Cancer was the second leading cause of death in Turkey. The aim of this study is to examine the changes in the incidence of cancer cases and survival analysis in a region.

 This retrospective cohort study was carried out on data of 977 people had been diagnosed with cancer between the years 2013-2015 in Bingol province located in the east of Turkey. All cancer cases are included in the study. The data of the patients were obtained from the Ministry of Health Cancer Registry System and International Disease Classification Oncology (ICD-O) codes published by World Health Organization were used. Patients were evaluated topographically (tissue originating from the lesion) in 41 categories. Kruskal Wallis, Mann Whitney U test, Chi-square test and Cox regression analysis were used to analyze the data.

 The mean age of the patients was 58.73 ± 16.80 (min: 1-max: 107). It was observed that 28.7% of the patients died during the follow-up period and 71.3% of the patients were alive. 30% of the cancer cases digestive system, 11% respiratory system, 23% female breast- genitalia, 15% blood-lymph-thyroid, 11.8% muscle-bone, 15,4% other cancer species. In men, lung, stomach, colon, prostate; breast, thyroid and skin cancers are more common in women respectively. The incidence rate for all age groups was 97 per hundred thousand in 2013, 161 per hundred thousand in 2015. The increase trend did not differ by gender. The mean follow-up period of the patients who died was 388 days and 1541 days for the living patients. The risk of death is increased significantly in patients who cannot be operated (RR = 2.779, HR = 3.048). In patients not receiving chemotherapy, the risk of death is reduced significantly (RR = 0.656, HR = 0.340).

 The incidence of cancer increases in the study area. Survival times vary according to treatment efficacy. Broad-based cohort studies evaluating the effects of treatment types on survival may be recommended.

 Cancer in the study area shows a significant increase from year to year. The average 5-year survival period of cancer patients was found is 71% as a good result.


Summary form only given. We present a new wavelet based image coding algorithm for color image compression. The key renovation of this algorithm is based on a new context oriented information conversion for data compression. A small number of symbol sets were then designed to convert the information from the wavelet transform domain into a compact data structure for each subband. Unlike zerotree coding or its variations which utilize the intersubband relationship into its own data representation where hierarchical or parents-children dependency is performed, our work is a low complexity intrasubband based coding method which only addresses the information within the subband or combines the information across the subbands. The scheme works first by color space conversion, followed by uniform scalar quantization. A concise data structure which categorizes the quantized coefficients into (stack, run, end) data format is performed, where the raster scanning order for individual subband is the most common used method but predefined scanning order will also work. Compared with the standard stack-run coding, our method generalized the symbol representation and the extension of the symbol alphabets. The termination symbols which carry the zero value information towards the end of the subband or across the subbands till the end of the image help to speed up the decoding processes. Our experiment results show that our approach is very competitive to the refinement of zerotree type schemes.


Healthy aquatic environment is crucial for preserving aquatic lives in surface waters. Increasing industrial or agricultural discharge or run-off can pollute water leading to unhealthy aquatic environment causing distress in fishes and other aquatic lives. In places with lack of infrastructure and regulatory enforcement, pollution can be particularly challenging to handle. Assignment of an indexing system can be helpful for analyzing pollution pattern in the polluted rivers which can be helpful for remediation purposes and prevention of future pollution. Bangladesh currently does not have any indexing system in place. Assignment of indices in the rivers of Bangladesh can be helpful for remediation of the rivers on a preferential basis as remediation of all the rivers at once will pose challenges with funding and infrastructural allocation. Parameters monitored in the water monitoring stations of ten rivers were extracted from the reports published by the Department of Environment (DOE) of Bangladesh. A water quality index (WQI) was assigned on the rivers across seven years of time period to identify the most polluted rivers. The degree of pollution in the river was in the order of Mayuri > Buriganga > Korotoa > Turag > Shitalakhya > Surma > Halda > Dhaleshwari > Mathavanga > Brahmaputra based on the WQI analysis. Among the ten rivers, only Mathavanga and Brahmaputra were in good condition. The most polluted rivers were located in areas with manufacturing, textile etc. industries. Hence, monitoring of industrial discharge intro the rivers and regulatory enforcement is crucial for the prevention of pollution in rivers. In addition to regulatory enforcement, adoption of remediation plans and implementation of them is also essential for remediation of the polluted rivers.


And a plurality of primary particles made of graphite set or combined with the secondary particle structure, the artificial graphite particles, the edge portion of the primary particles, characterized in that the layer has a structure bent in a polygonal shape.


The dielectric relaxation of GdCr1−xCoxO3 (x = 0, 0.33, 0.5 and 1) was studied using dielectric spectroscopy. The study was performed in a frequency range from 10 Hz to 10 MHz and a temperature interval of 297 K–337 K. Changes in dielectric constant and electric modulus with increasing Cr/Co substitution in the structures were observed. The obtained results of dielectric loss were analyzed introducing the model of a hopping of charge carrier over a potential barrier between charged defects. The conduction mechanism for pure and mixed structures was discussed in detail.


In this day of increasing malpractice claims, six-figure judgments, rising liability insurance premiums, and a decided tendency among appellate-level courts to permit plaintiffs to utilize testimony of physician-defendants to substantiate their own complaints, a more-than-casual acquaintance with the legal concepts of medical practice is as necessary in the physician's armamentarium as diagnostic acumen and antibiotics. In this third edition of a book first published in 1955, Long discusses some of the elementary rules of medical liability as they are now being interpreted, and he conjectures that what may seem radical today may be only a base for even greater judicial broadening in the future. Together with an overview of the entire subject, there are specific sections dealing with malpractice in practically every branch of medicine. The "conspiracy of silence" among physicians, making it difficult if not impossible to obtain expert witnesses on behalf of the plaintiff, is well authenticated. Numerous


Since 1986 states have been receiving restitution funds from oil companies and crude oil producers found to have overpriced or miscertified federally controlled crude oil to avoid price restrictions between 1975 and 1981. As of March 31, 1989, the states had more than $3.7 billion available for expenditure, including earned interest, and had received federal approval to spend about $2.2 billion (63 percent). These funds have been earmarked for a wide range of energy conservation programs in residential and commercial structures, industry, and transportation. Because there have been several court judgments and because of the complexities of the project approval process, it is not clear how much oil overcharge money is being used to support transportation energy conservation projects. However, available data suggest that the transportation sector is receiving less than 12 percent of these funds. In 1988, transportation accounted for more than 63 percent of US oil use. Within the guidelines of the court settlements, a variety of transportation energy conservation programs are eligible for funding with oil overcharge funds. The US Department of Energy's administration of oil overcharge funds is discussed and the kinds of projects that state and local officials should consider in successfully developing a conservationmore » program are illustrated.« less


The study summarized the discussion on teaching methods associated with the writing 'self', the purpose of seeing placed to find the meaning of each study. Writing research on teaching methods related to the 'self' is 'self-exploratory writing', 'self-introduction writing', and can be divided into a mixture of both forms of writing. Research related to the first 'self-exploratory writing' are formed with the purpose of the values and identity of the most established writing. And various studies have been conducted on specific activities ranging from educational theory to realize educational goals. However, the level of learners or circumstances, training one 'cause interest' theory overlooked focused only on teaching methods is the point sought to be avoided. Next, if the 'self-introduction writing' is commonly recognized as a practical writing a personal statement and letter writing is a process rather than an objective approach and leave the center. Research in this area tend to be tinged by previous studies that have nested there are a multitude of studies to guarantee a productive outcome. Recently, after another study that attempts to connection the 'self-exploratory writing' and 'self-introduction writing' that they know themselves through discovery and introspection seek their own future, and has a premise that writing can also inform themselves. Study in writing regarding the recent several years 'self-exploration' were seen as relatively large scale. Every aspect of the problem, but of course they study, greater implications for teacher education are in writing. The accumulated research and teaching environment conditions, level and interests of learners, major, teacher training and how they seek to expand the range of choices as well have given that can be used as a systematic and effective training considering how seriously to reflect on and provide a number of places. Furthermore, a systematic theory and methodology of self-exploratory writing education at the university writing is meaningful in that it suggests the possibility that could be built.


The authors believe that Intensive Care Units (ICU) is a very stressful place for both patients and workers. They associate the success of the treatment to the relationship between these two groups. This article intends to investigate the existence of resistance among nursing personnel in assisting conscious patient in ICU. The date were analised through the "content analysis" proposed by Bardin (1979) and through the methodology utilized by Magalhaes (1991).


Linux Security issue becomes one of the hot topics as Linux is chosen and used widely by the industry.This article will take you through the techniques of setting up and securing Linux;and will provide useful configuration guides.


This JAMA Oncology Patient Page describes the geriatric assessment used by clinicians to evaluate the health of older adults with cancer.


This paper reviewed nutritional value and healthy function of buckwheat. The development and application status of buckwheat were also introduced. It focused on prospecting the development of ningxia buckwheat.


Farnesyl diphosphate synthase(FPS) is a key enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of terpenes,it plays an important regulatory role in plant growth,stress resistance and secondary metabolism.The cDNA fragment of FPS was cloned from persimmon fruit by RACE method,and sequence analysis was carried out.The results indicated that the nucleotide sequence DkFPS cDNA fragment was homologus to Picea abies,Chimonanthus praecox and Lilium longiflorum with percentage of 88%,75% and 73%,respectively.The homology of amino acid sequence deduced from this cDNA fragment of DkFPS was 72%,67% and 66% to Musa acuminate,Oryza sativa Japonica and Olea europaea,respectively.This gene had been submitted to GenBank database with accession number JN108022.


