Microscopes are widely used to view magnified image of objects in different studies like morphological imaging, living cells viewing, geological survey and rock identification.While working with irregular object, images are often degraded due to uniform focusing and illumination problems. The main causes of image degradation are due to different types of blur and noise introduced by different systems, devices or operations. The deconvolution is an operation used in such image restoration to recover an image from an object that is degraded by blurring and noise. Blind deconvolution is the image restoration algorithm where the parameters responsible for blur are unknown. In our proposed method, a series of digital images of the target object are acquired corresponding to different focal planes. A multilayer neural network is trained with a known training dataset for which the 3D coordinates of target object are available. In this process, the neural network models blind deconvolution from training dataset .When presented with unknown sample, the trained neural network identifies focused pixels of all image stacks. The fully focused image is reconstructed from focus scanned image stack of target irregular object by combining focused pixels of all stacked images. This also provides z-coordinates of pixels from the stack id for 3D viewing.


OBJECTIVES Gut dysfunction plays a key role in the development of multiorgan failure. This is due to decreased intestinal perfusion with concomitant loss of the natural protective barrier function resulting in transmigration of intestinal bacteria. This study addresses the effect of glutamine on intestinal microcirculation and function during perfusion with endotoxin. METHOD 32 Sprague Dawley rats were infused with either standard (Aminofusin®) or glutamine-enriched amino acids (Glamin®) over 96 hours. During the last 24 hours of the experiment, 16 of the rats were additionally exposed to a continuous parenteral endotoxin infusion (E. coli; 1 mg/kg body weight/24 h). Bacterial transmigration was measured using a 59 Fe-Citrate radioactive labelled solution. Splanchnic organ perfusion was measured using 85 Sr-labelled microspheres. Statistical analysis was performed using the Kruskal-Wallis- and the Mann-Whitney U-Test. RESULTS It was found that when glutamine was added to a standard amino acid solution rats exhibited a markedly reduced bacterial transmigration of the gut when additionally challenged with endotoxin. It was found that endotoxin leads to decreased gut and liver perfusion, however, this could be significantly improved by the addition of glutamine. CONCLUSIONS In this study we showed that rats exposed to endotoxin have a significantly reduced bacterial transmigration of the intestine and an increased gut and liver perfusion when pre-treated with a glutamine-enriched amino acid solution.


Most students who choose to read physics at university are inspired to do so by their school teachers. But these same students are dissatisfied with the syllabus that they are taught at school. Science on television also attracts students to physics degrees. These are the findings of a survey of new physics undergraduates in the UK, published by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC). More than 1700 students – some 68% of this year's new physics undergraduates – completed the survey.


【Objectives】Low K content in tobacco leaves has been one of the limiting factors for the good quality of tobacco in China,plagued the tobacco production in China. In this paper,the K absorption and utilization of flue- cured tobacco affected by potash management were studied in Liangshan City,Sichuan Province,so as to provide a scientific basis for rational fertilization of tobacco. 【Methods】A field experiment was conducted to study the appropriate K application rate and the peak K accumulation of the tobacco cultivar Yunyan85. Based on this research,another field experiment was carried out to study the influence of potash management on yield,quality,and K accumulation and utilization efficiency of Yunyan85. 【Results】The yield and K accumulation of flue-cured tobacco are increased firstly and then decreased with the increase of potash rates. When the K application rate was 158 kg / hm2,about 75% of the local common K rate,the yield is 2238. 2 kg /hm2 and the K accumulationis 52. 16 kg / hm2,which are slightly lower than the highest yield( 2239. 1 kg /hm2) and the highest K accumulation( 53. 47 kg / hm2) in the experiment. So,the K application rate can be reduced by 25% to improve the economic benefits of planting tobacco production when the available K content of soil is ≥200 mg / kg. The K accumulation shows a double- peak curve during the whole growing stage of tobacco plants,the two peaks appear at the later vigorous growth stage( 50- 65 days after transplanting) and middle leaf maturity stage( 50- 65 days after transplanting). At the K application amount of 158 kg / hm2,15%-20% of total K fertilizer were top dressed before the later vigorous growth stage( 85-95 days after transplanting) and middle leaf maturity( 85-95 days after transplanting),the reduce proportion of K accumulation in tobacco leaves at the 5th and the 10 th day after topdressing are reduced by 37. 2- 42. 0 and 15. 4- 60. 3 percent points,compared with conventional fertilization.Also the K contents in the middle and upper leaves are significant increased and reached to 3. 21% and 3. 37%respectively,and the K utilization efficiency is increased by 12- 18 percent points. 【Conclusions】The suitable ratio of basal and topdressing is beneficial to the quality of tobacco leaves. In this research,under the total K application rate of 158 kg / hm2,topdressing 15%- 20% in the later vigorous growth stage and middle leaf maturity is expected to reduce the spillover rate of K and increase the K utilization efficiency and K content in tobacco leaves at the maturity,achieving the aim of high- yield and good quality.


ABSTRACT This study evaluates the effect of consumer orientation, consumer psychological involvement, and restaurant attributes on satisfaction with dining in ethnic restaurants. The sample represented 232 consumers. Correlation analysis revealed that the opinion, belief, and behavioral intentions of the active consumer significantly affect satisfaction. For the passive consumer no significant effect was found. Results of the stepwise regression analysis revealed that consumer satisfaction was significantly affected by restaurant attributes. Findings of this study contribute not only to consumer self-concept theory and satisfaction theory but also offers practical implications to the ethnic restaurant industry.


This paper provides a summary of the principles that combine to create the infrared polarization signature of an object viewed in the outdoor environment. The primary variables discussed here include polarized emission and reflection from the source (object of interest). Because the observed polarization signature arises from a combination of mutually orthogonally polarized emitted and reflected radiance components, the background radiance is an important variable to consider in many infrared imaging situations. Examples are shown of polarization spectra calculated for a smooth dielectric surface viewed under atmospheric conditions ranging clear and dry to cloudy. As long as the object of interest is radiometrically warmer than the background (sky in this case), the observed radiance is partially p-polarized, but the degree of polarization varies with the magnitude of the reflected radiance.


Since an edge localized mode (ELM) with large amplitude is predicted to induce unacceptable heat load to plasma facing components, ELMs should be suppressed or controlled for DEMO reactor. Application of resonant magnetic perturbations (RMPs) by using internal or external coils is proposed to stochastize edge magnetic field structure for the ELM control. However, it is difficult to put such coils close to plasma due to high neutron fluence. We have proposed a new method to produce RMPs by using toroidal field coils (TFCs) where coil currents are periodically distributed. A few percentages of the increase-decrease rate of TFC distributed current with toroidal period N=3 can make stochastic magnetic field structure that is equivalent to those by perturbation coils.


In recent years,many academic discussions in China are generated by theory of Daily Life Aesthetics elaborated by British scholar Michael Featherstone and German post-modern philosopher Wolfgang Welsch.Yet actually the first one to raise such a subject was a French Marxist Onlly Lefebvre,who,when making criticisms against the consuming society,constructed Daily Life Theory as a logical strategy to prove the possibility to change daily life. His doctrine is of aesthetic significance and profound inspiration to the implementation of cultural revolution.


The article depicts the artistic component and opportunities to
involve art in the process of learning subjects at general secondary educational
institutions. The importance of art for person's versatile development and his
successful learning is characterized. The artistic component of subjects of
various educational fields (language and literary, mathematical, technological,
natural, civic and historical) is highlighted.


e19012Retrospective analysis of AML patients identifies a higher risk of anthracycline associated cardiac toxicity in Hispanic patients. Background: Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is the most common ...


Milic CUROVIC*, Velibor SPALEVIC, Paul SESTRAS, Renzo MOTTA, Catalina DAN, Matteo GARBARINO, Alessandro VITALI, Carlo URBINATI Biotechnical Faculty, University of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro Department of Geography, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Montenegro, Niksic, Montenegro Department of Land Measurements and Cadastre, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy Department of Horticulture and Landscape, Faculty of Horticulture, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy


1 Ring preparations from the carotid, coronary, renal, mesenteric and femoral arteries of the dog were precontracted with the thromboxane mimetic U46619, after ensuring that the resting conditions were comparable from the Laplace relationship. 2 In the presence of prazosin (1 μm) and propranolol (3 μm), noradrenaline (NA) relaxed the arteries in the order coronary > carotid > femoral > renal = mesenteric. When maximum relaxation to nitroglycerin (10 μm) was taken to be 100% the maximum relaxation to noradrenaline in each artery was: coronary 70%; carotid 34%; femoral 19%; renal 7% and mesenteric 2%. 3 In endothelium‐intact arteries UK 14304 mimicked the relaxation responses to NA and idazoxan shifted the curves to both agonists to the right, consistent with an α2‐adrenoceptor classification. 4 Substance P relaxed the arteries in the same order as for NA but showed higher efficacy i.e.: coronary 100%; carotid 80%; femoral 71% renal 49%; and mesenteric 41%. Removal of the endothelium abolished the relaxation to NA. 5 We conclude that endothelium‐dependent relaxation to NA and substance P varies greatly across 5 large arteries of the dog. This may indicate that endothelium‐derived relaxing factor (EDRF) release is site‐dependent or that the efficacy of EDRF on smooth muscle varies; being greatest in the coronary and weakest in the renal and mesenteric arteries.


