This research is aimed to study the chemical characteristic of Andisols on three difference downslopes in Taman Hutan Raya Bukit Barisan, Karo residence of North Sumatera. This research is being held in Taman Hutan Raya Bukit Barisan, Tongkoh Village, Tiga Panah Subdistrict, Karo residence of North Sumatera and the soil analyse properties is being held in Chemical and Soil Fertility Laboratory, Agricultural Faculty of North Sumatera University. Observation and description of there profiles of each three difference downslopes in the field is getting started on the slope of six percent, twelve percent and seventeen percent. Each profile is observed included of soil color using Soil Munsel Color, soil texture, soil structure, soil consistency, vertical distribution of root and it's size and smeary diagnostic as one of indicators of andic soil properties in the fields, both of surface and sub horizon diagnostics and many others diagnostics, then each sample of soil profiles is kept in the plastics which has been coded. All the samples is brought to the laboratory and it is analysed included of pH H2O, pH NaF, Organic Content, Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), Zero Point of Charge (ZPC), Phosphate Retention, Al, Fe, Si oxsalate extracted (Alo, Feo, Sio), Al pyrophosphate extracted (Alp), Al+/2 From the result show that the chemical characteristic of Andisols on the slope of six percent has Organic Content, Phosphate Retention, Al oxsalate extracted and it's rasio of Al:Si are the highest of all and pH H Fe, and it's rasio of Al:Si. 2O, pH NaF are lower, while CEC, ZPC, Sio is the lowest of all and it is an Andisol rich of Al. On the slope of twelve percent has pH H2O, pH NaF, CEC, Alp are the highest of all and it is an Andisols rich of Si. The last on seventeen percent has ZPC, Sio which the most highest of all, has lower both of CEC and pH H2O, while Organic Content, Phosphate Retention, Alo, Alp and it's rasio of Al:Si are the most lowest of all and it is an Andisols rich of Si. Universitas Sumatera Utara


Let z(G) be the number of matchings (independent edge subsets) of a graph G. For a set M of edges and/or vertices, the ratio rG(M) = z(G \ M)/z(G) represents the probability that a randomly picked matching of G does not contain an edge or cover a vertex that is an element of M . We provide estimates for the quotient rG(A ∪ B)/(rG(A)rG(B)), depending on the sizes of the disjoint sets A and B, their distance and the maximum degree of the underlying graph G. It turns out that this ratio approaches 1 as the distance of A and B tends to ∞, provided that the size of A and B and the maximum degree are bounded, showing asymptotic independence. We also provide an application of this theorem to an asymptotic enumeration problem related to the dimer-monomer model from statistical physics.


ABSTRACT Scholars increasingly investigate how the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) is contested and negotiated in practice. Yet little knowledge exists on the politics African regional interventions provoke in the societies affected by such interventions. Based on an analysis of media reports from Burkina Faso and The Gambia, we show that regional interventions are indeed contested locally, irrespective of the means of intervention applied. Our analysis demonstrates how local elites use regional norms and policies in order to claim power and define what is going (wr)on(g). With this, we provide evidence for the (contested) local effects of APSA and for the relevance of media for researching such effects.


Print newspaper circulation declines as the online versions are available for free. This study determines the extent of readership preferences for both print and online newspapers in northwestern Nigeria. Daily Trust, being the largest circulating newspaper in the study area was selected for case study. The study employed quantitative approach, in which descriptive survey method was used to gather and analyze data from print and newspaper readers in the study area. Structured questionnaire was used as data-gathering instrument. The questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 330 newspaper readers using simple random sampling. The findings revealed a moderate (Mean=3.38) readers' preference for the online version of the newspaper to its print counterpart. Further analysis of the findings revealed that majority of the readers (Mean=3.49) find themselves reading less print copy of the newspaper because they have access to the free online versions. Majority of the readers (mean=3.37) will continue to read the print version despite the availability of its free online counterpart. Also, majority of the readers (Mean=3.08) spend less time reading the print copy of the newspaper due to the availability of its online versions. Meanwhile, majority of the readers (Mean=3.51) are confident that the newspaper will continue to survive despite the availability of its free online versions.


THE TERM thyrotoxicosis factitia has been used to describe thyrotoxicosisinduced by ingestion of excess thyroid hormone (1). This entity has also been termed alimentary or exogenous thyrotoxicosis (2, 3), occult factitial thyrotoxicosis (4), and thyreoidismus medicamentosus (5). As they imply, these terms describe the various reasons why excess thyroid hormone is ingested. These include not only the ingestion of excess thyroid hormone by individuals with unstable psychiatric profiles, but also administration of excess thyroid hormone to volunteers including students (6) and prisoners (7) in an effort to produce thyrotoxicosis for research studies. The hormone has been ingested both intentionally (8–16) and unintentionally (5, 17) in diet pills and in ground beef contaminated with bovine thyroid tissue (18, 19). The accidental ingestion of large quantities of medication by children and, less frequently, by adults, is another cause of thyrotoxicosis factitia. Transport, Metabolism, and Source of the Thyroid...


The need for a conscious management of water resources promoted the adoption of irrigation management practices, which allow to analyze the water availability in the coffee 1 Discente do Curso de Agronomia, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia– Campus Monte Carmelo. 2 Discente do Curso de Agronomia, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia– Campus Monte Carmelo. 3 Discente do Curso de Agronomia, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia– Campus Monte Carmelo. 4 Discente do Curso de Agronomia, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia–Campus Monte Carmelo. 5 Prof. Doutor, Pró-Reitor de Pesquisa, Pós-graduação e Extensão, Universidade de Uberaba, E-mail: email@example.com 6 Prof. Dr. Engenharia de Sistemas Agrícolas, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia – Campus Monte Carmelo, Minas Gerais, Brasil, E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com J. P. H. Cruz et al. crop, contributing to its development. Therefore, we aimed to identify a pattern of radial contraction that signals water deficit in the coffee crop in different phonological stages with the use of data obtained by dendrometry relating to parameters that characterize the water status of the plant, such as the potential of Soil water availability and meteorological data. The study was conducted at Fazenda Vitória II, located in the municipality of Monte Carmelo (MG), with topaz coffee in a 2 x 4 factorial scheme with 4 replications, totaling 32 experimental plots. The first factor have two treatments (irrigation management strategy based on soil water balance and strategy of traditional irrigation management of the property use of tensiometers) and the second factor have four replications representing the irrigation slides to be tested, being 125%, 100%, 75% and 50% of the leaf needed to restore the water consumption of coffee. The parcels will be arranged in randomized blocks, with each parcel consisting of a set of 18 plants. The variable analyzed was the micro variation of stem diameter that established a direct relation with the water availability of the plants.


Let's begin with a problem that many of you have seen before. It's a common question in technical interviews. You're given as input an array A of length n, with the promise that it has a majority element — a value that is repeated in strictly more than n/2 of the array's entries. Your task is to find the majority element. In algorithm design, the usual "holy grail" is a linear-time algorithm. For this problem, you may already know (e.g. from CSE 373 or CSE 421) a subroutine that gives a linear-time solution — just compute the median of A. (Note that a majority element will be the median element.) So let's be more ambitious: can we compute the majority element with a single left-to-right pass through the array? If you haven't seen it before, here's the solution:


The invention belongs to the technical field of three-dimensional image collection and relates to a self-rotary scaffolding convergent multi-view three-dimensional data collection system, comprising a primary camera, a secondary camera, a laser distance measuring module, a main controller and a camera support, wherein the camera support comprises a supporting tray, a primary beam, a plurality of secondary beams and a plurality of electronic rotary shafts; the middle part of the primary beam is fixed on the supporting tray; the corresponding ends of the adjacent upper and lower secondary beams are connected through the electronic rotary shafts by taking the primary beam as the centre; and the primary controller controls the convergence and focus synchronization of the plurality of cameras according to distance signals output by the laser distance measuring module. The invention also provides a convergent multi-view three-dimensional data collection method which is realized by using the system. The self-rotary scaffolding convergent multi-view three-dimensional data collection system and method disclosed by the invention can obtain parallax images of vivid represented display effects of three dimensional scenes and realize synchronized convergent three-dimensional data collection.


ABSTRACT: Soil loss tolerance (T) values were compared with a quantitative soil vulnerability measure as a basis for conservation set-asides in six Major Land Use Areas of the Upper Midwest. Soil vulnerability was calculated from soil profile characteristics and the suitability of the soil to root growth under simulated erosion conditions. Because soil vulnerability was based on measured soil characteristics, it was quantitatively related to productivity losses and, therefore, less subjective than T values. Soil vulnerability was a more sensitive criterion to productivity losses from erosion than T values. Using the soil vulnerability criterion, the area required for removal from row crops increased as productivity losses decreased. However, the area removed using T values was generally even greater, except where productivity losses over 100 years were held to less than 1%. Setaside policies based on T values alone will either fail to target the conservation objective of protecting productivity losses due to soil erosion or will achieve that objective at very high cost in terms of foregone production. A more clearly defined targeting criterion, such as proposed here, is needed.


