Dear Editor, In this letter we would like to share the experience of the management of a necrotizing fasciitis (NF) in an elderly patient. NF is a group of rare and life-threatening bacterial infections characterized by widespread necrosis of the subcutaneous tissue and fascia, vascular occlusions, and ischemia. The first case was described by Wilson in the 1950s. Type 2 diabetes and older age are established risk factors for this condition. Many NF patients are found to be using non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs. Mortality rates range from 25–70%, depending on prognostic factors, such as older age, female sex, rate of necrosis extension, hemodynamic failure or pre-existing cardiovascular condition. Mortality can also be associated with biological markers, such as hypoalbuminemia. Accurate early diagnosis and surgical intervention combined with administration of appropriate parenteral antibiotics remain the cornerstones of NF treatment. Clinical descriptions in very elderly or highly comorbid patients are uncommon. The benefit–risk ratio for this aggressive – but necessary – therapeutic approach results in an undertreatment of NF, hence increased mortality. Furthermore, there are middle-term outcomes to consider, such as wound healing, nutritional assistance, pain and functional management. These issues typically require a multidimensional management approach, and collaboration between plastic surgeons, anesthetists and geriatricians. The following case report aimed to examine the different steps of treatment with a focus on the healing procedure that might not be widely known by geriatricians. Mr S is an 85-year-old Sri-Lankan man with a history of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and myocardial infarction. He used to live alone with visits from a nurse to administer his medication, and he used a walking stick. Mr S was admitted to the Bichat Hospital intensive care unit for septic shock. He had been reporting intense pain in the left lower limb for a couple of days, and had self-medicated with an emulsion comprising a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory. The diagnosis of NF was immediately suspected and quickly confirmed as he immediately underwent surgery. The pathology examination of the excised tissues confirmed the extensive infection with necrosis resulting in dissociation between muscular fascia and connective adipose tissue. The microbiological test on surgical biopsies was positive for group A Streptococcus. Extensive surgical excision of all the cutaneous and subcutaneous tissues of the left leg was carried out (Fig. 1a), and ad-hoc intravenous antibiotherapy was prescribed. After 11 days, the patient was referred to our acute geriatric care unit. The first concern to address was management of the large, circumferential, degloving wound of the lower limb. Spontaneous healing did not appear a possible option, and the wound was already extremely painful. High daily doses of morphine resulted in delirium and hallucinations. We finally opted for a tailored surgical approach with cutaneous grafts to accelerate recovery. Three procedures of excision and split-thickness skin grafts harvested on the anterior face of the thigh were completed to cover most of the leg. Graft adherence and viability were good, despite the persistence of localized wounds (Fig 1b). The patient's general condition and nutritional status were in fast decline, with baseline plasma albumin concentration dropping as low as 14 g/L. Furthermore, Mr S experienced recurrent episodes of delirium. In postacute care, the patient was treated by daily dressing


A Study has been made to evaluate the changes occurred along the coastal stretch in Vanagiri village, Sirkazhi taluk, Nagapattinam district, Tamilnadu using satellite imageries supplemented with GIS. The study area is accommodated between 11° 06' and11°8'45" N latitudes and 79°49' and 79°51'30" E longitudes. IRS 1A (LISS II), IRS 1C (LISS III), merged data of IRS P6 and IRS 1D (LISS IV and PAN) and IRS P6 (LISS III) satellite imageries in the scale of 1:50000 were availed, respectively for the years 1992, 1997, 2004 and 2006 and were interpreted visually for land use and were categorized according to NRSA land use classification. The spatial database of the land use maps interpreted was created using Arc Map GIS software. The spatial database of the land use created for the study area for years 1992, 1997, 2004 and 2006 were subjected to intersection analysis and the land use changes were derived. The reasons pertaining to these changes were discussed in this paper. The land use changes seen after Tsunami were also discussed. This study will be used to create the basis for conducting sustainable land use planning or setting up a sustainable development strategy in the study area. Since the study is carried out at village level, it will be useful for any researchers, scientists, planners and all the government organizations for any type of subsequent application in planning and further research in near future.


The ever-increasing volume in the collection of image data in various fields of science, medicine, security and other fields has brought the necessity to extract knowledge. Face classification/recognition is one of the challenging problems of computer vision. This paper presents details development of a real time face recognition system (FRS) aimed to operate in less constrained environment. Firstly, it is reviewed the well-known techniques used in face recognition then the details of every step in recognition process and explains the ideas, which leaded to these techniques. Being widely used in pattern recognition tasks, neural networks have also been applied in face recognition. In this study, we developed a face recognition system based on Step Error Tolerance Back-propagation Neural Network (SET-BPN). SET-BPNs supply flexibility and straightforward design by reducing error in each step of learning which make the system easily and rapidly operable along with the successful classification results. In order to analyze the system in practice we ran several tests using real data. Empirical results show that proposed approach greatly improves recognition speed in feature matching step. From the experiment it is found that the system correctly recognizes 91% of the faces, using less then one second of test samples from each face image.


CO2 Lasers at (lambda) equals 9.6 and 10.6 micrometers and pulse lengths in the range of 100 ns to 150 micrometers operating in multimode were used as a drilling instrument with energy densities up to 200 J/cm2. The laser light was focused perpendicularly onto the surface of 1 mm slices of dentin and enamel. Different methods of cooling were applied. Temperatures were measured during ablation with thermocouples. The quality of ablation was checked with a stereo microscope and the diameters of the ablated areas were measured. Ablation rates (mm3/s) and ablation efficiencies (mm3/J) were calculated. Best results were obtained with pulse lengths of 100 to 130 micrometers . Ablation without carbonization of the organic matrix of dentin was only possible with water or water/air spray cooling. Ablation rates of up to 0.2 mm3/s and an ablation efficiency of up to 50 X 10-3 mm3/J were reached.


Mother is a person who has many task and responsibilities daily. In addition, as a working mother, tasks and responsibilities are double and triple, for instance task and chores at home and task at the organization. Total quality management is practices and procedures that organizations use in order to enhance or improve the performance of the employee or the organization. Performance of working mothers is said to be not satisfactory, and their performance may drop after having babies. Some organizations and their colleagues don't seem to be helpful to working mothers after rejoining the workforce right after maternity leave ended. Some organization from other countries provide work-family support policies in order to help these working mothers to balance their lifestyle as mother and as an employee. Some researchers claimed that working mothers tend to have very happy children whilst underperforming in the organization. This chapter seeks to investigate the perception of working mothers on their performance after the implementation of total quality management.


A chemical reaction between polyamic acid, a precursor of polyimide known as a stable insulating polymer, and a metal thin film makes metal-oxide nanoparticles located in polyimide matrix. In a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) diode with such nanoparticles and polyimide, the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics behave abnormally, not showing the general MOS property. The characteristics possibly apply to resistance random access memory (RRAM). In this study, we investigated the conductance and the I-V characteristics with temperature modulation that divide the effects of the activation energy. The I-V hysteresis from a measured voltage sweep is an interesting physical phenomenon and is useful in many applications.


In this paper we consider a subclass of strongly spirallike functions on the unit disk in the complex plane , namely, strongly almost spirallike functions of type and order . We obtain the growth results for strongly almost spirallike functions of type and order on the unit disk in by using subordination principles and the geometric properties of analytic mappings. Furthermore we get the growth theorems for strongly almost starlike functions of order and strongly starlike functions on the unit disk of . These growth results follow the deviation results of these functions.


This paper investigates the secrecy performance of cooperative vehicular relaying networks in the presence of a source of interference. The network consists of a fixed source node, a fixed destination, a fixed source of interference, a mobile relay, and a mobile passive eavesdropper. Except for the channel from the relay to the eavesdropper, all of the channel coefficients between the nodes are represented as Nakagami-m fading channels. We construct closed-form formulas for the secrecy outage probability (SOP), the asymptotic SOP (ASOP), and the probability of non-zero secrecy capacity (PNZSC). Furthermore, a proposed power allocation model is presented to reduce the SOP about the source and relay transmission powers. The impact of the channel condition, the secrecy data rate threshold, and the strength of interference on the secrecy performance are presented and demonstrated. In addition, the proposed power allocation model enhances the system secrecy performance compared to the equal power distribution model.


This project addressed the problem of accounting system errors for the Medicaid program within the Department of Health and Human Services.


Haldane's Rule is an empirical generalization that asserts: When in the F, offspring of a cross between two animal species or races, one sex is absent, rare, or sterile, that sex is typically the heterogametic sex (Haldane, 1922). So, for example, in Drosophilia (which, like us, have XY males) the hybrid males fall victim to sterility/inviability (hereafter "fitness"). In birds and butterflies, which have heterogametic females, the hybrid females are the victims. There is still no widely accepted theoretical explanation ofthe rule (Coyne and Orr, 1989). Coyne and Orr (1989 p. 180) assert that Haldane's Rule is as "compelling an empirical generalization as any other in evolutionary biology." In contrast, White (1977 p. 569) feels that the rule "has so many exceptions that it can no longer be regarded as generally valid." The issue is whether or not Haldane's Rule describes an association that supports the belief that there is a biological link between heterogamety and sex-biased reductions in hybrid fitness. Tests of evolutionary patterns and hypotheses require that independent evolutionary events are examined. Otherwise, sample sizes may be spuriously inflated and tests of statistical significance invalidated. The possibility that cross-species comparisons can be misleading is now widely appreciated (e.g., Charlesworth, 1987; for examples, see Donoghue, 1989, and Hoglund, 1989). Here we assess Haldane's Rule in light of contemporary understanding of how to evaluate cross-species patterns (Ridley, 1983; Felsenstein, 1985; Pagel and Harvey, 1989; Harvey and Pagel, 1991) and conclude that on the basis of available evidence the rule is not significant. Consider two kinds of evidence on which Haldane's Rule could be based. 1. Suppose we know only that birds and Drosophila obey the rule, and know nothing about other taxa. Birds and Drosophila differ from each other not only in which sex is heterogametic, but also in a thousand other ways, such as their gametogenesis, embryogenesis, and expression of sex specific traits. The real reason female bird hybrids are less fit, whereas it is the males in Drosophila, may be due to any ofthe thousand things that differentiate birds from Drosophila. So the observed relationship between heterogamety and hybrid fitness loss could easily be due to chance.


