The objective of this chapter is to analyze global risks with focus on credit risk management in the entrepreneurship of the banking sector and identify selected factors of financial stability of banking sector from aspect of profitability in the economy of Slovakia, using regression modeling. The method of empirical sector analysis, regression and correlation analysis and risk indexes are used in this chapter. The relationships between the dependence of the banking sector and macroeconomic development from aspect of stability have been surveyed spanning a period of nine years (2004-2012) or twelve years (2001-2012) through construction of regression models. Regression models accurately reflect the real development in Slovakia. Factors of credit quality and decreasing of credit risk show common features for the banking sectors in other countries of the EU in context of global crisis and proceeding impacts of global crisis based on existence of common relationships and dependences. These models can be applied in other countries of the EU and present implications for economic decisions-making in the field of financial stability and prevention of risks.


OmiHtrA2 is a highly conserved mammalian serine protease that belongs to the HtrA family of proteins. Omi shares homology with the bacterially expressed heat shock protease HtrA, which functions as a protease at higher temperatures and a chaperone at lower temperatures. Additionally, Omi shares sequence similarity with the mammalian homologs L56/HtrA1 and PRSP/HtrA3. Omi was first isolated as an interacting protein of Mxi2, an alternatively spliced form of the p38 stress-activated kinase, using a modified yeast two-hybrid system. Omi localizes in the mitochondria and in response to apoptotic stimuli the mature form of this protein translocates to the cytoplasm. In the cytoplasm Omi participates in both the caspase-dependent as well as caspase-independent apoptosis. Additionally, recent studies suggest that Omi may have another unique function, maintaining mitochondrial homeostasis within the mitochondria. In an effort to further elucidate the function of Omi, a yeast two-hybrid screening was performed to isolate novel interacting proteins. This screening identified a novel protein (HOPS), as a specific interactor of Omi. The predicted amino acid sequence of this protein does not provide any information about its potential function in mammalian cells. However, experiments show that HOPS is cleaved in vitro by Omi. Furthermore, in response to apoptotic stimuli, HOPS is also degraded in vivo. This study suggests that HOPS could be a physiological substrate of Omi that is cleaved and removed during apoptosis.


To evaluate New Zealand media articles on their coverage of key issues regarding health interventions and whether it is consistent with available evidence.


Nowadays, the functioning of mining companies is conditional not only on the market situation, but also on the good relations with stakeholders. Good relations with recipients, suppliers, employees as well as with local communities and environmental organisations are of crucial importance. Social acceptance is becoming one of the primary conditions for mining operations. The main complaint faced by mining companies is their negative impact on the environment. It is, therefore, important to determine not only the measures aimed at reducing the negative impact of mining on the environment, but also the amount of expenditures allocated for this purpose. The main aim of this study is to analyse the investment outlays allocated for environmental protection. In order to support the aim of the study, a statistical analysis of data from 2003-2016 was carried out in terms of the structure of outlays for environmental protection: air and climate protection, water and sewage management, and soil protection, as well as protection against noise and vibration.


The invention relates to a three-dimensional scanning method for a high-frequency two-value strip. The method comprises the steps: using structured light 3D scanning to obtain parameters inside and outside a projector and a camera and carry out overall-situation contrast estimation at first, then locating sub pixels based on the edge of the two-value displacement strip and partially encoding the high-frequency two-value strip and finally carrying out partial periodical confusion elimination and three-dimensional reconstruction. In the encoding aspect, the black-white edge of the two-value strip is utilized as the encoding characteristic, and accordingly the obvious robustness advantage is achieved. In the decoding aspect, a virtual antiphase image generating method is utilized, the number of total projection encoding patterns is reduced, the high-accuracy location of sub pixels of encoding characteristic points is achieved by generating the virtual antiphase displacement patterns and combining a sine fitting intersection strategy, usual projection equipment is utilized, the cost is reduced, and the method is easy to implement. In existing DLP projection equipment, higher projection frequency can be obtained by outputting the two-value strip, and accordingly high-speed three-dimensional scanning process is easy to achieve.


A full understanding of text is out of reach of current human language technology. However, a shallow Natural Language Processing (NLP) approach can be used to provide automated help in the evaluation of essays. The main idea of this paper is that Latent Semantic Indexing (LSA) can be used in conjunction with ontologies and First order Logic (FOL) to locate segments relevant to a question in a student essay. Our test bed, in a first instance, is a set of ontologies such the AKT reference ontology (describing academic life), Newspaper and a Koala ontology (concerning koalas' habitat).


Surface‐potential decay characteristics of corona‐charged insulators are analyzed theoretically using a theory developed before by Rudenko. It was assumed that the charges are deposited in the surface of the insulator by a short corona pulse and that some amount of charge is instantaneously injected in the bulk of material. An analytical treatment of the standard transport equations in the presence of traps is presented. The model assumed for the traps is one in which they can be characterized by a single trapping time; liberation from traps was neglected, and also it was assumed that the traps are far from fully occupied. Using the theory it was possible to explain the fast decay of surface potential after a negative corona discharge in naphthalene single crystals. The value found for the trap‐modulated mobility at room temperature was 10−8cm2 V−1 s−1 and 110 s for the trapping time used as a parameter. With measurements of thermally stimulated currents, it was possible to find two sets of traps with act...


Evidence is presented that coldly deposited Ag films are highly porous and that the pores persist up to 170 K but are heated out at 250 K. Diffusion of adsorbed pyridine into the pores is negligible below 60 K but readily takes place at 130 K. Theoretical results on the classical electromagnetic enhancement of the Raman cross section within the pores as well as a survey of published surface-enhanced Raman-scattering data lead the authors to conclude that the surface-enhanced Raman-scattering active sites of coldly deposited Ag films are within the pores.


We propose an open signal processing system design and implementation environment, BEEHIVE, that allows application developers to rapidly compose and debug functional specifications in a networked, distributed computing environment, and then later migrate the application (transparently) onto an embedded, distributed, computing hardware/software platform, with the capability to reconfigure (adaptively) the resources assigned to the application to meet the dynamic real-time requirements of the implementation. Recent developments in the area of virtual machines; broker-based, distributed, transportable computing; object-oriented programming methodologies, Java and its real-time extensions; reconfigurable and programmable hardware; approximate algorithms; adaptive-load and resource-management algorithms, are harnessed in this operating environment.


Srivijaya Kingdom is one of the strong maritime kingdoms on the island of Sumatra and has a lot of influence in the archipelago with a wide area of authority. However, in fact the Srivijaya Kingdom was actually the "youngest" kingdom in the archipelago by its invention, because the name of the Srivijaya Kingdom was only "dug up" and surfaced around the beginning of the 20th century after the discovery of several inscriptions. The earliest evidence of the existence of this kingdom comes from the 7th century, a Chinese priest from the Tang Dynasty, I Tsing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in 671 and stayed for 6 months. Furthermore, the oldest inscription about Srivijaya was also in the 7th century, namely the Kedukan Bukit inscription in Palembang, dated 682. There are many historical sources stating the existence of the Srivijaya Kingdom and its territories. However, there is no single source that clearly tells where the center of this Sriwijaya Kingdom lies. In this case, experts also differed opinions regarding the existence of the center of the Srivijaya Kingdom.


Based on the current relative specifications for communications and compared with technical indexes of non-recycled aggregate and performances of cement stabilized base course mix,technical indexes of recycled concrete aggregate arising from waste cement concrete pavement slab were tested and analyzed,and road performances of cement stabilized recycled concrete aggregate were studied.In addition,cement stabilized recycled concrete aggregate was used in test road section base course,and proposals of producing and using recycled concrete aggregate were put forward.The research results prove that technical indexes of recycled concrete aggregate meet requirements of current specifications,and cement stabilized recycled concrete aggregate has good road performances.Either technically or practically,it is feasible that waste cement concrete pavement slab can be recycled for semi-rigid base course.A new approach for recycling waste cement concrete pavement slab was exploited.


Objective:To investigate the relativity between the Transforming Growth Factor-β1(TGF-β1) and the Acute Myocardial Infarction(AMI).Methods:The bleed were drawn from 30 AMI patients in the different periods of their entrance,the first week,the second week and the third week respectively as sample.Meanwhile,the comparision bleed were collected from 15 persons in good health.Afterwards,the bleed samples from the different periods were detected by Enzyme-linked Immune Sorbent Assay(ELISA).Results: TGF-β1 for AMI patients were increased(P0.05)with the different periods of their entering,one week and two weeks and were significantly decreased with the clinical grading while AMI was recovering.Conclusion: TGF-β1 is important factor for maintaining the internal skin cell function and reparing the damaged heart muscle cell during AMI.


This paper summarises some of the findings from the Competition Commission's report into supermarkets. First, the paper explains the background to the inquiry. It then presents data showing national and regional concentration, and explores indicators of profitability for the major UK supermarkets, to see if these indicate patterns of excessive profitability. It discusses whether international price comparisons have any role to play in the assessment of the competitiveness of this market. It then addresses pricing issues, particularly: company pricing strategies, evidence on price leading and matching, below-cost selling, and differential pricing between stores in a chain. The paper then turns to the other main area of the report - supplier relations with supermarkets. A large number of practices were found where supermarkets unreasonably exerted their market power to the detriment of those suppliers and competitors, and because of this the Commission recommended that the OFT should negotiate a code of conduct to govern supermarkets'relations with suppliers. The nature of these practices and the reasons for their being found against the public interest are explained.