The face is a unique part that every human individual has. For that face can be a reference to recognize someone. Maybe to recognize a person's face in small amounts can be said to be easy. However, it is difficult to recognize faces in large numbers and remember their names for a long time, given the limitations of each individual human being. The purpose of this study is to develop a group face recognition software.
In this study group face recognition software uses the PCA method to extract features in face images and the Euclidean Distance method is used to measure the degree of similarity between two objects. The data used in this study amounted to 100 images, which are divided into 90 single face images as training data and 10 group face images as test data. The failure rate to slanted face of 8%. Group face recognition software using PCA and Euclidean Distance methods obtained an Accuracy result of 80%, a Precision of 100% and a Recall of 80%.


Discusses the role played logistics in Ebusiness, touches on its basic conditions in China, and puts forward some measures to be taken so as to help the post to take an active part in logistics activity


As a question for study in the effectiveness of ideological and Ethical Attainments course teaching, this paper attempts to lay out the entirety of the reform in this course with a purpose of changing the stereotypes of education, rearranging the system of ideological education, readjusting and enriching its contents, and developing the channels (such as the school, the family and the society). Only when we give free rein to the favor of the teachers' "double functions (of both ideological and ethical education and psychological education)",better the environment of education, and make a breakthrough in the traditional teaching mode can we find a solution to the implementation of the entire reform and thus form a new mode of such education.


The electrocatalytic ethane dehydrogenation to ethylene reaction (EDH) offers an alternative to the traditional steam cracking method for sustainable ethylene production but suffers sluggish kinetics due to the inert C−H bonds. Herein, a novel strategy is proposed for designing efficient double‐atom catalysts (DACs) via first principle calculations. We examined the C−H activation of methane by single‐atom catalysts (SACs) and constructed activity maps using activation energy as the activity descriptor, where methane is the simplest probe molecule to establish trends in C−H activation. Particularly, due to the strong d‐σ* coupling between ethane and Rh atoms, Rh2@V2CO2 presents excellent EDH performance with particularly low energy barriers (0.64 eV for the C2H6* to C2H5* step and 0.63 eV for the C2H5* to C2H4* step). This work not only demonstrates the possibility of developing novel DACs for EDH but also provides a new strategy for designing efficient DACs.


On the basis of presenting the piping and seepage detection by electric-magnetic prospecting method,the paper analyzed and testified validity of the method.At first,magnetic field characteristics of linear current and body current were calculated and studied for half-quadrate setting of direct current in conditions of level and homogeneous electric half-space.Secondly,when the piping had an outcrop or had not outcrops,the magnetic field on the ground and its changes along sections were discussed when there was concentrative current flowing in the piping.According to calculated results,the magnitude of magnetic field of artificial current was smaller on section if electrodes and cables were set rationally.Usually,the magnetic field magnitude of piping had several times to more than decuple comparing with magnetic field of artificial current.So,the magnetic abnormity could be detected easily by high-precision magnetometers.At the same time,their curves' characteristics were different evidently,the piping and seepage of dyke can be detected by combining method of direct current supplying and high-precision magnetic survey.


Context: Brucellosis is actually considered to be the commonest zoonotic infection worldwide; conversely prosthetic infection due to brucella is extremely rare. Although diagnostic is easily achieved, management of such situations is extremely challenging. Aim s To report the case of prosthetic hip loosening due to brucellar infection, discuss management manners and to summarize data about 19 cases reported in the literature . Methods We report the case of a 73-year-old woman with brucellar prosthetic hip loosening treated with 2-stage exchange of the prosthesis and prolonged double antibiotherapy Results At two years follow up the patient is pain free with total functional recovery and no clinical and radiographic signs of prosthetic loosening Conclusions Brucella should be evocated as a cause of total joint arthroplasty infection especially in patients from endemic regions and with occupational exposure. Antibiotic treatment alone can be followed if there are no signs of implant loosening. Tow stage revision should be considered in other cases.


breaking apart into nationality groups the cruder ethnic categories which usually appear in Census publications. For example, the authors separate Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban among Spanish Americans, and Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Korean among Oriental Americans. Indians, however, appear only as such, without benefit of tribal identifications. Comparison data for whites appear throughout, and, in vol. I, the authors also provide comparison data for blacks. The level of detail attained in the numerous tabular presentations is very high, and the text accompanying the tables appropriately complex. The dependent variables they treat in both volumes are: labor force participation rate, unemployment rate, Duncan's socioeconomic index median earnings, and occupational mobility. In each case, the authors compare males and females of the specific nationality groups indicated, and hold constant in addition age, education, marital status, health, class of worker, and industry. Appendix B provides frequencies for detailed occupations by nationality group. As compendia of detailed and otherwise unavailable or hard-to-assemble ethnic data, the two volumes are useful additions to the library of interested specialists, especially those who need to have information about specific national minorities. However, the two volumes make no significant interpretive contribution. For example, the authors altogether neglect a review of what they passingly describe as a "voluminous literature" on discrimination, nor do they make any effort to tie their research findings into any systematic body of theory or research in the social sciences. The whole "theory" of the research, is that discrimination is whatever occupational differences remain among equally well-qualified workers. This primitive conception accurately reflects the mental life of HEW officials reviewing affirmative action statistics. However, the authors' residual definition of discrimination is inadequate as an explanation for the special handicaps and impediments minorities face in the labor market. It leaves, for example, no escape from the conclusion that discrimination against whites explains the outstanding success of Oriental Americans in 1970. Similarly, this rubric ignores the interest of the securely employed in preventing the wage-cutting competition of newcomers. Indeed, the detailed tables in the two volumes provided many opportunities to draw this inference had the authors so desired. In many cases, exclusion arises because knowing the boss is the best way to find a good job in his company. These opportunity chains place outsiders at a competitive disadvantage, but discrimination is not an accurate characterization of their problem. Finally, each of these nationality groups has a specific history which needs to .be known before one ventures interpretations of detailed tabulations of labor force participation. One cannot fault the authors for not knowing all these histories, who among us can? Unfortunately, their commentary gives the recurrent impression of employing unexamined concepts to bulldoze away obstacles which reality imposes rather than adjusting the concepts to fit a complex reality.


"Although they would yield social benefits, many political projects are not implemented in democracies. The ongoing debate on reforms around the world provides prominent examples: the reform of European labour markets or the reduction plans for greenhouse gases are cases in point. We suggest a number of improvements which would make liberal democracy more efficient without altering its founding values." Copyright (c) 2007 The Author. Journal compilation (c) Institute of Economic Affairs 2007.


The present article composes some of the preliminary analyzes developed in the Laboratory of Hydraulic Constructions (LOH) of the Institute of Hydraulic Research (IPH) of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) aiming the comprehension of the mechanisms of operation and sediment removal through the use of bottom outlet in small dams. In this way, it was evaluated by means of an experimental physical model the range of sediment removal in the reservoir when the bottom outlet structure was activated, as well as the comprehension of these results when applied to the different equations of prevision present in the literature. Considering the results obtained in the laboratory new dimensioless parameteres were defined in order to generalize the behavior of the sediment removal process. The data extracted, when compared to the results of the different authors, presented the same concordance but it is possible to verify the necessity of insertion of new dimensionless parameters that consider the specific mass of the material to be removed and/or flow velocity inside the bottom outlet. PALAVRAS CHAVES: Remoção de sedimentos, descarregadores de fundo, Pressure flushing, análise experimental, modelo reduzido,


It is shown that the form of a non-dispersive wave mechanical packet representing a rotating particle of matter has a sharp and finite boundary in the equatorial plane and is entirely consistent with earlier models of phase-locked cavities. The latter have been shown to possess the properties of inertia without the need of Mach's principle. Hence, it appears that the origin of inertia for all finitely bounded particles of matter lies in the feedback process that is intrinsic to phase-locked particles. The sharp bounding of the wave mechanical packet befits models of some elementary particles and may shed light on the remarkable process whereby the actions of quantum phenomena are concentrated into particular space-time events and are not diluted over large regions of the Universe.


Typical indica and japonica cultivars, cultivars with wide compatibility, indicaclinous and japonicaclinous strains and restoring lines were collected and crossed in this study. Twenty five F_1 hybrids between indica and japonica subspecies were selected and divided into five groups. Using characters such as biomass yield, straw weight, plant height, days from seeding to heading, number of spikelets per panicle, number of grains per panicle and seed-setting rate as basic data, transgressive heterosis and competitive heterosis for each combination were determined. The results showed that there existed a correlation between straw weight and seed - setting rate in F_1 hybrids between indica and japonica subspecies, and that the vigor contained two parts: usable and unusable. The heterosis in a typical indica-japonica F_1 hybrid was hard to use. However, pairing a wide compatibility line With an indicaclinous or a japonicaclinous restoring line or their derivatives, or pairing a wide compatibility line with another wide compatibility line, would allow partial use of the heterosis in hybrids between the two subspecies, and therefore should be emphoyed as an important breeding strategy in better use of the heterosis at present.


