Humans as social beings cannot be separated from other humans. So, It can be called a group. The group has a very close reciprocal relationship, sharing, interacting and trying together to achieve a goal. One of the groups that emerged in the community was the reading group. This reading group becomes one of the platforms that bridge the formation of reading patterns in the community, not just doing reading activities together, but also doing other activities such as discussion to empowerment practices. The sustainability of this reading group is inseparable from the village library as a source of information needed by group members. This reader group is a Sidobandung reader group in Bojonegoro. The phenomenon of the emergence of this Sidobandug reader group was interesting because the members of the Sidobandung community itself come from various backgrounds, ranging from ladies, gentlemen and private employees. The existence of this Sidobandug reader group is to empower the surrounding community, through the development of Habitus and capital owned by the members. The objective of this study is to see how Habitus and capital owned by members of the Sidobandung reader group perform empowerment practices. Habitus theory from Pierre Bourdieu and ethnography becomes the approach used by selecting informants using Purposive Sampling techniques. This research resulted in two types of members in the group members, namely Active Member and Passive Member.


Lying at the heart of the problem in analyzing Colombian violence is the relative poverty of conceptual frameworks not only for dealing with violence but with the institutions and processes and traditions which form the social environment of the society. In the following pages I shall argue that a dialectic between violence and patron-client relations offers a useful analytical framework. The first part will deal with the historical dynamics of Colombian politics. In part two, patron-client politics will be looked at in a small town setting.


Electro‐optic phase modulation was measured along with optical second‐harmonic generation in thin films of a new copolymer containing a dicyanovinyl‐terminated azo dye side chain. Orientational order was imparted to these films by poling with a corona discharge. Details of the electro‐optic measurement technique, in which the real part of the electro‐optic coefficient can be determined directly, are presented. Taking advantage of the increased orientation imparted by corona poling and the hindered motion of the nonlinear optical moiety in the side chain of the polymer leads to substantial improvements in both the magnitude and stability of nonlinear optical susceptibilities compared to guest‐host polymer systems ordered by electrode poling.


We analytically calculate the cumulant generating function of energy and particle transport in an open 1D Kitaev chain by utilizing the Keldysh technique. The joint distribution of particle and energy currents obeys different fluctuation relations in different regions of the parameter space as a result of $U$(1) symmetry breaking and energy conservation. We discuss the thermoelectricity of the Kitaev chain as a three terminal system and derive an analytical expression of the maximum work power. The response theory up to the second order is explicitly checked, and the result is consistent with the relations derived from the fluctuation relation.


Minimum vertex cover (MinVC) is a prominent NP-hard problem in artificial intelligence, with considerable importance in applications. Local search solvers define the state of the art in solving MinVC. However, there is no single MinVC solver that works best across all types of MinVC instances, and finding the most suitable solver for a given application poses considerable challenges. In this work, we present a new local search framework for MinVC called MetaVC, which is highly parametric and incorporates many effective local search techniques. Using an automatic algorithm configurator, the performance of MetaVC can be optimized for particular types of MinVC instances. Through extensive experiments, we demonstrate that MetaVC significantly outperforms previous solvers on medium-size hard MinVC instances, and shows competitive performance on large MinVC instances. We further introduce a neural-network-based approach for enhancing the automatic configuration process, by identifying and terminating unpromising configuration runs. Our results demonstrate that MetaVC, when automatically configured using this method, can achieve improvements in the best known solutions for 16 large MinVC instances.


In this paper,a technology for preparing magnesium hydroxide with brine as raw material and ammonia gas as alkaline precipitant at normal temperature was studied.The paper also investigated the change trend of pH value of the solution during the process of reaction,the effects of the molar ratio of ammonia to magnesium and concentrations of magnesium ion on removal efficiency of magnesium ions,and the relationship between concentrations of magnesium ions and magnesium hydroxide particle size.Further,analysis of XRD and ICP were conducted to magnesium oxide gained from calcined magnesium hydroxide.The statistics from the experiment provided applicable guidance for industrial production.


Abstract Interaction of 6-amino-1-ethyl-4-oxoquinoline-3-carboxylic ester (7) with chloral hydrate and hydroxylamine hydrochloride gave the corresponding isonitroso-acetamido derivative 8 which, upon treatment with concentrated sulfuric acid, was converted regioselectively into 1,2,9-trioxopyrrolo[ 3,2- f ]quinoline-8-carboxylic acid (3). This novel tricyclic system was isolated in good yield as a stable hydrate 3H. Structural assignments of the new compounds are based on microanalytical and spectral (MS and NMR) data Graphical Abstract Synthesis of 6-Ethyl-1,2,9-trioxopyrrolo[3,2-f ]quinoline-8-carboxylic Acid


We extend parts of the Lagrangian spectral invariants package recently developed by Leclercq and Zapolsky to the theory of Lagrangian cobordism developed by Biran and Cornea. This yields a nondegenerate Lagrangian "spectral metric" which bounds the Lagrangian "cobordism metric" (recently introduced by Cornea and Shelukhin) from below. It also yields a new numerical Lagrangian cobordism invariant as well as new ways of computing certain asymptotic Lagrangian spectral invariants explicitly.


Higher education strives to provoke thinking, learning, and comprehensive success in its students. Quizzes and exams are often used to monitor and assess whether these goals have been reached but have also been shown to evoke test anxiety in students (Hembree, 1998). Test anxiety is a psychological construct that pairs with a student's concerns about the negative consequence of performing poorly and/or failing a test (Chapell, Blanding, Silverstein, Takahashi, Newman, Gubi, & McCann, 2005; Zeidner, 1998). A moderate level of test anxiety can be beneficial for success in academic achievement, but when the anxiety becomes excessive, academic assessment performance significantly decreases (Siddiqui & Rehman, 2014). Research has attempted to find cognitive behavioral practices to reduce test anxiety, including religious activities, exercise, breathing techniques, meditation, and cognitive restructuring. Likewise, trained therapy dogs have also been used to alleviate stress for college students linked to test anxiety (Barker, Barker, McCain, & Schubert, 2016). Von Bergen (2015) reported that dogs have been used for decades on campus for those requiring guide dogs or other service animals. Folse, Minder, Aycock, and Santana (1994) reported that trained therapy dogs were first introduced to American campuses and universities in the 1990s to accompany students diagnosed with depression. The self reported results of having therapy dogs with them on campus were beneficial in relieving depression symptoms. Recently, students diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and autism spectrum disorders have begun to petition colleges to allow trained therapy dogs on campuses to alleviate stress, loneliness, depression, and/or anxiety (Von Bergen, 2015). Bell (2013) highlighted that in American universities there was a strong correlation between student stress and the benefits of exposure to therapy dogs, causing some to actually begin implementation of programs whereby students can regularly engage with a therapy dog. Some universities have allowed students to "check out" dogs from their library with a self-reported 95% of students believing it to be an effective means for stress reduction (Jalongo & McDevitt, 2015). Daltry and Meher (2015) emphasized that trained therapy dogs on campuses have demonstrated to be particularly beneficial in alleviating stress and providing psychological comfort to university students. This stress can be caused by various situations, including test anxiety. Barker et al. (2016) showed that exposure to therapy dogs before exams reduced self-reported psychological test anxiety in college students. According to Dell, et al. (2015) nearly half of all 98 Canadian universities offer therapy dog programs during examination periods. Service and therapy dogs are becoming more prevalent in a variety of settings. Hall, Turner and Mills (2017) highlighted that working service dogs are professionally trained and screened and provided clearance in public places by the Americans with Disabilities Act. This mandates that they be extensively trained and insured. Bowers (2013) also reported that therapy dogs must be professionally trained and it is recommended that an accredited training organization perform that training. This usually consists of obedience classes as well as professional dog training, costing thousands of dollars. Considering this, trained therapy dogs can be inaccessible for small, private universities in North America. This can be due to limited ownership budget, training/acquiring expense, or rural locations with limited availability of therapy dogs to remote areas. To confront this problem, our purpose was to examine whether exposure to novel dogs, rather than therapy dogs, also caused a reduction in stress levels. According to Carlson, Speca, Faris, and Patel (2007), blood pressure (systolic and diastolic) is positively correlated to stress. Vormbrock and Grossberg (1988) assessed heart rate and blood pressure as a measure of stress in college students. …


Purpose – The purpose if this study is to examine differences in conflict management strategies, relational satisfaction and social support of individuals in same-race and interracial relationships. Additionally, the authors examined associations between self-reported and observed measures of conflict management strategies. Design/methodology/approach – The current study used Bronfenbrenner's (2005) bioecological theory as an organizing framework. Twenty individuals in interracial and same-race relationships were recruited from a large Northeastern US university. Self-report and observational measures of conflict management strategies were obtained as were individuals' self-reported levels of relational satisfaction and social support. Findings – Results indicated a few differences in conflict management strategies between individuals in same-race and interracial dyads and no differences in social support or satisfaction. Observational measures of conflict management were largely uncorrelated with their c...


Lexically guided perceptual learning (LGPL) and second-language learning (L2) research seeks to understand how listeners adapt to novel speech sounds. In LGPL, listeners shift their perception of a native phonetic contrast in response to hearing an ambiguous token embedded in an unambiguous lexical context. In L2 tasks, often involve categorizing non-native sounds, usually with explicit feedback. In general, L2 learning is seen as more effortful and individually variable than LGPL. However, paradigms differ in terms of stimuli (native vs. non-native phonetic contrasts) as well as tasks (lexically-guided implicit feedback vs. explicit feedback). To test whether L2-type vs. LGPL-type tasks yield differences in learning, participants were trained using an L2-style task to shift their native boundary along an /s/ to /sh/ continuum. With feedback, participants categorized the midpoint token as one novel object, and an endpoint token (counterbalanced across subjects) as another novel object. After training, a b...


