Learning process of biology science in SMP Muhammadiyah 9 Junior High of Sugio Lamongan showed that students activity in learning still low. In indirect way, it influenced the result that less than SKBM, that was 65. Lack of responds by students to the teacher, asking or responding when the teaching and learning existed. The condition made research done with learning application of TPS type, that was cooperative learning method which was designed to influence
interaction pattern with PBMP pattern, that was learning which became the major character of thinking development through question.
The research was classroom action research, the research done in two cycles, consisted of two meeting and one post-test. Success indicator of action could be seen from students activity from cycle I and cycle II as the result of the application of TPS type with PBMP pattern. Place and
time was done in Monday, May 3rd 2010 – May 31st 2010 at SMP Muhammadiyah 9 Junior High of Sugio Lamongan. The research was done to students in grade VII-A consisted of 32 students. Data collection method used students observation sheet. Data analysis for problem solving used level percentage of students activity, while study result analyzed using students study completeness.
Research showed that students in applying TPS type with PBMP pattern could increase study activity, there seen students activity in cycle I was 56,8% (average) and in cycle II was 66.4% (good), so that there was increasing for 9.6%. Percentage of students study completeness in
classical in cycle I was 68,7% (average) and in cycle II was 90,6% (very good) so that there was 21,9% progress. According to the finding, the writer concluded that TPS type application with PBMP pattern could increase students activity and study result.


In competitive power markets, electric utilities, power producers, and traders are exposed to increased risks caused by electricity price volatility. The growing reliance on renewable sources and their dependence on weather, nuclear uncertainty, market coupling, and global financial instability are contributing to the importance of accurate electricity price forecasting. Since power markets are not all equally developed, different price forecasting methods have been introduced for individual markets. The aim of this research is to introduce a short-term electricity price forecasting method that addresses the problems of price volatility, a varying number of input parameters, varying data availability, and a large number of parameters and input data. Furthermore, the proposed model can be used on any market as it targets the characteristics and specifics of each market. The proposed Hybrid Iterative Reactive Adaptive (HIRA) method consists of two phases. In analysis phase, fundamental parameters which affect the electricity price are identified depending on market development. Obtained parameters are used as data inputs for price forecasting using a hybrid method. The HIRA model combines a statistical approach for large data set analysis and a similar day method with neural network tools. Similar days are examined using a statistical method which combines correlation significance, price volatility, and forecasting accuracy of the historical data. Data are collected based on their availability and electricity prices are forecasted in several iterations. All relevant data for price forecasting are collected, categorized, and arranged using simple indicators which makes the HIRA model adaptive and reactive to new market circumstances. The proposed model is validated using the Hungarian Power Exchange (HUPX) electricity price data records. The results show that with HIRA model forecasting, the error is stable and does not depend on price volatility. The HIRA method has proven to be applicable for forecasting electricity prices in real-time market conditions and enables effective hedging of price risk in the production or market portfolio.


Background and objectives: Patients with breast cancer have high risk of loco regional and/or distant failure. The loco regional failure rate depending mainly on the disease stage and the adjuvant treatment. Prospective randomized clinical trials have shown promising results with hypo-fractionated schedules for whole breast irradiation. Concurrent chemo radiotherapy is the standard for many solid tumors; it is promising to be investigated in breast cancer. In this study, our aim is to evaluate the toxicity, feasibility, and efficacy of concurrent capecitabine with adjuvant radiotherapy in breast cancer. Patients and methods: Data of 97 patients with stage II and III breast cancer after surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy, randomized into two groups, group A: 47 patients received concurrent chemoradiation and group B : 50 patients received radiotherapy alone. Patients were assessed for treatment toxicity and local recurrence. Results: The incidence of acute and late toxicities was comparable in both treatment groups without grade III/IV early toxicity; only a mild increase in gastrointestinal side effects was observed with capecitabine. Most of the late radiation adverse effects were grade I/II. Regarding efficacy, the concurrent capecitabine arm had better disease control locally(P value = 0.01).and better disease free survival (DFS) (P value = 0.048). Conclusion: Concurrent capecitabine with adjuvant hypofractionated radiotherapy is highly feasible, safe, and effective.


Purpose: The cereal supply chain within the wholesale and retail trade has been recognized to be below the market demand expectations. The cereals supply chain in Kenya has been dealing with serious issues of poor supplier management for a long time, with instances of malpractice reported, owing to distrust and commitment in the relationship, which has influenced the performance of cereal businesses. With this in focus, this research study was conducted to analyze the Influence of Strategic supply chain management Practices on Performance of Cereal businesses in Dagahaley camp market, Kenya.
Methodology: A descriptive research design was adopted to assist achieve the study's objectives. The study sample size was 111 registered traders engaged in Distribution, retail and wholesale cereals trade from the Dagahaley market. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect primary data. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Textual analysis was used to analyze qualitative data, while quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Cronbach alpha test with a coefficient of 0.7 was used to ascertain and test the reliability of the data collection instrument.
Results: The results indicated that Supply chain structure, Inventory control policy, and environment uncertainty had a positive and statistically significant effect on performance of cereals supply chain in Dagahaley market, directly affecting the performance of the cereals Businesses in Dagahaley market.
Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The study therefore recommends that cereal businesses should continually implement the inventory control policies established in Dagahaley Market in order to cushion against excess/stock outs.


To take a sterilization experiment on subtilis in Liquid milk by ultrasound collaborated with heat treatment,which is compared with the traditional method.This experiment is based on the effect of liquid milk of efficacy under different power,time,temperature,and ultrasonic treat-ment.The results show that: the sterilization rate reaches 97.96 percent under the condition of 1400 W,180 s,60 ℃;it reaches 96.77 percent un-der the condition of 1400 W,60 s,60 ℃,which has reached the effect of pasteurization.Meanwhile,after ultrasonic treatment,then by Pakistan treatment under this condition,the sterilization rate has reached 98.71 percent.Compared with pasteurization,its colonies reduced 60.24%.Com-pared with the heat sterilization,ultrasonic sterilization is of low temperature,short time,and high efficiency.


This meeting was focused on asymptotic aspects of group theory. The resulting problems lead, in particular, to the study of infinite groups, with an emphasis on the asymptotic behaviour of their finite quotients. Properties of infinite families of finite groups are at the center of interest in the field. Our meeting also covered new results from the theory of profinite groups. The methods and results of this area find important applications in several other fields of mathematics. To give an example from number theory, the absolute Galois group of the rational numbers is a profinite group in a very natural way. We had several talks covering the applications. Mathematics Subject Classification (2000): 20E-xx, 20F-xx, 22x-xx, 11R-xx. Introduction by the Organisers This meeting was focused on asymptotic aspects of group theory. The resulting problems lead, in particular, to the study of infinite groups, with an emphasis on the asymptotic behaviour of their finite quotients. Also, properties of infinite families of finite groups are at the center of interest in the field. We had talks on the most important recent developments in the field of asymptotic and profinite group theory. We single out some of these new results. The classification of finite simple groups has provided an impetus for the detailed investigation of properties of families of groups of Lie type and of alternating groups. This has produced many results of asymptotic or probabilistic nature, describing in a quantitative way properties that hold for all sufficiently large simple groups, or else that hold 'almost surely' as the orders of the groups are tending to infinity. Here we had a talk of Aner Shalev on his recent solution (with coauthors) of Ore's conjecture. Recently there has been much activity in the study of infinite groups, with an emphasis on the asymptotic behaviour of their finite quotients, or their finite-index 1538 Oberwolfach Report 28/2008 subgroups. The theory of subgroup growth is now well established; the theory of the associated zeta functions is making good progress. More subtle variations of subgroup growth are also developing into significant theories in their own right: there are important new results on representation growth – of arithmetic groups, nilpotent groups and pro-p groups; and on maximal subgroup growth, with applications to probabilistic generation properties. Profinite groups are 'asymptotic limits' of finite groups. The nature of verbal subgroups and verbal mappings, in both finite and profinite groups, has been the focus of much recent work. This has led among other things to the solution of Serre's problem on subgroups of finite index in finitely generated profinite groups; other significant results include the characterisation of closed verbal subgroups in pro-p groups and new characterisations of solubility in finite groups. Branch groups, both discrete and profinite, are certain groups of automorphisms of rooted trees; introduced by Grigorchuk and others over 20 years ago, they have provided the solution to several outstanding problems, and their study continues to provide new results. Some of them were reported on in our meeting. We also had talks from important fields of mathematics in which profinite and asymptotic group theory finds application. There is, for instance, the study of the absolute Galois group of the rationals and in particular its closed pro-p subgroups. Methods from pro-p group theory have successfully been applied in order to understand fundamental groups of (hyperbolic) 3-manifolds. The interplay between the topological fundamental group of a complex algebraic surface and its profinite completion which is the etale fundamental group of the surface is the subject of recent research. We believe that the meeting was exciting and successful. The high quality lectures covered a lot of very recent results in the field. There were many intense discussions between mathematicians of different fields. Altogether there were over 50 participants from all over the world. The percentage of young researchers was very high. The following extended abstracts were collected and edited by Dr. Evija Ribnere.


This article focuses on the i ~ ei variation occurring in verbs with stems ending in i. The ei variant demerges convergent verb forms in present and past tense, for example tutkin 'I research' and tutkein 'I researched'. The aim of this article is to study the distribution of i ~ ei variation in dialects around the Satakunta province which is dialectically divided into two. In this article, there is a brief look at the historical situation and then an overview of the current situation of the variation. The data is collected from the Satakunta in Speech corpus. The i ~ ei variation seems to merge both the Southwestern and the Transitional Dialects. The ei variant may not be widely used, but it is still largely an extant feature in the dialects spoken in Satakunta.