Contents: 1. Managing Wetlands for Private and Social Good 2. Market Failure, Government Failure and Wetland Protection 3. Wetland Values and Policy Alternatives 4. Case Study Wetland 5. The Private Values of Wetlands 6. Non-market Use Values of Wetland Resources 7. Non-use Values of Wetland Resources 8. Bio-economic Integration 9. Designing and Evaluating Wetland Management Policies 10. Conclusions References Index


What basic ideas in geography are suitable for instruction in the elementary school? The question is a timely one, for during the first half of this century the scope of this subject has broadened greatly. Now children study not only physical features of the earth's surface, but also a variety of topics suggested by the growing emphasis on human geography. Today the study of geography covers the conservation of resources and the shrinking of the earth by air transport. So inclusive has the subject become that some scholars in geography have recently joined teachers and others who would make geography the core of the curriculum or at least the core of the social-studies curriculum. Be-


Topic: This research addresses the matter of hearing by Ataa ibn Abi Rabah from ibn Omer Objective: The research seeks to highlight whether or not the narration of 'Ataa Ibn Abi Rabah from Ibn Umar is acceptable, through compilation of the sayings of the scholars on it and studying them. The nature of this research demanded that it has to be constituted of an introduction, three areas of research and a conclusion as follows: Introduction: I mentioned in it the significance of the topic, the previous studies, the research plan and my methodology. 1st Area: Statements of confirmers of hearing by Ataa from ibn Omer and their evidences and has two requirements: 2nd Area: statements of deniers of hearing by Ataa from ibn Omer and their evidences, and it includes two requirements: 3rd Area : The most probable statement and the reason for probability and I mentioned in it the evidences of weighting that appeared to me with its evidence. Conclusion: I mentioned in it the most important findings. Then I appended the research with an index of the resources and references and an index of contents.


The NATO C3 Agency has developed a system known as ITC (Integrated Training Capability) to help train C2 system operators at the tactical level. At the core of ITC is a time-stepping entity level simulation built on the constructive framework FLAMES (Flexible Analysis Modelling and Exercise System) provided by Ternion Corporation. The simulation interacts directly with NATOs ICC (NATO-wide Integrated Command and Control for Air Operations) System which is used in over 400 locations throughout the Alliance.

The ITC software reads Order of Battle and Mission Tasking information for friendly, hostile and neutral sides from the C2 database. The simulation then moves the assets and models the interactions between them. As well as detailed physical models of hardware, NATO doctrine is incorporated into the simulation via the use of cognitive models. The ITC simulation produces a Recognized Air Picture (RAP) in standard format which is fed to the training audience in real-time. The simulation also updates the C2 System by means of standard messages showing status and results of missions as well as updates to the Order of Battle which can be fed into the next days mission planning cycle.

The training audience interacts with the simulation via a role-playing response cell staffed by military personnel who are well versed in air operations. This means that there is no requirement for the training audience to learn a simulation interface for an ITC exercise. They interact with the C2 system in the same manner as they do for everyday operations. Communication with the response cell is primarily achieved by telephone.

The ITC system provides interfaces which allow a high degree of interaction with the simulation. This means that instructing staff can easily introduce events and incidents into a training scenario which will stimulate the training audience into taking appropriate action.

ITC has been employed in many training events over the last five years. It is used at NATO operations centres and also those of NATO nations. The system has been continuously updated and improved over this time and is regarded by the NATO operational community as a highly effective training system.


The study focused on ground level ozone concentration in 3 selected urbanized areas in Malaysia that are Shah Alam, Ipoh, and Malacca. The main objective of this study is to determine the correlation between the ozone concentration, air pollutant and meteorological parameters. First, the surface ozone concentration was characterised to observe the variation of ozone concentration in the studied areas. The diurnal variation of ozone in all selected urbanized area is characterized by low concentration during early morning and late night and high concentration during day time. The average ozone concentrations are below the limit (0.1 ppm) of Malaysian Ambient Air Quality Guideline permissible level, however high hourly concentration were recorded during the day especially at 1.00 p.m. to 4.00 p.m. The correlation coefficient between ozone and the various meteorological parameters were weak except for certain pollutantssuch as NO2, NOx and CO.


Predation of Pselliopus latispina (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) versus two
spotted mite is reported. We used first instar bugs, they were collected on October
2012 at Sierra de Alvarez, San Luis Potosi on juniperus trees. A nymph of
Pselliopus latispina was placed in a petri dish with fifty Tetranychus urticae adult
females; these were collected at Huachichil, Coahuila on apple orchards. After 8, 16
and 24 hours, predation was observed, and mite mortality per petri dish was
quantified. A consumed prey average of 20, 37 and 48 respectively was observed.


This study attempts to determine whether women academicians experience work-family conflict in the context of their social roles and the potential factors that lead to this situation. In this respect, the Work-Family Conflict Scale developed by Netemeyer et al. (1996) and a questionnaire was prepared to determine the demographic characteristics of the participants and the times they devoted to their jobs, their families and various activities. A study was conducted with 124 women who working in the state universities of the province of Izmir. As a result of the analyses, it was found that the participants experienced a family-work conflict rather than a work-family conflict; married participants had higher levels of family-work conflict than unmarried ones. In addition, it was determined that those who have administrative duties experience more work-family conflicts and also when working time and the time allocated to work increased, the level of work-family conflict increased, too.


Gerrit van Rensburg, Western Cape Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, was recently intronised to the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin in Burgundy, France. The Confrerie, with 11 000 members worldwide, acknowledge people for their contribution towards the promotion of food and wine in the Burgundy region of France.


Abstract Bayesian chronological modeling is used to investigate the chronology of bastioned palisades during the precolumbian period in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Nine precolumbian settlements in the Midwest and Southeast with bastioned palisades have been subject to scientific dating (Angel Mounds, Annis Village, Aztalan, Cahokia Mounds, Etowah, Kincaid Mounds, Jonathan Creek, Moundville, and Southwind). Complete radiocarbon datasets from these sites are presented within an interpretative Bayesian statistical framework. The results provide a glimpse into the history of Mississippi period (A.D. 1000–1700) fortifications with bastions and indicate that the analyzed fortifications were built and maintained predominantly in A.D. 1200–1400. This finding suggests a greater institutionalized role for defense and warfare in post-A.D. 1200 Mississippian societies. Additionally, modeling results further indicate that the investigated Mississippian centers continued to maintain fortifications for generations after their construction.


The generation of spin current and spin polarization in a two-dimensional electron gas structure is studied in the presence of Dresselhaus and Rashba spin-orbit couplings (SOC), the strength of the latter being modulated in time by an ac gate voltage. By means of the non-Abelian gauge field approach, we established the relation between the Lorentz spin force and the spin current in the SOC system, and showed that the longitudinal component of the spin force induces a transverse spin current. For a constant (time-invariant) Rashba system, we recover the universal spin Hall conductivity of e8π, derived previously via the Berry phase and semi-classical methods. In the case of a time-dependent SOC system, the spin current is sustained even under strong impurity scattering. We evaluated the ac spin current generated by a time-modulated Rashba SOC in the absence of any dc electric field. The magnitude of the spin current reaches a maximum when the modulation frequency matches the Larmor frequency of the electrons.


This paper considers the problem of designing interval observers for hidden mode switched nonlinear systems with bounded noise signals that are compromised by false data injection and switching attacks. The proposed observer consists of three components: i) a bank of mode-matched observers, which simultaneously estimates the corresponding mode-matched continuous states and discrete states (modes), as well as learns a model of the unknown attack policy, ii) a mode observer that eliminates the incompatible modes based on a residual-based set-membership criterion, and iii) a global fusion observer that combines the outputs of i) and ii). Moreover, in addition to showing the correctness, stability and convergence of the mode-matched estimates, we provide sufficient conditions to guarantee that all false modes will be eliminated after sufficiently large finite time steps, i.e., the system is mode-detectable under the proposed observer.


Benchmark soils are a collection of soil orders that represents a particular geographical region. Knowledge on their properties and behavior may be applied to solve management problems of other soils with similar properties. The present study was carried out to determine the Mn and Fe available concentration by different extractants and their distribution among soil fractions in benchmark soils of Pernambuco State, Brazil. It was also aimed at studying the relationship between routine extractants and micronutrient forms in the soils. Manganese and iron concentrations were determined in the first two soil horizons by Mehlich-1, Mehlich-3, DTPA, and EDTA extractants. In addition, the soil samples were sequentially extracted to determine the elements conten in exchangeable, organic matter and amorphous and crystalline iron oxides fractions. The results showed that the exchangeable and organic matter fractions were were mostly responsible for the retention and availability of Mn in the soils, while the organic matter fraction was mainly related to Fe available contents due to its low concentration in the exchangeable fraction. In general, available concentration of Mn and Fe in most benchmark soils of Pernambuco are medium to high, and deficiencies are not expected in short and medium terms. Mehlich-1 and DTPA presented the best correlations with most bioavailable forms of Mn and Fe and, as a result, they may be properly used for an assessment of the availability of such elements in soils of Pernambuco.


Having studying the substancle of "jingluo" ,people put forward many kinds of hypotheses for the substancle of "jingluo".There mainly are the theory of nerve and vessel、the theory of jingluo being related to nerve body fluid regulation、the theory of the third balance system and the theory of total regulation.Today,more and more people support the theory of total regulation,and think that jingluo is a complex system which consist of nerve、blood vessel、lymph vessle、body fluid and other unknown structure and elements.


