyosarcoma, Trojani grade II (a three-grade system based on the evaluation of three parameters: tumour differentiation, mitotic rate and extent of tumour necrosis), with clear resection margins. No positive nodes were identified. The options for adjuvant therapy were discussed at review 6 – 8 weeks later. Chemotherapy may reduce the risk of relapse, but no survival benefit has been demonstrated. Radiotherapy would reduce the risk of local recurrence, but have no influence on distant metastases. A chest X-ray was clear, and a full body CT showed no residual disease or metasases. On balance, adjuvant therapy was withheld. The patient remains well 1 year later.


special education teachers today is the development of strategies to help students with handicaps move from special education classrooms into less restrictive settings (Hundert, 1982). Although school districts have spent much time and effort in developing formalized procedures for student entry into special education, less attention has been given to developing procedures to determine when a student is no longer in need of special education services (Grosenick, George, & George, 1988; Salend & Viglianti, 1982). Consequently, teachers are often left on their own to make important decisions about the exit process. Without guidance for planning student exit and reintegration activities, many teachers may be hesitant to move students out of special education and into less restrictive settings (Laycock & Tonelson, 1985). The professional literature widely acknowledges the need for clearly defined procedures for preparing both students (Grosenick, 1971; Hundert, 1982; Salend, 1984) and receiving teachers (Salend, 1984; White, 1980) for mainstreaming. Research suggests that the success of mainstreaming depends on the quality of communication and support between special and regular educators (Cantrell & Cantrell, 1976; Salend & Hanke, 1981). However, specific steps that special education teachers can initiate to implement a smooth transition from special to regular education have been lacking in the literature. This article describes a four-phase process for reintegrating students into the mainstream. The process allows special education teachers to make data-based


It analyzes the university library strategic management theory and its application current situation of multi-campus combination period. It uses the international SWOT method to analyze the advantage, disadvantage, opportunity and risk of library internal and external environment of multi-campus combination period. Then it uses the method of balanced score card and strategic map to analyze the library strategic plan and target of this period and discusses the safeguard countermeasures of implementing the strategic target.


With the development of science and technology, welding automation has gradually become the main direction of research in the field of welding. In view of the need to adjust the flow rate of the shielding gas during the welding process to adapt to different working conditions, a device for automatically adjusting the flow rate of the welding shielding gas is designed. The device uses a dual-axis stepper motor to provide power and realizes the function of automatic adjustment. This paper focuses on the working principle of the device and the theoretical analysis of the opening .The device is modeled by Solid works software. After the modeling is completed, it is imported into ADAMS software for kinematics simulation, and the simulation results are obtained and analyzed. The results provide a reference for automatically adjusting the welding shielding gas flow in the actual welding process.


The Apsaalooke nation of Montana is one of many tribes in the Great Plains that practice the ritual of fasting (Vision Quest). In this document I will explain Apsaalooke fasting also called Bilisshíissaannuua To Go Without Water. This will be done by explain some core elements of Apsaalooke belief to give the reader a string knowledge base, so that one can contextualize fasting with in Apsaalooke culture. This documents also highlights the Dryhead Preservation and recordation project during the summer of 2013, funding and conducted by the Bureau of Land Management, Custer National Forest and The Crow tribal Historic Preservation Office. This Survey was conducted in hope to preserve the Archaeology of fasting that was found on the Dryhead, East Pryor Mountain and help use to understand this Apsaalooke Fasting and landscape.


The present invention provides an implant and delivery systems, the delivery system comprises the implant female coupler at the proximal end thereof and a male portion at the distal end of the elongated tubular delivery member coupling. The male coupler can be inserted into the female coupler and expandable under the influence of an elongated control member, the elongated member is capable of controlling the conveying slide within the tubular member. Expansion of the male type coupler to lock the implant to the tubular delivery member. Said control member to withdraw the implant delivery unlocked from the tubular member, so that the implant can be placed within the body.