Against a changing paradigm towards a progressively digitalised economy and an increasingly digitally infused society, South Africa is reported to lag behind in terms of its digital readiness. However, the business sector is a critical role player in unlocking the opportunities posed by the digital economy and has, according to the WEF report, taken the lead: 30th out of 148 countries. Despite such international studies that give South African businesses a reasonably fair rating in aspects such as setting trends and thinking about future practices, little more is available on how South African companies are responding to the opportunities and challenges posed by the digital economy. Against this background, the University of the Western Cape, the University of Stellenbosch Business School and iNeSI undertook a collaborative research project to: (i) Understand, discover and learn more about the progress the South African business sector has made as a potential trend-setter in the quest for digital readiness by the country. Eighty-two large companies, across the various sectors participated in the study and the results are discussed under six themes


The difference of in-line particle hologram are shown mainly for different laser wavelength.The hologram of the particle field is influenced by the microparticle diameter and particle density.These two parameters may even determine the quality of the measurement.Therefore,these two parameters are mainly discussed for different laser wavelength through numerical simulation.The interference fringes of microparticle are enlarged by infrared laser and easy to resolve.Simultaneously,the transmissivity of infrared laser through the high density object field is larger than green laser and verified by experiment.All results confirm the dominance of infrared laser in-line particle holography.


Background and Objectives B cell–depleting antibodies were proven as effective strategy for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS). The monoclonal antibody ocrelizumab was approved in 2017 in the United States and in 2018 in the European Union, but despite proven efficacy in randomized, controlled clinical trials, its effectiveness in the real-world setting remains to be fully elucidated. In particular, most study patients were treatment naive or switched from injectable therapies, whereas oral substances or monoclonal antibodies made up >1% of previous treatments. Methods We evaluated ocrelizumab-treated patients with RMS enrolled in the prospective cohorts at the University Hospitals Duesseldorf and Essen, Germany. Epidemiologic data at baseline were compared, and Cox proportional hazard models were applied to evaluate outcomes. Results Two hundred eighty patients were included (median age: 37 years, 35% male patients). Compared with using ocrelizumab as a first-line treatment, its use as a third-line therapy increased hazard ratios (HRs) for relapse and disability progression, whereas differences between first- vs second-line and second- vs third-line remained smaller. We stratified patients according to their last previous disease-modifying treatment and here identified fingolimod (FTY) (45 patients, median age 40 years, 33% male patients) as a relevant risk factor for ongoing relapse activity despite 2nd-line (HR: 3.417 [1.007–11.600]) or 3rd-line (HR: 5.903 [2.489–13.999]) ocrelizumab treatment, disability worsening (2nd line: HR: 3.571 [1.013–12.589]; 3rd line: HR: 4.502 [1.728–11.729]), and occurrence of new/enlarging MRI lesions (2nd line: HR: 1.939 [0.604–6.228]; 3rd line: HR: 4.627 [1.982–10.802]). Effects were persistent throughout the whole follow-up. Neither peripheral B-cell repopulation nor immunoglobulin G levels were associated with rekindling disease activity. Discussion Our prospectively collected observational data suggest suboptimal effectiveness of ocrelizumab in patients switching from FTY compared with those switching from other substances or having been treatment naive. These findings support previous studies indicating abated effectiveness of immune cell–depleting therapies following FTY treatment in patients with RMS. Classification of Evidence This study provides Class IV evidence that for patients with RMS, previous treatment with FTY compared with previous treatment with other immunomodulating therapies decreases the effectiveness of ocrelizumab.


The present paper focuses on the enhancement of the development of small wind energy considering sustainable energy harvesting criteria. As known, the exploitation of wind energy as an environmental friendly energy source is carried out by wind turbine systems. In order to satisfy local energy needs, low power small scale wind turbines could be used. Their use, contributes to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in the local atmosphere, as well as to the consumption of electricity on site where power is produced. In the present work a comparative analysis has been performed taking into consideration two different application sites located in Crete Island, Greece. This analysis is based on actual recordings of the characteristics of the wind and followed by the selection of the optimum installation height, as well as the estimation of the construction cost. This analysis includes two different design cases using two different construction materials for the support tower, in particular steel and aluminium, taking into account the results of the respective advanced finite element analysis models. This way the proposed analysis leads to an enhanced evaluation of the sustainability of the small wind energy systems in the local built environment.


With the advent of big data era in industry, data-driven modeling methods have been applied widely. The concept drift problem in industrial process modeling has also attracted widespread attention. However, the current research on concept drift focuses on classification tasks and computer fields, with less work on regression modeling of industrial processes. Aiming at the above problems, this paper summarizes the concept drift detection methods for industrial process modeling, and guide for solving this problem. First, the general definition of concept drift and its existence in industrial processes are introduced. Then, the existing drift detection technologies based on process variables, based on prediction error of difficulty-to-measure parameter and based on combine multiple factors are addressed. Thirdly, these methods are discussed, and some research difficulties are given out. Finally, the conclusion and the future research directions for the existing concept detection difficulties are presented.


cate original sets of which are to be filed with each Government; the commissioners are further required to file with each Government joint reports describing in detail the location of the line and the monuments or other boundary marks established along its course; and it is agreed that the line so marked and denned by them shall be taken and deemed to be the international boundary. The boundary is appropriately divided by the treaty into eight different sections, each one of which is dealt with in a separate article containing a recital of the several treaty provisions and the proceedings thereunder which define and fix its location, the extent of each section being determined by its relation to such treaty provisions and by the character of the future proceedings which are to be taken for the more complete definition and demarcation of such section of the boundary. Thus, it will be seen that in addition to its primary value, as a preventative of boundary disputes in the future, this treaty has a secondary value of considerable importance, in that, by the method of arrangement and treatment above referred to, it furnishes an authoritative outline or synopsis of the history of the establishment of our entire northern boundary, showing with respect to each section the various different proceedings which have been taken from its inception to its final completion.


High efficiency scouring and bleaching process combined with TY-288 auxiliary were carried out for viscose/protolinen blended fabric to replace the traditional two-chlorine-one-peroxide hydrogen process. The results show that the innovative process without caustic soda for scouring or sodium hypochlorite for bleaching imparts the fabric acceptable whiteness, wet and dry strength, capillary effect as well as linen skin removal, the end product possesses excellent dyeing saturation, brilliance and smoothness.


THE sufferer from atopic eczema in Australia is in a most unfortunate position when contemplating overseas travel. Representatives of the medical profession are loath to carry out smallpox vaccination in such a patient because of the risk of complications. A letter from his medical adviser will usually allow the patient to enter most countries without vaccination, but his greatest difficulty is in his return to Australia. Such a letter is not acceptable here, so that the patient must produce a declaration that two weeks have been spent either in Canada, the United States of America or the Pacific Islands. It is obviously important to consider very seriously whether or not it is safe to vaccinate sufferers from atopic eczema, probably carrying out the vaccination at the same consultation during which a sufficient quantity of antivaccinial gamma globulin is injected intramuscularly.


Electric loads, such as computers, lamps, refrigerators and heaters connected to low-voltage distributionsystems in homes and offices differ widely in how their current responds to changes in the a ...


In this paper, the performance of recently developed nearest‐nodes finite element method (NN‐FEM) (Finite Elem. Anal. Des. 2007; 44:797–803; Int. J. Solids Struct. 2008; 45:5074–5087; Adv. Theor. Appl. Mech. 2008; 1:131–139) in dealing with element distortion is investigated. Numerical results demonstrated that the accuracy of NN‐FEM is nearly unaffected by element distortion. The reason is that in NN‐FEM, a set of nearest nodes of a quadrature point is always selected for the construction of shape functions. In this way, the quality of shape functions is solely determined by the locations of the selected nearest nodes, and not affected by element shapes. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


An analysis of the current regulatory documents on electrical safety shows that the methodological guidelines for determining the induced voltage on disconnected overhead power lines (OHL) located near the operating OHL contain methodological and methodological errors. These errors can lead to a significant underestimation of the determined induced voltage. It has been established that the method specified in the regulatory documents for determining the maximum possible value of the induced voltage by means of a single measurement with subsequently multiplying the measured value by a certain recalculation factor k does not allow in principle to determine it reliably. To determine a reliable value at a certain point of the disconnected overhead line, in general, it is necessary to measure the induced voltage at the same point of the overhead line at different values of the currents affecting the overhead line. The article formulates the main and auxiliary tasks of determining the reliable values of the maximum possible induced voltage. The main principles of the methods for solving the stated tasks are considered.


