Background: This study investigated the physical interaction of gliclazide (GLC) with a hydrophilic carrier, that is, macrogol [polyethylene glycol (PEG)]. Different molecular weights of PEG (4000, 10,000, and 20,000) were used in different drug : carrier weight ratios (1 : 1, 1 : 2, 1 : 5, and 1 : 10). Method: Preliminary screening was done by phase solubility studies to characterize the liquid state interaction between the drug and the carrier. Solid dispersions (SDs) of GLC and PEG in different ratios were prepared by fusion technique and by physical mixing. The solid-state interaction between the drug and the carrier was examined by performing differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic studies. SD with satisfactory characteristics was selected for the formulation of tablets by wet granulation method and compared with the commercial brand for in vitro dissolution. Results: It was evident from phase solubility studies that the drug solubility increased linearly with increasing PEG concentrations. In vitro dissolution of GLC improved significantly in the SDs prepared by fusion method as compared with the original drug and physical mixtures. Scanning electron microscopy images showed well-defined changes in the surface topography of GLC, thus confirming the effective formation of a fused binary system. The SD tablets showed a significant improvement in the drug release profile than that of the commercial brand. Conclusion: It was thus concluded that SD formulations of GLC can be successfully used to design a solid dosage form of the drug, which would have significant advantages over the current marketed tablets.


The expert system is first translated into an intermediate, parallel, symbolic representation. That representation is then translated into a real-valued or binary neural network. These translation strategies were implemented in an automatic translation prototype, which was successfully applied to a number of expert system applications. A large majority of each expert system was translated; the untranslatable portions were nonetheless parallelized. The translator produced a highly parallel network, effectively examining all objects and most rules in parallel, and capable of running up to five orders of magnitude faster on existing neural hardware than on a 386 machine. The benefit of the translation process is that it most effectively combines the benefits of neural networks and expert systems, producing systems that are easy to design and understand because of their expert system origin and that are adaptable, fault tolerant, and parallel because of their neural network implementation.<<ETX>>


Extended theories of gravity are considered as a new approach for solving the infrared and ultraviolet scale problems; the standard theory of gravity (general relativity) and observational evidence of gravitational waves and subsequent identification of the number of existing polarizations are an effective tool for testing general relativity and extended theories of gravity. The Newman–Penrose method is used to characterize the polarization modes for specific forms of [Formula: see text] in the present study. Both the forms of the [Formula: see text] theory belong to far more general variational class of gravitational waves, capable of presenting up to six separate polarizations states. We have introduced a new [Formula: see text] gravity model as an attempt to have a theory with more parametric regulations so that the model can be used to describe existing issues and discover different directions in gravity physics. The primary goal of this research is to look into the properties of gravitational waves with new cases. The model shows the existence of scalar degrees of freedom in [Formula: see text] gravity metric notation.


It is time for environmental educators to think about corporations and it is also time for corporations to consider about the environment and EE(environmental education). However there is very little research that discusses the importance of corporation's involvement in EE. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to review the research of corporate environmental education. The main aim of this paper is to disclose the research trend, result of corporate EE. To do this, environmental education journals and books, published in Korea and oversea, are reviewed. However, there is very little research and are a few articles focused on corporate EE, which mainly conducted in Japan. Furthermore, these articles usually introduce the status and cases of corporate EE. As a results this article analysed that the main themes of the researches of corporate EE are the possibility of corporate EE, the status of corporate EE, the collaboration between school and corporation, the effect of corporate EE, and the limits and challenges of corporate EE. Also some important results of these themes are introduced and discussed for the application in Korea.


Hand gesture recognition system has evolved tremendously in the recent few years because of its ability to interact with machine efficiently. Mankind tries to incorporate human gestures into modern technology by searching and finding a replacement of multi touch technology which does not require any touching movement on screen. This paper presents an overview on several methods to realize hand gesture recognition by using three main modules: camera and segmentation module, detection module and feature extraction module. There are many methods which can be used to get the respective results depending on its advantages. Summary of previous research and results of hand gesture methods as well as comparison between gesture recognition are also given in this paper.


The operation of the HUTSIM-traffic signal simulator is based on the basic rules of dynamics. The behaviour of the vehicles is regulated by the microlevel parameters. The calibration and validation study was divided into the definition of the parameters and the comparison of the macrolevel results.


We announce two changes to the operation of Palaeontologia Electronica (PE). First, we are establishing a Patron Program to raise funds to supply PE articles with Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). This will permit improved accessibility to PE articles without imposing charges on authors or readers. Second, all PE articles whose copyright is assigned to the Paleontological Society will be open access under the (CC BYNC-SA 4.0) license. Julien Louys. School of Culture, History, and Languages, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia email@example.com Andrew Bush. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Center for Integrative Geosciences, University of Connecticut, 75 N. Eagleville Rd, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-3043 USA firstname.lastname@example.com Jennifer Pattison Rumford. Palaeontologia Electronica, Texas USA email@example.com


Study of which the social work survey forms a part is anticipated and in that we shall deal again with some of the points raised earlier and those raised by critics such as your correspondent. However, lest your readers should misapprehend our tentative arguments, may I outline them here? The context is one of shortage of professionally qualified mental health social workers, particularly in the local authority service, and a situation in which the development of community care is a public policy. It was the Royal Commission, not PEP, which pointed the way and which, indeed, first suggested that PSWs be redeployed from hospitals to local authorities. Given that


Abstract : Formulas for curve fitting and ray computation using compound models made up of several different layers are presented. Examples of computation by pocket programmable calculator on two Sargasso Sea profiles, one from the center of a cold ring eddy are given. Necessary tables of the incomplete beta-function and calculator programs are included in a supplement.


Students' poor performance in national examination remains a major concern worldwide and Kenya in particular. Teachers, students, parents, curriculum developers and the public have tended to blame one another for the poor performance in Mathematics at secondary school level. In an attempt to respond to this problem, the Kenyan Mathematics scholars have carried out many studies in Mathematics education. Despite these studies, students' performance remained poor. This means that the main reason for this poor performance had not been established. This study aimed at determining learning facilities and resources as factors contributing to the poor performance in Mathematics by students in secondary schools in Kiambaa Division. The study employed a descriptive survey and focused on Form 3 students and their Mathematics teachers. Random stratified technique was used to select 6 public secondary schools from 40 public schools of Kiambaa Division. Form 3 students were selected randomly. Simple random sampling was used to select 20 students and 4 teachers from each school sampled. Data was collected with two instruments, Mathematics Teacher Questionnaire (MTQ) and Mathematics Student's Questionnaire (MSQ). A total of 16 teachers and 80 students filled the MSQ and MTQ respectively. The findings of this study would be of significance to the teachers, students, curriculum developers and college tutors in educational institutions with regard to improvement of Mathematics performance and education. The information provided would enable them to make important decisions on curriculum development and implementation, teacher training, proper administration, learning and teaching resources, change of attitude and motivation in learners that will help to improve performance in Mathematics. The study revealed that some schools did not have adequate teaching and learning resources. This was seen as a factor that contributed to poor performance of Mathematics. Based on the above findings, the study recommended that the government and the community should provide the necessary teaching and learning facilities to facilitate the teaching Of Mathematics. The researcher makes the following suggestions for further research: There was need to conduct a research to investigate on home background and its effect of student's performance. There was need to conduct a research to investigate how administrative factors contribute to poor performance.


Frequency scanning (FScan) is an innovative acquisition mode for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems. The method is based on the frequency-dependent beam pointing capabilities of phased array antennas, artificially increased via the combined use of true time delays and phase shifters within the array antenna. By this, typical limitations of conventional SAR systems in terms of achievable swath width and azimuth resolution can be mitigated, and so a wide swath can be imaged maintaining a fine azimuthal resolution. In the first part of the article, we introduce the theoretical concept, which is necessary to evaluate the reduced echo window length (EWL) with respect to equivalent stripmap data and the implications for the transmit pulse characterization. An FScan sensor flying in a TerraSAR-X-like orbit is shown to be capable of imaging an 80-km wide swath with 1-m azimuth resolution. The resulting time–frequency properties of the recorded raw data make the traditional SAR data compression algorithms such as block-adaptive quantization (BAQ) highly inefficient in this case. Therefore, the second part of the article investigates dedicated quantization methods for efficient data volume reduction in FScan systems. Different solutions are investigated and evaluated through simulations. Various transformations of the raw data have been exploited to optimize the encoding process, including deramping, fast Fourier transform (FFT), and blockwise approaches. Compared with standard BAQ in the time domain, the suggested data compression methods significantly improve the resulting signal-to-quantization noise ratio, allowing for the reduction in the overall data volume by about 60% for the considered system scenario, while maintaining robustness in the presence of inhomogeneous scene characteristics at the cost of a modest complexity increase for its on-board implementation.


An urchin removal experiment was performed over 5 yr at a heavily grazed, sublittoral site in Conception Bay, Newfoundland. Three transects were used: one unrnanipulated, one from which urchins were removed manually for 3 yr, and one from which urchins were removed using quicklime. Each site was sampled in the upper (2 to 3 m) and middle (6 to 9 m) urchin-dominated zone. Macroalgal biomass increased following urchin removal by both methods. At 2 to 3 m a closed canopy of Alaria escdenta developed,with few other algal species, except during the summer when the canopy was reduced by blade erosion. The community that developed at 6 to 9 m consisted mainly of Desmarestia acdeata, with lesser amounts of other canopy-forming algae (A. esculenta, Agarum cribrosum, and Laminaria digitata). When urchins were allowed access to the urchin removal sites, they grazed away all algae except A. cribrosum and Ptilota serrata. Some A. cribrosum survived for at least 2 yr after urchin reinvasion. Algal biomass in the unmanipulated area was low for the first 3 yr, but both biomass and species richness increased during the summers of 1982 and 1983. These algae were removed by urchin grazing and natural senescence during the autumn and winter. The species composition of this temporary summer community differed, however, from the community on the removal transects, and was dominated by annual algae such as Acrothrix novae-angliae, Chordaria flagelliformis, Dictyosiphon foeniculaceus, Ectocarpus siliculosus, and Eudesme virescens, whereas perennials such as A. escdenta and D. aculeata dominated in the urchin removal area.