We present "FingAR Puppet", an Augmented Reality (AR) system enhancing social pretend play by young children. Unlike goal-oriented AR systems that augment reality with informative instructions, FingAR Puppet helps children associate expressive interpretations with immediate reality. Empirical results show that FingAR Puppet promotes reasoning about emotional states, communication and divergent thinking during social pretend play for children 4-6 years old. We suggest that this study opens an interesting space for future AR systems to support complex cognitive and social development in early childhood. We also identify broader implications from using theories of cognitive development to guide the design of tangible and augmented interactions.


The invention belongs to the field of unmanned helicopter flight track planning, and relates to a fast flight track planning method aiming at an unmanned helicopter. The unmanned helicopter flight track planning method adopts a mapping control to add the map function into the flight track planning application, realizes flight track point confirmation through mouse selecting and flight track point modification through mouse dragging on a high accurate digital map, and considers specific flight performances of the helicopter during constraint condition planning, such as the hovering characteristic. The method solves the problem of practicability in unmanned helicopter flight track planning, requires no manual edition of flight track point coordinate position, is convenient to operate, is fast in planning, and has high interactivity.


he thermooxidative degradation of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), both pure and containing additives such as: carbon (graphite) (C), bronze (BZ) and glass fibre (GF), has been studied by non-isothermal thermo-differential analysis (DTA). The values of kinetic parameters obtained from the DTA data, on the basis of thermo-kinetic equations, were compared with the values obtained from the non-isothermal thermogravimetric analysis (TG-DTG) and a good agreement was achieved. The analysis of the characteristic temperatures and of the kinetic parameters from DTA-DTG data revealed that the thermal stability and mechanism of thermooxidative degradation depend on the nature and concentration of additives. The results were confirmed by the existence of a real compensation effect. The following equation was derived for the compensation effect: ln A = 0.1410 E - 0.15.


This paper presents a design of an asynchronous peer-to-peer half-duplex/full-duplex-selectable data-transfer system on-chip interconnected. The data-transfer method between channels is based on a 1-phase signaling scheme realized by using multiple-valued current-mode (MVCM) circuits and encoding, which performs high-speed communication. A data transmission is selectable by adding a mode-detection circuit that observes data-transmission modes; full-duplex, half-duplex and standby modes. Especially, since current sources are completely cut off during the standby mode, the power dissipation can be greatly reduced. Moreover, both half-duplex and full-duplex communication can be realized by sharing a common circuit except a signal-level conversion circuit. The proposed interface is implemented using 0.18-μm CMOS, and its performance improvement is discussed in comparison with those of the other ordinary asynchronous methods.


The distribution of indoor wind velocity coefficients in high-rise
 apartment house is showed by survey measurement, after analysing
 interrelationships between wind-speed over the roof and inside,
 wind speed inside and at the window of living room, and
ventilation rate and wind speed inside.


It is necessary to orient our thinking and our action through dialogue, action originating from differences, the only attitude capable of fostering the confrontation between the various discourses and arguments by means of which will expand the enriching possibilities in a reality marked by differences. Therefore, the proposal of a new philosophy that guides the Brazilian educational process, place of life worlds and plural thoughts, becomes necessary.Realidad: Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades No. 125, 2010: 371-393


Theoretical models of protoplanetary discs have shown the vertical shear instability (VSI) to be a prime candidate to explain turbulence in the dead zone of the disc. However, simulations of the VSI have yet to show consistent levels of key disc turbulence parameters like the stress-to-pressure ratio α. We aim to reconcile these different values by performing a parameter study on the VSI with focus on the disc density gradient p and aspect ratio h = H/R. We use full 2π 3D simulations of the disc for chosen set of both parameters. All simulations are evolved for 1000 reference orbits, at a resolution of 18 cells per h. We find that the saturated stress-to-pressure ratio in our simulations is dependent on the disc aspect ratio with a strong scaling of α∝h2.6, in contrast to the traditional α model, where viscosity scales as ν∝αh2 with a constant α. We also observe consistent formation of large scale vortices across all investigated parameters. The vortices show uniformly aspect ratios of χ ≈ 10 and radial widths of approximately 1.5H. With our findings we can reconcile the different values reported for the stress-to-pressure ratio from both isothermal and full radiation hydrodynamics models, and show long-term evolution effects of the VSI that could aide in the formation of planetesimals.