Product costing can be used to estimate potential future costs and revenues associated with a product. In the development of new products early cost estimates can be used to support decision making regarding which products are worth pursuing, and which production processes that are the most profitable. For a firm to make precise early cost estimates both technical and financial expertise is needed; however, in practice there is generally a gap between technology and cost. Process-Based Cost Modeling (PBCM) is a model developed to address this gap and generate costing estimates of higher precision. The model is especially developed for process production technologies. Although promising, PBCM is under researched and its applicability in new contexts are yet to be explored. The purpose of this study was to explore the PBCM's applicability in new context of process production. This was done through a case study at a multinational agricultural cooperative. The problematization presented by the Case Company was to make early cost estimation of the production process of a main product and its byproducts. Furthermore, the Case Company wanted to compare alternative production designs and use of different raw materials in the production process. To create a product costing model that fully captures the contextual depth of the problem both qualitative and quantitative data was gathered from internal documents, a series of interviews, and observation of one of the sub-processes. The findings of the study resulted in development of a batch costing model, a hybrid between continuous operations and order costing systems. The batch costing proved to be dynamic and allowed comparison of different production and raw material alternatives. Furthermore, the PBCM methodology that resulted in the batch costing model was evident to give a deeper contextual understanding of the relationship between cost and production technology. For the Case Company, the outcome of the study highlighted key areas needing further investigation and process design features that lower operational costs. The results also provide recommendations how to increase the precision of the product costing models when more data are available. Finally, the academic outcome of the thesis provides trajectory in the further research on PBCM and gives new perspective on the use of batch costing in continuous operations.


One of the most important topics in future crowdsourcing is how to influence and coordinate collective people to perform micro-tasks towards their common goal achieved through crowdsourcing activities. For achieving the goal, crowdsourcing needs to take into account coordinating collective people not only encouraging individual people. This paper presents the Game as Rhetoric model that is a framework for designing digital rhetoric, which is embedded in the real world and influences participants' behavior. We then present Collective Action Crowdsourcing and its IoT-based prototype system as an example using the Game as Rhetoric model.


The Open Language Archives Community which recently celebrated its first 10 years of activity, is a worldwide network dedicated to collecting information on language resources and developing standard protocols for interoperability. In this context, Linked Open Data paradigm is very promising, because it eases interoperability between different systems by allowing the definition of data-driven models and applications. In this talk, we give an overview of present geolinguistics projects and an approach which moves the focus from the systems handling the linguistic data to the data themselves. As a concrete example, we present a geolinguistic application build upon a real linguistic dataset which provides linguists with a system for investigating variations among closely related languages.


Porous anodic alumina (PAA) template is widely used to prepare ordered nanostructure materials. But conventional PAA templates have been restricted for application in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology due to limitations such as shape and brittleness. In this article, a novel process of fabricating alumina porous template based on silicon wafer is described. Porous alumina films were formed by two-step anodization of aluminum layers sputter deposited on silicon wafer. The pore diameters range from 80 to 100 nm. The Pilling–Bedworth ratio of Al/Al2O3 was measured and calculated. Thickness of PAA template can be precisely controlled. This research provides an effective tool to nanofabrication in MEMS technology.


Introduction: Ovarian torsion is a cause of acute abdomen in pregnancy with an incidence of less than 1% occurring most commonly in the first trimester. The symptoms are non-specific with a propensity for missed or delayed diagnosis which may worsen the morbidity associated with this condition. Management is mainly surgical and pregnancy outcome is usually satisfactory. Case presentation: We present the case of a 29-year-old G2 P0 +1 with background polycystic ovaries who complained of abdominal pains at an Estimated Gestational Age (EGA) of 21 weeks in pregnancy. Clinical suspicion was confirmed with a 2D abdominopelvic ultrasound and she subsequently had emergency exploratory laparotomy with right oophorectomy. Pregnancy progressed well and she had a live birth at term. Conclusion: Ovarian torsion is rare in pregnancy. Complications following prompt surgical intervention are however, few and pregnancy outcomes are usually favourable. Keywords: Ovarian cyst; torsion; acute abdomen; cyst accident; pregnancy.


Based on the years of experience in the socialized reform of logistics, the writer first of all analyzes the status quo and the existing problems of the relationship of the university's logistics department (Party B) and the logistics group (Party B) at the primary stage of the reform. Then the writer puts forwards the idea that the appropriate relationship between the two parties should be that of strategic partnership. Finally, the writer gives proposals on getting to know, understanding, and establishing that relationship.


The ultimate goal for researchers to develop a requirements traceability (RT) technology is transferring it from academy to industry. Academic researchers and industrial practitioners both expect that more and more technologies can be transferred. However, there is always a wide gap between RT research and practice. In this thesis, I'll propose a novel model that focuses on evaluating the RT technologies transfer maturity. A reasonable maturity evaluation model is proposed to measure to what extent an academic RT technology must achieve before it is able to be transferred to industry. Based on the model, an initial progress is made in selecting a suitable RT technology for industrial practitioners.


Endothelial dysfunction is central to the pathophysiology of heart failure, including dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Current drug therapies are unable to halt the progression of DCM, compelling the ...


The concept of transport numbers in fused salts is discussed in the light of the inapplicability of the usual definition applied to electrolytic solutions. The lack of a solvent reference frame, with respect to which the mobilities of the ions are normally compared, necessitates employment of a microscopic definition, if the conductance of a molten electrolyte is to be divided into a sum of meaningful ionic conductances. Thus, the reference frame selected here consists of the large bulk of ions not involved in the conductivity process at any given instant, i.e., those ions which lack the necessary energy of activation for migration. The transport numbers are therefore the fractions of current carried by the migrating ions during electrolysis as measured with respect to this frame.


ABSTRACT This study developed and examined a new model based on conservation of resources theory to explore how sleep health interacts with resources (i.e., objects, conditions, energies, personal characteristics), stress, and academic performance. Participants were 654 hospitality or business undergraduates from 6 U.S. universities. We analyzed data using descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling. The results of the study showed that (a) sleep health had a significant but weak effect on student grade point average (GPA); (b) stress had no significant effect on student GPA; and (c) students' major did not moderate the relationships between resources, stress, sleep health, and student GPA. Although sleep health does not seem to be a strong predictor of academic performance, it is suggested that educators not ignore the connection between sleep health and students' academic success and individual health. Theoretical implications are provided to help advance hospitality and tourism education applying conservation of resources theory.


ABSTRACT In this paper, an investigation study has been carried out to evaluate the photovoltaic module degradation, in a desert area of Algeria. In this view, a set of PV modules have been put into tests and assessment for more than 11 years. These modules were assembled into three PV generators composed of monocrystalline (mc-Si) and polycrystalline (pc-Si) PV modules. The I–V curve tracer, calibrated reference m-Si solar cell and Pt1000 temperature sensor tools were used to collect the data. Three degradation modes were examined namely: (i) the visual inspection characterized mainly by a discoloration of PV modules, (ii) I–V degradation characterized by an increase in the series resistance which corresponds to electrical losses in conductors and (iii) the degradation rate (DR) assessment. The main parameters affecting on PV system performance are the high temperatures and sandstorms that characterize desert regions. The results indicated that for monocrystalline and polycrystalline PV modules, the power degradation rates were 1.53% and 0.37% per year, respectively. This degradation rate was found to be 2.36% per year for modules with broken back-sheet and corroded junction box. The production situation of examined PV systems shown a decrease of about 9%, 13%, and 6.8% for PVG1, PVG2, and PVG3, respectively, throughout the operation period. In addition, cell discoloration was observed as the predominant mode of degradation mechanism in desert climatic conditions.


Background/Objectives: Polyethelene terephthalate (PET) is a standout amongst the most well-known purchaser plastic utilized and is broadly utilized as crude material to items, for example, mineral water bottles, soda pop jugs, compartments for bundling of sustenance and other shopper products. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The goal of this paper to decide ideal quality and impact of utilization of reused PET as fractional substitution of fine total in common Portland bond. In this study Concrete with 0%, 5%.10%, 15% and 20% PET containers waste for fine total were delivered and contrasted against blend and no substitution or 0% substitution. Findings: The 3D square examples and shaft examples of 45 no of each were thrown, cured and tried for 7days and 28days quality. The pressure and flexural quality were done and results were contrasted and control example. In light of the examination a relationship for the forecast of compressive quality and flexural quality of cement containing waste PET as fine total substitution. Applications/Improvements: The consequences of this examination merge the possibility of the utilization of pet container waste in the field of development particularly in the plan of cement. The utilization of PET containers waste due to reduced and light weight and in turn lessens the unit cement weight. The auxiliary solid individual weight from a building diminishment will lead to reduction in building weight and reduce the seismic danger due to the earth shake drives directly reliant on the earth shudder strengths.