Prevention of irregular entries of migrants who come from countries which are
 not memebrs of EU, represents one of the most important aspects of EU
 borders' control. This agenda, which is present both on the level of domestic
 as well as on the level of foreign policy, is manifested by directives,
 requirements as well as by concrete security measures undertaken within EU,
 on its external borders, but also extraterritorially, on territories of
 countries which surround EU or territories of countries the migrants come
 from. Migrants stay in improvised settlements created on especially fortified
 parts of migratory routes until they either manage to continue their journey
 or are caught and sent back. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije,
 br. 177027: Multietnicitet, multikulturalnost, migracije - savremeni procesi]


We report the resonance excitations and the spin-wave modes of a single bimeron in a confined nanodot by using micromagnetic simulations. Magnetic bimerons can be considered as in-plane topological spin textures of magnetic skyrmions, which means that the spin-wave modes of bimerons also rotate in-plane compared to skyrmions, for example, through the application of out-of-plane microwave magnetic fields, the spin-wave mode of bimerons is no longer a breathing mode but contains a counterclockwise mode at low frequencies and a clockwise mode at high frequencies. When in-plane microwave magnetic fields rotated at different angles are applied, the spin-wave mode of bimerons has an anisotropic property, i.e., the spin-wave mode presents as a breathing mode for the microwave magnetic field applied along the x-direction, and a couple of azimuthal modes for the microwave magnetic field applied along the y-direction. Moreover, we demonstrate that the breathing mode, the counterclockwise rotation mode, and the clockwise rotation mode can simultaneously appear together when the microwave magnetic field is applied at a specific angle in the plane. In addition to the three typical spin-wave modes, two high-phase counterclockwise rotation modes lead to the periodic deformation of bimerons due to the broken rotational symmetry of the spin texture. Our results reveal the rich spin-wave modes of bimerons, which may contribute to the applications in spintronics and magnonics.


The main objective of the research is to analyze the effect of e-service quality, price and consumer trust on the loyalty of online transportation users. The research method uses quantitative research. Based on the results of data analysis, e-service quality, price and consumer trust have a positive and significant effect on the loyalty of online transportation users. The implications of this research confirms that efforts to provide satisfactory user experience, fast and efficient service, good communication, qualified drivers, effective problem solving, and create a good reputation, online transportation platforms can strengthen user loyalty.


The stress-induced crystallization of trans 1,4-polybutadiene was studied by observing changes in birefringence, stress, x-ray diffraction, and low angle light scattering during the course of crystallization. From these data, the degree of crystallinity was determined as a function of time, temperature, and elongation. Data were fitted to the Avrami equation, leading to an exponent of the order of unity. Light-scattering patterns suggested the simultaneous existence of two stretched forms: a rod-like structure oriented preferentially parallel to the stretching direction and a deformed spherulitelike growth with its greatest extension perpendicular to the stretching direction.


The development of curricula and courses for entrepreneurship education has occurred since the early 80s. Academic institutions have worked hard in developing appropriate entrepreneurship education programs and small businesses. Although its history is relatively short, entrepreneurship education has become a teaching area that is widely recognized and recognized at universities and business schools. However, questions about the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education programs and how strategies are designed to maximize their effectiveness remain unanswered. The content and context of entrepreneurship education programs in various institutions, regions and countries can be different. This research was conducted at the Muhammadiyah Ponorogo University with the student population of Muhammadiyah Ponorogo University. The sampling technique used a systematic random sampling method, with a sample of 50 people. The data obtained was analyzed using the GSCA analysis tool. The results showed that Entrepreneurship Education and Business Motivation would provide a large stimulus to students in relation to Entrepreneurship Intention.Keyword : Entrepreneurship Education, Business Motivation, Entrepreneurship Intention


Abstract Editor's comment: Closing the Gap is a bimonthly newspaper devoted to how handicapped individuals can use the microcomputer as a personal tool and as an educational aid. Closing the Gap also conducts workshops for parents and teachers on how to use computers to meet the needs of the handicapped for communication, environmental control, and learning. The newspaper and workshops began after Dolores and Budd Hagen discovered the value of computers for their hearing impaired son. In their search for software to meet his needs, they discovered a great deal about software and hardware adaptations that could help all handicapped persons. They started a small newspaper to share the information. The newspaper led to requests for information and help with individual problems, so they started offering individually designed workshops for parents and teachers. In addition to frequent workshops, they now offer a national conference, and Dolores Hagen has published a book. The following article describes one ex...


The classical MICZ-Kepler problem is shown to be reducible to an isotropic two-dimensional system of linear harmonic oscillators and a conservation law in terms of new variables related to the Ermanno–Bernoulli constants and the components of the Poincare vector. An algorithmic route to linearization is shown based on Lie symmetry analysis and the reduction method [ Nucci, J. Math. Phys. 37, 1772 (1996) ]. First integrals are also obtained by symmetry analysis and the reduction method [ Marcelli and Nucci,J. Math. Phys. 44, 2111 (2002) ].


This paper discusses the design and development of a remotely controlled waste handling system (RWHS) for use in radioactive waste disposal operations. A RWHS was developed at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Nevada Test Site for use in the Greater Confinement Disposal Test (GCDT). The RWHS consists of a remote control console and the following remotely operated features: a crane, a grapple/manipulator module which is suspended by the crane hoist hook, and closed-circuit television cameras. The RWHS was used to safely place high-specific-activity radioactive waste in greater confinement disposal. Between December 15, 1983, and February 23, 1984, five encapsulated sources were open-air transferred from shielded shipping casks and placed 30 m down a 3-m-dia augered shaft using the RWHS. These sources contained approximately 460 kCi of /sup 90/Sr, 21 kCi of /sup 137/Cs, and 390 Ci of /sup 60/Co. Each source was transferred safely and efficiently and operational personnel did not receive any recordable doses. 3 references, 5 figures.


This article aims to understand how masculinity is articulated and negotiated in the Brazilian television series Homens?, as well as in which ways the mobilization of such representations generates humor effects. Created by Fabio Porchat for Comedy Central, the series mobilizes a masculine perspective that assumes masculinity as the object of his own discourse, presenting the trajectory of characters that move between "old" and "new" identities. Based on Discourse Analysis concepts, we discuss how the series partially tensions conventions of hegemonic masculinity and uses different discursive strategies in order to produce comicality. Thus, the show chooses "toxic masculinity" as an object of laughter, showing redefinitions in the field of humor from the incorporation of an activist consumption perspective.


Summary A night-break (i.e., a short exposure to light near the middle of the dark period) inhibits flowering in chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.), a short-day plant. We studied the effect of night-break light quality (wavelength) on flowering and on expression of the FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT)-like gene, CmFTL3. Night-break treatments with the yellow-to-red wavelength range showed strong inhibitory effects on flowering. Further studies using monochromatic light from panels of light emitting diodes (LEDs) showed that the maximum effect on the inhibition of flowering was around 596 nm, and that levels of CmFTL3 mRNA were reduced in a pattern consistent with the observed inhibition of flowering. Wavelengths from ultraviolet-A to blue, and far-red, had no inhibitory effects on flowering. Our results also showed that the inhibitory effect of red light on flowering responses could be reduced by far-red light. These results suggest that phytochromes are involved in night-break responses, and the absorption spectrum of leaf extracts indicated that the effect of wavelength might be distorted by the screening effect of the other pigments found in green leaves. We also discuss further developments of lighting techniques for commercial production of chrysanthemum.


The programming environment is the central issue of application development. The CAD application development is the basic for promoting CAD technology. Based on the research on integration methods, the design and implementation of the CAD application oriented programming environment with multiple paradigms are proposed, which take advantages of functional language and procedural language. It provides a standout platform for CAD application development. The critical methods for construction of the CAD application oriented programming environment are extensively explored, and some typical samples are introduced.


We present a rare case of so-called carcinosarcoma of the esophagus in a 51-year-old man who experienced a local reccurence 2 years after resection of the primary lesion. The patient was admitted to the hospital because of dysphagia. X-ray and endoscopic examination of the esophagus revealed a polypoid lesion with irregular ulceration in the Im portion of the esophagus. Biopsy revealed squamous cell carcinoma. Endoscopic ultrasonography disclosed that the polyp like elevation was a tumor arising in the lamina muscularis mucosae. Subtotal esophagectomy (R3) was carried out. On histophathological and immunohistochemical examinations, the ulcerative area was well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma and the polyp was sarcomatous change, and the tumor revealed so-called carcinosarcoma of the esophagus. The tumor was 45×35mm in size, the depth of tumor invasion was mp and no metastasis was found in the resected lymph nodes. Postoperative course was uneventful. Two years after the operation, the ptient experienced a local recurrence when the serum level of SCC as a tumor marker increased and recurrence of squamous cell carcinoma component was suspected. The recurred tumor decreased in size by radiation therapy with 5-Fu regimen, and subjective symptoms disappeared.