Side-channel signals have long been used in cryptanalysis, and recently they have also been utilized as a way to monitor program execution without involving the monitored system in its own monitoring. Both of these use-cases for side-channel analysis have seen steady improvement, allowing ever-smaller deviations in program behavior to be monitored (to track program behavior and/or identify anomalies) or exploited (to steal sensitive information). However, there is still very little intuition about where the limits for this are, e.g. whether a single-instruction or a single-bit difference can realistically be recovered from the signal. In this paper, we use a popular open-source cryptographic software package as a test subject to demonstrate that, with enough training data, enough signal bandwidth, and enough signal-to-noise ratio, the decision of branch instructions that cause even single-instruction-differences in program execution can be recovered from the electromagnetic (EM) emanations of an IoT/embedded system. We additionally show that, in cryptographic implementations where branch decisions contain information about the secret key, nearly all such information can be extracted from the signal that corresponds to only a single cryptographic operation (e.g. encryption). Finally, we analyze how the received signal bandwidth, the amount of training, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) affect the accuracy of side-channel-based reconstruction of individual branch decisions that occur during program execution.


Invasive weeds present a persistent threat to current agriculture and have large economic and biological losses; nevertheless we have little information about the weed genomics. Genomics tools such as next generation sequencing platforms, functional genomics approaches, comparative genomics, transposon mutagenesis, antisense down regulation, RNAi technology have recently been successfully applied in herbicide resistant studies. Genomics tools are becoming increasingly more accessible and reasonably priced especially in weed science. One example is next generation sequencing technology which provides both sequence and a measure of expression levels. These tools provide new insights into the herbicide resistance and response of the weeds in different environmental conditions. Weed genomics should increase the potential of discovering new herbicides mechanism of action and provide techniques to improve the efficiency and crop safety of new herbicides. Also, Genetically Modified (GM) crops are the next issue in weed science, genomic tools will make this process more feasible and applicable. Here, we try to propose information about weed genomics and provide collaboration between weed scientists and genomicist that could lead to better weed management.


Information storage and retrieval systems as related to personal document and reference collections as well as larger library systems are discussed. The first author describes a personal coordinate indexing system that could be of benefit, not only to researchers but to all those who have a need for ready access to their own collection of documents and references. The second author outlines information storage and retrieval carried out in the ARRB library and highlights current in house development of the Australian road index and IRRD data bases. Some reference is also made to information services available through organisations such as the national library of Australia and CSIRO.


Worker reliability estimation is a fundamental problem in crowdsensing applications. This paper proposes a robust feedback rating approach to estimate worker reliability explicitly. In this approach, the requester provides a feedback rating to reflect the quality of the sensor data submitted by each worker. The aggregation of each worker's historical feedback ratings serves as a reliability estimate. The challenges are: (1) Feedback ratings are subjected to noise; (2) Workers' cognitive bias in task selection leads to sensor data quality variations. We develop a mathematical model to quantify rating noise from requesters and the degree of cognitive bias of workers in task selection. We derive sufficient conditions, under which the aggregate rating is asymptotically accurate in estimating worker reliability, via stochastic approximation techniques. These conditions identify a class of asymptotically accurate rating aggregation rules for crowdsensing applications. We further derive the minimum number of ratings needed to guarantee a given reliability estimation accuracy, via martingale theory. Via extensive experiments: (1) We reveal fundamental understandings on how various factors such as rating noise influence the minimum number of ratings needed to achieve certain accuracy; (2) We show that our feedback rating approach improves air quality index estimation accuracy by as high as 50 percent over the a typical baseline algorithm.