Circulate economy is indeed an important approach to resources-conserving and environment-friendly society as well as sustainable development. Under the critical circumstances of worsening ecological environment in our country, some fundamental conceptions should be established such as conserving resources, respecting nature, and enhancing harmony between man and nature. Hence, the reform in the traditional pattern of economic growth, the development of circular economy and green agriculture are truly inevitable choices in socialist rural reconstruction.


The refractive indices, and birefringence, of some common nematic liquid crystals are measured in the millimeter waves region mainly at 30 GHz. All liquid crystals measured had reasonably large birefringence in the range of 0.1 to 0.17. A proof of concept millimeter wave phase shifter was demonstrated based on magnetic field alignment of liquid crystal. Potential advantages of using liquid crystals in the millimeter wave range for device applications are discussed.


PurposeThe aim of this study was to develop a smart wearable mask designed for the prevention of respiratory infectious diseases by understanding consumer's preferences in designs and functions of the smart wearable masks.Design/methodology/approachTo develop a smart mask design, a survey was conducted on Chinese consumers in their 20–40s and analyzed their mask wearing behaviors, preferences and caring aspects of masks. The collected data were analyzed to identify the demographic characteristics of the subjects surveyed by using the SPSS program, and technical statistical analysis was conducted. To identify differences in demographic characteristics, an independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance and Scheffe's ad hoc test were conducted.FindingsBased on the research results, design guidelines for wearable masks were defined, and four wearable mask designs were developed and presented in 2D and 3D images based on the design guidelines. There were significant differences among people with different backgrounds.Originality/valueIt is significant that this research presents smart wearable mask design guidelines and designs through supplementation and improvement of existing mask. It is expected that this research provides basic empirical data for mask designs through the planning of smart wearable mask designs and surveys assessing consumer perceptions, attitudes and satisfaction.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the possible relationship between defects in the FA/BRCA pathway of genomic stability and potential pathogenesis of T and B cell lymphoma.

METHODS
Nineteen cell lines derived from diverse subtypes of lymphoma for possible FA pathway defects were screened.

RESULTS
No defect in FANCD2 ubiquitination was observed. However, the FANCN protein was absent in cell lines HT and Sudhl4. This absence was correlated with enhanced MMC-induced G2 arrest, growth inhibition and high chromosomal breakage rate in both cell lines. In addition, in exon-5a of FANCN gene, a mutation of c.1769 C>T, p. A590V was found in cell line HT, but not in cell line Sudhl4.

CONCLUSION
This mutation may be the reason causing the absence of the FANCN protein expression or making the protein unstable and losing its function.


This paper examines research concerning the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the previous NYS Standards. The authors of the different articles presented in this literature review Main (2011), Wurman & Wilson (2012), Liebtag (2013), Conley (2014), and McLaughlin & Overturf (2012), take different stances as to whether or not the Common Core is beneficial for our students or detrimental to our students as they progress through school. The ultimate goal of the CCSS is for students to be college and career ready. This paper explores the English Language Arts (ELA) and Math Common Core State Standards and previous NYS Standards through lessons conducted with a fourth-grade child. After conducting the case study, the findings were that neither set of standards provide the level of challenge the child needs; both sets of standards need to allow more time for creativity and hands-on learning opportunities; the child preferred the previous NYS Standard math lessons I created over the Common Core math lessons; and lastly, in contrast, the child preferred the Common Core ELA lessons versus the previous NYS ELA lessons I created.


Improper integrals by Hadamard that are found in aerodynamics are considered. On the basis of the proof of the existence theorem strict definition of an integral by Hadamard for the whole degrees of singularities is given. Explicit expression for an integral by Hadamard, and also the expression that doesn't contain improper integrals convenient for application in mathematical models of aerodynamics and other problems of mathematical physics are obtained.


The bibliometric approach examines the science education learning environment by analyzing annual counts, keywords, most cited authors, institutions, funding agencies, and leading journals. 133 articles were indexed in Scopus Database through the use of learning environment and science education keywords from 1989 to 2022. By analyzing the quality and quantity of changes. The focus of the study was to discover patterns in the learning environment of science education publications in Scopus Database. The most commonly used keywords are science education, learning environment(s) and computer science education from the bibliometric analysis. Released in 2021, the study showed that the learning environment in science education was introduced in 1989. A trend of fluctuating distribution regarding articles has been observed. Proposals for future research on the learning environment in science education are made by this study, which takes a global approach.


The high power orthomode coupler is designed with the t heory of gradual changing waveguide and the theory of slotcoupling.There is a good agreement between the calculation and measured data.The method may also be applied to the design of the similar waveguide devices.


To provide scientific basis for improving their emotional health,this research explored the characteristics and influencing factors of affective well-being among university students,by using Affective Well-being Scale,Social Support Rating Scale,Coping Style Questionaire were used for examining 502 university students. Results showed that scores of positive affection was higher than negative affection among university students. There was significant differences between negative affection of male students and female students. Correlation analysis showed social support positive correlated significantly with positive affection,and negative correlated significantly with negative affection. Mature coping style positive correlated significantly with positive affection,and negative correlated significantly with negative affection. Inmature coping style had the contrary results.Solving problem,self-accusation,subjective support and support utilization could explain 23. 1% variance of positive affection,and solving problem,self-accusation,fantasy,rationalization and objective support could explain 36. 1% variance of negative affection. Conclusion showed that social support and coping style had significant effects on affective well-being among university students.


This article probes into the thoughtfulness and features of issues integration management mode in the library under network and designs the platform of building the service mode.Finally the author puts forward this integration will basel on abundent information resource,perfect service facilities,canonical management and high quality management staff.


Rational water resources allocation is the nucleus part of water resources planning.And it is one of the effective measures to achieve sustainable utilization of water resources.To sovle the problems such as the shortage of water resources,the contradiction of supply and need etc,we must carry out the rational water resources allocation.This paper has analyzed the water resources conditions and existing problems on the concrete circumstances of Liaoning,put forward the countermeasures and suggestion for rational water resources allocation in Liaoning by the water resources planning angle.


Multiport analysis with a cavity model is used to investigate the dual-port, dual-polarized microstrip patch. Using the equations derived, the normalized driving point impedance and the coupling are determined for a square patch with a feed port located at the center of one side. From the results presented it is clear that for dual polarization the coupling port should be located exactly in the middle of the orthogonal side of the square. This gives the minimum coupling for the other port location. The results obtained using the analysis are compared with the experimental results available in the literature and are found to be in good agreement with theory.<<ETX>>


The effects of several antigen retrieval methods on immunostaining of NOSs in paraffin-embedded rat brain tissues were studied in combination with the influence of two fixatives, 4% paraformaldehyde (PFA) in 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.4), and 70% ethanol. The first antibodies for NOSs were purchased from AffinityBioreagents Co., Ltd., New Jersey. Without any antigenretrieval treatment, paraffin sections of the rat brain fixed with both PFA and ethanol were never immunostained. Only the ethanol fixative was useful for antigen retrieval in immunostaining of NOSs. In antigen retrieval with microwave heating, retrieval solutions such as water (except the one containing 6 M of urea), Tris-HCI buffers at lower pH (< 7.6) with or without urea, and a citrate buffer had no effect. However, a Tris-HCI buffer at pH 9.5 was effective at least for eNOS, and an addition of 5% urea to it enhanced this effect. For both bNOS and eNOS immunostaining, the most effective method was to preincubate sections in an aqueous solution of urea (6M) for 4 to 12 hr prior to immunostaining. The sections treated with 6 M urea solution showed strong immunostaining reactivity for bNOS in neurons dispersively distributed in the cerebral cortex and in nuclei of the brain stem. With the same pretreatment of sections, eNOS immunoreactivity was also clearly detected on the wall of small blood vessels and capillaries in the parenchyma of the brain.


With the rapid growth of electronic chip's performance, electric signal limits chip I/O in power consumption, reachability, and signal quality. In this letter, we propose a new chip-let architecture for chip-level optical interconnect. An optic I/O chip-let including an ultra-small optic transceiver and electronic components is implemented. Our analysis shows that the optical interconnect based on this architecture can achieve 1/3 power consumption and 1/2 area compared with traditional board-level optical interconnect in Ethernet NIC application. By adopting the architecture we proposed, the optic I/O chip-let can support any payload IC such as CPU, GPU, switch to have optic I/O.


In focusing his considerable historical and narrative talents on the question of status and degradation in the history of punishment, Whitman has done legal historians, criminologists, and cultural theorists a great service. By exploring the dueling practices of harsh and dignified punishment, Whitman offers a new way of thinking about punishment and justice in relation to degradation. For these reasons alone, Harsh Justice should quickly establish itself as a must-read book in the world of criminal law and cultural legal studies. Harsh Justice is not without problems. The divergence in punishment Whitman traces to 18th-century customs has emerged only in the last 25 years. As Whitman concedes, "the differences in punishment practice between the United States and Europe seemed to be vanishing for a long time," especially from the late 19th century through the 1970s. (193) Why do differences grounded in 18th century traditions manifest themselves clearly only in the last 25 years? Whitman raises but then "downplays" one explanation: that European "justice is milder today because the continental countries experienced fascism and Nazism." (16) He may be right. Still, he never takes this explanation seriously. He also rejects the possibility that American harshness might be the norm rather than the exception. Harsh punishment, in other words, may be part of a general trend that encourages what Foucault in Discipline and Punish calls a "disciplinary power that turns prisoners into a separate class of delinquents." If Foucault were rightsomething Whitman repeatedly rejects without once citing Foucaultthen twentieth century trends toward mild punishment might be either a reaction to the experience of fascism, or a flirtation with what Foucault calls the abandoned "gentle way of punishment"-or some combination of the two. The complex relationship between the rise of ever harsher justice and the opposing reformist drive for mild punishments cannot be explained simply by the absence or presence of a tradition of aristocratic privilege. Whitman's attempt to do so, however, is fascinating and instructive.