This research paper presents a fast and efficient hardware implementation of a pseudo-random number generator based on Lehmer linear congruential method. We demonstrate in this paper that how the introduction of application specificity in the architecture can deliver huge performance in terms of area and speed. The design has been specified in VHDL and is implemented on Xilinx FPGA device XC5VFX130T-3ff1738 and takes up only 23 slice LUTS. Our design generates 1 random number per cycle with a clock frequency of 502 MHz (502 million samples per second). The random numbers generated by our design are extensively verified against the C-code generated outputs for functional correctness.


A three-individual cell direct-equalization circuit is researched in detail by directed graph. This equalizer consists of two basic switch converter topologies and six essential operation modes. Its has reasonable structure topology that can transfer power energy directly from the highest to the lowest by the corresponding switchpsilas on-off control, whenever what imbalance state among these three cells are. Comparative studies of performances between several equalization circuits are also performed according to speed and structure complexity aspects. Based on the proposed circuit module, a scheme of two-layer equalization system structure is build up for 9 series ultra-capacitors stack, which can realize cell voltage balance by planning the energy transfer path with reasonable control strategy. Simulation results show that this scheme is effective and can meet speed, efficiency and structure simplification requirements and can be applied to equalize long series-connected Ultra-capacitors or high power density batteries.


Detecting security aws is important in order to keep the database secure. A security aw in object-oriented databases means that a user can infer the result of an unpermitted method only from permitted methods. Although a database management system enforces access control by an authorization, security aws can occur under the authorization. The main aim of this paper is to show an e cient decision algorithm for detecting a security aw under a given authorization. This problem is solvable in polynomial time in practical cases by reducing it to the congruence closure problem. This paper also mentions the problem of nding a maximal subset of a given authorization under which no security aw exists. key words: object-oriented database, authorization, security aw, term rewriting system


The integration of Distributed Generation (DG) units and shunt capacitors can be considered as an alternative approach for distribution system expansion planning not only to improve power supply quality and reliability, but also to defer major system updates. In this paper, the techno-economic issues of distribution system expansion planning with optimal sizing and siting of DG units and shunt capacitors are addressed. The minimisation of overall investment cost with the integration of DG units and shunt capacitors is assessed with the consideration of supply quality, reliability and energy loss. A new planning methodology by using Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) is proposed to minimise the overall cost for optimal sizing and siting of DG units and shunt capacitors. The proposed methodology is tested on a remote 11 kV radial distribution feeder and results are reported.


Background: Soil-transmitted helminthes [STHs] are public health challenges in the tropical and subtropical developing countries. Approximately, two billion people are infected as of 2010 and four billion at risk. Aim: To determine the prevalence of helminthic infection among school children with a view to generate epidemiological data that can be used for effective control plan in Owo. Methods: Two schools were picked randomly from various schools in the community. The questionnaire was administered to every participant by interview. A total number of 250 samples were studied. The prevalence of STH infections was assessed among school children in Owo, South-Western Nigeria, using standard parasitological techniques. Results: Of the 250 children examined, 45[18.0%] had helminth infections. The helminthes identified were Ascaris lumbricoides 33[13.2%], hookworm 10[4.0%] and Enterobius vermicularis 2[0.8%], and mixed infections of Ascaris and Hookworm 3[6.67%]. Females had higher prevalence rate of 29 [21.32%] compared to the males with the rate of 14 [12.26%] which was statistically significant [p<0.05]. The 8-12 years age group recorded the highest infection rate of 27[29.34%]. Conclusion: STH is being actively transmitted among children in Owo metropolis. The prevalence of intestinal helminth infection was higher in government owned rural schools than in government owned urban schools. There was poor socioeconomic status, poor hygenic habit and high unskilled occupation among parents of the infected pupils in the study area. Hence, there is need for periodical health education and mass treatment for the effective control of intestinal helminth in the study area.


Abstract In this study, based on X reservoir conditions from Dagang Oilfield, China (temperature: 104 °C, salinity: 26376 mg/L), from the perspective of reducing interfacial tension and emulsification performance, IAPES (isododecyl alcohol polyoxyethylene ether sulfonate) with high temperature and high salt resistance was selected and its performance was evaluated. Finally, physical simulation experiments were conducted to form an in situ viscosity-increasing emulsion to enhance oil displacement efficiency. The experimental results show that when the concentration of IAPES is 0.3 wt%, the ability to reduce the interfacial tension of oil and water is significant and it has good antiaging stability. In addition, the lower the shear rate, the higher the water content, and the worse the emulsion stability. Finally, physical simulation experiments show that IAPES can increase the recovery rate by at least 28% in a larger permeability range. Under the experimental research conditions, the injection process parameters-injection speed (0.4 mL min−1) and injection volume (0.3PV) were optimized. Graphical Abstract


PURPOSE: To provide maximum riding comfort and desirable support by providing a compact and effective low-pressure pumping arrangement, and causing expansion and contraction of an air cell attached to the waist of an automotive seat. CONSTITUTION: A low-pressure pumping system 12 is provided to adjust the back support of a single automotive seat 10. The contact 24 of a two-position air switch 28 is manually engaged, a motor 18 is activated via a conductor 22 to drive a pump 16, and air is fed via a conduit 20 to expand an air cell 14 to a predetermined set pressure of less than 5psi. When the predetermined pressure is reached, the pump is stopped, and a system is sealed by a normally closed exhaust valve 32. To contact the air cell 14, the contact 26 of the two- position air switch 28 is manually engaged. This opens the exhaust valve 32, thereby reversing the motor 18 at a crossing polarity and driving the pump 16 in the opposite direction. This produces exhaust from the system through the conduits 20, 34 and the exhaust valve 32.


In the molecule of the title Schiff base compound, C15H14ClNO, the two benzene rings are twisted with respect to each other, with a dihedral angle of 35.0 (3)°; an intramolecular O—H⋯N hydrogen bond occurs. In the crystal, weak C—H⋯π interactions between methyl groups and chlorophenyl rings link the molecules into supramolecular chains running along the a axis.


Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW) caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv musacearum was reported in Uganda in 2001. It spread fast to Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003, Rwanda in 2004 and Tanzania in 2005. Infected plants die, fruits are rendered inedible. Disease spread between plants is mainly by insect pollinators and contaminated farm tools. To establish the status of BXW in Western Kenya, a disease survey was conducted in September, 2006 in 14 districts located in Western and Nyanza Provinces. Wilted bananas were observed in Teso, Bungoma, Nyamira and Busia districts. Symptoms were similar to those previously reported in Uganda. Pathogenicity tests confirmed the causal organism as Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum. The outbreak in western Kenya is significant because this region produces over 60 percentage of bananas in Kenya and, therefore, could have serious consequences on food and income security of small-scale banana farmers.


Consumers benefit from reading ratings online before making their purchases, yet this information aggregation process may have some potential problems that was not previously credited in the literature. Through an empirical approach, I showed how people could review businesses inconsistently when their expectations are formed by ratings on crowd-sourced review websites. Using data from Yelp, I tested how potential disappointments may affect customers' reviews by applying a regression discontinuity design to control for unobserved factors that may also simultaneously influence ratings. In addition, I developed a model illustrating rating behaviors with reference-dependent utilities to establish testable hypotheses and showed that comparisons between their true experience and expectation, when consumers write their reviews, could impede their assessment of businesses' qualities and cause attribution bias. After carefully excluding confounding variables, my results support the hypothesis that consumers have attribution bias<br>when they write reviews. Several robustness checks support these findings and shed further light onto this example of attribution bias. This paper links to an emerging literature of attribution bias in economics and provides empirical evidence and implications of attribution bias on online reputation systems.


level of service was not adversely affected. The only difficulty appeared when the clerks were confronted with questions for which they were not trained. They were a lit tle uncertain about how to handle the task of "handing over" a question to a librarian or li brarian assistant; their feelings were involved, because this constituted an implicit admission that there were others who were more capable than they. After a time, however, this became easier. As they grew more competent in han dling the questions for which they were trained, it became less difficult for them to "hand over" the questions for which they were not trained. The public appeared to be un aware of the reassignments; they were, in stead, happy to receive prompter responses and uninterrupted attention. The experiment can be considered success ful from the following points of view: 1. the conflict between the walk-in clien tele and the telephoning clientele had been ameliorated; 2. the time of the college-graduate employ ees can be concentrated on the more dif ficult problems now that many of the simpler questions are being handled by the clerks; and 3. the clerks find their work more challeng ing now that they too are permitted to have a share in meeting the public and are not restricted to behind the scenes paperwork. (Now they even step out oc casionally to help with the walk-in pub lic!) REFERENCE


Dual-source electric shunting locomotive has two bogie schemes: one with soft primary suspension and hard secondary suspension, another one with hard primary suspension and soft secondary suspension. Through dynamics performance comparison analysis of the two schemes, and considering operation condition, bogie scheme with soft primary suspension and hard secondary suspension was decided. Through the analysis of the influence of secondary spring lateral and longitudinal arrangement on bogie performance, lateral arrangement secondary spring was selected. Finally, the adaptability of a variety of traction devices in the dual-source shunting locomotive was analyzed, and the tilted traction rod mounted on the end of the bogie frame was adopted.


