Very recent advances in technological capacities, including high-resolution NWP models, advanced computing capabilities, improved instrumentation used to gather insitu observational data, and enhanced satellite and radar remote-sensing techniques, have enabled the expansion of our theoretical understanding of TC structure and motion. However, we need only look to the very recent case of poorly forecasted Hurricane Ernesto (2006) to demonstrate that additional studies are needed to expand our understanding of TC structure and organization, particularly in the inner core. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to improve the ability to accurately predict TC structure, organization, intensity, and track. This goal will be accomplished through three investigations. First, a climatological tool that quickly and succinctly displays the spread of historical TC tracks for any point in the Atlantic Ocean basin will be developed. This tool will be useful in all parts of the basin because it is derived from prior storm motion trajectories and summarily captures the historical synoptic and mesoscale steering patterns. It will display the strength of the climatological signal and allow for rapid qualitative comparison between the historical tracks and the more robust NWP models. Second, a new drag coefficient parameterization will be coded into a high-resolution mesoscale model to investigate the ability to predict TC mesoscale structure and, consequently, intensity and track. The primary energy source (sink) of a TC is the air-sea exchange of enthalpy (momentum), and the drag coefficient is critical in the mesoscale model's determination of this exchange. Until recently, the drag coefficient was thought to either increase with increasing surface wind speed or remain constant. However, dropsonde measurements in eyewalls of TCs from 1997-2006 have shown that, in the very highwind environment (greater than 33 m s) of an intense TC, the drag coefficient actually decreases with increasing wind speed. The simulated TC's response to this new physical formulation is unknown, and thus will be investigated using a series of model sensitivity studies. Third, I will use a high-resolution mesoscale model to examine the interaction between the TC circulation and the island topography of the southern Windward Islands. Previous numerical studies of terrain impact have shown that TCs experience along-track accelerations, track deflections, intensity fluctuations, and altered precipitation patterns due to the interaction with island topography. However, these studies focused on Taiwan; the Greater Antilles of Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Cuba; and the Philippines; the Windward Islands of the eastern Caribbean have been largely neglected. Therefore, by varying the terrain representation in the mesoscale model, the important interaction between the TC circulation and these islands will be examined for the first time at high horizontal resolution. Collectively, these three investigations will provide answers to the main question of this dissertation, "can tropical cyclones be accurately forecasted?"


Serious concerns about pervasive, persistent, and unjustified social inequalities have prompted a small—but growing—number of academic commentators to raise some hard and troubling questions for those who would like to legalize physician-assisted suicide. In various ways, these commentators have asked: In light of existing social inequalities—inequalities that operate, for example, along sometimes intersecting lines of race, class, age, sex (including sexual orientation), and disability—how persuasive are autonomy-based arguments in favor of legalization of assisted suicide when those arguments depend (as they typically do) on a conception of autonomy that either presupposes social equality or does not expressly account for its absence? How compelling are arguments that we ought to legalize assisted suicide out of feelings of mercy for the sick and dying, when such affective expressions may actually be the socially acceptable manifestation of private ambivalence that includes merciless discrimination?


Abstract The quasi-steady (QS) burning rates of interacting spherical fuel droplets are calculated by transforming the equations governing the inter-droplet fields to the Laplace equation and then solving the transformed equations by the method of images. The results of this work indicate that QS interactions can significantly reduce the droplet burning rates even for large droplet spacings. Further, the well known D2-law is found to be only approximately correct when applied to interacting droplets.


CSR is not new to India; companies like TATA and BIRLA have been imbibing the case for social good in their operations for decades long before CSR become a popular cause. In spite of having such life size successful examples, CSR in India is in a very nascent stage. It is still one of the least understood initiatives in the Indian development sector. Thus the situation is far from perfect as the emphasis is not on social good but rather on a policy that needs to be implemented. A lack of understanding, inadequately trained personnel, non availability of authentic data and specific information on the kinds of CSR activities, coverage, policy etc. further adds to the ineffectiveness of CSR programmes. But the situation is changing and CSR is coming out of the purview of 'doing social good' and is fast becoming a 'business necessity.' The 'business case' for CSR is gaining ground and corporate houses are realising that what is good for workers - their community, health, and environment - is also good for the businesses. Present article focuses on the CSR with the case study of BILT (YamunaNagar Plant) as a concept and analyses the real life case study. Present paper is divided in to two parts. First part gives the insight of CSR as a concept, current trends of CSR in India and Global Standards on which CSR is implemented and Second part deals with the BILT.


AIM: To establish a method of determing prim-o-glucasylcimifugin,5-o-methylvisammiosode,gardenoside quantitatively in Huoxiang Gingwei Granules(Herba Pogostemonis,Fructus Gardeniae,Radix Saposhnikoviae,etc.). METHODS: Three components were determined by HPLC in the same chromatographic condition(Column: Shimadzu VP-ODS 250 mm×4.60 mm,5 μm;mobile phase: acetonitrile-0.1% phosphoric acid gradient elution;flow rate: 1.0 mL/min: column temperature: at 30 ℃). RESULTS: Prim-o-glucasylcimifugin showed a good linear relationship at the range of 26.0-390 ng,r=(0.999 9),the average recovery was 101.7% and RSD was 1.1%.5-o-methylvisammiosode showed a good linear relationship at the range of 21.5-322.2 ng,r=(0.999 9),the average recovery was 101.9% and RSD was 1.1%.Gardenoside showed a good linear relationship at the range of 47.1-706.5 ng,r=(0.999 9),the average recovery was 101.6% and RSD was 1.1%.(CONCLUSION):() The established method can provide the content determination of 3 ingriedents at the same test condition and be used for the quality control of Huoxiang Qingwei Granules.


A simultaneous mode, input and state set-valued observer is proposed for hidden mode switched linear systems with bounded-norm noise and unknown input signals. The observer consists of two constituents: (i) a bank of mode-matched observers and (ii) a mode estimator. Each mode-matched observer recursively outputs the mode-matched sets of compatible states and unknown inputs, while the mode estimator eliminates incompatible modes, using a residual-based criterion. Then, the estimated sets of states and unknown inputs are the union of the mode-matched estimates over all compatible modes. Moreover, sufficient conditions to guarantee the elimination of all false modes are provided and the effectiveness of our approach is exhibited using an illustrative example.


The LaNiO_3 /Bi_4Ti_3O_(12) thin films are fabricated on the Si substrates using sol-gel method.The growth behavior and ferroelectric properties of LaNiO_3/Bi_4Ti_3O_(12) thin films at variable temperature are investigated. The results illustrate that the growth of LaNiO_3/Bi_4Ti_3O_(12) on pure Si substrate is c-axis-oriented with the increase of annealing temperature.The experiment indicate that the introduction of buffer layer LNO,as compared with the single-crystal Si as substrate,enabling Bi_4Ti_3O_(12) film and substrate lattice mismatch is low,effectively reducing the thermal stress and external stress,alleviating the phenomenon cracking of thin film,and prepared the LNO/BTO heterogeneous film capacitors have excellent dielectric properties.


This study examines the impact of changes in homestead exemption levels upon the consumer bankruptcy filing rate. This relationship is examined through the creation of an interrupted time-series multiple regression model. Regression analyses were implemented using several predictor variables to detect any relationship between changes in homestead exemption levels and their effect on the applicable dependent variable. Four dependent bankruptcy variables were employed: per capita total consumer-bankruptcy filings, per capita Chapter 7 consumer-bankruptcy filing rate, per capita Chapter 13 bankruptcy filing rate, and Chapter 7 consumer-bankruptcy filings as a percentage of aggregate consumer-bankruptcy filing rates. Analyses indicate that consumers clearly prefer utilizing a Chapter 7 discharge method over Chapter 13. Additionally, these consumers do not find changes in homestead exemption levels as a source of wealth insurance to the extent that filings are significantly increased. Finally, consumer filing rates do not appear to be positively affected by the wealth effect that a risk-averse consumer might choose in bankruptcy choice.


The epidemiology of Clostridium difficile infections is highly dynamic as new strains continue to emerge worldwide. Here we present a detailed analysis of a new C. difficile strain (ICC-45) recovered from a cancer patient in Brazil that died from severe diarrhea. Through WGS, ribotyping, PFGE, and toxinotyping, we determined that strain ICC-45 is toxigenic (tcdA + , tcdB + , and ctdB + ) and belongs to ST41 from MLST Clade 2 and toxinotype IX. In addition it does not belong to any know PCR-ribotype and PFGE-type, and toxinotype IX. Strain ICC-45 encodes for a variant TcdB that induces a distinct CPE in agreement with its toxinotype. Unlike epidemic NAP1/027 strains, which are also classified to MLST Clade 2, strain ICC-45 is susceptible to fluoroquinolones and does not overproduce toxins TcdA and TcdB. However, supernatants from strain ICC-45 and a NAP1/027 strain produced similar levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, epithelial damage, and oxidative stress response in the mouse ileal loop model. These results indicate that inflammation and oxidative stress seem to be common features in the pathogenesis of Clade 2 strains. Finally, this work contributes to the description of differences in virulence among various C. difficile strains.