This essay examines a series of Australian texts in an attempt to perceive the ways in which East Timor has functioned as a test of the operation of Australian memory and the processing of national shame over the failure of the nation to aid a neighbouring people who had aided Australia at great cost during the Second World War. After introducing the notion of shame and the contrast between official Australian policy and public sentiment over the issue of East Timor from the date of the Indonesian invasion in 1975, a contrast rooted in the nation's sense of itself as being a sponsor of freedom, democracy and the fair go, the essay examines a series of fictional texts dealing with East Timor in some way, and then returns to the concept of shame and its relevance in this context. The texts dealt with include fiction for adults and children: Tony Maniaty's The Children Must Dance (1984), Gail Jones's Other Places (1992), Bill Green's Cleaning Up (1993), Kerry Collison's The Timor Man (1998), Libby Gleeson's Refuge (1998) and Josef Vondra's No-name Bird (2000), along with the Australian–Canadian miniseries Answered by Fire (2006) and the Australian film Balibo (Robert Connolly, 2009). As expected, concerned observers share many features of their reaction to events in East Timor, but inevitably, as they read East Timor they are also reading Australia and its relation to an ethics of conviction that might have dealt more honourably with the invasion and oppression on its doorstep. The analysis draws on the work of Jeffrey Olick, Avishai Margalit and Michael Morgan in its approach to regret, shame and memory.


The Botryosphaeriaceae include several well recognised Eucalyptus pathogens of which various species have recently been found on Eucalyptus spp. in Venezuela. An initial inoculation trial was conducted using seven species (Botryosphaeria mamane, B. dothidea, Lasiodiplodia theobromae, Neofusicoccum andinum, N. parvum, N. ribis and Pseudofusicoccum stromaticum) on one commercially propagated clone representing a Eucalyptus urophylla E. grandis hybrid in Venezuela. Stems were inoculated and lesion development recorded after 7 weeks. Inoculations with B. mamane, B. dothidea, L. theobromae, N. andinum and P. stromaticum showed little effect, but N. parvum and N. ribis caused bark swelling around the inoculation points with kino exudation. A second inoculation trial was performed on four commercial clones to evaluate variation in their tolerance to infection by N. ribis and N. parvum, which were the most pathogenic in the first trial. The clones differed significantly in their tolerance to infection by N. parvum and N. ribis, and N. parvum was significantly more virulent than N. ribis on all clones. These results illustrate the potential of using Eucalyptus clones to manage canker disease of Eucalyptus caused by species of Botryosphaeriaceae.


Many drugs and chemicals work in the body by either mimicking or blocking the effects of the natural chemicals in the body (Cobb, 2002). Additionally they may stimulate or block the release of a chemical from the body. Nicotine has many different effects in the body, but usually one effect dominates giving the overall observed response. In humans, and in all mammals as is known, nicotine increases the heart rate (Cooper, Hausman 2004). This is because nicotine stimulates the release of adrenalin and noradrenalin, a chemical very similar to adrenalin. Collectively these chemicals are termed catecholamines. (Bourzac 2000). The fact that nicotine is working via this pathway can be demonstrated by drugs that block catecholamine receptors, for example b-blockers, which you may have heard about. These drugs block the effect of nicotine increasing heart rate. Nicotine causes a slight increase in the concentrations of adrenalin in the blood (Wikipedia, 2004). However an injection of adrenalin that gives the same increase in blood concentrations as seen with nicotine does not increase the heart rate as much as is observed with nicotine (Wikipedia 2004). Therefore the nicotine must be having more localised effects and it is assumed that it stimulates the local release of catecholamines in the heart from local nerve terminals (Bourzac 2000). Nicotine is a drug that can be found naturally present in the leaves of tobacco plants. It increases the contraction rates and beats per minute of the heart muscle, as well by decreasing blood circulation, in turn narrowing the width of blood vessels through which the blood travels (Bourzac, 2000). Thus, this narrowing of the blood vessels can eventually lead to heart disease, stroke or even death (Cobb, 2002). When an individual is exposed to such a chemical in small doses , nicotinic acetylcholine receptors are initiated or activated (Cobb, 2002). Such activation of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors lead to an increase in the flow of adrenaline. It should be noted that adrenalin happens to be a stimulatory protein. (Cobb, 2002) Furthermore, an increased flow in adrenaline causes an increase in heart rate as a final effector. (Wikipedia 2004).


One of the main goals of the canceled Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA), was to reveal the evidence of the influence of magnetic field in the structuration of different astrophysical objects, as for example the filamentary structure of star-forming regions. For this purpose, "instrument-in-pixel" detector arrays were developed under ESA, CNES and FOCUS contracts, to propose sensitive, compact and easy to integrate detection solutions for a Space Observatory. Magnetic field influences the light emission or absorption of small grains and molecules imprinting its characteristics in the received electromagnetic message in terms of polarization, degree, angle and intensity. Each pixel of the developed detectors absorb the radiation through two orthogonal dipole networks. The detector array is organized like a chessboard with every other pixel having absorbers rotated by 45° in order to unveil simultaneously the linear Stokes parameters without any optical loss. A very large absorption efficiency is obtained, as usual since PACS detectors, by a backshort-under-grid scheme. To obtain the goal sensitivity of 1 attoW/√Hz, detectors are cooled to 50 mK and linked to an Above IC CMOS readout circuit. For each pixel, four interleaved spiral silicon sensors gather the absorber power. They are organized in a Wheatstone bridge configuration that allows fully differential outputs: total power and polarization unbalanced intensity.


We present numerical evidence that supports the theory of quark confinement based on center vortex condensation. We introduce a special gauge ("maximal center gauge") and center projection, suitable for identification of center vortices. Main focus is then put on the connection of vortices in center projection to "confiners" in full, unprojected gauge-field configurations. Topics briefly discussed include: the relation between vortices and monopoles, first results for SU(3), and the problem of Casimir scaling.


The NASA Regional Applications Center at Florida International University's (FIU) High Performance Database Research Center (HPDRC) is involved to the acquisition, storage, and dissemination of all usable remotely-sensed and other data collected about the Everglades National Park (ENP) since the 1920's, as well as data collected for ground truth verification of current satellite observations. The purpose of this effort is to increase the use of remotely sensed information for monitoring the status of the ENP and the contiguous region. This paper describes a prototype of an environmental database that is being constructed to include all data related to the South Florida region . This data will be stored in a random-access semantic database for immediate use via the Internet. Methods already developed at HPDRC will perform the various data processing activities including data fusion , ingestion. compression, archived data retrieval , querying and mining, data publishing and dissemination, image rendering and visualization .


Technology is developing fast. Especially mobile and wearable technology is on the rise. Educational technology has seen considerable developments in different technological areas recently. However, the vast development of everyday technology is not reflected in educational settings and the fast adaption of innovative technology is missing in the educational sector. This thesis applies a Human-centred Design (HCD) process to analyze the context of teaching in higher education, to understand teachers' needs and requirements to design innovative and up-to-date technology. It was found that teachers lack motivation to integrate technology into their teaching processes. Learning tasks were found to be a critical component in teaching and learning processes. Therefore, the support of teaching processes around learning tasks was chosen as the central problem in this thesis. The use case of alpine sport teaching was chosen for an in depth analysis of learning tasks. To address the motivational problem, gamification was taken into consideration. Games are known for their motivational factors and effects. Due to the similarities between learning tasks and game tasks, an extensive analysis on how to design for motivating tasks based on lessons learned from game tasks was conducted. The findings include that certain game elements, structures and processes can be used to design for motivating learning tasks. From the context of use analysis in teaching and the findings from the game analyses, the Dynamic Questing (DynQ) concept was developed. The DynQ concept consists of learning task creation, task triggering, context sensing and feedback generation. A proof-of-concept prototype was developed to test out the DynQ concept and to be used for user testing with alpine sports teachers. After that, the concept was also tested with teachers from different teaching contexts. Further design and development of the system could help improve usability and user experience. This work forms a basis for the advancement of personalized and contextualized learning through mobile and wearable technology support.


Thistreasured gift ofnature hasbeenthesource of Abstract - Thewater quality andecosystem characteristics sustenance andsurvival for0.2million indigenous fisher ofChilika LakeofIndia deteriorated drastically consequent to folks, besides fulfilling theneedsoftheconsumers bywayof diverse human-induced and natural phenomenaaffecting providing quality fishproducts sinceancienttimes. severely thespecies composition andfish landing. Theseries Of Designated asthe'Wetland ofInternational Importance' under ecorestoration measures undertaken tomitigate hydro-biological theRAMSAR Convention since 1981, thelakehaswitnessed challenges andrestore asustainable fishery hasenhanced thefishmuchcontroversy andconcern during thepast twodecades for yield considerably andculminated inexclusion ofthishighlytheaccelerated degradation ofitsenvironment byawidearray productive RamsarsitefromtheMontreuxRecord(sites in ofhumanimpacts andover-harvesting ofitsfishery resources. danger). Enforcement ofa holistic andeffective managementThough therecent initiatives formitigating theenvironmental strategy would furtherenrichwaterquality, conserve bidvrsitey anuld puroder sustainable livelihood toalt, cnsherve f problems andconserving thefishery resourcesofthelake have biodiversity andprovide sustainable livelihood tothefiIsher folksbe n tergtdrcin h omlto n ofthislargest brackish waterlagoon ofAsiainfuture years. beention th r directif on,e fration and .n.m'


Abstract We show, for a particular collision kernel, that the entropy tends to its equilibrium limit for all solutions of the spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation with finite energy, finite entropy initial data. This verses the natural conjecture following from the Boltzmann H-theorem. All previous results in this direction placed additional restrictions on the initial data beyond the physical ones considered here.