A growing number of economists hold the view that the US government's growing debt is nothing to worry about. They believe this because real interest rates are not only historically low but are also forecast to stay low for a long time. As such, the government can carry high debt levels without worrying about debt sustainability. In addition, some economists argue that, in countries where low real interest rates and the negative interest-rate-minus-growth differential are sustained, the government can increase primary deficits without worrying about future costs. 1 This new fiscal paradigm rests on assumptions that do not apply to the fiscal issues facing the United States. 2 For example, it requires the US government to balance its budget for several genera-tions after a one-time increase in the size of the debt. However, the United States has repeatedly run a regular primary deficit of 5 percent of GDP and added even more deficit spending during crises. The paradigm also requires immense faith in the willingness of legislators to spend money in ways that produce high and consistent economic growth. Yet a review of the literature on the impact of government spending on growth reveals that, generally, such spending crowds out private-sector spending. 3 The same is true in the relationship of debt to growth. 4 In other words, even if interest rates stay low forever, growth could slow so much as to make the starting assumption moot. Finally, it is simply imprudent to count on low interest rates lasting forever. However, a deeper fact should worry economists more than it does—namely, it is hard for government to make good policies when it swells so large that it has little practical choice but to depend on annual deficit financing. In particular, high and growing levels of public debt are likely to induce higher inflation while the growing burden of debt and deficit financing increases political pressure to continue pursuing inflationary policy. High debt levels also make inflation harder to control if it becomes persistent.


 Abstract—The present study explores dyslexic children's ability to identify orthographic violations in the ultimate and the penultimate syllable of derived nouns and pseudo -nouns when they were attending grade 6, as well as their progress18 months later in words and pseudo-words respectively. The first two tasks involved identification of derived nouns with the violation or no violation in the penultimate or ultimate syllable in a paper and pencil task.. The third condition examined the use of derived nouns in a sentence completion close test. Subjects used the nouns and the verbs given in blankets to formulate the appropriate derived nouns. Errors in suffixes were coded as orthographic processing, phonological processing, combined type and stress omission/misplacement. Eighteen months later the follow up test revealed a significant improvement on the orthography of the derived nouns with consonant change at morpheme boundaries, as well as, on the orthographic rules of the ultimate syllable of the pseudoword tasks. Dyslexic children were also improved in their ability to produce phono-ortographic correct responses on the sentence completion task.


Geza Vermes introduced the designation Rewritten Bible fifty years ago to denote a small number of Jewish texts composed between the second century BCE and eleventh century CE. This chapter presents a preliminary re-examination of Rewritten Bible by asking whether the name is best retained, amended, or abandoned in scholarly discourse. This is not merely terminological hair-splitting, for, the more accurate and nuanced the nomenclature, the more accurate and nuanced it is to be hoped that the grasp of the underlying literary and historical realia will be. The chapter considers whether the amended Rewritten Scripture can usefully replace Rewritten Bible. It examines that Rewritten Bible/Rewritten Scripture is best viewed as the designation for a textual process. Most significantly, the chapter shows that the circumscribed textual process found in so-called Rewritten Bible/Rewritten Scripture works is also evident within a wider range of late Second Temple literature than is normally acknowledged. Keywords: Geza Vermes; Jewish texts; rewritten Bible; rewritten scripture; second temple literature; terminological reassessment


In a passage from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, we find a brief exchange between a Spartan prisoner of war and an Athenian soldier, who asks his captive whether his fellow Spartans, who have chosen so bravely to die rather than surrender the day before had been men of honour. The Spartan replies that a weapon would be worth a great deal if it could distinguish a gallant man from a coward; of course, no weapon can. It was Thucydides who called war "the human thing," the only definition he was prepared to provide. It is human because it derives its impetus from the social context of the time. Today we usually target people from the third dimension of war—the air. Even today, however, a drone pilot, operating an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) over the skies of Afghanistan does not know when he launches it whether he is killing men who are brave or cowards. The drone pilot, it is true, may share an intimacy with his targets that is unique in history: he can follow his targets to weddings and funerals, and if he is curious, watch them having sex thanks to infra-red cameras. But while a drone pilot may well be able to see more than any pilot has seen before, his breadth of vision does not allow him to see the man within. He might have greater oversight of the battlefield than ever, but this affords him no greater insight into the moral status of the man he has in his sights. James Hickey's fine study begins with the observation that strategic culture, ways of warfare and technological innovations are social constructs. Different societies will, given the same technologies and circumstances, seek different solutions, based on their values and their prior history. For the United States, one manifestation of this process is the increasing reliance on the use of precision-guided munitions to wage war. Its object is Clausewitzian: to compel the adversary to bend to its will; it is very un-Clausewitzian, however, in using ever-decreasing levels of violence and attendant human suffering. In the best American science tradition Hickey doesn't really offer a set of concepts, but uses four case studies to examine eleven occasions where force has been used by the United States to further its national interests, sometimes alone, at other times in partnership with other states. What emerges from this study is a positive trend: in many of the cases no unintended


Cytomegalovirus infection is a commonly seen infection in the world, and rate of adults experiencing this infection reaches up to 90% in developing countries. The infection limits itself in healthy population, being symptomatic in 10% of them. Although symptomatic cases usually present as mononucleosis-like syndrome, they rarely cause organ specific complications. In this article, we present a case of acute, severe cytomegalovirus infection manifesting as persistent high fever, elevations of aspartate aminotransferase and alanin aminotransferase, high INR, thrombocytopenia, hepatomegaly, and splenomegaly in 40 year old immunocompetent adult. The patient was diagnosed as cytomegalovirus hepatitis and given gancyclovir 2x250 mg IV for 14 days. He was discharged upon the improvement of his general status, development of seroconversion and decline of liver enzymes. This case was presented to highlight that cytomegalovirus must be taken into consideration in etiology of hepatitis. Key words: Cytomegalovirus Infection; Hepatitis; Immunocompetent Adult.


The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between consistent journal writing in a natural environment and students' use of conventions. The subjects of this study included five, second-grade students from a rural elementary school. They were chosen randomly from a class of fifteen. Approximately three times a week students were asked to write their thoughts, feelings and experiences in a journal. Spelling, punctuation and grammar was done to the best of their ability. The teacher collected the journals weeklv and resoonded based upon students' content and effort. No corrections J ' • were made on students' use of conventions rather they were assessed weekly according to the district wide rubric for thirteen weeks. The results of the study provided evidence of a trend in improvement in students' use of conventions over time. Skill taught during formal writing time may have carried over to journal writing time.


This paper introduces the operating principle of RC4 stream cipher algorithm,which to be a kind of cipher technology,and its two mode application in Lotus Domino/Notes encryption system,analysis the characters and advantages of amalgamating RC4 algorithm with Lotus Domino/Notes encryption system,discusses main factors need to consider while encryption algorithms to be selected in software development in order to provide reference for constructing safe information system.


A four-part experiment that leads to the synthesis of a cyclopentadienyl chloro–nickel(II) complex bearing a N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligand is presented. In the first part, the preparation of 1,3-bis-(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)imidazolium chloride (IMes·HCl) in a one-pot procedure by reaction of 2,4,6-trimethylaniline with paraformaldehyde, glyoxal, and hydrochloric acid is described. The reaction of NiCl2·6H2O with aqueous ammonia to give [Ni(NH3)6]Cl2, and the reaction of sodium in neat dicyclopentadiene at 160 °C to produce sodium cyclopentadienide in a one-pot synthesis are both delineated in the second part of this experiment. The reaction of [Ni(NH3)6]Cl2, with NaCp to yield [Ni(η5-C5H5)2] forms the third part. Finally, the procedure ends with the reaction of nickelocene with IMes·HCl to afford the nickel(II) half-sandwich complex [Ni(η5-C5H5)(IMes)Cl]. This sequence of experiments provides an excellent example of NHC–ligand preparation and its subsequent complexation to a transition metal and is a...


21 century is an era for rapid development of science technology and spread application of computers.Mastering and using computer are supposed to be one of the absolutely necessary qualities.The purpose of this article is to probe into the possible objective to be achieved and method in fostering the informative accomplishment of the students by means of combining the current situation and characteristics in institutions of higher learning.


A blackbody optical fiber thermometer consists of an optical fiber whose sensing tip is given a metallic coating. The sensing tip of the fiber forms an isothermal cavity and the emission from this cavity is approximately equal to the emission from a blackbody. When a short length of the fiber is exposed to a high temperature environment, the temperature at the sensing tip can be inferred using the standard two-color approach. If however, more than a short length of the fiber is exposed to elevated temperatures, emission by the fiber will result in erroneous temperature measurements. We present experimental results that show it is possible to use additional spectral measurements to eliminate errors due to emission by the fiber and measure the tip temperature. In addition, the technique described in this paper can be used to obtain an estimate of the temperature profile along the fiber


MEMS sensors, such as acoustic, noise and vibration transducers often employ a diaphragm or cantilevered structure as part of a variable capacitance sensor geometry. A bias voltage is necessary to ensure a linear force-capacitance range of operation. The calculation of the pull-in voltage whereby the sensing structure collapses due to electrostatic forces is an important design requirement. A linearized, uniform approximate model of the nonlinear electrostatic pressure has been developed and used in conjunction with the load deflection model of a MEMS cantilever beam under uniform pressure to develop a highly accurate model to calculate the pull-in voltage. The new model improves sensor design methodology by evaluating the pull-in voltage for a cantilever beam with a maximum deviation of less than 1% from the finite element analysis results for wide beams and for narrow beams with extreme fringing fields.


