Abstract. The Graffiti art is one of the most important ways to expression the individual and group approaches of today urban areas that is the main base of the paper. This research is aimed of comparative study of Iran and England graffiti art at the time of four recent decades to survey two artists belong both countries in the names of "Tanha" and "Banksy" as case samples. The thesis results were obtained in comparative and cross-sectional method shows that an Iranian artist express more his criticism of events in Iran and other matters around the worlds have secondary importance, but Banksy rely is on his works of world events in the past and now. Moreover, it seems an Iranian artist has more conservative to created works of political and social content, but a Western artist has more venture and explicit to express his art, and sometimes directly represent and criticize the true character of his society. Iranian works shows his Iranian identifies, but a Western artist works are not shows the belonging to a country.


The OECD has developed a comparative international programme-'Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes' which aims to evaluate undergraduates' learning outcomes of Higher Education Institutions during a period of five years. This programme makes a breakthrough on the collegiate modal of traditional quality assessment in terms of its assessment ideas, methods, contents and techniques from 'proposing assumptions' to'meeting challenges' and from'developing instruments' to'utting into practices'. Undoubtedly, it has an importantly practical significance and expanding value as the comprehensive international assessment way based on'students- centered idea'.


In this paper, we demonstrate the structure and characteristics of the bandwidth-efficient stereoscopic 3-D broadcasting system entitled service compatible 3-D-TV using main and mobile hybrid delivery (SC-MMH), which enables the broadcasters to provide three different types of services (2-D fixed, mobile, and 3-D) by transmitting only the two legacy broadcast streams (2-D fixed and mobile). By combining the two existing broadcast networks, the proposed system provides high quality 3-D services, fully guarantees backward-compatibility with the legacy fixed/mobile 2-D receivers, and maximizes the channel efficiency. One major feature of the proposed system is bit-rate saving based on the video resolution asymmetry between the left and right eye views, also referred to as "mixed-resolution." Although it is well-known wisdom that the mixed-resolution stereoscopic videos are perceived close to the higher resolution based on the binocular rivalry suppression theory, the perceived quality also depends on the factors such as scale ratio, viewing distance, bit-rate distribution, and types of codecs. Therefore, we conducted the objective and subjective tests to measure the service quality of the proposed system and find the optimum bit-rate distribution points, and with the results, we demonstrate that SC-MMH can provide the satisfactory quality when the proper level of bit-rate is allocated to the mobile service.


Sunquist offers more detailed surveys of some pressing issues in modern Christian history, including politics and persecution (77–94), the role of migration (135–52), and interactions with other world religions (153–76). Among these, the migration section is perhaps most useful and innovative because it deals with a vitally important matter that still receives nothing like the attention it deserves, and that is still underserved by scholarly case studies. We could indeed make the case that, when Christian leaders imagined the future a century ago, the two largest areas that they omitted or underplayed were demography and migration. Failure to understand these two mighty driving factors is chiefly what made this past Christian century "unexpected." Scholars have largely caught up with the demographic aspect, but migration studies still have many surprising gaps. There is very little that I would challenge or fault in the book, although I would quibble with Sunquist's label of "Spiritual" churches, which comprehends many independent and Pentecostal congregations. While I understand the need for some comprehensive term, Spiritual is surely too close to Spiritist and Spiritualist, two very different realities! This extremely useful and often provocative survey can be thoroughly recommended as a textbook for a wide range of academic settings. It also makes excellent reading for the nonspecialist who is curious about just where the Christian faith is going worldwide.


Suitable for RNs preparing to take the NP examination for certification as an Adult Nurse Practitioner, these review books provide an upper hand to passing and excelling on the exam. Unlike other certification reviews, this book provides a special "question dissection" section of sample questions and test tips that help reduce test anxiety by preparing students for commonly seen questions and teach a critical thinking approach to answers. Special features include: overview of normal findings in physical assessment by organ systems in outline format; succinct review of diseases seen in primary care in outline format; and, "Question dissection" chapter with specific test-taking tips for the exam.


This paper describes the results of the first computational investigation of characteristic visual complexity in the architecture of Peter Eisenman. The research uses a variation of the "box-counting" approach to determining a quantitative value of the formal complexity present in five of Eisenman's early domestic works (Houses I, II, III, IV and VI all of which were completed between 1968 and 1976). The boxcounting approach produces an approximate fractal dimension calculation for the visual complexity of an architectural elevation. This method has previously been used to analyse a range of historic and modern buildings including the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Eileen Gray, Le Corbusier and Kazuyo Sejima. Peter Eisenman's early house designs–important precursors to his later Deconstructivist works–are widely regarded as possessing a high degree of formal consistency and a reasonably high level of visual complexity. Through this analysis it is possible to quantify both the visual complexity and the degree of consistency present in this work for the first time.


For the past nineteen years, much of Campania has been engulfed in a "waste emergency," with urban waste invading the region's cities (D'Alisa, Di Nola, and Giampietro 2012) and toxic waste being deposited in dumping grounds (Pasotti 2008). The waste crisis overlaps speculative socioeconomic planning, based largely on investment in the construction and waste disposal sectors, that characterizes recent economic development in the region (Pasotti 2010). The land in the provinces of Naples, Caserta, and Avellino is increasingly subjected to intense soil exploitation, private real estate speculation, and incremental industrial dislocation, all accompanied by displacement of the service industry (Di Costanzo 2013) and ongoing establishment of legal and illegal landfills (Rabitti 2008). Pervasive speculation has also contributed to the progressive impoverishment of Campania's rural areas.


Coupled discrete nonlinear Schrodinger equations describe two-species BEC in optical lattices or light polarization coupling in waveguide arrays. Elastic or inelastic collisions of travelling discrete breathers depend on the interaction parameter.


Preliminary results are presented, of measurements of thrust (T) and specific impulse (Isp), produced by a single emitter prototype colloid propulsion system. The development of the colloid thruster propulsion package at Stanford University is in preparation for flighttesting on a 20-kg university nanosatellite, to be launched in 2003. The half-kilogram Colloid Micro Thruster (CMT) package measures 10 cm x 10 cm x 20 cm, consumes 6 watts of maximum power for all on-board functions (including power processing, and microprocessor control system), and stores and provides controlled delivery of 10 ml of 2.0 M sodium-iodide/glycerol propellant to the emission source. The prototype unit tested here is highly modular, to allow testing of multiple thruster "core" designs. Here we report on the performance of a single-emitter core, consisting of a 150 μm OD / 75 μm ID stainlesssteel capillary needle charged to as high as 6 kV relative to the extractor which is maintained at spacecraft ground potential. The measured emission current is found to be exponentially dependent on the applied acceleration voltage, placing it outside of regimes studied previously. Performance mapping, carried out by two indirect methods of determining T and Isp (from steady-state measurements of current and mass flow, and from time-of flight measurements) indicates operation at a level of Isp = 200 sec and T = 4 μN – somewhat below design targets, due largely to the relatively low applied voltage used (~4.5 kV). A discussion is presented about interesting dynamical behavior seen at emission onset, when current "bursts" are observed.


Rumination is a psychological process that is featured by a repetitive pattern of intrusive thoughts that, by focusing the person into painful cognitive contents, elicits suffering. Usually people try to deal with these ruminative thoughts by trying to avoid thinking, which paradoxically makes the thoughts even more intense. Several researchers proposed that ruminative thoughts are central in anxiety and depressive disorders and that the treatment of rumination is also pivotal in the treatment of these disorders. This study is a first attempt to construct a game that trains players in shifting the attention from ruminative thoughts to problem-solving tasks, illustrating the use of the game. We expect that training such an ability will reduce the intensity of that thoughts. It is our expectation that the continuous use of games with these kind of features will reduce the intensity of ruminative thoughts, improving the wellbeing and reducing the psychological suffering of players.


Daily chores, such as physical shopping, are often a challenge for the visually impaired, unlike for somebody with normal vision. Although several existing shopping tools can assist the visually impaired to shop independently, most of them are limited to navigation, not portable, difficult to use, and expensive. These tools do not convey the information printed on the product to the users. Therefore, this paper presents the development of an assistive shopping tool that integrates Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and provides speech output to assist the visually impaired to do physical shopping independently. This tool is an assimilation of several processes that make use of hardware components namely mobile camera, Raspberry Pi module, earphones, breadboard, and software components that are Raspberry Pi OS, Tesseract, OpenCV, and Festival to allow portability, ease of use and less expensive. Validation processes were performed, and the accuracy of the developed shopping tool was evaluated under different scenarios to best reflect the actual shopping. The developed shopping tool can reach up to 75% to 99% accuracy and the voice output of the recognized text has a high audio quality.


This paper introduces briefly the basic theory of the chemical anchorage technology and the demands of the materials in the wharf reinforcement and reconstruction.Also in this paper,the writer summarized the technological process and construction method of the chemical anchorage,pointed out that the chemical anchorage technique was simple,had strong applicability,which could ensure the construction quality.


Salt Lake City-The Light Adjustable Lens (LAL, Calhoun Vision) is an exciting new technology for the future, said Nick A. Mamalis, MD.


Silicon nitride (Si3N4) ceramics with Y2O3-Al2O3 as sintering additives were prepared by pressureless sintering technology using two kinds of Si3N4 powders as raw materials. The particle size of Si3N4 powders ball-milled with various times were characterized and the effects of particle size on the densification behavior of Si3N4 ceramics were investigated. The relative density and microstructure of the sintered bodies at different sintering temperatures were determined. The experimental results show that the powders with longer milling time have finer particle size and the samples with fine particle display higher shrinkage-rate at lower sintering temperature than the one with coarse particle. By extending milling time, the density gap between the sintered ceramics using different Si3N4 powder become narrower. The main factor resulting in the difference of sintering densification behavior is the particle size of Si3N4 powders rather than metallic oxide impurity of raw powders.