Plasma jets have broad application in the fields of sterilization and material processing. In recent years, studies have shown that adding a small amount of active gas into a single inert gas can change the distribution of active particles in the plasma. This not only produces the desired active species but also changes the length of the jet to make it more suitable for plasma applications. In this article, the characteristics of plasma jets were studied under an argon atmosphere with a small amount of nitrogen and oxygen. By measuring the voltage and current waveforms, luminescence images, and emission spectra under the three mixed gases, the main parameters such as discharge power, the three main particle emission spectrum intensities (the OH spectral line, the second positive band of nitrogen molecules and its diffraction band, argon atomic line), electron excitation temperature, molecular vibration temperature, and molecular rotation temperature are calculated. The results show two discharges in one cycle under the square wave pulse voltage. The addition of nitrogen and oxygen reduces the peak current of the Ar plasma jet but increases the power. The addition of N2 increases and stabilizes the length of the jet, while oxygen decreases the length. The spectral line intensities of OH and Ar atoms decrease with the increase in N2 doping concentration, while the spectral line intensity of nitrogen gas increases. The addition of oxygen reduces the intensity of all the three emission spectra. The electron excitation temperature is the highest in the mixed gas (Ar/N2/O2) and the lowest in pure argon. In the mixed gas (Ar/N2), the vibration temperature and rotation temperature are basically unchanged. After the addition of oxygen, the vibration temperature remained unchanged, but the rotation temperature increased slightly.


Neonatal weight and health depend on many epigenetic and environmental factors and also on a child's genes as inherited from the mother and the father. The "Hunting for Good Genes" (HfGG) hypothesis claims that women pursue short‐term mating strategies in order to obtain good genes for their progeny. If this is true, one should expect that in comparison to children born in long‐term relationships (LR), children born in short‐term relationships (SR) should have a larger neonatal size and be healthier.


Solar distillation is one of the important methods of getting clean water from brackish and seawater using the renewable energy of the sun. The passive type solar still represent most economical method to supply drinking water for domestic applications for decentralized level. Experimental measurements of solar distillation productivity for single slope still were conducted at the testing field of the Mechanical Engineering department, Coimbatore Institute of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India. The influence of basin water quantity and amount of energy storage materials are examined and the performance is compared. The target of this research is to find best way to keep the excess heat by energy storage materials and release it during off-sunshine hours for increment in distillate output and efficiency. Various sensible heat energy storage materials like pebbles, blue metal stone, red brick, granites and white marbles were used as energy storage medium. The daily yield of black granite still is higher than other energy storage material stills and is equal to 3.216 kg/day/m 2 , which is 29% higher than that of the still without energy storage materials. Keywords:  fresh water, passive still, solar distillation, energy storage material Article DOI: http://doi.org/10.15544/RD.2017.086


This article describes a project designed to make second-language reading a less onerous and more pleasurable activity than is usually the case. The author was struck by the cumbersome process of reading a second-language text for most students. Burdened with a dictionary and reference grammar, to which they are obliged to have frequent recourse, students often look upon reading assignments as a drudgery rather than as a pleasure. In addition, they rarely find in their bilingual dictionary the contextual meaning of the word or phrase they do not understand. Thus, despite their recourse to the dictionary, their understanding of the text remains only approximate. Small wonder that they become discouraged and often abandon the effort.


Tow new Ebselen derivatives were designed and synthesized with animo acid structure attached to the p-position of 2-pheny1 moiety, their structures have determined by IR, 1H-NMR and elementary analysis, their biological activity is tested.


Aim. The main purpose of the research was to examine distinct phytopathogenic and toxigenic properties of Fusarium isolates received from Triticum aestivum L. grains and to find out their toxicity. Methods. In this paper, the phytotoxic activity and the aggressiveness of the investigated isolates were defined in order to characterize their phytopathogenicity. In order to determine the possibility of the isolates to synthesize zearalenone, the PCR analysis was used to detect the presence of polyketide synthase gene PKS13, which is important for zearalenone biosynthesis. Results. Most of the investigated isolates were characterized by a moderate level of phytotoxic activity, with only one isolate Fusarium sp. КМА-17 being classified as toxic. Based on the analysis of the phytotoxic profile of the studied fungi cultures, their varietal specialization was established: the spring wheat Tyubalt variety was more susceptible to the phytotoxic effect compared to the winter Wdala variety. Surprisingly, metabolites from some of the isolates were observed to stimulate growth of the Wdala variety seedlings. All of the received fungi isolates caused pathological changes in the experimental plants, including tissue necrosis of shoots and roots of seedlings, retardation of growth and wilting. The studied cultures were characterized by a moderate degree of aggressiveness and were assigned to the second pathogenicity group. PCR study did not reveal the PKS13 gene in genomes of the isolates, which implies the impossibility of synthesizing zearalenone. Conclusions. To sum up, the received Fusarium sp. isolates were characterized by moderate phytotoxicity and aggressiveness and did not show any ability to synthesize zearalenone. Taking the complex of investigated features into account the Fusarium sp. isolates can be considered non-toxigenic. Manuscript received 29.04.2020


An observational, descriptive, transversal study, was applied to describe the satisfaction degree of external users in the Pharmacy Service of The General Hospital "Jose Soto Cadenillas", Chota, during the term September to October of 2015; the grade of satisfaction was determinate with the application of a previously validated survey with a structured Likert scale questionnaire (range 1.00 – 5.00) based on the A. Donabedian Model for evaluate the Quality of Health care Services through customer satisfaction measurement, taking in consideration three dimensions: Structure; Process and Outcomes, the population study was conformed for 229 users with range of age of 18 to 70 years, from rural and urban living zone, 79% of the users was global satisfaction degree of moderate satisfaction (range 2.44 - 3.66) and 21 % complete satisfaction (range 3.67 – 5.00). The correlation was statistically significant for two demographic characteristics, locality origin (rural or urban living zone), X2 = 16.000 and p= 0.000 grade of Education with X2 =20.978 and p= 0.000. Outcome was the dimension with more correlation with the global satisfaction


The Chamorros lived on the chain of islands known as the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. The author argues that the ancient Chamorro religion and world view are based on a nondual cosmology of paired opposites that interact to generate a living world. The nondual cosmology is found throughout Micronesia. Religious beliefs and practices give expression to the nondual world view. This is especially true of the ancient Chamorros use of their ancestral skulls in warfare. The skulls were taken into battle against the Spanish. From the nondual world view the ancestors' power lives on through their descendants and is symbolically manifest in the skulls. After the Spanish Chamorro war, the survivors converted to Christianity and the ancient religion came to an end.


The study set out to evaluate the effectiveness I the implementation of PLAP in the teaching and learning of Shona language in selected rural secondary schools. PLAP is a remediation strategy meant to narrow the gap in learner performance. Practice and theory have reported no significant improvement in performance even after implementation of PLAP. The study therefore sought to find out factors affecting the effectiveness of PLAP. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were employed using a descriptive research design. Stratified and purposive sampling were used for the study. Participants were 40 learners, 16 educators, 4 heads of departments and 4 school heads. Results showed that lack or training, inadequate resources and negative attitudes were some of the factors that led to the low effectiveness of PLAP. The study concluded that the success of any reform or new programme depended on thorough preparation of implementers. The study recommends that educators be prepared for the implementation and that adequate resources be made available to equip and motivate implementers. Further research is required to identify knowledge and strategies needed for successful implementation of PLAP and effectiveness of PLAP in other subjects such as English.


Mine backfilling is an effective way of disposing of the tailings, and it improves the regional stability, allowing nearby regions to be mined. The backfilled underground voids can be approximated as rectangular prisms with base dimensions of 20-60 m and heights as much as 200 m. A series of laboratory tests were carried out in model stopes with square and rectangular cross sections, having height to width ratio of six. The stopes were instrumented to measure the fill load transferred to the base of the stope as well as the remainder that was transferred to the wall. The laboratory model test results are compared with those from analytical closed-form solutions and numerical modelling work carried out using FLAC3D, and the agreement among the three different approaches is excellent. The findings reported herein will shed some light on the understanding of the stresses within minefill stopes, and improve the design practice and the current state-of-the-art.


speed steel manufactured by powder metallurgy with high nitrogen content in the form of a body formed through consolidation of alloyed metal powder, characterized in that the high speed steel regarding its chemical composition contains in% by weight 02.01, 5 C 1-3, 5 N 0, 1.5, 7 Mn 0, 5/1, 2 5/2 Cr Mo If 3-6 0, 5-5 W 6, 2-17 (V + 2 Nb) optionally up to max. 20 Co balance iron and unavoidable impurities in normal amounts, wherein the amount on the one hand, the carbon equivalent, Ceq, expressed as Ceq = C + (12/14) N and, moreover, the equivalent of vanadium, Veq, expressed as Veq = V + 2 Nb, are balanced with each other so that the amounts of said elements, expressed in terms of said equivalent, you will lie within the area A1-B1-C1-D1-A1 in the coordinate system Fig. 1, in which the Ceq / Veq co-ordinates of the points A1-D1 are A1: 4, 5/17 B1: 5, 5/17 C1: 2, 5/6, 2 D1: 1, 5/6 2 and because the speed steel regarding its structure, in the hardened and tempered condition of the steel, contains from 12 to 40% by volume of hard material is composed of particles of MX-type, which are uniformly distributed in the matrix steel being composed M in said matter of MX-type essentially vanadium and / or niobium, and X being composed of 30 to 50% by weight carbon and 50 to 70% by pes or nitrogen.


Taking 708-bus power system and 538-bus power system for calculation examples,the comparative analysis on computation efficiencies and convergence of five reactive power decomposition and coordination algorithms which are based on nonlinear prime-dual interior point method,approximate Newton directions and block bordered diagonal frame model respectively are performed.Then the factors influencing the computation efficiencies and convergence of decomposition and coordination algorithm are further analyzed.The influences of two kinds of methods,i.e.,fixing the general scale of the system and expanding the number of sub-area as well as fixing the number of sub-area and expanding the scale of maximum sub-area,on computing speed are quantitatively analyzed.


In orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS) modulation, information-carrying symbols reside in the delay-Doppler (DD) domain. By operating in the DD domain, an appealing property for communication arises: time-frequency (TF) dispersive channels encountered in high mobility environments become time-invariant. The time-invariance of the channel in the DD domain enables efficient equalizers for time-frequency dispersive channels. In this paper, we propose an OTFS system based on the discrete Zak transform. We show that the presented formulation simplifies the derivation and analysis of the input-output relation of TF dispersive channel in the DD domain.


The hantaviruses of the Americas are being recognized as a numerous and growing group of rodent-borne viruses that cause a disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). The American viruses all belong to the genus Hantavirus of the family Bunyaviridae. There are recent general reviews of hantaviruses and their molecular genetics, but this chapter emphasizes some of the recent findings in the Americas. Only two hantaviruses were known in the Americas before 1993: Prospect Hill virus from the meadow vole Microtus pennsylvanicus and Seoul virus from the Old World rodent Rattus norvegicus. In 1993 an epidemic of unexplained adult respiratory distress syndrome in the southwestern U.S. was serologically linked to hantaviruses. The most commonly used serological tests are the indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) test and more recently the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Hantavirus vaccine development faces some formidable tasks. There is no animal model of HPS or hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) to measure attenuation or to study possible immunopathological interactions with vaccines. The diversity of the rodent taxon (Muridae and subfamily Sigmodontinae) suggests that there will be variation in the epidemiology and clinical presentation of HPS according to the individual causative virus, although to date the syndrome has been recognizable as HPS, and the epidemiology can be largely understood by patterns of rodent-human interactions.


The safety and convenience of traffic using the road are governed to a large extent by the quality of maintenance. The life of an asset can be preserved and prolonged if adequate maintenance measures are undertaken in proper time. By early detection and repair of defects at initial stages the rapid deterioration of the pavement can be prevented. The function of maintenance is to preserve the pavement in a traffic-worthy condition and to allow the movement of traffic at a requisite speed and safety. This paper presents a approach on pavement treatment selection using fuzzy logic inference system. Two parameters like drop of quality and age of the flexible pavement has been taken into account as input and treatment type as output. The result provides an appropriate and economically viable maintenance strategy.


Thorough analyzed and reseated main problems now in teaching of track and field's elective courses of col- lege,finding out the reasons and contravention.According to the point of this sports item,the goal location of teaching,the teacher's level,and teaching condition and so on,building up instructive thought of"Health First".Tightly surround the teaching goals of cultivating the students' interest,develop ability and habit of doing exercises.In order to make the elective courses teaching of track and field more scientific\practical and integral.teachers should take active measures by renewing teaching methods,improving teaching materials,handpicking contents,reforming examination and grades and so on.


The terminal and the network state measurement system and method using the same are disclosed. Network status measurement system according to an embodiment of the present invention, the transmitting terminal transmits packets exploration; And each exploration packets of one-way travel time to receive the exploration packets: calculating the queuing delay by using the minimum value of (One-way Trip Time OTT) measurement, and the average value of the measured one-way travel time and the one-way travel time and a receiving terminal.


Aging process will lead to progressive decline skeletal muscle mass, muscle strength and muscle function. Sarcopenia was introduced by Irwin Rosenberg in 1989 to describe the decline in muscle mass due to aging process. Sarcopenia is one of geriatric syndrome, it is caused by multifactorial and allows it to be prevented. Sarcopenia defines a syndrome with characteristics of progressive and generalized decrease of skeletal muscle mass and muscle strength accompanied by the risk of disability and decreasing quality of life and death. Prevalence of sarcopenia was increase by age, 60-70 years report 5-13%, >80 years was 1150%. There are several mechanisms of various diseases and pathogenesis: age-related, endocrine problem, neuro-degenerative disease, disuse, inadequate nutrition and cachexia condition. Diagnosis will be confirmed if low muscle mass ad with minimal one of muscle strength and muscle function. Management sarcopenia should be comprehensive including exercise/physical activity, nutrition, testosterone, estrogen, growth hormone, Vitamin D, and ACE inhibitor. The important management were exercise and nutrition, other pharmacotherapy and hormonal therapy still need more excellence study, for future consideration.


The performances are investigated in the paper for the decode-and-forward (DF) based simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) system, which are evaluated by the outage probability and ergodic capacity. In the SWIPT system, the source node transmits the signal to the destination node via an energy constrained DF relay node. For utilizing the direct link from the source node to destination node, the destination node adopts the selection combining (SC) scheme to merge the signals coming from different links. The closed-form and integral results for the outage probability and the ergodic capacity of the system are derived, respectively. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed DF SC scheme is superior to the existing schemes.


In recent years, the study of thermodynamic properties of binary mixtures and ternary mixtures has grown significantly. The thermodynamic properties of liquids in any binary mixture depict substantial weight on the physical and chemical properties [1-5]. These properties provide better information necessary for understanding the non -ideal behaviour of complex systems, that are caused by molecular interactions, dipole-dipole interactions etc. of different molecules. In practical world, these properties are very much needed in diverse areas like bio-chemical, food industry, metallurgy, molecular dynamics studies and others .Added to it, information about structural phenomena of these mixtures also provides first-hand material in the development of theories of the liquid state interactions. The excess thermodynamic properties proposed by Scatchard in the year 1931, paved a path that how a solution deviates from its ideal behaviour. He proposed an equation to calculate the excess thermodynamic parameters which is shown below, where excess thermodynamic parameters denoted by super script E.


A 77 GHz power amplifier (PA) fabricated in a standard CMOS 65-nm process for radar automotive applications is presented. Based on passive transformer-coupled architectures, a high gain PA has been developed for a 76-77 GHz frequency range. The proposed PA achieves a 18.5 dB gain with output compression point (OP1dB) of +9.5 dBm and a saturated output power of +10.5 dBm for a 1.2 V supply. The isolation between input and output ports is better than 42 dB, and peak power added efficiency (PAE) is 7.1 %. Return losses at the input and output ports are less than -10 dB across the 67-100 GHz band. The PA has a compact size of 0.4 × 0.85 mm2.


Multidimensional modeling requires specialized design techniques. Though a lot has been written about how a data warehouse should be designed, there is no consensus on a design method yet. This paper follows from a wide discussion that took place in Dagstuhl, during the Perspectives Workshop "Data Warehousing at the Crossroads", and is aimed at outlining some open issues in modeling and design of data warehouses. More precisely, issues regarding conceptual models, logical models, methods for design, interoperability, and design for new architectures and applications are considered.


Intraspecific variation in the number of vertebrae is common and taxonomically widespread, although the possible adaptive significance of this variability remains poorly understood. If body size is influenced by the number of vertebrae, then an increased number of vertebrae could facilitate reaching a large body size, and provide a proximate explanation for sex and population differences in mean body size. We tested these predictions using data from 12 populations of nine-spined sticklebacks (Pungitius pungitius), which are known to differ genetically in mean body size, as well as to show a high degree of female-biased sexual size dimorphism. After controlling for the confounding effects of habitat, sex, and population of origin, there was weak and habitat-specific positive association between body size and the number of vertebrae. However, viewed across different populations, there was no correlation between mean body size and the number of vertebrae. Similarly, although females (the larger sex) had, on average, more vertebrae than males, the degree of sexual dimorphism in the number of vertebrae and body size were uncorrelated across populations. Furthermore, there was no relationship between latitude and the mean number of vertebrae, revealing that vertebral numbers in the nine-spined stickleback do not follow Jordan's rule (i.e. increase with increasing latitude). Taken together, the results obtained in the present study suggest that vertebral number only has a very limited influence on intraspecific patterns of body size variation in the nine-spined stickleback. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, , –. ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: Gasterosteidae – geographical variation – Jordan's rule – sexual dimorphism.


Laplacian pyramid(LP) is an effective tool to form a multi-resolution system and is widely used since its proposal such as the structure of contourlet transform,however the drawback of its implicit oversampling prevents it from being used for image compression and etc.In this paper,a non-redundant and multi-directional pyramid structure is proposed.We illustrate the source of the redundancy of the pyramid structure first,and then make a review about the maximal decimation theory and give the solution of solving the redundancy of LP.Then we suggest a pyramid based non-redundancy structure and combine this with the DFB to form a new system to achieve the multi-resolution and multi-directional features.The results of our experimental work show its superiority over contourlets and wavelets in the nonlinear approximation(NLA).


As the amount of information available in online digital libraries increases exponentially, questions arise concerning the most productive way to use that information to advance learning. This study investigated the value of an organized educational digital library in supporting and improving EFL students' inquiry learning process. Ninety-eight participants in two groups were compared in their learning performance. One approach used traditional open access to information while the other used an online digital library to accessing information during their inquiry-based information search process. A One-Way ANCOVA and an Independent-Samples t-test were used to examine the two groups on their English reading comprehension and learning attitudes. Results indicated students who used structured search strategies with digital libraries had higher learning performance in English reading comprehension. Digital libraries can also increase the quality of learning process and enhance the students' learning with more positive attitude.


Faculty members at two small Canadian universities were sent a ques- tionnaire in which they were asked about research activities and prefer- ences, views of themselves as researchers, and views about factors which they felt either constrained or facilitated research activities. Respondents were highly committed to research, though gave teaching an equally high priority. Views of influences were similar across univer- sities, with non-teaching commitments, teaching commitments, avail- ability of graduate students, and availability of library holdings seen as most detrimental. Personal motivation and university research offices were seen as positive influences. We consider how faculty views might affect university policy and suggest, among other things, that universi- ties might want to develop a formal policy in which individual faculty be allowed to specialize to some extent in research or teaching.