IZA DP No. 16516 OCTOBER 2023 The Effect of Reducing Welfare Access on Employment, Health, and Children's Long-Run Outcomes* Welfare caseloads in North America halved following reforms in the 1990s and 2000s. We study how this shift affected families by linking Canadian welfare records to tax returns, medical spending, educational attainment, and crime data. We find substantial and heterogeneous employment responses that increased average income despite reduced transfers. We find zero effects on aggregate health expenditures, but mothers saw reduced preventative care and increased mental health treatment, consistent with the transition to employment elevating time pressure and stress. We find no effect on teenagers' education and criminal charges as young adults but do find evidence of intergenerational welfare transmission. JEL Classification: H23, H31, I14, I24, I38, J62


The invention is applied to the field of traffic and transportation, and provides a method, a device, a server and a client for obtaining a trip plan. The method comprises the following steps: receiving a trip request sent by a user; acquiring a starting location, a target location, a starting time and a target time according to the trip request; determining a main traffic scheme; determining a minor traffic scheme according to the determined main traffic scheme; generating the trip plan according to the main traffic scheme and the minor traffic scheme; and outputting the trip plan. According to the embodiment, the server obtains the departure time, the departure location, the target time and the target location according to the trip request, and further determines the minor traffic scheme and the minor traffic scheme, finally, the trip plan is generated according to the minor traffic scheme and the minor traffic scheme, and the obtaining steps of the trip plan are simplified, and the obtaining time of the trip plan is reduced.


In patients with acute coronary syndrome who were performed coronary arteries' revascularization, in the postoperative period disorders of hemodynamics and heart rate variability often develop. The aim of our work was to optimize the cardiac rehabilitation of such patients by individualization of physical activity depending on the state of systolic and diastolic left ventricular dysfunction and heart rate variability.                 40 patients with acute coronary syndrome and coronary artery revascularization were included into the experimental group. The control group consisted of 20 patients of the same age, clinical and laboratory manifestations of ACS who were treated according to the protocol of Ministry of Health of Ukraine. In both groups of patients clinical efficacy of cardiac rehabilitation process was evaluated according to the dynamics of clinical symptoms, systolic and diastolic left ventricular function and heart rate variability.                 In patients with acute coronary syndrome and coronary artery revascularization in the initial state the clinical and laboratory signs of myocardial ischemia disappear, but subclinical and clinical manifestations of heart failure remain.                 During the first month of training, the original accelerated cardiac rehabilitation program leads to the decrease of systolic and diastolic signs of cardiac dysfunction and improves heart rate variability, which significantly improves the quality of life of these patients.                 For monitoring the efficacy and safety of the performance of cardiac rehabilitation program in patients with acute coronary syndrome and coronary artery revascularization, in addition to conventional methods (determination of heart rate, blood pressure, 6-minute test), it is useful to diagnose subclinical stage of heart failure by examination of systolic, diastolic function and vegetative regulation.


different disciplines, it is a shortcoming that the editor and/or publisher have not seen fit to provide any information about the contributors' home disciplines or institutional affiliations. This limits the book's utility as a teaching tool, since it makes it more difficult for instructors to guide students through a critical comparison of multiple methods of inquiry. The most important element missing from the book, however, is a systematic and sustained inquiry into the role of racial animosity and bias in these state and local government efforts to control and limit the influx of immigrants. While immigration restrictionists are nearly always vehement in their denial of racial bias in relation to immigration policy, there are plenty of good reasons for subjecting this claim to systematic and critical inquiry. Although some chapters in the book take note of the historical role of racism in several localities being studied here, and of claims of racial bias in contemporary immigration politics, the absence of a sustained inquiry into the question is a major lack in the book as a whole. Still, as noted, Taking Local Control contains a wealth of good information, including multiple analyses of the subject of state and local government efforts to limit and control the influx of (especially undocumented) immigrants into their communities. These efforts will no doubt be a factor in U.S. politics for some time to come, and for those taking note of these political efforts, this collection is an excellent way to gain some initial understanding of what is going on in the field. Therefore, this reviewer highly recommends the book for those interested in gaining a basic understanding of this phenomenon, and it would also be a good text to use in upper-division courses on state and local government and/or immigration politics.


In this paper, a binary optical array element which can realize 8-channel PS transformation is fabricated with very large scale integration (VLSI), stepping photolithography and reactive ion etching (RIE). Using the element, we perform experiments of the PS transformation, tests and analysis. The efficiency and cross talk of each channel are measured when only one channel has been reserved while other channels have been closed. The result indicates that the method proposed to realize the PS transformation by using the micro-optical array element agrees well with theoretical expectation. This success of the experiment lays a good foundation for us to do further research on optical transformation through multilevel interconnection.


LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract in English only.Countries and ethnic groups with a Confucian cultural background have performed well during the pandemic. This comparative advantage will inspire efforts to Confucianize ethics. Fukuyama believes that Confucianism as a whole is a defense of authoritarianism but does not pose a major obstacle to liberal democracy, with which it is even compatible in some respects. However, Fukuyama believes that countries led by Confucianism may suffer from disadvantages such as low social capital. Through Fukuyama, the Western opinion leader, we can see the status of Confucian ethics in the spectrum of Western ethics, but there is still a long way to go for Confucian ethics to gain greater recognition worldwide.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 5 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.


A learning-strategies approach was used to teach 28 students how to take tests. Ten of these students were among the poorest reading comprehenders in a social studies section of a middle school; the remaining 18 students were above-average comprehenders. Benefit of instruction was measured in terms of near and far generalization. For a near generalization measure, three pretest and posttest social studies mini-tests were administered to the experimental and control groups; the test format was tightly controlled. A sec ond set of pretest and posttest measures, used as the far generalization indicator, was also obtained; these were test scores from the students' science class. The far-generalization measure was typical of tests administered in the classroom. The experimental students, including the poor compre henders, used test-taking strategies on both nearand far generalization measures significantly better than control students. Average and good comprehenders in the experimen tal group showed significant improvement on near but not far generalization. Overall, these results provide empirical support for teaching heterogeneous groups to use a learning-strategies approach. Success in the classroom is often measured in terms of course grades earned by students. Junior and senior high school teachers usually give tests after each instructional unit, with test scores accounting for ap proximately 60% of a student's total course grade (Cuthbertson, 1979). Knowledge of content area is the major prerequisite to obtaining good test results. By middle school years, most tests require students to be able to read directions and questions, work independ ently, and, most importantly, write correct responses. Mastery of these skills is vital for doing well on a test. But aside from these skills there is evidence to suggest that there is a positive relationship between test per formance and skill in taking tests (Crehan, Koehler, & Slakter, 1974; Fueyo, 1977; Kubistant, 1981; Lee & Alley, 1981; Moore, Schutz, & Baker, 1966; Slakter, Koehler, & Hampton, 1970; Taylor & White, 1982). There is also some evidence that instruction in test tak ing is not commonly included in school curricula and in struction (Cuthbertson, 1979). Because test-taking skills are important and benefit from instruction is evident, it is reasonable that both mildly handicapped students, particularly those enrolled in general education classes (Markel, 1981), and their nonhandicapped peers might profit from learning to use test-taking strategies. The intent of this study was to teach test-taking strategies to both groups of students. Test-wiseness. Millman, Bishop, and Ebel (1965) define test-wiseness an one's capacity for using test characteristics and formats and/or test-taking situations to raise test scores. They note that test-wiseness is logically independent of knowledge of subject matter. By adopting the Millman et al. definition of test wiseness, the focus is on acclimating oneself to text structure rather than on coaching for an examination. Numerous educators emphasize the difference between test coaching and test-wiseness. Test coaching refers to "sustained instruction in the domain presumably being measured" (Bond, 1981, p. 54). Test coaching is specific to the content being examined, whereas test-wiseness is applicable across a range of content areas. The ethics (or lack thereof) involved in test coaching has been described previously (Bond, 1981; Fueyo, 1977; Ligon, 1983; Millman et al., 1965; Rawl, 1984). Text anxiety, carelessness, poor use of time, and confusion (over whelmed by unknown procedures, and item formats) (Ligon, 1983) are viewed as making optimal use of students' knowledge on a test and are addressed in in struction in test-wiseness. Several approaches have been used to teach test wiseness. Although the specifics of the approaches vary, a general consensus appears to have been reached. In struction in test taking focuses on one or any combina This paper is based on a doctoral dissertation completed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Members of the dissertation committee were Loma Idol-Maestas, William Johnson, Laura Jordan, and M. Stephen Lilly. We gratefully acknowledge the support of Rose Adkisson and the assistance of Lois Bennin, Sue Kauffman, A met ta Harris, Carol Arm strong, and Anita Andrews who served as research assistants and/or reliability observers. Address correspondence to Shirley Ritter, Furman Uni versity, Department of Education, Greenville, SC 29613.


The persistent photoluminescence quenching effect is shown to occur on the broad 0.68‐eV emission commonly present in undoped semi‐insulating GaAs bulk materials. The dependence of this persistent emission on below band‐gap energy excitation has been measured. The data indicate involvement of the main deep donor EL2 in the radiative mechanism of the 0.68‐eV emission. The persistent photoluminescence quenching effect can be explained by the presence of both normal and metastable states of EL2.