The utility model discloses a motor scooter with shat drive, which comprises a frame. A natural wind cooled engine is positioned on the frame; the natural wind cooled engine is connected with a rear wheel via a shaft drive system; the shaft drive system comprises a front wheel box and a rear wheel box; a driving umbrella type tooth connected with the auxiliary axis of the natural wind cooled engine is arranged inside the front wheel box; the driving umbrella type tooth engages with a driven umbrella type tooth; the driven umbrella type tooth is connected with a driving axis via a ratchet; a dead axle connected with the rear wheel is positioned inside the rear wheel box; the dead axle is connected with a drive axle via the umbrella type tooth inside the wheel box. Therefore, the utility model, which has simple structure and is not easy to be damaged, reduces the repair cost and can be widely applied in the manufacturing of motor scooter.


In this paper, the concept of integration for Multi-Valued Logic (MVL) algebra is introduced and techniques for obtaining an MVL function whose desired changes are given in terms of changes in its arguments are developed. Two types of integrals, namely exact and compatible intergrals, are defined. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of compatible integrals for a given differential expression and ways of realizing these integrals are presented here. Integral calculus has application in the design of an MVL digital system.


: In recent years, state regulators have expended considerable effort and resources to better measure the asset portfolio risk of life insurers. Their estimates are both particularly important in determining reserve requirements and potentially useful for testing the agency costs of conflict between the fixed and residual claimants of insurers. In this study, we test the degree to which these regulator-developed measures are related to the firm and environmental characteristics that financial economists have linked to managerial risk-taking propensities. Our results provide insight into whether these measures effectively gauge the risk preferences of insurer managers.


Background: The two preservation solutions most commonly used in human transplantation surgery are University of Wisconsin (UW) and Custodiol (histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate; HTK). The aim of our study was to compare the protective effect of UW and HTK solutions on preservation-induced injury of jejunal grafts, as evaluated by the histological changes (semiquantitative method) and small bowel mucosal serotonin levels (as a possible new quantitative method). Methods: Male Wistar rats (n = 50) weighing 316 ± 52 g were divided into two main groups according to which preservation solution was used, i.e. UW (n = 25) or HTK (n = 25), and each of these groups was divided into five subgroups according to cold ischemic time (0, 1, 6, 9 and 12 h). Jejunal mucosa biopsy specimens were obtained to determine the serotonin concentration in mucosa and for standard light histology. To grade histological changes in mucosa, Park's small bowel injury grading system was used. Results: Histological examination revealed that injury increased with cold ischemic time in the UW as well as in the HTK group, and there were no significant differences in injury between the two groups, except for the 6-hour cold ischemic period (p < 0.05), when HTK-preserved grafts showed a lower degree of injury (0.97 ± 0.41) compared with UW-preserved grafts (1.25 ± 0.39). The mucosal serotonin concentration decreased with cold ischemic time in both groups, and there were significant differences (p < 0.05) in concentrations between the groups after 9 and 12 h of cold ischemia. A significantly higher concentration was measured in grafts preserved in UW solution at these time points. Conclusion: The concentration of mucosal serotonin in rat small bowel grafts preserved for 9 and 12 h in UW preservation solution was significantly higher than that in HTK solution. These findings indicate a better protective effect of UW solution on small bowel injury after 9 h of cold ischemia.


Data is transmitted in the form of packets on the Internet. Due to various channel complexities, some packets may get lost and never reach their destination. Reliable transmission of data over the Internet is always desirable. Current networks that use mostly unicast -based protocols such as the transport control protocol TCP/IP and other unicast protocols place strong importance on the ordering of packets to simplify coding at the expense of increased traffic. An alternative approach is where packets are not ordered and the recovery of some subset of packets will allow for successful decoding. This class of such codes, called fountain codes, was pioneered by a startup called Digital Fountain and has greatly influenced the design of codes for binary erasure channels (BECs), a well-established model for the Internet [1]. This paper includes two fountain codes system models for packet recovery and bit error correction, a study of pre-codes of Raptor codes, and proposing a hybrid fast decoding algorithm to reduce the overheads of short and moderate-length LT codes.


Abstract. An example of anti‐Gya found during routine antenatal testing is the first recorded example in Europe to be described. Five other Gy(a‐) siblings were found in the patient's family from whom blood donations were obtained in the event of a needed transfusion. Although anti‐Gya was detected in the infant's serum, there was no evidence of haemolytic disease of the newborn, presumably due to the fact that the Gya antigen is poorly developed at birth.


We compute the intrinsic contributions to the Berry-phase mediated anomalous Hall and Nernst effects in electron- and hole-doped semiconductors in the presence of an in-plane magnetic field as well as Rashba and Dresselhaus spin orbit couplings. For both systems we find that the regime of chemical potential which supports the topological superconducting state in the presence of superconducting proximity effect can be characterized by plateaus in the topological Hall and Nernst coefficients flanked by well-defined peaks marking the emergence of the topological regime. The plateaus arise from a clear momentum space separation between the region where the Berry curvature is peaked (at the `near-band-degeneracy' points) and the region where the single (or odd number of) Fermi surface lies in the Brillouin zone. The plateau for the Nernst coefficient is at vanishing magnitudes surrounded by two peaks of opposite signs as a function of the chemical potential. These results could be useful for experimentally deducing the chemical potential regime suitable for realizing topological states in the presence of proximity effect.


With the move towards a converged, all-IP next generation network (NGN) offering end users personalized, advanced multimedia services anywhere and any


Ascorbic acid mostly comes from vegetables and fruits, especially fresh fruits. Vitamin C is a vitamin that can be formed by several types of plants. One of them is papaya which has various contents including vitamin C that can increase endurance, help skin rejuvenation and repair body tissues. The purpose of this study was to determine the levels of vitamin C contained in papaya using iodimetry and UV-Vis spectrophotometry. The sample used in this study was papaya fruit. Determination of vitamin C levels in papaya samples using the titration method bas done by adding sample filtrate with starch indicator then titrated with titrant I2 until the endpoint color of blue titration is formed. Other hands, the determination of vitamin C levels in papaya samples using the UV-Vis spectrophotometry method bas conducted by making an ascorbic acid calibration curve then the filtrated sample was added with H2SO4 5% and ammonium molybdate reagent, then the absorbance of the sample was measured at 494 nm wavelength. The results of the determination of vitamin C levels using the iodimetry was 0.0147% and the results of the determination of vitamin C levels using the UV-Vis spectrophotometry method was 0.1313%. In conclusion, vitamin C levels analyzed by using UV-Vis spectrophotometry methods were greater than vitamin C levels analyzed by using the iodimetry method.


textabstractTargeted genome editing has become a powerful genetic tool for modification of DNA sequences in their natural chromosomal context. CRISPR RNA-guided nucleases have recently emerged as an efficient targeted editing tool for multiple organisms. Hereby a double strand break is introduced at a targeted DNA site. During DNA repair genomic alterations are introduced which can change the function of the DNA code. However, our understanding of how CRISPR works is incomplete and it is still hard to predict the CRISPR activity at the precise target sites. The highly ordered structure of the eukaryotic genome may play a role in this. The organization of the genome is controlled by dynamic changes of DNA methylation, histone modification, histone variant incorporation and nucleosome remodelling. The influence of nuclear organization and chromatin structure on transcription is reasonably well known, but we are just beginning to understand its effect on genome editing by CRISPR


Growing research highlights the need to target the prevention and early intervention of mental health problems. This is reflected in a number of recently published policies emphasising the pressing importance of addressing inequalities in mental health promotion and prevention, through an integrated approach which enhances the role of schools as pivotal settings in promoting positive mental health. A key focus in recent public health implementation programmes emphasises the ethical need of inviting the child's perspective about decisions which affect their lives.
Although there is growing support for the use of Narrative Therapy and Narrative Therapy Group interventions with children and young people, the perspective of parents and healthcare professionals is a predominant theme in the literature. This research is a response to this call, through attempts to 'co-compose' with therapy participants in their school setting.
A school-based Narrative Therapy Group programme, 'Mighty Me', offered by a small London charity, is the focus of this research. Following Narrative Interviewing with children who have participated in this group, 'Narrative Oriented Inquiry' was adopted to examine how children describe the narrative process of becoming 'mighty', and the ways in which they represent themselves, a minimum of four months after their completion of 'Mighty Me'.
Within each child's story, 'historical unique outcomes' are brought forth during their involvement in 'Mighty Me'; this has created a 'unique account' where their 'mighty' qualities are evident, marked by a 'turning point' in the child's narrative.
Upon examining a series of identity positions unique to each child, an arrangement indicative of 'narrative reframing' coincides with the emergence of the child's 'unique account'.
A Critical Review presents an evaluative framework enabling a number of key considerations with this research to be addressed. Attention is given to the implications of this research for Clinical Psychologists, and recommendations made for future research.


Women are more at risk of developing osteoporosis than men because the hormone changes that occur at menopause directly affect bone density. The female hormone estrogen is essential for healthy bones. After the menopause, estrogen levels fall, which can lead to a rapid decrease in bone density. Postmenopausal osteoporosis, resulting from estrogen deficiency, is the most common type of osteoporosis. Estrogen deficiency results in an increase in bone turnover owing to effects on all types of bone cells. The imbal ance in bone formation and resorption affects trabecular bone and cortical bone. Osteoporosis is diagnosed using bone density measurements of the lumbar spine and proximal femur. Preventive strategies to improve bone health include diet, exercise and abstaining from smoking. Fractures may be prevented by reducing the risk of falls in high-risk populations. Several drugs are licensed to reduce fracture risk by slowing bone resorption (such as bis-phosphonates and denosumab) or by stimulating bone formation (such as teriparatide). The goals for treating osteoporosis are to slow or stop bone loss and to prevent fractures.