Purpose To investigate the impact of N6-methyladenosine- (m6A) and neutrophil extracellular traps- (NETs) related lncRNAs (MNlncRNAs) on the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods We collected m6A and NETs-related genes from published studies. We identified the MNlncRNAs by correlation analysis. Cox regression and the least absolute selection operator (LASSO) method were used to select predictive MNlncRNAs. The expressions of predictive MNlncRNAs were detected by cell and tissue experiments. Survival, medication sensitivity, and immunological microenvironment evaluations were used to assess the model's prognostic utility. Finally, we performed cellular experiments to further validate the model's prognostic reliability. Results We obtained a total of 209 MNlncRNAs. 7 MNlncRNAs comprised the prognostic model, which successfully stratifies HCC patients, with the area under the curve (AUC) ranging from 0.7 to 0.8. In vitro tests confirmed that higher risk patients had worse prognosis. Risk score, immunological microenvironment, and immune checkpoint gene expression were all significantly correlated with each other in HCC. In the group at high risk, immunotherapy could be more successful. Cellular assays confirmed that HCC cells with high risk scores have a higher proliferation and invasive capacity. Conclusion The MNlncRNAs-related prognostic model aided in determining HCC prognosis, revealing novel therapeutic options, notably immunotherapy.


This paper focuses on the research of project information management for the urban planning engineering company of the author, starting from the analysis of demand, this paper puts forward the system's functional and nonfunctional design target, summarizes the overall system design and module design ideas, then completes the design and implementation of project management system, and introduces the content and requirements of urban planning project management, as well as the guiding ideology, the popular modes (C/S and B/S) and their characteristics. Some related technologies are used in the process of system development. The intelligent urban planning project management system uses object-oriented software development method and chooses the Unified Modeling Language (UML) as modeling tool.


The importance of the wrapping tension control for improving the performances of wires and cables are described,and the basic principle of the tension control in wrapping is introduced.The comparison of two wrapping tension control ways,which are electrical and mechanical ones,is carried out.The electrical constant tension control features small pulsation and high accuracy,can realize adjustment without halting operation.It has achieved significant effects in the improvement of the quality of wires and cables.Furthermore,the setting of the parameters for the constant tension control in wrapping is presented.


living arrangements. For example, are older children more likely to live with their fathers than younger ones? Are boys more likely to live with their fathers than girls? Are changes in living arrangements more likely to occur for older than younger children? What happens when resident parents find new partners? That is, how often does repartnering result in children moving out? These questions are examined using the data from the Caring For Children after Separation survey conducted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies in August to October 2003.


RV surveys of evolved stars allow us to probe a higher stellar mass range compared to main-sequence samples. Differences between the planet populations can be caused by either the differing stellar mass or stellar evolution. To properly disentangle the effects of both, the planet population around giant stars needs to be characterized as accurately as possible. Our goal is to investigate the giant planet occurrence rate around evolved stars and determine its dependence on stellar mass, metallicity, and orbital period. We combine data from the Lick, EXPRESS, and PPPS giant star surveys, yielding a sample of 482 evolved stars and 37 planets. We homogeneously rederived the stellar parameters and accounted for varying observational coverage, precision, and stellar noise properties by computing detection maps via injection and retrieval of synthetic planetary signals. We then computed occurrence rates as a function of period, stellar mass, and metallicity, corrected for incompleteness. Our findings agree with previous studies that found a positive planet-metallicity correlation for evolved stars and identified a peak in the occurrence rate as a function of stellar mass, but our results place it at a slightly smaller mass of 1.68Msun. The period dependence of the occurrence rate seems to follow a broken power-law or log-normal peaking at 700-800 days, roughly corresponding to 1.6AU for a 1Msun star and 2.0AU for a 2Msun star. This peak could be a remnant from halted migration around intermediate-mass stars, caused by stellar evolution, or an artifact from contamination by false positives. The global occurrence rate of giant planetary systems is 10.7% for the entire sample, while the subsets of RGB and HB stars exhibit 14.2% and 6.6%, respectively. However, we demonstrate that the different stellar mass distributions suffice to explain the apparent change of occurrence with evolutionary stage.


The present invention reduces the lactic acid production in cultured cells, provides methods and compositions to increase the polypeptide production. In one aspect, the invention is, a) lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the specific small interfering RNA (siRNA), a and b) pyruvic acid dehydrogenase kinase (PDHK) cells expressing siRNA specific It said method comprising culturing. In another aspect, the invention is siRNA specific for LDH, and to provide a cultured cell or a vector comprising an siRNA specific for PDHK.


Aim To investigate the influence of comprehensive nursing intervention on patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and depression.Methods 68 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and depression were randomly divided into conventional group and intervention group,conventional group given only routine care,intervention group given comprehensive nursing intervention.Pulmonary function and depression were evaluated in patients after 12 months.Results Compared with the conventional group,pulmonary function was improved significantly,and HAMD scores were significantly lower than that in the conventional group.Conclusion Comprehensive nursing intervention can improve pulmonary function and depression in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.


The balance-of-system (BOS) components in a photovoltaic (PV) installation include the array structure, trackers, ac and dc wiring, overcurrent protection, disconnects, interconnects, inverters, charge controllers, energy storage and system controllers. The inverter (sometimes called power-conditioning subsystem (PCS), power conditioner, or static power converter) is the key electrical power handling component of a photovoltaic power system that is attached to ac loads. This paper focuses on the inverter and its related functions as the critical electrical BOS element in a photovoltaic system. The paths that have been taken to arrive at today's inverter technology are summarized and developments in integrated hardware, advancements in packaging, advancements in manufacturing, and opportunities for the new millennium are presented.


The article deals with the model of spatial development of agricultural land use, and the functions of land resources as well as the objective factors influencing the formation of land relations in the Non-Black Earth Region and the organization of land administration. A brief analysis of the main phenomena and processes in agricultural land use take place in this paper. The ways of development of agricultural land use as a means of production are considered here as well. The authors propose the forecast for the development of agricultural land use and formulate the goals, objectives and main directions of the strategy for the spatial development of agricultural land use. It is shown that the program-target scenario will be the most important in the development of agricultural land use in the Non-Black Earth Region of Russia.


The paper "Smartcard-based Secret Distribution for Secure Fingerprint Verification" presents a method for the secure and efficient authentication of a person's identity based on fingerprint verification for smartcard applications. The approach is based on the "fuzzy vault" scheme which protects the fingerprint template based on the hardness of the polynomial reconstruction problem. Two different polynomials are used at the smartcard and at the server instead of a single polynomial for enhanced security. Experimental results of performance are discussed in the paper.


Straw storage is the key to the use of large-scale straw and the establishment of storage and transportation system is the basis of large-scale use of straw. In this paper, the author summarized the existing models of straw storage and transportation in China, compared the advantages and disadvantages, and put forward the existing problems and suggestions of straw storage and transportation, in order to provide reference of the efficient utilization of straw resources.


The error of data transmission appears when the flowing is overlow in the long distance communication.To solve this problem,a relay and measurement circuit of sensors is proposed used in long distance communication.The relay circuit works according to photoelectric isolation technology and current loop method.Current loop interface can work in 5 mA current,its communication distance is more than 500m or even further.The circuit is applied in environmental monitoring system of multi-sensor and data information fusion algorithm of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation is used to test data fusion.The experimental results show that the proposed relay detecting circuit is reliable,stable,and well realizes data transmission in long distance.


We study the global behaviour of Gaussian curvature K and normal curvature K⊥ of zero mean curvature spacelike surfaces (stationary surfaces) in a four-dimensional Lorentzian space form L4(c). In particular, we show that the only complete stationary surfaces in Minkowski space E41 with K[ges ]0 are those with K≡0≡K⊥ and we give an explicit description of them. More general results are obtained for stationary surfaces in L4(c). We also discuss applications to Willmore surfaces in both Lorentzian and Riemannian three spaces. We give new examples of complete stationary surfaces in E41 with finite total curvature.


A wide range of film-forming compounds are available today and facilitate the design and tailoring of edible films and coatings with optimized functional properties. The main targeted functional properties are mass transfer properties, that is, solubility, diffusivity, and permeability compatible with the targeted applications, for example, moisture or O2 barrier, controlled release of an active agent, O2 scavenging property, among others. The dimensioning of an edible film or coating relies thus essentially on the knowledge of its targeted mass transfer property. Despite recent huge efforts made in the development of integrated approach for Building the specifications of edible film and coating, a realistic assessment of the film or coating efficacy is still critical. Mathematical modeling of mass transfer phenomena involved in the coated food is the base of a better realistic assessment of the performance of protective edible films. The aim of this chapter is to make a progress report on the measurement of mass transfer properties and on the modeling of mass transfer into the coating/food system. The last section illustrates how mathematical tools could be used to adequately dimension edible films or coatings.


In a limited patient series free grafts of the tibial periosteum have been used in the primary repair of congenital maxillary clefts. Definite bone formation has been observed in the grafted area, and overbridging of the bony cleft has been achieved. Free periosteum can probably be applied to replace the transplantation of bone in children in selected small defects as a more plastic and easily available material.