High-affinity receptors for thrombin have been detected on human platelets,' but many aspects of the mechanism(s) by which this proteolytic enzyme induces aggregation of, and secretion from, this cell remain unclear. In common with platelet excitatory agonists, which do not exhibit proteolytic activity, for example, platelet-activating factor, thrombin increases phosphoinositide breakdown2'' and elevates the levels of 1,2-diacylglycero14*' and cytosolic [Ca"'],"' suggesting that it acts by way of a classical receptor occupancy mechanism. A proteolytic event, however, has been proposed as an integral feature of the signal transduction mechanism used by thrombin inasmuch as derivatives of this enzyme selectively inactivated at the catalytic site are ineffective as platelet excitatory agonists' and because a surface membrane substrate (glycoprotein V) has been identified that is cleaved by thrombin? Many compounds have been described that inhibit the catalytic activity of thrombin. Similar attention has not, however, been given to the identification of synthetic agonists or antagonists for cellular thrombin receptors, despite the potential of such compounds to provide insight into the mechanisms by which thrombin stimulates cells. We have identified a novel tripeptide analogue (SC40476) (FIGURE 1) as a selective partial agonist-antagonist for the platelet thrombin receptor. SC40476, when added at mM concentrations, has no significant effect on thrombin-induced catalytic activity monitored either as hydrolysis of a small model substrate (S2238), or as conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin. Over this concentration range, however, SC40476 induces a parallel shift to the right in the dose/response curve describing the relationship between the extent of aggregation and thrombin concentration. The PA, calculated from these data is 2.4. Inhibition by SC40476 of adenosine triphosphate


This study argues for a third wave feminist interpretation of Daughter of Fortune and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende as two significant texts that take multiple feminist perspectives into consideration and oppose certain patriarchal systems. As will be argued, the problems faced by the female characters that relate to their personal feminism cannot be explored sufficiently by assuming that they are tossing aside their liberties. Rather, the characters and their stories are best examined by exploring how each woman can work through her problems in ways that allow her to maintain her feminist position. © 2016 Elixir all rights reserved. Elixir Literature 91 (2016) 38277-38284 Literature Available online at www.elixirpublishers.com (Elixir International Journal) Zohreh Amini Pirjel/ Elixir Literature 91 (2016) 38277-38284 38278 writings. At first, the dominant subject dealt with by the feminist writers was the rights of women, and then, in the second wave, it turned out to be about how an ideal woman should be. Finally, most of the feminist works in the third wave have emphasized the difference between men and women discussing the issue of gender and sex. Such issues have always been reflected in the literary works such as novels and plays written by eminent feminist novelists and playwrights. The Concept of Third Wave Feminism Third-wave feminism began in the early 1990s, arising as a response to perceived failures of the second wave and also as a response to the backlash against initiatives and movements created by the second wave. While women made significant gains during the second wave of feminism, equality was still a distant dream. Race and Class became important issues for reflection and action within the movement – a movement that had been dominated by white, middle-class women. This wave of feminism is not stimulated by one or two key struggles, such as the right to vote or reproductive choice, as was the case in both the first and second waves. Even the term feminist is not universally adopted but often rejected by new activists. While the movement seems less galvanized in this current wave there is no doubt that the fight for women's equality is far from over. Mobilizing and organizing across age, race, class and differences in women remains the main challenge in continuing the fight for equality for women. A post-structuralist interpretation of gender and sexuality is central to much of the third wave's ideology. Third-wave feminists often focus on "micro-politics" and challenge the second wave's paradigm as to what is, or is not, good for females. The third wave has its origins in the mid-1980s. Feminist leaders rooted in the second wave sought to negotiate a space within feminist thought for consideration of racerelated subjectivities. Third-wave feminism also contains internal debates between various feminists such as the psychologist Carol Gilligan, who believes that there are important differences between the sexes, and those who believe that there are no inherent differences between the sexes and contend that gender roles are due to social conditioning. These concepts are further discussed in Chapter Three. Third wave feminism is a movement which began to come out late 1980s and has been keeping its existence until present time. Although it is generally confused to be the continuation of the second wave, it can actually be accepted as a separate and unique movement with its different subjects: women of color, sex and gender, masculinity and femininity etc. The black women's involvement in the feminist movement with the white feminists, especially in America, has taken the overall concept of feminism one step further within the third wave. In addition to the black women issue, third wave feminists have been trying to uncover the gender roles and defining the terms sex and gender which will be covered later in this thesis. Those who define themselves as third-wave feminists tend to be more global and multicultural, and include elements from many different movements such as anti-racism, womanism, and transgender politics. They combat issues such as women's greater influence in politics, and stereotypes about the media portrayals of women. Feminists and scholars disagree on definitions of third wave feminism. Some use the term to label any kind of feminist activism from the 90s to today while others use the term for specific ideologies, especially those that disagree with tenets of second wave feminism. Many third wave feminists believe that everyone can define feminism for themselves. Some are labeled third wave feminists by others while they refuse to use the label "feminist" for themselves. The term ―third wave,‖ was coined by a group of feminists who were the members of activist network called ―The Third Wave‖ (Orr, 1997, p. 30). The vision of this feminist group was to become a national network for young feminists and to bring them together without regarding any cultural or economic background. Moreover, they aimed to build a strong relationship between young women and older feminists. It is important to highlight the fact that this third wave feminist group put an emphasis on a feminist movement that aimed to organize all the women around the world; any women of color, religion, race or language. Actually, this is what makes third wave a complicated and confusing movement because the variety of women from different background creates different voices for different feminist aims and causes. Sex and Gender Concepts in Third Wave Feminism The concept of sex-gender and woman-man has always been questioned since the Second Wave occurred when feminists began to highlight their roles, as women, in the society. Now, modern women tend to accept masculine qualities and pride themselves on thinking, taking action, working, and creating on the same terms as man. (Walters, 2005, p. 35) As mentioned before, third wave feminism is a complex, as well as a multi-perspective movement dealing with various issues such as the nature of woman, her relationship with man and the concept of woman and man itself. That third wave has become a movement of complexities is due to the fact that some group of feminists have argued about the stereotyped woman and man while, paradoxically, fighting for their rights and equality with men, whereas other groups assert that women are more than they are and, even, they are superior to men and do not need them. That is, for the sake of their own cause, each group has been trying to shape the concept of woman from their own perspective. To achieve this, they have used media and more specifically social media, as Riot Grrrl did. This situation has led third wave feminists and feminist psychologists to define the concepts such as sex and gender, femininity and masculinity and man and woman. Before going through the concepts of masculinity and femininity, it is essential to know more about the concepts of gender and sex and what they mean. There have been many definitions of sex by many feminists and psychologists. The term sex is considered to be a biological criterion for classification of male or female based on the different inborn biological characteristics such as chromosomes, hormones, sex organs, and etc. (Muehlenhard& Zoe, 2011, p. 796) That is, when sex is mentioned, what comes to the mind is the physical differences between man and woman relating to the hormones released especially in puberty, the time that man develops muscles and gains more hair and height and that woman gains more fatty tissue, broader hips and develops breasts. (Montague, 2010, p. 290) Gender, in contrast to sex, is social and questions how the individual, woman or man, acts. (Petersen&Muehlenhard, 2011; Montague, 2010) According to Haslanger (2000b), gender refers to the social categories of male and female and these categories are distinguished from one another by a set of Zohreh Amini Pirjel/ Elixir Literature 91 (2016) 38277-38284 38279 psychological features and role attributions that society has assigned to the biological category of sex. (Muehlenhard& Zoe, 2011, p. 798) Unlike sex, gender becomes complicated when it is to be defined in terms of the social norms that woman or man lives in. Because sex is something that individuals inherit but gender is developed as individuals are socialized and develop behaviors and attitudes that their society and culture assert appropriate for them. (Montague, 2010, p. 290) That is to say, while sex refers to male and female, gender is more mentioned to be about masculinity and femininity of which qualities are labeled by cultural aspects. (Montague, 2010; Muehlenhard & Zoe, 2011) As Muehlenhard and Zoe maintain, distinguishing sex from gender is important to recognize that "biology is not destiniy" (p. 793). Woman and her femininity, in other words, her gender roles, have always been shaped and defined by the opposite sex in patriarchal society. The terms  ̳sex' and  ̳gender' mean different things to different feminist theorists and neither are easy or straightforward to characterize. Sketching out some feminist history of the terms provides a helpful starting point. The sex and gender issue and the consequences of rejecting or accepting doing gender is well-pictured in the two plays The House of the Spirits and Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende in which the female protagonists make attempts in different ways to adapt themselves to male dominant society and their survival in that community. As Ackerman states in the article Discovering Stories that Need to be Told, ―Allende's novels often tell about love, adventure, memory and history which are filled with the strong female characters who search for love and want to find their own identities that are restricted by the societies‖ (Ackerman, 2010, p. 17).This indicates that Allende is a feminist who has enthusiasm and devotion to the women's freedom. Such enthusiasm and devotion can be seen in mo


: The API Economy is a type of service ecosystem that emerged due to organizations using Web APIs to provide third parties with access to their resources, i.e., functionality or data. It is argued that participation in the API economy creates value and offers strategic advantages to API providers. However, there are sectoral differences within the API Economy, with specific sectors being more advanced than others. Since there are currently no explanations for these differences between sectors, this research aims at providing insights into barriers inhibiting the advancement of the API Economy as well as potential measures to overcome these barriers for a specific sector, the automotive industry. We apply a Grounded Theory Methodology approach based on interviews with 21 experts from OEMs, automotive suppliers, consultants, mobility start-ups, and insurance firms. As a result, we present 14 legal, economic, social, technological, and organizational barriers. Furthermore, we derive five measures to overcome these barriers.


The water masses in both routes of Indonesia Throughflow (ITF) from historical hydrographic data are examined by means of the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), a multivariate statistical technique, during the southeast monsoon and northwest monsoon, and compared with the TS diagrams. The temperature and dissolves oxygen always play in the same PC, which describeds a variability contribution of the water mass characters, while salinity in a different PC. The relationship of the water masses parameters may indicate the character of dissolved oxygen as a non-conservation tracer. The Principle Component Analysis may also be used to follow the trendds of core layer attenuation as verified by the salinity corresponds at the PC. It will be higher with S-max and S-min and more closely resemble the sources. This condition is shown in the waters close to the main sources in the Pacific, like Sulawesi, Malkuku and Halmahera Sea, where both the salinity extrema can still be observed. Conversely, in the Banda and Timor Sea, where S-max and S-min are greatly attenuated even completely remove, the correspondence of salinity in the water mass character variability becomes smaller. As seen on TS and TO diagrams, PCA graphics are also showed the dominant of the north Pacific water in the western route seas, the Sulawesi, Makasar Strait and the Florest Sea, but relatively salty water of South Pacific origin is observed in the Halmahera Sea, particularly in the northwest monsoon. The strong seasonal variablity of surface water in the Indonesian can also be observed in the PCA graphics. Keywords: Water Mass, Indonesian Throughflow, PCA.