A systematic study on the effects of solute carbon and cementite density on ductility was conducted in low-carbon Al-killed steel with 0.022 mass% C . The results obtained are as follows; 1) Total elongation was impaired by the presence of solute carbon. The deterioration is mainly caused by a decrease in local elongation; however, uniform elongation is hardly affected by solute carbon. The dynamic strain aging due to solute carbon is considered to impair local elongation, because necking is promoted by local softening when strain rate increases locally. 2) Total elongation is impaired by the presence of intragranular cementites, but is hardly affected by grain boundary cementites. Uniform elongation decreases clearly with increasing density of intragranular cementites, which is caused by a significant increase in yield strength. Furthermore, since intragranular cementites form voids, they may impair local elongation due to ductile fracture. However, when their density becomes high, in other words, they become significantly small, a slight improvement in local elongation is observed. Grain boundary cementites have no effects on the tensile properties of low-carbon Al-killed steel within the scope of the present study.


South Australia has comparative advantages in the early stages of the macroalgal value chain. This provides a foundation for building a macroalgal aquaculture and high-value products processing industry. To make this happen, there needs to be a coordinated effort between stakeholders to further the sustainable development of the South Australian bio-economy based on the cultivation of macroalgae biomass. This chapter explores this conclusion.


Laminin (LN) is one of the important components of the extracellular matrix. It can interact with the embryo during trophoblast cell invasion. Our experiment showed that LN can remarkably improve the attachment and outgrowth of mouse trophoblasts cultured in the serum free medium in vitro.LN contains some functional peptide sequences such as RGD and YIGSR that have cell-binding activity. We used synthetic peptides RGDS and cYIGSR to test the role of the active sites of LN in the attachment and outgrowth of mouse blastocysts. The results indicate that YIGSR is critical to the improvement of outgrowth of trophoblast cells by LN. On the other hand, we found that RGDS can inhibit both the attachment and outgrowth of blastocysts on the surface of LN-precoated plate, while cYIGSR only inhibits their outgrowth. It suggests that the promotion of attachment and outgrowth of mouse blastocyst by LN is through its specific receptors on the trophoblast cells.


Plants have a remarkable position among renewable materials because of their abundance, and nearly thousands of tons are consumed worldwide every day. Most unexploited plants and agricultural waste can be a real potential resource system. With increasing environmental awareness and the growing importance of friendly agricultural waste, crops and fruit waste can be used for efficient conversion into bio-fertilizers, biocarbons, bio-polymers, biosensors and bio-fibers. Global challenges based on limited natural resources and fossil energy reserves simulated keen interest in the development of various electrochemical systems inspired by food and plant scraps, which aid in curbing pollution. The successful adoption of a renewable energy roadmap is dependent on the availability of a cheaper means of storage. In order to cut down the cost of storage units, an improvement on energy storage devices having better stability, power, and energy density with low post-maintenance cost is the vital key. Although food and plant scraps have a huge need for energy storage, it has been extended to various sensing platform fabrications, which are eco-friendly and comparable to organic molecule-based sensors. Current research proclivity has witnessed a huge surge in the development of phyto-chemical-based sensors. The state-of-the-art progresses on the subsequent use of plant-waste systems as nano-engineered electrochemical platforms for numerous environmental science and renewable energy applications. Moreover, the relevant rationale behind the use of waste in a well-developed, sustainable future device is also presented in this review.


Some months ago Americans read Fail Safe , a work of fiction presented as some monstrous wave of the future, and were, presumably, appropriately horrified. Not so long before that another book of similar import, On the Beach , played a similar kind of havoc on sensitive natures. Others of the kind have been published and found each its frozen-in-dread audience. So profitable are such productions that nothing short of a total failure of the paper and ink reserves of the world could prevent others, perhaps even more shocking, from pursuing their disorderly and misinforming way through our lives. And those lives are so scrambled that one need break no eggs to make an emotional omelet; they are already broken; one needs only to restir the jaundiced ingredients. It thus comes as high pleasure to recommend this small volume, devoted to decompressing the modern mythology of Pearl Harbor cum Hiroshima. Here is


Most approaches in the field of mass customisation have assumed both a given and a stable product range which is continuously improved, e.g., by gradually adding new variants due to shifts in customer preferences. Curiously, within the field of mass customisation there are no studies that address problems related to new product introduction. Although mass customisation is a hybrid competitive strategy that aims at simultaneously achieving cost and differentiation advantage, we found out that a simultaneous ramp-up strategy for new products and product generations is not always practicable for companies in different industrial sectors, such as automotive and electronic industry. Thus, for a successful product introduction in the area of mass customisation we developed two sequential ramp-up strategies: the high-volume-low-mix (HVLM) strategy and the low-volume-high-mix (LVHM) strategy. Results from an explorative study in different industries produced evidence that our ramp-up strategies present two practicable strategic alternatives for successfully introducing new products in the area of mass customisation. To decide which ramp-up strategy should be used, we define a set of ramp-up specific criteria that are presented in this paper. Subsequently, we discuss some selected recommendations for the implementation of the two ramp-up strategies.


The purpose of this study is to clarify the influence of organic short fiber and ground granulated blast furnace slag on frost damage resistance. Freezing and thawing tests of concrete by using organic short fiber and ground granulated blast furnace slag were examined. In the case of fresh water, the influences of fiber content and ground granulated blast furnace slag on frost damage resistance of concrete appear relatively small. Within the range of replacement ratio used in this study, the frost damage resistance was remarkably high. On the other hand, the durability factor of concrete increases with the replacement of ground granulated blast furnace slag in the case of sea water, and the scaling of concrete decreases by using organic fiber in combination with ground granulated blast furnace slag. However, the scaling increases remarkably in the case of large replacement ratio of fiber.有機短繊維と高炉スラグ微粉末がコンクリートの耐凍害性に及ぼす影響を明らかにすることを目的として、有機短繊維と高炉スラグ微粉末をそれぞれ単独および併用したコンクリート供試体を作製し、その凍結融解抵抗性について実験的検討を行った。その結果、淡水による凍結融解作用下では、繊維混入率および高炉スラグ微粉末の有無がコンクリートの耐凍害性に及ぼす影響は小さく、極めて良好な耐凍害性を示した。一方、海水による作用下では、高炉スラグ微粉末を混入することで耐久性指数が大きくなる傾向を示した。また、有機短繊維と高炉スラグ微粉末を併用した場合にはスケーリングが抑制される傾向を示すことがわかった。


Introduction. Sources of non-centralized water supply are the most important resource of drinking water for the population of rural areas. As a rule, water is taken from small depths, which makes it vulnerable to pollution. This type of water use is characterized by the absence of any preliminary water treatment. The constant use of groundwater for drinking can negatively affect the health of the local population since the indicators of its chemical and microbiological composition are not controlled in any way and do not always meet the quality standards. All this determines the relevance of the research conducted in the territory of the Tomsk District (Tomsk Region). Methods. Groundwater quality was assessed by comparing the concentrations of substances in the studied water samples with the background values established for the given territory in relation to Sanitary Norms and Regulations as well as microbiological indicators. Changes in the chemical and microbiological composition of the studied water, caused by economic activity, were taken as "pollution" as compared to the natural (background) state for this territory as well as sanitary and hygienic standards. Results. According to the results of studying the chemical composition of water, high levels of the following components were observed: total hardness, Na+, K+, SO42–, Cl–, NO3–, Fe, and Mn. As for NO3–, Fe, and Mn, their concentrations exceed manifold not only the background values but also the maximum allowable concentrations for drinking water. Microbiological analysis showed a large number of microorganisms from various physiological groups, which indicates a high degree of bacterial contamination of water. We present possible reasons for the input of pollutants into the water and review briefly the adverse health effects. Conclusion. In order to prevent the possible negative impact of excessive contents of various components in the chemical composition of water on the health of the local population, preliminary water treatment using available methods is recommended.


In this article, we provide a theoretical description and calculate the nonlinear frequency shift, group velocity, and collionless damping rate, ν, of a driven electron plasma wave (EPW). All these quantities, whose physical content will be discussed, are identified as terms of an envelope equation allowing one to predict how efficiently an EPW may be externally driven. This envelope equation is derived directly from Gauss' law and from the investigation of the nonlinear electron motion, provided that the time and space rates of variation of the EPW amplitude, , are small compared to the plasma frequency or the inverse of the Debye length. ν arises within the EPW envelope equation as a more complicated operator than a plain damping rate and may only be viewed as such because [] remains nearly constant before abruptly dropping to zero. We provide a practical analytic formula for ν and show, without resorting to complex contour deformation, that in the limit 0, ν is nothing but the Landau damping rate. We then term ν the "nonlinear Landau damping rate" of the driven plasma wave. As for the nonlinear frequency shift of the driven EPW, it is also derived theoretically and found to assume values significantly different from previously published ones, which were obtained by assuming that the wave was freely propagating. Moreover, we find no limitation in , being the plasma wavenumber and the Debye length, for a solution to the dispertion relation to exist, and want to stress here the importance of specifying how an EPW is generated to discuss its properties. Our theoretical predictions are in excellent agreement with results inferred from Vlasov simulations of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), and an application of our theory to the study of SRS is presented.