The Fire Hazard Analysis (FHA) is mandatory requirement to ascertain the adequacy of principal of fire safety and fire protection measures provided in the plant for safe operational/emergency states of the plant and ensure nuclear safety objective using defense-in-depth philosophy so that a fire that starts in spite of prevention programme will not prevent essential plant safety functions from being performed. The term 'hazard analysis' does not involve any probabilistic estimation with regard to fire in current approach. The results of Fire Probabilistic Safety Assessment (FPSA) contributed to design modifications in plant to enhance the safety and thereby reduce its contribution to Core Damage Frequency but the FHA procedure is kept independent from any probabilistic input. The FHA is carried out using the engineering judgment, a new combined fire containment approach and fire influence approach with deterministic modelling framework. Qualitative assessment based on the acts, rules, standards and codes followed in design are also suggested wherever applicable. The fire hazard analysis has been completed for 5 plant of Fast Reactor Fuel Cycle facility (FRFCF) IPHWRs. The FHA has utilised also few CFD based fire influence simulation wherever required.


This paper reviewed the development conditions of the concrete foam agents.It introduces the protein foam agents and surfactant foam agents and compares the protein foaming agent with surfactant foaming agent,the foam agents' stable performance,and discusses the roles of admixtures in foam agents stability.


Through comparing the paper archives with the electronic archives,this paper points out the features of the paper archives such as the originality,visualization,operability,and safety,etc.


This paper reports the findings from a recent study of nurse leavers at eight large hospitals in the National Health Service (NHS) of England and Wales. The study develops and extends an influential theory of employee turnover by describing how for some leavers a single, jarring event or shock triggers the decision to quit. By elaborating on the nature of shocks for this sample of 352 nurse leavers, the paper allows for improved understanding of nursing turnover and thus offers an example of relevant management research. The analysis of shock illustrates how conventional research methodologies can lead to a distorted picture of turnover. This has wider implications, both for any organization wishing to manage turnover effectively and for future research. The paper adds to the limited body of empirical analysis on actual leavers, thereby contributing to an ongoing methodological debate concerning the use of proxy variables. By highlighting flaws in the dominant methodology used to study turnover, the paper offers an example of management research that is also rigorous, and thus 'pragmatic'.


Evidence of remote optic neuritis is often used to support a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS). Optical coherence tomography (OCT) can provide qualitative and quantitative data on the retina, where the effects of optic neuritis can be seen. Our aim was to determine whether there is a quantitative difference in retinal structures in eyes with optic neuritis compared with those without, and which measures were best able to discriminate eyes with a history of optic neuritis from nonoptic neuritis eyes in MS patients.


This paper presents the results of the development of schemes of electric power plants with a capacity (up to 100 kW) with a steam-generating hydrogen-oxygen plant and a hydrogen generator. A method for producing hydrogen for the purpose of using it for the production of thermal and electrical energy by burning it is proposed. The developed method for producing hydrogen has been tested in laboratory conditions. When developing specific schemes of thermal power plants, it is necessary to take into account the presence of impurities in the hydrogen produced, since this affects the heat of combustion of hydrogen, and as a result, the thermal efficiency indicators of the generating system. The results obtained in the work can be used in the creation of microgeneration complexes, as well as in the development of power supply schemes for remote consumers.


Lattice-based cryptography has been widely researched due to its quantum attack resistance and versatility, but a practical hardware implementation that is suitable for constrained devices is still challenging. In this paper, a novel area-optimized Ring-LWE (Learning with Error) cryptographic processor is proposed. Effective structures are presented to solve the huge circuit consumption of high precision Gaussian sampling and modular multiplication in Ring-LWE public-key cryptosystem. The Ring-LWE processor is smaller than the current state of the art hardware implementations, occupying only 948 slices, 3 BRAMs and none DSP module on a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA. Additionally, this processor is designed with resistance to side-channel attack, while it can encrypt/decrypt 256-bit message in 1.4ms/0.4ms.


Inverter has played an important role in power electronics technology since its invention. The traditional 2-level inverter is most widely used due to its simple structure, but it cannot meet the needs of high-voltage and high-power fields anymore. Thus, three-level and multi-level inverters are invented. Although complicated in structure, these two kinds of inverters can output larger voltage, and the voltage distortion rate and the ripple current are smaller. The emergence of different modulation methods also makes up for the defects of multi-level inverters. The improvement and simplification of the control algorithm of space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) make multi-level control less complicated. This paper introduces the current status and trends of SVPWM.


The political agenda of transition from a command to a market economy in Estonia also marks the development trajectory of ICT and entrepreneurship. The efforts of the Estonian government in the development of ICT infrastructure, education and e-government from the 1990s, and entrepreneurship promotion in the 21st century, manifest as political entrepreneurship. Political entrepreneurship is seen on three levels: (1) as the investment or re-allocation of resources into a desired object; (2) a change of broader economic (freedom) policy and institutions, incl. the public sector; (3) the change of societal order and transformation of the political system and its institutions.Societal changes in Estonia in the 1990s were characterised by a lack of resources; against this backdrop, some political entrepreneurs played a triggering role in launching ICT infrastructure projects. The Estonian Parliament was also quite enterprising at this time. The competence and motivation of decision-makers in the Parliament have changed significantly since the 1990s and early 2000s, which has influenced political decisions in subsequent periods. By using the case of the academic data network EENet, and its chronology, we analyse the development of political entrepreneurship in Estonia. The question is whether today's decisions facilitate a continuation of the success story that began in the 1990s.


Methane (CH4) is a strong greenhouse gas and its atmospheric mixing ratio has strongly increased since preindustrial times. This increase was primarily due to emissions from anthropogenic sources, but there is growing concern about possible feedbacks of natural sources in a changing climate. Thawing of permafrost areas in the Arctic is considered as an important feedback, since the Arctic region undergoes the fastest climate change and hosts large carbon stocks. Subarctic lakes are considered as "hotspots" for CH4 emissions, but the role of the ice cover during the winter period is not well understood to date.


David Wood's library career was spent entirely in the British Library. Over a period of several decades he made a significant contribution to the ongoing debate on serials and scholarly communication through research, conference presentations and publications. His main areas of interest included the role of national libraries in the serials information chain, use of serials literature, document delivery and grey literature. This article documents his contribution and examines further developments in these areas.


Agronomic market development information provided by: Dr. Adrian Johnston Northern Great Plains Region Director Potash & Phosphate Institute (PPI)/ Potash & Phosphate Institute of Canada (PPIC) 12-425 Pinehouse Drive Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada S7K 5K2 Phone: (306) 956-0619 E-mail: email@example.com THE ATMOSPHERIC CONCENTRATIONS of nitrous oxide (N 2 O), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), and methane (CH 4 ) have been found to be increasing. There is concern about this because all three gases absorb long-wave radiation, thereby increasing the amount of heat trapped in the earth's atmosphere. In addition, N 2 O is involved in the destruction of stratospheric ozone, which shields the earth from biologically harmful ultra-violet radiation.


Results are presented of an experimental program undertaken to investigate the effects of strain rate on the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates. Nine 3-m RC concrete beams, one unstrengthened, four strengthened with S-type CFRP laminates, and four strengthened with R-type laminates, were loaded under four different loading schedules. The stroke rates ranged from 0.0167 mm/s (slow rate of loading) to 36 mm/s (fast rate of loading). This induced a strain rate in the CFRP of 2.96 micro epsilon/s (slow rate) to 6,930 micro epsilon/s (fast rate). Some beams were subjected to either 1 or 12 cycles of loading prior to a fast rate of loading to failure. The rapidly loaded beams showed an increase of approximately 5% in capacity, stiffness, and energy absorption. Ductility and the mode of failure were not directly affected by the change in loading rate. Precycled beams performed similarly to the beams loaded monotonically to failure but showed a 10% increase in service stiffness and a 10% loss in energy absorption. A finite-element, layered analysis is presented to predict the moment-curvature response of CFRP strengthened RC beams. The model includes the effects of strain rate and correlates well with the experimental data.


This paper develops a dynamic general equilibrium model that explicitly includes a banking sector with a maturity mismatch. We demonstrate that, despite the perfect competition in the banking sector, rational banks take on excessive risks systemically, resulting in overleverage and inefficiently high crisis probabilities. The model accounts for the banks' rational over-optimism regarding future capital prices which arises from pecuniary externalities on their own solvency. Using the model as an example, we introduce MSR (marginal systemic risk) as a general measure to assess the macroeconomic exposure to systemic risks.


ABSTRACT In 1880, the third Gokstad boat (G3) was excavated together with the Gokstad ship in Sandefjord, Norway. The Viking boat is clinker-built, about 8 m long, has five strakes and four pairs of rowlocks. We have documented, pieced together, and interpreted 223 fragments of the boat. We present the documented fragments in the context of two other small boats from the same excavation. We have explored the value of the source material and how G3 could throw light on the other boats recovered. We show that there is room for a wide range of interpretations of the shapes of these three boats.


A brief review of the protection offered by natural and forced ventilation systems in buildings to an atmospheric release of radioactive material is given. The protection to be gained by using the internal ventilation system is estimated. (auth)


Under the assumption that the stock pricing processes obeys the stochastic differential equation driven by fractional Brownian motion,the pricing formula of geometric average Asian option with floated-strike was obtained by using the quasi-conditional expectation.


This paper chronicles White South African journalist Donald Woods' life (1933-2001) as he transformed from holding racist beliefs that Blacks were "people who were there to be your servants," to becoming one of his country's leading anti-apartheid activists. Adult learning and development via perspective transformation theory are explored.