This article introduces the design of a novel quasi dual-mode, elliptic coaxial filter. The transfer function is mapped to a Generalized Chebyshev prototype with sym- metrically located transmission zeros (TZs) where the cou- pling values are extracted. Furthermore, the miniaturiza- tion is achieved by incorporating stepped-impedance coax- ial line with inductive element shunted at the center to ex- hibit a quasi dual-mode property. Theoretical analysis to- gether with experimental prototype is presented. The center frequency of the filter is 2.7 GHz. The simulated and mea- sured insertion loss/return loss are 1.2 dB / 15 dB and 2.5 dB / 11.5 dB respectively. Both theoretical and measured results show a very good agreement.


Sponge titanium is the basic raw material to produce metallic titanium.However,the Kroll process,the only metallurgical process to produce sponge titanium in industry,is a complex and difficult process with poor environmental compatibility and the high production cost.This paper focuses on titanium resources,the resource and energies consumptions,environmental effects of sponge titanium production,and sustainable development of titanium industry in China.The reserve of titanium resources in China ranks first around the world,with the characteristics of high proportion of lean ore and low proportion of rich ore.Most of the titanium deposits are polymetallic coexisting ores.The technical and economical indexes for the chlorination step,the reduction-distillation step,magnesium electrolysis step and the overall Kroll process in China and abroad are compared.The environmental effects of the Kroll process are discussed.The current status of the new titanium metallurgical process is reviewed.Two points are essential to ensure the sustainable development of titanium industry.Firstly,the dependence on imported titanium resources need to be reduced via utilization of the abundant ilmenite resources in China;secondly,the resource and energy consumptions,waste emissions and production cost of sponge titanium need to be reduced through process improvement or development of new processes.


Metadata is fundamental to persons, organizations, machines, and an array of enterprises that are increasingly turning to the Web and electronic communication for disseminating and accessing information. Substantiating this growth is the development of metadata schemas supporting projects ranging from restricted corporate Web sites to freely accessible digital libraries; experimentation with a range of metadata creation tools and techniques; advancements in the development of the Semantic Web; and an unprecedented coalescence of diverse communities with a vested interest in resource management and discovery.

Today, researchers, implementers and practioners engage in joint projects to facilitate metadata initiatives furthering our knowledge in this area. The DC-2003 Conference theme "Supporting Communities of Discourse and Practice---Metadata Research & Applications" provides an infrastructure for researchers to share inquiries, research methodologies, and results from their latest studies and for system implementers to share application developments, evaluations, and to display their tools through the DC-Lab. Following the open spirit of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), DC-2003 is open to researchers, system implementers, metadata practitioners, administrators, and others wanting to engage in a dialog to advance the discourse and practice of metadata research and applications.


The purpose of this article is to find out how motives for learning Japanese were related to Willingness to Communicate in Japanese. The participants were 325 international students who were studying in universities and graduate schools in Japan. The data was collected by two kinds of questionnaires. In the analysis, the structures of international students' motives were examined by using the factor analysis. As a result, five factors were extracted: (1) Interest in studying Japanese; (2) Interest in modern Japanese culture; (3) Orientation of understanding Japan; (4) Incentive orientation; and (5) Instrumental orientation. In addition, the relations between learning Japanese motives and Willingness to Communicate in Japanese were examined by using the path analysis. The result showed that Interest in studying Japanese and Instrumental orientation were related to Willingness to Communicate in Japanese.


The aim of the study was to assess the effect of varying amounts of potato fiber and bran preparation on the quality of finely comminuted thick wiener type sausages. In sausage batters 7.5% and 10% fine fat were successively replaced with rehydrated (1:5) fiber preparations. Proximate analyses were conducted to determine the basic chemical composition of sausages (contents of water, fat and protein) and their texture was measured instrumentally. Model products were also subjected to a detailed sensory analysis, determining the intensity of 16 selected quality attributes using profile analysis. Moreover, consumer desirability was also established for the analysed sausages. In sausages with fat substituted with dietary fiber their fat content decreased significantly (from 25% in the control sausage to approx. 17% in sausages with a 10% fiber content). In comparison to the control sausages a statistically significant reduction was shown for all the instrumentally analysed texture parameters, especially in sausages with fat substituted with bran preparation. These results were confirmed in profile analysis. A decrease was found for binding, hardness and springiness, whereas watery feel of experimental sausages was found to increase. In sausages containing 10% potato fiber the perceptibility of meaty taste was reduced, while sausages with bran preparation were characterised by an enhanced intensity of fatty taste. Fat substitution with potato fiber, especially with bran preparation, resulted in a decreased consumer desirability of experimental sausages as a consequence of inferior texture of these sausages.


Canadian one), and create permanent Secretaries of State in the Department of Canadian Heritage to represent each (p. 127); consider a Truth and Reconciliation Committee concerning Native land claims (p. 101); adopt a degree of proportional representation in our electoral system (pp. 128-29); eliminate judicial review (as an obstacle to political conversation); and ultimately reconsider the vexed question of a distinct society for Quebec. This last issue, however, begins to suggest some of the important objections that could be raised to Blattberg's project. In the first place, there is a strong case to be made that the problem of Quebec's status within Canada is one about which Canadians have conversed before and understand each other well, but continue to disagree. Indeed, the more we converse about it, the more obvious and inflamed this disagreement is likely to become. In short, conversation can also reveal, and even exacerbate, irreconcilable differences. In this area, benign neglect may be preferable. This observation raises a much wider concern about Blattberg's project. Political institutions and policies (even controversial ones) often become expressive not through conversation, but through quiet acceptance over time—even settlements that were initially negotiated or even coerced. Consider Canada's public healthcare policy, or Quebec's Language Charter, or the idea of Canadian confederation itself. Each was hotly contested. Each represented at best a crude compromise. Each came, however, not only to be widely accepted, but even integral to the identities of subsequent generations, and all this without conversational reconciliation. Indeed, acceptance might well have been set back by insisting on the high ideal of transformative reconciliation and by continued conversational attempts at it. If this is the case, then conversation needs to be deployed more selectively than Blattberg allows in the pursuit of expressive unity. These concerns, however, need not invalidate Blattberg's central thesis that we Canadians should try to make more room for conversation. They only suggest that we must be selective in doing so. They suggest that Blattberg's book is best seen as an invitation to conversation about conversation, and its place in modern politics—a timely and richly engaging subject about which the author offers genuine insight. To adopt his favorite metaphor, this book is an offer to dance that readers would be foolish to refuse.


Uncorrected heat flow in iron formation rocks from three areas within the Liberian part of the West African Shield ranges from 50 to more than 80 mW m/sup -2/. When corrections are applied for topography and refraction, the range of heat flow is narrowed to between 38 and 42 mW m/sup -2/. In comparison with heat flows from other parts of the West African Craton, these values are consistent with preliminary results from Ghana (42 +- 8 mW m/sup -2/) and Nigeria (38 +- 2 mW /sup -2/) but are somewhat higher than values from Niger (20 mW m/sup -2/) and neighboring Sierra Leone (26 mW m/sup -2/). The Liberian values are significantly lower than the heat flow offshore in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean (58 +- 8 mW m/sup -2/), suggesting large lateral temperature gradients within the lithosphere near the coast. Values of heat production from outcrops of crystalline basement rocks near the holes are between 2 and 2.3 ..mu..W m/sup -3/. A heat-flow/heat-production relation cannot be established because of the small range of values; however, assuming a 'characteristic depth' of 8 km (similar to the North American Craton) the reduced heat flow of from 20 to 25 mW m/supmore » -2/ is consistent with that from other Precambrian shields.« less


The invention is also directed to pharmaceutical, especially as MET inhibitor, formula (I) [wherein, Is a single bond or a double bond, Ra = H, Hal, alkoxy, O- cycloalkyl, heteroaryl, phenyl, NHCOalk, NHCOcycloalk or NR1R2; X = S, SO or lk, cycloalkyl, heteroaryl or phenyl, R1, R2 and / or R3, R4 together with N, O, S, also form a good ring include N and / or NH; heterocycloalkyl, all well cyclic group heteroaryl and phenyl is a new product] may be substituted, the product, the product is all isomeric forms, as well as to salts thereof.


The present paper discusses the systematic study on gamma dose rate, radon exhalation, radium content in soil and sediment and radon concentration in water of Hemavathi River environments. The Gamma dose rate in the air in the study area varied from 98 to 202 nGy h−1 with mean value 145 nGy h−1. The measured dose rate was above the world and Indian average. The mean value of radium activity in soil and sediment was found to be 366.61 and 328.36 mBq kg−1, respectively. The mean value of radon in soil and sediment was found to be 373.90 and 334.90 Bq m−3, respectively. The radon concentration of water ranges from 0.20 to 1.60 kBq m−3 with an average value of 0.67 kBq m−3. The radon in water contributes to dosage in stomach and lungs. The effective doses of radon were calculated and compared with international recommended values. The results show that sediment and water are safe to use for construction and drinking purpose.


