This issue of our Journal opens the panorama of Transcultural Studies for some new perspectives that have not yet prominently featured among the general changes, which Medieval Studies have been undergoing globally in recent years. While the topics of the third and fourth papers belong to Cultural and Art History, seen from interreligious standpoints, the first and second papers focus on linguistic phenomena that can be studied in the entangled textual heritage of all participating cultures of the Mediterranean and beyond. The first article analyzes central and late-medieval Arabic translations of Latin and Romance titles of nobility and military functions borne by crusaders in the Eastern Mediterranean World, whereas the second contribution focuses on modes of translation of selected Hebrew and Aramaic proper names and realia that can be found in the Latin rendering of the Talmudic Tractate Sanhedrin produced in thirteenth-century Paris. Both papers work on phonetic and orthographic aspects and show how transcultural perspectives provide surprising insights into seemingly unspectacular phenomena in processes of transfer and translation and how they can sensitize us to the still understudied role of different forms of orality and literacy in the exchange between languages, cultures and religions. The third contribution deals with the image of the Saracens and Turks and the religious and societal performance of one of the most influential hagiographical text collections of the Middle Ages, namely, the English redaction of Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda aurea, prepared and published by William Caxton. The paper highlights the role this polymorphic work played not only in England's society of religious transition between the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, but also in the larger European framework of the Ottoman Wars and the parallel growing Christian confessions. The fourth paper analyzes from the various perspectives of Art History, Theology and Religious Studies a somehow mysterious panel of devotion produced in fifteenth-century Crete and thus uncovers its possible belonging to circles of Christian Kabbalah flourishing


ABSTRACT This paper considers how Schelling's earlier work functions as a fifth column for the Germano-Coleridgeans, particularly Coleridge himself and Green. I consider their engagement with Schelling's First Outline in relation to the Hunterian collection bought by the Crown in 1799, which made the life sciences a public concern within the framework of how knowledge was to be organized. The paper explores the pressure the life sciences put on philosophy and the constraining of both, in the context of British Idealism, by religious imperatives that are internal, conceptual censors, and external (cultural and institutional) censors. Consolidating his work between the Romantic and Victorian periods, Green is a neglected figure in a progress from natural to political theology that coincides with a shift in British idealism from Schelling to a sanitized Hegel. Coleridge's dialogue with and often expedient misrepresentations of Schelling are more complex, as he uses Schelling's "Stufenfolge" to argue for a design in nature, yet is constantly troubled by a biodiversity and difference in nature to which Schelling was more open. Initially deploying Schelling to reconcile transcendental and natural philosophy, Coleridge can never entirely escape the trouble that biology causes philosophy and that philosophy (through Schelling) causes religion.


Purpose – Given current dystopian perspectives on Africa's future, the purpose of this paper is to emphasise the need for recreative futures studies when designing development programmes for Sub‐Saharan Africa.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on social systems thinking, causal layered analysis and integral futures, and contrasts the interpretative and transformative approaches to futures research.Findings – Sub‐Saharan Africa reached a crossroad in its development. There are powerful forces that are pushing it back towards a low‐level equilibrium trap – making it easy to imagine a dystopian future as the most plausible one for the region. However, there are also a number of hopeful signs that suggest that committed interventions could turn the tide towards its sustainable development. Such interventions will have to dig deep into the collective consciousness of people and require systemic, multi‐faceted programmes for success.Originality/value – This paper should be of interest to development...


Embedded systems require control of many concurrent real-time activities, leading to system designs which feature multiple hardware peripherals with each providing a specific, dedicated service. These peripherals increase system size, cost, weight, power and design time. Software thread integration (STI) provides low-cost thread concurrency on general-purpose processors by automatically interleaving multiple (potentially real-time) threads of control into one. This simplifies hardware to software migration (which eliminates dedicated hardware) and can help embedded system designers meet design constraints. This paper introduces automated methods for planning and performing the code transformations needed for integration of functions with more sophisticated control flows than in previous work. We demonstrate the methods by using Thrint, our post-pass thread-integrating compiler, to automatically integrate multiple threads for a sample real-time embedded system with fine-grain concurrency. The sample application generates an NTSC monochrome video signal (sending out a stream of pixels to a video DAC) with STI to replace a video refresh controller IC Using Thrint reduces integration time from days to minutes and, by reclaiming idle time, speeds up graphics rendering by 3.2/spl times/ to 3.8/spl times/ in the three functions examined.


The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) offers a unique laboratory to study the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) under conditions that are profoundly different from those in the Galaxy. DIB carrier abundances depend on several environmental factors, in particular the local UV radiation field. In this paper we present measurements of twelve DIBs in five lines of sight to early-type stars in the LMC, including the 30 Doradus region. From the high resolution spectra obtained with VLT/UVES we also derive environmental parameters that characterise the local interstellar medium (ISM) in the probed LMC clouds. These include the column density components (including total column density) for the atomic resonance lines of Na I, Ca II, Ti II, K I. In addition, we derive the H I column density from 21 cm line profiles, the total-to-selective visual extinction RV and the gas-to-dust ratio N(H I)/A_V. Furthermore, from atomic line ratios we derive the ionisation balance and relative UV field strength in these environments. We discuss the properties of the LMC ISM in the context of DIB carrier formation. The behaviour of DIBs in the LMC is compared to that of DIBs in different local environmental conditions in the Milky Way. A key result is that in most cases the diffuse band strengths are weak (up to factor 5) with respect to Galactic lines of sight of comparable reddening, EB-V. In the line of sight towards Sk -69 223 the 5780 and 5797 �DIBs are very similar in strength and profile to those observed towards HD 144217 , which is typical of an environment exposed to a strong


The primary objective of this research was the development of an efficient synthetic route for a previously prepared self-polymerizable PPQ monomer mixture, 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-3-phenyl-6-fluoroquinoxaline and 3-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-2-phenyl-6-fluoroquinoxaline. Thus, the intermediate, 4-hydroxybenzil, was synthesized in good yield, starting from phenol with phenylacetyl chloride, followed by oxidation. The other intermediate, 4-fluoro-1,2-phenylenediamine, was also less costly synthesized, starting from 2,4-difluoronitrobenzene with ammonium hydroxide, followed by reduction, giving excellent yield. The overall monomer yield was superior to previous reports. Another research objective involved preparation of various monomer mixtures that could be synthesized even less costly, and attempts on polymerization could generate the same structure of PPQ from an original monomer mixture. Thus, the monomer mixture that had switched functional groups from the original one, 2-(4-fluorophenyl)-3-phenyl-6-hydroxyquinoxaline and 3-(4-fluorophenyl)-2-phenyl-6-hydroxyquinoxaline, was prepared. Various monomers with different functional groups attached on the 6-position of the quinoxaline ring, such as chloro- and nitro-substituted monomers instead of fluoro-substituted ones, were also prepared. Several attempts to build up high molecular weights were not successful. In the case of the switched monomer mixture, weaker nucleophility and less activation on the fluorine atom were to be the reason in the switched monomer. In the cases of chloro- and nitro-substituted monomers, poorer leaving power and side reactions were to be the reasons.


This note will use Hitchin's generalized geometry and a model of axionic gravity developed by Warren Siegel in the mid-nineties to show that the construction of Lagrangians based on the inner product arising from the pairing of a vector and its dual can lead naturally to the low-energy Lagrangian of the bosonic string.


Information hiding in software design leads to the concept of module closure. The function of modularization in a design is to hide a design decision, facilitating the design of programs which employ that module. This produces a module which may be used elsewhere regardless of its implementation details. Module closure has two components—access closure, wherein the module and user share no data objects, but only the values of formal parameters, and computation closure, wherein the model which the module emulates is as simple as possible, and implementation independent.


Noise-immune synchronization for fringe area television reception is discussed. The general lay-out of low-power translators used for expanding regular television reception areas is also considered with a special stress on the sync.-signal restoration circuit.


Primary production of the Southwest Atlantic Ocean (SAO, below 20°S) is mainly influenced by the seasonal intrusion of the nutrient-rich South Atlantic Central Water (SACW) along the bottom of the continental shelf. To assess how this process affects picoand nanoplankton communities, we determined by flow cytometry the abundance of heterotrophic bacteria, Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, picoeukaryotes, and nanoeukaryotes in three transects along the Brazilian Bight, covering from 23°S to 31°S and 39°W to 49°W. Heterotrophic bacteria and Prochlorococcus populations were abundant in Coastal and Tropical Waters, reaching 1.4x10 cells.mL, and 0.3x10cells.mL, respectively. Synechococcus highest abundances (81x10 cells.mL ) were found mostly in superficial, shelf waters. Picoand nanoeukaryotic cells were particularly important in Deep Chlorophyll Maximum layers from offshore waters, and their highest abundances were 20x10 cells.mL and 5x10 cells.mL, respectively. The heterotrophic bacterial biomass ranged from 4 μgC.L to 30 μgC.L, with high average relative importance (contributing on average to 67% of total biomass). With respect to total pico-phytoplanktonic biomass, Prochlorococcus contributed up to 87% (8.2 μgC.L) in Tropical Water. Synechococcus contribution was high mainly in Coastal Water and shelf waters (22% on average, maximum of 21μgC.L). Picoplankton structure shifted southwards from Synechococcus to Prochlorococcus dominance. Picoeukaryote biomass was higher near the DCM (maximum of 91% and 48 μgC.L). We determined the taxonomic composition of picoand nanoeukaryote phytoplankton communities at 3 stations along the trophic gradient using the plastid16S rRNA gene from flow cytometry sorted cells. The data indicate that these populations consist mainly of Haptophyta with sequences related to the host of the diazotrophic cyanobacterium, UCYN-A, suggesting a high importance of this symbiosis in the region.


