This paper studies margin tradings of ROC government bonds, and focuses on the OSRS-type margin trading. We find that this kind of tradings involve an adverse selection problem, thereby leading to credit rationing. We point out that, even if the investor (bo rrower) and the security firm (lender) have symmetric information about the government bond (investment project), credit rationing may still emerge if the firm does not know perfectly the investorfs repayment ability. We derive the optimal contract for the security firm, and find that the optimal contract has the following two characteristics: (1) the security firm sets the margin requirement as high as possible, (2) the optimal contract is a pooling contract. We also provide a necessary and sufficient condition for when the security firm lowers the interest rate to attract investors with higher repayment ability to participate the trade.

Key words: Margin Tradings, Information Asymmetry, Adverse Selection, Credit Rationing, Outright Sale and Reverse Repo Contract.


We present a correlation scheme to quantify the morphology beyond the standard fractal dimension which corresponds to information from the pair correlation function. The method consists of analyzing hierarchical correlations in log-space thus summing contributions from higher order correlations in the usual space coordinates. The scheme gives information on the characteristics of structure which can be used as a fingerprint to distinguish between structures with the same fractal dimension. The method is also sensitive to oscillations in logarithmic scales, which are admissible solutions for renormalisation equations. Such oscillations appear as resonances, thus making this scheme suitable to analyze such phenomena experimentally. Illustrative examples are given for all those applications by analyzing numerically grown structures. The case of the unrestricted Brownian walk is exactly calculated. We discuss an application of this scheme to check recent analytic results obtained for scale-invariant branching mechanisms in slow cracking patterns and in noise-reduced diffusion-limited-aggregation. We propose that this method is a suitable candidate to quantify the presently qualitative concept of morphology.


For recent years, engineering plant metabolic pathways by using rol genes looks promising in several aspects. New directions of rol‐gene studies are highlighted in this work underlying the unique regulatory properties of the genes. It is known that following agrobacterial infection, the Agrobacterium rhizogenes rolA, rolB and rolC genes are transferred to plant genome, causing tumor formation and hairy root disease. In this report, we show mat these oncogenes are also involved in regulation of plant defense reactions, including the production of secondary metabolites. Situations occur where the rol genes perform their own critical function to regulate secondary metabolism by bypassing upstream plant control mechanisms and directing defense reactions via a "short cut." The rolC gene expressed in transformed plant cells is efficient in establishing an enhanced resistance of host cells to salt and temperature stresses. The emerging complexity of the rol‐gene triggered effects and the involvement of signals generated by these genes in basic processes of cell biology such as calcium and ROS signaling indicate that the plant oncogenes, like some animal protooncogenes, use sophisticated strategies to affect cell growth and differentiation. The data raise the intriguing possibility that some components of plant and animal oncogene signaling pathways share common features.For recent years, engineering plant metabolic pathways by using rol genes looks promising in several aspects. New directions of rol‐gene studies are highlighted in this work underlying the unique regulatory properties of the genes. It is known that following agrobacterial infection, the Agrobacterium rhizogenes rolA, rolB and rolC genes are transferred to plant genome, causing tumor formation and hairy root disease. In this report, we show mat these oncogenes are also involved in regulation of plant defense reactions, including the production of secondary metabolites. Situations occur where the rol genes perform their own critical function to regulate secondary metabolism by bypassing upstream plant control mechanisms and directing defense reactions via a "short cut." The rolC gene expressed in transformed plant cells is efficient in establishing an enhanced resistance of host cells to salt and temperature stresses. The emerging complexity of the rol‐gene triggered effects and the involvement of signals g...


ABSTRACT Personalized proportional representation systems elect fewer women than other systems. This paper uses individual-level survey data and leverages state-level variation in campaign expenditures and number of candidates to assess three main explanations for the phenomenon. The first proposes that voters become less likely to elect women because men are more visible, since they have more access to campaign resources. The second proposes that voters rely on prejudice against women in complex electoral environments. The third explanation argues that the presence of co-partisan competition allows voters to substitute men for women. The evidence at the individual-level in Brazil supports the three perspectives, while the analyses at the district-level provide support for the co-partisan substitution hypothesis. The findings present new evidence that features of electoral systems interact with voters' perceptions in ways that affect the electoral chances of women candidates.


ABSTRACT If educational institutions want to effectively prepare the 21st century community that works with colleagues globally and across time zones, they need to start teaching the students using the next-generation technology tools. One of the tools available today is "Second Life." It is a computer-based simulated virtual environment that allows users to interact in real time. The tool has also gained attention from educators worldwide as a medium to offer all or some of their course activities to students in Second Life. This study explores students' perceptions of using Second Life as an instructional tool in teaching online or blended tourism and hospitality courses in the future. Multiple regressions are used to test the technology acceptance model (TAM) for measuring the research objective. Findings suggest that the students have high and positive perceptions of using virtual environments such as second life as teaching tools for future tourism and hospitality courses.