A split-plot experiment was carried out to study the effects of top-dr essing time and planting density on yield and components of new wheat cultivar Yunong 202.The results showed that top-dressing time had a significant effect on yield but not on its components.Planting density had a highly significant effect on yield and on the spike number per hectare and grain number per spike but not on 1 000-grain weight.There were great yield difference and some components difference among planting densities in different top-dressing time.Gra in number per spike and the spike number per hectare had a larger direct effect on yield in the different treatments of planting density and top-dressing time. Postponing top-dressing time and controlling planting density with 1.8 million~2.4 mil lion plants·hm-2 can increase the yield potential of wheat cultivar Yunong 202.


Myocardial rupture complications after acute myocardial infarction are infrequent but lethal. They mainly involve rupture of the ventricular free wall, ventricular septum, papillary muscle, or combined. We compare features of different kinds of myocardial ruptures after acute myocardial infarction by reviewing the clinical insights. Tanzania Medical Journal Vol. 23 (1) 2008: pp. 30-33


Literature classic awareness is people's cognition of the literature classics and the creation of literature classics.In Chinese classic poetics,literature classic awareness has experienced a process of development.It has tight relation with the literature concept conscious or not and with the art spirit independent or not.The earliest form of the literature classic awareness is culture classic consciousness.The second stage is the literature classic awareness of Confucian school.The third stage is the literature classic awareness built on the pure literature concepts.The different implication of the literature classic awareness in different development stage also has an important effect on Chinese classic poetics.


4-(Chloroacetyl)diphenyl ether (I) was synthesized from chloroacetyl chloride and diphenyl ether in the presence of AlCl3 as catalyst in a Friedel-Crafts reaction. Subsequently, its keto oxime (II) derivative was prepared. Then 3 new substituted 4-(alkylaminoisonitrosoacetyl)diphenyl ether ligands derived from 4-(phenoxy)phenyloxylohydroxymoyl chloride and corresponding amines were synthesized. The following aromatic and aliphatic amines were used for the ligands ethanolamine, 2-amino-4-methylphenol, and 2(aminomethyl) pyridine. Mononuclear or binuclear Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), and Cd(II) complexes of the ligands were synthesized. The structures of these ligands were identified by FT-IR, 1 H-NMR, and 13 CNMR spectral data and elemental analysis, and the structures of the complexes were identified by FT-IR, ICP-AES, elemental analysis, and magnetic susceptibility measurements.


This study compares and contrasts elementary mathematics curricula of Kore a, China, Japan, and USA, as a part of efforts to compose contents of global ele mentary mathematics. This paper analyzed the similarities and the differences of mathematical contents in the domain of geometry. On the basis of this comparat ive analysis, this paper included implications that are expected to be informative in the revision of the Korean mathematics curriculum.


The transport and distribution of phloem – mobile solutes is predominantly determined by transport processes located at the sink end of the source – transport – sink system. Transport across the sieve element boundary, sieve element unloading, is the first of a series of sink transport processes. Unloading of solutes from the sieve elements may follow an apo- or symplastic route. It is speculated that the unloading pathway is integrated with sink function and that apoplastic unloading is restricted to situations in which movement through the symplast is not compatible with sink function. These situations include axial transport and storage of osmotically active solutes against concentration and turgor gradients between the sieve elements and sink cells. Coupled with alteration in sink function, the cellular pathway of unloading can switch in stems and possibly other sinks. Experimental systems and approaches used to elucidate the mechanism of sieve element unloading are reviewed. Unloading fluxes to the apoplast can largely be accounted for by membrane diffusion in axial sinks. However, the higher fluxes in storage sinks suggests dependence on some form of facilitated transport. Proton sucrose symport is assessed to be a possible mechanism for facilitated efflux of solutes across the sieve element plasma membrane to the sink apoplast. Unloading through the symplast may occur by diffusion or mass flow. The latter mechanism serves to dissipate phloem water and hence prevent the potential elevation of sieve element turgor that would otherwise slow phloem import into the sink. The possibility of energised plasmodesmatal transport is raised. Sieve element unloading must be integrated with subsequent compartmentation and metabolism of the unloaded solute. Solute levels are an obvious basis for control of sieve element unloading, but are found to offer limited scope for a mass action mechanism. Apoplastic, cellular pathway, sieve element, solute transport, symplastic. Translated into a turgor signal, solute levels could regulate the rate of unloading, metabolism and compartmentation forming part of a turgor homeostat irrespective of the pathway of unloading.


Potted seedlings of Poputustremutoides Michx., Populusbalsamifera L., Alnuscrispa (Ait.) Pursh., and Betulapapyrifera Marsh., hardwoods of the taiga of interior Alaska, were placed under soil-temperature treatments of 5, 15, and 25 °C with plant tops under a growth-room regime of 20-h day length and day–night air temperatures of 25 and 20 °C, respectively. Photosynthesis showed a differential soil-temperature effect among the species. Maximum photosynthetic rates of 9.5 mg CO2•h−1•dm−2 were observed for P. tremuloides at 25 °C soil and 25 °C air temperature; 9.3 mg CO2•h−1•dm−2 for P. balsamifera at the same temperature combination; and 7.8 mg CO2•h−1•dm−2 for A. crispa at 25 °C air temperature and the lowest soil-temperature treatment, 5 °C. The maximum photosynthetic rate observed for B. papyrifera was 4.9 mg CO2•h−1•dm−2 at 25 °C soil temperature and 20 °C air temperature; low values being due to nonsaturating light conditions. Both leaf dark respiration and conductance were reduced by the 5 °C soil-te...


Purpose to explore the value of fundus‐controlled (micro)perimetry in determining the functional state of macular retina in order to predict the functional results of vitrectomy surgery in patients with idiopathic macular hole (MH).


Corrosion on tubular structures and the targeted use of dispersive ultrasound wave modes offers the possibility to detect corrosion-related wall thickness reductions along the path of the ultrasonic wave considering ultrasonic transmission measurements. The effect measured is based on the fact that both phaseand group velocity of the ultrasonic wave are a dispersive mode that varies with wall thickness. Through analysis of phase position and / or travel time of specific modes, information resulting from the wall thickness reduction, along the acoustic wave path can be accessed. This is made possible through Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducers (EMATs), which allow a pure mode excitation of a guided ultrasonic wave to be generated, such that this excitation as well as receiving configuration allows an exact evaluation of the phase position to be obtained. Furthermore, a targeted impression of a desired trace wavelength is possible. Due to the EMAT principle, generation and recording of an ultrasonic signal is done without direct contact with the specimen. Fraunhofer IZFP's newly developed EMATs not only allow the variation of ultrasonic modes, but also a change in the trace wavelength. Hence, by analysis of the phase in different specific modes and locations on the component to be inspected, important information for the quantitative error determination can be found. Particularly, this approach can be used to detect shallow wall thickness changes, which do not generate measurable reflection signals.


In this paper, we introduce the retraction of simplicial complexes in its different types. The incidence matrices representing these retractions will be obtained. Theorems governing these studies will be achieved.


Summary. Samples of 614 British and 579 Hungarian pupils aged 13–17 completed an inventory covering 20 sub-scales of school motivation and approaches to studying. Indices of attainment in arts and science were also obtained. The factor structure of the inventory proved to be remarkably stable across nationality and sex, with school motivation accounting for two factors (the emotional and moral domains, and the cognitive domain) and approaches to studying dividing into three (meaning, reproducing, and organising/strategic). Correlations of the scales with attainment were obtained, along with multiple regression analyses. The overall inventory provides valuable information to teachers in the form of not just a single index of school motivation but also a profile of scores indicating different types of motive and ways of tackling school work.


Woods is very important for cities. The paper proposes that the space extension of cities and city forestry should develop concurrently,that is, based on the principle of natural evolvement, to make development plan for city to keep current space for city forestry and harmonybetween city and nature.


Cervical cancer is the second most common type of cancer that affects women, ranked after breast cancer. In Malaysia, there is a shortage of pathologists that can diagnose the disease. Therefore, automated or semiautomated diagnosis systems are needed to overcome this shortage. In this study, a neural network . based cervical cancer diagnosis system using microcontrollers is proposed. The . current study proposes a hybrid neural network, known as the Hybrid Multilayered Perceptron (HMLP) network, to process the input features for diagnosis. The Modified Recursive Prediction Error (MRPE) algorithm is used as . a training algorithm for the HMLP network. The Intel 8051 microcontroller is used as the brain of the system. The developed system is used to test a total of . 202 sets of input features obtained from patients. Prior to the testing, medical ,experts have classified the data, based on their .diagnosis, into 2 categories: nonnal and abnormal. The experts' diagnosis will be used as a standard to grade . the suitability of the system. The suitability of the system is determined by five ~ criterias, namely accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, false negative and false positive. After testing, it is discovered that the system achieved 100% accuracy, : sensitivity. and specificity values. There are 0% of false negative and false , positive cases. This shows that the diagnosis of the system matches exactly' to that of the medical experts. ~. .


Novel electrical and optical properties of two dimensional (2D) semiconductors highlight their potential applications in optoelectronic devices. Here we report on our experimental investigation into the charge transport and exciton dynamics in some semiconducting 2D crystals such as MoS2 and WSe2.