The XIXth century, specially in its second half, was the century of hygiene and hygienic sensibility; a sensibility shown, in the school institution, in Hygiene and Domestic economy textbooks that were published after the introduction of this subject in the schools for girls, in 1857, and of the textbooks on Civility. After pointing out the space and content of Civility in the context of school matters, this work tries to clarify the hygienist perspective developped in its textbooks, as well as the articulation of this topic of hygiene in the model proposed by them of (well) educated man and woman. Code of (good) Christian behaviours, the textbooks of Civility aspired to define a set of external rules based on the notions of order, decorum, and respect. In this way the hygienic values, inserted in a wider context, although they were usually included in a specific chapter -generally titled "On cleanliness and tidiness" were also present in many other chapters of these textbooks. The insistence observed in them on the "hygienization" of the boys' and girls' life, submitting it to economic and social criteria of rationality, transforms the hygiene into one more tool of control within Civility.


One of the most important issues in a biometric system is the leakage of biometric template information. In this paper, we have discussed on biometric template security. Most of the template protection techniques fail to meet all the desired requirements of a biometric system like revocability, security, privacy, and accuracy, so protecting a fingerprint template is a big issue. In this paper, we begin by introducing about biometric after which we will describe attacks on a biometric system which targeting the biometric templates in a biometric system. Thereafter we will explore the existing biometric template protection scheme and techniques and include their strength and weaknesses. In the end, we will discuss the summary of this paper in the conclusion section. Keywords—Biometric, fingerprint, template, security, protection, techniques, approaches.


ABSTRACT
 This study examined diversity in the socialization goals of Palestinian mothers from different educational and socioeconomic backgrounds from the perspective of (Kagitçibasi, C. (1996). The autonomous-relational self. European Psychologist, 1(3), 180–186. Kagitçibasi, C. (2005). Autonomy and relatedness in cultural context: Implications for self and family. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36(4), 403–422 Kagitçibasi, C. (2012). Sociocultural change and integrative syntheses in human development: Autonomous-related self and social–cognitive competence. Child Development Perspectives, 6(1), 5–11) Family Change model, which proposes that societal changes due to globalization can promote the development of autonomous-relational selves. Purposeful-convenience sampling was used to recruit twelve urban Arab mothers of first grade children enrolled in public and private schools to capture a variety of parent education levels. The first author interviewed each mother about her socialization goals and analyzed interviews thematically. One main finding was that mothers who had at least a Bachelor's degree focused more on goals related to self-maximization, particularly in relation to choosing a career, thriving, and being highly successful. Mothers with less formal education themselves had education as a goal in itself and valued employment for their children with an emphasis on stability of income and comfort. Both groups of mothers reported goals related to decency, including 'avoiding illicit behaviors,' having morals, and treating others well. Collectivism and individualism were both present in the socialization goals of Palestinian mothers, which supported the development of autonomous-relational selves.


This reports the investigation of the optimal production of alpha cellulose from a typical African grass as an alternative to the manufacture of pulp using gravimetric method in order to minimize both cost and time, while attaining maximum yield. Identified grass species, Penicum maximum was used in this study. The stem was cut into minute sizes and vacuum dried to reduce its moisture content. The chips were digested in a modified autoclave which has an overhead inbuilt mechanical stirrer for swift maceration and delignification by an alkali treatment at specified controlled variables. These included pressure, temperature, concentration and time. The precipitated alpha cellulose was filtered, crushed, washed and finally dried in vacuum oven. Comparisons were drawn from different results obtained in the analyses with optimal yields occurring at 14 psi; 55 min; 140°C and 6.2% respectively. Keywords— Alpha cellulose, delignification, gravimetric method, maceration, optimal production, Penicum maximum.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the catalyzing factors team managers of previously successful European football clubs could capitalize on in order to build or rebuild the brand identity of their respective team via the Europa League. Design/methodology/approach – The authors followed a case analysis method. The authors selected teams that have had a history of good performance in European competitions in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, before falling off the radar. A total of 19 teams, representing 15 countries, accepted the invitation. Findings – The managers underlined eight major catalyzing factors. The managers specifically emphasize the importance of branding and how it can crystallize the promise these teams articulate to their fans, on and off the football pitch. Moreover, the values that a team encapsulates and communicates through its daily actions seem to represent the essence of the brand. Research limitations/implications – One risk relates to the respondents who co...


Due to their unique properties, wood-polymer composites (WPC) can be successfully used in many branches of industry including fillings/carriers in wastewater treatment technology based on moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR). The changes in wettability of WPC composites treated by activated sludge for 6 or 12 months were investigated. Wettability is a property that significantly influences the degree of absorption and aggregation of the material. They mainly depend on the surface energy, the value of which determines, among others, the rate and degree of biofilm aggregation as well as water absorbability of a given material. Research has shown a direct effect of the composition of WPC material (including filler content and particle size) and the residence time of WPC in the active sludge bioreactor on the value of the contact angle. The wettability values of reference samples, not exposed to the activated sludge, were comparable and independent from the composition. After extending the exposure time to 12 months the wettability of composites was significantly worsened, because the structure of the composites have been colonized in a permanent manner.


The EU-H2020 project ARCH aims to develop and adapt tools and methods for assessing and improving the resilience of historic areas to climate-related and other natural hazards [1]. One of these tools is CIPCast, a scenario simulation and decision support system for the analysis and forecast of risks and vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure components and their interdependencies. In this paper, we describe the basic functionalities of CIPCast, as far as the application to seismic risk assessment is concerned and we provide an overview of the models behind it. Furthermore, a brief discussion on how we plan to extend CIPCast to model and simulate potential risks and impacts induced by climate change to historic areas, and how this is intended to support resilience assessment strategies, is provided in the conclusions. Introduction Historic towns, old urban quarters, villages and hamlets, as well as historic landscapes make up a significant part of Europe: Natural heritage sites cover roughly 18% of the European land territory [2] and on average 22% of the European housing stock was constructed before 1946 [3]. These historic areas are deeply embedded in larger urban and rural environments (in which 72% of the European population live [4]), serving a role in preserving local identity and personality as well as local knowledge, while relying on interdependent infrastructure services to keep functioning. Historic areas are a major component of quality of life and play an important role in society and community well-being [5], as well as providing important environmental and economic functions. Although climate change has become one of the most significant and fastest growing threats to people and their cultural heritage [6] the impacts of climate-related and other natural hazards on historic areas have not been studied extensively enough [7], and disaster risk reduction seldomly registers as a priority area for management of World Heritage property [8]. Therefore, there is a need for specific methods and tools for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction that take the unique physical, environmental, economic, social, cultural, and governance aspects of historic areas, as well as the enabling conditions they provide for taking action into account. The EU Horizon 2020 research project ARCH (Advancing resilience of historic areas against climate-related and other hazards) [1] aims to take a step in this direction by providing a suite of tools for assessing and improving the resilience of historic areas, combined within a unified disaster risk management framework. One of the tools developed within the project is an extension of the scenario simulation and decision support system CIPCast [9] in order to enable the assessment of impacts and risks to historic areas induced by climate change and natural hazards. This is an essential input for assessing the resilience of historic areas and identifying suitable resilience building strategies. This paper gives an overview on how CIPCast functions and describes the extensions necessary to maximize its utility in the project context. The first section (sec. 1) gives a brief introduction to the ARCH project, followed by a general overview of the basic functionalities of CIPCast (sec. 2) and how these can already be employed to assess damage and impacts induced by seismic hazards (sec. 3). Following these explanations, the planned extensions of CIPCast (sec. 4), and how its results supports reARGESIM Report 59 (ISBN 978-3-901608-93-3), p 453-460, DOI: 10.11128/arep.59.a59063


Purpose To construct a simple and efficient way to purify SOD from maize.Methods The methods of preliminary extraction,40%-80% ammonium sulfate fractionation,Cu2+ chelate affinity chromatography and DEAE-cellulose chromatography to purify SOD-A from maize were used.Results 11.7% yield of enzyme with specific activity of 1.18×104 U/(mg·prot) was gained.The purified SOD-A component showed one band on the patterns of both PAGE and SDS-PAGE,the pI was 7.2 by isoelectric focusing and the type was identified Cu/Zn-SOD.The stability study showed that SOD-A component had good stability to temperature,pH and denaturants(such as urea).Conclusion The SOD-A with high specific activity can be obtained by Cu2+ chelate affinity chromatography and DEAE-cellulose chromatography,and it had high stability.