Background: India continues to be among the countries of the world that have a high burden of diseases. The state must provide free and universal access to quality health-care services to its citizens. The present article reviews the Universal Health Coverage Scheme introduced by the Indian government to strengthen health insurance system with triple objectives of ensuring efficiency, equity and high-quality care. Objective: The objective of the study is to analyze the significance and performance of Universal Health Coverage in India. Method: Mixed Method research was conducted in the study to consolidate quantitative and subjective method to help assemble a more comprehensive picture of the issue addressed. The data were collected from 617 members (include both managers and consumers) from Kerala and Tamil Nadu state of India to know the level of awareness of Indian consumers. Results: The various health program and policies in the past have not been able to achieve the desired goals and objectives. Conclusions: These difficulties can be met by a change in outlook in health policies and programs for vulnerable population groups, rebuilding of public health units, reorientation of undergrad medical education, more accentuation on public health investigate and extensive education crusades. The Indian health system is characterized by a vast public health infrastructure which lies underutilized and a largely unregulated private market which caters to the greater need for curative treatment.


In this paper the authors analyse the earth tide observation data during 2890 days at 10 stations, using Cartwright's development and Venedikob's harmonic analysis method. Nakai's fitting system is also used here for increasing the signal to noise ratio of the results of analysis. At the same time, for comparison, linear interpolation method has been employed in treating the sensitivity data of the gravimeters. The study will be centered on the space distribution characteristics of tidal gravity vector in China, and its relationship to oceanic loading. Analysis indicates that the space distributions of tidal gravity vector are obviously controlled by oceanic loading especially by the wave O1.The rheological effect of the instruments and the results of analysis in considering these effect are discussed, the phase lags amount mostly to about -1°, agreeing with theory. In addition, authors examine also the relations between the residual vector and the oceanic loading vector, their conformity indicates their mutual effect. By means of the method of error vector, the accuracy of the results of analysis was examined to be not enough. Finally, based on such studies, the observed waves M2, and θ1 after correction have been obtained.


Present work estimates which industrial method of single mode fiber production is providing the best fiber for fiber optic cables industry.


The mean spherical model is solved analytically for mixtures of dipolar fluids. The components are identified by different but additive molecular radii and different magnitudes of the dipole moment. The direct and indirect correlation functions are found to be functionally dependent on the corresponding hard-sphere functions calculated at certain adjusted densities. Equations for the parameters concerned in calculating such densities are given. The reduction to the equal radii case follows immediately from this analysis.


The visual language of graphic novels is increasingly becoming a powerful tool of expression. Originally known as the comic books, the contemporary graphic novels are being acknowledged as a potential medium for handling serious issues. Recently, a great changeover in the thematic concerns and the art style of Indian Graphic Novels has been witnessed. This hybrid medium of text and image is addressing to the sensitive issues and questions of the contemporary modern society and also establishing a cultural identity through its artistic (visual) expression. The conventional style of comic sketching and caricaturing on paper is being replaced by the traditional art forms from different cultures and regions of India. This shift has brought about a change in the perspectives or the ways of 'seeing' both the Indian Graphic Novels and the Indian visual art forms. The paper purports to establish a connection between these two with a proposition that the graphic novels are a potential mode of preserving the traditional art forms of India and helping them gain recognition globally so that the Indian Graphic Novel can also create a distinguished identity in verbal-visual literature like that of Japanese Manga. The paper is an endeavour to examine how the traditional art forms are being contextualized in the contemporary times and how they are effectively registering the resistance against the stereotype and the negligence especially of women and Dalits in the Indian society itself.


The purpose of this investigation was to determine the safety benefits of heavy vehicle accreditation. Accreditation is a formal process for recognising operators who have good safety and other management systems in place. Those management systems include vehicle maintenance, driver fatigue, driver training, vehicle loading and the many other factors that affect heavy vehicle safety and sustainability. (a)


This Abstract: Agriculture remains a significant part of the economies of countries around the world as it contributes to national gross domestic product (GDP), foreign exchange earnings, and food security. However, despite these contributions, the agricultural sector globally especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, is besieged with many challenges, paramount among them being climate change-related factors such as irregular rainfall patterns, increasing temperature, the incidence of droughts, and decreasing soil fertility. These problems have been found to have led to a fall in agricultural production globally including in developing countries like Ghana. On this premise, the present study sought to access the climate change adaptation strategies employed by smallholder farmers and its effects on food security at Anloga in the Volta Region of Ghana. The population for the study was crop farmers in the Anloga District who were selected using convenience sampling under non-probability sampling methods. The data collected was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS version 20. The study results revealed the farmers in the study area are aware of the negative effects of climate change on agricultural production and therefore adopt adaptation strategies such as using resistant crop varieties, crop diversification, intercropping/mixed cropping, changing cropping calendar and using irrigation with irrigating being stated to be widely used and most effective adaptation strategy. Based on the results it was recommended that farmers at Anloga and other communities within the District and the Region at large be educated on the importance of using adaptation strategies that are suitable for their climate to enhance their crop production.


The configuration of a certain type of subcaliber antiaircraft gun system is introduced briefly. The models of cruise missile, fire control radar and subcaliber antiaircraft gun were built based on the process of campaign. Digital simulation method was used for studying the denfensive efficiency of the system to cruise missiles, and the relationship of damage probability with the environment and each techincal parameter of the anticraft system was analyzed quantitatively. The work supplies a basis for evaluating the operational efficiency of subcaliber anticraft gun system.


Since the beginning of this decade, a large number of developing as well as industrialized countries of the world have committed a small fraction of their national resources to combat the detrimental impacts of environmental pollution. The control and abatement of environmental and occupational noise levels in many urban communities has been a difficult and sometimes frustrating exercise as it involves planning, development, and implementation of realistic as well as enforceable legislations, regulations, or ordinances. Nonetheless, it is encouraging to note that both the less developed and highly developed (industrialized) nations have made definite contribution towards reduction of the unnecessary, excessive, harmful, and annoying noises. The object of this paper is to review, evaluate, and summarize the current plans and programs to control environmental noise pollution in Australia, Brasil, and Japan. The author has witnessed first hand the strategies used for noise abatement in Brasil and Japan, whil...


Meteorological observations were carried out in Langtang Valley, Nepal Himalayas, from May to October in 1996. Meteorological stations were installed at four sites where the surface conditions and altitudes were different. Daily or seven days running mean values of meteorological parameters are summarized in this report. The monthly averaged parameters are compared with the data obtained since 1985. Meteorological conditions of the observation period, the monsoon season of 1996, are summarized as follows ; warmer, more humid, weaker wind, more precipitation and slightly less short wave radiation than those of the other years.


Objective:To optimize the extraction technology for Sanmiao Xiaotong Tie.Method:An or-thogonal test was adopted in this study.The extraction technology of San Miao Xiao Tong Tie was optimized by ex-tracting berberine hydrochloric and swelling function of mice.Result:The best extraction technology was to extract for 2 times with 10 fold ethanol solution(50%) and 2 h each time.Conclusion:The optimized extraction technolo-gy was rational and the extraction rate of the active components was high.


To determine the level of heavy metal in polluted paddy soil and rice along Dahuan River,ICP-AES was used to analyze heavy metal elements including As,Cd,Cr,Cu,Mn,Ni,Pb,Sb and Zn of paddy soil samples and rice samples.The interpretation of geo-accumulation index(Igeo)was used to assess the contamination of the paddy soil and the pollution indices were used to evaluate the contamination of rice.The results showed that Pb,Zn and As in paddy soil exceeded the national standard,with the mean concentrations in abandoned paddy field being 29.4 mg·kg-1,388 mg·kg-1 and 29.4 mg·kg-1,respectively.According to Igeo,Pb was heavily contaminated,Zn was moderately contaminated,and As was lightly contaminated.The main contaminated heavy metals in rice were Pb and Cu,and their mean concentrations were 1.85 mg·kg-1 and 14.7 mg·kg-1,respectively.The concentrations of heavy metals in rice polishing were much higher than in the rice,and those,except for Cu,in the polishing of the poorer quality rice(i.e.,shriveled rice) were much higher than higher quality rice,suggesting that heavy metals preferred to concentrate in rice polishing.


High temperature components are subjected to creep-fatigue loading where creep cavities initiate and grow on grain boundaries. Development of a quantitative evaluation method of cavity growth is important for reliable meintenance. In this study, a creep-fatigue test was carried out at 600°C on 2.25 Cr-1Mo steel in a scanning electron microscope and continuous observation of cavity growth behavior was made. Based on the cavity growth observation, previously proposed cavity growth models were modified and a simulation result by the modified model was discussed by comparing with observed cavity. From the observation, spherical shape cavities initiate and grow up to their length of 2 μm on the grain boundary at initial stage of damage and these cavites change their shape to crack-like to grow until their length reaches around 10 μm. Both spherical and crack-like cavity growth equations, which consider diffusion and power low creep as driving force under constrained condition, were derived. Measured cavity growth rate is well expressed by the derived equations and a cavity growth simulation result corresponds to the change in the maximum cavity size with cycles.


Standard Internet connections experience the considerable limits represented by terrestrial networks, despite WWW content, which are growing more and more in volumes and "richness". In this scenario satellite may play a significant role specifically exploiting its best competitive advantages, namely the coverage, the high data rates, the broadcasting capabilities. The first part of the present article introduce the converging world of digital TV and PC and describe the functional performances of SkyplexNet platform, an advanced DVB-S platform for multimedia service provision, developed within the ESA Artes 3 Line 1 Program. The second part of the article point out in detail the market drivers of such system architecture which derives its presupposition on the current commercial experience and achieved results, disclosing promising potentialities for the next coming future when Eutelsat Hot Bird 6 satellite will present improved functionalities and additional Skyplex capacity.