Abstract : This paper examines the viability of targeted killing as a tool for the operational commander. Targeted killing, not to be confused with assassination is the intentional slaying of a specific individual or group of individuals undertaken with explicit government approval. The author reviews current U.S. and international legal basis to illustrate the unclear context of targeted killing. Included is an examination of rules of self-defense and law of armed conflict related to the current Bush Doctrine of preemption. Following a historical review of U.S. actions, an analysis of targeted killing heads of state and transnational terrorists concludes that the U.S. should not target political leaders but should indeed target transnational terrorists. The author recommends that the planning and execution should be done at the operational level of war and makes recommendations to the operational commander for improving likelihood of success.


In order to research the wharf structures deformation characteristics under water level cycles circulation in the mountain rivers,the paper relies on the first-stage project of Funing port in Yunnan Province and establishes a three-dimensional finite element model of the overhead sloping wharf.Based on the waterrock interaction,it mainly studies the overall deformation characteristics of overhead sloping wharf,the horizontal displacements of piles,the piles top settlements and the retaining wall instability mode under the water level cycles circulation.It also obtains the wharf structures deformation development trends,meanwhile,the paper predicts the failure modes and features of overhead sloping wharf under the action of water level changes.The results can provide a reference for further studying the interaction between wharf structures and bank slope located in the mountainous rivers and its time-varying characteristics.


This research observes the extent of heteronormative encouragement/implication of gender roles in the intermediate school environment. I predict that, through the material studied (books, plays, etc.), gender roles are still being implemented and encouraged, as well as the heteronormative lifestyle.


The utility model relates to a sand and soda mixer, which comprises a rack and a horizontal roller arranged on the rack, and is characterized in that: the horizontal roller is rotatably connected with the rack through a rotating shaft, and a feeding hopper is arranged at the upper side of a feeding end of the rotating shaft; a spiral blade capable of pushing materials into the horizontal roller is arranged on the feeding end of the rotating shaft, and spoilers are arranged on the inner circumferential wall of the horizontal roller; and a conveying device capable of conveying the materials to a kiln is arranged at the bottom side of a discharging end of the horizontal roller. The sand and soda mixer can achieve the purpose of uniform mixing of sand and soda.


The hydraulic design of the tidal gate is in close relationship with upstream excess water and downstream tide;however,there is no standard calculation method for the hydraulic design.In this paper,a tidal gate in the coastal area was studied.Due to the lack of collection of basic information during the construction of the tidal gate,the combination water level of energy dissipation design was not reasonable,which caused serious damage to the engineering energy dissipation facilities.When there is emigration for the tidal gate in the long channel,the tidal information in the new gate is of important significance.Based on the analysis of the causes of problems,during the reinforcement reconstruction,several key technical problems were analyzed such as the calculation of total clear width of tidal gate and design of energy dissipation and scour prevention,which can provide references for the design of similar tidal gates.


Replication was the easiest and most convenient method adopted for data storage systems however it increased the memory utilization as it made various duplicates or multiple copies of original data. Henceforth, erasure codes such as Reed-Solomon Codes were considered for the purpose of Data storage. RS Codes utilized Galois field operations which included Vandermonde Matrices and subsequently increased the decoding complexities making them more expensive for storage systems. In this paper, small sized Low Density Parity Check Code, for distributed storage architecture is proposed which uses only simple arithmetic XOR operations, and hence displays lower encoding and decoding complexities compared to its counterpart, Reed Solomon Codes. It is observed that reconstruction of the original information is possible even when there are node failures. LDPC Codes has been chosen for distributed data storage system as it does not require all of the data blocks in order to reconstruct the original file, making it an efficient coding scheme for storage systems.


The Perception background is growth of social and economic life of
human being specially Solo town. This Condition create condition requirement of
advertisement medium and media will among perpetrator of effort. LIMITED
PARTNER, CV of MOZA catch this opportunity and make the plan to entering the
opportunity. Intention of this writing is to know planning process and also role of
planning in the effort realizing advertisement bulletin of promoview in LIMITED
PARTNER, CV of MOZA Surakarta. This perception use descriptive perception method which develop
existing concept without examination of hypothesizing. Perception location in
LIMITED PARTNER, CV of MOZA Sarana Graphika owning activity of planning
of advertisement bulletin of promoview. Result of from perception of writer express : planning is matter of
esensial which is absolute to be required to do a work, planning is early from
each; every activity of stand-out Forms planning with programs becoming
execution goals start from which short-range, middle until long-range. Programs
of the planning form also divided systematically to strategic plan and planning of
operational. Role of planning really look at planning of advertisement bulletin of
Promoview in limited partner, CV of MOZA, the planning have early existence of
promoview at the same time make limited partner CV of MOZA ready to vie with
other advertisement bulletin. Constraint faced is limitation of capital and not yet
is optimal of him process internal recruitment to get activator of bulletin, so that a
little a few/little planning process.
Writer suggest to look for capital alternative by strive cooperation with
financial institution or proffering of and investor of sponsorship Keyword : Management, Planning.


Under typical operating conditions, flows in microfluidic devices are laminar and molecular diffusion across the channels is slow, which makes an efficient mixing in microfluidic devices difficult to achieve. The mechanism to achieve effective mixing in laminar flows is that of repetitive stretching and folding. Essential is to generate spatially periodic flows with crossing cross sectional streamlines. A mapping method is employed to analyze mixing in micromixers, enabling us to investigate the progress of mixing both qualitatively and quantitatively. The progress of mixing is characterized by a measure of mixing, called the discrete intensity of segregation. The mapping method is applied to mixing in such micromixers as the staggered herringbone mixer, the barrier embedded micromixer, and the three-dimensional serpentine channel to demonstrate the capability of the numerical scheme to tackle general mixing problems in microfluidic devices.


Problems in teaching computing by distance education can result from the characteristics of students, academics, the institution, the medium used to deliver subject matter, and the field of computing. This paper examines some of the problems faced by the Department of Mathematics & Computing at Central Queensland University (CQU) in offering computing via distance education. It will describe some of the solutions implemented by the Department and the problems generated by those solutions. Experience at CQU has shown that the appropriate use of technology including computers, software, computer aided Iearning tools, computer mediated communication (CMC), voice mail, audio and video tapes can contribute solutions to many of the problems of distance education.


The Anglo-Indian community is a legacy of colonialism. Portuguese, Dutch, French, and—most significantly—British people arrived in India through the development of Western trade and rule in the seventeenth century. Almost solely male endeavours were involved in colonialism. When it came to the Europeans in India, thousands of unmarried men were stationed there for years, and many of them formed relationships with native women. European men formed partnerships with native women in the early days, when the sea voyage was long and risky, and European men were forced to settle down for many years. That practice was later labelled as a necessity. During their time in India, Europeans fulfilled various roles, including priests, traders, conquerors, monarchs, and administrators. In addition, they were accountable for the emergence of a multiracial population that came to be known as the Anglo-Indian community. In the course of their history, the people who are now known as Anglo-Indians have been known by a variety of names, including "Eurasians", "East Indians," "Half-castes," "Mixed Blood," "Country-Borns," and "Indo-Britons."


The present invention is by using a deuterium source, and ruthenium (II) catalyst, a method for the deuterated amine in α and / or β-position of the N atom.


ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to find out the discursive portrayal of the hashtag "tolakomnibuslaw" on Twitter, which reveals rejection of the Job Creation Law by applying the synergy of linguistic corpus method and illocutionary speech act analysis. The data of this research is a corpus based taken from the utterances of Twitter users who use the hashtag of  Omnibus Law Rejection (#tolakomnibuslaw) on October 8, 2020. Word lists and collocations analysis are utilized to see patterns of the hashtag used by people in expressing rejection of the Job Creation Law. Concordance is used to lean more the analysis of speech acts and study the data. The result show that there are 38 styles of the hashtag use. Most of them is the use of noun behind the hashtag "tolakomnibuslaw". In addition, there are also five common topic hashtags included the hashtag "tolakomnibuslaw".  From the perspective of speech acts, there are five types of speech acts that appear and are dominated by assertive speech and forms of criticism against government effort.
Keywords:  linguistic corpus; social media; speech acts


У статті конкретизовано структуру комунікативної культури вчителя іноземних мов, визначено роль і місце
вмінь комунікативної взаємодії у структурі комунікативної культури вчителя іноземних мов, обґрунтовано доціль-
ність застосування різних форм драматизації з метою підвищення рівня комунікативної культури студентів, по-
дано приклади вправ та завдань для формування вмінь комунікативної взаємодії.
(The structure of communicative culture of the foreign languages teachers have been determined, the role and place of communicative interaction skills in the structure of communicative culture of teachers of foreign languages have been specified, the expediency of various forms of dramatization in order to increase the level of communicative culture of students have been
proven, the examples of exercises and activities for the formation of a communicative interaction skills have been provided.
Communicative culture of future teachers of foreign languages can be seen as a systemic phenomenon, which is manifested in the general ability to understand the student and teach him to understand other people and himself and described as a subsystem of knowledge, communication skills and awareness in the system of the crosscultural communicative competence.
Formation of crosscultural communicative competence by means of dramatization includes, in addition to gaining relevant knowledge, lexical, grammatical and phonetic sub-skills and skills in all kinds of speech activity, psychological, sociocultural and sociolinguistic components essential for communication.
The use of dramatization for teaching foreign speaking is directly related to the solution of strategic task of higher education – the formation of communicative culture of future teachers of foreign languages because dramatization is aimed at the development of crossrcultural communicative competence in drama games, role-plays, improvisations, simulations and theatre projects. In addition, dramatization develops personal qualities and abilities of students, expanding the repertoire of their behavior through communication and formation of professionally oriented competence of foreign languages teachers at the beginning stage of their training.)