This research was born as a way to promote positive changes regarding Citizen Culture in the students from "Nuevo Horizonte" school. Beginning from the recognition of their own experiences expressed through different means, especially artistic and cultural manifestations. Thus, the young students have demonstrated skills and talents that should be potentiated in order to identify which aspects of their own culture determine coexistence, and therefore have a decisive influence in building their own notion of Citizen Culture. This research consist of a quantitative study which helped to measure and classify some of the characteristics of the students' environment. In addition, a qualitative study was also conducted. Interviews, surveys and observations were done by the researcher to collect the experiences of some of the teachers about their concepts, symbols and experiences regarding civic culture in the above mentioned school. Crossing this information, we proceeded to interpret the data in order to identify the students 'expressions and imaginary related to Citizen Culture.


fibers were seen in the slides and a very few descending degenerated fascicles could be followed into the left nucleus ambiguus and the left inferior olivary nucleus. The second experiment resulted in a very small localized lesion involving a portion of the dorsal part and the capsule of the right inferior olivary nucleus. A needle tract similar to the one described on the left side extends rostrally from the lesion. No evidence of ascending degenerated fibers was found but a few descending degenerated fibers were followed into the right nucleus ambiguus and the right inferior olivary nucleus. In both experiments facial and palatal responses were obtained which depended upon the stimulation of the facial nuclei, through which the needle tract coursed, and the nucleus ambiguus. The descending degenerated fibers in both ambiguus nuclei and in both inferior olivary nuclei were due to the involvement of the fibers of the central tegmental bundle by the needle tract along the course of this fasciculus.


Uniaxial tensile tests were conducted on prismatic reinforced concrete specimens. Stress distribution along bar in addition to the total elongation was measured and average stress-average strain relationship of steel in post-yield range was obtained. In the average stress-average strain curve, steel starts to yield below its yield strength and the length of yield plateau is zero.The average stress-average strain curve can be predicted by assuming a stress distribution of steel. Instead of assuming a bond stress versus slip relationship or the bond stress distribution, the stress distribution was assumed directly. The stress distribution can be simply expressed by sine curve.


The Manoratha-Pūraṇī, Buddhaghosa's Commentary on the Aṅguttara-Nikāya, embraces a pretty large collection of highly important and interesting legends, which, according to my estimation, amounts to nearly one-third of the whole work. A general idea of it may be gained from two initial words, viz. Etad aggam; for each legend points to some follower of Gotama Buddha, an example, as it were, amongst all of the same kind, whether man or woman, whether member of the Order or still living in the world.


This paper introduces three major tools of urban growth management of the United States,that is,administrating and controlling the urban growing location,protecting natural resources,environmental quality and ecological features,and supplying with public infrastructure facilities and services.Based on the systematic description of each urban growth management tool,this paper finally points out the enlightenment to Chinese urban growth management and land use regulation.


IN THIS PAPER the basic principles of mechanics concernning the balance laws of the corrosion process models are presented. The corrosion process has been described by a linear law of creation of the oxide layer using a single corrosive rate constant. The mass defect is neglected in the balance law of mass. In the balance of mornentum, the corrosion processes are treated as a source of the additional compressive stresses. The kinematic magnitudes are treated independently of the corrosion processes. This approach is based on the infinitesimal strains and linear constitutive equations. Two linear versions of the theory, which are from the formal point of view certain variants of the Coupled Fields Theory, have been proposed. The first of them includes the corrosive term in the displacement equation of motion and has no mechanical term in the equation of corrosion. The second of them contains the coupling terms, both in the equation of motion and in the equation of corrosion.


The problems involved in designing solar distillers are considered. Using theoretical calculations and experimental data, the distribution of the solar energy inside a multistage-inclined distiller is determined.