Series of mortar and concrete mixes were prepared to have combinations of three types of cement: ordinary, pozzolanic and sulfate-resisting; three types of mixing water: tap, Red Sea and its 50% diluted version. From each mix cubic specimens were cast, each containing pairs of steel bars having different covers. The specimens were divided into groups and were subjected to different exposure conditions. At the age of one year they were tested for compressive strength and weight losses in steel bars. According to the results mixing with sea water increased the strengths of the specimens stored in dry air while causing slight reductions in most of the other specimens. In general ordinary portland cement performed better. Smaller cover, mixing with sea water, leaner mix and wetting-drying in sea water were corrosion increasing factors. Diluting the sea water for mixing could reduce corrosion to half or even less. The use of pozzolanic portland or pozzolan replacement of cement generally were not helpful in reducing steel corrosion. (Author/TRRL)


An unusual case of malignant peritoneal effusion I Chinmayee Panigrahi, Madhusmita Sethy, Amit Kumar Adhya i https://doi.org/10.1111/cyt.13032 ;Version of Record Online: 04 August 2021 Diagnosis of a high grade neuroendocrine carcinoma may be difficult in fluid cytology. Editorial I Michael Sheaff, Keith Kerr i https://doi.org/10.1111/cyt.13077 ;Version of Record Online: 15 December 2021 The guest editors provide an overview of the current role of respiratory cytology in the diagnosis and management of thoracic disease and introduce the invited special issue articles. VIEWPOINT Respiratory cytology in malignant lung disease - The thoracic oncologist's perspective I Niki Veale, Laura Succony, Doris M. Rassl, Robert C. Rintoul i https://doi.org/10.1111/cyt.13021 ;Version of Record Online: 09 July 2021 Respiratory cytology plays a central role in diagnosis of thoracic malignancy but indications have changed with the development of endobronchial ultrasound. [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Cytopathology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)


In this paper, we propose new extragradient algorithms for solving a split equilibrium and nonexpansive mapping SEPNM($C, Q, A, f, g, S, T)$ where $C, Q$ are nonempty closed convex subsets in real Hilbert spaces $\mathcal{H}_1, \mathcal{H}_2 $ respectively, $A : \mathcal{H}_1 \to \mathcal{H}_2$ is a bounded linear operator, $f$ is a pseudomonotone bifunction on $C$ and $g$ is a monotone bifunction on $Q$, $S, T$ are nonexpansive mappings on $C$ and $Q$ respectively. By using extragradient method combining with cutting techniques, we obtain algorithms for the problem. Under certain conditions on parameters, the iteration sequences generated by the algorithms are proved to be weakly and strongly convergent to a solution of this problem.


Dynamic background is one of the key elements that decide the whole visual effect of TV program head leader.This article introduces several methods of realizing some commonly used dynamic backgrounds by AE software.


In this work, we consider the spectral problem for differential pencils on a star-type graph with a Kirchhoff-type condition in the internal vertex. The regularized trace formula of this operator is established with the contour integration method in complex analysis.


Purpose: Quality Improvement of prone breast radiotherapy by modification of the simulation technique and a prone breast board (PBB). Methods: The "Horizon" PBB medial edge of the bridge was elevated and marked with radio‐opaque BBs to avoid the bolus effect from the bridge and visualize the edge during simulation and treatment setup. Side bars were added to stabilize PBB. For support of the hands, shoulders and clavicles the superior platform was widened and elongated also indexed handles and shoulder support were installed. Head support was used for patient's longitudinal setup. A "two‐step" setup procedure was introduced to improve the setup accuracy: the patient is setup on the board using the "setup" point that is easily and reliably identified on patient body and then shifted to the treatment isocenter based on the treatment planning calculation. Results: Implementation of the "two‐step" setup procedure and modification of PBB significantly improved the setup accuracy. 74 patients were treated with this technique: 20% has a displacement (beam relative to the marked edge ) of more than 1 cm, 9.5% between 1cm and 0.5cm, and the rest 70.5% less than 0.5cm. Displacements more than 1cm mostly happened at the beginning of the implementation this procedure and there was a general trend of decreasing displacement as we became more familiar with this setup technique. The radio‐opaque markers made it much easier to identify and avoid unexpected inclusion of the bridge in the treatment fields during the treatment planning and patient setup. Conclusions: There are currently no commercially available PBB that are durable, comfortable and flexible for satisfactory patient setup and alignment. The modification of the prone breast board and implementation of the new simulation technique have partially addressed these concerns and significantly improved the quality of our prone breast RT program


In this paper, we present an efficient HW/SW codesign architecture for H.263 video coder and its FPGA implementation. Each module of the coder is investigated to find which approach between HW and SW is better to achieve real-time processing speed as well as flexibility. The hardware portion include the discrete cosine transform (DCT) and inverse DCT (IDCT). Remaining parts were realized in software with NIOS II softcore processor. This paper also introduces efficient design methods for HW and SW modules. In hardware, an efficient architecture for the 2-D DCT and 2-D IDCT is suggested to reduce the chip size. Software optimization technique is also explored by using the fast block-matching algorithm for motion estimation (ME). The whole design are described in VHDL language and implemented in stratix EP2S60 FPGA. Finally, the coder has been tested on the altera NIOS II development board.


The paper analyses the engagement of students and teachers in developing a community of practice and the role of the institution in the process. Our research is based on surveys of students and teachers conducted in 2016 as part of the EU-funded Erasmus+ research project Internationalisation and Modernisation of Education and Processes in the Higher Education of Uzbekistan (IMEP). The questionnaires, developed by the project team of researchers, aimed to identify the areas of successful student engagement and where students did not engage actively in teaching, learning and other university and extracurricular activities. Our surveys of students and teachers provided us with the necessary information in order to establish the reasons for successful and less pro-active engagement of students. The results of the surveys also showed some differences in the level of engagement of teachers and students in the process of teaching and learning and how both groups viewed their involvement and the role of the institution. Two case studies presented by students selected for this project showcase their positive experience and confirm the results of our study. While the article deals with concrete data collected and analysed as part of the research, it addresses wider issues of student engagement, the provision of feedback and analyses the role of the main players in the process of teaching and learning enhancement.


Abstract Virtual testing and hybrid simulation have become an important trend in airplane design and validation. The traditional Testing Pyramid (or Building Block) approaches that emphasis on uniaxial coupon test and full structure certification test are being challenged. Researchers are trying to use advanced testing and simulation methods to replace the Testing Pyramid approach. Before physical testing, virtual testing can be conducted to simulate the physical test. Virtual model of the full testing system including controller, actuators, and fixtures can be constructed and validated. In this work, an example has been developed and validated to show the potentials of the virtual testing process. Hybrid simulation is an approach of analyzing an analysis model and physical structure integrated system under realistic loading conditions. Hybrid simulation combines the lab testing with numerical analysis to explore the benefits of both methodologies. In this study, a hybrid simulation for a simplified airplane wing was conducted to demonstrate the process. Virtual testing and hybrid simulation are alternative methods of Testing Pyramid approach. Full scale tests are still required for certification but the more that is known about the test article, the greater chances of success in the full-scale certification testing.


Abstract : This study evaluates the potential of high altitude balloons as surveillance platforms. It begins with the mobile Theater Ballistic Missile (TBM) detection problem encountered during the Persian Gulf War of 1990-1991 and it describes a possible scenario using high altitude balloon surveillance systems to locate TBM's accurately enough for effective engagement by strike assets. It presents the history and military use of balloons, and it describes the current state of technology of differing balloon types. Atmospheric circulation impacting balloon drift is presented along with a description of available atmospheric models. Trajectory prediction programs are reviewed and a revised program is used to conduct a simulation of balloon trajectories. Balloon locations at fixed times are analyzed for variability. The study concludes that high altitude balloons have some potential for use as surveillance platforms for limited periods of time. Missile defense, Theater missile Defense, Scud, Surveillance, Balloon, High-altitude balloon, Super pressure balloon, Atmosphere, Stratosphere, Atmospheric circulation, Command and control.


into different camps of learning and different literary genres, and acquired distinct connotations in specific geographical areas — from the theme of the faun in miniatures and sculpture to satirical fables in poetry, theater, painting, and sculpture in the Padua-Veneto region, to that connection between duty and license that arose from the old category of anti-Renaissance. ROBERTA RICCI Bryn Mawr College Translation SHEILA J. RABIN St. Peter's College


The invention relates to a method of detecting the on state or off electrical equipment (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36) of a vehicle, wherein the amplitudes of the magnetic field measured in at least two directions are analyzed to isolate the contributions of various electrical equipment and deduce their states.


Objective: To find the migratory characters of the olfactory ensheathing cells(OECs) in peripheral. Method: OECs were cultured from rat olfactory bulbs and marked by Hochest, then injected into to rat sciatic nerves injured in different sites. Result: The characters of OECs were different according to the different injury sites. Farther distance were observed in the injured sides than intact sides, but when sciatic nerves were injured and OECs were transplanted in spinal cord, or spinal cords were injured and OECs were transplanted in sciatic nerve, the distance was no difference in both sides. Conclusion: The migration of OECs in PNS is not tend to CNS, but to injured sites, and the speed of migration is slow.