Reimagining a Modern Fantastic. Andrzej Wicher, Piotr Spyra, and Joanna Matyjaszczyk, eds. Basic Categories of Fantastic Literature Revisited. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014. 193 pp. ISBN 978-1-44-386679-8. $72 hc.Reviewed by Matthew RezaBasic Categories of Fantastic Literature Revisited is a collection of essays that investigates a distinctly modern corpus of primary material from film, theater, and fiction of the fantastic. J. R. R. Tolkien and Tzvetan Todorov and, to a lesser extent, Farah Mendlesohn and Manuel Aguirre are recurrent figures in the book, which often takes bold theoretical steps.In "The Fantastic as a Technique of Redynamizing Mimetic Fiction," Halszka Lelen begins the volume, revisiting a classification model by Andrzej Zgorzelski, a critic who has remained largely unrecognized outside of Polish literary circles (9). Zgorzelski sees fantastic literature as a confrontation between two worlds, which Lelen uses to examine a number of texts as a "means of renewing the established conventions of mimetic fiction" (11). The benefit to non-fantastic fiction is a somewhat odd objective in a book on fantastic literature. This is a complex and ambitious essay, however, one that attempts to bring Zgorzelski's model to a wider Anglophone readership, and although Lelen admits that her approach is not entirely new, she sometimes suffers from a lack of terminological precision.Joanna Matyjaszczyk's analysis in the following chapter reveals the interplay between the numinous and hesitation that are distinctive of the two models by Tzvetan Todorov and Manuel Aguirre. This is accompanied by a consideration of liminality in Arnold van Gennep's terms, which articulate the different stages of crossing boundaries from one state to another, in this case with regard to the fantastic. The diagrammatic representation of Todorov's and Aguirre's models together is confusing and overcomplicates the explanation that accompanies it. The exploration of a narrative poem (William Wordsworth's "The Idiot Boy") rather than prose is a noteworthy and less well-trodden path for discussing the fantastic, especially since Matyjaszczyk attributes the rare label of fantastic poem to the ballad.The theory of non-Euclidian and gothic spaces as well as the concept of interlinking space to time leads Piotr Spyra to a compelling discussion. At times, he overreads what is presented in the Lovecraft texts. His analysis of how time and space are stretched together could be developed in more depth, particularly regarding Spyra's comments on character perception and boundaries, yet the examples do not do enough justice to the theory. "[W] e can easily envisage him [the narrator of H. P. Lovecraft's "The Shunned House"] in slow motion" (52), for example, is a claim made with unclear textual evidence. Spyra notes the wider presence of non-Euclidean spaces in Lovecraft, but he could have further clarified the understanding and application of non-Euclidean geometry to literature.Next, Asa Josefson focuses on cataloguing texts that use Eleanor Rosch's prototype model. Josefson rightly points out that conceiving of a prototype of the fantastic creates a hierarchy or a measure to which other texts fall. Her solution is an abstract triadic list of criteria that eliminates any privileged literary example. This is a useful approach. To some extent, the problem of prototype is merely deferred, as one of her criteria (the coexistence of two opposed orders) becomes the central category into which many texts fit. Still, this solution offers a valuable contribution to the problem of literary hierarchies. The application of the theory to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise (1997-2003) is convincingly executed, and the dual readings effectively negotiate the conflicting dynamics of the narrative.The thematic shift of the volume changes to werewolves for two chapters. In the first, "Lycanthropy in English Renaissance Tragedy and Contemporary Popular Fiction," Imke Lichterfeld concentrates on John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi (1613) and three modern examples, J. …


Strapdown INS numerical algorithms are specific ones which have at least two specialties: first of all the target values are special form integrals of certain primary signals such as inertial angular velocity and apparent acceleration, secondly measured signals are not directly those primary signals mentioned above but are integral values too. Traditional integration numerical algorithms (Runge-Kutta etc.) are not unusable in such a situation. The approach is proposed for numerical algorithms synthesis on the basis of signals' polynomial approximation. The example is given to demonstrate the using of method proposed. It shows that a set of algorithms could be designed at the same time.


Abstract : A system is described whereby the mass of a rocket motor being tested in a static test stand can be determined continuously while burning. The motor is mounted on springs and driven by the force of a rotating eccentric mass so as to oscillate at the natural frequency of the mass and spring system. Given the spring constant, the mass of the system can then be calculated from the frequency of oscillation. Given a required accuracy of 1 percent for the measurement of the mass of the motor, the specifications for the control system are determined. A control system is designed, analyzed, and shown to meet the requirements of the system with the expected input signals and external disturbances.


The report shows the results of a research which was to prove, among other things, whether there are differences in the school achievement of secondary school students living in different communities/environments. We tested 4.200 students from 150 schools in Serbia. The research included of different vocational directions and profiles (11 vocation and 17 educational profiles, the future technical as well as non- technical vocations, profiles of the third and the fourth degrees of training). The test included the following subjects: Serbian, history, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and technical training. The following levels of knowledge were tested: knowledge of facts, understanding of notions and competence to apply the acquired knowledge. In the analysis all the schools were divided into two groups-one contained the Belgrade schools, the other schools from other regions of Serbia save for the autonomous provinces. The results have shown that the differences between the accomplishments of Belgrade schools students and those from other regions are significant. In all the subjects tested, but Serbian, the Belgrade students obtained better results. They earned higher credits in natural sciences (biology, chemistry, physics) and mathematics. The results analysis in subtests, measuring, individual levels of knowledge has also shown that the Belgrade schools have an advantage over the provincial schools.


Women play a very significant role in agricultural production in Kenya. However, they are accorded little attention. The lack of inadequate information on the level of women participation in agricultural production has helped to underestimate their importance in agricultural production and hence led to their neglect in sector development. This paper sought to examine the role of women in Agricultural production in Kenya to give them an impetus upon which they can voice their concern in agricultural related issues. To improve women visibility in agricultural production, the author suggests that women contribution to agricultural production should be understood based on their contribution to food security in household and community rather than their contribution to commercialised agriculture which is dominated by men. With this, the author hopes to persuade policymakers to re-examine their perception of rural women involved in agricultural production for prompt policy action.


This report uses dynamic causal modelling of daily cases and deaths to distinguish between secondary and second waves, in terms of the underlying mechanisms and associated mortality due to SARS-CoV2. Here, secondary waves are taken to reflect a spread of the virus through the population, reaching previously unexposed communities after the first wave has peaked. Conversely, second waves refer to the reinfection of a previously exposed population, due to a loss of effective (population) immunity. Our quantitative modelling suggests that the fatality rates that accompany both secondary and second waves are substantially less than the first wave—and an order of magnitude less than predictions based upon prevalent epidemiological models that ignore heterogeneity in viral exposure, susceptibility and transmission.


Many-core processors demand scalable, efficient and low latency NoCs. Bypass routers are an affordable solution to attain low latency in relatively simple topologies like the mesh. SMART improves on traditional bypass routers implementing multi-hop bypass which reduces the importance of the distance between pairs of nodes. Nevertheless, the conservative buffer reallocation policy of SMART requires a large number of Virtual Channels (VCs) to offer high performance, penalizing its implementation cost. Besides, SMART zero-load latency values highly depend on <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$HPC_{Max}$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mi>H</mml:mi><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:msub><mml:mi>C</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mi>M</mml:mi><mml:mi>a</mml:mi><mml:mi>x</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="perez-ieq1-3068615.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula>, the maximum number of hops that can be jumped per cycle. In this article, we present Speculative-SMART++ (S-SMART++), with two mechanisms that significantly improve multi-hop bypass. First, zero-load latency is reduced by speculatively setting consecutive multi-hops. Second, the inefficient buffer reallocation policy of SMART is reduced by combining multi-packet buffers, <italic>Non-Empty Buffer Bypass</italic> and per-packet allocation. These proposals are evaluated using functional simulation, with synthetic and real loads, and synthesis tools. S-SMART++ does not need VCs to obtain the performance of SMART with 8 VCs, reducing notably logic resources and dynamic power. Additionally, S-SMART++ reduces the base-latency of SMART by at least 29.2 percent, even when using the biggest <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$HPC_{Max}$</tex-math><alternatives><mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mi>H</mml:mi><mml:mi>P</mml:mi><mml:msub><mml:mi>C</mml:mi><mml:mrow><mml:mi>M</mml:mi><mml:mi>a</mml:mi><mml:mi>x</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="perez-ieq2-3068615.gif"/></alternatives></inline-formula> possible.


The present invention relates to a passenger information system, which includes means for transmitting call data to a group control system 7 of the means, and at least one elevator bank for generating call data (8), the group control system is a group call data (8; 8b) processing the call data to produce a said group call data (8; 8b) in the elevator control section 3 of the elevator bank distributes. Guide system group call data for at least one group control system of includes a display device 1 which is used to display the (8 8b). Elevator, guidance systems, display devices, call data, the control system, the destination mode, the normal mode


Abstract : Volterra series analysis is applied to the analysis of nonlinearly loaded antennas over an imperfect ground plane. The nonlinear loads may be applied simultaneously at N different ports. The nature of the imperfect ground can be taken into account either exactly by the Sommerfeld formulation or approximately by the reflection coefficient method. The electromagnetic field problem is first reduced to a network problem by application of the method of moments. The nonlinear network problem is then solved using the Volterra technique. A procedure for obtaining a time domain solution from the frequency domain solution without using fast Fourier transform techniques is demonstrated. (Author)


Abstract An iron-catalyzed cross-coupling between di(hetero)arylmanganese reagents and primary and secondary alkyl halides is reported. No rearrangement of secondary alkyl halides to unbranched products was observed in these C–C bond-forming reactions.


This article looks into facial expression (EF) as a phonological parameter in Portuguese Sign Language (LGP). In LGP, facial expression assumes grammatical linguistic functions, and it promotes intonation and morphophonological structure in LGP signs. EF does not posess the same linguistic value in every sign language in the world. In this article we propose the not confirmed hypothesis that EF might have a more relevant part in sign languages that have obeyed the orientations of the Milan Congress (1880). This is the case of LGP.