The traditional mixed oral English teaching model has many obvious shortcomings, such as the inability to correct the students' oral pronunciation errors and feed them back in time, which leads to the slow improvement of students' English learning level. For this reason, this paper proposes a guided teaching model based on core literacy. According to the structure of the oral English mixed teaching model, determine the application plan of the oral English mixed teaching model, design the development environment, obtain the corpus, design the oral training model, extract the oral features, identify the wrong pronunciation and correct it in time, clarify the evaluation purpose, obtain preliminary evaluation indicators, reduce evaluation indicators and determine indicator weights, obtain indicator feature information, generate fuzzy rules, obtain fuzzy matrices, achieve quantitative evaluation, and synthesize all evaluation scores to construct a result vector matrix to realize the study of mixed spoken language teaching mode. Research shows that the mixed teaching method is effective and feasible and can effectively improve the accuracy of the evaluation results of the mixed oral English teaching model.


On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. This legislation allocates approximately $34 billion dollars in stimulus money for health information technology (IT), the bulk of which will go to physicians and hospitals. Physicians who are "meaningful users" of electronic medical records (EHRs) by at least 2012 are eligible to receive incentive payments from either Medicare or Medicaid (not both). The Medicare incentive provides up to $44,000 each. If at least 30% of a physician's practice are Medicaid patients, the physician may opt for incentives from Medicaid instead, which will total $63,750 each. But the window of opportunity shuts relatively quickly soon after. Physicians who miss the deadline and aren't ready to start cashing in by 2012 will see the dollars slip away year by year, beginning with an initial reduction in the incentive of at least $18,000. Those who are not ready until after 2014 will not be eligible for an incentive payment. After 2016, the government will provide no further incentive payments. It's clear the president believes in the value of health information technology to improve the quality, safety, and value of health care. But do we in Rhode Island also believe in health IT; and if so, how well are we positioned to secure the federal funding for implementing it?


Thermoluminescence spectra of gamma-irradiated shells of oysters, scallops, mussels, littleneck clams, and freshwater clams are measured with a multichannel Fourier-transform luminescence spectrometer. Oysters, scallops, and mussels isothermally heated at 200 °C show strong luminescence due to the electronic transition of Mn2+, which is included as an impurity in shells and excited to a metastable state by gamma-ray irradiation. Littleneck clams and freshwater clams show very weak thermoluminescence under the same experimental conditions and show strong thermoluminescence owing to phase transition when they are heated at 450 °C before gamma-ray irradiation. The phase transition of the crystal structures from aragonite to calcite is monitored by infrared spectroscopy.


The present invention relates to high temperature resistant monocarboxylic thickenable vinyl ester resin, in particular a high temperature may be thickened vinyl ester resin, from 40% to 50% epoxy resin, 10% to 20% of an unsaturated acid, 2% to 6% of an unsaturated polycarboxylic acid or polycarboxylic acid anhydride, 0.03% to 0.1% of a polymerization inhibitor, the presence of 0.1% to 0.3% of catalyst for 2 to 6 hours at 85 ℃ ~ 120 ℃, then was dissolved in 30% to 40% of a crosslinkable monomer, a resin was prepared. Resin excellent in high temperature properties and thickening effect of the present invention, use of the resin prepared SMC sheet having excellent heat resistance and good impact resistance.


Melioidosis, caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei, is prevalent in rural areas of Malaysia. The aim of this study is to delineate the epidemiology and predictors of mortality from melioidosis in Kapit district, Sarawak.


Objective To study the effect of fluoride against erosion of soft drinks on enamel surface of primary teeth.Methods 154 pieces of enamel were selected from retained human primary teeth and randomly divided into 5groups.After respectively being treated with 0.1%NaF solution,fluoride protector and Bifluorid 12 for 7days,they were immersed at intervals in some beverage for 15 min each time,5 times per day,for 7days.The SMH and calcium content of all enamel specimens were measured before and after experiments.The data of each enamel slab were analyzed by a repeated measure analysis of variance and Dunn T test.Morphological changes of enamel surface were observed by SEM(scanning electron microscope).Results The SMH and calcium content of enamel slabs obviously decreased after exposure to the beverage.Differences between those treated and non-treated with fluoride was statistically significant(P0.001).The Bifluorid 12 and fluoride protector showed a more significant effect than NaF(P0.05).The loss of gloss,irregular loss of dental tissues and solubilization of enamel primes in variable degrees among experimental groups were found by SEM.After the enamel was treated with fluoride,erosive lesions were less severe.Conclusion Soft drinks have significant erosive effects on enamel of primary teeth.The treatment of enamel with topical fluoride can enhance the resistance of enamel to erosion of soft drinks.This study recommends that Bifluorid 12 and fluoride protector are more efficacious fluorides.


The regulation, market pressure, and company image have motivated the company to consider sustainability issues in their production process. A lean production competitive strategy enables the company to identify waste and improper activities during production, thus enhancing the sustainable manufacturing performance (Sustainability Index). This research aims to provide empirical evidence of how the lean production competitive strategy improves the Sustainability Index (SI). A case study was conducted in an Indonesian plastic molding company. This research consists of three main phases. The first phase defines the Sustainable Value Stream Mapping (SVSM) and SI indicators, the second phase focuses on creating current SVSM and measuring SI, and the third phase focuses on the results achieved after improvement. There are 2360.89 seconds, 1450.86 seconds, 3.2%, and 1.06 seconds time reductions for non-value added activities, necessary non-value-added activities, process cycle efficiency, and cycle time, respectively. Moreover, there are improvements of 0.05, 0.02, 2.14, and 0.21 for the economic, social, environmental, and overall SI. The results of this research can guide practitioners in implementing a lean production competitive strategy to enhance the SI. For academicians, the research provides empirical evidence of the positive impact of lean production competitive strategy making a company more sustainable.


Transparent conducting gallium doped zinc oxide (GaZnO) films were prepared by magnetron sputtering technique. The influence of growth temperature on the microstructural and optical properties of the films were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), spectrophotometer and optical characterization method, respectively. The results show that all the samples are polycrystalline in nature having a hexagonal wurtzite type crystal structure with a preferred grain orientation in the (002) direction. The growth temperature significantly affects the crystal structure and optical properties of the samples. The film deposited at the growth temperature of 670 K possesses the largest grain grain, the minimum dislocation density and the lowest microstrain. The average visible transmittance and optical energy gap of the samples increase gradually with the increment of growth temperature.


activation for the two dissociating channels are essentially the same [i.e., (S ‡ ) 0], while (S ‡ ) for the propanol-containing pairs ranged between 40 and 45 J K 1 mol 1 . The latter non-zero values are due to a combination of the location of the dividing surface in each dissociation and the rapidity with the frequencies of the vanishing vibrational modes go to zero as they are converted to product translations and rotations during the dissociation. (J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 2005, 16, 2039 –2044) © 2005 American Society for Mass Spectrometry


We show how Java can be used to develop portable implementations of distributed algorithms for class demonstrations and laboratory exploration. The programs can be used in two modes: (a) TCP/IP communications over a net, or (b) applet-to-applet communications on a single HTML page. The latter mode is important during program development and can also be used if your lab malfunctions or for homework assignments. Programs were written for four distributed algorithms: Byzantine generals, Ricart-Agrawala mutual exclusion, Dijkstra-Scholten termination and Chandy-Lamport snapshots.


The equal contributors statement should read: "XH and ESS are Joint first authors. HMK and LJ are Joint senior authors." The 'Contributions' section at the end of the paper should read: "ESS, XZ, MLI, JL, XL, LJ, JAS, FAM, HMK, LJ: study concept and design; All authors except XY, HZ are involved in designing the study text messages; XH, XZ, HZ, XY, XL are involved in the implementation of the project; XH, ESS, QD, PH, CM drafting the initial manuscript. All authors provided critical revision of the paper, read and approved the final manuscript."


Because of the structure property of radar absorbing coatings, using of the existing methods for testing these materials is quite difficult. In this paper, a combined-measurement technique was proposed for broadband characterization of microwave absorbing coatings using flanged rectangular waveguide sensor. The technique combines both frequency sweep reflections measurement and two-layer method to provide two different test conditions of the needed reflection coefficients necessary to extract both complex permittivity and complex permeability over a given frequency range. The first set of reflection coefficients is obtained by directly placing the sensor alongside the coating material and performing broadband measurement using frequency sweep over the selected frequency points of frequency range. The same procedure is applied on a combination of known material followed by the test material to measure the second set of the respective reflection coefficients. Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method was employed to numerically calculate the sensor reflection coefficient and analyse the influence of the sensor geometry and coating material thickness on measurement accuracy. The measurement results of both complex permittivity and permeability for various samples of microwave absorbing coatings were agreed well with reference data. Simple interpolation approximation was introduced in their extraction process from multiple reflection coefficient data since they are frequency dependent parameters . The proposed technique speeds up and simplifies coating materials testing, while it decreases the error due to repeatability of measurement.


Degradation modeling and remaining useful life (RUL) prediction for products with multiple degradation features are hot topics in the prognostic and health management. The key to this problem is to describe the dependence among multiple degradation features effectively. In this paper, a multivariate degradation modeling approach based on the Bayesian dynamic linear model (BDLM) is proposed to calculate the RULs of degradation features, and the Copula function is employed to capture the dependence among RUL distributions. A combined BDLM is used to establish the multivariate degradation model, which includes two typical BDLMs, namely, the linear growth model and seasonal factors model. After the model parameters get calibrated by the maximum likelihood estimation, the model can predict the degradation process of features. Once the failure thresholds are given, the probability density function and cumulative distribution function (CDF) of RUL for each degradation feature can be obtained. Since these RUL distributions are not independent of each other, the Copula function is adopted herein to couple the CDFs. Finally, some practical testing data of a microwave component, which has two degradation features, are utilized to validate our proposed method. This paper provides a new idea for the multivariate degradation modeling and RUL prediction.