Accuracy of object detection has increased significantly in recent years because of the rapid development of deep learning techniques. Nevertheless, its applications in many fields are still limited, mainly due to the lack of large datasets, especially datasets with accurate annotations. Crowdsourcing provides a promising approach to tackle the problem mentioned above because of their "divide and conquer" nature. Nonetheless, existing crowdsourced techniques, e.g., Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), often fail to guarantee the quality of the annotations. In this paper, we propose a novel probabilistic scheme based on crowdsourcing for ground truth inference. As a representative of object detection, we choose Faster R-CNN as the base framework. We name our scheme Crowd R-CNN. We propose an aggregation approach to aggregate annotations from multiple annotators, which allows to convert anchor labels and annotated labels with each other and train the network end-to-end using backpropagation. To improve accuracy, Crowd R-CNN takes into consideration the multi-dimensional measure of the annotatore' ability and updates these parameters during training. Experimental results demonstrate that Crowd R-CNN can deal with noisy crowdsourced data effectively. Crowd R-CNN is able to achieve comparable results to the baseline with ground truth annotations and is the first algorithm to solve the problem of how to train deep object detection model utilizing crowdsourced labels.


Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are discovered family of endogenous, noncoding RNA molecules. miRNAs modulate the gene expression post-transcriptionally by binding to complementary sequences in the coding or 3' untranslated region of target mRNAs. It was demonstrated also that miRNAs are the key regulators of a variety of biological processes such as cell proliferation, apoptosis and tumorigenesis. The miR-196a-2 could also potentially target genes such as platelet-derived growth factor receptor, alpha-polypeptide (PDGFRα), IL2, and mannose-binding lectin (protein C) 2 (MBL2) that are likely candidates of several oxidative stress-mediated diseases. In addition, miR-196a-2 was also demonstrated to target tyrosinase, which plays an important role in melanin synthesis. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between a functional SNP of rs 11614913 in microRNA 196a-2 and the serum tyrosinase level in vitiligo patients, evaluate the effect of microRNA 196a-2 polymorphism on the response to treatment in vitiligo patients, as well as to explore this polymorphism in first degree relatives of vitiligo patients. Methods: The current study was a prospective case-control interventional study that was conducted on 100 participants. Fifty of them were patients with vitiligo, and they were located in group 1. Group 2 contained 50 control participants, half of them were 1st-degree relatives for vitiligo patients (group 2a), while the rest had a negative family history. In group 1, determination of the miRNA 196a-2 polymorphism as well as assay of the level of serum Tyrosinase. Then, they were treated for 4 months by NB-UVB. Then after the end of the treatment course, serum tyrosinase level was remeasured and the response of the treatment was evaluated. Group 2 was tested also for the type of polymorphism and the level of serum Tyrosinase. Results: The level of serum tyrosinase is higher in patients with vitiligo. And the levels of the enzyme were significantly higher in cases suffering from early onset vitiligo. Patients with higher serum Tyrosinase level tended to be more resistant to treatment. And the treatment course of vitiligo failed to record a significant reduction in the serum Tyrosinase levels. T allele of miRNA 196a-2 polymorphism was found to have a significant relation with the development of vitiligo. And presence of TT genotype could predict the early age of onset and poor response to treatment, while C allele is associated with lower level of serum Tyrosinase level. Conclusion: MiRNA 196a-2 polymorphism could be used as a predictive marker for the expected development of vitiligo.


This paper evaluates the effect of access to the Ghana national health insurance on the timing of the first prenatal care visit for pregnant women after controlling for other factors. Due to the voluntary nature of the national health insurance program, insurance status is likely endogenous, this paper therefore uses the Multilevel Multiprocess (MLMP) model and the Mixed Proportional Hazard (MPH) model estimation techniques, which controls for endogeneity in survival data analysis. Results from the estimation shows that access to insurance reduces the delays in receiving prenatal care, and increases the probability of seeking prenatal care.


To the editor:

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with both microvascular and macrovascular complications.1 Stroke is considered 1 of the most common and disabling vascular complications in patients with SCD, occurring in approximately 24% of individuals by age 45.2,3 The etiology of stroke remains unclear, although preexisting obstructive lesions in major intracranial vessels have been reported.4

The microvasculature in SCD may be less reliable in maintaining viability in stroke border zones because of predisposition to microvascular occlusions by sickled red blood cells (RBCs). Patency of the microvessels may be particularly important in the setting of acute stroke in which tissues distal to the occlusion are hypoxic; this may trigger occlusive microvascular sickling. The effect of stroke size following macrovascular occlusion in SCD has not been previously reported to our knowledge. The effect of SCD on stroke size in humans is difficult to determine because there is no suitable control group for the SCD-related strokes that occur at relatively early ages.5

In this study, we sought to determine whether stroke size following macrovascular occlusion would be affected in mice with SCD. Male SCD and control mice were generated by bone marrow transplantation as previously described.6,7 SCD mice were anemic (hemoglobin: 9.7 ± 0.3 vs 12.6 ± 0.5 g/dL, P < .001) with splenomegaly (494.5 ± 51.5 vs 131 ± 11.5 mg, P < .001) compared with wild-type (WT) mice. Eight weeks after bone marrow transplantation, middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion was induced by photochemical injury as previously described.8 As early as 1 hour after occlusion, cortical discoloration representing the ischemic zone was greater in SCD mice compared with WT mice (n = 5/group) (Figure 1A-C). Another group of control and SCD mice (n = 10/group) were analyzed at day 3 following MCA occlusion to determine effects of SCD on completed stroke size as previously described.9 Although there was no mortality in the control group, mortality occurred in 4 SCD (P < .001) mice on days 2 (n = 2) and 3 (n = 2) following induction of stroke. Of the surviving mice, completed stroke size was greater in SCD mice compared with WT mice (Figure 1D-F). This was associated with widespread occlusion of the microvasculature by sickled RBCs in the stroke border zone (Figure 1G).

Figure 1

Effect of SCD on stroke after MCA occlusion. At 1 hour following MCA occlusion, the area of erythema representing ischemic zone was greater in SCD compared with WT mice (A-C). At 3 days following MCA occlusion, infarct size by 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium ...

Because the microvasculature may preserve the viability of the stroke border zone, it is likely that this was the cause of the increased stroke size. The increased mortality in SCD mice was unexpected and may be due to the triggering of a sickle cell crisis following induction of stroke. However, circulating sickled RBCs constituted only 1.1 ± 0.2% of the circulating RBCs following stroke.

Overall, these findings indicate that in addition to being at high risk of stroke, SCD patients may suffer greater damage when stroke occurs. Although identification of the predisposing factors for macrovascular occlusion is the highest priority for stroke prevention in SCD, cellular events in the microvasculature could affect outcomes once macrovascular flow disturbance occurs. Therapies targeting microvascular sickling may reduce morbidity associated with stroke in SCD.


This paper presents a novel z-axis Lorentz force magnetometer coupled with a low-power readout integrated circuit. The sensor is fabricated using an industrial process, and exploits an Al-on-polysilicon multi-loop architecture that gives a five-fold sensitivity and resolution improvement, useful for off-resonance operation. The integrated readout is based on a differential charge amplifier front-end, and designed to be balanced with the sensor in terms of noise and power consumption. The overall system, including demodulation and filtering stages, shows a programmable full-scale up to ±2.4 mT, limited by the electronics saturation. The bandwidth can be programmed up to 150 Hz for off-resonance operation where a sub-400-nT/√Hz resolution at 775-μW power consumption is obtained, including the integrated readout and the Lorentz current. Perspectives on low-consumption driving oscillators for off-resonance mode are finally given.


The Mn2+ ion acts as a template for the synthesis of complexes of the 15-. 16-, and 17-membered N5 macrocycles (L1, L2, and L3) formed from 2,6-diacetylpyridine and, respectively, 3,6-diazaoctane-1,8 diamine, 3,7-diazanonane-1,9- diamine, and 4,7-diazadecane-1,10-diamine. The complexes are of the type [MnLX2]·xH2O or [MnLX-(ClO4)]·xH2O (X = Cl, NCS, or BPh4: x= 0, 0.5, 2, or 6). All the complexes are high spin with S=5//2 ground states. From spectroscopic, magnetic, and other evidence it is concluded that the complexes of L1 and L2 have pentagonal-bipyramidal structures with the macrocycle defining the equatorial plane and the axial positions occupied by Cl–, NCS–, or H2O. All the complexes of L1 and L2 are mononuclear except [{MnL(NCS)}n][ClO4]n which in the solid state are polymeric with the metal ions linked via NCS bridges which also transmit weak antiferromagnetic exchange. An X-ray structure determination of [MnL3(NCS)2] shows that the complexes of the largest macrocycle have somewhat different structures from those of L1 and L2. Crystals of [MnL3(NCS)2] are monoclinic with a= 12.007(8), b= 14.300(9), c= 13.227(9)A, β= 100.51(6)°, Z= 4, space group P21/n. The structure has been solved by Patterson and Fourier methods and refined by full-matrix least squares to R 0.058 for 2 023 independent reflections above background measured by diffractometer. While the geometry of the co-ordination sphere is best considered as a distorted pentagonal bipyramid with the thiocyanate groups in axial positions, the macrocycle is distorted from planarity in that, while four nitrogens are coplanar with the metal ion, the pyridine nitrogen atom is 0.92 A from this plane.Metal–nitrogen(macrocycle) distances are 2.385(6), 2.311(5), 2.354(6), 2.429(6), and 2.385(6)A. The Mn–N bonds [2.174(7) and 2.294(7)A] and the Mn–N–C angles [150.9(6) and 135.0(5)°] to the thiocyanates are significantly different and reflect the different environments of the two ligands. A further consequence of the folding of this macrocycle is that the more sterically crowded axial ligand is readily displaced, as in [MnL3(NCS)][ClO4], to yield six-co-ordinate, presumably pentagonal-pyramidal, complexes.