1. The Nature of Strategic Management PART 1. INTERNAL CONTEXT 2. Organisational Culture 3. Business Ethics 4. Leadership 5. Issue Handling 6. Building Blocks o Strategy PART 2. PICTURING THE FUTURE. 7. The Remote Environment 8. The Operating Environment 9. Forecasting and Scenarios PART 3. DETERMINING ORGANISATION POSITION. 10. The Bases of Competition 11. SWOT Analysis Part 4. Selecting Strategy 12. Strategic Options 13. Strategic Choice PART 5. IMPLEMENTATION AND CONTROL 14. Strategic Change Management 15. Strategic Control PART 6. PARENTING. 16. The Roles of the Parent: Portfolio Identification 17. Establishing Portfolios 18. On-Going Portfolio Management PART 7. CASE STUDIES


In our frenzy to revamp the schools so that we can keep pace with Russia, is there not a real danger that we lose much of the progress made in fostering over-all development of the child? We must not lose sight of the "how" of learning when we are re-thinking the "what" of learning. The child not only brings his family problems, his fatigue, his peer problems, his concerns about his development but also his need for work … for rest … for play.


Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a demyelinating disease of the brain caused by the JC virus in immunocompromised patients. We report characteristic features of proton MR spectroscopy, 3-dimensional pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling imaging, and diffusion tensor imaging in a 53-year-old patient with PML. The utility of multi-modal magnetic resonance techniques for longitudinal monitoring was indicated by their reevaluation over time and consideration of their relation to prognosis.


This work aims to reveal the tensile characteristics of Glass Fibre fabrics based single face corrugated Structure Sheet (GFSS) by developing a pressure-adjustable fixture in the machine producing direction of GFSS. In order to set the fixture quick-ready and stable, the effects of several set-up conditions on the tensile behavior of GFSS were investigated. As the set-up condition, a wavy aluminum block fitted to the surface trace, insertion of multiple flexible pins into wave holes, and double-sided tapes attached on the upper/lower surfaces were discussed by changing the number of pins N, and also a few of instant adhesives was dipped on the clamped/pressured zone of GFSS (the reinforced model). Through this study, the followings were revealed. To use multiple polystyrene pins and several pieces of double-sided tapes in the proposed fixture contributes to make the tensile line force stable (as the simple model: without any instant adhesives on the clamped zone). To perform the breakage of liner and wave layers in the area of the gauge span, the reinforced model is usable when choosing N > 1. Investigating the tensile response, the strength (peak maximum line force) and the elongation limit of the liner and wave layers were revealed, respectively. By dipping instant adhesives on the clamping zone when N > 6, the combination resistance of liner and wave braiding structure was actualized.


In the article determination of the commodity policy concept is considered. The main task of the article is to present all necessary terms of commodity policy and its determinants. As well the basic problems about creating of the companies of sugarbeet subcomplex has been outlined. Expandable of assortment of sugar plants is considered, including production of bagasse, molasses and biofuel.


Benign migratory glossitis, also known as geographic tongue, is an inflammatory recurrent condition of unknown etiology, which is characterized by loss of filiform papillae on the dorsum of the tongue. Clinically, it appears as irregular erythematous patches devoid of filiform papilla bounded by slightly elevated white bands. The lesion changes its location, pattern, and size on the tongue over time, creating a migratory appearance, and in many cases will resolve completely. It is usually an asymptomatic condition but may be associated with burning sensation to hot and spicy food. A case of geographic tongue in a 2-year-old male child is presented here. The purpose of presenting the case report is to discuss the clinical presentation, etiological factors, and treatment modalities of geographic tongue.


The plea bargaining procedure, namely the viability of a stage of bargaining between prosecutor and defendant in criminal suits, is analyzed in the framework of a two-sided incomplete information game. It is shown that, for a given parameter configuration, there exists a Bayesian equilibrium with perfect screening of the guilty defendant. In the repeated game, a prosecutor who systematically resorts to the informative strategy and updates her beliefs in a Bayesian fashion asymptotically learns the "truth" in terms of proportion of guilty parties in the whole population of the indictees.


The team of Bray and Bray was temporarily disbanded this week as James Lee Bray was awarded the top role, that of Charles Condomine, in Blithe Spirit, the December offering of the William and Mary Theatre. James, a navy veteran, has seen extensive service with the college players, scoring his greatest success with twin brother Ben as Dromio in Comedy of Errors. Almost inevitably accompanied by his identical frater, Jim sheds the other half of the act in taking the lengthy leadleading part which was done on Broadway by suave Clifton Webb. In selecting the cast of seven for Noel Coward's spirited comedy, Miss Althea Hunt, theatre director, included two newcomers and an equal number of holdovers from the recent Skin of Our Teeth. Nancy Adams, seen briefly in last season's Comedy of Errors, will haunt the Phi Bete stage as Elvira, Charles' first wife who saunters out of her coffin, much to the consternation of Charlie and company. Susan Strong, making her first start after a leading role in Arms and the Man in her freshman. year, will portray the second wife, Ruth. Having just completed a turn behind the wheel as the fortuneteller in The Skin of Our Teeth, Mary Gerschank is beginning to believe in type-casting.. In. Blithe. Spirit she will be Madame Arcati, the seance specialist who "has the spirit." See THEATRE, Page 9


Abstract : Oak Ridge National Laboratory has cataloged over 330,000 miles of public roads in its data base. Of this total, the US Department of Defense has identified a strategic highway network (STRAHNET) consisting of 60,000 miles of improved roads. The STRAHNET, combined with 7,000 miles of connecting roads to government installations and ports, is designated the Defense Highway Network. When US forces are mobilized and deployed, military equipment will compete with commercial and private traffic for access to this network. The orderly and efficient use of this strategic asset demands an effective control system. The current movements control program consists of manual procedures, supplemented by at least three automation initiatives. This paper describes the system as it is organized and operates today. The movements control experiences during Operations DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM are used as indicators of system effectiveness in the event of total mobilization. Automated capabilities are examined to determine their usefulness as real time control measures. The author concludes that the US Army should be appointed as the Department of Defense executive agent for movements control and that automation initiatives, when fully implemented, will be successful only if complemented by additional training measures.


Bioactive glass ceramic with SiO2-Ca2O-Na2O-P2O5 composition was prepared by the sol-gel method using sodium metasilicate (Na2SiO3) as silica source. The monolith obtained was sintered at 1000?C for 2 hours after which X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed presence of combeite (Na2Ca2Si3O9) as the crystalline phase. In vitro bioactivity test conducted on the material using simulated body fluid (SBF) showed the formation of carbonated hydroxyapatite on its surface. The material during the SBF test was observed to transform from a mechanically strong crystalline phase Na2Ca2Si3O9 to an amorphous phase after incubation for 14 days indicating that the material was biodegradable. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate the surface morphology, while Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy facilitated the confirmation of hydroxyapatite (HA) formation. The monolith material obtained may be a good candidate for application in tissue engineering scaffolds.


Cerebral arterial occlusion in young, previously healthy women during pregnancy or the postpartum period constitutes an important diagnostic and therapeutic problem. This paper deals with middle cerebral artery occlusion in 3 young women during pregnancy or puerperium. Differentiating between arterial and venous cerebral occlusion is of great practical importance, and the diagnosis has to be established by angiography.


Part 1 Introduction: a word about theory plan of the book. Part 2 Co-operative research as an institution: the characteristics of research and development availability and use of research and development resources definitions the rationale for co-operative research. Part 3 Co-operative research experience: national co-operative research organizations international co-operative research organizations examples of multi-party co-operation in R&D - semiconductor manufacturing and Technology Institute (Sematech) the Very Large Scale Integration Circuit (VLSI) Research Association the Alvey Programme for Advanced Information Technology highlights of the evidence conclusion. Part 4 A theoretical approach to research co-operation in industry: empirical findings on the relationship between R&D inputs and R&D outputs model appraisal general formulation of the model parametric model co-operative v. nonco-operative industrial set up co-operative research within different market and research environments secretariat research joint ventures operating entity research joint ventures reprise. Part 5 Synthesis: stages of technological evolution co-operative research and industrial evolution. Part 6 Concluding remarks.


A pair of algebras '1(, ~ with~ a subalgebra of~ is said to have the (Principal) Congruence Extension Property (ab breviated as PCEP and CEP, respectively) if every (principal) congruence relation of~ can be extended to'lL A pair of algebras 'll $ ~ is constructed having PCEP but not CEP, solving a problem of A. Day. A result of A. Day states that if~ is a subalgebra of'l! and if for any subalgebra (£ of'll containing~,the pair \l{, (£ has PCEP, then \l{,~ has CEP. A new proof of this theorem that avoids the use of the Axiom of Choice is also given.


In this paper, I will first examine the methods used in analysis of school and home effects in three recently-published IEA studies-in science education (Comber & Keeves, 1973), in reading comprehension (Thorndike, 1973), and in literature (Purves, 1973). The results of this examination lead to measures of effects different from those used in these studies, or in other studies of school and home effects. Using these measures, I come to somewhat different conclusions than the authors do about the effects on achievement of variations in home and variations in schools. One's first response to the IEA publications must be one of amazement and respect: amazement that such a massive set of studies of cross-national achievement of children could be successfully carried out, and respect for those who have done so. It is important to record this first impression, because the studies constitute the best models in existence for cross-national research on social institutions and social behavior. This fact should not be lost in detailed comparisons, secondary analyses, and critiques of the three studies. With their publication, the comparative study of the functioning of different societies has made an important advance.


According to climate character of northeast area in winter,three-dimension unsteady heat transfer model of buried U-tube heat exchangerand soil around the exchangerwas established.With finite volume method,the equation was discretized,and the soil temperature field was simulated.At the same time,thermal conductivity of different backfill material and its effect on soil temperature field were analyzed,heat transfercharacteristics of U-tube heat exchangerand change law of the soil temperature at different time were gained.The result shows that the greaterrelatively thermal coefficient of backfill material,the more significant effect of heat transfer.Before reaching steady state,if materials with different thermal coefficient are used in backfill pipewell,thermal effect radius will be unsteady at different depth.The simulation result accords with practical condition,which can provide theory basis to engineering design.