The internal model control design method for stable plants has enjoyed much popularity due to its simple yet effective procedure. In this paper, a robust IMC method is proposed for multivariate singular systems on the basis of Kronecker canonical form, which allows us to analysis and control of a singular linear system conveniently. Instead of considering the state space approach, the proposed procedure is derived on the basis of transfer function matrix. Based on this equivalent restrict decomposition form, the control object is first decomposed into separate slow and fast subsystems of lower dimensions and permitted a simple design. Then a feed forward controller is designed to eliminate impulse for fast subsystem, followed by that an internal model controller is designed for slow subsystem. For ease of implementation's sake, time-scale transformation is introduced. The proposed method is also verified applicable for impulse-free singular systems. In order to improve control precisions, the diagonal filter is designed with Genetic algorithms. During the optimization process, the integral of squared error index is adopted. Simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed approaches. Keywordsmultivariate singular system; internal model control; transfer function; kronecker canonical form


The vast availability of large scale, massive and big data has increased the computational cost of data analysis. One such case is the computational cost of the univariate filtering which typically involves fitting many univariate regression models and is essential for numerous variable selection algorithms to reduce the number of predictor variables. The paper manifests how to dramatically reduce that computational cost by employing the score test or the simple Pearson correlation (or the t-test for binary responses). Extensive Monte Carlo simulation studies will demonstrate their advantages and disadvantages compared to the likelihood ratio test and examples with real data will illustrate the performance of the score test and the log-likelihood ratio test under realistic scenarios. Depending on the regression model used, the score test is 30 - 60,000 times faster than the log-likelihood ratio test and produces nearly the same results. Hence this paper strongly recommends to substitute the log-likelihood ratio test with the score test when coping with large scale data, massive data, big data, or even with data whose sample size is in the order of a few tens of thousands or higher.


The present study was made in 4 zones of the sabana of Bogotá. The objective of the study was to determine the variations of eggs elimination by gram (HPG) during the months from April to September of 2006. A total of 180 animals was analyzed, pertaining to 4 zones, (45 animals by zone). To which them volume a sample of fecal matter, once a month, this sample volume directly of the pasture where are the animals shepherding at the moment. The fecal matter was collected directly of the pasture month to month during a period of 6 months, then was processed by means of the technique of McMaster modified by Scmidht for the respective count of eggs. The program was utilized Statitix to calculate the descriptive statistics, the correlation among the climatic variables (Temperature, Solar Shine and Haste), and each group of parasite; the analysis of varianza was calculated in Microsoft Excel. The eggs elimination curves by gram of fecal matter of the order were established Strongylida and the kinds Strongylus, parascaris and oxiuris


A high-isolation eight-antenna multi-input multi- output (MIMO) array running in the 3.5 – 3.6 GHz band for future smartphones is proposed. Here, a novel balanced open-slot antenna is designed as an array antenna element, in which this antenna diagram can yield a balanced slot mode (with decreased ground effects) that can enhance the isolation between two adjoining enter ports. Furthermore, by means of meticulously arranging the positions of the eight antenna elements, proper polarization variety can additionally be correctly achieved, which similarly mitigates the coupling between antenna elements. A prototype used to be manufactured to validate the simulation. A excellent impedance matching (return loss >10 dB), excessive isolation(>17.5 dB), high complete effectivity (>63%), and low envelope correlation coefficient (ECC, <0.05) had been measured throughout the preferred operation bandwidth.


Nanwenghe Nature Reserve is not only one of the largest protective wetland ecosystems in the cold temperate regions of China,but also one of the protected area for forest ecosystem and rare wildlife,it is the important base of biological and landscape diversity protection in cold temperate areas.Through an objective assessment on the natural ecological quality in Nanwenghe Nature Reserve,its existing problems were pointed out and the great significance of constructing Nanwenghe Nature Reserve was discussed.


The magnetic properties of nitrogen‐doped multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (N‐MWCNTs) were studied in the temperature and magnetic field range of (4.2–290) K and (0.05–30) kOe, respectively. Also magnetic properties of the reference MWCNTs without nitrogen doping were investigated on the same footing for comparison. The presence of iron‐based particles inside N‐MWCNTs was detected. The low temperature SQUID (Superconducting Quantum Interference Device) magnetization measurements were supplemented with thermogravimetric analysis. The magnetic characterization provided the saturation magnetic moment MS and residual magnetization MR of N‐MWCNTs to be, respectively, 4.5 emu/g and 0.9 emu/g, whereas for the reference MWCNTs the corresponding parameters are found to be about twice higher. The coercive field value amounts to 800 Oe for both systems at low temperatures, then decreasing to about 450 Oe at 200 K.


Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) are essential for male fertility. How they initially form is poorly understood. Here, we report that SSC generation is driven by a transcription factor (TF) cascade controlled by the homeobox protein RHOX10, which acts by stimulating the differentiation of SSC precursors called pro-spermatogonia (ProSG). We identified genes regulated by RHOX10 in ProSG in vivo using genome-wide transcriptome profiling. We defined RHOX10-direct target genes using the CUT&Tag protocol coupled with a rapid temporal induction assay we designed: inducible thiol(SH)-linked alkylation for the metabolic sequencing of RNA (iSLAMseq). Together, these genome-wide assays identified temporal waves of RHOX10-direct targets, as well as secondary-target genes. Many of these RHOX10-regulated genes encode proteins with known roles in SSCs. Using an in vitro ProSG differentiation assay that we developed, we found that RHOX10 promotes ProSG differentiation through a conserved transcriptional cascade involving the key germ-cell TFs DMRT1 and ZBTB16. Our study gives important insights into germ cell development and provides a blueprint for how to define TF cascades.


challenge to determine the fine structure of these precipitates, and no one technique can provide all the answers. In this paper, we report the experimental study of a multicomponent BMG alloy, Zr52.5Cu17.9Ni14.6Al10Ti5, utilizing several state-of-the-art characterization techniques. Nanoscale solute partitioning due to strong chemical order is revealed at unprecedented detail by a new wide-field atom probe. This level of details is crucial for understanding the interference peaks observed in small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering experiments, an unsolved mystery for over a decade. A core/shell structure is formed as a result of nanoscale solute partitioning, which poisons the growth and helps stabilize the nanocrystalline particles. Zr52.5Cu17.9Ni14.6Al10Ti5 is a widely studied BMG with excellent glass forming ability. [5‐11] Upon devitrification, crystalline precipitates of 10‐20nm diameter emerge, as evidenced by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. [9] Moreover,


I offer a discussion of Simmel's Philosophy of Money in comparison with the analyses of money in the writings of Marx, Weber and Durkheim. Based on this analysis, I argue that Simmel's ambiguous status as a classic can be accounted for by some of the characteristics of his approach as well as the historical (non-)reception of his work. Simmel's relative neglect in sociology for the better part of the century as well as his recent revival with the rise of the new cultural studies and the postmodern paradigm shift hint at an important interdependence between the history and systematics of sociological theory. The theme of money has not managed to be accepted as an undisputed topic of sociological reflection because of its non-independent status in most social theories (apart from Simmel's) as well as the factual resistance to totalizing accounts (like Simmel's) in the history of sociology. Recent transformations in social theory, however, indicate that money may, and to some extent already has, become a more autonomous topic of inquiry. In conclusion, I argue that Simmel's work does lend itself to be taken up in postmodern perspectives and that the sociological study of money can likewise be appropriated by the new cultural studies. However, these new perspectives will have to come to terms with the modernist resistance of Simmel and the other sociological classics' remaining influence in contemporary sociological theory.


The use of dyes in textile industry has great potential in polluting the environment, particularly due to the remaining dyes in wastewater are very difficult to decompose naturally. This pollution can be reduced by conducting special treatment on textile waste to decrease the dyes level. One of the most popular is the adsorption method. The purpose of this research was to study the adsorption of Remazol Red dye in textile waste by activated carbon synthesized from coconut shell. Activated carbon was given two different treatments: without activation and with activation at 900 °C. The results showed that the activated carbon synthesized had water content of 22.52% (without activation) and 9.49% (with activation). The adsorption of these activated carbons against Remazol Red dye took place optimally at the contact time of 30 minutes by following the Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. The adsorption process occurs homogeneously with the formation of monolayer with a qm value (maximum monolayer capacity) of 226.2 mg/g (without activation) and 250 mg/g (with activation).


This paper discusses the stochastic Kolmogorov system with time-varying delay. Under two classes of sufficient conditions, this paper solves the non-explosion, the moment boundedness and the polynomial pathwise growth simultaneously. This is an important improvement for the existing results, since the moment boundedness and the polynomial pathwise growth do not imply each in general. Moreover, these two classes of conditions only depends on the parameters of the system and are easier to be used. Finally, a two-dimensional Komogorov model is examined to illustrate the efficiency of our result.