Investigating the characteristics of urban expansion is helpful in managing the relationship between urbanization and the ecological and environmental issues related to sustainable development. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Line-scan System (DMSP/OLS) collects visible and near-infrared light from the Earth's surface at night without moonlight. It generates effective time series data for mapping the dynamics of urban expansion. As a major urban agglomeration in the world, the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration (YRDUA) is an important intersection zone of both the "Belt and Road Initiative" and the "Yangtze River Economic Belt" in China. Therefore, this paper analyses urban expansion characteristics of the YRDUA for 1993–2012 from urban extents extracted from the DMSP/OLS for 1993, 1997, 2002, 2007, and 2012. First, calibration procedures are applied to DMSP/OLS data, including intercalibration, intra-annual composition, and inter-annual series correction procedures. Spatial extents are then extracted from the corrected DMSP/OLS data, and a threshold is determined via the spatial comparison method. Finally, three models are used to explore urban expansion characteristics of the YRDUA from expansion rates, expansion spatial patterns, and expansion evaluations. The results show that the urban expansion of the YRDUA occurred at an increasing rate from 1993–2007 and then declined after 2007 with the onset of the global financial crisis. The Suxichang and Ningbo metropolitan circles were seriously affected by the financial crisis, while the Hefei metropolitan circle was not. The urban expansion of the YRDUA moved from the northeast to the southwest over the 20-year period. Urban expansion involved internal infilling over the first 15 years and then evolved into external sprawl and suburbanization after 2007.


The purpose of this study is to research incidence of insidental bladder tumour in patients who are undergo prostatectomy due to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and to explain relationship between bladder tumour and obstruction due to BPH. One hundred and sixty cases with BPH, aged range from 53 to 90 years old (mean:63.4) were included the study. While all patients were undergone open prostatectomy or transurethral resection, bladder biopsies were taken from all patients, and histopathological evaluation were performed. The degree of outlet obstruction were statistically compared to in patients with BPH plus bladder tumour and with only BPH. Histopathological results of bladder biopsies were determined 3.13 % transitional carcinoma, 65.63 % chronic nonspecific cystitis, 0.62 % interstitial cystitis, 0.62 % tuberculous cystitis and 30 % normal bladder mucosa. It was statistically showed that obstruction had a role in development of bladder tumour. The most important results of this study is to emphasize the necessity of taking random biopsy samples from the doubtful regions generally thought to be mucosal hypertrophy by evaluating the bladder mucosa carefully during the primary benign prostatic hyperplasia treatment.


ABSTRACT Modeling vapor pressure is crucial for studying the moisture reliability of microelectronics, as high vapor pressure can cause device failures in environments with high temperature and humidity. To minimize the impact of vapor pressure, a super-hydrophobic (SH) coating can be applied on the exterior surface of devices in order to prevent moisture penetration. The underlying mechanism of SH coating for enhancing device reliability, however, is still not fully understood. In this paper, we present several existing theories for predicting vapor pressure within microelectronic materials. In addition, we discuss the mechanism and effectiveness of SH coating in preventing water vapor from entering a device, based on experimental results. Two theoretical models, a micro-mechanics-based whole-field vapor pressure model and a convection-diffusion model, are described for predicting vapor pressure. Both methods have been successfully used to explain experimental results on uncoated samples. However, when a device was coated with an SH nanocomposite, weight gain was still observed, likely due to vapor penetration through the SH surface. This phenomenon may cast doubt on the effectiveness of SH coatings in microelectronic devices. Based on current theories and the available experimental results, we conclude that it is necessary to develop a new theory to understand how water vapor penetrates through SH coatings and impacts the materials underneath. Such a theory could greatly improve microelectronics reliability.


Abstract The diffusion field over the surface of a membrane has been analyzed in a simplified manner responsive to the microporous nature of the actual membrane. The membrane surface is modeled as having intermittent strips of active sites (ribbons) separated by inactive sites (islands). The two-dimensional representation of the concentration field omits the third (transverse) direction of diffusion and assumes a regular and systematic surface arrangement. The equations of flow and concentration are shown to be reducible to a set of linear equations, solvable by standard methods of finite differencing and algebraic solution. The results show systematic variations of a significant magnitude locally around the ribbons (pores) of membrane. The magnitude, for example, assumes a concentration value 1.15 times the local concentration to occur from the upstream to the downstream side of a given ribbon for 33% surface porosity. Smaller ribbons are expected to produce larger jumps. The effect of the discontinuous ...


The air-conditioned holiday village offers consistent quality accommodation and services, for the best local value. It features 156 well designed and fully equipped bedrooms, all major hotel services available 24/7 and a wide choice of on-site food and..


The present article focuses on mainstream and heterodox sources of endogenous growth with particular concern for their possible integration and the role played by income distribution and it is part of wider analysis to which the author is committed. In previous published and unpublished works, indeed, the presence of two main approaches to physical capital accumulation and income distribution linkages emerged. In particular in a former article [Valente, 2014] author pointed out that, on the basis of an integrated Keynesian-Sraffian approach, income redistribution can be treated not only as a way to improve social equality or social justice, which can be both differently conceived on the basis of subjective ethical judgments, but can be properly seen as a way to improve economic system efficiency, its stability and both physical capital accumulation and long-run economic growth as well. Another forthcoming work [Valente, 2016] argued, instead, that, on the basis of an introductory data analysis based on Piketty [2014] seminal work and GDP data from Maddison database, the long-run evolution of income inequalities, 'capital' accumulation and economic growth in main market economy (as to say U.S.A., U.K., France and Germany) during the whole 20 th and 21 st century are more in line with a Classical-Keynesian theoretical framework of analysis than with the widely accepted in economic literature mainstream one. In accordance with formerly achieved results, present article is then dedicated to the analysis of possibility of integration of more mainstream based human capital accumulation and technical change, on one hand, and more heterodox


Ten annual speed surveys were conducted in the non-metropolitan areas during the period between 2000 and 2013 to measure driver speed compliance across the network of speed limit roads ranging from 60 km/h to 110 km/h. The 2000 survey was used as the baseline year for the comparisons with all subsequent surveys from which road safety and speed performance indicators were derived as measures of driver speed behaviours over the time. The principal objective of the surveys was to measure changes in driver speed behaviours at general locations of the road network over time and to relate those changes to the effectiveness of various speed related road safety programs implemented in the state. In each of the nine surveys conducted in the years 2003 to 2013 attempts were made to survey all of the sites chosen in the stratified random sample of 95 sites in the baseline 2000 survey. In all surveys, seven-day speed data was collected at each site in the sample of roads chosen across the rural network. Each of the surveys resulted in over 1 million vehicles travelling in traffic free-flowing environments. Effectiveness of speed road safety programmes is estimated in terms of changes in: speed compliance rates, proportion of drivers exceeding 10 or more km/h above the speed limit, 85th percentile and mean speeds. The study found that under free-flowing condition over the rural network of all speed limits (excluding 50 km/h roads) in 2000, 60.6% of all vehicles travelled at or below posted speed limits. The best compliance rate of 71.1% was achieved in 2009, 10.5% higher than in the 2000 baseline survey, followed by small annual reductions to 70.8% in 2013.


The GPS scintillation software receiver is more flexible and anti-jamming than traditional hardware receiver.It upgrades the performance of system and has unprecedented advantage in the field of space environment nowcast and forecast.The paper placed emphasis on the design and realization of GPS ionospheric scintillation software receiver based on PC.Systems of GPS signal processing based on GP2015,FPGA and DSP were designed.According to the principle of ionospheric scintillation measurement,algorithms of signal acquisition and tracking were discussed.Computational method of ionospheric index S4 based on GPS signal was also analyzed in this paper.Using the real GPS signal,results of signal trace and index S4 were displayed.The relevant results show that the GPS scintillation software receiver works well.


Menopause and ageing is associated with accelerated loss of cortical bone. Osteoporotic fractures are common cause of morbidity and mortality in adult Indian women due to ageing. This study was conducted to evaluate the levels of serum calcium, ionized calcium and total protein levels in postmenopausal women and to assess its relation with ageing. Study includes 70 women (40 post menopausal and 30 prem enopausal women) serum alkaline phosphatase, serum calcium, ionized calcium and total proteins, serum albumin were estimated in both cases and controls. There is decrease in serum calcium in postmenopausal; wo men when compared to premenopausal women. There was no significant change in ionized calcium in both cases and controls. ALP is highly significant P<0.001. In postmenopausal women suggesting there is high alkaline phosphotase activity in postmenopausal women as a result of the inhibitory effects of estrogen on bone turnover rate which is dependent on age and body mass index. Decrease in serum albumin was seen in postmenopausal wo men which is the reason for decrease in serum calcium level which is inturn related to ageing effect.


Farmers are usually reluctant to adopt measures to reduce the toll of soil erosion; and even when soil conservation structures are adopted, farmers fail to manage them. This study investigates factors that influence adoption and management of soil conservation structures in Fort-Jacques, Haiti. The results show that personal characteristics of farmers, institutional factors, such as local group membership, training in soil conservation, per capita income and size of farm influence soil conservation adoption in Forte-Jacques. Age, education, per capita household income, participation in local groups, the interaction of per capita household income and farmers' age influence rock wall management.