The paper aims to investigate the economies of scale of Water Users' Associations (WUA) in Tunisia. During the last years there has been a lot of discussion in Tunisia about the optimal size of WUAs, which allows more efficient management of the water resources at the local level. In this work we propose to see if the size of the WUA in the governorate of Nabeul (Central-Eastern part of Tunisia) would have to increase or decrease in order to maximize their efficiency. Apart from this qualification we also quantify the scale efficiency and scale elasticity of the WUA using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models. The results show that the output space (volume of water distributed and number of ha managed and irrigated) of the WUA that attain a high level of scale efficiency is highly diverse, indicating that the number of ha irrigated and the volume of water distributed are not explaining the differences in the scale efficiency of WUA. The calculation of scale elasticity of the WUA shows that 41% of the WUA are operating at decreasing returns to scale (DRS) while 16% and 43% operate at constant (CRS) and increasing (IRS) returns to scale, respectively. The scale orientation was found to be depending on the output density rather than on the output size. Thus, WUA located in more irrigation-intensified areas were found to be IRS oriented. WUA operating at CRS were found to have the minimum costs, which is in line with the theoretical predictions that suggest that the average productivity is maximized when the scale efficiency is equal to 1.


The number of frauds has evolved with various forms, such fraud committed by bank employees. This study will focus on three legal issues, namely what is the mechanism for offering credit takeovers to customers at Bank Mandiri which in fact can be carried out by outsourcing personnel? What is the ratio legis for the Decision of PN Tanjungkarang Number 664/Pid.B/2017/PN.Tjk actions of outsourcing employees at PT Bank Mandiri? And how to build a security management system for Bank Mandiri against fraudulent attempts by outsourced employees? The research approach in this study is normative juridical approach and an empirical approach by using secondary data and primary data, and qualitative data analysis. The results of the study is the factors of outsourcing employees of PT Bank Mandiri has authorized to offer credit take over to customers, because of social strata factor, economic factors and environmental factors. Judges' consideration of fraud by outsourced employees of PT Bank Mandiri in Decision Number 664/Pid.B/2017/PN.Tjk is based on evidence, witness statements, expert statements, indictments of the Public Prosecutor, elements of the Prosecutor's Indictment, as well as incriminating and mitigating matters. Ideal law enforcement against fraud by outsourced employees PT Bank Mandiri has the aim to punish outsourced employees so that they become a deterrent and not to repeat their actions later on and tend to improve the lives of many people.


Tubes are placed in the trachea to overcome an obstruction, to facilitate ventilation, especially when controlled, and to allow the anesthetist access to the airway while distanced from the operative site. They are necessary in intrathoracic surgery where intermittent positive pressure is applied to overcome the problem of collapsing lungs when the chest is open. Tracheostomy has been described for relieving upper airway obstruction since Asclepiades in 100 BC. It was used for the treatment of quinsy (Cornelius Celsus AD 14, Pedro Virgili C18). Chevalier Jackson, who also designed a laryngoscope, popularized tracheotomy for the relief of obstruction (1909) (1). In 1780, Chaussier introduced the concept of laryngeal intubation for asphyxia of the newborn. Diphtheria was a rampant killer during epidemics. Between 1879 and 1884, Joseph O'Dwyer, a physician at the New York Foundling Hospital developed a set of metal laryngeal tubes and special forceps to insert them into the larynx in cases of diphtheria. Many children died from this disease, particularly when a membrane developed over the larynx resulting in suffocation. His aim was to use a laryngeal tube to replace the need for a tracheostomy which was often a bloody procedure performed without anesthesia. He began experimenting with his ideas in 1879 and took some years to perfect the tubes. They had to fit through the larynx, not prevent epiglottic closure, and allow free passage of air and coughing up of secretions. Initially, they were too short and could be coughed out so he lengthened them and made a widening which prevented their easy expulsion (Figure 1). Diphtheria was a dangerous disease. In 1880, 1969 of 5022 patients (39%) with diphtheria in New York and Boston died. In a compilation of 21 853 cases of obstructive diphtheritic croup reported before 1887 from UK, USA, France, and Germany who had tracheostomy, the recovery rates were 24–32 percent. The results depended on the expertise of the operator and the death rate was higher in children under three years old. The introduction of diphtheria antitoxin in 1895 was one of the great advances in preventative medicine, initially reducing the mortality to one-third of the previous figure. Progressively, the mortality decreased, so that survival was over 90 percent. In 1927, F. Scholes, at Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital in Melbourne, reported a series of 1275 cases where these tubes were used with great success. Tracheotomy continued to be used in children until polyvinyl chloride (PVC) tubes were introduced about 1960. The introduction of prolonged nasotracheal intubation (1962) contributed to the evolution of pediatric intensive care. Various tubes have been used for anesthesia in children. The red rubber tube was widely used but caused irritation if left in for too long. One variant, developed by Dicky Salt, the technician in the Nuffield Department in Oxford, was the Oxford tube which was bent at a right angle at the back of the pharynx at the appropriate distance from the larynx so that it would lie correctly in the larynx. The tube was slightly thicker to prevent kinking but narrowed slightly as it approached the end where it passed through the larynx. This could create a hazard from pressure on the mucosa if it was inadvertently inserted too far. Small babies have a narrow larynx. The Cole tube had a wide lumen to allow free flow of gas but it narrowed for the last 2–3 cms so that it could fit a narrow larynx. The reason for this relates to Pouisseuille's Pediatric Anesthesia ISSN 1155-5645


Development history and trend of performance management model were discussed. Principle of BP neural network was introduced. Financial indexes and non-financial indexes of performance evaluation of investment decision-making are constructed by many methods. We take methods of Principal Component Analysis combined with expert's judgment to filter indexes of performance evaluation of investment decision-making. Evaluation model of performance evaluation of investment decision-making, which was applied to projects of Wugang coking corporation, was built on the basis of strategy analysis of SWOT and BP neural network training.


In the real world, the theory of economic faces many obstacles in its analyses and interpretations. One of these problems is overlapping relationships between specific variables and difficulty of determining perfect formulation which contain all possible effect. Traditional statistics tools like regression models try to solve this problem in general case, but it's not enough to give us more information about structure of the system. The interaction between variables, feedback information, state of the system and variables behavior through time and effect of exogenous variables. One of the most important modern method depend on stock and flow diagram, causal loop diagram ,and simulation programming, is Dynamics models. dynamics model help us to determine the behavior of the accumulation variables through the time (Population, Cultivable Area, Cultivated Area, Expectation of Oil Reserve, Reserve of LPG, Expectation of Natural Gas Reserve, Total Saving, Emplacement, Capital and DEBT) these make many scenarios to solve the problems now and in the future.


For the sail angle control of the sail-assisted ship,control theory based on fuzzy PID achieves the control of sail angle of sail-assisted ship.According to the characteristic of double closed loop in the sail-assisted ship system,a P controller is designed to control the displacement for the vice-loop,while another P controller is used to control the sail angle for the main-loop.Stability conditions of the control system of sail angle are derived through using Routh stability criterion.On this basis,classical P controller and fuzzy P controller are designed for the main-loop respectively and the latter realizes the self-adaptive selection for the parameters based on fuzzy control theory.The simulation results show that the design of the fuzzy PID controller can achieve rapid response without overshoot.


Immersed Interface Methods (IIMs) are a class of Cartesian grid-based finite difference schemes that can achieve high order accuracy while allowing for complex non-conforming domain boundaries or physical interfaces. These schemes are particularly promising for simulations of interface-coupled multiphysics problems such as fluid-structure interaction and multiphase flow, in which maintaining an interface-conforming mesh can be prohibitively expensive. However, much of the existing work on IIMs has focused on 2D immersed bodies with concave geometry, avoiding several challenges that are unique to non-convex geometry and three-dimensional approximations. In this presentation we demonstrate several improvements to existing IIMs that allow for high order PDE solutions in 3D domains with complex moving boundaries. In particular, we compare the utility of dimension-splitting and truly multidimensional polynomial reconstructions near immersed interfaces, and suggest a compromise approach that is robust to concave geometries and mindful of the computational overhead associated with moving interfaces. We also extend existing immersed interface boundary treatments for hyperbolic and parabolic processes to allow for the simulation of transport PDEs with nontrivial dynamics on both sides of an immersed interface. These novel IIM discretizations are implemented in MURPHY, an open-source software framework for 3D multiresolution grids with wavelet-based adaptivity targeting massively-parallel computer Through simulations performed within MURPHY, we assess the stability and convergence of our high-order 3D IIM when applied to standard transport PDEs. We also show that for representative 3D geometries the use of an IIM adds only a small computational overhead compared to a purely free-space finite difference scheme and does not negatively impact the weak scaling of our implementation. We conclude by presenting the results of large-scale simulations of interface-based PDE problems that illustrate the utility of our immersed method (see Figures 1 and 2).


Objective To introduce a simple therapeutic method for repairing wound and scar on the head, face or neck of children. Methods Application of rapid expanding (once only), single and multiple skin tissue expanding technique were used to repair the different area wound and scar of children. Then the effect of the three repair technique was compared. Results Twenty-five children of 20 months to 8 years old were treated with the above methods. All of them have been followed up for 2-6 years with satisfactory results. Conclusions(1)The treatment of skin tissue expanding technique in repairing wound and scar on head, face or neck of children shows better effects. (2)According to different area of wound and scar of children,the different skin tissue expanding technique should be chosen .