The fan-beam backprojection filtration (BPF) algorithm is unique in that the temporal resolution of a given pixel within a region-of-interest (ROI) image is related directly to the location of the PI-line segment used to reconstruct this pixel. In particular, a pixel within a PI-line segment crossing the edge of the field-of-view (FOV) exhibits a better temporal resolution than a pixel within a PI-line segment crossing the center of the FOV. This unique property of the BPF algorithm can be exploited by acquiring projection data with the object shifted towards the edge of the FOV and then reconstructing an ROI covering the object with the BPF algorithm. This study demonstrates that this technique, termed off-center object positioning, can be used to suppress motion artifacts. A dynamic ball phantom undergoing contractile motion during 80% of its temporal cycle was given six cycle rates ranging from 60 to 120 cycles per minute (cpm). At each cycle rate, projection data were acquired at five different elevations. These elevations, which represented the distance from the bottom of the phantom to isocenter, ranged from 0 to 15 cm. Mean absolute difference MAD, root mean square error RMS, and correlation CORR metrics were applied over the same ROI reconstructed from motion-contaminated and motion-free data. Our results show that quantitative metrics for BPF reconstructions improved with increasing object elevation over a wide range of cycle rates


In a field experiment it has been found that the biological activity of the soil under agriculture, as an indicator of its ecological health, depends much on the weather. In extreme excessive humidity and temperatures exceeding average 2–5°C for periods compared to the same hot, but arid periods the number of total microbial mass increases in soil, synthetic processes are intensified and carbon emissions are activated. Accordingly, the yield of green mass of corn is raised, though grain yield reduces significantly. In the year of high temperature and lack of providing moisture harvest of green mass reduces significantly, but the crop is formed at the level of optimal under the weather conditions of the year, due to relative drought-resistance of the crop.


We have identified the presence of large-scale, low-frequency dynamo cycles in a long-duration, global, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation of black hole accretion. Such cycles have previously been seen in local shearing box simulations, but we discuss their evolution over 1500 inner disk orbits of a global π/4 disk wedge spanning two orders of magnitude in radius and seven scale heights in elevation above/below the disk midplane. The observed cycles manifest themselves as oscillations in azimuthal magnetic field occupying a region that extends into a low-density corona several scale heights above the disk. The cycle frequencies are 10–20 times lower than the local orbital frequency, making them potentially interesting sources of low-frequency variability when scaled to real astrophysical systems. Furthermore, power spectra derived from the full time series reveal that the cycles manifest themselves at discrete, narrowband frequencies that often share power across broad radial ranges. We explore possible connections between these simulated cycles and observed low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (LFQPOs) in galactic black hole binary systems, finding that dynamo cycles have the appropriate frequencies and are located in a spatial region associated with X-ray emission in real systems. Derived observational proxies, however, fail to feature peaks with rms amplitudes comparable to LFQPO observations, suggesting that further theoretical work and more sophisticated simulations will be required to form a complete theory of dynamo-driven LFQPOs. Nonetheless, this work clearly illustrates that global MHD dynamos exhibit quasi-periodic behavior on timescales much longer than those derived from test particle considerations.


Dwarf galaxies at high redshifts are important to study for a variety of reasons. By dwarf, we mean galaxies with low-mass, though galaxies with low-luminosities or small sizes are also commonly referred to as dwarfs. Several groups have suggested that such galaxies may be major contributors to faint blue galaxies, whose nature remains unclear. Dwarfs are viable candidates for faint blue galaxies if many undergo strong bursts of star-formation at redshifts z ~ 1 (Babul and Ferguson 1996) or even lower redshifts z ~ 0.3 (Cowie, Songaila, and Hu 1991; Broadhurst et al. 1988) and fade or disappear by today; if they have a much steeper luminosity function (Driver et al. 1994) than generally adopted in faint galaxy models; or if they represent small pre-merger fragments of larger galaxies today (Guiderdoni and Rocca-Volmerange 1990; Broadhurst, Ellis, and Glazebrook 1992), as might be expected in standard cold dark matter models with hierarchical galaxy formation.


The accident of bridge collapse at home and abroad to raise awareness of the importance of the bridge health monitoring. This paper mainly discusses the Implementation method of the bridge healthy monitoring data acquisition and management system, in-cluding: Data Acquisition、the method of database organization、using ASP technology and SQL Toolkit Development Tools to access to database system、using DataSocket technology to transfer the remote and real-time data and the designed method of the Data Acquisi- tion Software. We can use the Internet technology to monitor the real-time status of the bridge in Bridge Management Center far away from the bridge, this method overcomes the traditional method of poor real-time and low accuracy shortcomings.


In accordance to the developing regulation in competitive sport, the system of competitive sports in China and the operating mechanism ofNational Games, this article determined the factors which affect the number of gold medals and the total scores got by the thirty provinces, municipalitiesdirectly under the Central Government and autonomous regions,taking part in the ninth National Game.By utilizing sports scientific research statistics,it handles systematic software package, calculates typical variable, and thenestablishes the regressive equations for gold medals and the total scores in the ninth National Game. After analysis of variance, related calculation and test, the model is proved trustworthy and can be applied to forecast for the number of goldmedals and the total points in tenth National Game.


To overcome disadvantages of the traditional protection modes, we proposed a new one for neutral points of 110 kV transformers, which has water flow protection gap and arrester parallel connection. In this protection mode, when faults of an open-phase operation happen or a single-phase is grounded with system being ungrounded, water flow gap will be formed and immediately breakdown(i.e. the water flow gap acts), thus the insulation of neutral points and arrester can be protected. Under the lightning overvoltage, lightning current will flow away through arrester so there is no water flow spout and hence no water flow gap and no gap action. Under other kinds of overvoltage, no water flows and spouts, and neither water gap nor arrester acts. Moreover, we successfully developed a control system with parallel-connecting water flow protection gap and arrester, and completed a large number of tests on the system. The test results show that the power-frequency discharge voltage and its dispersion of the water flow gap are lower than those of air gaps of the same length. When the power-frequency voltage gets close to the discharge voltage, strong electric sparks will be generated at the head of high voltage electrode. The new protection mode can work in accordance with the designed principle of operation reliably, and effectively protect the insulation of transformer neutral points.


I am happy to comment on T S Petersen's examination of the 'individualization argument against nonmedical egg freezing (NMEF)'. Petersen intervenes in the ethical discussion on egg freezing by critically reconsidering a specific type of argument against oocyte cryopreservation for reasons that are not directly related with medical issues. Petersen dissects the claim that such nonmedical usage is 'an individualistic and morally problematic solution to the social problems that women face, for instance, in the labour market'. Proponents of this argument believe that egg freezing should not be used by women on an individual level to solve social problems but that one should instead address gendered inequalities on the labour market. Petersen asserts that this individualisation argument is unconvincing— although morally appealing—because of empirically and ethically flawed assumptions. I am enthusiastic—with some minor reservations—about his unravelment of the individualisation argument and his call for more empirical backing. As I understand his presentation, the argument that is the subject of Petersen's analysis is a recurring argumentative trope in the broader realm of assisted reproduction ethics. For instance, the anticipated positive effect of artificial womb technology in terms of liberation from reproductive and related social inequalities is one of the most dominant ectogenesis related strands in bioethics. Commentators have warned that such a solution would distract from the social structures at the root of the very 'problem' that it is meant to solve. I take it that this is a variant of the individualisation argument that Petersen discusses. Similarly, a closer look at the argument (which was more popular in the early days of assisted reproductive technology (ART) than it is now) that ART as such is a medical solution to a 'social problem', might just as well turn out to be a variation on the individualisation argument. I therefore agree with Petersen's assertion that his investigation is relevant to practices other than NMEF. The application of the individualisation argument may play out differently depending on the case at hand, but it seems that a generally shared trait of the argument is that it is motivated by a felt need to address (unjust) social practices. Petersen's refutation of this type of argument in the context of NMEF does not contradict such a felt need for societal change. He notes that we should both help women gain reproductive autonomy—by allowing them to use NMEF provided that it is safe and that people are informed about the consequences—and improve the labour market 'in a way that gives more women opportunities'. However, improving the labour market to make it more just, in a way that it also strikes a right balance between professional aspirations and personal life plans, does not happen overnight. Working towards assumed social solutions is desirable, but this should not in principle detract from providing individual solutions to women and their partners who could benefit from it now which, in turn, is not a pretext for evading discussions on deeprooted social inequalities. I will return to that notion of 'benefit' shortly. Let me first contextualise this point by adding that there is empirical reason to believe that these societal interventions in the labour market will not remove the incentive for healthy women to freeze their egg cells. Several empirical studies point out that the main reason for healthy women to cryopreserve their eggs is not because of their career, but because they have not yet found a suitable partner. This is a point that is also taken by Petersen, and I sympathise with his view that empirical input is relevant in these matters—and that more is needed. We would want to know more, for instance, about the relationship between career aspirations and the difficulty to find the right partner. This does not tell the whole story, however. Crucially, if NMEF is suggested as a solution for individual women, one should be aware of the risk of reducing 'women' to a homogeneous group, where insufficient attention is paid to the views of potential beneficiaries who commonly face a higher bar to access and benefit from such technology. When ethical analyses are made about individual benefit, one should include empirical input about the experiences of less privileged groups and how their access to reproductive technology is structured by power relationships in society. As said, considering NMEF as an individual solution to (some) women should not be an excuse to pay less attention to existing social hierarchies, inequalities and respective (reproductive) justice concerns. In addition, the individual benefit of NMEF is perhaps stated in a somewhat excessively sensational way by Petersen. I share with Petersen the belief that reproductive autonomy is a central ethical value, but when he notes that 'NMEF is able to increase the probability of some women having a child at all' (emphasis added), this seems to reveal a problematic assumption—one that might actually be symptomatic of societal presumptions of what it means to be a parent. It is not a matter of pedantry to add that it is more correct to say that NMEF could increase the chance of having a genetically related child. Reducing parenthood to genetic parenthood is problematic. Nongenetic parenthood and genetic parenthood are on the same footing in terms of the value that they may add to a person's life, even though many people strongly prefer the latter, and nongenetic parenthood opportunities often involve possible (societal) impediments. One should take seriously the individual desires of people wanting to become genetic parents, but here as well, it may be added that this is not a pretext for evading scrutiny of deeprooted socioreproductive understandings of the importance of genetic ties in parent–child relationships. This is consistent with social efforts to make nongenetic parenting opportunities less onerous and more recognised as valued alternatives.