We analyze a dynamic matching mechanism developed for the UEFA Champions League, the largest and most-watched football club competition worldwide. First, we theoretically characterize the assignment rule developed by UEFA by solving a complex constrained assignment problem with a publicly verifiable draw. Then, using a structural model of the assignments and data from the UEFA Champions League 2004 and 2018 seasons we show that the constraints cause quantitatively large spillovers to unconstrained teams. Nevertheless, we conclude that the UEFA draw is close to a constrained-best in terms of fairness. Moreover, we find that it is feasible to substantially reduce the distortions by only marginally slacking the constraints.


A major challenge in the transition from conventional to organic production in a grain intensive region such as the Com Belt region of the U.S.A. is how to profitably select and manage a crop rotation. The opportunity cost of forgoing grain production for forage and green manure crops is significant. Many organic researchers and writers emphasize the need to bring an animal enterprise into the farming system for diversification and enhanced labor utilization. Livestock also add value to grain and forage crops to offset decreased grain production and can recapture nutrients used in crop production that can be recycled through manure. In grain intensive regions, organic farmers should consider swine production as a natural fit for the farming system. Swine are very efficient and adaptable animals that can add value to both grain and forage crops. While somewhat lacking, there is a reasonable body of literature on organic and sustainable swine production. However, there is relatively little specific information available to organic farmers to assist in the initial decision to enter organic swine production and to evaluate marketing alternatives. The primary focus of this paper is to give some background on organic animal production(emphasis on swine) in the Central United States and outline production and marketing decisions and considerations, relative to market trends, demographics and standards(U.S.). At the farm level, decisions must be made regarding resources, such as land, labor, financial and social capital, all relative to opportunities. all in the context of the standards and market forces beyond the farm. At the personal level the farmer must also make decisions about convictions regarding organic or environmentally friendly agriculture, willingness to change, impacts on lifestyle and family. and the transition to organic methods within the planning horizon of the farmer and the family business.


Similar to oil that acted as a basic raw material and key driving force of industrial society, information acts as a raw material and principal mover of knowledge society in the knowledge production, propagation and application. New developments in information processing and information communication technologies allow increasingly complex and accurate descriptions, representations and models, which are often multi-parameter, multi-perspective, multi-level and multidimensional. This leads to the necessity of collaborative work between different domains with corresponding specialist competences, sciences and research traditions. We present several major transdisciplinary unification projects for information and knowledge, which proceed on the descriptive, logical and the level of generative mechanisms. Parallel process of boundary crossing and transdisciplinary activity is going on in the applied domains. Technological artifacts are becoming increasingly complex and their design is strongly user-centered, which brings in not only the function and various technological qualities but also other aspects including esthetic, user experience, ethics and sustainability with social and environmental dimensions. When integrating knowledge from a variety of fields, with contributions from different groups of stakeholders, numerous challenges are met in establishing common view and common course of action. In this context, information is our environment, and informational ecology determines both epistemology and spaces for action. We present some insights into the current state of the art of transdisciplinary theory and practice of information studies and informatics. We depict different facets of transdisciplinarity as we see it from our different research fields that include information studies, computability, human-computer interaction, multi-operating-systems environments and philosophy.


Physis is the oldest Italian periodical specifically dedicated to the history of science. The journal welcomes contributions from both Italian and non-Italian authors and publishes articles in English, Italian, French, German and Spanish. All articles are accompanied by long summaries in English. The journal covers all major aspects of the history of Western sciences: History of Astronomy, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Earth Sciences, Natural History and the BioMedical and Life Sciences. It is also open to contributions in the history of the human sciences, scientific institutions and instruments, as well as the historiography of science and the history of relationships between science and philosophy, science and technology, science and society, and other interdisciplinary and border-line areas. The journal does not specialise in any particular field or historical period; rather, it offers a wider readership in the history of science a broad range of work on different subjects and periods while maintaining the highest standards of scholarship despite the variety ofstylesofapproach of its Contibutors PHYSIS


Behaviour is the apparent, noticeable answer of a given situation with respect to a given target. Use of the Internet for retail shopping has extended enormously in recent ages and has a deep impact on the shopping process for many consumers. Online buying behaviour is a type of behaviour which is revealed by customers while surfing websites of an e-tailer to explore, choose and purchase goods and services, to satisfy their desires and wants. It's essentially a behaviour which is mirrored by the purchaser during the process of buying through the internet. Consumer satisfaction, being one of the most crucial part of behaviour, is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person. It can be defined as the extent to which consumer's perceptions of the online shopping experience confirm their expectations. Most consumers form expectations of the product details, vendor details, after sales service, quality of the product and payment procedures through website that they patronize before engaging in online shopping activities. These expectations influence their attitudes and intentions to shop at a certain Internet store, and consequently their decision-making processes and purchasing behaviour. If expectations are met, consumers achieve a high degree of satisfaction, which influences their online shopping attitudes, intentions, decisions, and purchasing activity positively. So, to study the consumer satisfaction is considered as very important element because the further business depends on this only. Therefore, for the present study, questions are designed, and information is collected based upon consumer experiences, who have already purchased products and services through online. The paper focuses on the level of consumer satisfaction towards online buying and to study whether Consumer satisfaction towards online shopping vary among various demographic factors taken in the study. 600 sample size is taken to carry out the research. Snowball sampling method is primarily used to collect the sample. Sample is collected from three major cites of Punjab i.e. Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar on the basis of highly density of population. The findings reveal that there is significant difference in various demographic factors and level of consumer satisfaction towards online shopping.


As a popular signal of radar,the linear frequency modulation(LFM)signal can increase the detection range with larger average emitted power.In order to improve study intrest and condition of the students,a virtual experiment platform for analyzing the LFM signal was designed with hybrid programming technology of LabVIEW and Matlab.The platform includes LFM signal analysis platform and pulse compression simulation platform,and has convenient operability.As a result,the students can understand the feature and the principle of time-frequency domain with deep impression.The application method of the platform in teaching is proposed.


Eggs of chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) were segregated into eight size groups (range 163–437 mg) and incubated at 5, 7.5, 10, and 12.5 °C. The time required to reach maximum alevin wet weight (MAWW) varied significantly (p < 0.01) both with mean incubation temperature (T °C) and with initial egg weight (W mg). A good (R2 = 98.4%, n = 21) prediction of days postfertilization to MAWW (D) is given byOptimal ponding times are closely associated with the attainment of MAWW and can be estimated using this equation. Data relating mean incubation temperatures (T) to actual ponding time were collected from 17 hatcheries throughout British Columbia. The equationwhere D′ is days postfertilization to ponding, provided the best fit to the data (R2 = 97.5%, n = 85). Hatchery ponding times were not significantly different from times to MAWW predicted for 200-mg eggs.


Experiments are conducted to study the vertical film width and downcomer gap effects on impingement upon the vertical flat wall simulating the core barrel in the APR 1400 (Advanced Power Reactor 1400 MWe). This work is being carried out in ALPHA (Accelerated Liquid Phase Hydrodynamics Apparatus) at the Seoul National University. The results are to be integrated into a system code THEOS (Thermomechanics Hydrodynamics Eutectics Online Simulator). At larger distances from stagnation to the injection nozzle, the gap effect falls off. The data suggest that, for impingement proximate to the stagnation point, the flow velocities can be computed by applying a turbulent correction factor to the laminar value calculated for velocities having the same pressure distribution as that present in the impingement region. To find the correction factor, one needs to obtain the liquid film thickness and breakup factors related to the turbulent flow. This is in contrast to the laminar flow, in which the liquid film thickness is uniform and the breakup is nonexistent. This work is particularly concerned with the liquid film thickness. Previous ALPHA experiments with varying nozzle diameters advocate that the correction factor is found to be a function of the injection speed rather than the Reynolds number. This paper documents on measurement of the radial liquid film thickness fluctuations and their point wise values at the same vertical height. It additionally reports on results of numerical calculation for the liquid film profiles.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


Studies have demonstrated that use of peptides including bone morphogenetic proteins, fibroblast growth factors, insulin-like growth factor (IGF), and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), may be pivotal in promoting chondrogenesis and matrix development. As a prelude to studies, it is necessary to determine which gene or combination of genes gives the best result to improve proliferation of chondrocytes and synthesis of extracellar matrix. We investigate the effect of transfec-tion of recombined rat TGF-beta1 and recombined rat IGF-1 on rabbit chondrocytes ex vivo. Chondrocytes were isolated from articular cartilage of knee joint of mature New Zealand White rabbits. Cells were seeded at a density of 1×105 cells/ml into 6-well plates. Monolayer cultures were infected respectively with recombinant rat gene pcDNA3+TGF-beta 1, pAT153+IGF-1 and lac Z reporter gene by using lipo-fectamine, and were co-transfected by pcDNA3+TGF-beta 1, pAT153+IGF-1. The control group remained uninfected. To determine whether the genes transcript were translated and the gene products were released, the synthesis of TGF-beta 1, IGF-1,and type II collagen were measured by in situ hybridization, immunohisto-chemistry and immunofluoroscopy. The proliferation of chondrocytes was detected by flow cytometer and 3H-TdR radiolabeling. The expression of TGF-beta1,IGF-1 and type II collagen in recombinant rat gene transfection groups was high beyond control levels and the lac Z gene levels (P The data presented support that transfection of genes of TGF-beta1 and IGF-1 into chondrocytes ex vivo can greatly increase cell proliferation and matrix synthesis, and the co-transfection can provoke more increase in the synthesis of TGF-beta1, IGF-1 and type II collagen, which encourages the further research of gene potential therapeutic use for osteoarthritis.