The evaluation of concentration levels and distribution of heavy metals in different fractions of coastal sediments in order to assess possible anthropogenic inputs in this area is presented. The speciation of heavy metals (Fe, Mn, Cr, Ni, Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn) as well as their total concentration has been determined in six coastal sediment samples collected in Albania. A good correlation has been found for Cr, Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn and Pb in the entire area, indicating the same origin for these metals in the analyzed sediments. The extraction procedure of heavy metals was conduced via three step extraction procedure. During the step A considerable levels of total Mn (about 30 -40%) were found in exchangeable form and adsorbed to carbonates. Metals bounded to such fractions are presumed to be more bio available presenting a potential risk for biota and aquatic system. During the step B considerable part of other metals were extracted which reveal the domination of reductive nature of the sediment studied. So, about 10% of Ni, 19% of Mn, 30% of Fe and about 25% of Pb were extracted during the second step of extraction. About 22% of Fe, 22% of Cu, 8% of Cr, 10% of Ni were found to be bound to organic matter and present as sulphides, extracted mainly during the third step of extraction (step C). The most part of all heavy metals resulted to be associated to the most refractory fraction of the sediment, which constitute up to 50% of the total concentration. Distribution of heavy metals in different fractions of sediments showed that there were differences between the mineralogical structure of the Adriatic and Ionian Sea sediments. Levels of total heavy metals present in the sediments of the coastal area showed the same variations as has been reported by other studies of the area confirming the natural origin of the heavy metals.


This paper is concerned with the performance of MPEG-II compressed video when transmitted over noisy channels, such as for digital terrestrial television. We present the results of bit sensitivity and resynchronisation sensitivity measurements, and propose techniques for substantially improving the resilience of MPEG-II to transmission errors without increasing the bit rate.


Abstract Application of a Giemsa C-banding technique to the three British species of Pellia indicates that the original description of heterochromatin was largely if not entirely based on constitutive rather than facultative heterochromatin. The technique is shown to have considerable potential in defining liverwort karyotypes more precisely than has hitherto been· possible and to assist in the cytological comparison of species. In this respect, the similarity between specimens of P. epiphylla and P. neesiana appears to be greater than the resemblance of either of these species to P. endiviifolia. Chromosome inversion is reported for the first time in bryophytes, in P. neesiana, but there is strong evidence to suggest that structural rearrangement, though not necessarily inversion, has also occurred elsewhere in--this genus.Unequal, almost totally euchromatic sex-specific chromosomes are described for a specimen of British Riccardia pinguis. Similarities between the Giemsa C-band patterns of this species ...


Nitrogen–nitrogen bond containing motifs are ubiquitous in bioactive compounds and organic materials. However, intermolecular hetero-selective N–H/N–H oxidative coupling reactions remain very challenging and largely unexplored. Here, we report an unprecedented, simple and hetero-selective cross-dehydrogenative N–N coupling of amides and benzotriazoles, utilizing only a hypervalent iodine species as the terminal oxidant. The scope and mechanistic investigations are discussed.


This paper describes how the in situ assessment of bearing capacity is usually performed by means of static plate loading tests. Today, however, higher performance dynamic investigation methodologies are increasingly often employed, in combination with traditional and deflectometric techniques. This allows a large amount of data to be recorded rapidly, thereby guaranteeing more detailed investigation, but also making the process of data elaboration and result interpretation more time-consuming. In the present study, an improvement in data elaboration techniques and interpretation of results was achieved through application of geostatistical science to measurement and analysis of data acquired at several experimental sites. The findings suggest that geostatistics-based systems have the potential for use as quality control/quality assurance (QC/QA) devices in testing subgrades, subbase courses and compacted soil layers and as a means of evaluating their correspondence to the strength performances required for the layers. Concomitant use of various deflectometric systems also made it possible to take specific construction and operating characteristics of the devices into account when evaluating the experimental results. This paper reports on joint experiences conducted by the Universities of Pisa and Bologna, whose research teams have long been working on validation of innovative field testing systems. The results appear promising for upcoming insertion of the methodologies inserted into existing technical specifications.


APTISTS, as a left-wing branch of the Reformed-Calvinist movement, are faced with a choice in these days of revived B Biblical theology. Either they may with the aid of this theology move forward into the expression of a faith peculiarly compatible with their own tradition, or they may, rejecting this aid, disintegrate further into that irresponsible "freedom" wherein community of mind and purpose is lost in the clubbiness known as "fellowship." The following historical outline of Christian hope through the seventeenth century (covering thus the early and classic1 period of Baptist history) may help to pinpoint at least one area of choice which is now opened up to us and illustrate the kind of decision which God in these days seems to be pressing upon his Churches. We can only ask members of other denominations to view from outside the decision which Baptists face, transposing the problem into their own terms. Perhaps in this way the study will be of some benefit to a wider circle than that represented by Baptists alone.


In this paper we study locally constant cohomology theories on a space X. We prove that for cohomology theories on a category of paracompact spaces the homology axiom of Eilenberg-Steenrod is a consequence of the other Eilenberg-Steenrod axioms together with continuity and either additivity or weak additivity. We also prove that if H is a cohomology theory on the space of a simplicial complex K which is locally constant on every open simplex of K there is a spectral sequence converging to H(|K|) whose E 2 -term is the usual simplicial cohomology of K with coefficients in various stacks on K defined by H


A total of 143 pistachio nut samples collected during harvest, storage and processing were examined for mould growth and aflatoxin production. The mould count was in the range of 103−104 cfu g−1 and 105−106 cfu g−1 for the harvest and storage samples, respectively. The growth of Aspergillus flavus was 38-5-39-5% on the surface of the shells and 6–16% on the kernels without aflatoxin production. The contamination level of A flavus varied among samples collected from different regions. Peeling off the soft shell of pistachio nuts by hand reduced the contamination risk of A flavus to kernels. The predominant flora on stored pistachio nuts were Aspergillus, Penicillium, Cladosporium, Rhizopus, while the genera of Ulocladium, Trichothecium, Aureobasidium and Eurotium were less frequent. Thirty-five percent of the A flavus isolates produced aflatoxins on synthetic media.


Don Jones, artist and art therapist, passed away this January. He was an early president of the American Art Therapy Association and is considered to be one of its founders. This wise and inspirational man has influenced generations of art therapists in ways that most of us do not recognize today. A moving tribute to Don by Bruce and Catherine Moon in this issue offers a sense of his impact on the lives of numerous generations of art therapists. He will be sorely missed even as his work is carried forward by those he has mentored over decades. Also in this issue are several thought-provoking articles about art therapy research and practice. The first is a randomized controlled trial by Nora E. Stinley, Deborah O. Norris, and Pamela S. Hinds on the use of mandalas created on an iPad to manage the pain and anxiety that pediatric patients experience during needle sticks. Their results demonstrate that the intervention was feasible, the treatment group demonstrated significantly fewer stress behaviors, and anxiety decreased for children who created mandalas. This represents important preliminary evidence for the benefits of art making for managing acute pain that is a noteworthy contribution to the body of knowledge on art therapy. Next, an art intervention for improving the behavior of a child with autism using a single-case experimental design is contributed by Nai-Cheng Kuo and Joshua B. Plavnick. Art therapists working with this population may be inspired by this strategy that can be helpful for increasing the involvement of children with autism in large-group instructional settings. The one-on-one art task instruction the authors describe occurred prior to group instruction and produced decreased levels of off-task behavior when compared to baseline conditions. The results support previous antecedent-based interventions by demonstrating the effectiveness of an individualized art task as a procedure for reducing problem behavior. Next, the 2013 survey of American Art Therapy Association members by David E. Elkins and Sarah P. Deaver provides current data on demographics and art therapy practice as compared with previous member surveys over a span of 15 years. Although many variables examined over this time have not changed substantially, the authors found certain trends that are important for the association and educators to consider for meeting future challenges in the workplace. Interesting trends over time are seen in increased salaries and work hours, more members with various state licenses, more "art therapist" job titles, and slightly more doctoral and postgraduate degrees. Michal Bat Or presents an exploratory qualitative study of mothers' experiences of separateness representations as portrayed in clay sculptures of themselves with their children. Using the sculptures and then interviews about the mothers' experiences of creating the form and the meaning of the work, the researcher compared this data with a continuum constructed to indicate low to high separateness in terms of autonomy, grounding, and the mothers' awareness of separateness from their children and from their own mothers. Bat Or points to the value of this task in that discussing it with the therapist can help develop greater awareness and promote a mother's increased ability to recognize separateness experiences. The first brief report in this issue, by Caroline Peterson, describes a new and innovative mindfulness-based art therapy program: "Walkabout: Looking In, Looking Out." She details the work she has been doing in palliative care that builds upon her practice and research on mindfulness-based art therapy. Readers will find her chronicle of the development of this program compelling and useful both in its framework integrating walkabouts and art therapy and use of art media. In the second brief report Tami Gavron and Ofra Mayseless describe their research on the Joint Painting Procedure (JPP) that explores assessing qualities of the relationship between parents and children as reported by mothers. Their description of the JPP will be of interest to art therapists who work with parents and children together as it provides a framework for evaluating formal elements of the painting and the behaviors of parent and child during the JPP assessment. They found moderate associations between three of their scales and each partner's perception of the relationship, mothers' perceptions of their psychological boundaries with their children, and mothers' reports of their children's home and school adjustment. Gavron and Mayseless emphasize the clinical usefulness of their preliminary findings. Finally, a viewpoint by Girija Kaimal and Carol Ann L. Blank affirms the value of conducting program evaluation in the arts therapies for both researchers and clinicians. The authors highlight the fact that program evaluation research is a way for arts therapists to undertake systematic study of their services, to access client perspectives that can help improve future services, and to document outcomes that may be potentially valuable for obtaining grant funds. They urge arts therapists to consider partnering with academicians to conduct program evaluation and then describe three examples of such partnership projects.