The introduction of an uplink channel providing fast quality indication feedback on shared channels can improve packet data throughput in existing TDMA systems. It is shown that the uplink interference produced by this feedback channel is more than compensated by multi-user diversity gain.


In murine bone marrow macrophages, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces apoptosis through the autocrine production of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), as demonstrated by the fact that macrophages from TNF-α receptor I knock-out mice did not undergo early apoptosis. In these conditions LPS up-regulated the two concentrative high affinity nucleoside transporters here shown to be expressed in murine bone marrow macrophages, concentrative nucleoside transporter (CNT) 1 and 2, in a rapid manner that is nevertheless consistent with the de novo synthesis of carrier proteins. This effect was not dependent on the presence of macrophage colony-stimulating factor, although LPS blocked the macrophage colony-stimulating factor-mediated up-regulation of the equilibrative nucleoside transport system es. TNF-α mimicked the regulatory response of nucleoside transporters triggered by LPS, but macrophages isolated from TNF-α receptor I knock-out mice similarly up-regulated nucleoside transport after LPS treatment. Although NO is produced by macrophages after LPS treatment, NO is not involved in these regulatory responses because LPS up-regulated CNT1 and CNT2 transport activity and expression in macrophages from inducible nitric oxide synthase and cationic amino acid transporter (CAT) 2 knock-out mice, both of which lack inducible nitric oxide synthesis. These data indicate that the early proapoptotic responses of macrophages, involving the up-regulation of CNT transporters, follow redundant regulatory pathways in which TNF-α-dependent- and -independent mechanisms are involved. These observations also support a role for CNT transporters in determining extracellular nucleoside availability and modulating macrophage apoptosis.


A talker is supplied with a breathing mixture from a modified anesthesiology apparatus. The gas contains 20% oxygen, but the remainder consists of nitrogen and helium, the proportions of which may be varied to give several test conditions. In each case, the subject breathes the gas for a sufficient time before talking so that exhalation equilibrium is established. The talker then removes the breathing apparatus, produces a short utterance in a single exhalation, replaces the apparatus, and reestablishes equilibrium, repeating this as many times as may be necessary for the test. The exhaled gas is fed to a tube in which the velocity of sound is continuously monitored by measuring the time that it takes a pulse to travel the known length of the tube. In order to investigate possible acoustical‐feedback effects, the subject's hearing is masked by noise for some of the runs. Data on fundamental voicing periodicities in the several cases are presented.


The articles presents approaches to extract of parts of conic form from positions of analysis of technological deformability of modern non-ferrous metals. Use of modeling on research of process of multitransitional sheet extract for products not only improves the quality of process development, but also allows to predict technology and behavior of workpiece metal before production start. For modeling finite element AUTOFORM system is used. Basic data and results of modeling are given.


Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major metabolic disorder and if left untreated can lead to diabetic nephropathy (DN). This study investigated the effects of 2 and 4 months of type 1 diabetes on the morphology, fibrosis and apoptosis in kidneys using biochemical and molecular techniques. The results show that DM induced significant (p<0.05; Student's t–test) changes in body weight. DM also increased blood glucose, kidney weight and kidney to body weight ratios, an indication of renal hypertrophy compared to controls. DM also induced structural changes in the kidneys including dilation of tubules, thickened of basement membrane and disorganization of the glomeruli. Interstitial and perivascular fibrosis were also prominent as was the development of apoptosis compared to controls. These changes were accompanied by significant (p<0.05) increases in the gene expressions of collagen 1‐alpha, collagen 3 alpha, fibronectin, elastin, MMP9, TIMP4, CTGF, connexin 43, integrin alpha 5, vimentin TGF‐beta1, BNP and ANP compared to controls. Changes were more pronounced and significantly higher (p<0.05) in older DM rats. The results reveal that DM can be detrimental to the kidney structure and function leading to DN.