In this research paper, performance and exhaust emissions of a spark ignition (SI) engine (XU7JP/L3) is presented. A gasoline-ethanol blend (E20) and G-Series fuel, of GS1 and GS2, which is a mixture of gasoline, ethanol, biodiesel and diesel, is used. The tests results revealed that the power and torque of XU7JP/L3 engine decreases (not significantly) 6.5% and 1.2% for the mixtures of fossil fuel and biofuel blends respectively. In these circumstances, the rate of fuel consumption increases by 36%. The tests results also show that the rate of both UHC and CO faces 8% and 47% reduction but CO2 emission is increased. As a conclusion, it is found that the XU7JP/L3 engine performance is most suitable when it runs on E20 (80% gasoline + 20 % ethanol) and GS1 (10 v% ethanol, 2.5 v% biodiesel, 2.5 v% diesel and 85 v% gasoline).


Background Research methodology is insufficiently featured in undergraduate medical curricula. Student-selected components are designed to offer some research opportunities but frequently fail to meet student or supervisor expectations, such as completion or publication. We hypothesized that a collaborative, educational approach to a systematic review (SR), whereby medical students worked together, may improve student experience and increase success. Objective This study aimed to establish whether offering a small team of students the opportunity to take part in the screening phase of SRs led by an experienced postgraduate team could enhance the learning experience of students, overcome the barriers to successful research engagement, and deliver published output. Methods Postgraduate researchers from the University of Cambridge led a team of 14 medical students to work on 2 neurosurgical SRs. One student was appointed as the lead for each SR. All students were provided with training on SR methodology and participated in title and abstract screening using Rayyan software. Students completed prepilot, midscreening, and postscreening questionnaires on their research background, perceptions, knowledge, confidence, and experience. Questions were scored on a Likert scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 10 (strongly agree). Results Of the 14 students involved, 29% (n=4) reported that they had received sufficient training in research methodology at medical school. Positive trends in student knowledge, confidence, and experience of SR methodology were noted across the 3 questionnaire time points. Mean responses to "I am satisfied with the level of guidance I am receiving," "I am enjoying being involved in the SR process," and "I could not gain this understanding of research from passive learning e.g., textbook or lecture" were greater than 8.0 at all time points. Students reported "being involved in this research has made me more likely to do research in the future" (mean 8.57, SD 1.50) and that "this collaborative SR improved my research experience" (mean 8.50, SD 1.56). Conclusions This collaborative approach appears to be a potentially useful method of providing students with research experience; however, it requires further evaluation.


Indocyanine green (ICG) derivatives having nucleophilic substituents were synthesized as pH-responsive near-infrared dyes. pH-responsive dyes 1-C with closed-ring structures smoothly internalized and converted to emissive open-ring structures 1-O in response to relatively low pHs in acidic intracellular compartments of HeLa cells.


This study examines the historiography of the origins of rugby league in Australia. By accepting the inclusive nature of representation of the past as found in social memory theory, a wide range of sources ranging from histories written by academics to annuals, yearbooks and newspaper books are consulted. These sources reveal that there are several competing and conflicting accounts of the emergence of rugby league in Australia. These divergent accounts are used to facilitate a discussion of the role of narrative in sport history This article argues that narrative is an integral, not optional, feature of the production of history and that the historography of the origins of rugby league highlight the problematic nature of objectivity in history and the unavoidable, impositionalist role of the historian.


the modern scientist. His foregoing comments and anecdotal observations raise some additional questions which, of course, are no substitute for a systematic study of the evolution of the patron-artist relationship from the Renaissance-or even earlier historical periods-to the present. Whether the ideal type of Renaissance patron-artist relationship-as I have inferred it from the work of some art historians-has some relevance for an analysis of the role of the scientist in the twentieth century is an empirical question. In raising this question in my article, it was my hope that it might stimulate others to undertake the complex but intriguing study of the factors accounting for the changing nature of the patron-artist relationship.


Learning media is a vehicle for channeling messages and learning information. In this globalization era, the development of instructional media is also increasingly advanced.. The purpose of this study was to determine the improvement of student learning outcomes and student responses to the use of information technology-based interactive learning media on Integrated Social Sciences subjects in class VIII students at SMP Al-Furqan Jember. This study uses the Classroom Action Research method by conducting two learning cycles with stages in each cycle including planning, action, observation, evaluation, and reflection. Student respons data was collected through questionnaires  which were then analyzed descriptively. The results of this study indicate there is an increase in student learning outcomes, this is indicated by the number of students who have completed in the first cycle of 65.52%, and the second cycle there are 93.10%  of students who have completed, and student responses obtained an average score of 41.72 with a positive category. The conclusion of this research with the use of information technology-based interactive learning media in class VIII at SMP Al-Furqan Jember gave a positive response with a significant increase in learning outcomes.


Abstract Background: Nursing homes for older adults have concentrated large numbers of severe cases and deaths for COVID-19. Methods: Point seroprevalence study of nursing homes to describe the demography and characteristic of SARS-CoV-2 IgG-positive residents and staff. Results: Clinical information and blood samples were available for 9,332 residents (mean age 86.7 ± 8.1 years, 76.4% women) and 10,614 staff (mean age 45.6 ± 11.5, 86.2% women). Up to 84.4% of residents had frailty, 84.9% co-morbidity and 69.3% cognitive impairment; 65.2% of workers were health-aides. COVID-19 seroprevalence was 55.4% (95% CI, 54.4–56.4) for older adults and 31.5% (30.6–32.4) for staff. In multivariable analysis frailty of residents was related with seropositivity (OR: 1.19, p = 0.02). In the case of staff, age > 50 years (2.10, p < 0.001), obesity (1.19, p = 0.01), being a health-aide (1.94, p < 0.001), working in a center with high seroprevalence in residents (3.49, p < 0.001), and contact with external cases of COVID-19 (1.52, p < 0.001) were factors associated with seropositivity. Past symptoms of COVID-19 were good predictors of seropositivity for residents (5.41, p < 0.001) and staff (2.52, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Level of dependency influences risk of COVID-19 among residents. Individual and work factors, and contacts outside the nursing home are associated with COVID-19 exposure in staff members. It is key to strengthen control measures to prevent the introduction of COVID-19 into care facilities from the community.


The aim of the research was to identify the suitability of fried onion industry.  The research was carried out in 2007.  Samples of the fried onion industry in Palu were determined using a census method by taking all 17 fried onion industrial units existed in Donggala district. Analysis methods used were Net Present Value (NPV), Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) and Internal Rate Return (IRR). The research results showed that based on production multiplication the fried onion industry returns was 19,500 kg year -1 with fried onion selling price of IDR 70,000 kg -1 . Thus, the average of returns obtained was IDR 7,665,000year -1 . The fried onion industry was financially suitable to be run and developed as indicated by NPV value of IDR 10,406,415,482, BCR value of 1.61, and IRR value of 576.13% or in other words NPV>0, BCR>1 and IRR>12.30%. The industry benefit obtained from the difference between the returns and costs was IDR 3,056,587,500 year -1 or IDR 245,715,625 month -1 .  Factors affecting the industry benefit were the production quantity and costs spent for production facilities