Major political upheavals and transformations, coupled with a burgeoning human population, mean that there are exceptional environmental challenges to be met in many parts of Africa. This book covers these challenges for the southern half of Africa, including Angola, Zambia, Tanzania and the countries lying to their south. Heads of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) recognize the importance of the environment, and the treaty establishing the Community commits members to '. . . achieve sustainable utilization of natural resources and effective protection of the environment . . .'. The degree to which this noble goal has been met has been influenced by a number of factors, including political stability and economic strength. Some of these countries have been plagued with war, others have seen unparalleled shifts of political power and transformation. Yet the region has an extraordinary environmental richness, and the future welfare of its inhabitants will be closely linked to the environment. This book was born out of a desire to summarize and to make environmental information accessible, particularly to managers and politicians faced with the difficult task of balancing needs for human development against environmental standards. It was initiated and developed by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre, whose members spent three years collecting and analysing sources of information, distilling issues that should be covered, convening workshops with experts and then drafting chapters for criticism by a Scientific Advisory Committee. On the basis of the resulting manuscript, the Scientific Advisory Committee held another workshop to forecast the region's environmental future. This rather complicated procedure has resulted in a book that has great strengths but also great weaknesses. The format of the book is one of its strengths. It is designed to be user-friendly, and it achieves this objective in several ways. The text is deliberately nontechnical and is written in a pleasingly consistent style for a book that unites the efforts of six different authors. There are clear and interesting illustrations, including the occasional punchy cartoons that make their point vividly and with few words. Background and, often very interesting, case histories are inserted as 'boxes' that do not intrude on the flow of the text but substantially increase the value of the work. For example, there are inserts entitled 'Who is a poacher?', and 'Acacia saligna: resource or invader' that compel the reader to re-evaluate problems instead of adopting a view based on European society, science and norms. At the end of each chapter is a brief but useful list of 'linkages' that cross-refer to other relevant chapters. The references at the end of each chapter tend to be inaccessible because they draw extensively on 'grey' literature and in some cases do not cite sufficient details. 'State of the Environment in Southern Africa' is divided into three parts. Part 1 reviews background information in a series of five chapters dealing with socio-economics, history, policy, ecozones and climate. I found the first three chapters particularly interesting because they included details of traditional laws and methods of environmental management. This opening review is an important reminder of past approaches often overlooked with the advent of colonialism. I did, however, find myself irritated by a tendency towards political correctness in addressing environmental problems. Not everything can be blamed on colonialism, and many traditional ways of managing the environment were ideal when population densities were relatively low, but can only naively be applied to a modern situation in which population densities are high and growing rapidly. For example, early sections of the book discuss the advantages of slashand-burn shifting agriculture, while elsewhere it is made clear that such shifting agriculture has led to soil degradation in vast areas of central Africa. There are also inconsistencies that have more to do with political viewpoint than objective comparisons. For instance, traditional terrace-contouring is praised, whereas contouring introduced by colonial agriculturists is condemned! Part 2 sets out a series of environmental issues in seven chapters: soils and land use, woodlands and forests, wildlife and protected areas, freshwater resources, marine ecosystems, pollution and armed conflict. These chapters can be read independently, depending on your interests. They are, however, of variable quality. The chapter on wildlife and protected areas is too superficial and, rather surprisingly, avoids currently contentious issues. The network of protected areas is indeed 'extensive, perhaps unequalled in the world', but its effectiveness varies greatly from region to region. No-one can pretend that the once-magnificent parks of Angola and Moçambique were effective during the war-ravaged years in those countries. The benefits and problems of protected areas receive scant treatment, and issues such as culling in reserves and the sale of ivory from excess stocks are not confronted and debated in a manner that would allow a politician to develop an informed opinion. Perhaps because it is closest to my heart, I found the chapter on marine ecosystems particularly weak. To be told of 'endangered mammals, such as sharks' doesn't instil confidence! Sandy beaches receive a terse quarter of a page, with no mention at all of probably the most critical management issue, maintenance of natural processes controlling supply and removal of sand. Rocky shores are abandoned with equal brevity, and no mention is made of the impacts of subsistence harvesting. Salt marshes and coastal vegetated dunes, arguably among the most vulnerable coastal systems, are not mentioned. An oil-spill which is known to have had astonishingly little effect on sea life is described as a 'disaster affecting the whole marine ecological system'. The statement that 'there is little information on . . . the ecology and dynamics of marine ecosystems in the region' ignores a rich body of literature that extends back 100 years. These errors and inadequacies reflect two things: insufficient input by marine experts, and a reliance on popular articles and 'grey' literature rather than primary journals. Part 3 outlines global climate change (including a delightfully challenging box 'So you think global warming is a problem?') and then provides a synoptic chapter on trends and scenarios. Both chapters are interesting and the latter is provocative. The central messages that emerge are the need to attack poverty and reduce population growth, and the need to involve people in environmental management. Several practical and important suggestions for tackling these issues are outlined. Environmental Conservation 24 (1): 90–96 © 1997 Foundation for Environmental Conservation


Tube bundles immersed in a fluid are frequently used in nuclear equipment like core or steam generators. The analysis of the mechanical behavior of such systems requires the study of fluid structure interaction in the bundle. Using homogenization techniques, two dimensional finite element models representing the bundle cross section have been already developed. In this paper, an improvement of these models is proposed to take into account the three dimensional effect for both fluid and structures (bending). A new 3D finite element, based on homogenization methods, has been developed for that purpose and is described in this paper. It allows the calculation of the bundle fluid coupled eigenmodes. Quantitative results are given for a regular hexagonal arrangement, the effect of the free surface and the effect of the bundle confinement are studied.


Objective To evaluate the immediate effectiveness of peer education on AIDS prevention among floating population. Methods Experimental study and random cluster sampling were adopted in this study, and 450 fluid population coming from a manufactory in Longgang district, Shenzhen, were assigned into intervention group with peer education of AIDS prevention, and 490 of the floating population coming from another manufactory were assigned into control group.Pearson's chi-squared test and t-test were used for statistical analysis. Results Six months after peer education, each score regarding to AIDS prevention of intervention group was much higher than that of pre-intervention and concurrent control(P0.05), and the correct response rate of UNGASS index and condom usage rate all increased significantly(P0.05). Conclusion Peer education was suitable for fluid population with a good immediate effectiveness and should be promoted.


The article considers pedagogical conditions of forming of readiness of students for creation of a music-developing environment in a preschool educational institution. The experience of realization of complex of pedagogical conditions in the teaching-learning process FSEI HPE «Mordovian state pedagogical Institute named after M.E. Evsevyev».


We propose a model to solve the disturbances which could occur during the execution of agents task schedules in a dynamic multi-agent system. Our model is based on pooling residual resources to reallocate tasks in case of incoming tasks or disturbances during the execution of the system. In our context, initial task schedules of agents are defined such that, during some given time windows, agents can perform additional tasks with their residual resources. In this paper, we propose a model for this problem. In order to validate this model, we also propose a first resolution method attempt and an experimental study of this framework.


The multiplication of large integers, which has many applications in computer science, is an operation that can be expressed as a polynomial multiplication followed by a carry normalization. This work develops two approaches for efficient polynomial multiplication: one approach is based on tiling the classical convolution algorithm, but taking advantage of new CUDA architectures, a novelty approach to compute the multiplication using integers without accuracy lossless; the other one is based on the Strassen algorithm, an algorithm that multiplies large polynomials using the FFT operation, but adapting the fastest FFT libraries for current GPUs and working on the complex field. Previous studies reported that the Strassen algorithm is an effective implementation for "large enough" integers on GPUs. Additionally, most previous studies do not examine the implementation of the carry normalization, but this work describes a parallel implementation for this operation. Our results show the efficiency of our approaches for short, medium, and large sizes.


It is argued that notwithstanding the life expectation of patients in palliative care, they still grapple with a wide spectrum of uncertainties for which they require answers to bring relief from anxiety. Nurses, appreciative of their role to relief anxiety, are often the only persons with whom patients have regular contact that can assist them in finding answers. Although nursing staff are well trained in palliative care, they often experience frustration when they fail to access the right information that will provide their patients' information needs. Despite evidence of numerous successful information provision interventions by nursing staff, the literature continues to report unmet information needs and frustrations of patients and their families. As a solution, this paper offers an exploratory conceptualisation of nurses and palliative care which can serve as a framework for further investigations towards enhancing nursing staff's information intermediary capacity.