Amery Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf in East Antarctica. Large calving event occurs every thirty to forty years as recorded. The latest calving event happened in September 2019, leading to the birth of a giant tabular iceberg. We used satellite imagery and altimeter data from multiple sources to monitor the evolution of the iceberg from October 2019 to October 2020. The evolution of iceberg area is measured with Sentinel-1 images, and the change of freeboards was derived from CryoSat-2, Sentinel-3 SRAL, and ICESat-2 profiles. Compared with topography of Amery Front before calving, we found the temporal freeboards of the iceberg show a trend of descending after calved from Amery Ice Shelf, which indicates overall basal melting process. While the freeboards of Amery Front remain stable within a year before calving. We also calculated the freeboard changes of 30 footstep intersections from different altimeter profiles on the iceberg. The results show different changing patterns of freeboards, varying from 4.72m to -3.1m, which indicates there is basal re-freezing process as well as basal melting at the bottom of the iceberg. Furthermore, we studied the correlation between freeboard change and sea surface temperature. This study reveals that the use of different remote sensing data can provide more detailed observations on Antarctic icebergs.


This chapter reviews mathematical approaches to inelastic processes on surfaces of elastic bodies. We mostly consider a quasistatic and rate-independent evolution at small strains and the concept of the so-called energetic solution. This concept is applied e.g. to brittle/elastic delamination, cohesive contact problems, and to delamination in various modes. Beside the theoretical treatment, numerical experiments are also presented. Finally, generalizations to dynamical and thermodynamical processes are outlined, together with extension to homogenization of composite materials with debonding phases.


Wild type Bacilus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis and B. sphaericus toxins have been used separately as active in ingredients for bacterial insecticides to control mosquito larvae due to their comparable toxicity to chemical insecticides. Cry11B, recently cloned from B. thuringiensis subsp. jegathesan, shows higher toxicity against three major species of mosquito larvae than Cry11A, one of the major component of B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis inclusion body. To determine whether the combination of cry11B and B. sphaericus binary toxins is as toxic as B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis parental strain, cry11B and B. sphaericus binary toxins genes were co-expressed as an operon using cytlA promoters/STAB-SD hybrid expression system in B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis acrystalliferous strain 4Q7. However, unexpectedly, B. sphaericus binary toxins were barely produced, whereas relatively large amount of Cry11B was produced. When this strain was grown in four different media, NB+G and Peptonized Milk produced more toxin proteins and spores per unit of media than GYS and G-Tris. Toxicity of this strain against fourth instar Culex quinquefasciatus was ranged from of 8.3 to 45.7 ng/ml, with NB+G culture being the highest, and GYS culture was the lowest.


This paper proposes a self-taught anomaly detection framework for optical networks. The proposed framework makes use of a hybrid unsupervised and supervised machine learning scheme. First, it employs an unsupervised data clustering module (DCM) to analyze the patterns of monitoring data. The DCM enables a self-learning capability that eliminates the requirement of prior knowledge of abnormal network behaviors and therefore can potentially detect unforeseen anomalies. Second, we introduce a self-taught mechanism that transfers the patterns learned by the DCM to a supervised data regression and classification module (DRCM). The DRCM, whose complexity is mainly related to the scale of the applied supervised learning model, can potentially facilitate more scalable and time-efficient online anomaly detection by avoiding excessively traversing the original dataset. We designed the DCM and DRCM based on the density-based clustering algorithm and the deep neural network structure, respectively. Evaluations with experimental data from two use cases (i.e., single-point detection and end-to-end detection) demonstrate that up to <bold><inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$99\%$</tex-math></inline-formula></bold> anomaly detection accuracy can be achieved with a false positive rate below <bold><inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1\%$</tex-math></inline-formula></bold>.


This study sought to establish the strategic responses adopted by Kenya Commercial bank to cope with the competition in the banking industry having seen different banks emerge literally opposite each other in major towns with the need to capture a large market share having seen retail banking more lucrative over the years. The study was a case study of Kenya Commercial bank being one of the key players in the banking industry over the years and having emerged as one of the best seeing it tow with the business goals of survival, growth and continuity. Response was received from the head of retail banking, head of marketing and public relations department with the help of the operations manager as these departments hold influencing positions that have direct response or ripple effect to what is brought out from the organization to the market and that which still monitor the response from the market. From the study we realize that Kenya Commercial bank strategies are in full concentration with their resources and thus tend more to use the inside-out approach in which they use their strength and maximize this synergy to attract different individuals to bank with them. We see the bank maximize with relationship marketing aspect which focuses on improving current customers rather than acquiring new ones which is much cheaper. They are also dependant on their public image and enhance their branding image which depicts how aggressive and tiger competitors they are as they compete throughout the


This work presents two new approaches for the design of sum and difference antenna array. The first approach considers a configuration of sub-arrays that minimizes a "residual error" functional, while the second one a configuration that minimizes a "gain sorting" functional. The obtained results show that by means of such methods difference pattern close to the optimal ones can be obtained with simpler feed networks


Management approaches inspired by the variability of natural disturbances are expected to produce forests in the future that will be significantly more resilient and better adapted to local environmental conditions. Due to climate change, windstorms are becoming increasingly common resulting in the destruction not only of extensive forest areas but, quite often, of small-sized and scattered forest lands that can ultimately become home to insects and disease dissemination sites. In the present study, an attempt is made to identify and record areas in the northeastern forests of Greece covered by mixed stands of conifers and broadleaves that experienced massive windthrow following local storms. Based on tree-level data, local topographic features, forest characteristics and the mechanical properties of green wood, a reliable model, to be used for the prediction of similar disturbances in the future, has been created after a thorough comparative study of the most well-known intelligent machine learning algorithms.


The rising prevalence of asthma may be due to a loss of protective factors, such as infection, as well as to increases in risk factors


Excerpt In most patients, type I diabetes results from autoimmune beta-cell destruction in the setting of a genetically determined predisposition (1). Approximately 95% of patients with type I diab...


We analyze the enhanced transmission phenomenon in subwavelength slit structures near a dielectric interface. In particular, we investigate the influence of Rayleigh anomalies in the spectral position as well as in the bandwidth of Fabry–Perot resonances excited on such structures. We consider the cases of propagating and evanescent incidence, i.e., when the metallic structure is illuminated from the dielectric medium side with an incidence angle larger than the critical angle. We show that Rayleigh anomalies strongly interact with Fabry–Perot resonances, and make them deviate from the spectral positions predicted by the infinitely thin slit model. To get physical insight into this problem, we develop a simplified electromagnetic model and show that there is a close correspondence between the transmitted response of the structure and the behavior of certain function that depends on the geometrical and the illumination parameters. Our results suggest that Rayleigh anomalies strongly modify the electromagnetic response of the structure due to the existence of surface waves that modify the coupling condition between the fields inside and outside the slits. Besides, we show that even in absence of Fabry–Perot resonances, it is possible to produce enhanced transmission by taking advantage of the pseudoperiodicity condition of the fields.


Abstract The "supercell" scheme is applied to the study of local defects in MgO (Ca substitution, cation and anion vacancies) and bulk silicon (carbon substitution). The trend of the quantities of interest (defect formation energy, geometrical relaxation, charge distribution around the defect) as a function of the supercell size is explored; when neutral defects are considered, supercells containing 50 to 100 atoms are large enough to allow for most of the nuclear and electronic relaxation and to produce a negligible interaction between defects in different cells. These conclusions apply both to ionic and covalent host crystals. Present day ab initio quantum mechanical periodic computer programs can handle cells of such a size at a relatively low cost and high numerical accuracy. When charged defects are considered (vacancies in MgO), the supercell scheme must be modified in order to avoid Coulomb divergencies, but the usually adopted correction, which consists in introducing a compensating uniform backgr...


In the present work a conformational analysis of 3-amino-propeneselenal (APS) was performed using several computational methods, including DFT (B3LYP), MP2 and G2MP2. Harmonic vibrational frequencies were estimated at the same levels to confirm the nature of the stationary points found and also to account for the zero point vibrational energy (ZPVE) correction. Two intramolecular hydrogen bonds (HBs) established between the polar groups were identified by the structural geometric parameters. The excited-state properties of intramolecular hydrogen bonding in hydrogen bonded systems have been investigated theoretically using the time dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) method. The influence of the solvent on the stability order of conformers and the strength of intramolecular hydrogen bonding was considered using the polarized continuum model (PCM), the self-consistent isodensity polarized continuum model (SCI-PCM) and the integral equation formalism-polarizable continuum model (IEF-PCM) methods. The "atoms in molecules" theory of Bader was used to analyze critical points and to study the nature of HB in these systems. Natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis was also performed for better understanding the nature of intramolecular interactions. The calculated the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energies show that charge transfer occur within the molecule. Further verification of the obtained transition state structures were implemented via intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) analysis. Calculations of the 1H NMR chemical shift at GIAO/B3LYP/6–311++G** level of theory are also presented.


Evolution, and Systematics 20:297–330. REAL, J. AND S. MAÑOSA. 1990. Eagle owl (Bubo bubo) predation on juvenile Bonelli's Eagles (Hieraaetus fasciatus). Journal of Raptor Research 24:69–71. SERGIO, F. AND F. HIRALDO. 2008. Intraguild predation in raptor assemblages: a review. Ibis 150:132–145. SERRANO, D. 2000. Relationship between raptors and rabbits in the diet of eagle owls in southwestern Europe: competition removal or food stress? Journal of Raptor Research 34:305–310. VAZHOV, S.V., R.F. BACHTIN, A.N. BARASHKOVA, AND I.E. SMELANSKY. 2013. On the study of the Steppe Eagle in the Altai Kray, Russia. Raptors Conservation 27:162–171.