Photofission cross sections were estimated for /sup 209/Bi, /sup 232/Th and /sup 238/U, in the energy range from 0.15 GeV up to 2 GeV, by using flssility values computed with the Monte Carlo Method. For the calculation of the fissilities, use was made of some already known results of proton-induced intranuclear cascade calculations, in order to obtain information about mass- number, atomic-number, and excitation-energy distributions of the post-cascade nucleus. The calculation was carried out as a fission-evaporation competition, by using an energy dependence of the ratio of the neutron evaporation width to fission width. The results were compared with experimental data, and the comparison showed that the photofission cross sections are consistent with the photomeson mechanism of nuclear excitation. (6 figures, 3 tables) (auth)


In order to improve the quality of French in colleges and universities, a French quality data analysis model is proposed integrating the personal information of teachers, students, and teaching methods. The random forest algorithm is used to measure and describe the feature correlation between teachers and students, the feature correlation between objects and target variables, and the more accurate feature classification method is used to filter and save the optimal feature subset. Through the long and short memory in the self-attention mechanism, the neural network combines the portrait information of teachers and students as well as the French teaching information and carries out an in-depth analysis of the relevant data. Then, a more accurate conclusion is drawn on the correlation between the quality of French teaching and the relevant parameters. The empirical analysis results show that the proposed model effectively analyzes the relevant factors and rankings that affect the quality of French teaching at this stage and obtains more reasonable French teaching data to improve the quality of French teaching.


ZrO2 thin films were grown onto silicon (100) substrates by atomic layer deposition (ALD) using novel cyclopentadienyl-type precursors, namely (CpMe)2ZrMe2 and (CpMe)2Zr(OMe)Me (Cp = cyclopentadienyl, C5H5) together with ozone as the oxygen source. Growth characteristics were studied in the temperature range of 250 to 500 °C. An ALD-type self-limiting growth mode was verified for both processes at 350 °C where highly conformal films were deposited onto high aspect ratio trenches. Signs of thermal decomposition were not observed at or below 400 °C, a temperature considerably exceeding the thermal decomposition temperature of the Zr-alkylamides. Processing parameters were optimised at 350 °C, where deposition rates of 0.55 and 0.65 A cycle−1 were obtained for (CpMe)2ZrMe2/O3 and (CpMe)2Zr(OMe)Me/O3, respectively. The films grown from both precursors were stoichiometric and polycrystalline with an increasing contribution from the metastable cubic phase with decreasing film thickness. In the films grown from (CpMe)2ZrMe2, the breakdown field did not essentially depend on the film thickness, whereas in the films grown from (CpMe)2Zr(OMe)Me the structural homogeneity and breakdown field increased with decreasing film thickness. The films exhibited good capacitive properties that were characteristic of insulating oxides and did not essentially depend on the precursor chemistry.


This paper has a discussion on some problems occurring frequently during installation and application on site,conformation of protection degree to various of corrosive environment, shaft voltage measurement of explosionproof motor, etc.


1D propagation of a THz Gaussian pulse, containing a few cycles, in multi-level media is studied using computer simulation. Electromagnetic field evolution is governed by Maxwell's equations whereas a medium response is described in the frame-work of the density matrix formalism. For the pulse with a sufficiently broad spectrum we demonstrate the appearance of a cascade mechanism for molecule energy level excitation. As a result, the spectrum of the THz pulse, transmitted through a medium layer, is broadened essentially in comparison with the incident pulse spectrum. We also take into account the incident pulse absolute phase influence on the pulse spectrum broadening.


The Professional Science Master's(PSM)is an innovative graduate degree of American graduate education.This paper summarizes and analyzes the composite"Science Plus" curricula system,the combined "on campus-off campus" teaching organization and the dual "curricula-program" educational requirements of PSM in America.In view of promoting the development of the professional graduate education in China,this paper points out that we should focus on expanding the scope of the professional graduate education,pay more attention to build independent course system with professional graduate education traits,and effectively advance the cooperation of the government,industries,research institutes and universities.


The economic necessity of a better production strategy on sourveld promoted this study. Production of marketable two-tooth steers in the summer season and overwintering of all cattle without excessive feed costs were motivating factors. The problems of economic beef production were identified as resulting from the seasonal flow of forage quality from sourveld grass production. Season long rests, early burning and non-selective grazing of nutritious grass were identified as essential elements of a new utilization strategy. A 'forage reserve', built into the system to cater for fluctuations in grass production due to varied climatic conditions, is used as an indicator of the seasonal stocking rate. This provides a barometer in relation to the economic and ecological carrying capacity of the property. Research was conducted on the winter utilization of rested veld and its effects on grass species composition and vigour in the following season. It was found that the winter grazing of the rested veld did not affect (P>O.05) the subsequent production in the three seasons of this study on 'Stratherne' in the Dundee district, KwaZulu-Natal South Africa (300 17'E 28°17'S). The grass species composition of four transects was recorded in 1994, prior to the implementation of the grazing system under test. The same transects were recorded again in 2002 to determine the effect of the change in utilization on grass species composition. It was found that a more productive state was developing in response to the strategy implemented in this study. The general trend has been for sites to move from a Hyparrhenia hirta dominated state to a more productive one associated with species such as Themeda triandra. 11 Summer mass gains of steers (147 kg and 143 kg over the two summers) have improved ' over the previous systems applied (average 119 kg), as a result of the more nutritious grazing. A greater proportion reached market readiness as two-year old to two and half year olds (97%) on veld, which is far superior to the 38% quoted from research using similar Bonsmara type steers from 'conventional' systems. Monitoring and flexibility are important in the application of the strategy to conditions in Africa. The principles of adaptive management (monitoring, recording, constant learning and adaptation) will build a


In this article, I explain the practical learning challenges in distributed workplace learning (WL) that are engendered by distance and contradictory motives between distributed instructors. I draw lessons from an empirical study of the institution of a new profession in the British National Health Service that was operationalised through distributed WL. The practical learning challenges are explained from an activity‐theoretical perspective to show the need for balance between work practice outcomes on the one hand, and theoretical and accreditation outcomes of learning on the other hand. I argue that the practical learning challenges in distributed WL are rooted in: (1) multiple sources of instructions and remote separation of instructors; (2) pervasive and stronger contradictions between instructors' motives; and (3) the coercion of learners' core participation towards outcomes of practical learning by immediate (or local) instructors. I propose, further, that reducing the strength of contradictions between distributed instructors and increasing the co‐presence of the distant instructor are worthy strategies for managing distributed WL.


A dynamic model was set up for the two-span rotor-bearing system with coupling faults of crack and pedestal looseness supported on three plain journal bearings. The nonlinear dynamic behaviors that induced by crack, pedestal looseness and coupling faults are numerically studied. There is quasi-periodic motion appearing in the cracked rotor-bearing system, and it within the sub-critical speed range in the pedestal looseness rotor-bearing system. There is chaotic motion appearing within the supper-critical speed range in the pedestal looseness rotor-bearing system. The pedestal looseness fault is the main influence on the coupling faults system, and there is Period-3 motion appearing in the system. The results may bring up theoretical references for fault diagnoses, dynamic design, and security running to rotor-bearing system.© 2007 ASME


Over the last years - late 1970s to early 1990s - the incidence of prostate carcinoma has nearly doubled, even though many more patients die suffering from prostate cancer than because of it. This finding, together with the slow growth of this tumor and the absence of a controlled trial that would suggest a benefit from screening, makes early diagnosis of this disease quite questionable. On the other hand, it is well known that prostatic carcinoma is curable as long as it is intracapsular, and that there is an ever increasing encouragement to early detection in all diseases. The costs of screening and the difficulty in balancing the benefits of screening against its negative effects, such as psychological impact and overtreatment, must be taken into account as well. In our opinion, one of the advantages of early diagnosis should be that the patients' quality of life improves, because the stage at diagnosis and, as a result, the number of patients suffering from bone metastasis decrease, and unknown benign pathologies can be cured. These observations are not at all negligible. Our study aims to demonstrate that by using PSA as an initial test, the screening costs are reasonable and the disease incidence is just as expected.


Abstract A review of injuries in impact trauma reveals a plethora of 'injury criteria', many of which are enshrined in legislation. It is assumed here that injuries can be modelled as mechanical dissipative processes, and the formalism of continuum damage mechanics based on irreversible thermodynamics is applied to impact trauma. It is shown that peak virtual power (PVP) predicts the severity of injury, measured on the abbreviated injury scale, in around 90 per cent of cases for all types of injury to all body regions (brain, skull, thorax, spine, upper and lower extremities) for car occupants from the CCIS and NASS-CDC databases. Consideration of injury to body regions shows that PVP predicts the form of acceleration-based criteria, the head injury criterion and the viscous criterion. It is shown that in general the lower bound of severity of injury is proportional to δV3 or (ETS)3, where ETS is equivalent test speed, for restrained vehicle occupants, and the upper bound proportional to δV2 or (ETS)2 for unrestrained occupants. It is concluded that PVP is a suitable candidate for an objective universal injury criterion which can be correlated to real-world injury experience.


§ 165.T01–0849 Safety Zone; The Gut, South Bristol, ME. (a) Location. The following area is a safety zone: All waters of The Gut, a waterway between Rutherford Island and Bristol Neck in South Bristol, ME, from surface to bottom, encompassed by a 50-yard radius from the center point of The Gut Bridge at position 43°51.720′ N, 069°33.480′ W (NAD 83). (b) Definitions. As used in this section: Designated representative means any Coast Guard commissioned, warrant, petty officer, or designated Patrol Commander of the U.S. Coast Guard who has been designated by the Captain of the Port, Sector Northern New England (COTP), to act on his or her behalf. The designated representative may be on an official patrol vessel or may be on shore and will communicate with vessels via VHF–FM radio or loudhailer. In addition, members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary may be present to inform vessel operators of this regulation. Official patrol vessels means any Coast Guard, Coast Guard Auxiliary, state, or local law enforcement vessels assigned or approved by the COTP to enforce this section. (c) Enforcement period. This rule is effective without actual notice from November 15, 2018 through 11:59 p.m. on March 31, 2019. For the purposes of enforcement, actual notice will be used from 12:01 a.m. on November 8, 2018 through November 15, 2018. The rule will only be enforced during active bedrock removal operations or other instances which may cause a hazard to navigation, or when deemed necessary by the Captain of the Port (COTP), Northern New England. (d) Regulations. When this safety zone is enforced, the following regulations, along with those contained in § 165.23 apply: (1) No person or vessel may enter or remain in the safety zone described in paragraph (a) of this section unless authorized by the COTP or the COTP's designated representative. (2) To obtain permission required by this regulation, individuals may reach the COTP or the COTP's designated representative via Channel 16 (VHF– FM) or (207) 767–0303 (Sector Northern New England Command Center). (3) During periods of enforcement, any person or vessel permitted to enter the safety zone must comply with all lawful orders or directions given to them by the COTP or the COTP's designated representative. (e) Penalties. Those who violate this section are subject to the penalties set forth in 33 U.S.C. 1232. (f) Notification. Coast Guard Sector Northern New England will give notice through the Local Notice to Mariners and Broadcast Notice to Mariners for the purpose of enforcement of temporary safety zone. Coast Guard Sector Northern New England will also notify the public to the greatest extent possible of any period in which the Coast Guard will suspend enforcement of this safety zone.