During the past 15 months, on 345 occasions, college coeds with symptoms of urinary tract infection were evaluated with at least two positive urine cultures (colony count > 100,000 col/ml) and by a non-invasive test of localization called the antibody coated bacteria test (FAT). They were subsequently treated with Gantrisin (114), Trimethoprim (111), Septra (59) and NegGram (61) for periods of 7, 10 or 14 days. 213 (62%) were FAT neg. (bladder infection) and 132 (38%) were FAT pos. (kidney infection). There was no statistically significant difference in the recurrence rates at regular intervals during the 6 months post therapy for either the separate or combined treatment groups.


Based on the analysis of the existing opinion mining techniques, mining accuracy and complexity, this paper proposes a opinion mining system which mines useful opinion information from camera reviews by utilizing Semantic Role Labeling(SRL) and polarity computing method. Feature lexicon and sentiment lexicon are constructed to mine features and emotional items. In the end, the comparison between positive and negative opinion are presented visually. Our experimental results show the system is feasible and effective.


The use of Nickel-59 as an excitation source for the X-ray fluorescence analysis of carbon and low alloy steels has been investigated. Nickel-59 has a half life of 80 000 y and is essentially a pure source of cobalt K X-rays. It is ideal as an X-ray source for field systems because the encapsulated source is small, rugged and requires no external power or maintenance. The prototype system require ∼2½ minutes to obtain a manganese analysis, and 15 minutes to determine vanadium, chromium and manganese concentrations. These times could be shortened about a factor of 40 with a more intense excitation source and a larger area detector. The feasibility of portable field systems is discussed.


SummaryThe effect of continuous exposure in utero to tritiated water (HTO) was studied in the post-natal oocyte development of Wistar rats. Pregnant rats were given daily doses of 290 μCi to 5800 μCi HTO intravenously from the ninth day of pregnancy until term. During the first 21 days of life, a dose-dependent reduction of oocyte number was observed. A dose of 1450 μCi decreased the total oocyte number to 50 per cent of the controls. Accelerated maturation of oocytes was not demonstrable. The highest dose of 5800 μCi produced total aplasia in the ovaries. The number of oocytes is apparently one of the most sensitive parameters of β-irradiation damage. A comparison with data after continuous 3H-thymidine (3H-TdR) application showed a ten times higher effect of 3H-TdR compared with HTO.The mechanisms for this phenomenon are discussed, and it is concluded that the final position of the tritium compound in the cells is the most important factor in the radiobiological effect.


Although there was no eruption occurring for three hundred thousand years, the existing ground monitoring reveals that Datun volcanoes may be still active. As Datun volcano group is very close to Taipei City, serious damages would occur if the volcanoes erupted. Therefore it is critical to understand the behaviors of the volcanoes. To this end, we used space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data and interferometric processing techniques to detect sub-centimeter level ground deformation. Moreover, in order to achieve a long term monitoring, multiple radar data, including ERS-2, ASAR and PALSAR covering from 1995 to 2010, were employed. Through the Persistent Scatterers Interferometric SAR (PS-InSAR) processing, the ground displacement rate occurring over Datun volcanoes was derived. The results were verified with ground leveling data and GPS observations and were proved reliable.


Contact lenses (CLs) can be a cause of "dry eye syndrome" that can lead to corneal wounds and inflammation as well as a feeling of discomfort. To prevent the dry eye, it is important to keep the lens moist and maintain tears between the CL and the ocular surface. Here, the use of electroosmotic flow (EOF) in a CL is reported as a novel mechanism for antidehydration. A CL made from a charged hydrogel has served as the fluid conduit for EOF generation. The charge density of the gel is optimized by varying the composition ratio of anionic monomer having carboxyl group, by taking into account the efficiency of EOF generation and the mechanical strength of the hydrogels. By in situ monitoring of conductance and by microscope observations, it is successfully demonstrated that the upward EOF within CL is effective to maintain a moist lens. Biocompatible batteries (Mg/O2 battery and fructose/O2 enzymatic battery) are mounted on the CL to demonstrate the feasibility of a smart CL with a built‐in power source for EOF‐based self‐moisturization.


Intersensory integration has been extensively explored in relation to reading and its developmental anomalies. Since matching across sensory modalities also involves different modes of presentation (auditory-sequential vs. visual-spatial), we tested the ability of normal and learning disabled children to match spatially arranged patterns of dots as well as sequences of light flashes within a single modality, vision. Normal and experimental subjects found it easiest to match spatial patterns with each other, and that task did not distinguish between the two groups. The other tasks were more difficult for both, particularly when sequential flashes of light were presented first and had to be matched to other flashes of light or to a spatial pattern. On these tasks the performance of normal children was significantly better than that of the learning disabled. Only the condition which required matching from sequence to pattern correlated with reading age among the learning disabled: possibly it is a process similar to word blending. Only those matching tasks which involved sequencing (the temporal display of flashes) correlated with WISC Performance and Full Scale IQ, while none of them correlated with WISC Verbal IQ. The oldest normal subjects performed better on all the tasks than younger ones, particularly surpassing younger children on matching a temporal standard and a spatial comparison. The oldest learning disabled children did not perform significantly better than the youngest.


Trypsin is used as a model for the study of serine proteases, for its fold is commonly observed in this family of enzymes. The overall aim of this study is to discern whether the Y39F trypsin variant will act on a macromolecular substrate similar to the way it interacts with macromolecular inhibitors, specifically focusing on the S prime (S') side. In wild‐type trypsin, the hydroxyl group in tyrosine at position 39 serves to stabilize the interaction with macromolecular inhibitors via the formation of hydrogen bonds at the P prime (P') subsites. A Y39F substitution was made to reduce the affinity between the enzyme variant and inhibitor. A phenylalanine was used in place of the tyrosine because the two amino acid residues are chemically similar with the exception of the hydroxyl functional group missing from the phenylalanine. The absence of the hydroxyl functional group serves to prevent the formation of hydrogen bonds between macromolecular substrates that interact with the S' site of the enzyme, presumably weakening of the enzyme‐inhibitor interaction. However, previous research from our group demonstrated that the Y39F trypsin variant was more sensitive to inhibition from both bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI) and ecotin compared to wild‐type trypsin. Molecular modeling suggests that the tighter binding is a consequence of the formation of a hydrogen bond between the P2′ site and the histidine side chain at position 40 not seen in wild type trypsin. The presence of the newly formed hydrogen bond in the Y39F trypsin variant helps stabilize the enzyme‐inhibitor complex. Still, Y39F trypsin retained similar catalytic activity against N‐α‐benzyloxycarbonyl‐glycylprolylarginine p‐nitroanilide (Z‐GPR‐pNA). However, Z‐GPR‐pNA physically cannot interact with the modified S' subsites as the macromolecular inhibitors, and likely macromolecular substrates, do. Therefore, the activity observed with Z‐GPR‐pNA may not accurately reflect the activity of the Y39F variant towards macromolecular substrates. In this study, we used sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS‐PAGE) and gel imaging to monitor and compare the progression of macromolecular substrate hydrolysis of Y39F and wild‐type trypsin. Based on the observations made with BPTI and ecotin, we would expect that the Y39F variant would bind more tightly to a macromolecular substrate as well, likely increasing the efficiency of cleavage relative to wild‐type.


Theeffect ofmechanical agitation (blending) on theremoval ofF pili, typeI pili, andflagella fromHfr(high-frequency recombinant) andresistance transfer factor (RTF)fi+Escherichia coli cellswas studied byelectron microscopy. The reduction innumberandlength ofappendages was measured as a function of blendor speedunderstandard conditions oftemperature, medium, cell density, andblendor configuration. Fpili andflagella wereremoved within thesamenarrow rangeofblendor speeds. TypeIpili wereremoved within ahigher andbroader range ofspeeds. Thespeed whichreduced theaveragelength oftypeIpill to50%was3.5 times thespeed whichreduced theaveragelength ofF pili to50%.Noneofthe speeds employed inhibited cell growth, viability, ortheability toproduce cell appendages.Thekinetics ofreappearance ofFpili andtypeIpili after removal byblending werealso different. Fpili grewoutveryrapidly, reaching 50%oftheir full length in30secandtheir full length in4to5min.Thenumberofattached Fpili percell also increased rapidly, reaching aconstant value in4to5min. After 5min, Fpilus lengths weredistributed around a modalvalue ofabout1.2,um, andthenumbers ofF pili percell were distributed according toa Poisson distribution, withan averageof1.0percell. Thesereappearance kinetics, length distributions, and numberdistributions areconsistent witha modelofF-pilus outgrowth inwhich new Fpili appearatrandomlocations onthecellsurface atanaveragerate ofabout once every4min,grow totheir characteristic length inabout4min,andthen separate fromthecell. Fpili whichhadseparated could absorb tothecells, leading tothepresenceoftwoclasses ofFpili on cells: those intheprocess ofnatural outgrowth andthose attached byabsorption. TypeIpili increased inlength muchmore slowly thandidFpili, although thefraction ofcells having visible typeIpili increased veryrapidly after blending because ofthelarge numberoftypeIpili percell. The fraction offlagellated cells increased evenmore slowly, reaching only30%ofthe unblended fraction in30min.Theapplication ofblending spectra andreappearancekinetics totheidentification ofcell functions withsurface structures isdiscussed.


The present invention describes vaccines that comprise C. perfringens Type alpha toxoids, antigenic fragments thereof, inactivated antigenic fragments of C. perfringens Type alpha toxins, or any combination thereof. The present invention further describes methods of using with these vaccines to protect animals against clostridial diseases. The present invention also describes methods of making these vaccines.