Though almost universally criticized as overly punitive, expensive, racially disparate in impact, and ineffective, American drug policy remained largely unchanged from 1980 to 2010. Marijuana is an important exception: policy and law underwent many changes, with the strong likelihood of more, involving increased legal access to the drug, in the near future. For cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine there has been an almost relentless increase in the numbers incarcerated for drug offenses, rising from about 50,000 in 1980 to 500,000 in 2010. The disparities in African American imprisonment rates are higher for drug offenses than for other types of crime; some of this disparity results from unjustifiably harsher sentences for crack than for powder cocaine offenses. The battles necessary to achieve even modest reductions in these disparities and other overly severe sentencing regimes at the state and federal levels demonstrate how difficult it is to achieve changes in drug policy. Recent reforms in health care at the federal level offer hope for increased access to treatment services, but otherwise only drug policy rhetoric has changed much.


Studies on gestational glycemia have focused primarily on developed country and predominantly overweight populations. Despite low prevalence of traditional risk factors, Vietnamese women have a high burden of gestational diabetes. Our study examined the role of maternal hyperglycemia in predicting preterm birth in rural Vietnam.


Federal water pollution abatement legislation has incorporated more localized implementation provisions in recent years, such as Section 208 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. The goal is to spur local and regional abatement efforts through cooperation by various local governmental entities. But that goal has not been met in the majority of cases because of political opposition and lack of statutory clarity. Any future attempt at localized implementation of federal mandates can profit from the experience of Section 208 and include true flexibility and opportunity for cooperation. 64 references.


A generalized Meiklejohn–Bean model in which the exchange coupling includes bilinear (direct exchange) and biquadratic (spin–flop) terms is proposed to study the exchange bias in ferromagnetic (FM)/antiferromagnetic (AFM) bilayers. For the strong antiferromagnetic anisotropy, an explicit formula for the exchange bias is derived and used to discuss the thickness and angular dependencies, and a lot of recent experimental results can thus be illustrated. The results show that both the critical thickness of the antiferromagnetic layer displaying the exchange bias and the saturation value of the exchange bias depend on the exchange coupling constants, the angle between the FM easy axis and AFM easy axis, as well as the orientation of an applied field. The bilinear and biquadratic terms will provide competitive contributions to the exchange bias, while the angular variation of the applied field can tune the exchange bias.


A probabilistic representation of the entire ground‐motion time history can be constructed based on a stochastic model that depends on seismic source parameters. An advanced stochastic simulation scheme known as Subset Simulation can then be used to efficiently compute the small failure probabilities corresponding to structural limit states. Alternatively, the uncertainty in the ground motion can be represented by adopting a parameter (or a vector of parameters) known as the intensity measure (IM) that captures the dominant features of the ground shaking. Structural performance assessment based on this representation can be broken down into two parts, namely, the structure‐specific part requiring performance assessment for a given value of the IM, and the site‐specific part requiring estimation of the likelihood that ground shaking with a given value of the IM takes place. The effect of these two alternative representations of ground‐motion uncertainty on probabilistic structural response is investigated for two hazard cases. In the first case, these two approaches are compared for a scenario earthquake event with a given magnitude and distance. In the second case, they are compared using a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis to take into account the potential of the surrounding faults to produce events with a range of possible magnitudes and distances. The two approaches are compared on the basis of the probabilistic response of an existing reinforced‐concrete frame structure, which is known to have suffered shear failure in its columns during the 1994 Northridge Earthquake in Los Angeles, California. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Janet Davis, MSN, RN, Co-Director of the Wound, Ostomy, Continence Nurse Education Program, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Mikel Gray, PhD, CUNP, CCCN, FAAN, Director of the WOCN Center for Clinical Investigation (CCI), and Nurse Practitioner and Professor, Department of Urology, and School of Nursing, University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Corresponding author: Mikel Gray, PhD, CUNP, CCCN, FAAN, Department of Urology, University of Virginia, PO Box 800422, Charlottesville, VA 22908 (e-mail: email@example.com). QUESTION 1. Is the Unna's boot bandage as effective as the fourlayer elastic bandage for healing venous leg ulcers?


The effects of various realistic phenomena on the changing stress patterns that occur during the ascent of a typical stratospheric balloon are investigated. The meridional load distribution is shown to be relatively constant during ascent until the material at the base of the balloon begins to deploy, at which time the loads begin to increase. As the balloon assumes its float configuration, the loads are found to increase by as much as 50 percent over the ascent values. The effects of payload changes and thermal strain are also considered.


Background: The second trigger of death and the most frequent life-threatening neurological disease are now strokes. Stroke obviously ranks first of all the neurological diseases of adult life in prevalence and significance, with at least 50% of the neurological disorders in a hospitalized patient being of this type. Objective: To study the epidemiological pattern of the cerebrovascular stroke in a sample from Al-Azhar University Hospitals including the incidence, prevalence of stroke and its different subtypes (ischemic and hemorrhagic). Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on a sample from University Hospitals in Al-Azhar during from 1/1/2019 to 30/12/2019. Patients complained of acute cerebrovascular stroke (ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke (including intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH)) were included. Patients with traumatic ICH and traumatic SAH and any patients suffering from acute neurological deficiency due to non-vascular causes such as infections or tumors have been excluded. 488 cases were diagnosed as having cerebrovascular stroke (CVS), there were 385 patients (78.9%) of ischemic pattern and 103 patients (21.1%) of hemorrhagic pattern. Results: In terms of marital status, hepatic diseases, as well as side of hemiplegia, seizures (generalized more than focal), vomiting, diminished consciousness, and sphincteric disruptions, our research indicated substantial statistical differences among both study groups. Conclusion: There were similar clinical presentations and risk factors to those reported developing and developed countries. The prevalence of stroke in Egypt is higher than in many surrounding countries.


Background and rationale
Burn and scald injuries in children are common in the UK; 50,000 children under 14 years old attend emergency departments (EDs) annually. Approximately 70% of these children are under three years old, injuries are likely to occur in the home and these children are also more likely to re-attend with a further injury. Health visitors are required, professionally, to consider the needs of and care offered to families of injured children but most have no guideline or tool for contacts with families post-injury.

Purpose
To develop an intervention to support and standardise advice and practices in injury prevention with consequent improvements in family-centred care.

Process or procedure
We have worked with health visitors and parents to develop a demonstration photosphere for an 'unsafe' kitchen, living room and bathroom with hazards labelled invisibly. These can be identified by the user by hovering the cursor over the hazard or clicking it. This 'identifies' the hazard and leads to a positive prevention message, some incidence/epidemiological data and links to resources for further information. A quiz is included and a poster can be generated.

The modified photosphere environment enables a hi-resolution three-dimensional photorealistic view of rooms to be constructed from a scene scan using a standard mobile phone camera. We have received highly positive feedback from health visitors and potential users.

Impact
This work supports 'A Best Start in Life for all children'; this interactive photosphere is underpinned by an evidence-base and will help to prevent injuries that have lifelong physical and psychological problems and is expensive for both the NHS and families.

Implications for community and public health
Health visitors and other professionals who work with families with children will have an interactive, easy-to-understand, evidence-based, appealing tool to use with parents. It could be introduced to families and help parents identify potential hazards for themselves and continuously improve their environment. It will provide opportunities for peer-to-peer support and shared learning. There are presently no solutions similar to this to meet these needs.
We will demonstrate the photosphere, the different elements within it and discuss potential uses.


In this paper we carry out an analysis of the humanistic and higher education components in students of legal careers. Neutrosophic statistics are used to demonstrate the importance of these components. Thus, person's life is better, insofar as it is filled with meaning and continuous reflection during his (her) existence. For that reason this study aims to analyze humanistic and higher education components of Law School students for their inclusion into the practical activities from an integral perspective.


It presents the data analysis and classification based on the analysis of the design function of culvert.For the different data characteristics,relational data model and expand of relational data model and hypegraph-based data model with suitable for engineering database of culvert have been brought up.Function request of EDBMS of culvert and system construction are provided.Total construction of engineering database of culvert are described including the language righteousness warehouse,diagram function,DLL,parts warehouse with result warehouse,etc.


This note presents frequency-domain characterizations of exponential stability and stabilizability of neutral systems based on transfer-function matrices and the existence of 'nice' solutions of certain Bezout equations. It turns out that the existence of H/sup /spl infin//-solutions is not sufficient for exponential stabilizability, but that they have to satisfy an additional growth assumption as well. Whilst the proofs of the authors' results are based on an abstract infinite-dimensional representation of the neutral system, they emphasize that the results are expressed in terms of the original parameters of the neutral equation and do not require a reformulation of the system in an abstract state-space form. The sufficiency parts of the results hold even when the delay operator acting on the derivative contains a singular part. >


The sizes of routing table in backbone routers continue to keep a rapid growth and some of them currently increase up to 400K entries [1]. An effective solution to deflate the large table is the routing table compression. Meanwhile, there is an increasingly urgent demand for fast routing update mainly due to the change of network topology and new emerging Internet functionalities. Furthermore, the Internet link transmission speed has scaled up to 100Gbps commercially and towards 400Gbps Ethernet for laboratory experiments, resulting in a raring need of ultra-fast routing lookup. To achieve high performance, backbone routers must gracefully handle the three issues simultaneously: routing table Compression, fast routing Lookup, and fast incremental Update (CLUE), while previous works often only concentrate on one of the three dimensions. To address these issues, we propose a complete set of solutions-CLUE, by improving previous works and adding a novel incremental update mechanism. CLUE consists of three parts: a routing table compression algorithm, an improved parallel lookup mechanism, and a new fast incremental update mechanism. The routing table compression algorithm is based on ONRTC algorithm [2], a base for fast TCAM parallel lookup and fast update of TCAM. The second part is the improvement of the logical caching scheme for dynamic load balancing parallel lookup mechanism [3]. The third one is the conjunction of the trie, TCAM and redundant prefixes update algorithm. We analyze the performance of CLUE by mathematical proof, and draw the conclusion that speedup factor is proportional to the hit rate of redundant prefixes in the worst case, which is also confirmed by experimental results. Large-scale experimental results show that, compared with the mechanism in [3], CLUE only needs about 71% TCAM entries, 4.29% update time, and 3/4 dynamic redundant prefixes for the same throughput when using four TCAMs. In addition, CLUE has another advantage over the mechanism in [3] - the frequent interactions between control plane and data plane caused by redundant prefixes update can be avoided.