We are vigorously continuing our research into the design, demonstration, and application of the Nova laser-pumped x-ray laser. Using exploding foil1,2 plasma amplifier designs we are pursuing inversion schemes using neon, nickel, and other ionization sequences in an effort to achieve significant single-pass or multipass amplification at wavelengths shorter than 10 nm. We report the status of our measurements of the saturation energies, coherent power, beam divergence, modal purity, and other laser characteristics. We also describe our designs and progress on demonstration of multipass amplifiers. Finally, a review is given of the various interesting applications of x-ray lasers having wavelengths in the 3-10-nm regime.


Along with the rise of E-government affairs in China,the construction of E-government in the new countryside has been put on the agenda.As a system,constructing E-government in the new countryside must obey the general guiding theory of information construction of new countryside.Meanwhile,it also has to obey all the fundamental principles about infrastructure building,institutional arrangement,step-by-step control and business process reengineering.What is more,it is expected to follow the primary strategy of gradual development and unified planning.The development of China's E-government has to be based on China's reality in order to handle all the complicated relations.Along with the construction of new countryside,E-government will witness a new era for its development.


A comparative study of amorphous, uniaxially and biaxially oriented films was performed using thermally stimulated current (TSC) spectroscopy. The TSC peak around the glass temperature (T/sub g/) was investigated. In amorphous polyethylene terephthalate (PET) a TSC peak was observed at 82 degrees C, while under uniaxial orientation, it was shifted to 88 degrees C, and under biaxial orientation, it reaches 100 degrees C. The shift of this T/sub g/ peak under stretching indicates a stiffening of the amorphous chains. The analysis of the fine structure of these complex peaks shows the existence of compensation phenomena. For uniaxially and biaxially oriented PET this analysis reveals a lower and upper temperature component for the glass transition. This phenomenon indicates the existence of a segregated phase.<<ETX>>


Background: Trace elements are essential micronutrients in the development of the metabolic complication of obesity , arterial hypertension ,dyslipidemia , and insulin resistance or diabetes . According these it is important to known and measure the trace elements status in obesity.
Aim of the study: A study was performed to estimate serum levels trace elements status Sodium( Na) , Potassium (K ) , Calcium (Ca ) ,and, Chloride (Cl )in the adults obese comparison with normal weight controls , and to evaluate their potential association with insulin resistance .
Material and Methods: Eighty obesity with Body Mass Index(BMI) 35-39.5 Kg/m2and twenty health person with ( BMI ) 18 -24.5 Kg/m2 as control group aged 20-40 years were assessed the serum levels trace elements and also were evaluated the insulin resistance in the obesity and control groups, according to Homeo- static Model Of Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) protocol.
Results : Compared to the control group Ca and K serum levels were significantly lower ( all P


Pogonus rodolphi Alluaud, a small semiaquatic carabid, lives in aggregation under rocks or in the wet soil along the margin of soda lakes in eastern Africa, including Kenya's Rift Valley region. The beetles migrate horizontally or vertically depending on the movement of the lake water, seeking an optimal temperature of 22–23°C and a soil humidity of 60–70%. They are mainly nocturnal and active throughout the year. Adults live for one year. Both sexes mate with several different individuals throughout life. The number of eggs per female is 20 at maximum, but because only one egg matures at a time and is deposited singly, the oviposition period lasts 5–6 mo. The main food is Spirulina platensis Nordst, a blue-green alga that thrives in soda lakes. There is one generation of this beetle a year. The spermatheca contains spermatozoa of 4–5 different males, which are discharged simultaneously into the vagina by capillary action of the seminal duct. Consequently, there is no sperm precedence in this species. However, the bursal system consisting of bursa copulatrix, bursal duct, and seminal duct is absent in newly emerged females. It appears suddenly when the first egg matures 2–3 wk after emergence and disappears after the second oviposition, 5–6 mo later. Eggs developed after this period are, therefore, unfertilized and are resorbed. Usually, there is only one bursa copulatrix per female, but sometimes there are 2, 3, or even 6. Also, the poor timing of the egg-sperm encounter often results in considerable sperm waste. From these facts, I hypothesize that the bursal system, which causes sperm nonprecedence, is a recent development and has evolved from a sperm-precedence system which still occurs in ≈6% of females.


Women and youth in developing countries remain unserved or underserved by formal financial services. The rise of digital financial services (DFS), including mobile money, provides a promise to accelerate financial and economic inclusion to these population segments. As a result, both academic researchers and policy makers are increasingly interested in understanding the role of gender and age in the use of DFS across use cases. To nuance this, the current study analyses data from a sample of 3000 respondents collected during the second quarter of 2022 from the ten provinces of Zimbabwe. Results from multivariate logit models, controlling for some socio-economic factors, show that in Zimbabwe, gender is not a significant predictor of receiving income through digital means, making payments for goods and services digitally, or for the frequency of DFS use. On the other hand, youth lag in the use of DFS, especially for making payments for goods and services, and in the frequency of use. Besides the findings on gender and age, the study reveals that the level of education, the source of income, locality, and the level of income are important determinants of how individuals use DFS in Zimbabwe.


Much of the policy analysis and public administration literature is concerned, explicitly, with proposals to improve the quality of public policy. Academics seek to give guidance to a variety of policymakers, including councillors, local government professionals, members of health authorities, health service professionals, civil servants and so on. Here we review the state of this art, discuss the value of various approaches to improving policy and consider whether yet other approaches might be valuable.


Several modified slaked limes were obtained by lime hydration in NaOH, KOH, Na2CO3 and K2CO3 water solutions of special concentrations. At temperature region of 210 - 310℃, the HCI retention capabilities of these modified limes had been tested and were found greatly enhanced. Furthermore, the retention capabilities of those modified limes remained high values under the condition of lower initial HCI concentrations. Investigations showed that unknown crystals have been formed in modified slaked limes and their products, which improve pore structures of both the limes and their product layers, and that none CaCl·2H2O was produced when most of modified limes reacting with HCl, instead, Ca(CIO)2·xH2O and CaCl2 were main products, which favors the reaction. SEM pictures showed that product layers of modified limes are more porous than that of pure lime.


20017 Background: Although dendritic cells (DC) play a fundamental role in immunoresponse, inside tumor tissue they are highly ineffective, probably because of tumor immunosuppression. Despite this...


Figure 1: Location of Gansu and its Five Major Geographic Regions Gender inequality versus girls' education Figure 3 illustrates the spatial distribution of differences in non-lower secondary school attendance rates between girls and boys. Specific local conditions play an important role in the schooling for girls. The widest gaps are mainly observed in the south and less present in the north. Moreover, girls' non-attendance is often worse in minority populated and poor counties. Of the 80 counties in the province, 50% have a higher nonschooling rate for the girls. Twenty-five percent of these counties face the opposite situation – the boys' non-schooling rate is higher than the girls'; the difference however is only 5% or less. In twenty counties, the difference between the girls' and the boys' non-schooling rates is almost nonexistent. Girls' accessibility to education is obviously associated with the concentration of minority groups, as well as unfavorable socioeconomic conditions. Introduction


While all sectors of the economy exhibit a division of labor, different industries share work among groups in different ways. In particular, the rise of service industries has lead to a decrease in specialization and an increase in job sharing. Two aspects of service industries set them apart from manufacturing in this context: the inability to smooth production because services, unlike goods, cannot be stocked, and uncertainty in the demand for different types of tasks. This paper presents a model which shows that optimal division of labor, specialization, and team size in an industry depend on the manifestation of these features in that industry, and can therefore explain observed differences. The results demonstrate that uncertainty and the inability to smooth production work together to reduce the division of labor by increasing the value of generalists who move between tasks that are temporarily in high demand. ∗email@example.com This paper is the third chapter of my dissertation. I would like to thank my advisors, Oliver Hart, Philippe Aghion, and Eric Van den Steen, for their insights and suggestions.


BACKGROUND:Predictors of poor prognosis of solitary hepatocellular carcinoma(SHCC),a subgroup encompassing most patients with the malignancy,are still controversial.Hence,risk factors for portal vein tumor thrombosis(PVTT) in SHCC are obscure.The present study was designed to address this issue.METHOD:Clinicopathological and follow-up data for 156 consecutive patients with SHCC following curative hepatic resection were analyzed using uni-and multi-variate analyses.RESULTS:Univariate analysis showed that PVTT,tumornode-metastasis(TNM) stage,Edmondson-Steiner grade and preoperative serum alpha-fetoprotein(AFP) level were associated with the overall and disease-free survival,whereas tumor size only influenced the overall survival.In multivariate Cox regression tests,Edmondson-Steiner grade and TNM stage were independent prognostic markers for both overall and diseasefree survival.In addition,the Chi-square test showed that AFP level and Edmondson-Steiner grade were correlated with PVTT.Among them,only Edmondson-Steiner grade was shown to be of independent significance for PVTT in multi-variate logistic regression analysis.Additionally,AFP,the sole preoperative factor for PVTT,was not adequately sensitive and specific.CONCLUSIONS:Factors relating to post-surgical prognosis and PVTT in SHCC are all tumor-related.Of these,EdmondsonSteiner grade and TNM stage might be of particular importance in survival analysis.In addition,accurate prediction of PVTT by clinicopathological parameters before surgery remains difficult.


The invention relates to lactobacillus plantarum CCFM8724 and application thereof. The lactobacillus plantarum CCFM8724 has ability of suppressing growth of campylobacter jejuni in vitro, good resistance to acid and cholate and good adhesive ability to intestinal epithelial cells, and can control the campylobacter jejuni adhering to the intestinal epithelial cells so as to suppress growth of the campylobacter jejuni in chicken. The lactobacillus plantarum CCFM8724 can be used for preparing a medicinal composition for suppressing campylobacter jejuni; a fermentation agent containing the strain of lactobacillus plantarum CCFM8724 can be used for producing fermented dairy products, fermented bean products, fermented fruit/vegetable products and silage; the fermentation agent enables the products to obtain certain acidity and particular flavor; and meanwhile, the product preserving time is prolonged, and the nutritional value, digestibility and safety of the products are improved.