Simple Summary High intensity focused ultrasound is a novel and non invasive treatment for an increasing number of cancers and benign diseases. The principal is similar to focusing the sun's rays with a magnifying glass, causing a burn at the focal point. This can be done with ultrasound if the usual diagnostic energy is increased 10,000 times. The ultrasound energy is generated under water and the energy passed noninvasively into the body to a sharp focus where it destroys tissue. The technology is rapidly evolving. In urology, trials have been done in a number of areas but the two which are most promising at the present time are for the treatment of renal and prostate cancers. Treatment of renal cancer is currently limited by the position of the kidneys due to the ribs and the presence of perinephric fat, but treatment for prostate cancer is becoming more established. Abstract This review provides an introduction to high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) and reviews its historical and current use in urological surgery. Current and historical literature (1927–2020), including that describing trials and review articles in the medical and ultrasonic literature, has been reviewed, using Pub Med and Cochrane search engines. HIFU is currently one of a number of treatments for prostate cancer, both as a primary treatment that can be repeated, and as a salvage treatment post-radiotherapy. HIFU is not yet sufficiently mature to be a standard treatment for renal cancer or other urological diseases, although there has been some success in early clinical trials. As the technology improves, this situation is likely to change. HIFU has been understood as a concept for a century, and has been applied in experimental use for half that time. It is now an accepted treatment with low morbidity in many diseases outside the scope of this review. In urological surgery, prostate HIFU is accepted as a localised treatment in selected cases, with potentially fewer side effects than other localised therapies. Currently the treatment for renal cancer is hindered by the perinephric fat and the position of the kidneys behind the ribs; however, as the technology improves with image fusion, faster treatments, and the ability with phased array transducers and motion compensation to overcome the problems caused by the ribs and breathing, successful treatment of kidney tumours will become more of a reality. In due course, there will be a new generation of machines for treating prostate cancer. These devices will further minimise the side effects of radical treatment of prostate cancer.


The paper deals with the design of a fume inent gases system which is used for the safety of oil tarkers.


—Elements of a valid contract is an important topic in corporate law. Since there are so many elements and related case studies, some students have difficulty remembering all the elements. Therefore, an animation will contribute to explaining all the elements in simpler terms, help the students remember the relevant case studies, and help lecturers teach students in an easier and more interactive way. An investigation on a 2D animation design and its effectiveness for corporate law and commerce learning is presented in this article. This paper aims to examine the 2D animation principle in animated explainer videos. In addition, the objective of this research is to develop an animation and evaluate the effectiveness of the 2D animation for Business Law teaching and learning. A comprehensive analysis of the 2D animation used in Business Law learning which focusing on spreading the importance of student understanding and motivation in Business Law course using a 2D animated approach is the expected outcome of this paper. The project collaborates with the Department of Commerce, Politeknik Melaka, Malaysia, for content expertise and testing. The Multimedia Production Process is the methodology used for the development of this research work, and the ADDIE Model is applied for the instructional design. The application is developed using Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Media Encoder, and the Audacity platform. The contribution of this study is obvious, as the resulting outcomes can be used as guidelines for best practises of learning styles. The implications of this study will impact teaching and learning and increase understanding. This research is expected to improve teaching delivery while also increasing user understanding and motivation to learn.


During the commissioning phase of the HLS-II storage ring, the betatron function, the natural chromaticity, the corrected chromaticity and the central RF frequency were measured using the Swept-Frequency-Exitation based tune measurement system. The betatron function was measured using the quadrupole modulation method. The natural chromaticity and the corrected chromaticity were measured using the dipole modulation method and the RF modulation method respectively. In addtion, the central RF frequency was measured using the sextupole modulation method, which can be viewed as a direct measure of the ring circumference. This paper describes the measurement details and presents the measurement results. INTRODUCTION The 800 MeV electron storage ring is the major part of HLS-II. It has been running well since commissioning was completed in late 2014. The HLS-II storage ring consists of four DBA (Double Bend Achromatic) cells, which not only significantly decreases the beam emittance but also increases the lengths of the achromatic straight sections for IDs [1]. The main parameters of the HLS-II storage ring are shown in Tab. 1. The theoretical emittance is lower than 40 nm-rad. Table 1: Main Parameters of the HLS-II Storage Ring Parameter Value Circumference 66.13 m Energy 800 MeV Beam current 300 mA RF frequency 204 MHz Harmonic number 45 Emittance 40 nm−rad Tune 0.44/0.36 The principle block diagram of the Swept-FrequencyExcitation based tune measurement system of the HLS-II storage ring is shown in Fig. 1. Such a system consists of the hardware construction and the software structure [2]. The spectrum analyzer is the excitation generator and the signal processor. The generated swept-frequency signal is preprocessed by a excitation circuit and then is transferred to the transverse dipole kicker on the storage ring. The signal of ∗ Work supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (11105141, 11175173) † firstname.lastname@example.com the BPM is processed by a processing circuit to generate the difference signal. Then the difference signal is performed a down-conversion and is analyzed by the spectrum analyzer. For the consideration of the safety of the equipments and the commissioning operators, the equipments are placed in the experimental area. Thus long cables must be adopted to transfer the signals across the shielding wall. After the completion of the system hardware construction, the control of the spectrum analyzer is integrated into the central control system of HLS-II through the EPICS softwares. Figure 1: Layout of the Swept-Frequency-Excitation based tune measurement system of the HLS-II storage ring. BETA FUNCTION MEASUREMENT With the thin-lens approximation, the tune shift as a function of quadrupole error is β̄x,y ≈ ±4π ∆νx,y ∆kl , (1) where βx,y is the local beta function in either horizontal or vertical direction, νx,y is the corresponding tune, ∆k is the gradient error of the quadrupoles and l is the quadrupole length. The results obtained from Equ. 1 can be viewed as the average betatron function inside the corresponding quadrupoles. The measurement was performed by self-compiled Matlab script under the EPICS frame work. The data interaction were based on MCA (Matlab Channel Access) toolbox which provided interfacing between Matlab and EPICS [3]. The measurement was started at the beam current of 5.47 mA. The collective effects were supposed to have a relatively small impact on the measurement in this mode. Using Equ. 1, the measured value of the average betatron function inside the 32 quadrupoles can be obtained. The comparison between the design batatron function and the WEPOW028 Proceedings of IPAC2016, Busan, Korea ISBN 978-3-95450-147-2 2892 C op yr ig ht © 20 16 C C -B Y3. 0 an d by th e re sp ec tiv e au th or s 02 Photon Sources and Electron Accelerators A05 Synchrotron Radiation Facilities measured value is shown in Fig. 2. The ideal curve is the design value calculated by Accelerator Toolbox of MATLAB, while the dots represent the measured value [4]. It can be seen that the measured value agrees well with the design value. Position/m 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 β x /m 0 5 10 15 20 Beta function in horizontal direction measured data ideal curve Position/m 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 β y /m 0 5 10 15 Beta function in vertical direction measured data ideal curve Figure 2: Measured and design betatron functions of the HLS-II storage ring. NATURAL CHROMATICITY MEASUREMENT One of the chromatic abberation effects induced by quadrupoles is referred as to the natural chromaticity. According to the definition of the chromaticity, the actual natural chromaticity can be achieved by measuring the variation of the tune with the beam energy without the consideration of sextupoles. A common solution is to measure the tune shift with the strength of the bending magnets . The natural chromaticity can be obtained through ξ x,y ≈ ∆υx,y ∆B/B = ∆υx,y ∆IB/IB , (2) where ξ x,y represents the natural chromaticity in either transverse direction, B is the strength of the bending magnets and IB is the excitation current of the bending magnets. The measurement was started at the beam current of 3.36 mA. The variety of the tunes as a function of the excitation current are shown in Fig. 3. The top figure shows the mea∆I B /I B ×10 -4 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 ∆ ν x ×10 -3


Digital photos were taken during one day in 2009 as part of a field sampling campaign in Saginaw Forest. At each plot a photo was taken facing north, east, south, west, and up. The zipped file contains the whole set for Saginaw Forest.


The purpose of this paper is to give a clear picture of brand citizenship behavior, its emergence, and development of the concept. Moreover, this study also tries to give the emerging views about the concept of brand citizenship behavior and its importance. This study conducts a systematic approach to review the literature and give a clear picture of conceptualization of brand citizenship behavior. This research highlights the brand citizenship behavior (BCB) concept itself, its dimensions and most commonly used dimension in different sector that will help the researcher to use the concept with clear indication of dimensions. Researchers have been studying and updating the brand citizenship behavior concept from past one and half decade. To measure the brand-related behavior of the employees, different researcher's used different dimensions. Most of researchers used multidimensional measure to gauge brand-consistent behavior or brand citizenship behavior through the conceptualization suggested by Burmann and Zeplin (2005). While, some researcher's (e.g., Henkel et al., 2007; Punjaisri and  Wilson, 2007; Punjaisri et al., 2008; Punjaisri and  Wilson, 2011; Punjaisri et al., 2009) measured the concept through uni-dimensional scale (See Table 2.3). Additionally, Burmann and Zeplin (2005) conceptualized brand-consistent behavior in seven dimensions under the umbrella of brand citizenship behavior. Most of the researchers used the dimensions of brand citizenship behavior in service intensive sector. All the dimensions of brand citizenship behavior previously discussed were conceptualized from the dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior suggested by Podsakoff et al. (2000) and conceptualized by Burmann and Zeplin (2005). On the other hand, Maloney (2007) conceptualized the dimensions of brand citizenship behavior with three dimensions including (1), brand missionary, (2). brand acceptance and (3), brand advancement through the three dimension of organizational citizenship behavior by Graham (1991) which includes (1). Obedience, (2). Loyalty and (3). Participation. This study will help the researchers to identify the roots of brand citizenship behavior and provide guideline to conceptualize the construct in future studies.