Introduction. The basic setting of nonlinear radio-locator (NR) in the field of technical guarding is the searching, identification and localization of radio-electronic mortgage devic-es − semiconductor nonlinear scatterers (NS). Statement of the problem. The NR efficiency increasing is possible by minimization of such factors influence as: presence of obstacle structures "metal-oxide-metal" (МОМ-structures) in the investigated medium and presence of parasitic directional pattern lobe of emitting antenna. The analysis of nonlinear scatterers secondary unmasking features is con-sidered. All possible regularities of the course of the phenomena and processes in the investi-gated medium, that are the consequence of nonlinear areas of NS semiconductor structures characteristics change (distortion) under sounding radiation, are considered. Principal part. Researches showed that theoretically discovered effective radius change effect of nonlinear products dispersion of nonlinear scatterer response signal at the varying of nonlinear radio-locator sounding signal (SS) power-level allows to investigate the phe-nomenon of semiconductor structures characteristics of NS distortion at the action of relative-ly powerful ultrahigh frequency field. The effective radius change of nonlinear products dis-persion of NS response signal at varying of exposing signal power-level is experimentally confirmed, which proves the possibility and expediency of the secondary unmasked features practice use for the search, identification and localization of NS in the technical guarding field: − the area of looping appearance effect on functional dependence of response signal multiple harmonic level from the sounding signal power-level [3]; − effect of processes inertiality of semiconductor structures volt-ampere characteristics dis-tortion [4]; − phenomena of cross-correlation dependence of response signal chaotic state degree from the sounding signal power-level [5]. Conclusion. The effective radius change of nonlinear products dispersion of NS re-sponse signal at varying of exposing signal power-level is experimentally confirmed, which proves the possibility and expediency of the secondary unmasked features practice use for the search, identification and localization of NS in the technical guarding field.


A membrane or an electrode binder to be used in a solid alkaline fuel cell (SAFC) needs to (i) be insoluble in both aqueous solutions and the required fuels, and (ii) exhibit an hydroxide ion conductivity. To achieve these goals, two pathways were employed: (i) one consists of the radical copolymerization of diallyldimethylam-monium chloride (DADMAC) with chlorotrifluoroethylene (CTFE) while (ii) the other one is based on the counter-ion exchange of a poly(DADMAC) by fluorinated anions. First, the radical copolymerization of CTFE with DADMAC under various experimental conditions was achieved in yields up to 85%, and DADMAC percentages in the copolymers were higher than those in the feed compositions. To obtain insoluble copolymers, high CTFE feed contents (>70 mol %) were required. The other route consisting in the partial replacement of the Cl- counter-ions in the water-soluble poly(DADMAC) by bistrifluoromethanesulfonimide (TFSI-) did confer the starting material insolubility in water while maintaining its conductivity. When the fluorinated poly(DADMAC) was obtained from concentrated solutions of fluorinated surfactant, it was observed that the amount of counter-ions exchanged was difficult to control, which limits optimization. Nevertheless, under diluted conditions, membranes with ion exchange capacity up to 0.7 meq g-1, and conductivities close to 1 mS cm-1 were obtained. Although their conductivities were low, these membranes fulfill the requirements for a SAFC membrane in terms of solubility in DMSO, water insolubility, and thermal stability (Td 10% > 320 °C). When used in a fuel cell, as a binder in the membrane-electrode assembly (MEA), significant improvements were noted (+50% of the open circuit voltage, +580% in current density, and +540% in accessible power).


Agreement between the government of the federal republic of germany and government of romania concerning the employment of workers for the purpose of expanding their vocational and linguistic knowlege (foreign labour agreement). Bucharest, 12 may 1992


In the Western Pacific Region, one or more of 15 NTDs are endemic to 28 countries and areas. Progressive success in the elimination of lymphatic filariasis and trachoma through preventive chemotherapy has shown one way to address this high burden and finish the job of eliminating NTDs. Increasing evidence also demonstrates that more effective control of NTDs is possible when countries deliver preventive chemotherapy with coordinated multisectoral actions. These actions include enhancements of water and sanitation systems, veterinary public health and food safety strengthening for all vulnerable or hard-to-reach populations affected by NTDs. Intersectoral collaboration and partnerships can play a leading role in empowering communities to sustain enhancements.


In order to effectively integrate large scale PV Systems into electric power systems, there is a need to cope with the intermittency in PV generation due to the fluctuating nature of the solar resource, mainly induced by cloud motion. In this sense, solar photovoltaic power estimation is a key issue for grid operators, power generators, as well as for other entities. This work presents a global solar irradiance estimation scheme based on a linear regression using several image features. These features, that include spectral and textural features, gather image data related to cloudiness. Features are based on grayscale image, as well as red, green and blue (RGB) layers of color images. Several features has been analyzed and compared, and those with higher Pearson correlation coefficient with solar irradiance have been used for the estimation process. The image acquisition system is compact and was build with commercial and not expensive hardware. Image processing is done using open-source software. Two types of lenses have are compared: normal (flat) and fisheye. Results show that fisheye lens offers a better performance that normal lens.


Summary:
 The paper provides a typification of the name Gymnocalycium valnicekianum var. bicolor. Typification of this name was necessary most of all because the name had not been correctly typified and the holotype has not been found in the BA herbarium. A picture from Till & Amerhauser (2002) is selected as a lectotype. Due to circumstances of ambiguity around the selection of a holotype, an epitype from the locality of Cruz del Eje is designated here. The paper includes a more precise description of G. valnicekianum var. bicolor based on an analysis of three natural populations, and a new combination of the epithet bicolor at the rank of subspecies of G. mostii is published. Historical facts and assumptions about this taxon are discussed.


Disability, gender and violence over the life course: global perspectives and human rights approaches, edited by Sonali Shah and Caroline Bradbury-Jones, Abingdon, Routledge, 2018, 180 pp., £110.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-13-808519-0.


A 78-year-old woman presented to the emergency department with persistent diplopia, having had intermittent episodes since a syncopal event 8 months ago. She was admitted following a 20-min loss of consciousness with preceding complaint of diplopia then. The diplopia resolved, but signs of parkinsonism were observed. magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain and ultrasound study of carotids were normal. The event was attributed to postural hypotension from idiopathic Parkinson disease. Aspirin and levodopa/carbidopa were commenced. Additional history revealed increased dependency with daily activities, poor memory recall and notable hypophonia at home. Her other medical history includes hypertension and dyslipidaemia, treated with perindopril and atorvastatin. Examination in the emergency department showed her left eye in a fixed infraducted and abducted position, with ptosis and a dilated pupil of reduced light reflex. Computed tomography angiography of the brain was unremarkable. She was found in a state of stupor with a Glasgow Coma Score of 8 the following day. Vital signs were normal with intact gag reflex and flexor plantar responses. She was intubated for airway protection. After extubation the next day, there was gradual improvement in mental state. Examination revealed evidence of a left oculomotor nerve palsy, right-sided dysmetria and an intention tremor. The tremor persisted at rest and on maintenance of posture. There were bilateral signs of parkinsonism. Other notable signs included marked apathy, temporal and spatial disorientation and confabulation. Blood tests excluded other conditions. An MRI showed restricted diffusion in the midbrain and bilateral paramedian thalami, consistent with an infarct of the artery of Percheron (Fig.1). We believe that ischaemia to bilateral thalami caused a syncopal event, followed by a stepwise decline in


Forage shortage may force producers to fced unfennented or partially fennentcd forages, which are more susceptible to aerobic deterioration. Propionic acid-based additives can be added to ensiled forages to inhibit yeast and mold growth, and improve the aerobic stability of silages. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of a propionic acid-based silage additive (Solution Foin) on ensHing characteristics, aerobic stability and feeding value of short-tenn ensiled corn forage. Chopped whole corn was left untreated or treated with Solution Foin (contains 700 g kgpropionic acid and 300 g kg1 NH40H). The additive was added to forage prior ensiling at a rate of 5 L ton(wet basis). Treated and untreated forages were placed in six plastic silo bags (three each). Silo bags were opened one day after ensiling and daily samples were collected for 30 consecutive days. Effects on animal perfonnance of feeding treated or untreated forage were detennined in a completely randomized design, using 30 lactating cows (l78±55 days in milk) fed total mixed ration (50:50 forage:concentrate) with the major forage portion consisting of untreated or treated forage. The feeding study started one day post-ensiling. Results showed that Solution Foin reduced (P < 0.05) yeast and mold populations between d 5 and 14 post-ensiling. The highest differences (P < 0.(02) were observed on d 10, at which point yeast and mold populations for untreated silage were 7.86 and 2.51 log cfu g-l, respectively. The corresponding values for treated sil age were 4.35 and 0.00 log cfu g-l, respectively. Aerobic stability of treated ensiled forage was also improved (P < 0.(1) from day 0 (by 159 h) to day 10 (by 33 h) post-ensiling. Solution Foin also inereased (P < 0.(5) the overall lactic acid and WSC content, and lowered the temperature of the treated ensiled forage in the field. No treatment differences were detected in the forage pH and acetic acid concentration. Dairy cows fed treated forage had similar feed intake (average 23 kg d-) and milk yield (average 29 kg d-) to cows fed the untreated forage. It was concluded that Solution Foin can be used to improve the aerobic stability and ensiled forage characteristics of short-tenn corn forage, likely by reducing yeast and mold populations.