This study addresses factors in advertising that lead to interstitial ads being perceived as intrusive. Eight theory-driven hypotheses were derived and tested. The results indicate that the perception of intrusiveness of ads can be controlled by aspects of ad value, ad placement and ad execution.


This paper reevaluates plural theory and its implications through an analysis of M. G. Smith's contribution. Difficulties encountered stem from Smith's preoccupation with political causality and his assignment of conflict and consensus theory to two different kinds of society. We conclude that neither of these assumptions is integral to plural theory per se. Plural theory is capable of asking the appropriate questions concerning how the vertical corporations of a plural society are created, maintained, and transformed.


The author makes an analysis of the educational model developed by the National Apprenticeship Service —SENA— institution with a long tradi-tion in the training of technicians and technologists in various areas of accounting practice. It emphasizes the relationship between the curricular design and the realities of the apprentices of the institution, and how they respond to problems that are not addressed or identified in professional training programs.


This study aims to examine the patterns of residential mobility between Seoul and Incheonand Gyeonggi-do over last 10 years. It pays attention to who moves, and where and whythey moves from Seoul to Incheon and Gyeonggi-do, and vise versa. The number of move-inhouseholds amounts to 210 thousand ever...


Method and system for processing a DNS request from a first network node (12; 1) during an access attempt by a client application (11) to a remote server (18) on an IP network. The method comprises the steps of: - receiving the DNS query by a second network node (14; 12); - obtaining from the DNS query to a DNS identifier associated with a third network node (1, 12; 18); - search from the received DNS ID, at least one record having a predefined format and containing network connectivity information relating at least to the third network node (1,12; 18); - if at least one record was found, recovering at least a recording and use by the second network node (14; 12) connectivity information contained in at least one record for at least adapt the treatment of DNS query according to these connectivity information.


The present invention relates to a method for producing nanoparticles having a layered structure. The method for preparing layered nanoparticles of the present invention comprises the steps of preparing a mixed solution by adding a metal halide precursor and a sulfur precursor to an organic solvent containing an amine; Heating the mixed solution to a predetermined temperature to produce metal sulfide nanoparticles having a layered structure; And separating the metal sulfide nanoparticles from the mixed solution, and there is an advantage of manufacturing layered nanoparticles in a simple process, and various kinds of layered nanostructures by varying the type of the metal halide precursor. There is an advantage to produce particles. Metal halide precursors, sulfur precursors, amines, organic solvents, layered structures, nanoparticles


In nature the inert gas helium exists in two forms, isotopes, with fundamentally different properties. The study of superfluidity and its effect on the property of helium liquid is considered to be principle interest of the researcher from the last century. In this paper a brief account of the property of helium isotopes and the physics involve in the superfluidity of 3 He and 4 He are being discussed. Also listed in this paper are different methods suggested and work done by various research groups to explain superfluidity and its related property in liquid helium.


Abstract In this paper the status of land degradation is analyzed in a plains sector near Centenario town in Neuquen Province. To carry on this analysis it was used digital processing of satellite images which were analyzed within the conceptual framework of landscape ecology (Forman and Godron, 1986). The study area comprises the old river terraces of Neuquen River, from a Pleistocene age, which have a sandy mantle that covers them, which usually constitutes the horizon where the soils that allow the development of a xeric vegetation, typical of the arid environments, in the eastern part of the Neuquen Province. This place is exposed to intense human activity for more than 50 years, related to hydrocarbon extraction what should be added, given the proximity of urban centers, the permanent removal of plant species for use as fuel. In addition to the information obtained during the field trips and the analysis of the background to this, the methodology involves the use of GIS Idrisi (Kilimanjaro version) for the digital processing of Landsat ETM satellite imagery provided by CONAE. The results were compared with information obtained from various field trips, and to recognize different matrices, patches and corridors, according to the methodology of Landscape Ecology.