Space station Freedom received an eleventh-hour stay of execution as Congress voted 240 to 173 to restore funds for the controversial project. In mid-May a subcommittee of the House of Representatives voted to cancel NASA's centrepiece programme to the short-lived relief of astronomers and planetary scientists concerned about research money for smaller space science projects. Having been denounced by the leaders of the American Geophysical Union, the American Astronomical Society, and the American Physical Society, the space station was thought to be as good as dead, despite vociferous objections by the project's international partners (see box). But in a key vote that has ended discussion of the matter for the current budget, the full House of Representatives voted to restore $1.9bn in funding that had been deleted.


The appreciation of music and music performances has been perceived as something personal, that is based on individual taste and various preferences. George (1980) states that in the assessment of music performance, 'objectivity of measurement is reduced ... because of the lack of right or wrong answers, with the possible exception of pitch and rhythm accuracy' (p.334). When individuals are required to assess, judge or appraise performances, personal preferences can cloud the assessment process. This paper, which is part of a larger study (Winter, 1991) will explore a number of issues associated with music performance


Objective To investigate the outbreak of Acinetobacter baumannii in cross infection.Methods Antibiograms and molecular typing with repeated PCR fingerprint technique were applied to type 28 strains of Acinetobacter baumannii isolated from 24 patients. Results Three different antibiotic patterns and five distinct genotypes were found among the 28 strains. The main strains were antibiotic pattern type I or genotype A.All strains isolated from respiratory ICU were genotype. A during this outbreak.Conculsion Genotype A of Acinetobacter baumannii was epidemic relative strains leading this outbreak in respiratory ICU .Gene typing with repeated PCR was more sensitive and specific than antibiograms typing .Furthermore with the characters of simple,rapid and reliable,it would be valuable in epidemiological surveinance of cross lnfection


A sensitive adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry with H-point standard addition method for simultaneous determination of uranium and cadmium has been developed. The trace amounts of these metal ions can be simultaneously determined using the Levodpa as complexing agent. Optimal conditions were: accumulation time 50 s, accumulation potential 0.0 mV, scan rate 40 mV s−1, supporting electrolyte 0.1 M ammonium buffer pH 9.6, and 1×10−5 M of Levodopa. The results revealed that the cadmium and uranium could be simultaneously determined by H-point standard addition method with different concentration ratios of uranium to cadmium. The method was successfully applied in a several of real samples.


AbstractGiven a finite set of points S in ℝd, consider visiting the points in S with a polygonal path which makes a minimum number of turns, or equivalently, has the minimum number of segments (links). We call this minimization problem the minimum link spanning path problem. This natural problem has appeared several times in the literature under different variants. The simplest one is that in which the allowed paths are axis-aligned. Let L(S) be the minimum number of links of an axis-aligned path for S, and let Gnd be an n×…×n grid in ℤd. Kranakis et al. (Ars Comb. 38:177–192, 1994) showed that L(Gn2)=2n−1 and
$\frac{4}{3}n^{2}-O(n)\le L(G^{3}_{n})\le \frac{3}{2}n^{2}+O(n)$
and conjectured that, for all d≥3,
$L(G^{d}_{n})=\frac{d}{d-1}n^{d-1}\pm O(n^{d-2}).$
We prove the conjecture for d=3 by showing the lower bound for L(Gn3). For d=4, we prove that
$L(G^{4}_{n})=\frac{4}{3}n^{3}\pm O(n^{5/2}).$
 For general d, we give new estimates on L(Gnd) that are very close to the conjectured value. The new lower bound of
$(1+\frac{1}{d})n^{d-1}-O(n^{d-2})$
improves previous result by Collins and Moret (Inf. Process. Lett. 68:317–319, 1998), while the new upper bound of
$(1+\frac{1}{d-1})n^{d-1}+O(n^{d-3/2})$
differs from the conjectured value only in the lower order terms.For arbitrary point sets, we include an exact bound on the minimum number of links needed in an axis-aligned path traversing any planar n-point set. We obtain similar tight estimates (within 1) in any number of dimensions d. For the general problem of traversing an arbitrary set of points in ℝd with an axis-aligned spanning path having a minimum number of links, we present a constant ratio (depending on the dimension d) approximation algorithm.


The energy crisis is an enormous challenge to human race.Consequently, the technology development and utilization of biomass energy has become a new "hot spot" in the international arena. An overview on the current status of the research on energy plants and several suggestions on how to reasonably develop them in China were presented in this paper.


In this paper, we study the probability distribution associated to the commutator word map. In other words, we study the probability of a given element of a group to be equal to a commutator of two randomly chosen group elements. We compute explicit formulas for calculating this probability for some interesting classes of groups having only two different conjugacy class sizes.


A study along the gradient directed transect was conducted in a hill dipterocarp forest at Ulu Muda Forest Reserve, Kedah, Peninsular Malaysia to study tree species composition, distribution, richness and diversity in relation to topography. A total of 2,421 individuals belonging to 421 species, 187 genera and 57 families across all size classes of trees from 1.5-m height and above were enumerated and identified. The species number represents 15% of the total tree species recorded from Peninsular Malaysia of which 47 were endemic and 22 rare species. Seventy four species were new records for the state of Kedah while one species Nephelium hypoleucum was a new record for Peninsular Malaysia. The distribution of species and individuals in families as well as the distribution of species with different sizes of stems followed an inverse J-shaped pattern. Euphorbiaceae and Dipterocarpaceae represented as two most dominant families. Shannon's index of diversity registered a higher diversity index of 5.61 for the study site as a whole than other reported figures elsewhere. Species accumulation curves for different tree size classes showed no tendency to flatten out but continue to rise. A total of nine dominant species showed strong association with topography when subjected to the chi-square test. Multivariate cluster analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) detected the topographic component of floristic variation between different topographic locations.


Cu2+removal from wastewater was performed by using different water treatment agents(PAC,potassium ferrate and potassium ferrate assisted PAC),the effect of pH on Cu2+removal efficiency was investigated through the batch static experiments,and the Cu2+removal mechanism was preliminarily discussed base on the experiment results.The results indicated that the PAC,potassium ferrate and potassium ferrate assisted PAC presented perfect Cu2+removal efficiency with the Cu2+removal rate of all more than 70%.Among the 3water treatment agents, potassium ferrate assisted PAC showed the best Cu2+removal efficiency,the Cu2+removal rate could reach to 94.2%.The removal rate of Cu2+under neutral and weak alkali conditions was much higher than that under strong acid and alkaline conditions.The optimal pH for oxidation and coagulation were 9and 8respectively.


It is easy to feel overwhelmed with the tantalizing array of instructional technologies available. How do educators choose the ones to use? We are part of a distributed team of instructional designers, evaluation consultants, and new media specialists within the University of Alberta (Canada). Until recently, we worked together as instructional developers in Academic Technologies for Learning (ATL). Instructors often ask us what will be the best technology for teaching. The problem is that there are many factors to consider, and there typically is not one best answer to any educational situation. Without clear guidelines, popular trends can drive decisions rather than the educational appropriateness of the technology or media.


Simultaneous plasma and synovial fluid samples have been obtained from patients, having reached a steady state on phenylbutazone, as a means of investigating factors influencing drug penetration into synovial fluid. Synovial fluid levels are lower than, but related to, plasma levels and are higher in rheumatoid disease (55-100% plasma levels) than in osteoarthritis (less than 50%). Patients with a more active form of the disease have higher synovial fluid drug concentrations. Results are discussed in the light of present knowledge and areas for further study are proposed.


To evaluate the genotype‐driven effect of haptoglobin (Hp) in patients with type 1 diabetes without clinical cardiovascular (CV) disease, considering endothelial dysfunction (ED) and arterial stiffness (AS).


Ecuador is one of the largest banana exporters in the world. This sector generates wealth and employment in the country. Life cycle method tools support finding critical points and improvement measures in systems. In this study, the Ecuadorian banana is evaluated through life cycle assessment (LCA), including agriculture, packaging, transfer to the Port of Guayaquil, and transport to a foreign port. OpenLCA software was used, applying the Recipe Midpoint (H) V1.13 impact evaluation method and using primary data collected from a local producer and secondary data from Ecoinvent 3.6 databases, Agribalyse 3.0.1, and the literature. Functional units were established at three levels: "1 ton of Banana at-the-farm-gate"; "1 ton of Banana at-the-packaging-stage-gate"; and "1 ton of Banana at-the-port-of-destination". The impact categories evaluated are climate change (GWP100), fossil depletion (FDP), freshwater eutrophication (FEP), marine eutrophication (MEP), ozone layer depletion (ODPinf), particulate matter formation (PMFP), formation of photochemical oxidants (POFP), and terrestrial acidification (TAP100). The carbon footprint (GWP100) of "Banana at-the-farm-gate", "Banana at-the-packaging-stage-gate", and "Banana at-the-foreign-port" ranged from 194 to 220, 342 to 352, and 615.41 to 625.44 kg CO2-Eq/Ton banana, respectively. Hotspots of the system are the fertilizer field emissions, cardboard packaging, rachis disposal, and maritime transport. Improvement measures should focus on reducing the amount of fertilizers and developing circular alternatives for residual biomass valorization.