PURPOSE: A phase-change memory device manufacturing method which uses a block copolymer and a phase-change memory device manufactured using the same are provided to manufacture a phase-change film on a substrate using a self-assembly structure of the block copolymer, thereby effectively manufacturing the phase-change memory device of a desired size on a wide substrate. CONSTITUTION: A phase-change memory device layer which includes a lower electrode layer, a phase-change layer, and an upper electrode layer is arranged on a substrate. A block copolymer is self assembled on the upper electrode layer. A block copolymer mold is manufactured by selectively eliminating a part of a copolymer block region of the block copolymer. The block copolymer mold is eliminated after laminating a metal layer for a mask on the block copolymer mold. A reactive ion-etching process is performed on the metal layer for the mask and the phase-change memory device layer.


The aim of this study was to determine the effect of heat treatment on immunoreactive properties of β-lactoglobulin (β-lg) in whey. Whey and p-lg solutions were heated at various time intervals at temperatures between 60 and 100°C. After heating, the samples were clarified, and protein content (by Bradford's method), quantity of β-lg (by FPLC method), and immunoreactive properties ((ELISA) were determined. The highest increase in the immunoreactive properties of β-lg was observed at 65 °C with a marked decrease at 100°C. It can be concluded that the allergenicity of whey proteins can be modulated during the heat treatment depending on temperature and duration of heating.


Abstract The poultry subsector has the potential to transform Kenya's economic and social welfare. This study seeks to understand pricing dynamics of feed raw material based on available local price data with comparison to historical global data. Historical data of at least two years on the prices of various raw materials used in formulating poultry feed as well as climatic, geographical, demographical, and socio-economic data on Kenya and its counties were collected from various repositories. This was supplemented by key informant interviews. The Box-Jenkins Auto Regressive Integrated Moving-Average models predict an increasing trend in maize price at a rate of Kshs. 3.3 per day with a variance of 14.45% over a rolling 90-day cycle. For wheat, there is a decline over the same period of Kshs. 1.2 per day with a variance of −2.90%. The price forecast for finger millet shows a variation of 5.30%, with fluctuation in the trend. Energy prices and exchange rates have no influence on pricing of the three agricultural commodities. There is no confluence between Kenyan pricing movements and global price fluctuations for maize and wheat. Moving forward, participatory creation of platforms to complement the National Farmers Information Service website is key.


The recently proposed simple collision model of activated bimolecular reactions which takes into account the nonspherical shape of molecules and includes the effects of reagent rotation has been studied in considerable detail, in order to determine its range of applicability. By taking the limit of hard nonspherical molecules in which the formulation becomes rigorous it is possible to show that the model is likely to work well if the shape of the potential surface is prolate in the region of the reaction barrier, as long as a direct reaction mechanism is involved. The model cannot be expected to work for diatomic reactants if the shape of the potential surface is pronouncedly oblate because of the complicated reorientation effects which such a surface exerts on the trajectories and which do not appear amenable to simple modeling. The original model is improved by including the zero-point energy corrections on the assumption of vibrational adiabaticity en route to the barrier. With the improved model, cros...


ABSTRACT To obtain recombinant cystatin C (CysC) protein, which can be used in immunological diagnostic kits, we focused on the preparation of tag-free CysC. The 6 × His–TF–CysC fusion protein was found to overexpress in soluble form in cells of BL21-Gold (DE3)/pCold TF–CysC, which had been induced with isopropyl-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside. Subsequently, we established a protein purification method for tag-free CysC using immobilized metal-affinity chromatography and size-exclusion chromatography. In this method, glutathione-S-transferase–human rhinovirus 3C proteases were used to remove the protein tags. High homogeneity of the purified CysC was determined by SDS-PAGE, while the purity of the tag-free CysC was ascertained to be above 95%. With a yield of 25 mg/L from bacterial culture, the biological activity of the tag-free CysC was evaluated as inhibitors like natural CysC. The performance of this purification method was successfully evaluated in the preparation of other low molecular weight heterologous proteins in Escherichia coli.


In this paper, a numerically stable method of calculating atomic integrals is suggested. The commutation relations among the components of the angular momentum and the Runge-Lenz vector are used to deduce recurrence relations for the Sturmian radial functions. The radial part of the one- and two-electron integrals is evaluated by means of these recurrence relations. The product of two radial functions is written as a linear combination of the radial functions. This enables us to write the integrals over four radial functions as a linear combination of the integrals over two radial functions. The recurrence relations for the functions are used to derive the recursion relations for the coefficients of the linear combination and for the integrals over two functions.


This book is a major contribution to contemporary gender and sexuality studies, addressing changing government legislation concerning the citizenship rights of transgender people.


Scientific and technical Japanese has its unique characteristics.In translating scientific and technical Japanese,we should also apply the principles of translation.This paper discusses the various aspects of translation skills such as semantic meaning,which is crucial for both the translated and original texts to remain consistent in its scientific and technical content.


In order to study the effect of freezing and thawing of liquid nitrogen on the mechanical and seepage characteristics of coal rock with different water content values, conventional triaxial loading tests on freeze–thawed coal samples with different water content values were carried out using non-contact digital image processing technology. The research results showed that with the same water content, the peak strength of a liquid nitrogen freeze–thawed coal sample was smaller than that of a non-freeze–thawed coal sample, and the Poisson's ratio was larger than that of the non-freeze–thawed coal sample; compared with the non-freeze–thawed coal sample, the strain fluctuation and concentration in the stages of compression density, elasticity, yield, and damage were weakened after freeze–thawing by liquid nitrogen, but the local stress concentration was more obvious; the non-freeze–thawed coal sample mainly showed single shear damage, and the damage fissures were inclined fissures with small openings. The higher the water content, the more obvious the tensile damage; with the increase in water content, the permeability of non-freeze–thawed coal samples showed a linear decreasing trend, and the permeability of coal samples was 0.03 × 10–3 μm2 when the water content reached 9%. The permeability of freeze–thawed coal samples showed a non-linear increasing trend, and the higher the water content under the effect of expansion, the faster the permeability growth rate; the permeability of coal samples could reach 6.30 × 10–3 μm2 when the water content was 9%. The results of the study can provide a theoretical guidance for gas permeation enhancement in deep low-permeability coal seams.


Ocular albinism is characterized by congenital nystagmus, reduced visual acuity, hypopigmentation of the iris pigment epithelium and the ocular fundus and foveal hypoplasia. We report a case with clinical manifestations consistent with the phenotypes of WS1. The differentiating feature from uniocular albinism is the presence of dystopia canthorum.


This essay is a story about how we might think about decisions and decision making in organizations. The story is divided into three major parts. The first part is based on a vision of decisions as resulting from intendedly rational choice. Such a vision is the dominant portrayal of decisions in social science. This vision of decisions is elaborated by considering developments associated with problems of uncertainty, ambiguity, risk preference, and conflict. The second part of the story is based on a vision of decisions as driven by a logic of appropriateness implemented through a structure of organizational rules and practices, not by a logic of consequence. The discussion of rules and rule following is extended by considering the ways in which rules of behavior evolve through experience, selection, and diffusion. The third part of the story examines ideas about decision making that challenge standard ideas of decision altogether, visions that picture the outcomes of decisions as artifactual rather than as central to understanding decision making. These visions are exemplified by discussions of networks, temporal orders, symbols, and the development of meaning.


The large-scale access of distributed new energy sources and the large number of grid connections of diversified flexible resources on the user side make the power system facing unprecedented tests. In order to ensure the safety, stability and economic and efficient operation of the power grid, various flexible resources need to be optimally scheduled and coordinated. In this paper, a multi-objective coordinated optimal scheduling method for virtual power plants based on demand side response is proposed, which aims to solve the dual uncertainty of source and load and realize the unified scheduling of source and load resources in a wide area. Firstly, the energy storage system, the flexible load, the electric vehicle and the distributed new energy are aggregated into a virtual power plant, and the virtual power plant as a whole participates in the unified scheduling of the power grid. Then, a multi-objective optimal scheduling model considering the peak load regulation capacity, operation cost and compensation revenue of users is established. Based on the model, the operation mode of various resources is optimized, and the power grid peak shaving capacity and new energy consumption capacity are greatly improved. An actual system in a certain area is used for testing, and the test results of an example verify the correctness and effectiveness of the model and method in this paper.


The pH‐driven opening and closure of β‐lactoglobulin EF loop, acting as a lid and closing the internal cavity of the protein, has been studied by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and free energy calculations based on molecular mechanics/Poisson–Boltzmann (PB) solvent‐accessible surface area (MM/PBSA) methodology. The forms above and below the transition pH differ presumably only in the protonation state of residue Glu89. MM/PBSA calculations are able to reproduce qualitatively the thermodynamics of the transition. The analysis of MD simulations using a combination of MM/PBSA methodology and the colony energy approach is able to highlight the driving forces implied in the transition. The analysis suggests that global rearrangements take place before the equilibrium local conformation is reached. This conclusion may bear general relevance to conformational transitions in all lipocalins and proteins in general. Proteins 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


SUMMARY Recently, due to rapid urbanization, industrialization and population growth, the structures of cities are changing rapidly; multi-purpose three dimensional facilities above and below surface have been increased. Despite the three dimensional space registration such as building and basement facilities is necessary, it is impossible to represent those right in the 2D Cadastre. We can say that it's time to introduce 3D cadastral system for registration of land in the 3D space. The government of Seoul Metropolitan City pushed ahead a 3D cadastre pilot project from 2009. Also the Korean Government has a policy of development of a 3D National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) as an innovation to the spatial information industry to establish a base for future growth. In this paper, the result of the pilot project is reviewed. We expect that identified problems can be solved, and the 3D cadastre can be settled in the near future successfully.