On the basis of the test result,the microstructure and the electrical properties of Zinc oxide varistors which are greatly effected by rare-earth oxide dopants and sintering processes is discussed.As the result shows,the size of Zinc oxide grains is reduced by adding rare-earth oxides into the conventional Zinc oxide varistors manufacturing composition,and the reference voltage gradient of varistors is raised(up to 276.8V/mm);Of the three sintering regimes(1 190℃、1 220℃、1 250℃)1 220℃ is believed to be the optimal one.The energy absorption capability of varistor in such regime improved,besides that the leakage current and residual voltage ratio exhabit a better performance.


I n the days since October 1, 2000, there has been a quiet war underway in the home healt~ care arena. Who is the enemy? PPS, the ProspectIve Payment System implemented by the federal govem~e~t for Medicare patients. The defenders of the provrsion of good home care are the visiting nurses who serve on the front lines of this quiet war. Comparing the institution of PPS to a war may seem like strong language. It has become overwhelmingly stressful for the visiting nurse to assist in maintaining the financial viability of the home care agency by providing the same quality of care in fewer number of visits. This is why many home health care nurses view PPS as an attacking aggressor against quality health care. The real victims in this war are the patients and their families, who have to bear the brunt of this attack. Due to the payment limits imposed by PPS, home health agencies are being forced to control costs. Part of this cost control includes having to make skilled nursing visits less frequently. Because of this change, families or other designated caregivers are forced to pick up the slack. Skilled nursing must teach more information at each visit. This is very tiring to the patient and caregivers. All this occurs just at the time when a sl~w, steady plan of care is most helpful. Fast and aggressive action is for the acute care arena, not the home care environment. The following are four case examples from nurses who provide home care. Their home care experiences range from as little as 1 year to as long as 16 years in the home health care field. CASE EXAMPLES


This paper investigates the resolution enhancement of correlated OTDR using Eigen-decomposition based algorithm. The algorithm separates the space spanned by the measured data into what are called noise and signal subspace and then pseudo-spectrum is calculated by using signal steering vector and noise subspace matrix. Attenuation dead zone of the correlated OTDR is improved up to 45 % by the Eigen-decomposition based algorithm.


Good strength to weight ratio is always a interest of researchers to make the things more compact. Aluminium metal matrix composites are widely used in various industries ranging from house hold application to aerospace. Involvement of SiC in particulate form shows marginally increase in mechanical properties of Aluminium. Improvement in mechanical properties such as tensile strength, Hardness, toughness etc by varying the percent composition of SiC is being reviewed in this literature along with the fabrication techniques and effect of some alloying metals. Keywords— Stirr casting, Metal matrix composite, Al-SiC, Mechanical Properties.


For airborne spotlight mode synthetic aperture radar (SAR) autofocusing, the residual range cell migration (RRCM) results in performance degradation. An improved inverse filtering (IF) autofocus approach based on the isolated strong point target is proposed in this paper. The new approach can simultaneously compensate both azimuth phase error and the two dimensional coupling phase error caused by the residual range migration. Therefor the bad effect caused by RRCM on autofocusing is eliminated, and the performance of inverse filtering autofocus algorithm is improved obviously. The results of real-measured data processing validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Abstract A numerical model based on an actual structure in Taiwan is proposed to investigate the shrinkage behavior of mass concrete. A commercially available program, ANSYS, which treats concrete as a homogeneous and isotropic material, was used in the investigation. The stresses are assumed to be within the elastic range. The shrinkage strains for various segments of mass concrete were evaluated according to currently available prediction equations (ACI 209, 1992; CEB‐FIP, 1991). By converting these strain values into equivalent stresses based on Hook's law, finite element computations were then performed to predict the long‐term shrinkage behavior of mass concrete. Experimental verifications by nondestructive tests were carried out to confirm the results of the numerical predictions. Comparisons show that the numerical predictions are in agreement with the experimental results.


Field‐effect transistors (FETs) with nanoscale channels have emerged as excellent platforms for constructing high‐sensitivity biosensors. However, in typical FET‐based biosensors, the electronic perturbation at channel/electrolyte interfaces results in poor stability and severe signal drifts, making long‐term continuous measurements quite challenging. To address this issue, here the dielectric/semiconductor interface is tailored by depositing an ultrathin layer of Al2O3 (≈7 nm in thickness) on In2O3 FETs via solution‐based processes. The results show that the Al2O3 dielectric layers effectively passivate the In2O3 channel and endow the device with low operation voltage (0.05 V), high sensitivity (61.9 mV pH−1), and low current drift (0.35 mV h−1) upon long‐term and continuous pH monitoring. This work paves the way to real‐time biosensing with high sensitivity, excellent stability, and low power consumption.


The best ebooks about The Human Brain Prenatal Development And Structure that you can get for free here by download this The Human Brain Prenatal Development And Structure and save to your desktop. This ebooks is under topic such as the human brain prenatal development and structure the human brain prenatal development and structure the human brain prenatal development and structure ebook functional brain development in humans the human brain linkspringer epub download the human brain prenatal development and the human brain preamble the human brain prenatal development and structure full online early brain development toward shaping of human mind: an alcoholization cortical synaptogenesis in the human brain gender development and the human brain occidental college transcriptional landscape of the prenatal human brain building a brain 2 building a brain blackwellpublishing related the human brain prenatal development and structure the human brain intracerebral microvascular system transcriptional landscape of the prenatal human brain the fetal brain development in chimpanzees versus humans the human brain readingsample prenatal stress and brain development occidental college structure and development of the human hippocampus in human cerebral cortex cajal-retzius neuron: development prenatal and early postnatal ontogenesis of the human fetal functional imaging portrays heterogeneous human brain synapses during early prenatal development early brain development and human development prenatal cocaine effects on brain structure in early infancy prenatal development: annotated bibliography lincoln structure of the fetal brain: what we are learning from class objectives developing mccc fetal brain development in chimpanzees versus humans cell trisomy 21 and early brain development hopkins medicine development of synaptic contacts in the human brain at


This paper presents a selection model for investments in nancial securities whose prices follow an Ito multidimensional stochastic process. The optimal investment shares are obtained by maximizing the expected utility of consumption at one future date, subject to the level of attained wealth. This problem is solved by applying dynamic programming techniques and requires solving a non linear partial di erential equation in order to obtain the optimal shares in explicit form. We formulate this equation for more general processes than as in Merton (1973), and then we study possible methods to reach its solution for some special cases. In these situations, we show some simple examples, verify the empirical applicability of the model, and discuss upon the methodology of empirical applications.


Background: Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) fl ame retardants are endocrine-disrupting chemicals that exhibit estrogenic and androgenic properties and may affect pubertal timing. Methods: Study subjects were participants between 1999 and 2013 in the Center for the Health Assessment of MothersandChildrenofSalinas(CHAMACOS),alongitudinalcohortstudyofpredominantlyMexicanoriginfam-ilies inNorthern California.Wemeasuredserumconcentrations offour PBDEs (BDE-47,-99, -100,-153)inblood collectedfrommothersduringpregnancy( N =263)andtheirchildrenatage9years( N =522).Wedetermined timing of pubertal onset in 309 boys and 314 girls using clinical Tanner staging every 9 months between 9 and 13yearsofage,andtimingofmenarchebyself-report.WeusedPoissonregressionforrelativerisk(RR)ofearlier puberty and parametric survival analysis for time ratios (TR) of pubertal milestones. Results: Prenatal concentrations of all 4 congeners and Ʃ PBDEs were associated with later menarche in girls (RR earlier menarche = 0.5, 95% con fi dence interval (CI): 0.3, 0.9 for Ʃ PBDEs) but earlier pubic hair development in boys (RR earlier pubarche = 2.0, 95% CI: 1.3, 3.3 for Ʃ PBDEs). No associations were seen between prenatal exposure and girls' breast or pubic hair development or boys' genital development. Childhood PBDE exposure was not associated with any measure of pubertal timing, except for an association of BDE-153 with later menarche. Conclusions: We found that prenatal PBDE exposure was associated with later menarche in girls but earlier pubarche in boys, suggesting opposite pubertal effects in girls and boys. Elsevier


Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. Microarray analysis is a practical ap- proach to study gene transcription changes that may reflect signatures that underlie the pathogenesis of CAD. Using gene expression profile data from the Gene Expression Omnibus database, we identified differentially expressed genes that can contribute to the pathology of CAD. Further pathway and network analyses were also implemented to identify pathways and hub genes related to the disease. We observed 466 downregulated and 560 upregulated genes. The ribosome pathway was the most significantly over-represented pathway with differentially expressed genes. Over 35% of the genes in this pathway were downregulated. Hub genes in the network, such as IL7R, FYN, CALM1 ESR1 and PLCG1, may play crucial roles in the pathogenesis of CAD. Our results facilitate the identification of molecular mechanisms that underlie CAD.


▪ Abstract This review examines how neoliberal policies that include free trade and less government have altered environmental management of industry, forests, water, agricultural land, and fisheries in Latin America. We examine theories and case studies about the privatization and pricing of environmental services and common property resources, the environmental impacts of free trade, and the transfer of environmental management to local or nongovernmental institutions. We conclude that neoliberalism has had some profound influences on the environment and on environmental management in Latin America and that the implementation and impacts of neoliberal policies on local environments have varied greatly by nation and by place as a result of different political, institutional, economic, environmental, and social conditions. Although many studies of neoliberalism and environment paint a negative picture, there are places and people that have adapted well to and benefited from neoliberal policies. Unfortunat...


The Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data have made the leap to turn into a mainstream issue and maintains board level priorities. Both IoT and big data are continuously creating headlines all over, drawing a huge amount of research interest and highlighting unique challenges. This growing recognition is due the intersection of both technologies with tremendous scope for business analytics and the prospective that still remains unexploited. Every day, industrial machine, health monitoring systems, sensors, and devices etc. connect to the Internet and exchange information. The future IoT will be extremely populated by huge quantity of heterogeneous networked embedded devices, which will be producing deluge of data. As businesses gets on new IoT project and tries to extract valuable information from enormous data volumes, a novel data management approach is called for. Conventional database management techniques and analytics methods fail to provide precise facilities to handle diverse data constantly flooding from numerous numbers of sources which are untold. This paper inspects the complex and fast moving data of IoT, and the existing position of data management techniques and challenges in storing and analyzing it.


This study analyzes how personality traits relate to need for privacy. We focus on three dimensions: (a) need for privacy from government surveillance, (b) need for privacy from other individuals, and (c) need for anonymity. Using an online questionnaire with 273 student respondents, several significant relationships were found. For example, results showed that less sociable people desired considerably more privacy on all three dimensions. Somewhat more controversially, people who reported less integrity also desired more anonymity. While anxious people desired slightly less privacy from government surveillance, risk avoidant people desired considerably more privacy from other people. Traditionalism did not relate to need for privacy. Together, the results have several implications. For example, they shed light on the "nothing-to-hide argument": A person who desires more anonymity might indeed be of less integrity. The most important predictor of need for privacy, however, was sociability. Indeed, this study is the first to show empirically that if a person desires more privacy, it is most plausible that he or she is less sociable.


This paper describes a detailed analysis of the effects of high temperatures on the optical performance and structural characteristics of GaN-based LED structures with a high threading dislocation density. Results show that, as a consequence of storage at 900 °C in N2 atmosphere, the samples exhibit: (i) an increase in the efficiency of GaN and quantum-well luminescence, well correlated to an increase in carrier lifetime; (ii) a decrease in the parasitic luminescence peaks related to Mg acceptors, which is correlated to the reduction in the concentration of Mg in the p-type region, detected by Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS); (iii) a diffusion of acceptor (Mg) atoms to the quantum well region; (iv) a reduction in the yield of Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS)-channeling measurements, possibly due to a partial re-arrangement of the dislocations, which is supposed to be correlated to the increase in radiative efficiency (see (i)).


ABSTRACT The pathways of alkaline hydrolysis of cellulose as a function of different exposures to alkali and the influence of the hydrolysates on the europium adsorption on calcite were investigated relating to the longterm storage of radionuclides in cement. Several non-volatile organic acids derived from alkali-treated cellulose were identified as the corresponding trimethylsilyl derivatives by using GC/GC-MS. Hydrolysates of cellulose in 0.1 M and 0.05 M NaOH solutions were different from those in saturated Ca(OH) 2 solution. Alkaline hydrolysates of cellulose reduced the absorption of europium on calcite.


"New Media" starting with the introduction of television followed by Video to DVDs and computer games are often made responsible for the lack of movement and outdoor exercises of young people. With the spread of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers, digital tools became spatially independent which offers new options and possibilities especially among young people (Direito et al. 2014). Instead of blaming new media as a reason that the young people increasingly stay at home and neglecting physical activities, the possibilities and opportunities of particularly mobile devices are to be examined in the project "ActivE Youth". The project aims to determine how mobile devices can contribute for collecting data regarding the mobility behavior of the youth and how mobile devices can be used to reduce the lack of physical activity of young people.


Characteristics like scent, flavor, and texture can impact pet treat acceptability. Pet owners rely on personal organoleptic preferences of texture to judge treat quality, and subsequently determine desire to purchase. However, quantitative textural data for commercially available pet treats is currently limited and hard to find since companies that normally measure textural parameters in their products typically keep that information for their own use. This information is important for further investigation regarding product development and sensory evaluation to determine pet preferences and purchasing decisions. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate different textural characteristics of commercially available training treats that serve as a reference to manufacture new pet food products. Six different commercial brands (brand 1, brand 2, brand 3, brand 4, brand 5, and brand 6) were randomly selected from local pet stores. A TA-HDplusC texture analyzer was used to conduct a texture profile analysis (TPA) using a TA-30 probe, while the shear force (SF) test was performed using a TA-42 45° angle chisel blade probe (n = 10 samples per test per product). Data were analyzed as a 1-way ANOVA using the GLIMMIX procedure of SAS ver. 9.4 with mean separation with the PDIFF option at P ≤ 0.05. Significant differences of TPA and SF test parameters were observed among commercial brands of training treats except for chewiness which was similar among all brands. When products were subjected to the TPA test, brand 1 required the maximum force to deform the treats (P < 0.001). Therefore, brands 1 and 2 had the greatest adhesion to the probe (P < 0.001). For resilience, brands 1 and 2 had greater ability to regain the original form, but brand 2 was similar to brands 4 and 6 (P = 0.023). Brands 1 and 2 had cohesiveness values, but these were similar to brand 6 (P = 0.002). For springiness, brands 1, 2, and 6 had greater values (P = 0.0196), but brand 6 was similar to brands 4 and 5. However, brands 1, 2, and 6 had the greatest height recovered after compression among all brands (P = 0.020). Regarding the SF test, brand 2 were firmer and tougher than all other brands (P < 0.001). Textural differences were observed among different training treats brands; however, treats from certain brands shared similar textural characteristics. Overall, brands 1 and 2 typically had the greater values for the textural parameters evaluated. Moreover, textural data on commercially available training treats was generated, so quantitative data of commercially available training treats can be used as a reference to manufacture new pet treats. Likewise, future consumer sensory panel research into preferred textural characteristics by pet owners is warranted.


Abstract Objective To determine the short‐term effect of plantar fasciotomy and neurectomy (PFN) of the deep branch of the lateral plantar nerve on the proximal suspensory ligament (PSL) cross‐sectional area (CSA) in horses with hindlimb proximal suspensory desmopathy (PSD). Study design Analytical, observational, cohort study. Sample population Twenty‐one horses. Methods Records of horses with chronic PSD treated by PFN were included if a preoperative ultrasonographic examination was available and at least one postoperative ultrasonographic examination. One masked observer measured the ultrasonographic cross‐sectional area (CSA) of the PSL. Intraobserver reliability was determined by repeatedly measuring a subset of ultrasonographic images (n = 127). Two masked observers measured the cross‐sectional area of the proximal suspensory ligament (PSL‐CSA) on preoperative proton density (PD)‐weighted transverse high field magnetic resonance images (n = 19 horses) . Agreements for PSL‐CSA between preoperative ultrasonographic and MRI measures and between the two magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) observers were assessed. Follow up considered the horses' ability to return to exercise and their owners' satisfaction. Results The reliability of the ultrasonographic measurement of the PSL‐CSA was excellent. Agreement between ultrasonographic assessment and MRI assessment of PSL‐CSA was good. No difference was detected between preoperative (median, interquartile range; oblique‐incidence, 2.07, 1.72‐2.55; on‐incidence, 2.23, 1.98‐2.65) and postoperative (oblique‐incidence, 2.08, 1.80‐2.74; on‐incidence, 2.28, 2.01‐2.74) PSL‐CSAs. At a median of 12 months (4‐33 months), 16/20 (80%) owners reported the horse was "better" and 15/20 (75%) functioned at or above preoperative levels. Conclusion Ultrasonographic measurement of the PSL‐CSA was reproducible and in good agreement with MRI measurement. The PSL‐CSA was not influenced by PFN. Clinical significance The PSL‐CSA cannot be used to guide return to function.


Entropy is a powerful tool for nonlinear analysis of time series. We have recently introduced dispersion entropy (DispEn), which has widely drawn attention from researchers in a variety of settings in data analysis. However, DispEn is sensitive to its parameters, especially number of classes (quantization level). Additionally, in some cases, a small change in the signal amplitude due to noise changes the quantized series and so entropy value. To address these limitations, we develop fuzzy dispersion entropy (FuzzDispEn) on the basis of fuzzy membership functions for the quantization of a signal and Shannon entropy (ShEn). In FuzzDispEn, the concept of fuzzification in ShEn-based methods is introduced for the first time. Several straightforward concepts in signal processing using a set of time series were utilized to show the advantages of FuzzDispEn over DispEn in terms of the detection of the dynamical variability of signals. The results showed that FuzzDispEn has lower sensitivity to noise and signal length compared to DispEn. FuzzDispEn was also applied to five real world applications: mechanical fault detection in gearbox, fault diagnosis of rolling element bearings, damage level detection of bearings, detection of blood pressure in salt-sensitive rats, and detection of seizure and seizure-free electroencephalographics (EEGs). The results suggest that FuzzDispEn outperforms DispEn as well as popular sample entropy and permutation entropy in distinguishing different kinds of dynamical patterns in synthetic and real data.


Recent progress in silicon concentrator solar cells has resulted in several designs capable of 25-percent efficiency with one group reporting 28 percent under 14 W/cm2of incident power at 25°C. It has been shown that further improvement is possible by restricting the sunlight acceptance angle of the cell. In this letter, a practical implementation which is equivalent in its effect is proposed which results in an increased utilization of weakly absorbed near-bandgap light. This increased absorption is obtained by placing the cells in a cavity with a small entrance aperture. An analysis is given based upon work on the acceptance angle enhancements by Campbell and Green. The design is expected to improve the efficiencies of existing solar cells to 30 percent. If used in conjunction with previously proposed cell improvements, the efficiencies will be improved towards 33 percent, very near the limit efficiency of 36 percent. This design also has the effect of decreasing the differences in performance between the leading candidate concentrator cell designs and diminishing the dependence of the efficiencies on the cell texturization and bulk carrier lifetimes.