Abstract Oxidation of (001), (011), (112)monocrystalline, and of large-grained and small-grained polycrystalline, pure Iron has been studied in laboratory air at room temperature at 44–46% relative humidity for 120 days by gravimetric methods, electron diffraction and electron microscopy. After the initial oxide growth, no significant oxidation occurred for about 20–30 days, when oxidation re-commenced slowly and became rapid, until after 90 days the rate became irregular and was associated with decreasing epitaxy. The rate of oxidation in decreasing order was(001), large grained, small grained, (011) and (112). Up to 70 days the outer layer was cubic Fe3O4 but after 90 days it was α-Fe2O3, probably with some γ-Fe2O3 and otherminor impurtties such as hydroxides. The influence of impurities on the oxide is emphasised by a weight loss of 5–7 % which occurred upon heating the specimens to 300° in vacuo after 120 days. γ-Fe2O3 and other minor impurities such as hydroxides. The influence of impurities on the o...


Links to databases and resources for diversity in education, including race, ethnicity, geography, culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability/disability, and other differences.


In this paper, Adomian Decomposition Method with Adomian polynomials are applied to solve Allen - Cahn equation with the initial condition only, also DuFortFrankel method is applied with the initial and boundary conditions. The numerical results that are obtained by the Adomian decomposition method have been compared with the exact solution of the equation shown that it is more efficient than the DuFortFrankel method, that is illustrated through the tables and Figures.


This research tries to study the relationship between the quality of accrual items in the search for the bank debt of the companies admitted to the Tehran Stock Exchange. The results of this research indicate that higher quality of accruals, is related to the higher bank loan due to the total assets. Since the quality of accounting information can be considered as a reverse indicator of asymmetric information, this finding is consistent with the financial literature which has shown that the use of bank loan in private loan markets is partially designated through asymmetry of information.


A receiving member for a display device for suppressing the damage to the display panel and a display device having the same are disclosed. The first side wall of the receiving member for display unit opposite to the one end portion of the lower substrate. A first buffer groove are formed on the first side wall portion and the second side wall portion and the third side wall portion meeting the inner edge. First buffering grooves respectively correspond to the left and right edges of the one end portion of the underlying substrate. The support portion is protruded from the inner surface of each side wall portion to support the edge of the lower surface of the lower substrate. Second buffer groove is formed in the support portion corresponding to the inner edge. The upper substrate is disposed on the lower substrate. Thus, the lower substrate and the upper substrate is first cushioning spaced grooves and the second up-and-down direction, left-right direction and the front-rear direction from the bottom surface of the buffer groove, is suppressed due to the impact that the edges of underlying substrate damage. Display device, a receiving container, the substrate, the damage, a buffer groove


As manufacturers contemplate changing or modifying outmoded operations systems, management must be aware of the key role played by workers in achieving a successful implementation. These new system strategies, such as just‐in‐time (JIT) and manufacturing resource planning (MRP II), rely on an essential feature – total employee involvement. Management must understand the change process and how employee involvement is achieved through the establishment of the team concept and by supporting proper performance measures.


A mode filter for LED-based gas absorption spectroscopy is shown. Two LEDs with different wavelengths are used for the measurement of gas concentrations. One wavelength for measurement and a second wavelength as reference. This allows to measure gases like NO2 (405nm) and SO2 (285nm). Different disturbances, like temperature, vibrations and the optical properties of LEDs require a mode filter to reduce their influences. The mode filter is eight-shaped. It is examined, how many windings on the mode filter are required to suppress the influence of disturbances. Three kinds of disturbances were evaluated: bending a fibre, shifting a fibre connector and changing the temperature of a fibre connector. An improvement with the mode filter is determined for different number of windings. For more than 7...8 windings on the mode filter, there is no significant improvement. Only the losses of the fibre system increase with an increasing number of windings. Mode filters are indispensable for a high sensitive sensor system.


Taking the wineshop of the International Business Center of Chinese Light Industrial Good and Textiles Mall as the example, this paper introduces the construction process of pouring concrete into square steel tube column, and advances some suggestions on some key links in the construction.


Piodalan ageng ritual in Luhur Natar Sari Temple, its implementation is slightly different from the other temples in general in Bali. A long and complex ritual, beginning with ngelawang ritual to three regencies in Bali, melasti, at the time of the peak of the ritual was attended by dozens of barong and thousands of pemedek. The implementation takes a lot of time, energy and not a small amount for the pemedek involved in the piodalan ageng series. This research proposes three problems, namely the ideology of barong meeting ritual, the form of the barong meeting ritual, and the meaning of barong meeting ritual. The problem is examined with eclectic theory, structuration theory, religious theory, and practical theory. The presence of dozens of barong and thousands of pemedek on piodalan ageng in Luhur Natar Sari Temple, motivated by the existence of three ideologies, namely theological ideology, political ideology, and economic ideology. The form of barong meeting ritual in the sublime Luhur Natar Sari Temple is a series of nangiang Tapakan Ida Bhatara Sakti ceremonies, chanting to jaba kuta for 42 days, bhatara tedun kabeh or barong meeting, penganyaran, barong dance, and closing ceremonies. The meaning of barong meeting ritual in Luhur Natar Sari Temple is a recitation in accordance with history, withnessing the people up close, pasupati begging for taksu, pujawali, and meeting in noetic terms.


The performances of porous silicon optical biosensors depend strongly on the arrangement of the biological probes into their sponge-like structures: it is well known that in this case the sensing species do not fill the pores but instead cover their internal surface. In this paper, the direct imaging of labelled proteins into different porous silicon structures by using a confocal laser microscope is reported. The distribution of the biological matter in the nanostructured material follows a Gaussian behaviour which is typical of the diffusion process in the porous media but with substantial differences between a porous silicon monolayer and a multilayer such as a Bragg mirror. Even if semi-quantitative, the results can be very useful in the design of the porous silicon based biosensing devices.


From the point of view of overall optimization,this paper proposes a subregion based method to build the connected graph-generalized distance matrix model of a region with obstacles.It improves the continuous Hopfield neural network method that has been applied to sovle the traveling salesman problem.It uses the improved CHNN to obtain optimized connected graph.Robot going through the optimized connected graph goes through the whole free space along the shortest path or in the shortest time.


We consider the problem of computing [Formula: see text], the number of unlabeled graded lattices of rank [Formula: see text] that contain [Formula: see text] coatoms and [Formula: see text] atoms. More specifically, we do this when [Formula: see text] is fairly small, but [Formula: see text] may be large. For this task, we describe a computational method that combines constructive listing of basic cases and tools from enumerative combinatorics. With this method, we compute the exact values of [Formula: see text] for [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. We also show that, for any fixed [Formula: see text], there exists a quasipolynomial in [Formula: see text] that matches with [Formula: see text] for all [Formula: see text] above a small value. We explicitly determine these quasipolynomials for [Formula: see text], thus finding closed form expressions of [Formula: see text] for [Formula: see text].


In the history of the Spanish travel literature, the 1840s have a particular place: after the Napoleonic Wars and the first Carlist War came a period of relative calm which encouraged visitors to Spain but also the Spanish to travel outside the Iberian Peninsula. France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany are among the most attractive options. The variety of available texts gives the possibility to distinguish between at least three variants or perspectives: the travel story as discovery, as verification and as travel guide. This article intends to introduce these diverse perspectives from representative authors whose itineraries are partly similar: Modesto Lafuente, Ramon Mesonero Romanos y Angel Fernandez de los Rios. There will be a special emphasis on the first author because he contributed in a special way to the history of the travel literature. Once the work of the others has been presented, there will be a brief conclusion to compare the variants presented.


Active methodologies aim to develop a critical sense of what is learned, relating theoretical concepts to the practical environment. In this work, we propose an active teaching-learning methodology for laboratory classes in which the student has the autonomy to propose scripts and equipment, instead of following a practice roadmap already defined (built by the teacher or made available by manufacturers for their science kits), in accordance with the theoretical knowledge acquired. The objective is to encourage the student to be the protagonist in experimental activities, based on the theoretical knowledge acquired in the classroom. In this way, we split the method into three parts, namely: (i) Theoretical exposition, (ii) theoretical seminar and proposition of the experimental script and (iii) seminar for the exposition of the experiment carried out. Each of these steps is guided by one or more professional skills, such as: innovation, creativity, proactivity, protagonism, critical sense and scientific thinking, aiming to bring the academic environment to the professional environment.


Shiga-like toxin typeII(SLT-II) andShiga-like toxin typeIIvariant (SLT-Hv) arecytotoxins produced by certain strains ofEscherichia coli. Nucleotide sequence analyses hadrevealed that thestructural genes forthe Asubunit andBsubunit ofSLT-II orSLT-IIv arearranged inanoperon. Primer extension andSinuclease protection analyses identified apromoter fortheslt-H operon 118bases upstream ofthesit-HA gene. Thesit-Hv promoter wasdemonstrated tobeidentical totheslt-II promoter. Theslt-II ands1t-IIv promoters differed significantly fromthepreviously characterized Shiga toxin (stx) andShiga-like toxin type 1(slt-I) promoters. Thetranscriptional efficiencies ofthestxandslt-II promoters werecompared infusions tothechloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene, andconstitutive expression oftheslt-II promoter wasfoundtobeequivalent to derepressed expression ofthestxpromoter. Incontrast tothestxandslt-I promoters, theslt-II andsit-Hv promoters didnotcontain sequences forbinding oftheFurrepressor protein, andSLT-II production wasnot determined byironlevels inthemediainvarious E.coli strains withwild-type ormutantferric uptake regulation (fur) alleles. Northern (RNA)blotanalysis demonstrated asingle mRNA transcript forthesit-II operon, andfurther analysis ofthesit-H operon byprimer extension didnotreveal anindependent promoter fortheB subunit gene.A putative rho-independent transcription terminator wasidentified 274bases downstream ofslt-IIB. Thesedataindicated that theslt-II andslt-IIv operons differ fromthestx/slt-I operon inregulation oftheir transcription byiron. Whether these regulatory differences enable thetype Iandtype II groups ofShiga-like toxins toperform different roles inthepathogenesis ofinfectious diseases remains tobe established.