We report a unique dual nature of the magnetic-field-dependent resistive losses in epitaxial films of superconducting Y{sub 2}Ba{sub 4}Cu{sub 8}O{sub 16}. For excitation currents coplanar with the magnetic field, the losses are identical in the Ohmic regime for both longitudinal as well as transverse field orientations. In the nonlinear current-voltage regime, the transverse field results in the Lorentz-force-induced instability in the flux-line lattice and a higher dissipation. Comparison of the flux-pinning potential in Y{sub 2}Ba{sub 4}Cu{sub 8}O{sub 16} deduced from the thermally activated nonlinear voltage with data on YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7} suggests an important role of increased separation between Cu-O superconducting planes in Y{sub 2}Ba{sub 4}Cu{sub 8}O{sub 16} in flux pinning.


The Pocket Companion is a small personal portable computer with wireless communication facilities. The typical use of the Pocket Companion induces a number of requirements concerning security, performance, energy consumption, communication and size. The energy consumption due to the increasing demand for performance and functionality will be the limiting factor for its capabilities. Therefore reducing energy consumption plays a crucial role in the architecture. Communication, and particularly wireless communication, is essential for the system to support electronic transactions. Such a system requires a good security infrastructure not only for safeguarding personal data, but also to allow safe transactions.


Neutrinos are the only known elementary fermions that can exhibit Majorana nature. As per the"practical Dirac-Majorana confusion theorem"it is impossible to distinguish between Dirac and Majorana neutrinos via any kinematic tests when their masses are very small. However, it is also well known that Majorana neutrino and anti-neutrino present in the final state must obey the Fermi-Dirac statistics, irrespective of how small the mass of neutrino is. We propose a new method to search for Majorana neutrinos by exploiting their quantum statistical property. We analyse `effective' three-body decays of the kind $X \to Y \nu \overline{\nu}$ (e.g.\ $X \left[ B^0 \right] \to \pi^+ \big( \to \mu^+ \nu_{\mu} \big) \mu^- \overline{\nu}_{\mu} \equiv Y \left[ \mu^+ \mu^-\right] \nu_{\mu} \overline{\nu}_{\mu}$), with 4-momenta of $X$ and $Y$ experimentally known, such that the 4-momenta of both neutrino and anti-neutrino can be deduced. For Majorana neutrinos the distribution of events in the `effective' Dalitz plot for such a well chosen process would be fully symmetric under exchange of the neutrino and anti-neutrino. Unlike the neutrinoless double-beta decay or other lepton-number violating modes, this distinction between Majorana and Dirac neutrinos survives even in the almost massless neutrino limit due to the quantum statistical property.


Objective To evaluate the predicting value of the marker of endothelial injury:plasma matrix metalloproteinase-9(MMP-9) concentration predicts hemorrhagic transformation in cerebral infarction.Methods By ELISA MMP-9 concentration in plasma were measured in 150 patients with cerebral infarction.At the time the clinical characters and cranial CT features of the patients were analysed.Results The serum MMP-9 level in the patients with HT(339.2±192.4 ng/ml) was significantly higher than that in the patients with non-HT(80.7±44.0 ng/ml)and that of control subjects(75.9±28.1 ng/ml)(P0.001).The serum MMP-9 levels in patients with cerebral infarction were significantly higher than that in the patients with non-HT respectively at 3h,3~6 h,7~12 h,13~24 h after the onset.The serum MMP-9 levels in patients with cerebral infarction is not related to type of HT.The sensitivity and specificity of serum MMP-9≥180 ng/ml to predict hemorrhagic transformation in cerebral infarction were 78.9% and 95.4% respectively.The positive predictive value is 71.4% and the negative predictive value is 96.9%.Conclusion The increased level of plasma MMP-9 may be a predictor to the HT proceeding.


Abstract : ISSUE: Department's spending on infrastructure has remained relatively constant at approximately 42% of DoD's total spending * In the private sector these expenses would be considered general overhead ("tail" to DoD) that management would work aggressively to continuously reduce to achieve greater efficiency * It is not evident that DoD routinely goes to "war" on overhead to maximize its resources and gain efficiencies * Current management tools are not effective at managing and reducing the Department's "tail" IMPORTANCE: DoD's Total Budget Authority has increased 189% between 1980 and 2009 (not including Supplemental authorizations) * DoD cannot afford a 42% overhead rate on a $694.2 Billion budget * The Secretary cannot delegate such a perilous threat.


Application of techniques and tactics is one of the important embodiments of the modern football sport.For colleges,how to improve the students ' technical and tactical abilities,is a major task of the current teaching football skills and tactics.Current college football skills and tactics in this article gives a brief introduction to the teaching and the introduction of technical and tactical competition method in the experiment teaching,and results show the new teaching methods to effectively improve students ' technical and tactical ability.


The utility model provides a compressor special brushless dc motor, comprising a core, coils and insulated framework; the motor has a quadrupole and the stator plate with the insulated framework have nine grooves respectively; the coils adopt three-phase star type wiring mode and fractional-slot double-layer winding routing mode. The utility model uses new method of winding routing, weakens high harmonics of the torque, reduces shaking noise caused by the above; at the same time saves copper consumption, reduces copper losses, improves product performance-cost ratio and the motor efficiency could reach over 88% .


States as international persons — Composite States — Unions of States — Exclusive competence of Federal Government in foreign relations — Whether infringed by state law restricting transmission of proceeds of inheritance to alien resident in German Democratic Republic — The law of the United States The individual in international law — Aliens — Plea of non-discrimination — Alien legatee resident outside United States — New York law restricting transmission of proceeds to legatee in German Democratic Republic — Whether discriminatory — The law of the United States States as international persons — Sovereignty and independence Conduct of foreign relations — Inheritance by non — resident aliens — State statutory control over transmission of proceeds of inheritance to legatees residing in Germany — Authority of state to legislate on foreign relations — The law of the United States


// Qianhui Yang 1 , Yan Zhang 1 , Xiandi Wang 2 , Xiaomin Zhang 1 and Xiaorong Li 1 1 Tianjin Medical University Eye Hospital, Tianjin Medical University Eye Institute and Tianjin Medical University School of Optometry and Ophthalmology, Tianjin, China 2 Department of Orthopedics, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China Correspondence to: Xiaorong Li, email: email@example.com Keywords: VEGF; gene polymorphism; diabetic retinopathy; meta-analysis Received: July 03, 2017      Accepted: December 27, 2017      Published: January 02, 2018 ABSTRACT The associations between VEGF gene polymorphisms and risk of type 2 DR, PDR and NPDR remian unclear. A systematic search and meta-analysis using OR with 95% CI was performed to evaluate the association. 26 studies containing 10 SNPs were analyzed. rs3025039 polymorphism was associated with DR risk in overall and Asian populations. rs2010963 was associated with increased of DR risk in overall populations and Caucasians. There was a significant association between rs25648 and rs833061 and DR risk in Caucasians. Significant associations were observed between rs3025021, rs13207351 and rs2146323 and DR risk in either overall populations, Caucasians or Asians. rs699947 and rs3025039 were associated with PDR risk in overall and Asian populations. rs1570360, rs3025039 and rs833061 played a key role in PDR etiology in Caucasians. rs2010963 was associated with increased risk of PDR in overall populations. A significant association between rs699947, rs3025039 and rs833061 and NPDR risk in overall populations and Asians was found. A significant association was observed between rs2010963 and increased NPDR risk in overall and Caucasian populations. This study provides a new insight into the parthenogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. Targeting VEGF SNPs may be a potential of therapeutic approach for the treatment of DR, PDR and NPDR.


Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic respiratory disease seriously threatening the quality of life of patients. In the treatment of patients with COPD at a stable stage, aerobic resistance exercise is not only needed to help patients recover their exercise function but also medication is needed to inhibit the production of inflammatory factors. This study discussed the feasibility of combining aerobic resistance exercise with medication to treat COPD. One hundred forty-seven patients with COPD who were hospitalized in the internal medicine department of our hospital from October 2015 to June 2019 were selected, and 120 patients were selected as subjects of this experiment on a voluntary basis. Aerobic resistance exercise therapy, atorvastatin, and combination therapy were performed respectively, and the patientsí physical fitness indicators, levels of inflammatory cytokines, and cardiopulmonary function were observed to evaluate treatment plans. After receiving the treatment of aerobic and obstructive exercise combined with atorvastatin, COPD patients showed improvement in the indicators related to physical fitness, including decreased body fat percentage, waist-to-hip ratio, BMI, blood sugar, hba1c content, and blood lipid, decreased levels of inflammatory factors like IL-8, IL-6, TNF-α, and some recovery in cardiopulmonary function. A combination of aerobic and obstructive exercise with atorvastatin can better treat COPD and improve the exercise function and cardiopulmonary function of patients. However, the clinical application of this treatment plan needs more cases to verify, and clinical application also needs to adjust the plan appropriately according to individual differences.