of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy EVALUATION OF AQUATIC PLANTS FOR PHYTOREMEDIATION OF EUTROPHIC STORMWATERS By Qin Lu August 2009 Chair: Zhenli L. He Cochair: Donald A. Graetz Major: Soil and Water Science Water quality impairment by nutrient and metal enrichment from agricultural activities has been a concern worldwide. Phytoremediation technology using aquatic plants was evaluated for its efficacy in removing N, P, and metals from stormwater in detention ponds. Water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) plants were grown in treatment plots in two stormwater detention ponds and water quality in both ponds was monitored. To better utilize water lettuce and investigate the possibility of a water lettuce-common salvinia (Salvinia minima) polyculture system, water lettuce and common salvinia were tested for their N and P requirements for normal growth with hydroponic studies conducted in a greenhouse. Water lettuce was also evaluated for its growth performance in water with different pH and salinity levels. Water quality in both ponds was improved by phytoremediation with water lettuce, as evidenced by decreased turbidity, total solids, and nutrient concentrations. Turbidity was decreased by more than 65%. Total solids decreased by about 20%. Ammonium-N and NO3-N concentrations in the treatments plots were 31-72% lower than those in the control plots (without plants), and total Kjeldhal N was decreased by more than 20%. Reductions in PO4-P, total dissolved P, and total P concentrations in water were approximately 18-58% compared to the


To identify and describe the epidemiological characteristics of an outbreak of Mycoplasma pneumoniae(MP)infection in an school.Throat swabs and blood samples were collected from the patients.MP DNA and antibody(MPAb) were quantitatively determined.Twenty one MP infection cases were reported.The attack rate was 31.91%(15/47),and the family secondary attack rate was 33.33%(6/18).The throat swabs from the patients were positive for MP by PCR detection,the MP-Ab was 41.50 ±6.93 in the patients and 35.11 ± 1.41 in the unaffected in the same class,showing no significant difference(t = 2.03,P = 0.48).MP infection was the main cause of this outbreak.The index case was not isolated promptly,which suggested that It is essential to take early isolation measure to prevent the spread of infection.


Purpose To measure the pressure-volume relationship (ocular rigidity) and outflow facility in the living human eye using a manometric device.

Methods Fourty cataract patients (aged 63 (13)) were enrolled in the study. An invasive manometric intraoperative dynamic measurement procedure was employed, using a computer controlled device, comprising a pressure sensor and a dosimetric pump. The anterior chamber of the eye is cannulated through a 21 gauge needle, under topical anaesthesia with drops and the initial IOP is recorded. The IOP is artificially set to 10 mmHg and the eye is infused with microvolumes of BSS. The IOP is recorded for 2 seconds after each infusion step in order to calculate the average IOP and its fluctuation during this interval. At 40 mmHg, the infusion stops and the sensor records the IOP decay curve for 60 sec. The ocular rigidity coefficient is calculated by the IOP-volume relation in the stepping sequence corrected for the volume loss from the outflow pathways. A model incorporating the value of ocular rigidity was developed to calculate the outflow facility from the outflow sequence. The study was approved by the Institutional Board and performed under the patient's informed consent.

Results The average rigidity coefficient of Friedenwald was of 0.0206 (sd 0.0042)μl -1. A nonlinear pressure volume relationship is found. The outflow facility was measured to be 0.31(sd 0.08) μl/min/mmHg. There were no complications related to the procedure.

Conclusion This invasive method of measuring ocular rigidity and outflow facility is safe and effective. Accurate measurements obtained with this method, avoiding the errors of tonography, may provide a normal database of these parameters in living human eyes.


This article analyzes the causes of steam boiler heating surface cartridge igniter and presents the main points of preventing steam boiler heating surface abrading cartridge igniter and tips for reducing back-end heating surface abrading cartridge igniter.


We study the possibility of explaining the recent EDGES detection by an energy injection in the pre-recombination era. Our aim is to show that the residue of this energy injection could give the resultant increase in the energy density at frequencies xe ≡ hν/(kT) ≃ 10−3, which is needed to explain the EDGES result. We consider two models of energy injection: Gaussian profile with a fixed redshift of injection and radiative decay of a non-relativistic particle. We show that the energy injection should occur in the redshift range z≲ 4 × 103 to prevent free-free processes from thermalizing the injected energy. The injected energy should be nearly 200–1000 times the CMB intensity at xe ≃ 10−3 to obtain the requisite residue. A large fraction of the injected energy gets thermalized and therefore distorts the CMB spectrum. We compute CMB spectral distortion for both the models and show that the fractional change in CMB energy density, Δ ρ CMB/ρ CMB ≃ 10−6, which might be detectable with the proposed experiment PIXIE . We also outline the implication of our proposed scenario for CMB anisotropies.


Energy harvesting (EH) and network coding (NC) have emerged as two promising technologies for future wireless networks. In this paper, we combine them together in a single system and then present a time switching-based network coding relaying (TSNCR) protocol for the two-way relay system, where an energy constrained relay harvests energy from the transmitted radio frequency (RF) signals from two sources, and then helps the two-way relay information exchange between the two sources with the consumption of the harvested energy. To evaluate the system performance, we derive an explicit expression of the outage probability for the proposed TSNCR protocol. In order to explore the system performance limit, we formulate an optimization problem to minimize the system outage probability. Since the problem is non-convex and cannot be directly solved, we design a genetic algorithm (GA)-based optimization algorithm for it. Numerical results validate our theoretical analysis and show that in such an EH two-way relay system, if NC is applied, the system outage probability can be greatly decreased. Moreover, it is shown that the relay position greatly affects the system performance of TSNCR, where relatively worse outage performance is achieved when the relay is placed in the middle of the two sources. This is the first time to observe such a phenomena in EH two-way relay systems.


The normal ionizing shock wave is considered as a potential preionizer for high density (greater than or equal to 15 mtorr), high bias field (greater than or equal to 1 kG) theta pinches. Available experimental data compare well with the theory of Kunkel and Gross. Limitations to the validity of the theory due to finite ionization rate, and to radial plasma drift are determined.


The invention discloses a quality evaluating method applied to various software forms. The method adopts the Cartesian product to bring convenience for users to custom requirements and then uses the optimal evaluation algorithm according to the requirements of the users. The invention also relates to an evaluation system realizing the method. The evaluation system comprises a user management sub-system, an evaluation sub-system and a result-processing and outputting sub-system; and the system can carry out evaluation against different objects according to the different purposes of the users. The system sends evaluation guiding reports to the users during the evaluation process and generates one evaluation result after finishing the evaluation and then sends the result to the user. The user can adopt the evaluation result to evaluate and enhance the software performance and choose the corresponding manufacturers.


This study focuses on female representation on corporate boards in Turkey and Spain, two countries in which clear differences exist in social, cultural and religious contexts. Using data from the most influential companies in the two states, we have investigated the presence of women in the boardrooms in 2014. We present new evidence on the comparison of outcomes of women's participation on boards. Results show differences in the involvement of women on the boards of major companies in Turkey and Spain. Statistical analysis suggests that the presence of women on the most powerful boards of directors of Spanish companies is higher than that of Turkish companies, and there are statistically significant differences between the two countries. This article offers insights to policy makers interested in analysing whether differences, values and beliefs between countries could influence the role of women in the decision-making process of the upper echelons of business.


In order to determine the spin state of the acyl nitrene (VII) which is thought to intervene in the insertion reaction at the intramolecular aliphatic C-H bond, optically active (R)-5-methyl-6-phenylhexanoyl azide ((R)-XVII) was synthesized from ((S) (+)-2-methyl-3-phenylpropionic acid ((S) (+)-XVIII), and submitted to photochemical decomposition in methylene dichloride solution. (S) (-)-6-Benzyl-6-methyl-2-piperidone ((S) (-)-XIX) was obtained as a reaction product in a 4.3% yield with 98% retention of configuration. These results show that the singlet state acyl nitrene (XXXVIII) produced from (R)-XVII by irradiation, had inserted into the intramolecular optically active C-H bond through the transition state (IL), as in the intramolecular insertion reaction of alkoxycarbonyl nitrene. Independent synthesis of (S) (-)-XIX from (R)-α-methylphenylalanine ethyl ester ((R) (+)-XX), and preliminary experiments on racemic compounds are also reported.


The experiment of Chinese curriculum reform of compulsory education has been lasting for six years,which requires an basic observational angle to examine whether the Chinese curriculum standards has reflected the progress of educational philosophy and Chinese educational beliefs,whe-ther the curriculum standards has changed the beliefs into educational actions,and to examine the real effects of the curriculum standards.For interpreting and understanding the nature of Chinese,we should not stick to the mechanical formulation pattern.The revising and perfecting of the curriculum standards should not only make goals clearer and make further progress in the theory,but also achieve the consistence and development of active reform ideology.