The task of ethicists, philosophers, and theologians to restore the dignity of human labor and vocation in a (post)industrial, techno-driven society is motivated by an often unacknowledged concern to restore the underlying spirituality of the human experience of work. Due to its ability to interrogate the range of givenness in human experience, phenomenology is a method particularly suited to explore this spiritual dimension. In this essay, I offer a phenomenological analysis that attends to the way our experience of time either suppresses or discloses the underlying spirituality of work. (Post)industrial societies reduce time to "clock time", or an objective unit of measurement of production. Since increased production per unit of time is necessary for profit, we live and work in a society that is continually racing against the clock, and we find ourselves existentially pitted against it. I diagnose this reductionistic perspective of time, and its ensuing consequences, as a form of what Michel Henry calls "barbarism". Setting aside the assumption of time as exclusively "clock time", I then attend phenomenologically to other ways in which time gives itself to consciousness, namely, in cuisine, music, and craftsmanship. Finally, while Henry is helpful in analyzing the spiritual destitution of such an approach to time (and, consequently, to work), ultimately I turn to Kierkegaard's account of temporality, specifically as articulated in the philosophical category of repetition, to disclose time as constitutive of our work and thus to demonstrate the spiritual significance of human vocation.


This paper describes the theoretical framework, design, implementation and results from an exploratory informant workshop that examines an alternative approach to sound feedback in the design of responsive environments for children. This workshop offers preliminary directions and models for using intensity-based ambient sound display in the design of interactive learning environments for children that offer assistance in task-oriented activities. We see the value of this research in developing a more cohesive and ecological model for use of audio feedback in the design of embedded interactions for children. The approach presented here takes the design of multi-modal feedback beyond being experiential, to one that supports learning and problem solving.


1Department of Paediatric Rheumatology, Children's Hospital, University Duisburg-Essen; 2German Center for Rheumatism in Children and Adolescents, Garmisch-Partenkirchen; 3Centre of Paediatric Rheumatology, Asklepios Children's Hospital, Sankt Augustin; 4University Children's Hospital, Hamburg Eppendorf; 5Department of Paediatrics, HELIOS Hospital Krefeld; 6University Children's Hospital, Muenster; 7AID-Net consortium, supported by the German Society for Paediatric Rheumatology (GKJR).


In the 1950s, social studies education came under attack from both citizens and the government for the failure to promote citizenship. Events both at home and abroad eventually led to a collective reexamination of the overall purpose and goals of social studies. As a result, over fifty curriculum projects were developed to promote individual social sciences and advances in curriculum design. The purpose of this article is to examine some of the major projects developed during the new social studies movement. As well, this article provides readers with an explanation of the various causes that led to curriculum changes. Due to the large number or projects, the authors have selected eight of the major projects to discuss and highlight.


Physicians don't often acknowledge the positives that push us into unfavorable work-life balance — a larger salary, another publication for your resume, one more set of letters to add to your signature line.


Weusedacomputational approach toexamine three questions attheintersection ofdevelopmental biology andevolution: 1)Whatisthe space available forevolutionary exploration forgenetic regulatory networks (GRNs)abletosolve developmental patterning problems? 2)Ifdifferent GRNsexist that cansolve aparticular pattern, arethere differences between themthat might lead totheselection ofoneoveranother? 3)Whatarethe possibilities forco-opting GRNsubcircuits orevenentire GRNsevolved to solve onepattern foruseinthesolution ofanotherpattern? WeusedaMonte Carlo strategy tosearch forsimulated GRNscomposed ofnodes(proteins) andedges (regulatory interactions between proteins) capable ofsolving one ofthree striped cellular patterning problems. These GRNsweresubjected to aknockoutprocedure akintogeneknock-outs ingenetic research. Knockout wascontinued until allindividual network components ofthereduced GRN wereshowntobeessentialfor function. ThisGRN wastermed irreducible. Wefoundmanydifferent unique irreducible GRNsthat wereabletosolve eachpatterning problem. Since anyfunctional GRNmustinclude anirre- ducible GRNasacoreorsubgraph, thespace forevolutionary exploration ofpattern-forming GRNsislarge. Irreducible GRNsthat solve aparticular pattern differed widely intheir robustness-the ability tosolve atarget pat- ternunderdifferent initial conditions. Thesedifferences mayoffer atarget forselection towinnowoutless robust GRNsfromthesetofGRNsfound innature. Finally, subgraph isomorphism analysis revealed great potential forco-option during evolution. Someirreducible GRNsappear intheir en- tirety within larger GRNsthat solve different patterning problems. Atmuch higher frequency, subcycles areshared widely amongirreducible GRNs,in- cluding those that solve different patterns. Irreducible GRNsmayformthe coreelements ofGRNsfoundinbiological systems andprovide insight into their evolution.


The characteristics between JXTA and mobile agent are analyzed in this paper.A new resource expressing method and the corresponding message format and the resource searching algorithm are designed referred to the Dublin Core metadata method.At last a prototype is designed to verify the forenamed designs.


Several recent examples illustrate the problems of trusting drug companies to provide the complete picture about the clinical trials they sponsor. Robert Steinbrook and Jerome P Kassirer propose that there is a strong case for journals defining full access to the trial data and requiring that investigators and journal editors have full access.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether gradual rehydration in moderate and severe diabetic ketoacidemia (DKA) can safely prevent untoward declines in calculated effective osmolality (Eosm) early in treatment and, hence, help prevent major central nervous system complications.

DESIGN
Prospective study.

SETTING
Three tertiary care hospitals.

PATIENTS
Two hundred thirty-one consecutive episodes of DKA in 149 patients aged 10 months to 20 years admitted during a 5-year period.

INTERVENTIONS
Insulin therapy in addition to rehydration using an estimated volume of deficit with planned administration over 48 hours; initial administration of rehydration solutions with an osmolality approximating that of the patient; and intensive patient monitoring.

MEASUREMENTS
Mean lowest calculated Eosm (EosmL) during the first 24 hours of treatment; trend of the concentration of sodium in serum in the first 12 hours of treatment; comparison of pretreatment serum concentrations of glucose, urea nitrogen, and corrected sodium between mildly and very severely dehydrated patients; and patient outcome.

RESULTS
A mean (+/- SD) EosmL of 285.8 +/- 10.5 mOsm/kg Nater and an increase in the concentration of sodium in serum in 90% of episodes were documented. There were statistically significant differences in serum concentrations of glucose, urea nitrogen, and corrected sodium in mildly vs very severely dehydrated patients. There were no deaths or near-death episodes.

CONCLUSIONS
Management of moderate and severe DKA with a 48-hour planned rehydration is safe and prevents untoward declines in Eosm. Coupled with intensive monitoring, gradual rehydration can protect against life-threatening increases in intracranial pressure and brain herniation.


Listed companies' data of Shenzhen securities motherboard market in 2011 are selected in this paper as sample.What's more,and applies descriptive statistical analysis are applied,variation relevance test and logistic regression analysis.Positive research reveals that there exits prominent positive relationship between the level of internal control information disclosure and standard auditing opinion.That is,it is easier for the listed companies with high level of internal control information disclosure to receive standard auditing opinions and the level of internal control information disclosure has apparent signal delivery effect.


Corporate bankruptcy law scholars generally view financial distress as an exogenous development. These scholars see bankruptcy, or "financial distress" or "insolvency," as a condition created by extrinsic factors that have rendered the firm unable to meet current obligations to creditors out of liquid assets. Congress embraced this view in its adoption of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 19781 and, more specifically, determined to push managers of financially troubled firms toward reorganization rather than liquidation.2 Simply stated, Congress believed that assets would be more highly valued if utilized in the industry for which they were designed, rather than scrapped,3 that "it is more economically efficient to reorganize than liquidate, because it preserves jobs and assets."4 Put differently, Congress was concerned that liquidations destroy


Pancreatic cancer is a distressing disease with a miserable prospects and early recognition remains a challenge due to ubiquitous symptomatic presentation, deep anatomical location, and aggressive etiology. Pancreatic cancer is currently fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States and on the whole 5-year survival has been accounted to be less than 5% (Greenlee et al., 2000). In 2010, an estimated newly diagnosed cases of pancreatic cancer were 43,140 in USA and amazingly 36,800 cases perishes from the disease(Randall et al., 2011). The process of pancreatic carcinogenesis is a multifactorial phenomenon (Shrikhande et al., 2009). The most widely used and best validated tumor marker for adenocarcinoma of pancreas


Background: Acute sepsis in the region of the anus is common and important clinical and surgical problem. The objective of the study was to study the risk factors and complications of anorectal abscess in Khartoum state. Patients and methods: This was hospital based, retro-prospective, case control and multicenter study was done in Khartoum state public teaching hospitals. All patients underwent perianal abscess drainage in the selected hospitals during the study period were included and matched with control group who never diagnosed with anorectal abscess. 108 patients were included as cases and 108 as control group. Results: Gender distribution was the same in both groups. Considering risk factors, the study showed that Shisha smoking (P value = .001), cigarette smoking (P value = .005), diabetes (P value = .015), past history of anorectal abscess (P value = .03) all statistically significant as risk factors for developing anorectal abscess. We observed that, in the case group 94% of patients presented by anal pain, 62% by indurated mass and 43% by fever. Regarding abscess type, perianal abscess form 58% of types, while other types like isciorectal, submicosal and intersphiteric form the remaining 42%. Regarding Complications, 20.4% develop Fistula and 15.7% of cases complicated by recurrence of the abscess. Sixteen percent of cigarettes smokers suffered from abscess recurrence (7/45) and a high rate (8/39) 21% was seen in Shisha smokers group, while a much higher rate (9/20) 45% was observed in diabetic patients. In this study only cigarettes smoking is statistically significant for abscess recurrence (p value 0.04). Conclusion: The main risk factors for developing anorectal abscess is smoking either cigarette or shisha, cigarette smoking is the main cause of complications, and the most common presenting symptom is anal pain.