Human action recognition is a challenging research in computer vision applications because variety of human actions can be misclassified as some other action types. In this paper, we proposed a method for human action recognition based on dual tree complex wavelet transform (DTCWT). DTCWT has better edge representation and approximate shift-invariant properties compared to real-valued wavelet transforms. Experiments are carried out on different standard action datasets including KTH and MSR. We have performed the proposed method on multiple levels of DTCWT. The proposed method is compared with other state-of-the-art methods in terms of different quantitative performance measures, and the results of the proposed method are found to have better recognition accuracy.


Postoperative Ileus and Oral Intake: Is There a Benefit of Laparoscopic versus Conventional Surgery? Within the framework of a prospective study, 769 patients were laparoscopically resected on colon and rectum between 1993 and 2000. We investigated the postoperative oral intake and the development of postoperative ileus. 356 patients were resected in open technique in the years 1999 and 2000, and the results were compared. At days 3 and 5 postoperatively, 57.4 and 94.3% of the patients in the laparoscopic group, respectively, had a complete oral intake. The gastric tube could be taken out in the first 12 h in 16.1%, and in the first 24 h in 79.8%. 1.6% of patients had no gastric tube. 67% of laparoscopically operated patients stayed postoperatively in the intensive care unit, in open surgery there were 90%. In the open group, the oral intake was delayed in median for 1 day.


The South Hall Ring (SIIR) re q uires for all 94 quadrupoles in the lattice a roll tolerance of less than 2mr. An important strp in achieving this tolerance is the fiducialization: t,he relating of the magnetic axes to the position of the survey targets fixed to the magnet. The fiducialization procedure which we developed involved a harmonic analyzer system and the SLAC Industrial Measurement System. After fiducialization and database generation had bcrn completed for over l/3 of the elements, and after the precision installation had begun, we noticed a random roll well outside the tolerances. The roll had been overlooked part,ially because the harmonic analyzer system is insensitive to rotations about the coil axis. We were able to overcome the problem through software by developing an extensive algorithm and regenerating the database without, a need for refiducialization. This correction process for both the roll and the pitch will be presented.


Highly stretchable, conductive, and sensitive strain‐sensing materials have aroused wide interest owing to their potential in wearable devices. A facile and scalable method to fabricate a carbon‐nanotube‐ (CNT‐) bridged silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) strain sensor based on thermoplastic polyurethane electrospun membrane (TPUEM), which exhibits a large strain range with a high gauge factor simultaneously, is demonstrated. It exhibits a high stretchability with large workable strain range of up to 550%, high gauge factor of 7066, good durability over 1000 cycles, and comparable stability under various strains. Importantly, it can be used for human motion detection, including subtle movements and large‐scale human motion, showing its promising application in flexible and wearable devices.


The article substantiates the expediency of introducing an extended and multilevel classification of territorial communities in Ukraine on the basis of the use of various classification signs and features, as well as the development of appropriate instruments (methodical approach) to the formation of a generalized classification. Based on the generalization of the current approaches to existing varieties of territories by analyzing individual directions of their functioning and life support, instruments have been developed for the formation of a generalized classification of territorial communities in Ukraine on the basis of a combination of a wide range of features, which will further form universal recommendations for defining models and directions of spatial development of communities and develop targeted instruments for their development and support, depending on the specifics and features. The peculiarity of the developed classification of territorial communities of Ukraine is the allocation of three main blocks of classification features: block of resource conditions of spatial development, the purpose of which is to identify those resources of various types that the community has to ensure for its development; a block of achieving the development capacity, which is designed to assess the efficiency of resource use and substantiate the feasibility of special government support for community development; a block of the problem-oriented development, which identifies the main problems of the community that exist or may become relevant during the period of implementation of the community development strategy. The result of the practical application of the proposed instruments for the classification of territorial communities should be the creation of conditions for each of them ion order to determine the level of capacity for self-development, formation of development priorities, use of directions and opportunities of government support in the process of developing a model, strategy and plans for its implementation, application of the program-project approach to the spatial development of territorial communities in Ukraine, depending on the extant, relevant needs and future prospects for the development of the country and its territories, including in the period of post-war recovery and restoration.


Nicolas Sarkozy's successful 2007 presidential campaign culminated with an appeal to 'liquidate' the heritage of the revolt of May 1968. Through an examination of the trajectories of all candidates at the 2007 election, this article seeks to explain the controversy around Sarkozy's remarks in terms of the broader impact of the ''68 years' on a generation of both right and left born in the postwar period.


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In June 2014, a disparate group of trained and untrained performers gathered together at the Chisenhale Dance Space to perform items from the Scratch Orchestra's 1969 Nature Study Notes. The performance was not a nostalgic recreation of past practice, but was something new, growing from the practice of the group itself, and one which posed an interesting balance between individual and communal responsibilities and participations, indicative of a powerful engagement with contemporary and relevant practices that activate and negotiate individual and communal concepts of identity. This paper explores how we might theorise such an arena, situating this performance somewhere between community music and a manifestation of avant-garde art.


While deep neural models have gained successes on information extraction tasks, they become less reliable when the amount of labeled data is limited. In this paper, we study relation extraction (RE) under low-resource setting, where only some (hand-built) labeling rules are provided for learning a neural model over a large, unlabeled corpus. To overcome the low-coverage issue of current bootstrapping methods (i.e., hard grounding of rules), we propose a Neural Rule Grounding (REGD) framework for jointly learning a relation extraction module (with flexible neural architecture) and a sentence-rule soft matching module. The soft matching module extends the coverage of rules on semantically similar instances and augments the learning on unlabeled corpus. Experiments on two public datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of REGD when compared with both rule-based and semi-supervised baselines. Additionally, the learned soft matching module is able to predict on new relations with unseen rules, and can provide interpretation on matching results.


In this work, we have investigated the dependence on the pH of the photophysical properties of a functionalized perylene bisimide (PBI) and its potential pH sensing applications. Observed was the presence of aggregates which diminishes at acid pH values and low concentrations, without totally disappearing until a temperature of 80 °C was reached. At basic pH, significant changes in the absorption spectrum were observed, which were associated with more strongly coupled aggregates. The 1H NMR spectra of the PBI dye in D2O/TFA also showed the dependence of aggregation on concentration and temperature. PBI fluorescence intensity and lifetime were also sensitive to pH values. The maximum fluorescence intensity and lifetime were observed in acid medium, in which protonation of the secondary amines on the PBI side chains likely hinders the formation of strongly coupled aggregates. On the contrary, the fluorescence intensity significantly decreased in basic medium, due to deprotonation of the amine groups and the...


Abstract Much has been assumed and written about the reasons Anangu walked out of their desert homelands and took up residence on pastoral stations and mission settlements in Central Australia. Anangu oral histories of these migrations work to illuminate the contingent nature of historical knowledge and the inherent difficulties in writing the history of a colonial frontier. This article seeks to move beyond the question of why, and explore how people came to be at particular places so far away from home. Such an approach privileges the spatial perspective of Anangu historical narratives and demonstrates a complex and gradual historical process, located both in places and within socio-cultural contexts. This article has been peer reviewed.


Intertrochantric femoral fractures are common among older age group and are associated with substantial morbidity and mortality a wide variety of treatment modalities are available for the management and many author have reported that intramedullary devices such as PFN are biomechanically stronger and rigid compared to extramedullary device. PFN also showed more number of post-operative complications like implant failures screw cutout in case of unstable intertrochantric fractures To improvise in 2003 AO/ASIF introduced PFNA (Antirotation system). This study was conducted to understand and analyze the advantages of PFNA over PFN in the management of unstable intertrochantric fractures at Sanjay Gandhi Institute of Trauma and Orthopedics Bangalore between 2011 to 2013. In all the cases pre-operative and post-operative clinical evaluation radiological evaluation, assessment regarding operative time blood loss fluoroscopy time, time for fracture union post-operative complication are also noted clinical results were evaluated using Harris Hip score The results showed PFNA has better rotation stability with single screw and better functional outcome in treating unstable intertrochantric fractures when compared to PFN.


We observed that IFN-γ-inducible expression of the DRα gene was enhanced when THP-1 cells are differentiated into macrophage-like cells by phorbol ester treatment. Here, we observed that class II MHC trans-activator and STAT1α mRNA, mediators of the signaling cascade from the IFN-γ receptor to the DRα induction, were markedly increased by IFN-γ stimulation in phorbol ester-activated THP-1 cells; however, both mRNAs were not increased by phorbol ester treatment alone. Then, we demonstrated that the mRNA and proteins of the IFN-γ receptor α- and β-chains were amplified by phorbol ester treatment in THP-1 cells. Consequently, these results indicate that the enhancement of DRα gene expression by IFN-γ treatment in phorbol ester-activated THP-1 cells is due to the phorbol ester-induced up-regulation of IFN-γ receptor α- and β-chains. As a result, the amplification of STAT1α and the increment of class II MHC trans-activator results in enhancement of DRα expression.


Normally the values of losses in plastic pipe and fitting is small in most cases was neglected, the paper was estimate the coefficient for Polypropylene elbow losses by using experimental model consist of 18 elbows and it was K=1.77, also the paper describes the methodology can be estimate all values of minor losses.


The deep level transient spectroscopy technique has been used to study the interaction of 5.48 MeV α particles with deep levels in Pt‐doped n‐type silicon. Production rates and annealing behaviors of alpha‐radiation‐induced levels in the presence of platinum have been investigated. Isochronal annealing characteristics of Pt‐related levels before and after irradiation have also been studied. Our results are compared to published data on electron irradiation of Si:Pt.