Foreword Abbreviations "On Learning to be a True Prophet: The Story of Balaam and his Ass", R.W.L. Moberly "Balaam's Prophecies as Interpreted by Philo and the Aramaic Targums of the Pentateuch", C.T.R. Hayward "The Future in the Book of Chronicles", P.B. Dirksen "I Know that My Redeemer Liveth", J. Gibson "The Shape of the Psalter: An Eschatological Dimension? ", M.A. Vincent "The Wolf Shall Live with the Lamb: Reading Isaiah 11:6-9 Today", R.E. Clements "Gnats, Glosses and Eternity: Isaiah 51:6 Reconsidered", H.G.M. Williamson "A Land Full of Violence: The Value of Human Life in the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel", P.J. Harland "Three Christian Commentators on Hosea", G. Davies "Whose Words? Qoheleth, Hosea and Attribution in Biblical Literature", S. Weeks "The Social Background of the Book of Malachi", J.W. Rogerson "Apocalyptic, Revelation and Early Jewish Wisdom Literature", J.K. Aitken "Judith, Tobit, Ahiqar and History", A. Millard "'Death is Swallowed up in Victory' (1 Corinthians 15:54): Canaanite Mot in Prophecy and Apocalypse", J.F. Healey "Enthronement and Apotheosis: The Vision in Revelation 4-5", M. Barker "Of Wars and Rumours of Peace: Apocalyptic Material in Aphrahat and Subhalmaran", D.J. Lane "The 'Demonstration on Love' by Aphrahat the Sage: A Translation with Introduction", L. Stuckenbruck "The Three Jewish Children at Berlin: Cotton Mather's Obsession", L. Munk "George Stanley Faber: No Popery and Prophecy", S.W. Gilley Appreciation of the Reverend Dr. Anthony Gelston Publications of Anthony Gelston Index


Using archival research, this paper analyzes the causes and conditions that led to the development of fuel cells in France at the end of the 1950s. There were many contributing factors: the break with the research previously conducted in Europe from the 19th Century to the 1930s, led by the English engineer Francis T. Bacon; the rise of energy self-sufficiency concerns following the Second World War; fears of losing a strategic scientific and technological advantage over other nations; and the increasing role of the French state in the orientation of science and technology. The institutionalization of the relation between the military, academic and industrial sectors also created a thought collective and a social network which shaped fuel cell research.


Organic farming is one of the most developed and accepted production systems from the aspect of sustainability. In this study, the Hungarian organic market was segmented on the basis of attitude-relating motivations of organic food purchasing. A descriptive statistic was used for the whole sample, and factor and cluster analysis was applied to segment the organic consumers. A sample of 247 questionnaires was processed to investigate the behavior and characteristics of Hungarian organic food consumers. Our aim was to explore the Hungarian organic consumer market from the aspect of trust in labels, we would like to find answers to the questions "Which kind of information consumers check on the product?" and "What are the main influencing factors of purchase decisions?". According to our research, the majority of organic food consumers say that color is not as important as taste or freshness, so they do not associate the color of the product with the freshness of the product. Based on the factor analysis, four clusters could be separated that show different shopping motives and differ in their attitude towards food shopping. We named these clusters: Health-conscious, Disappointed, Safe and free food eaters, and Quality-price comparators. Based on the recognized consumer segments, different information should be communicated to consumers so that they can use it in their consumer decisions. Our research suggests that branding or product labeling is not as important to organic food consumers as we previously thought.


The distinction between the good and the wicked is common in wisdom literature. Although the distinction can be viewed as ubiquitous, I would like to problematize it by considering the literary device deployed in constructing the archetypes of the good and the wicked. Specifically, I analyze the depiction of the wicked in chapters 1–6 in Wisdom of Solomon and argue that the construction of the wicked in Wisdom is indispensable in understanding how the righteous obtain wisdom through divine protection and acceptance of divine provision. First, I offer a close reading of the text, mainly Chapters 1–6, and parse out the ways of depicting the wicked in Wisdom of Solomon. In particular, I highlight the "collectivity" of the crowd, as opposed to a "single" righteous individual or group. Social theories of the crowd are critical to my formulation of the characteristics of the wicked. Second, I examine the relationship between the wicked and the righteous, and propose the idea of "a mirror effect" in these antithetical depictions. The mirror effect exhibits didactic values, as it instructs one to pursue righteousness and shun from evil. Third, I focus on the interaction between God, the righteous, and the wicked and suggest that divine intervention in helping the righteous stand firm among the wicked manifests both divine justice and divine mercy.


The textbook allows you to study the whole range of issues related to the organization and economic activities of catering enterprises in the sanatorium-resort complex. Of particular value are the accompanying economic calculations based on data from the practice of catering enterprises of various forms of ownership of the sanatorium and resort complex.
Meets the requirements of the federal state educational standards of secondary vocational education of the latest generation.
For students studying in the specialties 43.02.15 "Cookery and confectionery", 19.02.10 "Technology of public catering products", 43.02.01 "Organization of service in public catering", as well as for individuals who independently study the economy and organization of public catering enterprises, entrepreneurs, managers and managers of public catering enterprises.


To date, research on heat pumps (HP) has mainly focused on vapour compression heat pumps (VCHP), transcritical heat pumps (TCHP), absorption heat pumps, and their heat integration with processes. Few studies have considered the Joule cycle heat pump (JCHP), which raises several questions. What are the characteristics and specifics of these different heat pumps? How are they different when they integrate with the processes? For different processes, which heat pump is more appropriate? To address these questions, the performance and integration of different types of heat pumps with various processes have been studied through Pinch Methodology. The results show that different heat pumps have their own optimal application range. The new JCHP is suitable for processes in which the temperature changes of source and sink are both massive. The VCHP is more suitable for the source and sink temperatures, which are near-constant. The TCHP is more suitable for sources with small temperature changes and sinks with large temperature changes. This study develops an approach that provides guidance for the selection of heat pumps by applying Process Integration to various combinations of heat pump types and processes. It is shown that the correct choice of heat pump type for each application is of utmost importance, as the Coefficient of Performance can be improved by up to an order of magnitude. By recovering and upgrading process waste heat, heat pumps can save 15–78% of the hot utility depending on the specific process.


Recently much progress has been made in the structural studies of visual pigments and bacteriorhodopsin (bR). In fact, information on the complete or partial amino acid sequences of 12 rhodopsins is available.-The bovine and ovine rhodopsin primary structures have been determined using protein sequencing (Ovchinnikov, 1982; Hargrave et al., 1983; Pappin et al., 1984). From the biochemical and structural characterization of bovine and ovine rhodopsins at the protein level the following general conclusions emerged. (a) The N-terminus of the protein is blocked by the acetyl group. (b) Two oligosaccharide chains are attached to the protein moiety at positions Asn-2 and Asn-15. (c) Retinal binding lysine residue (Lys 296) is located closer to the protein C-terminus. (d) The polypeptide chain consists of alternating hydrophilic and hydrophobic fragments-the characteristic, probably, determining disposition of membrane proteins in the lipid bilayer. Application of the recombinant DNA technique has permitted isolation and characterization of gene fragments encoding protein structures for rhodopsin in different species. It is through this technique that various rhodopsins, which cannot be obtained in reasonable amounts by conventional biochemical techniques, have been identified. Specific oligonucleotide probes were constructed (Baehr et al . , 1983; Nathans et al., 1983) and used to prime reverse transcriptase for synthesis of bovine opsin cDNA from total retinal mRNA. Nathans et ul. (1983) reported that the mRNA homologous sequences in the 6,4 kb gene consist of a 95 basepair 5' untranslated region, a 1044 base-pair region exactly encoding the 348 residue mature bovine opsin, and long -1400 base-pair 3' untranslated region. The 1044 coding region is divided into five exons by four introns. This review summarizes the results of structural investigations of rhodopsins and bR. The latest data are presented on the membrane disposition of these proteins as well as chemical modifications which promote further understanding of structure-functional relationships in the pigments. Human rhodopsins


A bcc-Eu metal layerhaving a double-domainstructure was grownby the molecularbeam epitaxy technique on a cleaved NaCl (100)surfacewiththe epitaxial relationship that Eu (110)[100]or [110]is parallel to NaCl (100)[100].An epi¬ taxialEu/Ybsuperlattice was successfully prepared on thisEu bufferlayerat a growthtemper¬ ature of 260 K. The Yb layersin thepreparedsuperiattices were foundto be in the bec phase whichis stableonlyat high temperatures above 1011K. It was also shown that a bcc-Yb can be epitaxially grown on the bccEu layerwiththickness1500A.


A light emitting diode package is provided to make a color distribution uniform irrespective of an amount of introduced liquid resin by guiding surplus resin along a guide groove formed in a storage groove. A package body(21) has a mounting portion(22) enclosed by a sidewall, and lead electrodes(23a,23b) are disposed on a bottom surface of the mounting portion. A light emitting diode chip(26) is mounted on a bottom surface of the mounting portion such that the chip is electrically connected to the lead electrode. A resin packaging portion(27) is filled in the mounting portion to package the light emitting diode chip. A guide groove(28a) is formed on an upper surface of the sidewall of the package body. A storage groove(28b) is formed on the upper surface of the sidewall of the package body.


Coppola provides a history of the use of infrared film by artists and analyses the works of Six New England photographers. Biographical notes. 1 bibl. ref.