While MPI is the most common mechanism for expressing parallelism, MPI programs are not composable by using current MPI process managers or parallel shells. We introduce MPISH2, an MPI process manager analogous to serial Unix shells. It allows the composition of MPI and serial Unix utilities with one another to perform scalable tasks across large numbers of Unix clients. This paper discusses in detail issues of process management and parallel tool composition.


Critical Care Medicine www.ccmjournal.org e311 vasopressors were used as definition for septic shock). Indeed, β-blockers decrease arterial blood pressure (BP) and alter the physiologic mechanisms supposed to promptly restore normal BP when faced with (even mild) hypovolemia or other cardiovascular insults. This often results in mild hypotension that does not necessarily cause tissue hypoperfusion as long as microcirculatory flow is not sufficiently altered by sepsis-induced endothelial dysfunction. Additionally, since β-blocked patients had more frequently congestive heart failure, they may have received less fluid before being treated with vasopressor, for fear of pulmonary edema. Thus, considering that hypotension may not always reflect the severity of the septic process only, we suspect that some β-blocked patients were included at very early/mild stages of sepsis. This could explain the lower lactate level and the better survival observed in β-blocked patients. Second, it is likely, but not mentioned (1), that these patients were also taking other vasoactive medications such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), as recommended in chronic cardiac failure. ACEI, as β-blockers, interact with BP regulation and could also have created the particular phenotype of "mild/moderate sepsis with marked effect on BP." ACEI could have even accounted for the observed findings in the study by Contenti et al, presumably attributed to β-blockers. Indeed, in septic shock patients, it has been recently shown that ACEI treatment, but not β-blockers, was associated with a better survival (4). Again, in this previous study (4) and possibly in the study by Contenti et al (1), drug-induced hypotension could have led to prematurely diagnosing sepsis-induced hypotension and overestimating the severity of the sepsis process. Importantly, the fact that the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation scores were similar between β-blocked and non–β-blocked patients does not affirm that sepsis was of similar severity between the two groups. More generally, the issue of potential confounder is very difficult to tackle in retrospective studies. Although the interesting observation by Contenti et al is hypothesis generating, very large-scale prospective multicenter evaluations will be needed to adequately explore the multiple potential confounders such as β-blockers and associated medications that may induce phenotype distortion, a clinical phenomenon that we believe plays a major role. Financial support was provided solely from hospital sources. Dr. Ehrmann's institution received funding from Bayer Pharma AG, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, and Aerogen. The remaining authors have disclosed that they do not have any potential conflicts of interest.


Igneous reservoirs feature in complexities of lithologies and lithofacies and strong heterogeneity.This paper analyzed the petrophysical characters,log responses,and oil-water system of reservoirs with different lithofacies and reservoir types,and proposed a unit division method suitable for reserve calculation of igneous reservoirs.Effective reservoir thickness is recognized through analyzing core,FMI and NMR log data.Models for porosity and saturation interpretation are established through subdivision of reservoir types and integration of conventional log,NMR,and intrusive mercury curve.Parameters of the reserve calculation units are described quantitatively through log-constrained seismic inversion.A comprehensive application of the above-mentioned methods and technologies would solve successfully such issues as difficulties in interpreting reserve parameters of fractured-vuggy igneous reservoirs with dual media and the inaccuracy of reserve calculation.Furthermore,it may help the evaluation of reserve calculation of similar igneous reservoirs.


This paper develops general theoretical results about an input–output model-following methodology for linear systems, as an optimal control problem. A control law is obtained by minimizing a quadratic index that takes into account the matching errors and the control inputs. The control is obtained from the Lagrange multiplier method and can be interpreted as an extension of the linear quadratic regulator, with finite and infinite horizon formulations. The major contribution of the paper is the development of solutions involving plant output feedback. The method is illustrated with an application to a nonlinear flexible aircraft with nonstationary aerodynamics and nine flexible modes. Simulations compare state and output feedback solutions. In the proposed example, when taking into account unmodeled flexible dynamics and parametric uncertainties, the best results are given by the proposed output feedback.


There is much information that induces users to take some action on Twitter. In this study, we designate such tweets as behavioral facilitation tweets. There are a large number of behavioral facilitation tweets. In such behavioral facilitation tweets, there is some basis in it. We call such behavioral facilitation tweets as " behavioral facilitation tweets with basis". In this paper, we proposed the method which extracts behavioral facilitation tweets with basis. Our proposed method is that first we extract behavioral facilitation tweets using LSTM, and next we extract behavioral facilitation tweets with basis from them by rule-based. We propose two types of keywords which are general basis keywords and domain dependence keywords by our experiments. Furthermore, we conducted two types of experiments which measure our proposed extracting behavioral facilitation tweets using LSTM and extract behavioral facilitation tweets with basis from them by the rule are good or not. From the results, our proposed methods are good for extracting both behavioral facilitation tweets and behavioral facilitation tweets with basis.


Much of the emphasis in current widening participation policies has been on the traditional student, who is young and enters university to take a full-time degree straight from school or college. However, the Government points to the fact that "around three-quarters of the 2020 workforce have already left compulsory education" (DIUS, 2008, p6) and acknowledges that current policies overlook the needs of many potential learners who are already in the workplace and who could not/would not consider full-time higher education. The ability to recognise learning in the workplace, and to develop small employer-responsive awards, offers such learners the opportunity to engage with higher education at the same time as they undertake required professional development. For many work-based learners the ability to assess experiential learning in the workplace for higher education awards is "a liberator for [those for] whom first chance education had not delivered success" (Braham and Pickering, 2007, p. 45). They have the opportunity to develop graduate skills and enhance their qualifications without having to sacrifice their employment.


Horizontal drilling is a viable approach for accessing hydrocarbons in many types of naturally-fractured reservoirs. Cost-effective improvements in the technology to drill, complete, and produce horizontal wells in difficult geologic environments require a better understanding of the mechanical and fluid-flow behavior of these reservoirs with changes ineffective stress during their development and production history. In particular, improved understanding is needed for predicting borehole stability and reservoir response during pore pressure drawdown. To address these problems, a cooperative project between Oryx Energy Company and Sandia National Laboratories was undertaken to study the effects of rock properties, in situ stress, and changes in effective stress on the deformation and permeability of stress sensitive, naturally-fractured reservoirs. A low value for the proelastic parameter was found, implying that the reservoir should have a low sensitivity to declining pore pressure. A surprisingly diverse suite of fractures was identified from core. From the coring-induced fractures, it was plausible to conclude that the maximum principal stress was in the horizontal plane. Measurements on permeability of naturally fractured rock in a newly-developed experimental arrangement showed that slip on fractures is much more effective inchangingpcrtncability than is normal stress. The intermediate principal stress was found to have a strongmore » effect, on the strength and ductility of the chalk, implying the need for a more sophisticated calculation of borehole stability.« less


The invention relates to a method for preparing diaryl amine compound, in particular 3-arylamine-4-hydroxyl methyl benzoate compound, from 3-methyl dehydroshikimate, which comprises the following steps: carrying out a condensation-dehydration reaction on the 3-methyl dehydroshikimate and aryl primary amine compound under the catalysis of a Lewis acid catalyst in normal pressure and agitation conditions, so that a hexatomic ring skeleton generates aromatization, wherein the reaction temperature is 20-80 DEG C, and the reaction time is 6-18 hours; and concentrating, extracting, drying, filtering and recrystallizing a reaction mixture to obtain the 3-arylamine-4-hydroxyl methyl benzoate compound. By using the method, renewable resource 3-dehydroshikimic acid compound is used as a raw material; the method has the advantages of good atom economy, simpleness in operation, moderate condition, high yield, low cost, less pollution and the like; and the sustainable development can be achieved.


The present invention relates to a pipe element of transition of inertia (8) comprising a main rigid pipe element comprising at one end a piece of inertia transition, formed by at least one, preferably a plurality of pipe elements coaxially arranged coaxial to said reinforcing main pipe element, each said reinforcing pipe element having a internesuperieur diameter to the outer diameter of the main duct element and optionally the (x) other (s) element (s) conduct reinforcement therein, the different main pipe elements and element (s) reinforcing pipe being positioned (s) with one of their ends at the same level in the direction of the axis of symmetry (Z1Z'1 ) of said pipe elements, and each said reinforcing pipe element having a longueurinferieure to that of the main duct element and the case Echea nt that of other reinforcing pipe elements contained therein, the annular space between the various pipe elements being filled with a solid filler, the present invention also relates to a rigid submarine pipe, comprising at least at one of its ends a said transition pipe inertia member (8).


This study not only measures the relationship between organizational culture and teacher performance but also finds an essential foundation for madrasah in building organizational culture and how to improve their performance. A descriptive quantitative approach is used in this research; data collection is done through surveys and the preparation of research instruments. The results show that, in general, the organizational culture is quite good, the values, teamwork, and work performance are also good, while in performance, teachers generally have various levels of achievement, satisfaction, responsibility, honesty, empathy, and persistence in work. In madrasah, organizational culture is related to teacher performance so a superior organizational culture will affect teachers' performance; on the other hand, educational institutions that cannot build a good culture result in decreased teacher performance.


In the present study, we examined the relationship between cytokine levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and 11C‐Pittsburgh compound B (PiB) retention in patients with mild cognitive impairment.