CARD19 is a ubiquitously expressed protein of unknown function. This protein was originally named BinCARD, and early data suggested that it interacts with Bcl10 and inhibits NF-κB activation in T cells. However, these early data were based on overexpression studies, and we are aware of no in vivo data that support this proposed function. Additionally, the cellular localization of CARD19 remains uncharacterized. We sought to address these gaps in knowledge by examining macrophages, thymocytes, and splenocytes from Card19 +/+ and Card19 −/− mice using superresolution microscopy and flow cytometry; we also compared secretion of TNF-alpha, IL-6, and MCP-1 in Card19 +/+ and Card19 −/− mice injected with LPS. Superresolution microscopy revealed that CARD19 is localized to the outer mitochondrial membrane, with no evidence of co-localization with BCL10. Deletion of the predicted transmembrane domain resulted in nuclear and cytosolic distribution, while a partial deletion of the C-terminus resulted in localization in the endoplasmic reticulum. Data to date do not indicate significant differences between Card19 +/+ and Card19 −/− thymocytes and splenocytes in development, activation, or effector function. Interestingly, Card19 −/− mice displayed higher plasma concentrations of TNF-alpha, IL-6, and MCP-1 relative to Card19 +/+ mice in response to LPS. We conclude that CARD19 does not measurably impact BCL10 function in vivo, and we suggest that CARD19 is likely involved in regulation of a mitochondrial function that affects pro-inflammatory innate immune responses via a mechanism independent of BCL10.


With the emerging and increasing use of ICT, electronic participation (e-participation) has appeared as an effort to involve people in policymaking effectively. Many e-participation projects have evolved over the past years, yet several of them have failed to reach a decent level of citizens engagement in decision-making processes. Even after integrating social media platforms that are known to promote better networking, data exchange, and user dissemination of data, there remains the challenge of enhancing public participation in social media-led participation. This study is composed of three (3) folds. First, it explores why citizens engage in social media-enabled e-Participation in the context of the Philippines' proposed house bill of decreasing the minimum age of criminal liability. Second, to support the findings in the first fold, this study investigates explicitly the sentiments and opinions felt by most Filipinos regarding the issue. Third, this paper examines how social media platform can provide an opportunity to improve civic involvement in e-Participation. It applies a lexicon-based model in analyzing sentiments and uses unsupervised machine learning-based algorithm in determining and classifying emotions in the dataset captured from Facebook. This also employs content analysis to triangulate the themes that emerged from the model vis-à-vis the dataset. Results have shown that 42% of the sentiments are Negative and that the sense of joy or happiness is 54% of the entire corpus. Of the eight (8) themes, the Expression of Refute covers 70%. Based on the findings, this article concludes that citizens engaged in social media-led e-Participation have varied emotions and views; and social media can be a forum for a higher level of engagement when decision-makers have an online presence and a commitment to dialogue with people.


Ion-beam processing such as absorption (deposition), sputtering or implantation creates a disordered crystalline structure in the thermodynamical nonequilibrium state. Intrinsic stress within the disordered surface layer caused by the incident ions was estimated using both molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and continuum mechanics considerations. We proposed one estimation of the anisotropic elastic stress derived from dilatation of the disordered layer which was obtained by applying the Voronoi analysis or the statistical treatment to the results of MD analyses. It was noted that the incident ions with lower accelerating energy induced the tensile stress in the layer. And the stress field became compressive as the accelerating energy increased because of the occurrence of interstitials. Some aspects of the local volume change were also analyzed from the distribution of the atomic volumes within the Voronoi polyhedra.


Monitoring of rotating machinery plays an essential role in industry. The basic software and hardware structure of the shaft vibration monitoring system of rotating machinery is introduced in this paper. The vibration signals caused by different reasons were analyzed. The national standard is based on vibration vibration velocity amplitude as the evaluation standard, but can not determine what is the cause of the abnormal vibration. By experiment we made analysis method of acceleration frequency or acceleration envelope frequency, amplitude and frequency setting monitoring, to determine the cause of the abnormal vibration of rotating machinery.


Aiming at radar waveform generation,a full-digital design of Pulse Repeated Interval(PRI) dither signal is given in this paper.Based on countering with variable preset number,the PRI of this signal is modulated by pseudorandom code.The program is written by VHDL,combining with simulation,and then is downloaded into a Complex Programmable Logic Device(CPLD).The feasibility of this method is verified by simulation and experiment.


Mandibular features of Neanderthals and modern humans are compared using photographs in norma lateralis. Digitised datas were analysed by quantitative uni- and multivariate statistics and show for both groups specific mandibular traits. The results of the European and Near East sample do not prove a gradual change or diachronic trend in the lower jaw morphology from Neanderthals towards modern humans and can therefore not support the model of multiregional evolution.


The developed computing method of telecom-munication network working efficiency using the integral criteria of preference is considered in the article.


Objective: Care coordination is a core competency for primary care nurses and an essential element of the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model. Implementing care coordination in primary care is challenging and requires changes in roles, staffing, and culture. Clinical Microsystems are frontline teams of healthcare staff that, when engaged in quality improvement, can make important contributions towards practice redesign. We used a Microsystem team to develop an effective model to integrate nurse care coordinators into a busy primary care center.
Methods: A Clinical Microsystem team, supported by an improvement coach, met weekly for one year to develop and test a new nurse staffing model in a large Federally Qualified Health Center. Intervention uptake and impact on workflow was tracked by direct observation of nurses and by measuring volume of nursing visits and virtual contacts. Nurses in a non-participating site with similar characteristics served as a comparison group.
Results: The Microsystem team developed and implemented a new nurse care coordination model for their site. The intervention emphasized patient self-management, independent nursing visits, and hospital and emergency room transition support. The nurse care coordinator in this new role managed 335 patients over a nine-month study period. The nurse in this new role spent 276 minutes over two days of observation engaged in direct care coordination work while two nurses at the comparison site spent only 94 minutes and 149 minutes, respectively, over the same time period.
Conclusion: Engaging front line staff is an effective way for organizations to make changes in delivery systems, improve quality and spread innovations. In this study, a Microsystem team developed a model to provide key components of care coordination to support PCMH practice redesign at a large community health center.


Objective To investigate the efficacy and safety of FloTrac/Vigileo system on the volume therapy guiding in the operation treatment of large area burned patients.Methods Eighty cases of large area burned patients were equally randomized into research group and control group. FloTrac/Vigileo system was used in the research group to monitor the stroke patients continuously in heart rate variability(SVV),cardiac output(CO),cardiac index(CI),systemic vascular resistance(SVR)changes and corresponding treatment was made according to the change in the operation. Mindray BeneViewT8 was used in the control group to monitor the CVP, MAP,SpO2. Corresponding processing was taken according to the value of CVP and the situation of patients during operation.Then postoperative CVP,MAP,HR,BICU time,acute left heart failure incidence,the incidence rate of ARDS was recorded in both groups.Results Postoperative MAP and CVP in the research group were higher than those in the control group,while HR,BICU discharge time, incidence of ARDS were significantly lower than those in the control group(P 0.05). Conclusion It is an efficacy and safe method to use FloTrac/Vigileo system early for guiding fluid therapy in Escharectomy operation for large area burned patients.


The article explores the role of logical connections in an epic text. It is these connections, according to the author of the article, that connect the individual components of the narrative (motifs, complexes of motifs) and make up in the reader's perception for the missing elements. The reticence and failures to mention, common in fiction, appear in the narrative for various reasons. Sometimes due to the aesthetic principles of the writer who prefers ambiguity to a completed statement depriving readers of the opportunity to finish thinking over a vague idea. And sometimes, due to the author's conviction that there is no need to explain the idea implied by what has been earlier said. But it also happens that the omissions in the narrative are engendered by the requirements for the presentation of a chosen topic, for example in crime fiction. But these reasons may go together as it occurs in Crime and Punishment. These ideas are illustrated by the analysis of one of the themes of the novel Crime and Punishment.