In Southeast Asia, coastal tourism has grown rapidly and significantly over the past three decades. This trend is very likely to continue. While coastal tourism has brought considerable economic benefits to the host countries, the consequences of rapid and ad hoc coastal tourism development have not always been desirable. With the increasing awareness of the need for sustainable development to protect our global environment, the impact of rapid, unplanned growth of coastal tourism resorts has become a concern. Coastal tourism in Southeast Asia has become a focus for important research; but there has been little research addressing sustainable coastal tourism at the implementation or operational level. This research examines aspects of the dynamic growth of Southeast Asian coastal tourism development. Using case studies, it seeks objectively to evaluate the implementation of sustainability policies and planning in three rapidly developing coastal tourist areas—Boracay in the Philippines, Pattaya in Thailand and Sihanoukville in Cambodia. The study also identifies and describes some of the key sustainability issues relating to the development of beach resorts in the Southeast Asian region at different stages of their development, using the Beach Resort Model (BRM (Smith RA 1990) as a guiding framework. The intent is to highlight the aspects of contemporary resort growth that are not receiving adequate or appropriate attention from policy makers and planners. Analysis of these case studies has led to a better understanding of the planning issues central to coastal tourism development in Asia and has indicated ways of improving policies related to long-term environmental and cultural sustainability. This research employed the case study methodology to provide insight into the dynamics of coastal tourism development. Both primary and secondary data with qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to undertake the analyses. The primary data included personal interviews, survey questionnaires and site observations. A total of 185 personal interviews were conducted with community leaders, government officials and business operators working in or associated with the tourism industry. The secondary data included official statistics, data from government agencies, government policies, archival review of print and online media reports and historical data on tourism development. The analyses were conducted within a five-factor evaluation framework, based on the Agenda 21 Tourism Objectives and including the factors of environment and resource management; economic well-being and equity; community and socio-cultural well-being; policy and planning; and infrastructure and technology. These analyses assessed critical stakeholders' perceptions of the effectiveness of sustainable tourism programs and their benefits for the stakeholders in the three cases. For each case, the dynamic coastal tourism urbanisation process over a period of five decades is described within the context of the Beach Resort Model. In addition, comparative analyses of the three cases are presented and discussed. The research findings highlight the relevance of applying the BRM in explaining the process of change in coastal tourism development and sustainability. The findings indicate that as coastal tourism destinations become more established, concerns about sustainability increase. Consequently, state intervention, in the form of the monitoring and regulation of development, becomes necessary as coastal destinations expand. This view is supported by the comparative study of the three cases, which not only describes coastal tourism development at specific destinations in terms of its sustainability, but also generalises the practices and problems in implementing sustainable policies common to the three cases. The comparative study reveals that, while there have been some successes in the implementation of sustainability programs—typically relating to the economic environment, the 'visual' environment and resource management—the concept of sustainability needs to be expanded beyond tourist numbers and visual cleanliness. Greater attention needs to be given to the social and cultural dimensions of sustainability within the context of governance. The research findings demonstrate the importance of good governance systems, which utilise knowledge sharing and technical assistance from non-government organisations and work to establish networks and partnerships among stakeholders and the local community in the move towards sustainability. The research concludes that coastal tourism needs to look 'beyond the beach' and economic sustainability and take a more holistic approach to sustainable development that encompasses human and social capital within the context of governance.


Introduction: First Responders working at Ground Zero following the 9/11 tragedy were exposed to particulate matter including heavy metals. Heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) are not readily excreted by the body and elevated levels have been noted post exposure. Cadmium exposure has been associated with increased risk of stroke, heart failure, and cardiovascular mortality. Lead exposure is known to affect cardiac function. Given the high levels of exposure to particulate matter at Ground Zero this study seeks to evaluate the cardiac morphology of First Responders with elevated blood and urine levels of Cd and Pb. Methods: We evaluated 347 enrolled first responders from the World Trade Center-RENAL Program. Participants received a complete echo Doppler study. LV geometry was determined by relative wall thickness (RWT) and LV mass index (LVmi). Concentric hypertrophy was defined as elevated RWT and LVmi, eccentric hypertrophy defined by elevated LVmi with normal RWT and concentric remodelling d...


In this paper, I summarize research regarding known issues with Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software design and subsequent implementation. I consider the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' cash incentive for EMR adoption, and the "meaningful use" criteria that mediate that incentive (Table 1). Based on this research and my own small-scale study of real time EMR use, I outline the ways that the same problems had by EMR usability researchers are also had by actual EMR users, themselves. Specifically, questions about how to account for both embodied and cognitive effects, how to discern noise from useful information, and how to make useful what is available are all concerns shared by both care providers using EMRs and those who study EMR usability. As a result, I propose that communication design researchers design usability studies that use Mol et al's [9] construct of "care" (as a practice) as the gold standard for "meaningful use." That is, meaningful use of EMR software ought to be articulated less in terms of task-oriented record-keeping practices and the time it takes to accomplish them, but in terms of Mol et al's three components of good care: embodied practices, attuned attentiveness, and adaptive tinkering.


Background The extent to which certain maternal, child and family characteristics are associated in families with a 3-year-old child were examined. Method A total population of families with a 3-year-old child and living in the New Forest were identified. Measures of child behaviour and the maternal GHQ-30 were obtained. Results Whereas behaviour problems were found to be significantly associated with all maternal and family factors (except social class), difficult temperament was only related to mother's recall of their own childhood as unhappy and overactivity was only significantly associated with maternal disturbance. Conclusions The results are consistent with maternal disturbance and difficult temperament acting independently and additively to influence the development of behaviour problems in preschool children.


Lubrication method of using novel oil-in-oil emulsion, and the same are provided. Lubricants are stable emulsions of carrier fluid and high viscosity fluid. This shows excellent properties, and a reduced shear strength to lubricating film thickness.


We propose the Bayesian forecasting model that can detect trend, autoregression, and outliers in the time series data. We use cumulative Weibull distribution function for trend, binary selection for outliers, and autoregression for related time series data. Gibbs sampling algorithm which is one of MCMC methods is used for parameter estimation. The proposed models are applied to the vegetable price time series data in Thailand. According to the RMSE, MAPE, and MAE criteria for the model comparison, the proposed model provides the best results compared to the exponential smoothing and SARIMA models.


In a passive sighting system, successive position measurements, which are obtained for example by an infrared sensor, used to establish a matrix of values obtained therefrom by a set of equations is used. After a change in the course of the viewer a pseudo inverse matrix technique is used to obtain the state vector for each new set of position measurements. The system can be operated with three-dimensional data.


We study the variation of the dimension of the Bloch-Kato Selmer group of a p-adic Galois representation of a number field that varies in a refined family. We show that, if we restrict ourselves to representations that are, at every place dividing p, crystalline, non-critically refined, and with a fixed number of non-negative Hodge-Tate weights, then the dimension of the Selmer group varies essentially lower-semi-continuously. This allows us to prove lower bounds for Selmer groups "by continuity", and in particular to deduce from a result of Belläıche and Chenevier that the p-adic Selmer group of a modular eigenform of weight 2 of sign −1 has rank at least 1.


The results from studying leaf roller resistance of 5 main cultivation rice varieties showed that there was significant difference in rice leaf roller resistance between 5 tested varieties.Tyou618 and Qianyou568 with best growth vigor and lower leaf roll rate are of high resistance to rice leaf roller.B you811 and Qiyou 894 are of middle resistance to rice leaf roller and Jinyou431 with highest leaf roll rate is susceptible to rice leaf roller.The varieties with short plant height,narrow main vein,high water content of leaf and lower silicification cell content were easily damaged by rice leaf roller in the light of determining and comparing physical characters of leaf and leaf sheath of 5 tested varieties.


Endothelium / dysfunction; Classification; Cardiovascular Diseases; Prevention; Risk Factors. Based on the assumption that a classification system is a very critical subject and may significantly improve the prediction of individual responses to treatment and related diseases, we proposed 16 years ago a classification for endothelial dysfunction including etiological, functional, and evolutionary aspects (Figure 1).1


An accurate and physically defined system for measuring tremor in unanesthetized and unrestrained rats is described. The method is based on measuring the vibrations of an ordinary animal cage induced by the tremor of the animal inside it. The vibrations of the animal cage were recorded with a piezoelectric acceleration sensor and analyzed using a microprocessor on-line system. The computer was programmed in assembly language to perform a fast Fourier transform (FFT) spectrum analysis in real time. In those cases in which a frequency distribution curve is too complicated to handle, a mean value of all tremor components belonging to the different frequencies can be used. This mean value is called tremor intensity. Theoretical considerations using the spectral density distribution were employed to find a physically motivated measure of tremor intensity. The measuring system is carefully analyzed, and it is shown that the output of the system can be adjusted to give an estimate of the theoretically motivated measure of the tremor intensity. Measurements of some drug-induced tremor spectra are represented.


In order to provide theoretical information for leek breeding,this study was to probe genetic diversity of the leek germplasms.96 leek samples were used to detect the intra-and inter-specific genetic variation by inter-simple sequence repeat(ISSR) analysis.The result showed that 20 ISSR primers were screened from 77 primers based on 96 leek samples.The first leek DNA fingerprint library was constructed by PCR amplification,PAGE fingerprint detection,and fingerprint data collection of Gel imaging.The ISSR amplification diversity reached 94.7%,which was an effective molecular marker.The genetic similarity(GS) among 96 leek samples ranged from 0.58 to 0.88,which could fully show that they have rich genetic diversity.The result of cluster analysis showed that the cluster analysis correlated with sample origin and was consistent with species distribution.The breeding and spreading cultivars with relatively low diversity clustered more together,which means the new leek breeding innovation should introduce germplasms from home and abroad base.