Objective: This research aims at documenting and studying the origin and distribution of private health expenditure in Cyprus, with focus on the economic relations between the health system and households, whether they involve standard transactions or underground (black) economy. Methodology: In this context, a specially developed questionnaire was used, gathering data from 400 households from all over Cyprus, via telephone interviews. The recording and processing of data and results was performed with the use of the statistical platform SPSS, applying methods of descriptive and inferential statistics on the available data, in order to present the results of both the first-degree statistical analysis, which included studying the frequency distribution of alternative answers provided by the participants and those of the second-degree statistical analysis as well, which investigated the possible relations between the participants' demographics or other information and their decisions regarding the dissemination of private health expenditure. Results: Despite a relatively low percentage of privately insured individuals and/or households (14.4%), most of the participants (85%) had made use of private health services during the past year, while 17% had consulted a Public Health doctor and 1/3 had paid for medical equipment. More than half of the participants (or a member of their household)had been hospitalized in a public hospital, while the respective percentage for private hospitals fell below 10%. The majority admitted to having offered bribe ("fakelaki") to Public Health suppliers, during either hospitalization or outpatient consulting. Among others, second-degree statistical analysis has indicated statistically significant relationships between the use of private health services and both the number of house members and the monthly net family income, while total payments to private health providers are affected by the degree of urbanization of the place of permanent residence and the person's insurance fund. Hospitalization in a public or private hospital is affected by all independent variables except for the person's insurance fund. The total degree of satisfaction appears unaffected for private hospitalization. On the contrary, the total level of satisfaction for public hospitalization is influenced by the waiting time required for hospitalization. Conclusions: The research has managed to demonstrate the weaknesses of Cyprus' health system, offering an indication of both the extent of black economy and the lack of user satisfaction in the provision of public health services, which inevitably leads to the increased use of private health services and out-of-pocket payments.


A condition on the numerical flux for semidiscrete approximations to scalar, nonconvex conservation laws is introduced, and shown to guarantee convergence to the correct physical solution. An equal...


Abstract: The beef sector competitiveness in Romania is constrained by production fragmentation into small-sized farms, by the lack of capital for the access to the valuable genetic material, as well as by the high share of family consumption. The goal of the paper is to identify new opportunities for the Romanian beef consumption relaunching and to create availabilities for export from the perspective of domestic supply restructuring, having in view the new Common Agricultural Policy (2014-2020). The obtained results with regard to the increase of self-sufficiency in beef, on the basis of scenarios, was based on technical analyses, statistical calculations (average annual growth rate) and production, import and export  forecasts. The conclusions reveal that domestic production relaunching can be possible following the support measures of the sector provided for in the new NRDP .


Metallic Li in carbonaceous nanostructures was obtained in high concentration (as much as 33.4%) through metalorganic chemical vapor deposition involving certain lithium–aminoalkyl moieties, which are formed in situ, by decomposition of a precursor containing both cobalt and lithium. The bimetallic complex containing both lithium and cobalt was characterized by IR spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, elemental analysis and thermogravimetric analysis. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements performed on the as-grown films demonstrate that lithium can be stable in metallic form in such a film. Results of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis of the as-grown films are presented as direct evidence of the formation and stabilization of metallic lithium in carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes, encapsulating metallic lithium, can potentially act as a miniaturized nanobattery. Such a battery would be potentially useful in the next generation of communication and remote sensing devices, where a pulse of current is required for their operation. In addition, with metallic lithium, having an effective nuclear magnetic moment, such materials can be envisioned to show potential applications in devices based on nuclear magnetic resonances. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Background:  There is a need for biomarkers in accessible matrices, such as blood, for the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this study was to measure the serum levels of brain‐type fatty acid‐binding protein (FABP) and heart‐type FABP in patients with dementia‐involving diseases.


This study aimed to carry out an approach for a conceptual and theoretical analysis of governmental strategies and policies to project whether a tourist destination is smart or intelligent. Governments, those responsible for planning the development of a country, have been looking for new mechanisms for the development of the tourism sector after the uncertainty caused by the global health crisis. From the theoretical perspective, the Smart Tourist Destination (STD) concept could be a mechanism or strategy that strengthens the development of tourism in its different typologies in each tourist region. The COVID-19 pandemic generated discouraging scenarios in destinations where tourism is the main activity; however, at the same time, it highlighted important aspects to consider in order to prevent this type of situation. Local governance, which acts as a catalytic instrument in promoting tourism, is a central factor in diversifying tourism from a sustainable perspective, in which local actors can be involved to satisfy the demand of tourists or visitors to the destination. The methodology used was qualitatively based on the technique of content analysis of thematic literature review using databases, scientific journals, books, book chapters, websites, Web of Science (WoS), Scopus databases, among others. The main results of the research show that there are different strategies and government policies that have served as the basis for the promotion of smart tourist destinations in other tourist regions of the world, and where interconnected collaboration in networks using technology is the basis of this intelligence in action to offer the tourism products of destinations.


Purpose: To compare the accuracy of myopic refraction using an aberrometer (WaveScan, Visx, Santa Clara, CA, USA) with manifest refraction using retinoscopy and an autorefractor. Methods: The medical records of 200 eyes in 100 patients who visited our clinic from February 2005 to February 2007 for refractive surgery were reviewed retrospectively. We compared the refractive errors obtained using an aberrometer, retinoscopy, and an autorefractor (KR-7100, Topcon, Tokyo, Japan). All of the measured refractive errors were converted to power vectors for statistical analysis. The power vectors consisted of the M vector (M), J0 vector (J0), and J45 vector (J45). Results: The mean sphere was -4.75 diopters (D) and the mean cylinder was -0.66D with retinoscopy. Power vectors of the aberrometer (PVw) were highly correlated with power vectors of retinoscopy (PVr) and the autrorefractor (PVa). The correlation coefficients (R2) between PVw and PVr were 0.960 (M), 0.852 (J0), and 0.679 (J45) and the correlation coefficients between PVw and PVr were 0.963 (M), 0.685 (J0), and 0.516 (J45). Mean differences were -0.2470.412D (M), 0.0340.120D (J0), and -0.0171.07D (J45) between PVw and PVr, and were –0.0680.403D (M), -0.0550.194D (J0), and -0.0520.165D (J45) between PVw and PVa. Conclusions: The measurement of refractive errors using a WaveScan aberrometer seems to be reliable and accurate, although some myopic shift was observed.


States at no time surrendered its rights of occupation, and this is made explicit in the 1934 Treaty of Relations with Cuba. The rights of occupation in Guantanamo by the United States were not founded upon and did not arise from or grow out of later treaties or agreements with the subsequently created state of Cuba. No need, therefore, exists to consider or to accommodate the policies of rebus sic stantibus with pacta sunt servanda insofar as the United States' rights of occupation in Guantanamo are concerned. Cuba has not yet been given the "ultimate sovereignty" over Guantanamo. The terminology of "lease," seen as operating strictly at the level of the municipal legal system of Guantanamo Bay, cannot disguise the essential legal relationships at the level of the international legal system.


The paper discusses the main parameters of the labour market of the Republic of Tyva, that are the system-forming factors of the region's economy. The analysed data were obtained from the results of two empirical studies conducted in the Republic of Tyva (2019 and 2021) by the Center for the Study of Social Structure and Social Stratification of the Institute of Sociology of the FCTAS RAS under the guidance of prof. Z.T. Golenkova, PhD. These research projects were carried out in various time phases of the functioning of the Republican labour market: the pre-crisis period (2019) and the crisis period of the COVID-19 epidemic (2021). It can be said that the 2021 study was the first record of the reaction of the regional labour market to the transformation of the economic system caused by the pandemic. The pandemic most of all affected the physical condition of the population - a fifth of the respondents had been ill with COVID-19. The study did not reveal signs of large-scale social conflicts in the labour sphere. Those who lost their jobs or liquidated their business amount to no more than 6%. Neither mass layoffs of employees nor a large-scale reduction in the number of entrepreneurs took place in the region during the period of the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, the level of registered unemployment increased in 2021 compared to 2019 by almost 10%. One of the main reasons for the growth of this indicator, as the authors believe, is the significantly increased volume of social transfers for officially registered unemployed during this period. The article also provides quantitative indicators of the labour market and compares the key indicators of the labour market model in dynamics - the level of economic activity, employment and unemployment (official and unregistered). Particular attention is paid to assessing the prevalence of various types of informal employment. It is shown that the entrepreneurial initiative of the population is a kind of guarantor of the desired level of material income, orientation towards anti-paternalistic attitudes. The authors also made an attempt to calculate the total pool of the most active labour market actors and their adaptation strategies. The authors come to the conclusion that the market model has demonstrated sustainability and stability in response to the external impacts of the crisis.


Santa Catarina Military Police receives an average of 6.000 telephone calls every day. These calls generate occurrence reports (ROs). In order to check whether each occurrence report is classified under the correct n ature of operation it is necessary to read all of them, one, by one, validating is cohere ntly according to the informed nature of operation. This procedure becomes a rather diffi cult and not very practical task since some of these reports are not classified correctly. A procedure called text mining is a useful tool for this process, since classifying and dealing with these documents facilitates their search, counting and classificat ion by the nature of their operation. The Secretary of Public Security and Citizenship in San ta Catarina, which is the agency in charge of accounting, carrying out statistical surv eys and providing guidelines to prevent crime, needs an automatized process to vali date the data. The present study aims at mining 2.684 police occurrence reports duri ng the year 2003 in the metropolitan area of Florianópolis. The study also investigates their reliability and at the same time validates the classification already attributed to the occurrence report, pointing out error classification which must be reviewed by the board of irectors of the Organization for Crime Prevention. With the ABC Clean software, spel ling errors may be corrected automatically. For the mining of data, a software c alled ABC Mining was developed and the Weka® was used to generate the decision rul es of the type "If ... then ", using a classification technique called "the decision tree" . The softwares were developed using Delphi® as the programming language. With the gener ation of decision rules, it is possible to validate if the occurrence report is cl assified under the correct nature of operation and suggest the board of directors of the Organization for Crime Prevention the implementation of theses rules in its occurrenc e report system, preventing new occurrences to be reported with the incorrect or di storted nature of operation, more specifically with regard to their description. Of t he 2.684 reports analyzed, 5,4396% of them were classified under the incorrect nature of operation. The data sent by the board of directors of the Organization for Crime Preventi o had previously been selected to meet some different operation natures and so it was expected that many of them had been correctly classified. Key-Word: Text Mining, O ccurrence Report, Information Withdrawal, Classification, Decision Tree, Data Cl eaning.