Macotasa tortricoides (Walker), a bornean endemic species (Holloway, 1982, 2001) is reported for the first time from India. In addition, morphotaxonomy of Indian species of Macotasa Moore i.e., M. orientalis (Hampson), M. tortricoides (Walker) & M. nubecula (Moore) and a dichotomous key, separately for males and females for all the known species of genus Macotasa Moore has been provided.


Laurent polynomials related to the Hahn-Exton q-Bessel function, which are qanalogues of the Lommel polynomials, have been introduced by Koelink and Swarttouw. The explicit strong moment functional with respect to which the Laurent q-Lommel polynomials are orthogonal is given. The strong moment functional gives rise to two positive definite moment functionals. For the corresponding sets of orthogonal polynomials the orthogonality measure is determined using the three-term recurrence relation as a starting point. The relation between Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind and the Laurent q-Lommel polynomials and related functions is used to obtain estimates for the latter.


A field experiment involving 94,571 orders from 24,637 customers of an app-based laundry pick-up, cleaning and delivery service examined the effects of various, randomly assigned tip recommendations on consumers' tip amounts, satisfaction ratings, frequency of return, and bill size. We find that tip recommendations affect tip amounts, but not customer satisfaction, patronage frequency, or bill-size, which implies that neither the processes underlying the tip recommendation effects on tipping nor consumer tipping itself affect these other consumer outcomes. From a practical perspective, these results and conclusions inform efforts to increase or decrease tipping. Recommending larger tip amounts, at least within the $2 to $10 or 5% to 25% ranges studied here, appears to be a safe means of increasing the amounts customers leave. More generally, altering customers' tipping behavior will not itself adversely affect those customers' subsequent satisfaction, re-patronage, or spending as long as the means used to alter tipping do not directly affect these other outcomes.


The present study investigates the follower's voice behavior (FVB) as a mediator and follower power distance orientation (FPDO) as a moderator in relationship with Benevolent Paternalistic Leadership Behavior (BPLB) and followers' radical creativity (FRC) with an Asian context based on the social exchange and social learning theory. The study is quantitative and deductive, which surveyed 272 manufacturing industry leaders-followers used to collect the data. Findings show that BPLB with higher follower's voice behavior directly or indirectly enhances the FRC. When the leader-follower collaborative exchange or interactions are high/low, followers' responsibility and accountability are also high/low, which determines follower's radical creativity. In contrast, the leader-follower relationship is obfuscated and blinded when the leader's subordinates' cooperative voice engagement or involvement is low congruously. Manufacturing industries should engage in leadership training that can promote creativity and innovation. Although considering the limitation and the study provides the theoretical, managerial, and practical implication for the managers, policymakers, governmental authority, and society


A memorial fund in honor of Thomas C. Wiegele has been established at Northern Illinois University. Income from this endowed fund will be used to provide an annual dissertation completion award for a graduate student studying biopolitics. Those wishing to contribute to this fund should make their checks payable to the "NIU Foundation" and send them to the NIU Foundation, Thomas C. Wiegele Memorial, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA.


For the condition of allowing shortages and time limited backorders,an economic order quantity (EOQ) inventory model is researched and put forward.It is different from a general one.


Prior research on ambidexterity has assumed that senior executives are responsible for defining the appropriate mix of exploitation and exploration in their organizations, and for designing the nec...


CuBr2(C10H8N2) — S = 1/2 Two-Dimensional Rectangular Heisenberg Antiferromagnet E. Čižmár, M. Kajňaková, A. Orendáčová, M. Orendáč, A. Feher, A.G. Anders, J.-H. Park and M.W. Meisel Centre of Low Temperature Physics, P.J. Šafárik University, Park Angelinum 9, SK-04154 Košice, Slovakia Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering, Lenin Av. 47, 310164 Kharkov, Ukraine National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee, FL 32310-3706, USA Department of Physics and Center for Condensed Matter Sciences, University of Florida Gainesville FL 32611-8440, USA Magnetic susceptibility and X-band electron spin resonance study of a two-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnetic system CuBr2(bipy), where bipy = C10H8N2 is 4,4′-bipyridyl, has been performed in the temperature range from 300 K down to 2 K. A rhombic anisotropy of the g-factor was obtained from X-band EPR measurements with gx = 2.037, gy = 2.100 and gz = 2.219. The temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility with a round maximum observed at 28 K suggests antiferromagnetic type of short-range order. No signature of the magnetic long-range order in studied compound was observed. The comparison of the magnetic susceptibility data with a two-dimensional rectangular Heisenberg model yields the values of intralayer exchange couplings J/kB = −47 K and J ′/kB = −9.4 K. PACS numbers: 75.30.Et, 75.50.Ee, 76.30.−v


The Endoscopy Global Rating Scale has been designed and implemented to assess the extent to which endoscopy service providers are giving a patient−centred service. One of the standards is patient comfort and the level C we had achieved needed improving. A session at the British Society of Gastroenterology meeting in 2007 revealed that nationwide there is no standard method of assessing patient comfort, but ideas for components of an assessment were discussed. We adopted a modified Wong−Baker visual analogue scale, and we record, collect and analyse comfort data and sedation levels on a monthly basis. Results are discussed between the individual endoscopist and the clinical lead for endoscopy as well as at the bi−annual audit meeting. Patients are fully informed about the potential for discomfort during the procedure and that sedation/analgesia agents are used.


In order to develop an easy to use, effective and efficient software system that satisfies the stakeholder needs, usability attributes should be addressed and measured appropriately during all development stages. However, measuring usability is widely recognized as the most challenging task for the system development team. Such a challenge can be attributed to the absence of an existing comprehensive usability model that covers all the fuzzy usability attributes. This paper aims to elicit and analyze usability attributes from previously existing usability models for developing an integrated usability model from different practitioners' and researchers' views. The main contribution of this model is constituted in the attempt of gathering and modeling several fuzzy usability attributes in a homogeneous manner, and providing different measures for these attributes, in order to facilitate measuring them during every stage of software development. Hence, this will assist in detecting and tracing usability problems in each stage, handling them with less time, efforts, resources, and in evaluating the usability of the implemented system as well.


Fractions of plasma protein of male Kunming mice (body weight 24.2±0.3g),treated with Cisplatin i.p.injection in dose of 10mg/kg,were obtained by separation on Sephadex-G-50 columns,buffered with ammonium acetate to pH5.7,The XSRF experiments were performed at the BEPC(Beijing Electron Positron Collider)synchrotron radiation facility.The elements(Pt,S,Ca,Fe,Ni,Cu,Zn,Se,Br and Sr)in the fraction of the plasma proteins(>22KD) were assayed using highly sensitive SXRF.The relative concentrations of elements were calculated by a normalization of COmpton scattering intensity around 22 KeV,after the normalization for collecting time of X-ray spectrum and the counting of the ion chamber,and subracting the contribution of the polycarbonate film used for supporting the samples.The determination could prove that the element Pt in plasma was bound with macro-molecularprotein.Cu and S were present in the fraction of the protein in mice treated with Cisplatin and exhibited an increase,the ration of treated/control were 1.66±0.06 and 1.78±0.33 repectively,whereas Zn decreased to a ratio of 0.78±0.09,Our results are in agreement with others which showed that Cisplatin exposure leads to a marked loss of kidney copper,and a moderate rise in didney zinc.However,this work mainly focussed on the implementation of this analytical procedure,but not on the results of the investigations of the effect of Cisplatin on trace elements in plasma protein.


The life history of Ilybius fenestratus was studied in Målsjøen, a lake in Sør-Trøndelag, Central Norway (63°14'N, 10°26'E), during 1971–1972. Adults and larvae were sampled in activity traps every week during March–October and every 2–3 weeks during November–February. Newly-emerged adults were generally found from mid-July to September, and after overwintering in torpidity, probably in the water, they again appeared in the second half of June to August/September. Laying of eggs took place from early/mid July to early August. Larvae occurred in the traps from late July to early May. I. fenestratus was thus found to be a semivoltine summer breeder, with overwintering larvae the first winter and overwintering adults the next. Both adults and larvae lived in large areas of the lake's littoral zone.


The theme of Console-ing Passions this year is cultivating community, a topic about which I have had much to say in the context of fan practices. In my work on fans of soap operas (e.g. Baym, 2000)...