Nanometer-sized ATO(Antimony Doped Tin Oxide) powders were prepared with chemical co-precipitation method.Effects of processing parameters such as reaction temperature,terminal pH,doping antimony content and heat temperature on average particle size of nanometer-sized ATO powders were investigated.Some methods such as TEM,XRD were used for crystal and morphology analysis of the nanometer-sized ATO powders.The influence of those parameters such as the types of dispersants,the adding amount and pH value on the dispersability and stability of ATO slurry,was discussed.The influencing factors can be optimized by diameter measurement and zeta potential measurement,and thus ATO slurry with good dispersability and stability can be finally obtained.


musical language, and the key of D minor appears with surprising regularity. D minor can be found in various of his early unpublished piano sonatas, in two songs of Op. 2, the Three Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6, the important final interlude in Wozzeck, and the concert aria Der Wein. In a letter to his wife Helene dated 16 July 1909, Berg spoke of this key in a context which gave it clear extramusical significance, referring to "the most glorious D-minor chords of your soul."2 An understanding of the significance for Berg of D minor can open some fascinating interpretive possibilities for the works which use this key, and indirectly, for other works as well. D minor appears to have had strong symbolic and personal significance for him, and in order to shed light on what that may have been, it is instructive to consider a literary treatment of this key by a writer particularly admired by Berg. The writer in question is August Strindberg, and Berg regarded him, along with Schoenberg, Karl Kraus, and Goethe, as an ideal artistic model indeed, as nothing short of a literary god. This enthusiasm was shared by Schoenberg and Webern, particularly in the years 1910-1915. All three had plans to set works of Strindberg to music, although only Webern actually followed through on this, using a fragment from the Ghost Sonata as the text for his song "Schein mir's, als ich sah die Sonne" (Op. 12, No. 3). While the discussion of D minor is central to this essay, the purpose here is not to probe analytical issues such as the nature of tonal passages used by Berg. Rather, the focus is on a critical interpretation of Berg's music which can result from the comparison of the music with specific literary works or approaches. The influence of Strindberg on writers and musicians in Vienna during the first two decades of the twentieth century should not be underestimated. Strindberg had a champion at this time in Karl Kraus, whose journal Die Fackel Berg read without fail, and whose lectures and musical evenings Berg attended whenever possible. An important factor setting Strindberg apart from the other writers admired by Berg was his use of music as the structural or aesthetic basis for some of his plays. While Strindberg drew his musical inspiration from a number of composers, the one who for him towered above all others


Abstract Nine years of total ozone measurements from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) on Nimbus 7 are used to study the global structure of the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) in total ozone. Interannual variability of total ozone near the equator (10°S to 10°N) is dominated by the QBO. The equatorial ozone anomalies are independent of season and are well correlated (r > 0.8) with the equatorial zonal wind. In both hemispheres midlatitude anomalies are two to three times larger in winter than in summer. Global patterns of the ozone QBO are identified by computing lagged correlations between the zonal-mean equatorial ozone and ozone elsewhere on the globe. Correlations between equatorial and extratropical ozone are weak during the summer season (r ∼ 0) and large and negative during the winter (r < − 0.8 in the Southern Hemisphere and r − 0.6 in the Northern Hemisphere). There are nodes or phase shifts in the correlation patterns at ±10° latitude, at 60°S, and at 50°N. Large negative correlation...


Natural cellulose membranes were crisp,curled,and have little use.Glycerol was used as the plasticizers to improve flexibility of cellulose membranes.The structure and properties of plasticized membranes were studied in the condition of different plasticization by mechanical property measurement,surface observation,and FT-IR analysis.The plasticization mechanism was discussed.It was found that to a certain degree,glycerol improves the flexibility,but decreases the mechanical performance,and plasticization effect was weakening due to loss of glycerol when plasticized membranes were washed.


Although the sandstone-hosted (Wellington Formation, Leonardian Series) Ag-Cu deposit at Paoli in south-central Oklahoma and the shale-hosted (Flowerpot Shale, Guadalupean Series) Cu-Ag ore deposit at Creta in southwest Oklahoma are both contained in Permian sedimentary rocks, they differ in their mineralogy, ore textures, paragenetic sequence, and occurrence. At Paoli, chalcocite mineralization occurs as replacements of disseminated, diagenetic, pyritohedral pyrite crystals, as replacements of carbonate cement between clastic quartz sand grains, and especially as replacements of hematite that replaces carbonate cement in the host sandstones. In contrast, at Creta the copper sulfide grains occur as replacements of megaspores, colloform pyrite, and pyrrhotite crystals. Ore microscopic study indicates that the paragenetic sequence of ore minerals at Paoli is: pyrite(oldest)-goethite-hematite-covellite-chalcocite-digenite-bornite-chalcopyrite (youngest). Such a sequence is the reverse order of those deposited at Creta and for most copper ore deposits, of all types, elsewhere. The paragenetic sequence at Paoli is interpreted to indicate that the host red-bed sandstones experienced an early introduction of reducing fluids that formed disseminated and cementing pyrite. Subsequent oxidation of that pyrite to form hematite (and minor goethite) probably occurred at the leading edges of roll fronts of oxidizing groundwaters. The paragenetic sequence shows that the copper sulfide formation wasmore » from fluids that became progressively more reducing during the deposition of those copper sulfide minerals. The shapes of the ore deposits indicate that the copper ore fluids were ones that moved in the form of roll fronts along Permian stream channels.« less


We read the paper by Shahabuddin and Sami with great interest [1]. They reported the successful treatment of a large tuberculous pseudoaneurysm of the ascending aorta. Aortic aneurysms are rare complications of tuberculosis and give rise to various issues related to their diagnosis and treatment. We would like to comment briefly on this topic.


Shows five large men squashed into the front seat of a car which represents the United Nations Security Council. Each has the name of a country on the back of his coat. In the back seat, buckled into a child restraint, is a baby that represents New Zealand sucking a dummy. Refers to New Zealand winning a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Quantity: 1 cartoon bromide(s).


MEANS OF ASSESSING THE CRITERIA AND CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT EFFECTIVENESS ARE GIVEN EXPLORATORY TREATMENT. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERAL GROUPS OF CHARACTERISTICS, COMPILED AS A HYPOTHETICAL VERBAL MODEL OF EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT, AND AN APPROACH TO EVALUATING HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTS ARE EXAMINED. A STUDY WAS MADE OF THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS WERE PRESENT IN EACH OF SIX COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTS. SUBJECTIVE APPRAISALS OF MANAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS IN THESE COUNTIES ARE PRESENTED. A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE APPROACH USED AND OF SEVERAL FEATURES OF THE METHODOLOGY IS ATTEMPTED, AND IT IS OFFERED AS AN AID TO FURTHERING RESEARCH IN THIS FIELD. /AUTHOR/


Direct selling (DS) is simultaneously a business model, a channel of distribution, and an activity engaged in by its distributors. In this paper, we provide a framework for analyzing and discuss academic research on the DS distribution model.

We focus in particular on research that develops economics-based analytic models to examine business and legal issues. This focus is motivated by the fact that analytic models are sometimes used as part of the assessment of whether a DS firm operates a legitimate DS channel or an illegal pyramid scheme. These models potentially have a significant economic impact on, and affect the outcomes of legal cases against, the affected DS firms. They may also be cited in the business press and in academic circles, influencing opinions of the viability or legality of the DS business and distribution model. It is therefore particularly important that such research be carefully grounded in sound logical and analytic bases, and that it appropriately reflect whatever key facts about the firm (or about DS in general) are relevant to the model's scope of analysis.

We first describe direct selling as an economic activity and business model. We contrast illegal pyramid schemes with legitimate DS firms and outline the key definition of an illegal pyramid scheme. This definition is distinguished from the many possible indicia of pyramid schemes that can result from pyramid scheme operation, but do not themselves prove the existence of a pyramid scheme.

We next define and discuss various logical and analytic errors that can lead to the mis-diagnosis of a legitimate DS firm as an illegal pyramid scheme operator. While many such error types are possible, we focus on four that we find to be particularly important in evaluating the analytic literature on DS and pyramid schemes:

• The "Begging the Question" fallacy, in which the research in effect presumes the existence of a pyramid scheme through its (implicit and/or explicit) assumptions, and as an unsurprising result, concludes the existence of a pyramid scheme;
• A variant on the "Begging the Question" fallacy in which the research effectively models a pyramid scheme through its omission and/or misrepresentation of substantive facts on which the determination of legality versus illegality depends;
• The "Fallacy of the Converse," in which the converse of a true if-then logical statement is incorrectly asserted to be true on the grounds that the original if-then statement is true. For example, even if the statement {if a firm operates a pyramid scheme, then one can expect to see some or all of a set of resulting indicia at some point in time} is reasonably true, it is not automatically true that the converse statement {if one observes a set of pyramid scheme indicia at some point in time, then the firm must be operating a pyramid scheme} is also true; and
• A special case on the "Fallacy of the Converse," in which the research ignores standard policies and protections that characterize legitimate DS firms, and therefore starts with an inaccurate premise that these policies and protections do not exist.

All of these modeling errors are substantive. This means that correcting any of these errors overturns the model's results. Such a model is thus not a reliable tool to assess whether a DS firm does, or does not, operate a pyramid scheme.

We apply this framework to the analysis of a recent working paper, "The Alchemy of a Pyramid: Transmutating Business Opportunity Into a Negative Sum Wealth Transfer" by Andrew Stivers, Douglas Smith, and Ginger Zhe Jin ("SSJ"). We find that this research begs the question, omits and/or misrepresents substantive DS firm facts, and commits a fallacy of the converse by omitting consideration of standard DS firm policies that mitigate a pyramid scheme analysis.

Specifically, SSJ "begs the question" of whether or not a DS firm operates an illegal pyramid scheme by explicitly assuming a pyramid scheme in its list of "stylized assumptions" – which duplicate the conditions for a pyramid scheme defined in the Koscot case. Thus, the authors cannot deliver on their research goal of answering the question "What makes an MLM firm a pyramid?", because they have already assumed the pyramid scheme outcome from the beginning.

Further, SSJ commits another "begging the question" error in explicitly assuming that the firm in its model commits fraud by purposefully misrepresenting the business opportunity to its prospects and distributors. Because a pyramid scheme cannot persist through time without such fraud, the authors again essentially presume a pyramid scheme outcome.