Objective: To describe the activities applied in the nursing practice of resident nurses in pre-delivery, delivery and immediate postpartum care. Methods: This is a descriptive study of the experience report type, carried out during the practical activities of the Multiprofessional Residency Program in Health and Professional Health Area Obstetric Nursing at Getúlio Vargas University Hospital, Federal University of Amazonas, in a maternity ward from Manaus-AM Results: the care activities for the usual risk delivery were based on scientific evidence and what the Stork Network recommends, as well as the Ministry of Health regarding good obstetric practices. Conclusion: the resident nurse in obstetric nursing becomes increasingly important in the delivery care scenario, given that their training and conduct are based on scientific evidence, deconstructing mechanized and plastered learning, making it more humanized and focused the return of the protagonism of childbirth to women. Descriptors: Obstetrical nurse; Delivery assistance; Stork network; Humanization of childbirth. E X PE R IE N C E R E PO R T 1. Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Getúlio Vargas University Hospital. Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. 2. Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Nursing School of Manaus. Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. Recebido: 13/04/2019 Aprovado: 17/06/2019


Interferon-induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats 1 (IFIT1) gene family, consisting of 4 members (IFIT1, IFIT2, IFIT3, and IFIT5) in humans, is one of most responsive interferon-stimulated gene families. We have previously demonstrated that IFIT2 silencing activates atypical PKC signaling and induces epithelial-mescenchymal transition, cell migration, invasion, and metastasis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells in cultured or animal models. These results implicate that IFIT2 is potentially a prognosis biomarker of patients with OSCC. In the present study, we further explore the roles of other IFIT1 family proteins involved in the regulatory mechanism of metastasis and drug resistance in OSCC cells. We determined the expression levels of IFIT1 gene family proteins in 82 patients with OSCC by immunohistochemical technique. Our present results revealed a close association between IFIT1 and IFIT3 protein expression in OSCC patient-derived tumor specimens (p Citation Format: Ai-Hsin Yen, Ying-Chen Chen, Vijaya Kumar Pidugu, Chung-Ji Liu, Te-Chang Lee. Association of Interferon-induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats 1 and 3 expression with regional metastasis and drug resistance in oral squamous cell carcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 40. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-40


THIS article summarizes the activities of the Air Registration Board, and the results of its work, over the past five years. It is therefore in the nature of a progress report. The task of presenting a progress report would be much easier if statistics, such as 'aircraft investigated per annum', were a true measureof progress. Whereas such figures indicate the volume of work handled, the true progress of the Board should be measured by other criteria.


Objective The study aimed to investigate quality of care, resource use and patient outcome in management by an emergency response team versus standard care for critically ill medical patients in the emergency department (ED). The emergency response team was multidisciplinary and had eight members, with a registrar in internal medicine as team leader. Design Register-based retrospective cohort study. Setting Tertiary hospital in Norway. Participants The study included 1120 patients with National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) 5–10 points from 2015 and 2016. Patients missing ≥3 NEWS2 part scores, <18 years and with orders 'Not for ICU' or 'Not for resuscitation' were excluded. Outcome measures Quality of care: pain assessment documented, analgesics given within 20 min, complete set of vital signs documented and antibiotics within 60 min if sepsis. Resource use: >3 diagnostic interventions, critical care in the ED and ED length of stay (LOS) <180 min. Patient outcome: intensive care unit (ICU) admission, ICU LOS <66 hours, hospital LOS <194 hours and mortality. Results The median age was 66 years, 53.5% were male, 44.3% were admitted to the ICU and the mortality rate was 10.6%. Altogether 691 patients received team management and 429 standard care. Team management had a positive association with 'complete set of vital signs documented' (OR 1.720, CI 1.254 to 2.360), 'analgesics given within 20 minutes' (OR 3.268, CI 1.375 to 7.767) and 'antibiotics within 60 minutes if sepsis' (OR 7.880, CI 3.322 to 18.691), but a negative association with ' pain assessment documented' (OR 0.068, CI 0.037 to 0.128). Team management was also associated with 'critical care in the ED' (OR 9.900, CI 7.127 to 13.751), 'ED LOS <180 min' (OR 2.944, CI 2.070 to 4.187), 'ICU admission' (OR 2.763, CI 1.962 to 3.891) and 'mortality' (OR 1.882, CI 1.142 to 3.102). Conclusions Team management showed positive results for quality of care and resource use. The results for later outcomes such as mortality, ICU LOS and hospital LOS were more ambiguous.


In contemporary orthodontics, the complex and multifactorial etiology of class II malocclusion has always presented a clinical challenge to the orthodontists. Management of class II malocclusion requires a thorough evaluation as the treatment options available vary widely from growth modification using dentofacial orthopedics with functional appliances, dental camouflage using extraction or non-extraction approaches or even orthognathic surgery. Selection of treatment modality for class II patient is based on the age, growth potential, location of skeletal component, the severity of malocclusion and the compliance of the patient. Correction of skeletal class II malocclusion due to retrognathic mandible can be done with non-compliance appliances such as fixed functional appliances. Fixed functional appliances are emerging as viable and successful treatment option for class II patients owing to the refinement in their designs and mechanics to advance the retrognathic mandible. A wide variety of non-compliance fixed functional appliances are available that can be used with comprehensive fixed mechanotherapy. Forsus fatigue resistant device and Powerscope are two such fixed functional appliances used for class II correction. These appliances can be assembled chair-side and installed easily intraorally. This case report substantiates the efficacy of these appliances in the two types of Class II malocclusion growing patients presenting with a chief complaint of forwardly placed upper jaw and a mean age of 14 years (age range of 13–15 years).


The invention provides a production method of ecologic permeable ceramic bricks. The method comprises the following steps: 1, taking 5-10% of construction waste micro-powder, 5-15% of construction waste fine aggregates, 30-45% of construction waste coarse aggregates, 15-20% of dried sludge, 15-40% of modified mud, 0.075-0.2% of alum and 0.5-1% of borax; and 2, uniformly mixing, molding a test block under a molding pressure of 10-20Mpa through adopting a pressure molding process, naturally drying after molding, heating to 300-350DEG C at a rate of 2-3DEG C/min, keeping the temperature at 300-350DEG C for 2.5-3.5h, heating to 1050-1150DEG C at a rate of 3-8DEG C/min, sintering for 3-4h, and cooling. The method has the advantages of high waste utilization rate and effective solving of the contradiction between mechanical performances and the water permeability.


The control of cell processes plays a central role in ATM network management and strongly innuences the overall system overload behavior and the quality of service. One of the crucial control functions is the usage parameter control according to the user-network contract for a connection. Due to the slotted time of the ATM cell process discrete-time models are suited for performance analysis. In this paper we rst present queueing models operating in discrete-time for the cell rate monitoring, where arbitrary renewal cell input processes are taken into account. Subsequently cell processes of ON/OFF-type are considered , where the lengths of ON-and OFF-phases can be arbitrarily distributed. Numerical results are discussed aiming the proper choice of the source traac descriptor parameter values like cell delay variation tolerance, sustainable cell rate and burst tolerance for diierent cell process characteristics to be enforced.


An explicit Lagrangian description is given for the Heisenberg equation on the algebra of operators of a quantum system, and for the Landau–von Neumann equation on the manifold of quantum states which are isospectral with respect to a fixed reference quantum state.


The invention discloses a method and device for automatically clamping workpieces, which are characterized in that workpieces are clamped by two sets of servo systems, a fixed clamp hole is a non-circular hole, and the shape and size of an external outline of a lock nut are consistent with the shape and size of the fixed clamp hole so as to ensure the lock nut and the fixed clamp hole can be matched with each other; a set of servo system is used for driving a clamping chuck to get into (or get out of) the fixed clamp hole, so that the lock nut can be matched with the clamp hole or separated from the clamp hole; and the other set of servo system is used for adjusting the phase position of the lock nut, and driving a main shaft to have gyroscopic motion when the lock nut and the clamp hole are mutually matched, thereby achieving the purpose of clamping workpieces. By using the method and device disclosed by the invention, the clamping torque can be controlled accurately, the torque can be adjusted, the clamping position can be remembered, and the clamping operation can be completed quickly.


Investigations were carried out in July on leaves of lilac variously situated in the head on the crown. Net photosynthesis was registered from 6 hr to 20 hr. The insolated leaves in the top part of the crown showed maximum photosynthesis between 8 hr and 11 hr, afterwards, the intensity of photosynthesis decreased in spite of the high intensity of irradiation in the midday hours. The insolated leaves located in the lower part of the crown showed maximum photosynthesis at the time of the greatest incident irradiation of the leaf. Shaded leaves inside the crown demonstrated the highest net photosynthesis between 8 hr and 15 hr. This amounted to about 20% of the maximum photosynthesis of insolated leaves. Starch was present in the leaves both during the day and night. Before sunrise starch represented 6% of the dry weight of insolated leaves and 3% of the shaded leaves. In the insolated leaves its content quickly increased up to 13-14% since sunrise and remained at a slightly decreasing level till evening hours. Sunset was followed by a rapid decrease in starch content in the leaves. In the shaded leaves, throughout the day starch content remained at a constant level (3%). Intensive photosynthesis of the lilac leaves causes a great accumulation of starch in the insolated leaves during the day. This is the main cause of reduction in the intensity of photosynthesis.