The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between coaching efficacy and athlete's self-efficacy and team performance.Participants were 134 male athletes and 128 female athletes and their head coaches from 23 teams in the 2009 national junior basketball competition of China.The athletes were administered a basketball efficacy questionnaire measuring athlete's self-efficacy;Team performance was measured by the number of team minus place in the competition,and then multiplies 3.5;Coaches were administered the CES.Regression analyses showed coaching efficacy to significantly predict self-efficacy and team performance.Also,Motivation efficacy was showed to be the strongest predictor of self-efficacy and team performance.


Relative purchasing power parity (PPP) holds for pure price inflations, which affect prices of all goods and services by the same proportion, while leaving relative prices unchanged. Pure price inflations also affect nominal returns of all traded financial assets by exactly the same amount. Recognizing that relative PPP may not hold for the official inflation data constructed from commodity price indices because of relative price changes and other frictions that cause prices to be "sticky," we provide a novel method for extracting a proxy for realized pure price inflation from stock returns. We find strong support for relative PPP in the short run using the extracted inflation measures. Extracting Inflation from Stock Returns to Test Purchasing Power Parity Purchasing power parity (PPP) is the simple proposition that prices in different countries should be equal if they are converted to the same currency. The absolute version of PPP is based on the law of one price, which maintains that arbitrage should tend to equilibrate prices of the same good at different locations. If the composition of the basket of goods used for constructing price indices is identical across countries, PPP trivially follows from the law of one price. However, frictions to goods arbitrage such as transportation costs and other impediments to trade, the extreme being non-tradable goods such as land, inhibit cross-country price equalization. Even with such frictions, the relative version of PPP, which maintains that the change in price levels across countries should be the same after adjusting for the change in the exchange rate, may still hold if relative price changes across countries are identical. For instance, a pure money shock will change nominal prices of all goods, services and assets by exactly the same amount so that relative prices among different assets will remain constant. In this strict pure price inflation case, the relative version of PPP will hold. Although simple, the PPP hypothesis has defied empirical confirmation for decades. There seems to be little agreement about why it fails so spectacularly when taken to data. The absolute version of PPP may fail because of the above mentioned frictions to goods arbitrage, and is not the focus of this paper. Our focus instead is on the failure of relative PPP. Rather than provide a long list of relevant references here, we point the reader to an excellent survey by Rogoff (1996).


In the issue of the Journal, there are three articles on 'acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding (AUGIB)'. Kola et al.[1] report a randomized controlled trial (RCT) that compared a restrictive to liberal transfusion strategy in patients with AUGIB. The threshold to transfusion was 7 g/dl and 8 g/dl respectively in either group. The primary outcome endpoint was mortality at day 45. In the restrictive and liberal group, 10 of 112 (8.9%) and 12 of 112 (10.7%) met primary endpoint (absolute difference 1.8%; 95%CI‐6.27% to 9.93%), respectively, The RCT was of a non‐inferiority design with a margin of 3.5%. The authors concluded that a restrictive transfusion would not be inferior to a liberal transfusion strategy. There is a methodological issue over the acceptance of non‐inferiority. The authors[2] should nonetheless be commended for this RCT which adds to other RCTs in the literature. In the current trial, 48% of patients had cirrhosis. With a small difference between transfusion thresholds (7 vs. 8 g/dL), one would not be surprised to see no difference in outcomes. The mean packed cells transfused between groups was not significantly different (1.72 units and 1.96 units, respectively). The Spanish multicenter study by Villanueva et al.[3] enrolled 921 patients, 21% of them had variceal hemorrhage and 31% had cirrhosis. This landmark trial compared the transfusion threshold of 7 g/dl to 9 g/dl. It found a 4% difference in mortality at day 45 mostly observed in patients with Child‐Pugh class A or B cirrhosis. The TRIGGER trial[4] conducted in the United Kingdom was a clustered RCT. Six hospitals were randomized to adopt either a restrictive or a liberal transfusion strategy (8 g/dl vs. 10 g/dl). A total of 936 patients were enrolled. Fewer patients in the restrictive transfusion group received blood transfusion (33 vs. 46%) and the mean unit of packed red cell transfusion was 1.2 and 1.9, respectively. The difference was not significantly different. Not surprisingly, in this trial, clinical outcomes following either strategy were similar. All of the above cited RCTs varied in their designs and patient demographics. The caveats are, however, in exsanguinating patients and in patients with cardiovascular co‐morbidities, where with holding red cell transfusion can be hazardous. In a pilot RCT[5] that enrolled 110 patients with acute coronary syndrome or angina undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, 6 (10.9%) patients in the liberal group (transfusion when Hb <10 g/dl) met primary outcome (death, myocardial infarction or unscheduled revascularization) compared to 14 (25.5%) in the restrictive group (transfusion when Hb <8 g/dL).


AT&T Ethernet transport services, including metropolitan Ethernet service and AT&T Ethernet private line service, are described. Part of AT&T's Ethernet portfolio, the Ethernet transport services are based on Ethernet-over-SONET (synchronous optical network) architecture and offer private line service characteristics.


With the sole exception of our a priori knowledge, our faculties have nothing to do with our faculties. Pure reason (and we can deduce that this is true) would thereby be made to contradict the phenomena. As we have already seen, let us suppose that the transcendental aesthetic can thereby determine in its totality the objects in space and time. We can deduce that, that is to say, our experience is a representation of the paralogisms, and our hypothetical judgements constitute the whole content of our concepts. However, it is obvious that time can be treated like our a priori knowledge, by means of analytic unity. Philosophy has nothing to do with natural causes. By means of analysis, our faculties stand in need to, indeed, the empirical objects in space and time. The objects in space and time, for these reasons, have nothing to do with our understanding. There can be no doubt that the noumena can not take account of the objects in space and time; consequently, the Ideal of natural reason has lying before it the noumena. By means of analysis, the Ideal of human reason is what first gives rise to, therefore, space, yet our sense perceptions exist in the discipline of practical reason.


This article discusses some alterations that may be produced in the 'psy' field on the basis of Michel Foucault's and Bruno Latour's work by highlighting that in our view make this connection possible and fertile. Firstly, we gather questionings about the epistemological bases on which psychology has been founded in order to become scientific, as well as about the dichotomy between natural sciences and human sciences. Secondly, we turn our attention to Foucault's and Latour's works to discuss rituals of production and regulation of scientific discourses. In order to relate these authors' contributions to the 'psy' field, in the third part of this text we point out some strategies that make the political field visible in the production of knowledge and signal the necessary process of making explicit the network of interests that is involved in sciences. Finally, we redirect our look to psychology and the production of subjectivity, pointing out the close relationship between scientific production and the production of ways of living and governing. Key words: sciences, scientific discourses, ways of living and governing.


The crystal engineering of networked coordination polymers great their potential properties for ion exchange, gas storage, molecular sensing, and catalysis. the The btp ligand bridges Ni(II) ions to form a polymeric compound; further, two water ligands


The postulated normal counterpart is a germinal centre B cell or an activated post germinal centre B cell. The immunophenotype reproduces that of DLBCL, with pan B-cell markers positive, surface and/or cytoplasmic Ig positive in the majority of the cases. The CD30 antigen may test positive, unlike in other DLBCL. CD5 is positive in 10% of the cases. CD10 is expressed in approximately half of the cases.


Objective: To study the related factors of apnoea neonatorum and find the precautionary measures of apnoea neonatorum.Methods: Retrospective study was used to analyze the related factors of 150 apnoea neonatorum from Jan 2004 to dec 2007.Results: The high risks of mother,fetus and accouchement were the main causes of neonatal asphyxia.Conclusion: To improve quality of obstetrics,strengthen the management of high risk gravida and choose the way of delivery correctly are the key measures to reduce the rate of neonatal asphyxia and case fatality.