Massage and herbal fumigation and steaming were adopted to treat 79 cases of infrapatellar fat pad injury. Result showed cure in 29 cases, marked effect in 35 cases, improvement in 12 cases and failure in 3 cases, with the total effective rate of 96.2%.


competing parties and an account of the electoral arrangements, it gives a detailed history of the campaign and an analysis of results. The complications of this particular election are a gift to connoisseurs. There were two voters' rolls and three types of constituency—upper roll, lower roll, and ' National'. Interest centred on the last, in which candidates were required to demonstrate by satisfying very complicated criteria that they had support from both races. This well-meaning attempt to encourage ' non-racial' voting was doomed to failure in a country where the major parties were already organized to represent racial interests. It did cause Kaunda to make a determined appeal to the European electorate, the intellectual level of which surprised most of them, and it led him to put forward as candidates members of the African intelligentsia in place of some of his party stalwarts whose names were anathema in European circles. Nevertheless, in Mr. Mulford's view, racial issues were especially significant in the National seats. The campaign for them did inspire an uneasy alliance between the United Federal Party and Nkumbula's African National Congress, parties which had absolutely nothing in common beyond their hostility to Kaunda. The arrangement had to be kept more or less secret to avoid alienating the supporters of both the allies. Its public face was the United AntiUNIP movement, ostensibly organized to resist intimidation. The UFP, Mr. Mulford tells us, helped to organize a gang of strong-arm men to protect ANC canvassers and ' lure UNIP into acts of violence '. In ten National seats no candidate secured the necessary percentage of votes from both races. In the by-election period when these were contested a second time, Nkumbula was wooed by both UNIP and UFP. The final result was an African coalition government in which the ANC held more offices than their electoral support warranted. Mr. Mulford does not share Lord Salisbury's view of the Macleod electoral provisions. The fact that the various parties agreed at all to participate in common elections he holds to be of immense political importance. Mr. Mulford's style does not enhance the pleasure of reading his book, but the political operation that he records is a fascinating story in its own right.


It's commonly believed that vitamin D only plays a role in bone health maintenance and calcium phosphate homeostasis regulation. This limited recognition of vitamin D's function can be traced back to its discovery through the fight against rickets almost a century ago. Further studies revealed several other roles vitamin D plays in the human body; its importance in bone related health is merely the tip of the iceberg. Until now, studies have highlighted that the receptor for vitamin D is quite ubiquitous, residing in almost all the major human organs, including the heart, brain, livers, kidneys, bones, urinary system, and parathyroid glands. It's worth noting that vitamin D receptors are expressed in some seemingly unrelated tissues, for example, all kinds of immune cells, pancreatic cells, neurons, as well as vascular smooth cells, epithelial cells, and cardiomyocytes in the cardiovascular system. Through those widely distributed receptors, vitamin D regulates the expression of over 200 genes directly or indirectly. It partially explains why vitamin D deficiency has been reported to be associated with different kinds of diseases, such as hypertension, multiple sclerosis, colon cancer, and diabetes. Due to the gene polymorphism of vitamin D receptors, there is individual variation in vitamin D reaction. Recent progress in the study of the vitamin D


Abstract The output synchronization problem is investigated for multiple linear agents with external disturbances that are guided by a leader with different dynamics. A method is presented for designing a networked controller that synchronizes the agents to the heterogeneous leader. First, a general dynamic controller with two inputs is proposed that introduces the model of the leader as an internal reference model into the control loop of all following agents. Second, the two inputs to the local controllers of the followers are designed by H∞ control theory such that the resulting closed-loop system achieves the output synchronization with a desired disturbance attenuation performance. The proposed method is applied to the leader-follower synchronization of vehicles in a platoon.


We introduce a practical and scalable algorithm (PALMA) for solving one of the fundamental problems of multi-agent systems -- finding matches and allocations -- in unboundedly large settings (e.g., resource allocation in urban environments, mobility-on-demand systems, etc.), while providing strong worst-case privacy guarantees. PALMA is decentralized, runs on-device, requires no inter-agent communication, and converges in constant time under reasonable assumptions. We evaluate PALMA in a mobility-on-demand and a paper assignment scenario, using real data in both, and demonstrate that it provides a strong level of privacy ($\varepsilon \leq 1$ and median as low as $\varepsilon = 0.5$ across agents) and high-quality matchings (up to $86\%$ of the non-private optimal, outperforming even the privacy-preserving centralized maximum-weight matching baseline).


We have studied P ion implantation induced intermixing of In0.53Ga0.47As quantum wells embedded between InP barriers. Data are presented for both standard furnace anneals at 650 °C and rapid thermal anneals at 750 °C. Low‐temperature photoluminescence and quantitative Auger electron spectroscopy were performed for furnace‐annealed samples for which photoluminescence shifts of ∼200 meV were in excellent agreement with the calculated band gap for the lattice matched composition determined by Auger spectroscopy. Photoluminescence studies of rapid thermal annealed samples yield an energy gap shift of ∼150 meV for annealing times of at least 10 s.


Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is an efficient method for radio resource sharing and has been identified as a promising technology in the fifth generation (5G) wireless networks to meet the requirement of system capacity, user connectivity and service latency. Various NOMA schemes have been proposed in the last few years, such as transmitter transparent NOMA, linear spreading based NOMA and sparse code based NOMA at transmitter side, as well as linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE), expectation propagation algorithm (EPA) and message passing algorithm (MPA) at receiver side. This article provides a systematic overview of the state-of-art design of the NOMA transmission based on a unified transmitter and receiver design framework, followed by comprehensive link level evaluations in various aspects to provide quantitative understanding of the relative performance of the various kinds of NOMA transmitter and receiver design.


The article presents modern methods of simulation training in the preparation of a general practitioner at different levels of education — undergraduate, internship, residency at S. D. Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University. The technology "Virtual Patient" on the interactive platform "AcademiX3D" is described, which contributes to the development of clinical thinking among students, increases the effectiveness of training and the quality of training of graduates of medical universities.


With the increase in terrorism and piracy threats around the world, the issue is not if an attack will occur, but where and when it will come. Ports and waterways are crucial for international trade, and damage to them may cost millions to the global economy. In the past, Malaysia has been threatened and attacked by terrorists, and pirates have hijacked ships near the coasts of the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea. Such acts can negatively affect the country's maritime supply chain. This research analyses the risk to Malaysia's maritime supply chain security in ports and waterways by applying a risk assessment matrix. The findings show that Malaysian ports are vulnerable to attacks and crime due to various factors. Also, Malaysia's waterways may always be at risk given the country's geographical location and status as one of the most important trade routes in the world. Mitigating the risk to ports and waterways can be accomplished by investing in more advanced security equipment, eliminating corruption, and increasing the military presence in the Strait of Malacca. This research may be able to help increase ports' policy-makers' preparation and decision-making, helping them to address risks to ports and waterways in Southeast Asia.


The ever-growing number of cores in Chip Multi-Processors (CMP) brings a renewed interest in stream programming to solve the programmability issues raised by massively parallel architectures. Stream programming languages are flourishing (StreaMIT, Brook, ∑C, etc.). Nonetheless, their execution support have not yet received enough attention, in particular regarding the new generation of many-cores.
 In embedded software, a lightweight solution can be implemented as a specialized library, but a dedicated micro-kernel offers a more flexible solution. We propose to explore the latter way with a Logical Vector Time based execution model, for CMP architectures with on-chip shared memory.


Characteristic and Principle of the communication approach to language learning andteaching has given appropriate and positive strategies in order to produce student's ability incommunicative competence. One of its positive principles of this approach is students learnEnglish not in order to know the language rules but in order to use it in communication.However it can be said that this approach only gives specific advantages to ESL countries butnot for EFL context. It is because there are many EFL teachers such as English teachers inIndonesia still encounter difficulties in applying CLT in their classroom. This article givesessential solutions in order to encounter this issue towards teaching English in civil engineeringclassroom in Indonesia as EFL country. It is said that in order to accomplish the success inlanguage teaching, English teachers in civil Engineering should improve their quality incommunicative competence as well as their teaching strategy to combine and implement intocommunicative classroom approach, syllabus and material based on learner needs and interestin authentic situation.


Introduction: Lung cancer is currently the most frequently diagnosed cancer in the world and is a major healthcare problem in India. It should be diagnosed at the earliest possible stage. The prognosis of lung cancer is related to factors like stage, size, presence or absence of visceral pleura and lymph node invasion. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study was done on first 54 small biopsy specimens of suspected neoplastic lung lesions and imprint smears prepared from same biopsy received in the department of pathology, Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool, during the study period of 12 months (June 2017May 2018). Results: Diagnostic test evaluation of imprint cytology smears was done on 54 cases of lung lesions received in Department of pathology, Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool during study period of 12 months (June 2017-June 2018). The mean age distribution of the present study population is 62.11 years, minimum age is 28 years and maximum age is 78 years and majority belong to age group 60-69 years (43%). 88% of cases were male patients. 65% of cases had lesion in Right lung and 35% had lesion in left lung. 24 % (n=13) of patients had lesion in the Right lower lobe of lung followed by Left upper lobe (12 cases, 22%). 77.8 % of the cases had a history of smoking. Conclusion: Diagnostic accuracy of imprint cytology in case of NSLC and SCLC were 79% and 94.4% respectively. The diagnostic accuracy of imprint cytology for the squamous cell carcinoma was 70.3% and that for adenocarcinoma was 90% Metastasis and carcinoid showed 100% cyto-histology concordance. So, performing imprint smear cytology as an adjunct diagnostic tool to biopsy in cases of neoplastic lung lesions may be recommended.


To evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of intensive chemotherapy given prior to irradiation in pediatric patients with malignant glioma, the Society of Pediatric Oncology in Germany started a randomized trial in 1991. The high‐grade glioma strata had to be closed because of insufficient patient accrual. The follow‐up data from these patients are reported.


Background Gout remission, quality of life and disability improvement are the main objectives of chronic treatment. Gout T2T goal is to achieve and maintain target urate <6 mg/dL and <5 mg/dL (TU) in severe gout (SG). Objectives To determine in a cohort of gout patients, SG frequency, associated factors, percentage of patients achieving TU and remission criteria. Methods Patients with gout (ACR-EULAR) from GRESGO cohort were included and evaluated at baseline and bi-annually. At baseline visit, information about gout, life style changes and treatment were discussed with the patients and relatives. Prescription for gout and associated diseases was according to published guides and available drugs. Measures: demographic, clinical and biochemical. HAQ, EUROQoL, VAS-pain and global health. SG:≥5 tophi and/or intradermal tophi. TU:sUA <6 mg/dL and <5 mg/dL; remission according to published proposal (de Lautour H/2016). This protocol was approved by the local IRB, all patients signed informed consent. Statistical analysis: t test, X2, Friedman, multiple-correlation and multivariable analysis. Results At baseline visit 500 gout patients were included, (221/44% with SG and 279/56% non-SG). Males 97%, all received individualised ULT treatment (allopurinol and/or probenecid). The whole group, improved significantly during follow-up in urate, flares, tophus burden, HAQ, pain, EUROQoL and renal function. SG patients were significantly: younger at onset, with lower educational level, socioeconomic status, more laboral absenteeism. Also, had longer disease duration and significant differences in all clinical variables related to severity:>joint count,>index tophi size, >% lithiasis,>HAQ score,>EUROQoL and600 mg/day) and required more frequently glucocorticoids. Eleven patients died, 1 year after baseline ~50% patients were lost. Among those that continued, target urate <6 mg/dL was possible in only 50%–70% of the patients followed for 3–5 years. Less than 50% of patients achieved TU<5 mg/dL during long follow-up. There were no significant differences in most percentages of TU 6 or 5 mg/dL between SG VS non-SG patients (see table 1). Although, both groups improved significantly in all clinical outcomes. Remission definition require none tophi and at least 12 months follow-up, it was observed in 9.4% of non-SG patients. Percentage of patients achieved TU (*significant differences) TU<6 mg/dL<5 mg/dL SG% Non-SG% SG% Non-SG% N Baseline 12 16 1 8 500 6 21 24 11 15 329 12 35 44 16 22 254 18 53 55 28 26 208 24 58 52 37* 24 189 30 56 51 32 28 152 36 58 59 38 34 131 42 70 58 38 30 94 48 73* 50 35 27 81 54 63 54 0 0 53 60 53 43 42 19 40 Conclusions In our population, SG is very frequent and associated with younger age at onset, low socioeconomic and educational level, longer duration and severe disease. Although they receive more intense treatment according to availability, TU and remission criteria are seldom observed and very difficult to achieve. Earlier diagnosis, intensive and adequate treatment should change these results. Disclosure of Interest None declared


This article proposes an alternative conceptualization of the processes with which new university students try to overcome the challenges and potential stresses experienced in their movement into the university context. Instead of viewing coping efforts as solely directed towards avoiding stress and enhancing well-being, efforts of overcoming difficulties and stress are to be seen in relation to students' goal-oriented movement towards becoming students at a particular institution and in a particular field of study. By drawing on the concepts of (hyper)generalized affective semiotic fields, and equifinality and bifurcation points, it is suggested that the process of making sense of a difficult situation is related to the dynamics between well-defined short-term goals and ill-defined long-term goals. In this conceptualization, students not only cope with a specific problem in the here-and-now but make sense of the problem while negotiating their unique trajectory towards more distanced imagined educational outcomes.


Chemical company results for the fourth quarter of 1992 issued by press time last week show that, with some notable exceptions, it was not a stellar quarter. Most firms improved their sales, but about half had earnings declines compared with the fourth quarter in 1991. For the three months ending Dec. 31, 1992, eight out of 13 firms reporting registered sales increases over the yearearlier quarter. However, a sputtering economy and higher operating costs kept earnings down: Seven out of 13 registered earnings declines. Profit margins, a key measure of a company's return on sales, drifted lower for eight of the 13 companies. There were some remarkable individual exceptions to the overall downward trend. Arco Chemical, for instance, doubled earnings to $48 million on a modest 4% sales increase to $780 million. President and chief executive officer Alan R. Hirsig attributes the earnings improvement particularly to higher sales volumes and margins for propylene oxide and ...


Level 1 • Practical training should involve at least one ultrasound clinic per week over a period of 3–6 months, with approximately 5–10 examinations performed by the trainee (under supervision) per clinic session. • A minimum of 250 examinations should be undertaken. However, different trainees will acquire the necessary skills at different rates, and the end point of the training programme should be judged by an assessment of competencies. • Examinations should encompass the full range of pathological conditions listed below. • A log book listing the types of examinations undertaken should be kept. • Training should usually be supervised by a practitioner who has obtained at least level 2 competence in nephro-urological ultrasound. In certain circumstances it may be appropriate to delegate some of this supervision to an experienced level 1 practitioner with at least 2 years of regular practice. • Trainees should attend an appropriate theoretical course and should read appropriate textbooks and literature. • During the course of training the competency assessment sheet should be completed as this will determine in which area or areas the trainee can practise independently.


Chaos may increase the computation capabilities of artificial neural networks. This is possible because of the large number of states that can be obtained as the result of utilizing chaos attributes like control, space lling and sensitivity to initial conditions. In this paper, mathematical analysis of a chaotic spiking neuron model is carried out. The analysis is performed to understand, and hence to exploit the rich dynamics that such system may provide, which then can be used in processing information tasks. To accomplish this, a chaotic spiking neural model called the Nonlinear Dynamic State (NDS) neuron is used. The study includes detailed mathematical analysis in both phase space and Eigen space. These methods has discovered certain facts regarding the NDS attractor and also propose the stabilization of the model. It has been shown in this paper that one of the major ingredients that drive the model are the repelling forces of the two xed points of type spiral-repellor. These xed-points were two spiral saddle points of index-1 and index-2 in the original Rössler attractor. The other ingredient that allows the existence of the NDS chaotic attractor are the reset and the self-feedback mechanisms. The analytical investigation strongly indicates that the dynamics of the NDS model allow a diverse dynamic behaviors such as Unstable Periodic Orbits (UPOs), which can be steadied and controlled. The UPO is one of the dynamic behavior that is exhibited by the non-linear systems in the phase space. The vast variety of dynamic behaviors that the NDS neuron provide may be utilized in carrying out information processing functions. 6296 Mohammad Alhawarat


The article presents bench-marking analysis of Italian universities' experience in using PR tools for self-positioning on the market of educational services and the labor market, the authors offering basic principles of a University PR-promotion in the time of including national high schools into the global scientific and educational mobility as well as the most effective channels of communication that have proved effective in leading universities of the country that have become a playground for the Bologna system.


In order to simulate the adaptability and the fluctuation resistance ability of simulation inspection device and hanging ladder on ground, simulation inspection device and multi-grade centroid adjusting mechanism are designed in this paper. In the process of centroid adjusting, modification of the centroid position is transformed by means of mathematical model into a certain centroid adjusting mechanism, which is relative to displacement of Y Axis in calculating coordinate system and angle alternation between the adjustable centroid lever and the main rocker. The results show that the calculation is in good agreement with the analysis.


This paper tries to disentangle the most relevant determinants of spatial inequality in the urban areas of Argentina. The analysis is restricted to the period 1998-2003. The study is performed with a Panel Data approach using a random effects model. Results suggest that human capital, measured by rates of education completion, is an important contributor to spatial inequality. High rates of primary education appear to reduce inequality while higher rates of secondary education appear to increase it. Labor market characteristics also play a role: urban areas with higher unemployment rates, higher returns to education and a lower percentage of people employed in the secondary sector tend to have higher levels of inequality. Also, dependency and the percentage of people with unsatisfied basic needs have increasing-inequality effects. Finally, there seems to be a relationship between inequality and the level of development, though not with a clear inverted-U pattern as hypothesized by Kuznets. Results are robust to different measures of inequality and different income specifications.


The research progress of bismaleimide resin(BMI) modified by toughening(including diamine, allyl compound,thermoplastic resin,thermosetting resin and liquid crystal resin) were reviewed.The mechanism and characteristic of every modified methods were briefly summarized,and the research actuality and development trend of modified BMI were discussed.


An analysis of measurements of electric, magnetic, and radiation field variations produced by rocket-triggered discharges in winter storms in Japan shows that a discharge initiated by a rocket with trailing and grounded wire is a negative leader that consists of continuous current and a pulse series associated with streamer development at the tip. The negative leader is not followed by a process analogous to a return stroke in cloud-to-ground flashes. Application of the electrostatic model of lightning as a bidirectional and uncharged leader in an ambient electric field to analysis of rocket-initiated discharges and positive cloud-to-ground flashes uncovers the commonality of processes occurring in both types of discharges.