IntroductionResponse to intervention (RTI) is the practice of providing high-quality instruction/intervention matched to student needs and using learning rate over time and level of performance to make important educational decisions (Batsche et al., 2005). Using RTI means that educators view data three times a year to measure progress and see what all students are learning. This approach is not a special education initiative, but instead a creative method to measure student progress early on and provide assistance for those who are struggling to find success. By considering the individual student rather than using a "one size fits all" approach. RTI investigates the quality of core instruction. In short, RTI involves school staff and parents working together to help students before learning difficulties grow into permanent patterns of failure. The RTI implementation initiates evidence-based interventions to minimize academic and social behavior concerns using scientifically grounded instruction and data to make decisions.Traditional approaches to student interventions are being challenged by changes in educational guidelines. These traditional approaches include parent conferences, observations, a minimum number of general interventions, a review of educational and social records, a psychological evaluation, and differentiated instruction. The No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (2004) are examples of changes associated with RTI that require schools to meet the differentiated needs of students (Sandomierski, Kincaid, & Algozzine, 2007). To that end, the RTI method used to remediate educational difficulties and to determine a student's eligibility for special education is a significant change in the prevention process. Because of RTI, school districts are now seeking avenues to implement effective instructional practices to develop positive academic and social behavior outcomes.In many districts, RTI is still in the developmental stage as schools are grappling to find their place in the RTI system. Because RTI requires school personnel to implement interventions with the entire student population, the roles and responsibilities of individual staff are ambiguous, especially those of the school social workers (SSWs). Several RTI studies have discussed how school social workers can be relevant to such powerful intervention, but have failed to identify the overall roles and responsibilities needed for an effective implementation. The depth and magnitude of expectations and challenges of the school social worker role have increased as a result of the advent of RTI changes in the school environment.Ultimately, school social workers are now forced to examine and modify their delivery of services. Because they are required to assist with the transition into this RTI model, their perceptions regarding specific roles and responsibilities are an essential concern. It is critical to understand how RTI may contribute to the profession, particularly because of the influential role of school social workers regarding students and school success. It is inferred that the strategic role of school social workers and their knowledge of RTI implementation need further augmentation for effective execution. The purpose of this article is to elucidate school social worker perceptions of how RTI implementation has been integrated into their roles and responsibilities.Literature ReviewResponse to Intervention is an insightful approach that contains various components such as problem solving, data-based decision making, school-wide behavioral support, measurement of strategies, and evaluation. In short, RTI is based on practical, evidence-based ways of responding to students and has become an alternative to a deficit approach (Massat, Constable, & Thomas, 2009) that focuses mainly on student insufficiencies. According to Raines (2010), RTI implementation balances complex adaptation and fidelity to empirically based interventions. …


Teacher discipline and organizational culture practices in schools and teacher competence and leadership of school principals greatly affect teacher performance at SMK Batik 2 Surakarta. This study aims to determine whether discipline, competence, organizational culture and leadership quality have a simuly effect on teacher performance at SMK Batik 2 Surakarta. This type of research is a type of quantitative research, conducted at SMK Batik 2 Surakarta. The research time was carried out for one month, namely in December 2020. The research population was 50 people using a non-probability sampling technique with the technique taken, namely saturated sampling (census) with a sample of 50 people. Data collection is done by observing, documenting and asking questions. The data analysis technique was carried out with the classical assumption test, namely normality test, multicollinearity test, as well as heteroscedasticity test and multiple regression analysis as well as model suitability test (Good of Fit) by analyzing the coefficient of determination (R2), F test, t test and the coefficient of determination ( R2). The results showed that: 1) there was a positive and significant influence on teacher perceptions of discipline on the teacher's performance at SMK Batik 2 Surakarta supported by empirical evidence, 2) there was a positive and significant influence on organizational culture on teacher performance at SMK Batik 2 Surakarta supported by empirical evidence, 3 ) there is a positive and significant effect of teacher competence on teacher performance at SMK Batik 2 Surakarta supported by empirical evidence, 4) there is a positive and significant influence on leadership quality on teacher performance at SMK Batik 2 Surakarta supported by empirical evidence.

Keywords: Discipline, organizational culture, teacher competence, leadership quality.


Most commercially available prothrombin (PT) as says are stated to be insensitive to heparin in therapeutic doses. These conclusions are, however, based on studies using normal plasma samples. The aim of the present study was to study the effect of unfractioned heparin, three low molecular heparins, and a heparinoid on six prothrombin assays using plasma samples from patients on warfarin. Plasma samples from 30 patients on warfarin were heparinized in vitro with unfrac tioned heparin, three different low molecular weight heparins (Fragmin® [Pharmacia/Upjohn Inc., Delaware, U.S.A.], Klex ane® [Rhone Poulenc Rorer, Halte, Denmark], and Logiparin- Dinnohep®, [Leo Biological Products, Ballerup, Denmark]) and the heparinoid Org 10172 (Orgaran [Organon, Oss, The Netherlands]) to obtain 0.50-1.50 U/ml plasma. The PT time was then determined with four PT reagents stated to be insen sitive to heparin (Innovin [Dade, Miami, Florida, U.S.A.], Ny coplastin [Nycomed Pharma, Oslo, Norway], Nycotest PT [Ny comed Pharma], and Stago Prothrombin Complex Assay [SPA 50, Diagnostica Stago, Franconville, France]) and two reagents stated to be sensitive to heparin (Manchester Reagent [Manchester Comparative Reagent, Ltd., Stockport, Great Brit ain] and Thrombotest [Nycomed]). All PT assays except Inno vin were sensitive to the heparins. With a heparin concentration of 0.5 U/ml plasma, the increase in INR ranged from 18-55% with Thrombotest and 0-44% with the other assays. The in crease in INR values by 1.5 U/ml plasma differed among the heparins used; Manchester Reagent 6-297%, Thrombotest 43- 247%, Nycoplastin 48-81%, SPA 50 20-74%, Nycotest PT 17-36%, and Innovin 0-5%. Orgaran did not prolong the clot ting time with the Manchester Reagent. With the other five PT assays, Innohep (Leo Biological Products, Ballerup, Denmark) and Orgaran gave the largest increase in INR value. Fragmin, Klexane, and unfractioned heparin caused a similar low in crease in INR. A 3-h delay in testing prolonged the prothrom bin times with the simple PT assays (Manchester Reagent and Nycoplastin). The other assays were little affected. Concomi tant heparin therapy prolongs the PT clotting times with all reagents, except Innovin, to the extent that with three of the assays examined this may lead to underdosing of warfarin.


Aiming at domestic garbage aerobic compost and town sludge anaerobic treatment,on the basis of reactor TISTD(the integrated of sludge thickening and digestion)which is developed by the authors' team,a TIDGTS(the integrated of domestic garbage and town sludge)reactor is designed.The reactor is made up of garbage and sludge chambers.Aerobic compost is adopted in the garbage chamber,while anaerobic fermentation is used in the sludge chamber,thus garbage and sludge can be treated in the same reactor.32~36 ℃ of sludge digestion can be ensured by the heat from sludge digestion,and 20 L sludge and 15 kg garbage can be treated per day.While inlet sludge moisture content is 97.2%~99.8% and VS/TS is 0.45~0.69,the discharged sludge moisture content is 92.7%~96.1% and VS/TS is 0.28~0.42.When the inlet garbage moisture content is 73.5% and VS/TS is 0.65~0.88,the discharged garbage moisture content is 48.6% and VS/TS is 0.32~0.44.The results show that the efficiency of concentration and digestion is near to TISTD which is heated by heating wire.


From the public perspective to organize the digital informationenvironment, we find that the search engines are the biggest tools that regulatethe online environment and allows sources to beneficiaries, The volume ofinformation available on the Internet already amazing. Thus, learn how to usespecialized search tools that are designed to help get information is the vehiclethat enables us to effectively deal with this huge source of information, and thespecifications that characterize one of the search tools is that distinguish themfrom others and determine their effectiveness and efficiency of use. With thedevelopment and services online environment tools have evolved, including thesearch engines and evolved types and multi-v characteristics and patterns of use,perhaps unconsciously on the part of the year the beneficiary; hence embodiedstudy the problem of exposure to the search engines, in particular, representedby this problem in the following question: What kinds of search engines ? Andclassified depending on the mechanism by which it operates and the contentprovided by the researcher? Is there awareness by the researchers and sciencestudents in particular? To achieve this, the study used the methodology ofdescriptive analysis, as the use of device which the questionnaire that has beenpresented to 200 Single of the researchers working Beni Suef Universitycommunity (faculty members and their assistants) questionnaire included a list of40 the types of search engine name to find out the extent of awareness,knowledge and use of these engines, and the results yielded was limited to tentypes of qualitative research engines, as has been proved that there are levels ofquality loopback between the search of one type engines according to individual assessments and additional interactive services and potential feedback. Theproportion of 74% of the study sample they do not use search engines other thanGeneral search engines, as opposed to 26% using other engines. Accordingly,the study recommended that he should be in Arabic and university librariesbother them especially by providing a number of all types of search engineswithin their websites. It also recommended the inclusion within the curriculum ofall university programs interested in digital research tools and how to invest todrive awareness of learning and scientific research system


The aim of this study is to highlight the importance of time management during online activities for students. At the beginning of the pandemic period, on March the 2020, after the first online activity, a pilot study was conducted to identify the students' perception about online activities, the time they should spend online during the day, the time students spend on different devices (computer, tablet or mobile phone) and the difficulties they have during the first online activities. A number of 106 students (44 boys and 62 girls) in 5th grade, from a middle school located in an urban area, in Romania, participated in this study. The results demonstrate that most of the students (33) representing 31.1% spend 1-2 hours/day online but there are 6 students (5.6%) who spend more than 6 hours/day online. Most of the students (56.6%) consider they should have 3 online activities/day and the duration of these activities should be 40 - 50 minutes. Strategies to promote students' wellbeing during online activities are also presented focusing on identifying the best way to use the time spend online in order to reach the necessary curricular objectives and to avoid health problems. The conclusions highlight the importance of finding the best time management strategies for online activities to avoid future health problems for students, especially in the situation in which at the global level the pandemic period is not even closed to the end point. As screen time is a controversial factor, with high implication for health and education, data are important for sustainability of educational system and future decisions.