The stability of the reduced-order models obtained using the method suggested by A. Lepschy et al. (Syst. Contr. Lett., vol.8, pp.405-10, May 1987) is analyzed. The relation between this method and the Routh approximation is pointed out. Some interesting properties related to the construction of the reduced-order transfer functions and to the evaluation of certain quadratic integrals are derived. An examples shows the practicality of the procedures. >


The Hubbard model on the kagome lattice is presently often considered as a minimal model to describe the rich low-temperature behavior of AV$_{3}$Sb$_{5}$ compounds (with A=K, Rb, Cs), including charge-density waves (CDWs), superconductivity, and possibly broken time-reversal symmetry. Here, we investigate, via variational Jastrow-Slater wave functions, the properties of its ground state when both onsite $U$ and nearest-neighbor $V$ Coulomb repulsions are considered at the van Hove filling. Our calculations reveal the presence of different interaction-driven CDWs and, contrary to previous renormalization-group studies, the absence of ferromagnetism and charge- or spin-bond order. No signatures of chiral phases are detected. Remarkably, the CDWs triggered by the nearest-neighbor repulsion possess charge disproportionations that are not compatible with the ones observed in AV$_{3}$Sb$_{5}$. As an alternative mechanism to stabilize charge-bond order, we consider the electron-phonon interaction, modeled by coupling the hopping amplitudes to quantum phonons, as in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. Our results show the instability towards a tri-hexagonal distortion with $2\times 2$ periodicity, in a closer agreement with experimental findings.


1053e sum of the complication rate of each individual procedure, it still requires careful consideration, especially as this represents major complications in elective cosmetic surgery. Our study demonstrated additional significant risk factors for major complications being male sex, age 60 years or older, and body mass index greater than or equal to 30. Aesthetic surgery is gaining popularity among the elderly patient population. Our group has previously published aesthetic surgery outcomes in elderly patients.3 We found that the proportion of patients aged 65 years or older undergoing cosmetic surgery has increased from 3.9 percent to 6.4 percent between 2008 and 2013.3 The overall complication rate of all procedures was similar in both elderly (age 65 years or older) and younger patients (1.8 percent versus 1.9 percent, respectively). When looking at specific procedures, only abdominoplasty was associated with a modestly higher complication risk in the elderly (5.4 percent versus 3.9 percent; p = 0.032).4 We recommend that, just as sex and body mass index, age should be carefully considered in preoperative assessment and counseling of patients without being labeled as a contraindication. We believe that our study based on the CosmetAssure (Aesthetic Surgeons' Financial Group, Birmingham, Ala.) data represents high-quality evidence for cosmetic surgical procedures that is a reliable resource for plastic surgeons and their patients. Given that all patients of a participating practice must enroll in the program, it is not possible to select only high-risk patients, which may artificially inflate complication rates. Equally, experience and training are accounted for, as only board-certified plastic surgeons operating at accredited facilities are included. As correctly stated by Dr. Bertheuil et al., one of the limitations to this database is that only major complications are captured that would result in a hospitalization, emergency room visit, or reoperation and thus generate an insurance claim. Minor complications, although significantly more common than major complications, are usually managed in the outpatient clinic setting and thus are not captured in the database. Although complications such as wound dehiscence and seroma may not qualify as major complications according to our definition, they may lead to significant morbidity. We believe that the existing literature is insufficient to design a robust scoring system for risk stratification. Although our study has been able to determine the relative risks associated with the small set of measured variables, many other potential risk factors and confounding variables (e.g., different operative techniques, operative time, type of anesthesia, American Society of Anesthesiologists class, comorbidity indices) need to be ascertained in a prospective manner to develop a valid scoring system. We appreciate our readers' interest in this and upcoming articles from our group. DOI: 10.1097/PRS.0000000000002198 Julian Winocour, M.D.


The fantastic writers, or how the writers of fantastic prose fiction conquer Polish literature This article discusses the transition of science fiction literature over the last twenty five years and the specificity of this literature in relation to contemporary Polish prose. It deals also with the phenomenon of certain writers leaving the ghetto of sci-fi and fantasy prose and being introduced into the mainstream literature and their influence on the condition/position of Polish literature


A new method for wastewater treatment was introduced,which was mainly used for the treatment of wastewater containing cadmium in the production of GTG primary explosive. Neutralization precipitation method and sulfide precipitation method was combined in the new method. Sodium hydroxide,which was used as a precipitating agent,combined with the cadmium ions in wastewater and generated hydrogen cadmium oxide precipitation. Wastewater after primary treatment passed the antiacid,antialkali and anticorrosion filter-bags with the pore diameter of about 25μm,and entered the secondary sedimentation tank after stepwise settlement. Sodium sulfide was used to conduct a second precipitate and the filtering device was setted in the outlet of the secondary sedimentation tank. All of these made the wastewater containing cadmium in the production of GTG primary explosive reach total cadmium content requirements of GB 8978-1996"standard of sewage comprehensive discharge"and meet the tertiary industrial wastewater discharge standard. A feasible scheme for recycling use of primary sediment was also proposed. By the composition analysis of primary sediment,charge ratio of GTG primary explosive and combined process,it indicates that primary sediment can be recycled and reused. This method can effectively remove the heavy metal cadmium in wastewater of GTG primary explosive. Based on recycling and utilization of primary sediment,it also reduces production costs of the GTG primary explosive,and meets the requirement of industrial production and safe environmental protection.


Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on university students during the Movement Control Order (MCO) and Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO). MCO was introduced in March 2020, and the learning process switched from face-to-face to online learning in schools and universities. Subsequently, with the reduced number of daily cases and active cases of COVID-19, the Malaysian Government implemented RMCO from 10th June to 31st December 2020, which had more relaxation of restrictions. This study particularly focuses on students studying in higher education institutions by analysing the impacts of the community of inquiry on students learning performance. The construct of the community of inquiry includes social presence, cognitive presence and teaching presence.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides quantitative analysis, independent sample t-tests and multiple linear regression on the students' learning performance using the framework of community of inquiry. This paper presents the analysis of the online learning preference of 282 university students during MCO and 456 students during RMCO.

Findings
The results showed that there is a significant difference in students learning process during MCO and RMCO. The findings also indicated that the social presence is the most important factor in affecting learning performance during the MCO period and it changed to teaching presence during RMCO. Students lost motivation and could not perform well using online learning methods during the MCO period but the situation improved during RMCO.

Research limitations/implications
This research helps to identify the impact of the pandemic on higher education and provides insights into reshaping the future of higher education system.

Practical implications
Students are isolated from their peers in the learning process and struggle to adapt to the new normal in online learning. The teaching faculties are picking up new skills to deliver online courses and manage the risk as best as they can. This study presented the impact of the pandemic on students learning performance and explored the space for universities as business organizations to provide better infrastructures and platforms for online learning while battling with cash flow and debt level during this challenging time.

Social implications
Students need peer support and guidance from the faculty team in their learning journey. The study provides a better understanding of how we shall promote a better higher education environment, either blended or online learning.

Originality/value
To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first study to examine the impact of the community of inquiry on students learning performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students suffered during the MCO period and the learning experience got better when they were able to adapt to the changes. The higher education system needs a reform and the agency theory in corporate governance plays an important role in the transformation.


...the educational world has gone in the correct and desired direc tion by introducing art activities as one of the subjects in the school curriculum, and that what people like Franz Cizek and Rabindranath Tagore had asked for has been achieved.... But is that all that was behind the proposals made by educational thinkers like Herbert Read, who, in the forties, were anxious to see art playing its role in the development of the child's (and the adolescent's) personality in its fullest and healthiest manner? Did they not ask for a complete rethinking of the educational practices that had developed in the industrial society?


In the ink transmission process,there is a certain deviation between the preset data and the required data,which can not meet the requirement of production.Principles of common used ink quantity feedback technologies and correction methods of ink quantity deviation after printer ink quantity presetting were introduced.The purpose was to provide reference in selection of suitable correction method according toe actual production practices.


International economic institutions, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in particular, consistently shun efficient outcomes. Such is the conclusion emerging from a number of recent articles by legal scholars, economists, and political scientists advocating changes to the design of trade institutions that appear in contraposition to the direction in which those same institutions are evolving. Bagwell and Staiger (2005: 475) model the introduction of incentive-compatible escape clauses, and show that allowing side payments would 'enhance the value of the [WTO] escape clause'. Their resulting recommendations indicate 'some discord with the proscription of VERs [voluntary export restraints] introduced by the WTO', and the current lack of required cash payments as compensation for violations. Rosendorff (2005) and Bello (1996) view the WTO dispute settlement mechanism itself as a system of breach and pay, with retaliation acting as the penalty, leading one to wonder why retaliation is so infrequent. Others argue that the WTO should allow members to 'buy out' of a violation (Schwartz and Sykes, 2002), or use a formal escape clause but pay an 'optimal level of compensation' to affected parties when doing so (Rosendorff and Milner, 2001). These views of the WTO system all flow from a similar fundamental belief, broadly identified as the theory of efficient breach of contract: if the benefit to the violator of breaching the law is greater than the aggregate harm it causes, then the institution ought to tolerate, and even encourage the violation. The associated literature has thus spent much time discussing means of setting the compensation level for efficient breach, as a way of rendering trading partners 'whole' by


WITH THE RECENT PUBLICATION of the Early Years Learning Framework for all Australian children during the years before they start school, there is now for the first time a national document to guide the work of all Australian early childhood educators. This document identifies five learning outcomes designed to capture the integrated and complex learning and development of all children in the birth to five years age range. In particular, learning outcome five addresses children as effective communicators; and one of the key components of this outcome is children gaining meaning from a range of texts. This paper reviews issues surrounding early literacy in the years before school and seeks to identify a definition of early literacy which will clarify early childhood educators' understanding of this important area of young children's learning and development, and support their practice more specifically.