These first two critiques fully invalidate the SSJ research, whose authors state that its goal is to answer the question: "What makes an MLM firm a pyramid?" One cannot achieve this research goal by assuming a pyramid scheme as the basis for a model that then produces the inevitable result that a pyramid scheme exists.

Nevertheless, other errors further weaken the SSJ analysis. Many substantive facts about DS firms – which are important to the resolution of the model's claimed purpose – are omitted or misrepresented. Among them are:

• Its omission of any income sources to a distributor other than bonus awarded for mere recruitment without regard to sales (such as retail markup income or the economic benefit of personal consumption at wholesale prices);
• Its misrepresentation of the basis on which bonus/commission income is awarded by DS firms, by assuming they are only awarded for pure recruitment;
• Its omission of products that have market value to consumers;
• Its omission of consideration of distributor differences on substantive dimensions that matter for the research question at hand;
• Its omission of active choices by distributors concerning what to sell, how hard to work, how to price products for retail sale, how much to invest in training, whether or not to seek to recruit other distributors, or how much to personally consume;
• Its misrepresentation of the DS firm's objective as the maximization of one-period profit, with no consideration of the legal implications of the fraud it implies; and
• Its omission of consideration of standard consumer and distributor protections offered by legitimate DS firms.
• We discuss other substantive and technical problems with the SSJ model in Appendix B.

The SSJ paper concludes with a set of recommendations to control pyramid scheme threats. Because of the shortcomings we find in the model and analysis, we find that any such recommendations similarly rest on shaky foundations and are unreliable as cures for the question at hand.

We use our framework to offer an analysis of a subset of other economics-based analytic modeling papers in the DS area in Appendix A. We emphasize that our goal is not to argue that all such analyses are flawed. Indeed, economics-based analytic models are productively used in many applications and should continue to be applied to analyze firms' operations, participants' decisions, profitability, and growth. We hope that assessment of these efforts will be aided by applying guidelines for reliable and applicable scientific inquiry into various aspects of the DS distribution model.


Change is inevitable and is seen as a practice for organizations seeking to continuously provide quality services that meet stakeholder needs. Efficient and effective public service delivery has forced state corporations to adopt organizational culture change management to accommodate changes in the environment. However, government parastatals and state corporations such as Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) often oppose transformation and change because they have uncertain outcomes and come with a lot of challenges. This study determined the effect of culture change on organizational performance at Kenya Wildlife Service Nairobi National Park. The study was guided by Geert Hofstede's theory as the framework for cross-cultural communication, Edgar Schein's model as the cultural inventions by a specific group, and the Denison dimension model theory. Using descriptive survey research design, on a target population of 100 employees drawn from various departments at Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Nairobi National Park, a structured questionnaire was used for data collection to effectively respond to the research problem. The study revealed that majority (35.9%) of the respondents were convinced that management ensures that old habits that are not effective are dropped and at the same time the management at KWS encourages employees to adapt to changes and be flexible, especially when the work environment is changing. Results revealed that KWS management ensures the organizational culture supports vision, goal and strategies. The respondents (40.5%) also agreed that managers encourage employees to adapt to changes and to care (35.9%) about fellow employees, customers, and stakeholders. The findings also revealed that 28.9% of the respondents agreed that managers are role models for employees in the organization and set standards for ethics. Correlation analyses show that culture affects performance directly and indirectly. The study concludes that organizational culture aligned with vision, goals, and company strategies guides employees towards a shared purpose and improves an organization's capacity to perform excellently. We also conclude that KWS management encourages work ethics through consistency, and effective communication that improves work commitment that ultimately leads to better performance. The study recommends that there is need for more to be done on culture change as an approach to change management to improve performance. The mission, vision, and strategies are key to organizational performance and need to be reviewed from time to time to ensure that the organization lives its mission and moves towards its vision while applying its strategies. The study further recommends a replica of the same trial in other Kenya Wildlife Service branches in order to authenticate the findings and enable the generalization of the results.


Surgical intervention for the management of ocular disorders may lead to eye defects. The primary objective in rehabilitating such defects with an ocular prosthesis is to reestablish the physical and mental well-being of the patient. A series of detailed steps for custom-made ocular prosthesis fabrication using the advantages of digital photography are presented in this article. The iris reproduction by capturing it in a digital camera and editing the image in graphic software is presented. The presented technique replicates the natural iris without the need for iris painting and special artistic skills in a short time and simplified manner.


In the literature about Raman scattering, an unsatisfactory ambiguity exists in the basic Kramers–Heisenberg formula. The sign in front of the damping constant Γl appears to be arbitrary. In the present paper we show that the correct form is the one where Γl has the same sign as the excitation frequency ω. The argument is based on the causality principle, leading to the requirement that the real and imaginary parts of the scattering tensor constitute a pair of Hilbert transforms. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Provided is a method for performing, by a user equipment (UE), a switching operation between a macro cell and a small cell in a mobile communication system. The method includes receiving a service through a macro enhanced node B (eNB) on a first time period cycle from a first time point, and receiving the service through a small cell eNB on a second time period cycle from a second time point, wherein the first time point is different from the second time point, and the first time period is identical to or different from the second time period.


Let $b_{\ell }(n)$ denote the number of $\ell$-regular partitions of $n$. In this paper we establish a formula for $b_{13}(3n+1)$ modulo $3$ and use this to find exact criteria for the $3$-divisibility of $b_{13}(3n+1)$ and $b_{13}(3n)$. We also give analogous criteria for $b_{7}(3n)$ and $b_{7}(3n+2)$.


A helical turbine is operatively connected to at least one generator system for generating electrical power. System performance is optimized by controlling the operative angle between the longitudinal axis of the turbine and the direction of the current flow and by controlling a pitch ratio of the turbine. A pair of turbines, arranged in V-shape, each at the operative angle from a neutral centerline, provides symmetry and counteracts reactive torque. For wind operations, the V- shape is freely rotatable into the wind. For bi-directional tidal operations, the V- shape is part of a buoyant structure, positioned in the current and anchored to the floor. The structure is fit with control surfaces to ensure the system orientation. In unidirectional currents, one or more turbines can be angled downwardly into the current at the operative angle, elevators ensuring the angle is maintained.


THE EFFECT OF SUNLIGHT, TRAFFIC LOADING, STUDS AND DE-ICING SALT RESULT IN PERMANENT DEFORMATION AND WEAR OF HIGHWAY PAVEMENTS. IN RECENT YEARS, SCARIFYING AND DE-SCALING EQUIPMENT HAS BEEN USED SUCCESSFULLY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF TRACKING GROOVES AND TRANSVERSE GROOVES. THIS INVOLVES REMOVING A DEPTH OF 3 TO 4 CMS OF THE ASPHALTIC PAVEMENT AND RENEWAL OF THE PAVEMENT BY MEANS OF A FINISHER. BOTH COLD AND WARM SCARIFIERS CAN BE EMPLOYED OF VARIOUS CAPACITIES AND WIDTH OF SCARIFYING. THE ALFELDER ROAD SCARIFYER TYPE 50, HAS A SPEED OF ADVANCE OF 2 TO 3 M/S AND AN ADJUSTABLE SCARIFYING WIDTH UP TO 200 MM. WHERE DE-SCALING IS EMPLOYED, THE BITUMINOUS PAVEMENT IS FIRST HEATED BY PROPANE GAS BURNERS TO A TEMPERATURE OF BETWEEN 120 DEG C AND 200 DEG C. THE REPAVE TECHNIQUE IS DEVELOPED BY SCHOELKOPF AND IS A NEW DEVELOPMENT; HERE THE MATERIAL SCRAPED OFF IS RE-USED, SO THAT A MATERIAL SAVING OF 60% RESULTS. IN THE RE-FORMING TECHNIQUE THE FINISHER FOLLOWING AT A DISTANCE OF 15 M LAYS AN ADDITIONAL PAVEMENT. REPAVE AND RE-FORMING TECHNIQUES HAVE ALREADY BEEN TESTED AND GIVEN EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD RESULTS, WHICH HAVE BEEN CHECKED BY MEANS OF CORE BORINGS.


Public procurement is broadly defined as the purchasing, hiring or obtaining by any other contractual means of goods, construction works and services by the public sector. Public procurement thus means procurement by a procuring entity using public funds (Sherman, 1999). The items involved in public procurement range from simple goods or services such as clips or cleaning services to large commercial projects, such as the development of infrastructure, including road, power stations and airports. Public procurement practitioners have always faced challenges imposed upon by a variety of factors including market, legal, political, organizational, socio-economic and other environmental factors. Market conditions have a great influence on public procurement practitioners' effort to maximize competition. Moreover, the market determines whether or not socio-economic conditions of procurement are accomplished, whether or not a governmental entity can fulfill its needs, the timeliness of fulfillment and the quality and costs of purchased goods, services and capital assets. This paper will analyze the factors that derail procurement in public institution in Kenya and make recommendations on the way forward. Keywords: Procurement, Corruption, institutions, public entity


ABSTRACT This study investigated factors affecting the preventive intention on premarital sexual behaviours among junior high school students in lower-northern region of Thailand. A cross-sessional study was conducted. Stepwise regression model was used to run multiple linear regression. Self-awareness was the best predictor of the preventive intention on premarital sexual behaviours for having the biggest coefficient (Beta coefficient equal to 0.696, t = 19.183, P = 0.001). Self-awareness had positive and significant effect on preventive intention on premarital sexual behaviour. High education levels of parents had more positive and significant effects on the preventive intention on premarital sexual behaviour compared to low levels of education. Consulting parents had more positive and significant effect on premarital sexual behaviours compared to not consulting any person. Thai sexual education needs to be extended to parents of students to induce the preventive intention on premarital sexual behaviours among junior high school students.