Rare earth elements (REE) are globally considered as critical raw materials. At the Norra Kärr Alkaline Complex in southern Sweden, REE-bearing minerals, namely eudialyte group minerals, e.g. Na4(Ca,Ce)2(Fe2+,Mn,Y)ZrSi8O22(OH,Cl)2 and catapleiite (Ca/Na2ZrSi3O9 ·2H2O), can especially be found with high proportion of valuable heavy rare earth elements (HREEs). However, the measurement of Norra Kärr rock samples is challenging with Raman analysis due to their high fluorescence. The fluorescence may be reduced, if the sampled location can be first irradiated at high laser power. The thermal degradation of the samples during this photobleaching is not typically of concern in the mineral samples, but when constructing maps of thousand points, the total measurement time is notably increased. On the other hand, the fluorescence occurrence depends on the excitation wavelength and it may be avoided, if a longer laser wavelength is used. However, the longer excitation wavelength reduces the Raman signal. As a promising alternative, the maps of the fluorescent minerals can be constructed using time-gated Raman, where the material is excited with a short laser pulse at a range of 100*10 s. The Raman signal can be detected in a very short time window matched to the width of a laser pulse prior to the formation of a strong fluorescent signal with a lifetime of nanoseconds and can be separated in a time domain allowing signal readout by single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) array with significantly reduced or negligible fluorescence background. In this current study, the results obtained by mapping the fluorescent Norra Kärr rock samples with using the green 532 nm laser excitation, the traditional continuous wave (CW) and time-gated Raman, are represented. The identification of the main minerals in the maps is based on the multivariate data analysis called singular value decomposition (SVD). The classification, as demonstrated earlier for laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)2, utilizes the whole measured spectral range, and divides the measured locations according to their greatest variance in the spectra.


The shelling cracks grown in the head of rails are said to be fatigue cracks which are produced by excessive rolling pressure of wheels passing over them. The detailed mechanism of failure, however, has not yet been made clear. To find whether the growth of cracks be due to repeated shearing stress or mainly to repeated tensile stress is necesary both for clarifying the mechanism of shelling and for selecting the rail material. Two dimensional photoelastic investigations were carried out on half planes having a fine edge crack to which a contact load was applied and the fringe patterns at the end of the cracks were observed. When a semicircular model is pressed to a model which has an edge crack inclined at an angel of 30 degree to the contact surface, there grows a tangential force along the fracture surface when the contact load comes above the crack. When the contact load has an inclination toward the crack the tangential force along the fracture surface has a tendency to increase. When a semicircular model is pressed vertically to a model which has a vertical edge crack and the contact load comes adjacent to one side of the crack, there acts the largest tangential force along the fracture surface and the shearing stresses concentrate at the end of the crack, but the tensile stress does not appear. It is supposed from the above facts that the direction of a shelling crack in rail developing under contact loading will be affected by the shearing stresses solely or at least predominantly.


Koran is a holy book consisted of surahs that each of them has a name. It is remarkable for some of the surahs to have more than one names. Beyond the s urahs had been entitled by Hz. Muhammed they had been continued to be entitled by the companions of the prophet Muhammad, tabiun and Muslim scholars. For that reason some of the names of the surahs have the feature of studying on. But it was understood that the names of the surahs in formal Koran had named by Prophet Muhammad. It was pointed out by some muslim scholars that there were nearly fourty surahs having more than one name. But on the other hand and according to our study the multi named surahs are more than sixty. And also in this study the surahs having more than one name were studied on in order of Koran.


The task of spectrum sensing for Dynamic Spectrum Access in Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs) is very challenging in the presence of malicious secondary users that may launch Spectrum Sensing Data Falsification (SSDF) attacks. Existing solutions to detect such malicious behaviors cannot be utilized in scenarios where the transmission range of primary users is limited within a small sub-region of the CRN, such as low-power primary user devices like wireless microphones or emergency warning systems for vehicles. In this paper, we present a reputation system that works in the scenarios described above in conjunction with a semi-supervised spatio-spectral anomaly/outlier detection system. This system guarantees protection of incumbent primary users' communication rights while at the same time making optimal use of the spectrum when it is not used by primary users. Simulation of our proposed scheme under typical network conditions and SSDF attack shows that spectrum decision error rate is reduced to be less than 2% and detection rate of malicious secondary users is up to 95%.


The aim of this study was to describe the presence and composition of cathinone derivatives (CDs) in drug samples analyzed at a Drug Testing Service.


In this paper, we study some of the properties of intuitionistic L-fuzzy subnearring of a nearring and prove some results on these. With the expectations that these results may be applied in different fields. Keywords—L-fuzzy subset, intuitionistic L-fuzzy subset, intuitionistic L-fuzzy subnearring, intuitionistic L-fuzzy relation, Product of intuitionistic L-fuzzy subsets.


Rotating current probe using rotating electromagnetic fields and currents generated by orthogonal excitation coils is required for achieving similar sensitivity to defects in all radial directions around fastener. However, orthogonal excitation scheme only has a single null field point. When using array sensors for rapid inspection, sensors located away from the point measure a strong background field that must be eliminated. This paper presents a new approach using two giant magnetoresistive sensor arrays in a differential configuration to reduce the impact of the background field and increase signal-to-noise ratio. The operation of the differential probe is validated using a finite-element model. A prototype probe was designed, built, and tested. Experimental results obtained using the prototype probe to inspect a two-layer aluminum sample are presented.


The present study examined the various constructions parents built with their sons and daughters using a set of LEGO blocks, in order to investigate whether parents encouraged block configurations appropriate to their child's sex. Parents' speech to their children during play was also investigated to examine whether any differences occurred as a result of parents' and children's sex, type of block play or an interaction of any of these three variables. Twenty-four children ranging in age from 60 to 83 months, and their parents participated in this study. Each parent was assigned the same task but was observed separately with their child. Every child was observed playing for 10 minutes with the father and for an additional 10 minutes with the mother. All observations took place in the family's home. Results indicated that (1) fathers, more than mothers made greater distinctions based on a child's sex, (2) children built more gender-typed block constructions with fathers, (3) mothers were significantly more talkative during play sessions than fathers, (4) children were more verbally interactive with mothers than fathers, (5) boys were more verbally interactive with mothers when the type of block play they engaged in together was appropriate to the mother's sex. Findings are discussed in reference to Social Learning Theory.


In a previous publication (1) a summary of studies made upon obese subjects was presented. Included in this article was a discussion of the changes in blood sugar concentration which followed the ingestion of 100 grams of glucose by patients who were overweight. These patients showed a somewhat low tolerance for sugar, an observation which is in accord with that of a number of investigators (2, 3, 4, 5). After dietary therapy had been instituted and continued for some time the patients showed some improvement in the tolerance tests, but the change was slight and was not considered definitely significant. During the past four years the number of patients studied has increased greatly and a fair proportion has been reduced approximately to normal weight by dietary therapy. It has seemed desirable to examine the question again at this time, for in several recent papers (6, 7, 8) it has been suggested that reduction of weight has a definite effect upon the glucose tolerance. The literature upon the glucose tolerance test is extensive. It has been reviewed recently by Herr-mann (9) and by Myers and McKean (10) and will not be discussed here in detail. There are, however, a few points more or less closely connected with the subject of this communication which should be emphasized. Not only does a large number of pathological states affect the test, but certain physiological conditions may also influence it (11). Among the non-pathological causes of variations, age, the presence of various emotional states, including fatigue, and the diet taken prior to the test may be mentioned specifically. It is not strange, therefore, that Lennox (12) and others have observed rather marked irregularities in the results of repeated glucose tolerance tests upon the same subject. The occurrence of these makes it necessary, it seems to the authors, to collect data suitable for statistical analysis before valid conclusions can be drawn concerning the effect of any procedure upon glucose tolerance curves. The existence of some relationship between obesity and diabetes seems to be quite generally accepted (13). This relationship has led many investigators to study the glucose tolerance of obese subjects. The results of these studies have been somewhat confusing. A few cases of hypo-glycemia have been noted in such patients (14, 15, 16) but high blood sugar values have been observed much oftener (5). Frequently there is some other condition present, such as advanced age …


The control of black rot disease in cabbages has been carried out for years by applying chemical pesticides. The effect of these chemicals has been to create a negative effect on the environment and on consumers' health. It has, Therefore, been urgent to develop an eco-friendly, cheap, effective and readily available method to control the disease. Betel nuts can be used a botanical a pesticide which is environmentally friendly and harmless for consumers. This research aimed to observe the ability of betel nuts extract to inhibit the development of X. campestris pv. campestris. The treatment was applied in 5 levels of concentration of betel nuts extract : A = 30%, B = 40%, C = 50%, D = 60% dan E = 70%. The treatment were applied using the completely randomized design (RAL) with six replications. Result showed that all concentration levels of the betel nuts extract were able to suppress the development of the bacterium with an average inhibition rate for each treatment of : A (30%) 5,54 mm, B (40%) 6,44, C (50%) 7,3, D (8,52), and E (70%)11,06 mm.