Abstract In this paper two new criteria are proposed for performance evaluation of point features extracted using SIFT detector. The criteria measure the quality of image features for visual servoing applications. The first one is derived from the repeatability rate criterion and the second one is a new approach to analyse the spreading degree of image features using Mahalanobis distance. New feature descriptors are introduced based on image moments and results of real experiments are analysed.


Nigeria which share boundaries with Benin, Niger and Cameroon closed all of its land borders in order to ensure total control over what comes into the country in October 2019. That was not a first instance action. It happened in 1984, 2003 and the banning of barley import in 1987, by the then Military Authority. The action boosted the government's revenue as more duties were collected on the increased volume of goods that entered the country legally through the ports, but the fall in supply of rice led to food price inflation that impacted strongly negatively on Nigerian consumers. Also the closure was in breach of the protocol on the movement of goods, services and people established by the Economic Community of West African States. The action came just two months after the country signed the African Continental Free Trade Area, which aims to remove barriers to trade and promote the free flow of goods, service and people across the continent. Using Neo-mercantilism theoretical framework model, this paper argue that imposing import barriers such as border closure as Nigeria did during the periods mentioned, tantamount to shooting oneself in the foot. Since consumption is the sole end of production, consumers' interests come before producers' interests, especially those of relatively inefficient producers. Foreign exporters in the region experienced losses as countries within the ECOWAS sub region started rejecting Nigerian goods. The paper is of the opinion that Nigeria should take effective measures to diversify the economy away from overreliance on the oil sector and agriculture, by implementing more market-friendly measures that encourage foreign and local investment into other revenuegenerating sectors, such as manufacturing, instead of resorting to border closure that hurts not only the country's economy but that of other African countries, mostly in the ECOWAS. Key-words: Nigeria, Border-closure, ECOWAS, Africa, Neo-mercantilism --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 02-06-2020 Date of Acceptance: 17-06-2020 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The use of terrestrial photogrammetry as a densification of geodetic networks for repeated monitoring of a large concrete dam is discussed in this paper. Photogrammetry promises to be a very economic technique for dam monitoring, especially if a large number of targets has to be measured frequently. A pilot study of the Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry was conducted at a dam of 208 m height and 630 m length in Ticino (Switzerland), to perform photogrammetric 3-D point determination for dam monitoring with a digital high resolution still video camera Kodak DCS200 and with a metric camera Wild P31. The results of 3-D point positioning from a photogrammetric bundle adjustment will be given for each of the cameras, showing the accuracy potential of the method; in addition, some application relevant handling issues will be addressed. For comparison, and as a reference, the 3-D object coordinates of the photogrammetrically determined targets were measured by surveying techniques with a theodolite and a high precision distance meter ME5000, as traditionally used for dam surveillance.


Abstract In this article, we advocate the development of underexplored collaborations between leisure and computer science scholars. Focus is placed on exploring and understanding digital leisure consumer behaviors and experiences and the potential for social justice research in the contexts of social media and eSport. Leisure scholars stand to benefit from leveraging technological expertise and considering different theories of engagement with technology. Opportunities for collaboration are described while recognizing the mutual benefits for all scholars involved and the methodological implications of working within different paradigms of knowledge. Insights that could assist others engaging in interdisciplinary research projects are also presented.


According to many problems and experiences of debugging work in PLC industry monitoring system in fire power plant,enumerates typical example to explain the problems of PLC industry monitoring system in design,installation and debugging process,increases the operational reliability and safety of PLC in fire power plant public auxiliary system.


The dissertation on The Cobbler (Svec,) Miller´s dance (Mlynařska) and the Plough (Ruchadlo). Motifs of work and crafts in Czech folk dances deals with the theme of folk dances pertaining to motifs of work and crafts, namely dances with movements depicting and imitating work movements. It is based on the detailed study of records and descriptions of Czech folk dances in collections, manuals of social dances and other sources.The variations of dances appearing repeatedly in the sources, were compared. The study revealed three principal ways of how the work motif is employed: in the songs' lyrics; the dancers' movements resemble a certain activity ; the work process is imitated intentionally. It became evident that there is a connection between the incidence of these dances and the social and political context of the period.


Most proteins that enter the secretory pathway become glycoproteins, i.e. they are modified by sugars, such as N-glycans. The absence of N-glycans is lethal, and alterations in glycosylation patterns may lead to devastating diseases, including cancer. The assembly of the canonical oligosaccharide donor for N-glycosylation requires the flipping of dolichol-containing glycolipids from the cytoplasmic to the luminal side of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). This process implies the existence of proteins (flippases) that facilitate the otherwise very slow movement of polar glycolipids through the membrane (FIGURE 1).

The goal of this study is the synthesis of molecular probes, which should serve as tools for the identification of the proposed ER flippases (FIGURE 1).

FIGURE 1 (A) Illustration of some of the steps involved in the protein N-glycosylation pathway, located in the ER membrane. (b) Structure of the natural substrate (top) and the corresponding fluorescent analogue (bottom).

We are synthesizing lipid analogs for the purpose of assaying, capturing and isolation of candidate flippase proteins. For this purpose, we are synthesizing fluorescent mimics of the natural substrates, with an ω-terminal fluorophore (NBD, see FIGURE 1). Additionally, we are synthesizing analogs with chemically reactive moieties for crosslinking to the target proteins are required. The chemical synthesis of these probes will be presented.

This work is part of an interdisciplinary project supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) – Sinergia Project Molecular identification of lipid transporters for protein glycosylation.


Projection systems, devices, sensors, power generation control method, and a computer program. The projection system, the projector image projected on the projection plane of the screen, and the sensor units, each including photovoltaic power comprises generating means, which is mounted at a predetermined position of the image projection area on the projection plane will and produce corresponding to the power intensity of the projector by the projection light projected. The projector may include an image processing circuit, which will at least provide a mounting projection position of the projection image data in the unit cell of a photoelectric image data into white image data or convert the entire image data into white image data.


A proof-of-concept noise abatement system using encapsulated bubbles was applied to pile driving noise with successful results. The system was unique in that it was built to protect a receiving area from the noise generated by pile driving noise. Results from this experiment will be discussed, and in addition laboratory tests demonstrating the potential of using such a system will also be covered.


This paper analyses the research carried out in the Tiwanaku World Heritage site in Bolivia, using unmanned aerial vehicles and satellite images. The combined use of images with different scales has made it possible to locate many archaeological structures unknown to date (drainage systems, walls, circular crop marks, and a possible dock). The Sentinel‐2 images, which were processed using principal components analysis and histogram equalization, show the river beds, flood‐prone areas, and several buried drainage channels surrounding the most important structures. The archaeological evidence obtained with the digital terrain model and natural color/multispectral images enables us to contrast a new dimension of land and water uses that go beyond what was known to date. In the same way, these images enable us to understand in detail the environmental characteristics, land use, building distribution, and flood defense structures of the Tiwanaku culture throughout its history, within the context of the environmental conditions of the Bolivian altiplano. This study allowed the authors to collect new information and pose questions on the relationship of this site with water, as well as a better understanding of the extent and habitat of this historical population.


This book is unique in the literature of New World archeology, and I suspect that its publication will mark a real increase in intellectual acuity, properly conceived research programs, and effectively executed excavation. Over the last 25 years the Second Coming has been proclaimed or predicted repeatedly in New World archeology. In this book Flannery claims considerably less than earlier prophets, but he and his associates demonstrate how it is possible to derive considerably more sound inference from archeological data than more dogmatic and logically coherent programs for salvation have been able to produce. The intellectual rigor with which Flannery approaches his subject is hard to match. Even more remarkable is the degree to which the book is a work of literature. That Flannery is literate will come


The three-dimensional viewer, or stealth, has introduced a new set of problems into the large-scale simulated battlespace. Historically, there has been a trade-off in terms of fidelity and the size of a simulation (entity count). However, discrepancies relating to perceived reality in mixed fidelity simulations are being revealed as stealth viewers and their closely related counterpart, the simulated Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV), become integral parts of larger scale simulations. This paper focuses on a major discrepancy that arises when there are mixed fidelity requirements within a simulation for the representation of entities turning corners. Several different methods to model cornering behaviors are explored. To assess the trade-offs, an instrumented program is used to compute entity motions, deviations from the planned path, and computational costs. This paper is designed to provide implementers with an appreciation of the issues involved, a series of solutions and their associated trade-offs. As we enter an era where the mixed fidelity models are the norm, rather than the exception, resolving their associated interoperability issues will become increasingly important.


In clinical orthodontics, many research findings have not been published as to differences of effect according to different periods at which orthodontic treatment is undertaken.In the present study, therefore, the author concerned himself with a comparative analysis of orthodontic effects as influenced by the earliness or lateness of a period at which orthodontic treatments are started on the part of the cases of maxillary protrusion.


Future high density multiwavelength communication systems will require an ensemble of laser sources whose frequencies can be set accurately and maintained fixed in order to achieve long-term stability. Considering the excellent short-term frequency stability of today's DFB lasers,1 frequency control within closely spaced high bit rate optical carriers networks could be realized through periodic measurement and correction of free-running semiconductor lasers.


67 Background: Sexual dysfunction after breast cancer treatment has been well documented in the literature. However, the degree of dysfunction and how best to address this issue in survivors is less clear. We sought to determine the prevalence of patient perceived sexual dysfunction in breast cancer patients in our patient population. Methods of addressing dysfunction, influence on satisfaction, and interfering factors were indentified.