We explore on the basis of a simple survey tool the perceived impact of the Erasmus mobility experience on the improvement of the thirty generic competences of the Tuning Europe list. We rely on a self-assessment procedure, i.e. on data collected by the Erasmus Office of the University of Padova, Italy, through end-of-stay questionnaires, as returned by both outgoing and incoming Erasmus students. Processed data yield the percentage number of ticks, by which a given competence was chosen by the answering samples. We introduce a quantity "importance of improvement", which measures the perceived degree of development of a given generic competence during the mobility experience and allows a consistent comparison among different samples. On this basis, we can order the thirty competences according to decreasing perceived importance of improvement in the two above samples. From a general point of view, Erasmus students perceive the most important improvement in instrumental competences. We can then carry out meaningful comparisons between the profiles of competences' improvement of outgoing and incoming students, both in qualitative and in quantitative terms. Such a comparison reveals interesting features linked to the academic and human environments of mobile students. A further step in the analysis describes how country effects give more insight into the previous results. In such a context, we analyze the country impact on each given competence for both outgoing (visiting the country) and incoming (from the country) students, on the country subgroup  competences' profile and on the exchange of competences, which occurs between paired country subgroups. Published online : 23 December 2015


ID/password-based authentication is commonly used in network services. Some users set different ID/password pairs for different services, but other users reuse a pair of ID/password to other services. Such recycling allows the list attack in which an adversary tries to spoof a target user by using a list of IDs and passwords obtained from other system by some means (an insider attack, malwares, or even a DB leakage). As a countermeasure agains the list attack, biometric authentication attracts much attention than before. In 2012, Hattori et al. proposed a cancelable biometrics authentication scheme (fundamental scheme) based on homomorphic encryption algorithms. In the scheme, registered biometric information (template) and biometric information to compare are encrypted, and the similarity between these biometric information is computed with keeping encrypted. Only the privileged entity (a decryption center), who has a corresponding decryption key, can obtain the similarity by decrypting the encrypted similarity and judge whether they are same or not. Then, Hirano et al. showed the replay attack against this scheme, and, proposed two enhanced authentication schemes. In this paper, we propose a spoofing attack against the fundamental scheme when the feature vector, which is obtained by digitalizing the analogue biometric information, is represented as a binary coding such as Iris Code and Competitive Code. The proposed attack uses an unexpected vector as input, whose distance to all possible binary vectors is constant. Since the proposed attack is independent from the replay attack, the attack is also applicable to two revised schemes by Hirano et al. as well. Moreover, this paper also discusses possible countermeasures to the proposed spoofing attack. In fact, this paper proposes a countermeasure by detecting such unexpected vector.


It is note-worthy that all of the researches with focus on generating CO2 emission inventories or projecting future emissions in this project have been done within the territory of each mega-city itself. In this approach emissions from manufacturing and transportation of commercial goods are assigned at the point where they are finally released to the atmosphere, no matter where the goods are consumed. Generally speaking, as pointed out by Muradian (2002), the assessment of the environmental performance of any selected economic system requires us to specify the relevant spatial scales of analysis. How to design this kind of "spatial scale" may depend on assumptions mainly (1) the interrelationship between the different ecological systems transformed by economic activity; (2) the agents and institutions where environmental liability has to be assigned; (3) the economic driving forces of environmental transformation; and (4) the envisaged mechanisms of environmental policy. Dominating work in our Mega-city project has followed the traditional way of thinking in setting the boundaries of research object, which is to refer to the political boundaries but not the ecological ones. However, we never intended to ignore the close relationship between the objective cities and the outside world, not only in terms of "international trade" or "internal trade", but also in terms of "trans-boundary environmental issues". Considering the hierarchy of dependency on outside world, city may be much more complicated than country. By analogy with country scale, city has similar boundary as country between itself and the world. However, additionally it has another boundary that can not be omitted: the boundary between the city and the country. Actually, tracing back to the boundary setting, we can easily find that the economic dependency on outside world makes the city an absolute open system and correspondingly extending beyond the political territory becomes necessary. In addition to reconsidering the specification of territories in meaning of socioeconomic dependency, another point of view widely used in industrial ecology also attracts our concern. This is "metabolism", or specifically speaking, the "socioeconomic metabolism". In analogy to the biological notion of metabolism, the concept of socioeconomic metabolism describes physical exchange processes (i.e. material and energy flows) between human societies and their natural environment as well as the internal material and energy flows of human societies (Ayres and Simonis, 1994; Fischer-Kowalski, 1998). Robert Ayres (1976) firstly developed a kind of "industrial metabolism" analysis, which traces materials and energy flows from initial extraction of resources through industrial and consumer systems to the


A novel (3,9)-connected lanthanide-based network of lanthanum trinitrite, La(NO2)3, was synthesized and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The central LaIII atom is coordinated by nine O atoms from nine nitrite anions. These unidentate O atoms are arranged in a capped trigonal prism. The resulting [LaO9] polyhedron shows 3m symmetry.


Objective To investigate the effect of STAT3 decoy ODNs on the growth and apoptosis of hepatoma cells Hep G2 and the related mechanism.Methods STAT3 decoy ODNs,synthesized in vitro,was transferred into Hep G2 cells by cationic lipid.The cell growth curve was used to reflect the growth and proliferation capacity of Hep G2,and annexin-V/PI staining method was used to calculate apoptic cells by FCM.Real time-PCR was used to quantitatively detect the expression of bcl-xL,cyclin D1,and c-myc mRNA in Hep G2.Results FCM assay and fluorescence microscopy demonstrated that STAT3 decoy ODNs was successfully transferred into Hep G2 cells(90.2%).Decoy ODNs inhibted the growth of Hep G2 cells.After treated with decoy ODNs 48 h,the percentage of early apoptotic cells was(22.86 ± 2.63)% and that of late apoptotic cells was(23.00 ± 2.76)%.Real time-PCR indicated that Hep G2 cells transfected with STAT3 decoy ODNs had decreased the mRNA expression of bcl-xL,cyclin D1 and c-myc.Conclusions STAT3 decoy ODNs inhibited the growth of Hep G2 cells and induce the apoptosis.The mechanism may be associated with decreased expression of bcl-xL,cyclin D1 and c-myc mRNA.


Introduction:
 Smooth muscle cell (SMC) remodeling is a complex and multifaceted process that plays an essential role in the maintenance and function of various organ systems in the body. In response to physiological and pathological stimuli, smooth muscle cells exhibit remarkable plasticity, undergoing morphological and functional changes that can impact vascular tone. Dysregulation of SMC remodeling can contribute to the development and progression of numerous pathological conditions, such as hypertension and atherosclerosis. However, the role of SMC remodeling in intracranial aneurysm (IA) formation has yet to be explored.

 Objective-Method:
 In this study, we aimed to elucidate the role of PPIL4, an IA-implicated gene, in SMC remodeling using a targeted experimental approach. We performed immunostaining and bulk RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) in human primary brain vascular smooth muscle cells (HPBVSMC) treated with lentiviral shRNA and open-reading-frame (ORF) particles to individually downregulate and overexpress PPIL4, respectively.

 Results:
 We found that PPIL4 downregulation results in significant upregulation of the genes encoding contractile proteins, including ACTA2, CNN1, TNNT1, and TNNT2, in HPBVSMC and leads to a significantly increased cell size, favoring a contractile SMC phenotype. Conversely, overexpressing PPIL4 using ORF-lentiviral particles caused downregulation of contractile proteins, increased expression of MMP1 and MMP3, and promoted a synthetic phenotype in SMCs. Furthermore, PPIL4 overexpression caused cell elongation and spindle-like cell formation in HPBVSMC.

 Conclusion:
 In conclusion, our findings highlight the critical role of PPIL4 in modulating SMC remodeling, suggesting a potential mechanistic link between PPIL4 dysregulation, SMC remodeling, and IA formation, which warrants further investigation.


Using state space techniques we study a "myopic" order-up-to policy. The policy is myopic because is it is optimal at minimising local inventory holding and shortage costs. In particular we study the bullwhip effect produced by the replenishment policy reacting arbitrary stochastic demand processes. We reveal that bullwhip is fundamentally caused by the co-variance between the inventory level and the demand forecast. We go on to highlight the impact of a simple control engineering inspired bullwhip reduction technique, a proportio nal controller in the inventory feedback loop. Although it can be shown this approach is always able to remove bullwhip, we expose that is not possible to arbitrary "tune" the proportional controller, without knowing in advance the likely structure of the demand process.


This study analyzed a transducin β-like gene (TIG1) from the fungal rice pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae. TIG1 was found to interact with several conserved core proteins to form a histone deacetylase complex, which is critical for invasive growth and conidiogenesis in the rice blast fungus. Magnaporthe oryzae is the most damaging fungal pathogen of rice (Oryza sativa). In this study, we characterized the TIG1 transducin β-like gene required for infectious growth and its interacting genes that are required for plant infection in this model phytopathogenic fungus. Tig1 homologs in yeast and mammalian cells are part of a conserved histone deacetylase (HDAC) transcriptional corepressor complex. The tig1 deletion mutant was nonpathogenic and defective in conidiogenesis. It had an increased sensitivity to oxidative stress and failed to develop invasive hyphae in plant cells. Using affinity purification and coimmunoprecipitation assays, we identified several Tig1-associated proteins, including two HDACs that are homologous to components of the yeast Set3 complex. Functional analyses revealed that TIG1, SET3, SNT1, and HOS2 were core components of the Tig1 complex in M. oryzae. The set3, snt1, and hos2 deletion mutants displayed similar defects as those observed in the tig1 mutant, but deletion of HST1 or HOS4 had no detectable phenotypes. Deletion of any of these core components of the Tig1 complex resulted in a significant reduction in HDAC activities. Our results showed that TIG1, like its putative yeast and mammalian orthologs, is one component of a conserved HDAC complex that is required for infectious growth and conidiogenesis in M. oryzae and highlighted that chromatin modification is an essential regulatory mechanism during plant infection.


Space‐charge‐limited‐current conduction is the dominant charge transport mechanism in electrodeposited films of cuprous oxide; the measurement of current‐voltage characteristic and temperature dependence of conductivity, while charge transport is space‐charge limited, is used to evaluate the electrical parameters of the films. From these measurements and the measurement of the material band gap and dielectric constant, the energy‐band diagram of Cu2O films has been determined for the first time. An optoelectronic band gap of 2.0 eV and a dielectric constant of 8.8 is measured for these films. The hole mobility in a sample with a resistivity of 1.1×1011 Ω cm is measured to be 8.7 cm2/V s. The conductivity of this sample is controlled by an acceptor‐type deep level (0.54 eV above valence band) with a concentration of 6.65×1014 cm−3 which is compensated with a donor‐type level (0.92 eV below conduction band) having a concentration of 6.64×1014 cm−3.