The purpose of this scholarly leadership project was to evaluate a model of integrated healthcare delivery for providing radiology services to rural Midwest hospitals. A key priority was to investigate a model of delivery that ensured radiology services were available to rural Midwest hospital patients, similar to the level of quality and value patients could receive by traveling to larger hospitals in more urban settings. This is important due to the impacts and demands of the healthcare marketplace, which is challenging leaders to improve the delivery of services. The model of delivery included radiology coverage for hospitals utilizing teleradiology to send images off-site to subspecialist radiologists. These enhancements were intended to improve the quality and consistency of radiology interpretations without negatively impacting the necessary turnaround time of results provided to referring clinicians treating patients. This coverage was supplemented by having radiologists travel on-site for scheduled radiology procedures to ensure hospitals could offer necessary levels service for the convenience and satisfaction of local patients and their families. The intended objective of the model was to improve healthcare delivery to patients and to provide a competitive edge for rural hospitals. The study was accomplished by researching current literature, and collecting data from 5 rural hospital CEOs who represented the stakeholders at each facility. The CEOs were chosen because they were considered the key decision makers when contracting for healthcare services at their hospitals. A confidential qualitative on-line survey was conducted to gauge the satisfaction of the implementation and delivery of the new model. In addition, data was collected to investigate the success of the new model INTEGRATED DELIVERY MODEL iv before and after implementation, by evaluating the quality measures of result turnaround times and the accuracy rates of the radiologists interpreting radiology findings. My research found that a newly implemented model of radiology service delivery had a positive impact on rural Midwest hospitals, improved their effectiveness in competing with larger hospitals, and improved the overall quality and value of services being accessed by their patients.


The effect of fluctuation of the crystal-field interaction D on the transition temperature in an amorphous (or a crystalline) spin-one Ising ferromagnet with a coordination number z=3 is investigated by the use of the effective-field theory with correlations. The author finds that even for D>or=0 the amorphous system with the structural fluctuation delta ( delta = Delta J/J) in the range of 0.9< delta <1.0 shows an increase in Curie temperature Tc with the increase in fluctuation of D, although in the other region of delta the system shows a decrease in Tc.


In independent research efforts, the technique of laser frequency modulation (FM) was developed for fast reading of absorption holes in a frequency-domain optical memory and as a means to provide sharp frequency discriminants for use in stabilizing the frequency of a dye laserd.1 It was also realized that absorption spectroscopy sensitivity could be improved because the FM signal is shifted well away from low-frequency laser noise. We discuss the progress that has been made in exploiting this potential advantage.


Focusing on how television viewing fits into.a general model of_consumer_consumption patterns, a study examined (1) the extent to which the viewing of certain television content can be considered a "norm" of society, (2) similarities and differences between the norms for adults and those for children, and (3) some of the antecedents of beliefs about the appropriateness of TV viewing behavior related to a variety of content. Research was based on a cross-sectional survey of adults in_a southeastern city. Telephone interviews were conducted with 285 individuals_(a 70% response_rate) who were asked for their reactions to a potential television viewing situation involving: (1) an adult; or (2) a preschool child. Five types of program content were identified:_crime/adventure shows, news programs, sports, cartoons, and adult movies on pay TV. Factors analyzed included viewing norms_of adults, norms of_adult opinion on appropriate content for child viewing, and some individual factors associated with these norms. Results indicated that there are social norms geared toward some types of television content, and that different types of viewing behavior are normative for adults, as opposed to children. Results suggested that adherence to the norm, rather than similarity of viewing should be a main focus on research on intergenerational transfer of viewing patterns. (Three pages of references and three tables of data are included.) (NKA)


San Diego Linguistic Papers 6 (2016) 2-13 Hold + Stroke Gesture Sequences as Cohesion Devices: Examples from Danish Narratives Anne Therese Frederiksen University of California, San Diego Introduction When speakers tell stories, they often complement their spoken narratives with co-speech gestures. Gesture research has sought to assess the contribution of co-speech gesture to narrative structure on various levels. One topic that has received a relatively great amount of attention is the role of gesture in reference tracking and narrative structure. For example, studies have shown systematic interaction in narrative discourse between referents in speech and gesture location (Smith & Kam, 2012; Gullberg, 2003; Gullberg, 2006; Perniss & Ozyurek, 2015; So et al, 2009) between discourse structure and gesture type (Cassell & McNeill, 1991; Levy & McNeill, 1992; Parrill, 2010; Perniss & Ozyurek, 2015) and between referent activation status and the type of mapping the speaker uses between articulators and referents in the story (Debreslioska et al, 2013; McNeill, 1992; McNeill, 2005). In this paper, I show examples of complex gesture types involving different kinds of mapping and/or mapping of multiple referents simultaneously onto different articulators. I discuss these gestures as a device for foregrounding and backgrounding information and address their potential role in narrative discourse structure. Background A tight link exists between speech and gesture, on multiple linguistic levels. For the present paper, I am particularly interested in the levels of pragmatics and discourse. Previous work by McNeill and colleagues has shown that gesture may parallel/have relevance for the way the speaker keeps track of the referents in their story (Levy & McNeill, 1992; McNeill et al, 1990; McNeill & Levy, 1993). Further studies pursued this line of research. For example, Gullberg (Gullberg, 1998; Gullberg, 2003; Gullberg, 2006) found evidence that gestural reference tracking occurs both in first and second languages. Using a visibility manipulation, she found that L2 speakers gestured equally often whether the addressee could see them or not, but that the spatial arrangement of loci used to indicate different referents was qualitatively different in the two conditions (Gullberg, 2006). Similarly, other research found that native speakers tend to identify referents uniquely in gesture only when they also do so in speech (So et al, 2009). These studies investigated the spatiality of referring gestures. More recently, a study of German co-speech gesture found a correlation between how speakers map referents onto gestural articulators and referent accessibility in speech, suggesting that gestures reflect reference tracking on multiple levels (Debreslioska et al, 2013). Perniss and Ozyurek (2015) further showed that gesture form and location interact for the purposes of reference tracking in hearing gestures as well as in a signed language. In this paper, I discuss an additional way that gestures play a role in creating discourse


Abstract : Since U.S. operations began in Iraq in 2003, the Iraqi armed forces have embarked on a huge transformation. In this groundbreaking monograph, Dr. Florence Gaub focuses on the structural and sociological aspects of rebuilding the Iraqi armed forces, which she observes and comments on through the lens of lessons learned from Lebanon's experience of rebuilding its own armed forces in the late 20th century following civil war. Given Iraq's geopolitical potential, this observation and commentary is especially important. Gaub's objectives in writing this monograph are to learn from past mistakes observed in both Iraq and Lebanon, highlighting possible ways to avoid making such mistakes in the future, and to offer recommendations for improving performance in future post-conflict situations.


This thesis used a multi-methods approach to explore children's out-of-school physical activity (PA). Study 1 found that children living in the most deprived neighbourhoods represent an important target group for future PA and health interventions. Further, the study also revealed that self-reported PA was positively associated with independent mobility. Study 2 confirmed that the weekend was a period of low moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA), and revealed that raw PA levels derived from the wrist-worn GENEActiv are not comparable with hip-worn ActiGraph. Agreement between the devices differed according to PA intensity and time of day, with the greatest difference occurring in light PA (LPA) during school hours. Using children's recounted perceptions and experiences of out-of-school PA, study 3 demonstrated how an inclusive, interactive and child-centred methodology (i.e., write, draw show and tell; WDST) may be advantageous when compared to traditional singular qualitative methods. In study 4 parental safety concerns were reported to be the most consistent barrier to children's out-of-school PA. The family case studies demonstrated how family perceptions and constraints can influence children's out-of-school PA levels and activity mode (i.e., active school travel, outdoor play and organised sport). Such constraints include factors such as, school proximity, neighbourhood perceptions and family context. Study 5 revealed substantial intra-individual variability in children's weekend MVPA. PA diary data revealed that children's weekend PA was mostly unstructured in nature and undertaken with friends, whereas a greater proportion of parents' weekend PA was undertaken alone in structured settings. Family case studies demonstrated that in the selected cases MVPA levels and variability across weekends were contingent on mode of PA participation. This thesis contributes evidence to inform future out-of-school PA interventions. The research has demonstrated that children's out-of-school PA is influenced by a complex interaction of individual, social and environmental factors. Specific highlights include the family and neighbourhood environment. The weekend is associated with low PA and as such represents an important time period to promote PA in children. Future weekend PA interventions should target specific modes of activity, as the facilitators and barriers to these activities vary considerably. Moreover, in future, research and practice should focus on ways in which to modify neighbourhood attributes to support children's out-of-school active living.


A number of patterns in the regulation of health practitioners can be identified internationally since the early 1990s. This period of time has seen a significant homogenization and globalization in regulation but it has also seen the emergence of complex new trends and difficulties. Significant changes in "consumer culture" and the emergence of the "information age" have engendered new attitudes toward and expectations of health service provision and the regulation of practitioners. A number of developments in medical regulation can be identified in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This chapter will concentrate upon these four jurisdictions, omitting for the most part reference to the diverse systems of regulation that apply in the different states of the United States. It will argue that the increased mobility of the medical workforce and a preparedness on the part of the media to sensationalize doctors' misconduct has led to a firming up of both intranational and transnational registration and disciplinary processes. A number of particular features can be identified internationally in relation to medical regulation. First, the dominance of the paradigm of self-regulation and peer review has significantly reduced with the removal of decision making in a number of jurisdictions from practitioners' regulatory bodies. Second, involvement of nonpractitioners in the investigative and decision making processes in relation to complaints against health practitioners has significantly escalated. Third, regulation has started to extend into the provision of complementary services (Petersen, forthcoming; Freckelton 2000). Fourth, where issues of misconduct have been proved, and ongoing risk has been identified, the consequences for practitioners have become more adverse in an attempt to protect the community against practitioners who have engaged in misconduct or who are impaired in their competency or performance. Fifth, this has resulted in an increasing legalism in the disciplinary-conduct component of health practitioner regulation, manifested by initial hearings being more assertively contested and the incidence of appellate litigation from the first instance decisions of boards and tribunals rising. Sixth, there