The invention discloses a distribution network simulation dispatching and management system which comprises a hardware system and a software system, wherein the hardware system comprises a master server, a WEB server, a switch and branch work stations; the software system is a dispatching automation system, and the dispatching automation system is installed in the master server; and the master server dispatches and manages the distribution network by the dispatching automation system, the master server realizes transport connection with the branch work stations sequentially by the WEB server and the switch, and the work stations can transmit dispatching information to the master server by the network, so that the effective management can be realized by the dispatching automation system.


In this case, a principal arrives at a troubled school in mid-year to discover that the school secretary is exerting managerial powers usually reserved for the principal. When the principal tries to implement changes, the secretary is combative and resistant. This case provides students an opportunity to explore the dynamics between a school principal and the school's support staff and to discuss the important role that a school secretary plays in a school's operation and culture. The case is accompanied by a brief review of literature on the secretary's role in a school and can be used in courses on human resources management, the principalship, or educational administration.


Non-linear scaling can maintain the main characteristics and the ratio of the image.Based on the image gradient function,a new potential energy algorithm for color images was proposed in RGB model,and the strong regions were found using potential energy.Fast linear interpolation scaling was used in low energy regions,and it preserved those strong areas in order to protect important features of the image objects.Compared with the traditional image scaling algorithm,the proposed algorithm can overcome the shortcomings of image distortion generated by the scaling effectively.


Pressure during the learning process is a common thing experienced by students. At some points, this pressure will be beneficial in increasing fighting power and motivation, but on the other hand, high-pressure conditions will affect students' mental health. This condition was  also experienced when students entered the learning phase during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although several studies have revealed the effectiveness of distance learning during the pandemic, this study aims to reveal causal factors of learning pressure conditions during the pandemic such that it can trigger the emergence of academic stress. This study involved 750 students spread throughout Indonesia. Data gathering was through the use of a questionnaire with indicators developed from existing measuring tools. Data analysis using Structural Equation Model-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) with Model Measurement Analysis (MMA)  indicate loading, Cronbach Alpha, composite reliability, Average Variance Extracted (AVE) in fit conditions, and Structural Model testing also demonstrated  valid condition and fit. The analysis shows a positive relationship between the predictors of the structural model consisting of self-expectation, despondency, grade worriness, and workload, which impact student learning pressures during the pandemic. There is an effect of workload mediation on the relationship between self-expectation and learning pressure. In reducing and controlling student learning pressures during a pandemic, it is necessary to consider these factors in learning activities.


The authors suggest using the word combination «social concept» for the notion «justice». This word combination unites several subjects and reveals ontological basics of the notion.


Axis (42A-42D) fixed to the base (40, 28) and extending in the direction of the central axis of the through hole (40a, 38) substantially parallel to the base (40, 28) of. Arrangement of two yokes (50A-50B, 52A-52B, 100,106) mounted to the shaft (42A-42D). A lens holder frame (16) holding a lens (12), the lens (12) having a through hole parallel to the base (40, 28) of the optical axis center axis (38) (14). The lens holder frame (16) arranged axially in the two yoke arrangement (50A-50B, 52A-52B, 100,106) the space between, and fixed to the base (40, 28 ) a plurality of wire spring (26A-26D) swingably supported. A drive coil (18,22A-22B) secured to said lens holder frame (16), and generating a driving force to move the lens holder frame (16).


The present invention relates to a blade apparatus for wind power generation, and forms a draft inflow adjusting part, which is capable of adjusting the inflow amount of wind fed to blades, at the outer circumferential part of a blade apparatus part for a facility at which the blades are vertically installed. The present invention widely opens a distance between the blade plates of the draft inflow adjusting part when the wind fed to the blades is weak, and narrowly opens or closes the distance between the blade plates of the draft inflow adjusting part when the wind is strong in order to adjust or block the inflow amount of the wind fed to the blades, thereby securing safety and economic operation in wind power generation through protecting the blades by adjusting and stabilizing the rotating speed of the blades and previously preventing risk factors.


This article provides an improved algorithm in asynchronous data communication,with the help of data address,a better data transfer speed and faults tolerance ability are achieved.


This document contains major provisions of India's 1987 Rajasthan Sati (Prevention) Act. The Act seeks to prevent the voluntary or forced burning or burying alive of widows, an action known as "sati," and to prohibit glorification of this action through the observance of any ceremony, the participation in any procession, the creation of a financial trust, the construction of a temple, or any actions to commemorate or honor the memory of a widow who committed sati. Attempts to commit sati may be punished by imprisonment for 1-5 years and a fine. Directly or indirectly abetting the commission of sati is punishable by death or life imprisonment and a fine. Abetting attempts to commit sati may result in a fine and life imprisonment. Abetment is defined as inducing a widow to commit sati, making a widow believe that performance of sati will result in a spiritual benefit for her or her deceased husband or her family, obstructing police officers attempting to prevent sati, preventing a widow from saving herself, or being present at any place where sati is committed as an active participation to such commission or to any attendant ceremony. Glorification of sati can be punished by imprisonment for 1-7 years and a fine. The Act empowers Collectors and District Magistrates to take specific actions, which include removing temples or other structures constructed to glorify sati and appropriating funds collected to glorify sati. The Act further creates special courts to try offenses and places the burden of proof of innocence upon the accused.


The availability of Learning Modules that contain a special program for Tahfizul Qur'an will certainly greatly assist teachers in delivering material and make it easier for students to improve their ability to translate the Qur'an due to the implementation of Learning Modules that are competency-based in translating the Qur'an according to the Tahfizul Qur'an program. contained in the Learning Module. The problem to be studied is a problem that has high urgency so that it is urgent to solve and find a solution considering the availability of time and costs as well as other supporting resources in carrying out this research is very minimal. So, the researcher determines the research model to be carried out, namely the class action research model (CAR). The results of this study are that learning modules can improve students' ability to translate verses in the Al-Qur'an Hadith subject for class VII students of MTs Teladan Gebang with a percentage increase, namely from the pre-cycle completeness score of at least only 56.55% of students. Then in the first cycle, the percentage of completeness was achieved at 63.64%, an increase of 7.8% from the pre-cycle. In cycle II, the percentage of learning completeness was 78.8%, there was another increase of 15% from cycle I. In cycle III, learning mastery was achieved by 90.3%, an increase from cycle II. So from pre cycle to cycle III there is an increase in level of 33.7%. The percentage is obtained from the scores of students who have fulfilled the Minimum Mastery Criteria (KKM), which is 70 for Al-Qur'an Hadith subjects. The value of completeness achievement in understanding the material Translating verses of the Qur'an by students as an indicator of the level of achievement of learning achievement. Individual student scores are also increasing. Therefore it can be concluded that the application of learning modules can be a solution in improving students' ability to translate verses of the Qur'an.


Progress on the recent implementation of OpenROADM MSA functionalities is reported along with a description of the related TransportPCE SDN controller and PROnet multi-domain resource orchestrator software modules. These functionalities enable the described use cases. © 2020 The Author(s)


The GBS (Global Broadcast Service) dataset is a series of radio attenuation measurements made at three sites in the UK: Chilbolton and Sparsholt, both in southern UK, and Dundee in Scotland. The aim of the experiment was to make long term measurements of the signal strength received from a 20.7 GHz beacon on the US Department of Defense satellite UFO‐9 at multiple sites, in order to determine whether the use of site diversity as a fade mitigation technique would be effective. The dataset spans a period of 3 years, from August 2003 to August 2006 with signal attenuation sampled once per second.


The Upper Xingu has the particularity of uniting ten different language groups in a single "society". Within this regional ensemble, the Trumai occupy a place apart. Historically, they were comparatively hard hit interethnic conflict, and today they find themselves spread very thin, both politically and geographically. They also have a high rate of intermarriage with neighbouring groups and claim to have "lost their culture" - something that they experience as a veritable stigma. This thesis endeavours to reconstruct the historical and interethnic dynamics that have contributed to these problematic definitions of cultura and of what it means to be Trumai. The study of illness and shamanism is heavily affected by this wider context. It is twenty years since the Trumai counted shamans among their number and so they have to appeal to their neighbours. Accordingly, the fieldwork I carried out in 2004-2005 draws primarily on the perspectives of non-specialists. It is, then, less a matter of outlining their general cosmology than of scrutinising key moments in the pathogenic process in their own right: meeting a spirit in the forest, shamanic treatments and collective therapeutic rites. The stress polaced on the pragmatic dimension of these interactions allows for connections to be established between these different key moments, as well as between them and more explicit, but also more variable forms of discourse (accounts or explanations). Finally, the thesis focuses on two cases that are indicative of wider changes within the Upper Xingu: first, that of a wauja married to a Trumai and recntly initiated into shamanisme; and second, that of a shaman-prophet who emerged in 2007. In these two cases, the thesis seeks to understand the significant degree of variability between shamans, which conerns both modes of initiation and later therapeutic and visionary performances. This diversity can be throught of as organised around two separate poles, according to the type of authrity the shaman invokes, and is reflexively present as a real choice inscribed in the very heart of the initiation process.


The vegetation of the Mountain Zebra National Park, situated within the Eastern Mixed Karooveld of the Republic of South Africa, was surveyed and analysed according to the Braun-Blanquet phytosociological method of sampling and synthesis. Brief discussions on the phytogeography of the Karoo and the physiography and climate of the Park are included. Three distinct major vegetation types are described floristically, physiognomically and ecologically. A vegetation map of the Park is provided.