2. Constancy of the feeding activity 211 (a) The feeding posture 212 (b) Hunger and the degree of digestion 213 3.. The utilization of nannoplankton and megaloplankton 215 (a) Experiments in selective feeding 216 (b) The feeding of sewage 220 (c) The feeding of infusions 221 4. The physiology of the crystalline style 223 (a) Recent studies 223 (b) The feeding of specific substances •? 226 (c) Forced feeding 229 (d) The effect of temperature on style renewal •? 229


Chromosomal instability (CIN) is a form of genomic instability that refers to a dynamic state in which the cells are constantly changing the number and/or the structure of their chromosomes. CIN leads to aneuploidy, a state in which a cell9s set of chromosomes deviates from the euploid set. Causes of aneuploidy include errors during DNA replication, mitosis and cell fusion events. Furthermore, aneuploidy has been shown to promote tumorigenesis and tumor progression, but also to reduce cell fitness or induce cell death, especially when high levels of aneuploidy are present. Nevertheless, antimitotic drugs that induce high levels of aneuploidy, such as Paclitaxel, are not always effective in the clinic. In this study, we aim to investigate the mechanisms by which cancer cells tolerate aneuploidy, to elucidate the mechanisms by which cell fusion can lead to aneuploidy and resistance to paclitaxel and to identify new targets in aneuploidy and CIN. Towards this direction, aneuploid clones of pseudo-diploid cancer cells were generated after treatment with anti-mitotic drugs and single cell sorting and were characterized by cell cycle profile, metaphase spreads and CGH or SNP profile. Furthermore, CIN was induced by inhibition of CENP-E or ATM or impairment of the SWI/ SNF complex and quantified by induction of chromosome missegregation and micronuclei formation. Interestingly, several near tetraploid clones that were isolated after anti-mitotic drug treatment, reduced their DNA content to near diploid during propagation in culture. Thus, we hypothesize that cancer cells may utilize specific mechanisms to change their DNA content and maintain tolerable levels of aneuploidy. By time-lapse microscopy, we observed that cells treated with Paclitaxel, can increase their DNA content by abortive mitosis, cytokinesis failure or by undergoing cell fusion. Interestingly, these multinucleated cells could reduce their DNA content by undergoing independent mitosis, independent nucleus catastrophe or independent nucleus separation (cell exodus). We identify cell exodus, as a potential mechanism by which cells can recover after treatment with Paclitaxel. Inhibition of ROCK pathway, that stabilizes actin filaments and prevents cellular contractility, reduced cell fusion and exodus events and delayed cell recovery after paclitaxel treatment. Finally, in order to identify new targets in CIN and aneuploidy, we setup sgRNA loss of function screening conditions in the generated CIN and aneuploid cell models and we aim to identify genes that are essential for the survival of aneuploid and/or CIN cancer cells. Citation Format: Mara Mandelia, Kostas Drosopoulos, Spiros Linardopoulos. Investigating aneuploidy, CIN and mechanisms of DNA content reduction in cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 3530.


This paper reviews the research literature on human motion analysis using inertial sensors with the aim to find out: which configuration of sensors have been used to measure human motion; which algorithms have been implemented to estimate position and orientation of segments and joints of human body; how the performance of the proposed systems has been evaluated; and what is the target population with which the proposed systems have been assessed. These questions were used to revise the current state-of-the-art and suggest future directions in the development of systems to estimate human motion. A search of literature was conducted on eight Internet databases and includes medical literature: PubMed and ScienceDirect; technical literature: IEEE Xplore and ACM Digital Library; and all-science literature: Scopus, Web of Science, Taylor and Francis Online, and Wiley Online Library. A total of 880 studies were reviewed based on the criteria for inclusion/exclusion. After the screening and full review stages, 37 papers were selected for the review analysis. According to the review analysis, most studies focus on calculating the orientation or position of certain joints of the human body, such as elbow or knee. There are only three works that estimate position or orientation of both, upper and lower limbs simultaneously. Regarding the configuration of the experiments, the mean age of the test subjects is 26.2 years (± 3.7), indicating a clear trend to test the systems and methods using mainly young people. Other population groups, such as people with mobility problems, have not been considered in tests so far. Human motion analysis is relevant for obtaining a quantitative assessment of motion parameters of people. This assessment is crucial for, among others, healthcare applications, monitoring of neuromuscular impairments, and activity recognition. There is a growing interest for developing technologies and methods for enabling human motion analysis, ranging from specialized in situ systems to low-cost wearable systems.


By most accounts last year's Atlanta's Traveler Information Showcase was a success. Over a four month period, which included the summer Olympic Games, the Showcase made real-time traffic, transit and parking information available to visitors and residents of Atlanta and much of Georgia via programming on cable systems and other technology. The author was project manager for the showcase and says questions continue to be asked , such as: "Would you do it again? Did the system really work?" In this article the author responds with what he calls "final thoughts" and comments which he says may help others who will be building and managing similar ITS programs.


A van der Pol damped SD oscillator, which was proposed by Ruilan Tian, Qingjie Cao and Shaopu Yang (2010, Nonlinear Dynamics, 59, 19-27), is studied. By improving the criterion function of determining the lowest upper bound of the number of zeros of Abelian Integrals, we show that the number of zeros of Abelian integrals of this SD oscillator is two which is sharp.


(DEAE)cellulose chromatography or filtration on Bio-Gel P-200. After DEAE-cellulose chromatography, whichremoved mostofthewall polysaccharide, autolysin activity wasextremely labile andwas rapidly lost at-20C,eveninthepresenceofalbumin. TheP-60-excluded enzyme was rapidly boundbywalls atboth37C (50%boundin about 1min)and0C (50%boundinless than4min). Wall-bound autolysin could notberemoved by1.0 M ammonium acetate (pH6.9). Autolysin was also boundby wallsthat hadbeenextracted with10%trichloroacetic acid ortreated with0.01 N periodate, suggesting that thenonpeptidoglycan wall polymers arenotimportant for binding. Wall-bound autolysin was more stable thanthesoluble enzyme toproteinasedigestion, acetone (40%), 8M urea(at0C),ortoinactivation at56C.Twobacterial neutral proteinases (which donothydrolyze esterbonds) activated latent wallboundautolysin, suggesting that activation results fromthecleavage ofone or more peptide bonds. ThegroupA streptococcal proteinase activated latent autolysin but differed fromtheother proteinases inthat itdidnotinactivate soluble autolysin. The results suggest that theautolysin isnotcovalently linked tothewall. Thehighaffinity ofthewalls fortheautolysin appearstoberesponsible forthefirm, noteasily reversed binding.


This timely book, part of the Ageing in a Global Context series, addresses the gap in knowledge about late life repartnering and provides a comprehensive map of the changing landscape of late life intimacy.


Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) have emerged as a new application scenario that is envisioned to revolutionize the human driving experiences, optimize traffic flow control systems, etc. Addressing security and privacy issues as the prerequisite of VANETs' development must be emphasized. To avoid any possible malicious attack and resource abuse, employing a digital signature scheme is widely recognized as the most effective approach for VANETs to achieve authentication, integrity, and validity. However, when the number of signatures received by a vehicle becomes large, a scalability problem emerges immediately, where a vehicle could be difficult to sequentially verify each received signature within 100-300 ms interval in accordance with the current Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) [1] protocol. In addition, there are still some unsolved attacks in VANETs such as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, which are not well addressed and waiting for us to solve. In this thesis, we propose the following solutions to address the above mentioned security related issues. First of all, to address the scalability issues, we introduce a novel roadside unit (RSU) aided message authentication scheme, named RAISE, which makes RSUs responsible for verifying the authenticity of messages sent from vehicles and for notifying the results back to vehicles. In addition, RAISE adopts the k-anonymity property for preserving user privacy, where a message cannot be associated with a common vehicle. Secondly, we further consider the situation that RSUs may not cover all the busy streets of a city or a highway in some situations, for example, at the beginning of a VANETs' deployment period, or due to the physical damage of some RSUs, or simply for economic considerations. Under these circumstances, we further propose an efficient identity-based


This study was aimed at investigating the difference of the learning achievement between students who learned using the Socratic seminar learning model and those who learned using the direct instructional model. This study belonged to the quasi-experiment using the nonequivalent pretest-posttest control group design. The population was all students of the XI Science program in SMAN 1 Gianyar, Bali. Two classes, that is, XI Science 3 and XI Science 4, were taken as the sample, each consisting of 32 students. The assignment of the groups was done through drawing a lot. The data were collected using a learning achievement test and analyzed using ANCOVA. The findings showed that there was a significant difference in the learning achievement of the students learning using the Socratic seminar learning model and those learning using the direct instructional model. The learning achievement of students who learned using the Socratic seminar learning model was higher than that of those who learned using the direct instructional model.


In terms of principles of information industry ministry,the configuration,basic technology and operation of GoTa which is an open digital group communication system,are introduced in detailed.The perspective of GoTa is expected.


Insoluble polyelectrolytes (PE60) wereusedfortheconcentration ofviruses fromstool specimens, confirming theresults ofWallis etal.(1969). Tenpercent suspensions inoculated withpoliovirus type3wereusedinthese experiments. A small numberofstool specimens frompatients naturally infected withenteroviruses werealsotested. Preferential adsorption ofviruses toPE60was maximumata pH rangeof4.5to6.0. Theelution oftheadsorbed viruses was optimal atpH 8.5. Other parameters werealsoinvestigated. Electron microscopy was usedsuccessfully todetect theeluted viruses. Although underspecial circumstances enteroviruses isolation rates maybehigh(6,7),they arefrequently less than10%(3,5),partly due topoorspecimen selection butalsotolow virus concentrations andheavy contamination. Thesefactors along withthepresence oforganic debris arealso responsible forthedifficulties encountered withdirect electron microscopy (2). Thetechnique first reported byWallis etal. (10)couldovercome bothofthese difficulties byusinginsoluble polyelectrolytes (PE60) whichselectively adsorb viruses fromstool suspension andtheadsorbed viruses could thenbeeluted intoasmall volumeofsterile eluant. Theuseofinsoluble PE60foradsorbing viruses fromclinical stool specimens hasnotyetbeenreported. Inthisstudy, experiments wereaimedat evaluating theuseofinsoluble PE60forconcentrating viruses fromstool specimens experimentally inoculated, aswell asthose obtained frompatients infected withenteroviruses. Eluted virus hasalsobeenexamined byelectronmicroscopy.