This article briefly reviews the nature and purpose of the Temperton Fellowship, which was established in 1989 to commemorate the late Dr Harold Temperton. The Fellowship was administered under the aegis of the Harper Adams University College and involves an annual presentation and written report by an invited contributor. The reports cover a wide range of topics that are intended to be of strategic value to the UK Poultry Industry. Previous reports are listed and their potential to influence the future direction of the Industry and to sustain its success is recognised.


In order to develop integrated management strategy against recently introduced invasive South American tomato leaf miner, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick, 1917) in Nepal, life cycle and few biological parameters were studied in laboratory conditions (27±2 oC temperature and 75 percent relative humidity) at Entomology Division, NARC during August to September, 2017. The average developmental period from egg to adult of T. absoluta was found 18.37 days. Aveerage egg, larval and pupal periods was recorded 3, 8.26, and 7.11 days respectively. Adult longevity was found 13.47 days irrespective of sex. Length and breadth of egg was found 0.43 mm and 0.21 mm, whereas, 4.88 mm and 1.45 mm of pupa. Length of first, second, third and fourth instar larvae were recorded 0.63 mm, 1.59 mm, 3.86 mm and 7.19 mm, respectively. The head capsule width was found 0.15 mm, 0.27 mm and 0.41 mm of first, second and third larval moults.


Review(s) of: Archaeology and the Postcolonial Critique, by Matthew Liebmann and Uzma Z. Rizvi (eds), AltaMira Press, Lanham MD, 2008; 274 Pages; Hardback; ISBN 9780759110045, AUD 104.95 (inc. GST).


The National Research Council report considers "compelling science," technology, and cost in recommending a wide range of missions to be launched by 2013.


. Completing a graph means inferring the missing nodes and edges from a partially observed network. Different methods have been proposed to solve this problem, but none of them employed the pattern similarity of parts of the graph. In this paper, we propose a model to use the learned pattern of connections from the observed part of the network based on the Graph Auto-Encoder technique and generalize these patterns to complete the whole graph. Our proposed model achieved competitive performance with less information needed. Empirical analysis of synthetic datasets and real-world datasets from different domains show that our model can complete the network with higher accuracy compared with baseline prediction models in most cases. Furthermore, we also studied the character of the model and found it is particularly suitable to complete a network that has more complex local connection patterns. matrix. Experiments show that our model outperforms the competition model in most synthetic networks and real networks, and is especially good at completing the edges between unobserved nodes. By studying the properties of the model, we find that this model is especially good at completing the network with complex local structures.


Several X-ray spectral models for tori in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are available to constrain the properties of tori; however, the accuracy of these models has not been verified. We recently constructed a code for the torus using GEANT4, which can easily handle different geometries. Thus, we adopt the same assumptions as Murphy & Yaqoob (2009, MNRAS, 397, 1549) and Brightman & Nandra (2011, MNRAS, 413, 1206) and try to reproduce their spectra. As a result, we can reproduce well the reflection spectra and the strength of the Fe K alpha line of Murphy & Yaqoob, for both N-H = 10(24) and 10(25) cm(-2). However, we cannot produce the strong reflection component of Brightman & Nandra in the low-energy band. The origin of this component is the reflection from the visible inner wall of the torus, and the reflection should be very weak in the edge-on directions under the geometry of Brightman & Nandra. Therefore, the behaviour of the reflection spectra in Brightman & Nandra is not consistent with their geometry. The strength of the Fe K alpha line of Brightman & Nandra is also different from our results and the analytical result in the optically thin case. The limitation of the spectral model will bias the parameters from the X-ray spectral fitting.


We apply active learning to help with data scarcity problems in sign languages. In particular, we perform a novel analysis of the effect of pre-training. Since many sign languages are linguistic descendants of French sign language, they share hand configurations, which pre-training can hopefully exploit. We test this hypothesis on American, Chinese, German, and Irish fingerspelling corpora. We do observe a benefit from pre-training, but this may be due to visual rather than linguistic similarities


Combining different psychotherapeutic techniques becomes more and more popular. Ever so often there is no valid concept behind such combinations. There is a conviction underlying the paper that many psychotherapeutic concepts that pretend to be integrative are not and that a theory of a true integration has not been outlined yet. The paper starts by defining different types of combinations: the non-discriminative application of a variety of methods, eclecticism, modular techniques, synergism and integration. Integration is the final stage in an integrative process. This process depends on a variety of factors: a high motivation to cooperate, a curiosity as to the other's abilities, a thorough knowledge of the co-operant's concept, a respect for the other's 'otherness' and the willingness to give up omnipotent therapeutic approaches. ― Integrative processes have not an end in themselves; they will be successful in so far as they respond to clinical necessities or challenges. They need to be initiated by someone, and it is important whether the motivation is intrinsic or extrinsic. Finally, the integration of different approaches to psychotherapy calls for a metatheory that is able to encompass all. Empirical criteria to assess the integrative process properly are given. Integrative processes are illustrated by two examples, the combination of psychopharmacology and psychotherapy and by the synergistic psychotherapy of borderline personality disorder.


Fe thin films and micro-dots were deposited onto Si (001) and GaAs (100) substrates by a combinatorial approach of lithography and e-beam deposition techniques. The base pressure in the evaporation chamber was 1x10 -6 mbar. 50nm and 5 nm of Fe was deposited with a deposition rate of 0.1 nm/sec onto Si and GaAs, respectively. Continuous films and microdots were covered with 5 nm Cr to prevent oxidation. In-plane interfacial uniaxial magnetic anisotropy has been observed in micro-dots. Room temperature coercivity of 925 Oe has been observed in out-of-plane direction. Effects of strain and interfacial phases on in-plane uniaxial anisotropy are discussed. Synthesized micro-dots could be the building blocks for next-generation magnetoelectronic devices.


Major twentieth-century fiction writers employ the traditional pattern of a final "holy war" against the other from the book of Revelation but at the same time problematize the use of violence for religious purposes. The central role of the holy war in the final book of the Bible has caused problems for numerous literary and biblical critics since the early centuries. In 1931, D. H. Lawrence (87-88) found the violence in the book of Revelation to be nothing but an expression of the resentment of the weak against the strong, an interpretation promulgated more recently by Harold Bloom: "Lurid and inhumane, [Revelation's] influence has been pernicious yet inescapable ... Resentment and not love is the teaching of the Revelation" (4-5). Various apocalyptic sects in the United States have used the book of Revelation as a sign of divine approval for their violent actions, as we saw in the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas; the Jonestown mass suicide in Guyana, or the Heavens Gate tragedy in California. This article will examine the book of Revelations own use of the holy war symbolism and the efforts of critics to avoid a literal interpretation that might justify violent action against the other. Then it will show how several twentieth-century novelists--Charles Williams, C. S. Lewis, Walter Miller, Jr, Walker Percy, and Russell Hoban--have retrieved the holy war from this book in ways that raise questions about the use of such violence. Most biblical critics acknowledge that Revelation uses holy war imagery to portray the conflict within late first-century Christian communities in Asia Minor between Christianity and the imperial cult of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire, with its demands for worship of the emperor and its support of unjust military and economic policies, was personified as the beast, the whore of Babylon, and other irrational symbols in a war against the people of God. In this holy war, God and his general, the Lamb, lead angelic and natural forces in several battles that eventually destroy the dragon and its followers and finally cast them into eternal punishment (Chapter 12-20). Although critics such as Bloom read these battles as literal justifications for the use of violence, no early Christians seemed to have interpreted them in such a literal fashion. Rather, they read the book as a call for patient resistance to the pressures from the Roman Empire against their faith, even to the point of martyrdom, and as a call for fidelity and hope for a final resurrection. Among the patristic critics, some did interpret many of the details of the apocalyptic last judgment in literal terms, but Origen and others began a long tradition of symbolic interpretation by transferring the battles and judgment to an interior spiritual process. Augustine, of course, also rejected a literal interpretation of the millennium and cosmic battle, preferring to read these passages not as particular historical events but as the perennial conflict between the City of God and the City of Man. Thomas Aquinas expanded on Origen's symbolic interpretation of many of the concrete details of the final battle. More recently, twentieth-century historical-critical exegetes have debated among themselves about how to interpret the symbols of the holy war of Revelation. Some critics, such as Collins, Pippin and Desjardins, find that the mythic pattern of combat in the book provides an "awesomely violent context" (Des)ardins 84) for the final battle that leads to dualistic interpretations. This violent interpretation is bolstered by Revelations many allusions to the holy wars in the Hebrew scriptures, which even critics like Walter Bruggeman have difficulty interpreting as just wars directly sponsored by Yahweh. Thus, as one recent critic admitted, "There is no easy way to harmonize the various teachings of the Bible on violence. For Christians, the teaching, witness, and example of Jesus himself are central in assessing other perspectives" (Lefebure 82). …


This article presents a test of Clément's model of second language proficiency using the causal modelling technique. Data pertaining to attitudes, aptitude, motivation and second language proficiency were collected from 1,180 francophone students enrolled in grades 7, 9 and 11 in schools of eastern Québec (Canada). The results of the analysis using the LISREL V computer package support the hypothetical constructs and causal sequence posited by Clément. Furthermore, the generality of the model is supported by the cross-grade replicability of the obtained statistical solution. Finally, additional causal links and correlations obtained through refinement of the model suggest avenues for future study. These results are discussed within the context of current social psychological models of second language proficiency.