METHODS
An IRB-approved survey study of English speaking female breast cancer patients stage 0-III, ages 20 to 80, from 2008-2011 was performed. A 30 question survey containing components related to demographic, breast cancer treatment, perceived impact on sexual function due to treatment, overall satisfaction with intimate relationship, and factors interfering with intimate relationships was used.

RESULTS
Of the 407 women meeting inclusion criteria, 103 returned an informed consent, and 83 completed the survey. A total of 47 (64%) of responders felt that treatment had a negative impact on their sexual function. Of those, only 23% discussed the issue with a care provider while 60% desired a physician initiated conversation. A negative perception was associated with decreased satisfaction with intimate relationships (p<0.001). The prevalence of treatment related interfering factors such as fatigue, hot flashes, scars, dysparunia, and breast tenderness were cited most frequently. Of these, only the presence of scars was significantly associated with a perceived negative impact on intimate relationships (p<0.04). Women treated with breast conservation were less likely to perceive a negative impact than mastectomy patients (p=0.036).

CONCLUSIONS
Patient perceived sexual dysfunction is a documented consequence of breast cancer treatment. Our data demonstrates that patients do not feel this issue is addressed during routine care. However, the majority of patients want this issue discussed with their physicians. Sexual dysfunction is independent of age, time post surgery, and interfering factors making it difficult to identify high risk populations. Therefore, sexual dysfunction should be identified in breast cancer patients during follow-up with interventions made when appropriate.


The title compound, C26H20N2, has one half-molecule in the asymmetric unit. The molecular twofold rotational symmetry is preserved on crystallization. The dihedral angle between the two symmetry-related indole ring systems is 49.65 (4)°. The benzene ring is oriented almost perpendicular [dihedral angle 86.02 (3)°] to the planes of both indole ring systems. Molecules related by a centre of inversion are linked via intermolecular C—H⋯π interactions to form chains along the c axis.


The diversification of higher education is formed by autonomous operation of an institution in social competition. The role of an institution should be considered in a dynamic manner. While an institution formulates its own developmental strategy rationally circumstances,the role of the government is to improve the social competition mechanism and macro-adjustment, in order to construct a reasonable structure for higher education.


This research aimed to confirm the predator avoidance behavior of mice from snake droppings as a stimulant. Snake droppings are obtained from snakes fed with mice that come from the same strain as the mice being tested for response. Snake droppings were diluted into three different concentrations (25%, 50%, and 75%). The results showed that male individuals tend to avoid the odor stimuli than the female, it's shown by the higher avoidance duration in males than the females. The results also indicate that innate behavior takes role in the avoidance response since the mice have never been exposed to any presence of predator.


OBJECTIVE:To establish an HPLC-UVD method for the determination of plasma concentration of captopril(Cap) in rats administrated with Captopril bioadhesive sustained-release capsules(CBSRCs) via i.g and study its pharmacokinetics.METHODS:30 rats were randomly given oral signal dose of 5 mg·kg-1 CBSRCs or 5 mg·kg-1 Captopril oral tablets(COT).The plasma concentration of Cap was measured by HPLC.The pharmacokinetics parameters of two preparations were calculated using DAS 2.0 software and compared in t-test.RESULTS:The linear range of Cap was 12.5~800 μg·L-1(r=0.998 7) with an average recovery of 99.40%(RSD8.60%).Minimum detectable concentration was 12.5 μg·L-1.Main pharmacokinetics parameters of CBSRCs vs.COT were as follows:tmax:(3.12±0.67) vs.(1.53±0.27) h;Cmax(722.97±133.68) vs.(1 114.47±208.36) μg·L-1;t1/2α(1.88±0.38) vs.(1.15±0.21) h;t1/2β(3.76±0.75) vs.(2.87±0.59) h;CL(2.87±0.51) vs.(3.43±0.67)L·h-1;Vd(10.98±1.90) vs.(13.21±2.57) L;AUC0~t(4 856.03±835.46) vs.(4 616.29±915.49) μg·h·L-1;MRT(5.53±1.03) vs.(3.71±0.66) h.Significant difference was noted in pharmacokinetic parameters(P0.05 or P0.01).CONCLUSION:The HPLC-UVD method is accurate and reliable for the determination of plasma concentration of Cap.As compared with COT,CBSRCs shows sustained-release and long-term effect characteristic.


The circular economy (CE) is a new model for the production and consumption of goods, which has attracted wide political attention as a strategy toward sustainability. However, the theoretical foundation of CE remains poorly structured and insufficiently explored. Recent studies have shown that the CE model draws on different schools of thought and that its origins are mainly rooted in fields such as industrial ecology (IE) and ecological economics (EE). In this article, we investigate the links between CE, IE, and EE and provide an overview of the similarities and differences between these fields. At the same time, we analyze to what extent the linkages between IE and EE can create a coherent body of knowledge for CE, and be used to identify further research opportunities. This paper shows that, until now, research on CE seems to be mainly rooted in the field of IE and based on concepts and tools that already exist in other fields, rather than inventing new ones. The reconciliation of IE and EE could provide a mechanism to extend beyond such a narrow focus, and increase knowledge of the theoretical and practical framework of CE to benefit sustainability.


Introduction. It is well known that any map is homotopically equivalent to a fiber map, i.e., to the projection of the total space on the base in a fibration. Simple examples, however, reveal that there are maps which fail to be homotopically equivalent to any inclusion of a fiber in the total space, and the problem of characterizing the maps which are equivalent to such inclusions was first raised in [14]. By the first remark, the map under consideration may be assumed from the beginning to be a fiber map p: E -B, and the problem is thus converted into that of characterizing the fibrations p which are equivalent to induced fibrations. There are two immediate necessary conditions: the fiber F of p must have the homotopy type of some loop space fl Y, and the inclusion i: F -* E must map the generalized homotopy group 7r(X, fQF) into the center of n(X, QE) for any space X; the latter is a mild generalization of the well known fact that the boundary operator in the homotopy sequence of a fibration E -* B -* Y maps XT2( Y) into the center of 7r1(E). The first result in this direction is due to Serre and asserts that p is an induced fibration if B is 1-connected and F has a single nonvanishing (Abelian) homotopy group. This result was generalized [6], [12], [17], [15] to allow F to have at most m -1 nonvanishing homotopy groups in consecutive dimensions provided it has the homotopy type of a loop space and B is (m -)-connected. In the first two sections of this paper we give results which allow F to have 2m -1 nonvanishing homotopy groups in consecutive dimensions provided B is (m 1)-connected and F has the homotopy type of a loop space under a homotopy equivalence fulfilling a certain condition which involves the "operation" of QB on F. In case F has m nonvanishing homotopy groups in consecutive dimensions, the sufficient condition in order that p be induced is expressed by means of the vanishing of a certain Whitehead product; this result answers a question raised in [15]. Dually, any map is homotopically equivalent to an inclusion A -> X having the homotopy extension property, but few maps are equivalent to identification maps resulting by shrinking to a point such a subset A of X. This leads to the problem of characterizing the cofibrations A -> X which are induced by maps of some space Y into A. Our results extend the range of applicability of some previous results [8], [12] by imposing an additional condition which involves the "cooperation" of the suspension EA on the cofiber C obtained from X by shrinking A to a point; the condition is conveniently expressed in terms of the Hopf invariant of a cofibration


Objective To study the feasibility and effectiveness of simple posterior ORIF treating thoracolumbar burst fracture. Methods From Nov.2001 to Sep.2003,213 cases of thoracolumbar burst fracture were treated by applying simple posterior open reduction and GSS pedicle screw spinal system,including 69 cases of T_(12) fracture,93 cases L_1 fracture and 51 L_2 fracture.Canal compromise revealed on CT scans of all patients exceeded 50% before operation but with few symptoms of SCI. Results Cobb's angle was reduced by 24.5 degree in average vertebral body height nearly normal 85% and no more than 13% after operation.Followed up of all cases to 24.9 month(12-31 month)in average showed healed well and recovery of living ability.Most of them continued their formal work. Conclusions Treating thoracolumbar burst fracture with few symptoms of SCI by simple posterior ORIF can restore vertebral height,Cobb's angle and canal compromise without need for further decompression.The operation duration and bleeding volume were comparatively shorter and less than the traditional decompression operation.Therefore it should be the optimum choice for treating such fractures.


Summary Findings in multiattribute decision research were used as a basis for predicting the effects of help-wanted advertisement characteristics on vacancy attractiveness. In the first experiment, undergraduate students were presented with entry-level service job advertisements differing in attribute set size, attribute relevance, and pay ambiguity. Results revealed strong evidence for a set-size effect, with ads containing more (relevant or irrelevant) attributes increasing the attractiveness of the vacancies being advertised. Pay ambiguity decreased the attractiveness of vacancies with ads containing a small set of attributes. A second experiment presented students with the same advertisements, except that the small-set ads were physically enlarged to equal the size of the large-set ads. Results replicated the (large) set-size effect only for relevant-attribute ads. Also, pay ambiguity increased the attractiveness of vacancies promoted by ads containing a larger amount of relevant attributes. We conclude that merely adding relevant attribute information to help-wanted advertisements can lead to the inference that the jobs promoted in the ads are more attractive. Moreover, we tentatively suggest that pay ambiguity can lead to pessimistic inferences about pay for ads containing less information, and optimistic inferences about pay for ads containing more information. ? 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.