The intensity of exposure to ambient ultraviolet radiation appears to determine the prevalence of dermatomyositis and an autoantibody specific to the disease in women, based on a study published in Arthritis & Rheumatism. The UV Index across geographical regions of the United States also significantly correlated with the presence of an autoantibody unique to dermatomyositis (DM)—known as anti-Mi-2—and not to autoantibodies more commonly found in polymyositis (PM). The association between UV radiation and DM was strongest in a collective group of white, Hispanic, and Asian American women, but it also was significant among black women. This is the first study to show evidence of the influence of sex on the association between UV radiation and autoimmune disorders, commented Dr. Victoria P. Werth, professor of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and chief of dermatology at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. "This is the best study that I've seen so far in reference to dermatomyositis" and exposure to UV radiation, she said. The study brings up many "intriguing kinds of things that we don't totally understand," such as differences in risk factors and responses to UV radiation between men and women and between polymyositis and dermatomyositis. These types of "interesting epidemiologic observations" may help in the future to understand more about the differences in pathogenesis, Dr. Werth said in an interview. In the cross-sectional, retrospective study, Dr. Lori A. Love of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and her coinvestigators gathered clinical data and serum samples from 202 PM and 178 DM patients at referral centers across the United States. The investigators detected myositis-specific autoantibodies in 172 patients (45%), some of which were found in both polymyositis and dermatomyositis patients, whereas others were found only in each particular phenotypic type of myositis, such as anti-SRP in 21 PM patients and anti-Mi-2 in 23 DM patients. Polymyositis occurred in a significantly greater proportion of black patients (66%) than among nonblack patients (48%), the study showed. Most (86%) of the patients with anti-SRP antibodies were black, Dr. Love and her associates reported (Arthritis Rheum. 2009;60:2499-504). The proportion of patients in the study who had anti-Mi-2 autoantibodies was significantly associated with the UV Index for the seven regions (comprising 37 states) that the investigators categorized according to shared geoclimatic factors. How ever, the UV Index was not associated with the proportion of patients with DM. Both of these comparisons proved to be significant for women but not for men. Evidence from a previous study has shown that the dose of UV radiation required to induce immunosuppression is three times higher in women than in men, which may mean "other mechanisms would need to be operative to potentially explain how UV radiation preferentially results in the development of dermatomyositis and anti-Mi-2 autoantibodies in women," the investigators wrote. They noted that "it is tempting to speculate that the development of DM and DM-specific anti-Mi-2 autoantibodies, which are associated with certain major histocompatibility loci, is related to UV-induced increased expression of target autoantigens combined with altered immune responses in genetically susceptible individuals." The fact that not all dermatomyositis patients have antiMi-2 autoantibodies but still develop dermatomyositis means that other environmental risk factors outside of UV radiation must be operating to contribute to the development of the disease, said Dr. Steven Ytterberg of the division of rheumatology at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. It would be worthwhile to determine if DM patients with anti-Mi-2 autoantibodies are more likely to get clinical disease flares from UV radiation exposure than are those who do not have the autoantibodies. Dermatomyositis patients who are negative for anti-Mi-2 may have a different environmental risk factor, Dr. Ytterberg said in an interview. The investigators noted that the study may be limited by the following: referral bias, because patients with myositis who are seen at referral centers may not be representative of the larger population of patients with myositis; the use of state-level UV radiation intensities, which can vary considerably from one part of a state to another; the lack of accounting for individual-level exposure; differences in UV radiation exposure at different locations over time; and the use of personal photoprotective measures. The study was funded in part by the intramural research programs of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Dr. Werth and Dr. Ytterberg said they had no relevant disclosures. ■ The intensity of UV radiation exposure may be tied to the prevalence of dermatomyositis in women, such as this hand involvement. C O U R T E S Y D R . V IC T O R IA P . W E R T H


Objective:To probe into the therapeutic effectiveness of ipratropine bromide and salbutamol sulfate nebulization as an adjuvant measure in the treatment of bronchopneumonia. Methods:On the basis of routine treatment, 199 patients of the treatment group were given each additionally a daily nebulization of 0.025% ipratropine bromide 0.5~1.5 mL and salbutamol sulfate 0.25~ 0.75 mL throughout the period of hospitalijation. 155 patients of the control group were treated with the routine method only. The symptoms and signs including the time of disappearance of moist rales, as well as the duration of hospitalization in patients of the two groups were compared. Adverse reactions in patients of the treatment group were also noticed. Results:The curative effect of the treatment group was apparently better.The differences between the duration of hospitalization, time of diappearance of symptoms of the two groups were highly significant(P0.01). The difference between the time of abatement of fever of the two groups, however, was not significant(P0.05). No distinct side effects were seen in the treatment group. Conclusion:Ipratropine bromide and salbutamol sulfate nebulization was shown to have antitussive and expectorant effects. It could improve the patients' condition, shorten the course of illness. It is likely to be a safe and reliable adjuvant measure for the treatment of pneumonia.


Background: Pacemakers and implanted cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) infection rates are rising. Renal insufficiency impairs immune function and is known to increase the risk of infection following implantation of orthopedic hardware. The purpose of the current study is to characterize the risk factors for pacemaker and ICD infection and to evaluate the role of renal insufficiency in this complication.


The beginning of thc 20th century saw Europe at the height of its power. Two events may be taken as symbolizing this position : the Delhi Durbar in 1913 which Lord Curzon held to celebrate the Coronation of King Edward VII of Great Britain, and the occupation of Peking in 1900 by the combined forces of European nations following the Boser Rebellion. The first was a declaration of faith in the permanence of British power in Asia, the second a demonstration of the helplessness of the most ancient and most populous state in Asia before the colonial Powers of Europe. The two most rcpresentative nations outside the European world containing between them more than one-third of the population of the world-lay prostrate before the might of Europe.


The aim of the study is to investigate the work and power capacities of drop jump performances according to drop jump height and contact time durations in Youth Turkish National volleyball players.13 national volleyball players(Xage=15.9±0.5 years) performed a series of drop jumps from heights of 20, 40, and 60cm. Two instructions, (a)''jump as high as you can'' and (b)''jump high faster than your previous one'', were given to the participants for each box heights. Two variables determined as moderate ground contact time(MC) and the shorter ground contact time(SC). Paired-Sample T-test was conducted to analyze the differences in power and work outputs in terms of contact time durations and RepeatedMeasured ANOVA was also used to determine the differences according to box heights. While there were statistically significant differences between SC and MC in jumps performed for each drop heights, there was no significant difference in contact times according to box heights. The results of the study showed that drop height did not affect the contact times but made differences in maximum relative work and power. SC produced greater relative power than MC at all drop heights and greater relative works at 40 and 60cm box heights throughout the contact time duration.


Presented in this paper are the results of design and experimental investigation of radiometric sensor for shortwave part of mm-band, which is the basic information unit of passive monitoring system


This paper presents the implementation of sliding mode observer for vector control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM).In order to achieve closed loop operation of the motor, the stator magnetic field should be vertical with the rotor magnetic field and be synchronous with rotor rotating, so the position and speed of PMSM is real-time estimated. Simulation results verify that the proposed control scheme significantly shows robust to motor parameters uncertainty, disturbance and measurement noise. It effectively improves dynamic and static operation performance.


This paper aims to study the feasibility and effectiveness of text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication as a supplementary oral English teaching method intended for non-English majors at the tertiary level.An action research approach was employed and empirical evidence was collected via the instrumentality of questionnaires, interviews and chat-logs.The findings suggest that text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication was beneficial for the development of oral proficiency and could serve as an effective teaching method supplementary to facetoface oral practice.


This article analyzes recent developments in advertising services, considered to be some of the most dynamic business services. The analysis focuses on the main companies active in this sector and highlights the main features of this market niche and its future trends. Advertising services are a flagship category of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services, and their development over the last decade came as a consequence of IT progress. The article highlights the fact that the companies in this field need to reshape their strategy by adapting to the current technologies and new consumer's demands. The development of e-commerce and increasing user preference for modern ways to broadcast video and voice content, such as mobile apps, or video platforms, forces advertising companies to rethink their business strategy.


An intelligent monitoring bed is provided with a mechanical bed body, a lateral turning plate and a drive device and a forward inclined turning plate and a drive device. The lateral turning plate and the drive device and the forward inclined turning plate and the drive device are arranged on the mechanical bed body. A massage air bag and a defecation device are arranged on an upper face of a bed plate. A bedside table is provided with a panel capable of controlling display and a storage chamber capable of storing detection device mechanisms. A pressure sensor, a cardiopulmonary breath sound sensor and a temperature sensor are arranged on the bed body. The bed body is further provided with two side guardrails, an upper limb dragging lever, a lower limb dragging lever and a non-contacting safe alarm switch arranged at a bed side. The upper limb dragging lever is used by a patient to perform upper limb recovery movement. The forward inclined turning plate is matched with the drive device to assists movement. A lower limb training device is used for assisting lower limb recovery motion. The device is high in intelligent degree and convenient to control. In addition, real-time monitoring of cardiopulmonary breath conditions can be achieved and a dangerous situation can be treated in time when being found.


The chromatic polynomial of a graph G counts the number of proper colorings of G. We give an affirmative answer to the conjecture of Read and Rota-Heron-Welsh that the absolute values of the coefficients of the chromatic polynomial form a log-concave sequence. We define a sequence of numerical invariants of projective hypersurfaces analogous to the Milnor number of local analytic hypersurfaces. Then we give a characterization of correspondences between projective spaces up to a positive integer multiple which includes the conjecture on the chromatic polynomial as a special case. As a byproduct of our approach, we obtain an analogue of Kouchnirenko's theorem relating the Milnor number with the Newton polytope.