The determination of microscale boiling points in a melting-point tube may be simplified by replacing the micro-bell bubbler with an ultrathin capillary tube bubbler.


This study was conducted to investigate the status of calcium intake and serum calcium level in perimenopausal women. The age distribution of the subjects was 49-55 years. Daily nutrient intake and dietary sources of calcium were analyzed by a convenient method and a food frequency questionnaire. At...


In this article, we seek to explain when and why political parties pressure their members to vote with the party. We model party cohesion as an endogenous choice of preference alignment by party members. Couched in Krehbiel's (1996, 1998) pivotal politics model, the formal theory advanced here shows party cohesion to be related to the initial preference alignment of party members, the divergence in preferences between parties, the cohesion of the opposing party, the party's size, and the party's majority or minority status. We solved the model analytically for generalized-partial equilibrium results and further analyzed it through computer simulations. We tested the model's predictions in the U.S. Senate using Rice party cohesion scores from the 46th through 104th Congresses. The data analyses show strong support for this theory of endogenous choice of party pressure.


This publication is part of the Pest Identification Guide series, created to help growers and crop consultants, private homeowners, Master Gardeners, and the general public identify common arthropod pests and the damage they inflict. Each field guide provides photos of the important life stages and crop damage associated with arthropod pests. The text highlights key general morphology and biology, distribution, and natural enemies. Written by Nicole Casuso and Hugh Smith, and published by the UF Department of Entomology and Nematology, October 2014.
ENY-880/IN1059: Pest Identification Guide: Two-spotted Spider Mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch (ufl.edu)


Enterprises must be from angle of human resources management to create the difference in the present fierce business environment of competition. The member is enterprise's most important assets; the more important thing is an administrator should grasp the staff's psychology. This research explores the relation of organizational trust, organizational justice and organizational spirituality, further compare someone is more powerful to organizational spirituality. Use questionnaire investigation, it is supposed and then study with the statistics technology of structural equation modeling, there is apparent prediction strength forward on organizational spirituality to find organizational trust and organizational justice. The management meaning of the conclusion offers the industry to make as strategy, offer better manpower resources management, create and organize it with staff's win-win wishing the scene.


1. The self-organizing network service provider comprising: a processing system configured to receive information regarding the second supplier self-organizing network services, and the information contains information on the service of the second provider self-organizing network service processing system is further configured to support the transmission of information to a server processing system is further configured to support access point network to the mobile client. ! 2. The self-organizing network service provider of claim 1, wherein the information comprises a beacon signal transmitted the second broadcast self-organizing network service provider and wherein the processing system is further configured to support the control information beacon to receive information. ! 3. The self-organizing network service provider according to claim 1, which contains information about the service offered by the second provider of self-organizing networks of services attributes to the network access services. ! 4. The self-organizing network service provider according to claim 1, wherein the information about the service comprises one or more of the following: the duration of the service provided by a second supplier of self-organizing networks of services, the location of the second supplier of self-organizing networks of services, the price of service provided by the second provider of self-organizing networks of services, quality Score is the second supplier of self-organizing networks and service quality of the services provided by a second supplier samoorga services


Abstract Geometric focusing of monochromatic internal waves is a well-known linear mechanism that provides a pathway to smaller length scales and hence energy dissipation, especially when repeated reflection from inclined boundaries focuses these waves onto internal wave attractors (IWAs). While simple attractors have been well documented both theoretically and in idealized laboratory settings, the small aspect ratio and complex shape of the ocean has made it difficult to detect the narrow frequency bands where attractors may form. The greatest obstruction however is the restricted spatiotemporal resolution of measurements of the ocean's internal wave field. Moored instruments provide a detailed temporal but poor spatial resolution, except along line-segments spanning part of the water column only. The ability to measure a fully resolved two-dimensional section through a three-dimensional field, as in present-day laboratory experiments, is missing in the ocean. This prohibits the search for IWAs in ocean data, especially if this concerns a multi-frequency wave field. Mimicking an ocean observation set-up, our experimental study aims at detecting IWA signatures from laboratory observations along a vertical line-segment. We perform small and large amplitude forcing experiments at a fixed wavenumber with both monochromatic and broadband frequency components. We examine energy intensification at dissipative length scales at frequencies known to support attractors. Importantly, our laboratory experiments indicate that even in the presence of multiple forcing frequencies, or for large-amplitude monochromatic forcing (where beams become unstable to Triadic Resonant Instability), focusing reflections due to attractors are the predominant mechanism for transferring energy to dissipative scales.


Abstract The existence of the induced helical smectic A (S*A) phase was proved by textural, optical and calorimetric studies and by small angle X-ray scattering using binary systems which consisted of achiral 4-n-hexyloxyphenyl 4-n-octyloxybenzoate (C ↔ Sc ↔ N ↔ I) and chiral N-(4-n-nonylphenylbenzoyloxy)benzylidene-S-1-benzylethylamine (C ↔ SA ↔ I). The induced S*A and cholesteric (N*) phases appeared even at small concentrations of the chiral compound (≈ 1 mol per cent) together with increases in the S*C ↔ S*A transition temperatures, compared those for the Sc ↔ N transitions, and decreases in the θc tilt angle. Structural factors are discussed as possible causes of the formation of the induced S*A blue phases I, II and III, and another polymorphic state in the systems studied.


Measurements reveal quite accurately the number of ex amples in fractions of a given degree of difficulty which pupils, working under specified conditions are able to solve and also the percent of these examples they can do correctly. Measurements, as ordinarily interpreted, however, do not show the cause of failure. Teachers who receive pupils' scores in their original or raw form or converted into class percentiles, T-scores, or B-scores, are informed with a fairly satisfactory degree of ac curacy of these pupils' present levels of advancement in learning a subject. These scores do not tell the specific difficulties of individual pupils or of the class, yet such information would serve as an invaluable guide to the teacher. In this paper the results of an effort to analyze out certain types of errors are reported and the writer's opinion concerning the most important use which the teacher can make of tests is suggested. Last October the writer was requested by the Director of Teacher Training at Ohio University to prepare a set of prac tice exercises in fractions which might resemble in form the Courtis and Studebaker practice exercises in integers. A set of twelve diagnostic tests was first prepared and given to the pupils of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades of the Athens schools, including the University Training School. During the winter seventeen practice tests were also prepared. These cover the four fundamental operations with fractions but not with mixed numbers or decimals. The diagnostic tests were given to the Athens pupils in November and again in April. In the in terim the practice tests were used in some schools, for the pur pose of measuring the effect of their use. This was done, in a crude fashion, by comparing the gains made by pupils using the


For materials such as copper and mild steel Fe-0.1 % C, slippage has been determined at various stages of high-pressure torsion, and a new effective method has been applied. It has been shown that slippage at the initial stages of high-pressure torsion is insignificant, while after high-pressure torsion for n = 5 revolutions, torsional deformation of the steel does not occur due to slippage. Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffractometry were performed to reveal the microstructure of Fe-0.1 % C after high-pressure torsion with n = 5, 10 revolutions. It has been shown that irrespective of slippage, the structure of Fe-0.1 % C is still refined during high-pressure torsion for n = 5, and a nanostructured state similar to that observed by other authors is formed after HPT in Fe-0.1 % C. The data of TEM, XRD and HV unambiguously indicate, that the structure after HPT n =10 is more refined and riveted than after HPT n = 5. Hence, despite the slip at HPT when n ≥ 5, the deformation is still carried out. One of the possible explanations for the accumulation of deformation in the sample during HPT, despite the slippage, may be that the planes of the upper and lower anvils are declined from each other by a small angle. This leads to the accumulation of significant deformation during the rotation of the anvils.


In the 21th century, Chinese cities are facing more opportunities as well as challenges in development. As an old industrial city, Harbin has a more arduous developing problem. Urban product theory is one of the overseas urban development theories which has grow for a long time, while the sports is a city development image. On the basis of Harbin's product characteristics and combining with other countries' successful experience, it discusses the sports effect of the urban product marketing in Harbin city.


A practical and efficient method for exploiting second order Rayleigh Schrödinger perturbation theory to approximate the correlation energy contribution to the London dispersion interaction is presented. The correlation energy is estimated as the Møller Plesset contribution (MP2) computed using single particle orbitals from hybrid exchange density functional theory (B3LYP) as the reference state. The total energy of the system is obtained by adding the Hartree-Fock energy to the MP2 contribution: a procedure denoted here as HF+MP2(B3LYP). This approach is adopted for the investigation of the He2 dimer and of the He-MgO(001) interaction. HF+MP2(B3LYP) is able to predict the correct well depth and form of the potential at long range for both systems. In these systems, this approach has been found to be reliable and significantly less computational expensive than more sophisticated approaches for describing electronic correlation.


It is demonstrated that the use of the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling current as a monitor of gate oxide thickness is possible if precautions are made to screen out less than ideal oxides. A very effective screen is to use separate calculations of the oxide thickness from the slope and intercept of a fit of log(J/V/sup 2/) versus (I/V). The thickness extracted from the slope is considered valid if the thickness calculated from the slope is approximately 2.3 times that found from the intercept. Measurements can be made either under conditions of accumulation in an MOS capacitor or under inversion in a transistor where electrical contact can be made to the inversion layer. The barrier height is, however, 0.1 to 0.2 eV higher for injection from polysilicon than for single-crystal silicon.<<ETX>>