Ultracompact minihalos would be formed if there are larger density perturbations (0.0003 < δρ/ρ < 0.3) in the earlier epoch. Their density profile is steeper than the standard dark-matter halos. If dark matter can annihilate or decay into standard particles, e.g., photons, these objects would be the potential astrophysical sources. In order to be consistent with observations, as those from Fermi, the abundance of ultracompact minihalos must be constrained. On the other hand, the formation of these objects has very tight relation with the primordial curvature perturbations on smaller scale, so the fraction of ultracompact minihalos is very important for modern cosmology. In previous works, the studies are focused on the dark-matter annihilation for these objects. But if dark matter is not annihilated, the dark-matter decay is another important possible case. On the other hand, the abundance of ultracompact minihalos is related to many other parameters, such as the mass of dark matter, the decay channels and the density profile of dark-matter halos. One of the important aspects of this work is that we investigate the γ-ray signals from nearby ultracompact minihalos due to dark-matter decay and another important aspect is to study in detail how the different decay channels and density profiles affect the constraints on the abundance of ultracompact minihalos.


In medical history texts the second half of the twentieth century is often referred to as the 'antibiotic revolution'. As Macfarlane and Worboys described in their wonderful article on management of acute bronchitis between 1940 and 1970, the appearance of these 'wonder drugs' on the market not only helped GPs to cope with their increasing workload, but also caused a remarkable shift in doctors' opinions about the aetiology of infectious diseases like bronchitis.1

Before antibiotics were available, bronchitis was regarded as a self-limiting inconvenient illness caused by changes in the environment of the patient, like sudden cold, and or the patient's susceptibility. Bacterial infection was regarded as a secondary complication. But with the emergence of penicillin, the assumption that all chest conditions and other respiratory tract symptoms were primarily caused by bacteria that should be killed was broadly accepted.

In spite of numerous good studies on the limited effects of antibiotics, this legacy of assumed bacterial infections that should be treated, along with the pressure of busy clinics continue to be driving forces of prescribing in general practice. Over-treatment of presumed infectious conditions, mainly respiratory illnesses, is still present in all Western countries. In 2006, a study in the Netherlands, where antibiotic use is very low compared to other countries, showed that almost 50% of patients with chest infections got antimicrobial treatment, while only 10% had an indication according to current guidelines. …


The amount of information produced in an economy varies over time depending on the state of the macro economy. We define movements in aggregate economic activity very agnostically and introduce new ways to characterize aggregate economic activity based on information in stock prices. We empirically investigate changes in economy-wide measures of information and changes in aggregate economic fragility as aggregate economic activity changes based on the level of real GDP. We find that our stock price-based measures of information are significant in predicting recessions with and without a financial crisis. We then show evidence of a feedback effect to investment from the information produced especially during recessions associated with crises. Finally, we document the presence of a global information factor; information produced in advanced countries can predict financial crises in emerging markets and results in reallocation at a global level via capital flows among countries.


My 25 minute paper explored Dora Gordine's relationship with England/Britain/the British Empire between c. 1925 and 1964 (when her last piece of public sculpture was completed and unveiled). I argued that her sense of London/England/Britain had been shaped by her traumatic experiences of war and revolution c. 1915-22. She had been born the subject of Tsar Nicholas II but by the time she reached her early twenties the world she had once know had entirely been swept away. No she found herself living in and trying to establish herself as an artist in the tiny new state of Estonia. From there she moved to Paris and for a while attempted to put down roots there. However, she had her first solo exhibition, in 1928, in London. This was a great success and planted the seed of wishing to settle in the British capital. After a spell in the Far East, she was able to move in 1935 to Kingston Vale SW15 and her third husband paid for the building of her own miniature Art Deco stately home - Dorich House. The fact she looked and sounded so exotic/Russian/foreign was something she turned to her advantage. Indeed, the hints of being an outsider helped her become an insider in the highest echelons of the British cultural circles between the mid 1930's to the mid 60's.


Although the long-term outcome of mechanical mitral and aortic prosthetic valve (M-PV, Ao-PV), PV dysfunction (PVD) remains a very serious complication associated with high morbidity and mortality. PVD, in terms of thrombosis/pannus or paravalvular leak, is not associated with a peculiar clinical presentation. However, a prompt PVD detection is essential for referring the patient to the optimal treatment (clinical follow-up, thrombolysis, surgery). An integrated multimodality imaging approach, comprising several parameters by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and fluoroscopy (F), is mandatory to address the patient to the best therapeutic option.

 This study aims to evaluate the incremental diagnostic value of combined TTE + F over each imaging modality alone in pts with Ao-PV or M-PV symptomatic for dyspnea, embolic events, fever or haemolysis and therefore at high suspicion for PVD.

 We enrolled 388 consecutive pts (62 ± 11y, 213 Ao-PV, 175 M-PV) suspected for PVD. All patients were imaged by TTE and F within 2 days after the admission to the hospital. TTE was defined positive for PVD in presence of intra/para-prosthetic regurgitation or high transprosthetic gradient (DP > 20 mmHg in Ao-PV, DP >10 mmHg in M-PV) combined with other altered Doppler parameters (for Ao-PV: DVI < 0.25, AT > 95ms; for M-PV: Peak Mitral Velocity > 2.2m/sec, VTIPrMV/VTILVO > 2.5, PHT > 130ms). A positive F for PVD was defined by leaflet/s restriction. In all pts, PVD was confirmed by transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE), positive response of thrombolysis (T), or surgical inspection (S).

 PVD was found in 46% (99/213) of Ao-PV and in 56% (98/175) of M-PV at TOE/T/S. Sensitivity (SE), specificity (SP), negative predictive value (NPV), positive predictive value (PPV) and diagnostic accuracy (ACC) for TTE, F and combined TTE + F are reported in Table. The integration of TTE + F data significantly improved ACC both for Ao-PV and M-PV. At ROC analysis, the combined model of TTE + F showed the highest AUC for the detection of PVD compared with TTE and F alone (Figure).

 In patients with clinical suspicion of PVD, the combined model of TTE + F had a significant incremental value over TTE or F alone to diagnose PVD. This multimodality imaging approach allows to overcome limitations of TTE or F alone and consequently provides a prompt PVD detection even though TOE remains the gold standard to diagnose paravalvular leak and non-obstructive thrombosis.
 Table Ao-PV: TTE(n = 211) Ao-PV: F(n = 204) Ao-PV: TTE + F(n = 202) MV-PV: TTE(n = 175) MV-PV: F(n = 159) MV-PV: TTE + F(n = 159) Sensitivity/Specificity 86(79-93)/89(84-95) 59(49-68)/99(97-100) 94(89-99)/88(81-94) 83(75-90)/78(68-87) 45(35-55)/98(95-100) 87(81-94)/75(64-86) ACC 88(83-92) 79(74-85) 91(87-95) 81(75-90) 67(59-74) 82(76-88) Comparison of diagnostic accuracy between TTE, F, and TTE + F for detecting PVD
 Abstract P1579 Figure. ROC curves


The structure and layout of the Mausoleum of King Jiangdu,which is located in Dayunshan,Jiangsu Province,is thoroughly studied in this paper through seven specific aspects.The study result shows that this mausoleum is of the same burial system as that of Han emperors but with a lower grade.The difference between might be resulted from geographic and climate influence.


Wave field generated with wavemaker has to be similar to the actual sea. In this paper, wavemaker and absorbing wavemaker theory is reviewed and is rearranged to have unity. Furthermore, an element wavemaker which is the most primitive and basic wavemaker is defined and which equipment is useful to realize an ocean wave field in the experimental wave tank. Some numerical and experimental results are shown.


Background: stereotypical movements and actions are especially frequents in childhood. The interpretation of this phenomena is ambiguous as well as the concept of pathomorphosis and pathoplastic.Objective: to analyze published studies concerning pathoplasty and pathomorphosis of stereotypes. Materials and methods: according to the keywords "pathoplasty", "pathomorphosis", "stereotypes", "COVID-19 and psychosis risk", "stereotypic movements", "pathoplastic factor", "repetitive actions", "habitual movements", "pathomorphosis of mental diseases", a search for articles in English and Russian was conducted in the MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, eLibrary databases for the period from 2005 to 2023.Results: the analysis of published works has shown the importance of differentiation of pathoplasty and pathomorphosis of stereotypes, including from the point of view of already established factors of influence on the disease, such as drug pathomorphosis, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with mental disorders. A generalized review of foreign and domestic research on the topic of the work highlighted the theoretical foundations for understanding stereotypy not only as a predictor, but also as a differentiated symptom of a mental disorder that can change under the influence of pathoplastic factors.Conclusion: recognition of differences between pathoplasty and pathomorphosis of stereotypes allowed us to highlight the power of pathoplastic influence on mental illness. This impact can also change the purpose of medical practice, modifying the symptoms and manifestation of stereotypes.


In response to California's deepening housing affordability crisis and the state's goals for reducing our climate impacts, the Planning and Conservation League (PCL) consulted and convened cross-interest experts with the aim of identifying an improved standard of criteria for equitable infill incentives. These convenings have brought together environmental and equity advocates, builders, and state and local agencies with the goals of:


This paper considers some univariate and multivariate operational risk models, in which the loss severities are modelled by some weakly tail dependent and heavy-tailed positive random variables, and the loss frequency processes are some general counting processes. In such models, we derive some limit behaviors for the Value-at-Risk and Conditional Tail Expectation of aggregate operational risks. The methodology is based on capital approximation within the framework of the Basel II/III regulatory capital accords, which is the so-called Loss Distribution Approach. We also conduct some simulation studies to check the accuracy of our obtained approximations and the (in)sensitivity due to different dependence structures or the heavy-tailedness of the severities.


Surface uplift occurs as a result of tectonic uplift related to crustal deformation and isostatic compensation due to surface erosion. To determine and quantify the key controlling factors responsible for surface uplift in the south‐eastern Tibetan Plateau, we calculated isostatic compensation using topographic data along five wide‐angle seismic profiles across the Chuandian Block, Indochina Block, and South China Plate, and examined the correlations between tectonic uplift and each crustal layer thickness. The average isostatic compensation caused by surface erosion is 340–480 m, which is approximately 13–26% of the total surface uplift. The geodynamic implications in relation to the Global Positioning System, focal mechanisms (P axes), seismic anisotropy (Pms splitting), and low‐velocity zones were also investigated. The low‐velocity zones with long‐distance southward extension seemed to be significantly reduced, and were divided into two branches by resistance from the inner zone of the Emeishan large igneous province (ELIP) when it is extending into the southern Chuandian Block. The lower crustal thickening related to low‐velocity zones reconstructed a partial crustal structure of the ELIP, and contributed at least 53–62% of the total surface uplift at the western branch, and almost 46–65% at the eastern branch. With the limitations imposed by the rigidity of the South China Plate and Indochina Block, the south‐eastern motion of the upper‐middle crust was strongly decoupled with southward lower crustal flow, as revealed by the unmatched pattern between P axes and Pms splitting. The south‐eastward motion of southern Chuandian Block resulted in upper‐crustal folding in the W–E direction, upper‐crustal thrusting in the N–S direction, and contributed approximately 9–28% of the total surface uplift in some locations. We emphasize the indispensability of upper‐crustal shortening in the frontal zone of the south‐eastern Tibetan Plateau and introduce the transitional characteristics of the southern Chuandian Block, from typical lower crustal flow to coupled crustal brittle shortening.


How to generate natural-sounding synthesized speech has been challenging all the researchers in speech synthesis area. Experiments show that speech concatenated by units selected from large speech corpus has a better performance. However how to limit the searching space and predict weights when calculating target cost is an important problem. This paper presents a detailed hierarchical pre-selection method to limit the searching of space. After three layers of pre-selection, a set of units are selected as the candidate units. In order to ensure the continuity in the duration, the prediction model is used in the hierarchical pre-selection. Meanwhile, M5P algorithm which is combined with decision tree and regression is presented in this paper to predict weights needed in target cost calculation. Experimental result shows that these two approaches can generate high quality speech.


Introduction The human body carries large and diverse communities of symbiotic microbes that are important for human health and development. While the impact of the bacterial microbiota, which are mostly found in the human gut, on host physiology is relatively well described, much less is known about the interactions between the mycobiota and the host and the resulting effects on human health. At the level of the nervous system, there is increasing evidence implicating the gut microbiota in a variety of neurological disorders. Similar demonstrations of a causal or supportive role of the mycobioma in neurological disorders are still rare, but several studies linking fungal dysbiosis to disease in humans suggest a contribution of symbiotic fungi to neurocognitive and behavioral disorders. Objectives We aim through this review to show the role of mycobiota in neurocognitive and behavioral disorders. Methods We comprehensively review the scientific literature using Pubmed database and other search platforms such as Google scholar to state the role of mycobiota in neurocognitive and behavioral disorders. Results Our bibliographic review revealed that, according to recent studies, Candida species are overrepresented in the stool of individuals with autism spectrum disorders and Rett syndrome compared to healthy controls. Other studies revealed mycobiome signatures specific to cognitive impairment and demonstrated that different diets modulate the mycobiome in association with Alzheimer's disease markers and fungal-bacterial co-regulatory networks in patients with cognitive impairment. Conclusions Our understanding of the role of the mycobiota in the biology of neurocognitive disorders-whether causal, consequential, or predisposing-could open up new hypotheses in this area and inspire further research on potential mycobiotic signatures, associated dysbiosis and dysfunction in the neurocognitive developmental-homeostasis spectrum that may contribute to neurocognitive and behavioral developmental disorders and predisposition to cognitive decline, dementia, and progression of neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease in high-risk subjects. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


A preparation method for lithium titanate and graphene composite electrode materials comprises the following steps: solution A containing lithium ion is prepared by dissolving surface-active agent, template agent and lithium compound into deionized water; titanium compound is added into graphene solution with the concentration of 0.1 to 0.5 g/l, and solution B containing titanium ions is prepared through ultrasound and stirring; under the effect of ultrasonic wave field, the solution A is added into the solution B, then bonding agent is added, and solution C is prepared; the solution C is moved into a polytetrafluoroethylene reaction kettle, and reaction is performed under 140 to 200 DEG C; then leaching, washing and drying to the solution are performed, and eventually, composite products are produced under the atmosphere of argon gas. The lithium titanate in the composite product is nanosheet lithium titanate, can be fully mixed and contacted with the sheet graphene, and the electric conductance and ion electric conductance of the lithium titanate material are improved greatly; and the composite product is classified as electrode material with excellent and high rate charge-discharge performance.


The central issue of this review is the importance of selectivity in heterogeneous catalysis. The implications of our mechanistic studies on model systems to the interpretation of catalytic processes are discussed. In particular, it is our thesis that the optimization of catalytic selectivity may require a different approach than that needed to increase overall catalytic activity. This is so because a given intermediate in the reaction mechanism may be slow to form, but able to react by following more than one relatively fast pathway. In the case of hydrocarbon reforming, while activity is often controlled by alkane activation, selectivity is likely to depend on the regioselectivity of the subsequent dehydrogenation of the resulting alkyl surface intermediates. Similar arguments can be used to explain the selectivity between dehydrogenation and dehydration reactions on alcohols. Additional complications arise from the build up of carbonaceous deposits on the surface of the catalyst under reaction conditions. Surface-science studies have led to the conclusion that these deposits modify the properties of the exposed catalytic metal, opening up new channels for mild reactions but still allowing for the occurrence of the more demanding reactions involved in hydrocarbon reforming and oxidation processes. Lastly, catalyst modification can be introduced in a controlled fashion, as in the case of the bestowing of chirality to normal hydrogenation catalysts by the addition of small amounts of chiral cocatalysts to the reaction mixture. A brief survey of our recent investigation of these systems is provided.


Packer-dilatometer techniques, which are borehole-dilatometer techniques using commercial rubber packer, were developed to measure the deformability of rocks. Packer-dilatometers for 0.5 inch, AX, BX, NX and HX size boreholes were developed and were used for rock deformability measurements in the field. In the packer-dilatometer method, the packer pressurizes the borehole-wall and the borehole deformation is determined by the amount of fluid injected into the packer. A detailed description of the theoretical development of quantitative interpretation of the packer-dilatometer method; apparatus, setup and procedures for the determining of calibration constants; contact pressure determination and field tests using the packer-dilatometer are provided.


There is presently a trend to "internalize" external transport links within the framework of large production system networks. This is made possible by the rapidly increasing capability to swiftly exchange huge masses of data within such networks and the availability of a deregulated transport sector, where the highly competitive trucking industry sets the rules. The result is new forms of logistics systems, designed to meet a set of service requirements which go beyond low cost. The impact of such systems on the evolution of material handling technologies is discussed. Details of one operational Just in Time system and one hypothetical JIT transport system connecting two production plants with particularly unmanned operations are included for the purpose of illustration.


This study will review the literature available on cyber security strategies (generally and those specific to the railway) and compare these against safety methodologies to determine whether there are any overlaps and whether a common risk approach can be used. An assessment will be made on the evaluation of cyber threats in the absence of statistical/historical data and the merits in applying a quantitative approach including consideration of Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA). It is important to note that as the safety and security disciplines have developed independently of each other, the same words (e.g. risk, hazard, threat, likelihood, probability etc.,) have subtle different meanings. The goal of Risk Management seeks to present arguments and/or demonstrations to support assertions that the identified risks have been managed in a way which satisfies the organisation's Risk Appetite and/or the principle of As Low as Reasonably Practicable (ALARP) and CBA.


Purpose
This study aims to examine how spatial contexts, institutions and entrepreneurial self-identity affected the formation of entrepreneurial intentions of a sample of students in Zimbabwe.

Design/methodology/approach
Data were obtained from 284 students enrolled in two vocational education institutions located in Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. To select the respondents, convenience sampling was used. The sample size was determined by the total number of students agreeing to participate in the research. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling (maximum likelihood estimation method).

Findings
Social approval, supportive cultural environment and entrepreneurial self-identity had positive statistically significant direct effects on entrepreneurial intentions. Also, entrepreneurial self-identity partially mediated the effects of social approval and supportive cultural environment on entrepreneurial intentions. The total effect of supportive higher education institutions on entrepreneurial intentions was statistically significant, despite the direct and indirect effects being non-significant.

Practical implications
The findings suggest a need to cultivate supportive social contexts and higher education institutions for nurturing entrepreneurial self-identity and entrepreneurial intentions, factors that are integral to the development of future entrepreneurs.

Originality/value
The study examined the validity of a novel conceptual model based on the contribution of entrepreneurial self-identity, spatial context and institutional variables in shaping entrepreneurial intentions of selected college students in the global south.


Summary The first part considers the theory of the liquid state, discusses the influence of quantum effects on liquid beheviour, and introduces the dimensionless quantum parameter A∗ which expresses their relative importance. The second part surveys the experimental results for the chief physical properties of liquid rare gases (and also of liquid methane). The observed quantities have been 'reduced' for comparison purposes to dimensionless numbers, each being divided by an appropriate parameter of its own dimensions.