Introduction: Dune fields on Mars offer an opportunity to investigate the nature of eroded sediments and their interactions with the atmosphere. We examined and re-mapped 20 dune fields in Valles Marineris (VM) originally mapped by the Mars Global Digital Dune Database (MGD) [1] to identify significant trends in composition, thermophysical properties, morphology and origin. In addition, five new dune fields were identified, doubling the total VM dune area to ~16,000 km. Valles Marineris has large topographic relief (~10 km), relatively high atmospheric pressure (>8 mb), and multiple geologic units as potential sediment sources. Dune grain sizes and inferred provenance will be compared with previous studies of other Martian dune fields to further understand the global context and processes of the VM environment. If dunes are determined to be locally derived this will provide insight into the regional composition of VM. Motivation: Despite three decades of study [2-4], questions remain regarding the composition, age, morphology and sediment supply (present and past) for Martian dunes. The dune fields in VM show a large range of dune morphologies, thermophysical properties and potential sand sources. The rift system exposes a ~10-km-thick section of Martian stratigraphy from which dune material may be derived. The driving questions for this study are: What are typical grain sizes? Is the sediment derived locally or trapped from outside VM? Are VM dunes similar to typical midlatitude crater-derived dunes outside VM? Method: Twenty-five VM dune fields were mapped and characterized using 25 different parameters, including: MOLA elevation, slopes, TES albedo, DCI, TES [5] and THEMIS thermal inertia [6]. Particle sizes were derived from TES and THEMIS thermal inertia measurements using the method described in [7]; however only values ≤350 JmKs were considered. Geologic context for the dune fields were acquired with visible image data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) instruments CTX and HiRISE. Our remapping effort used co-registered THEMIS thermal inertia and CTX visible images to ensure dune field boundaries excluded bedrock and rubble that could spuriously elevate thermophysical measurements. Visible trends were sought for regions, dune morphology, elevation and composition. Results: In general, VM dune fields display greater topographic relief and closer proximity to their inferred source regions than is typical for mid-latitude dune fields elsewhere on Mars. These dunes have a relatively high TES-derived thermal inertia mean value (392 JmKs, units hereafter assumed) which corresponds to grains ~1.7 mm in size, or very coarse sand. A comparison of thermal inertia values for the 25 dune fields inside VM and 25 mid-latitude dune fields outside of VM (Figure 1) with an average thermal inertia of 298 or medium sand grains (~700 μm), suggests the difference in grain size for the two populations of dune fields is real.


In hcp Zr crystal, the characteristics (formation and migration energies, relaxation volume and dipole tensor) of stable and metastable (including saddle point) configurations of self‐point defects (self‐interstitial atoms, vacancies) have been calculated by computer simulation with use of the many‐body interaction potential. The stress fields of the straight edge and screw basal dislocations with Burgers vector 1/3 and spatial dependence of the interaction energy between these dislocations and self‐point defects (elastic dipoles) have been calculated using the anisotropic theory of elasticity. Stress fields of dislocations significantly affect the point defects characteristics and behaviour in hcp Zr.


In modern America, political polarization is on the rise, especially among Millennials. This paper explores why, examining moral values, worldview, and other potential moderators. In addition to a literature review and theoretical discussion, this paper will present one study of online Americans (N=500). Results indicate that subtle yet potentially important differences exist among younger generations. Younger generations were more intellectually-egotistic (p = .000; d =.65), are more overconfident in their intellect (p =.000; d =.45), and adopt a hierarchical worldview (p =.001; d =.36). Further research might examine these factors over time with long-term studies that control for the effect of aging.


In the recent government Comprehensive Spending Review there is a promise of a Green Paper on social care services for disabled and, especially, older people. The platform on which any new proposals will be built is likely to be heavily influenced by the Government's personalisation agenda for public services. It is timely, therefore, to reflect not only on the strengths but also on the potential pitfalls of a major stream, self‐directed support, for the personalisation agenda in adult social care. Anticipating and guarding against unintended consequences of policy are as important as championing the positive opportunities promoted by the policy.


The nin1‐1 mutant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cannot perform the G1/S and G2/M transitions at restrictive temperatures. At such temperatures, nin1‐1 strains fail to activate histone H1 kinase after release from alpha factor‐imposed G1 block and after release from hydroxyurea‐imposed S block. The nin1‐1 mutation shows synthetic lethality with certain cdc28 mutant alleles such as cdc28‐IN. Two lines of evidence indicate that Nin1p is a component of the 26S proteasome complex: (i) Nin1p, as well as the known component of the 26S proteasome, shifted to the 26S proteasome peak in the glycerol density gradient after preincubation of crude extract with ATP‐Mg2+, and (ii) nin1‐1 cells accumulated polyubiquitinated proteins under restrictive conditions. These results suggest that activation of Cdc28p kinase requires proteolysis. We have cloned a human cDNA encoding a regulatory subunit of the 26S proteasome, p31, which was found to be a homolog of Nin1p.


The article is devoted to the development of tests for computer-based testing used in the traditional system of education and in distance learning (DL). Publication is a brief summary of experience in creating educational tests for electronic textbooks. Analyzes the main problems related to design of tests required for effective quality control and assessing the level of students' knowledge.


The weak vector and axial‐vector form factors have been investigated for the semi‐leptonic octet baryon decays in the chiral constituent quark model with configuration mixing (ϰCQMconfig). The effects of SU(3) symmetry breaking and configuration mixing have also been investigated and the results are not only in good agreement with existing experimental data but also show improvement over other phenomenological models.


The survival of mouse testicular stem cells after γ or neutron irradiation was measured by counts of repopulated tubular cross sections and by the numbers of differentiated spermatogenic cells prod...


The interactions of a series of poly(3-decylthiophene)-block-polydimethylsiloxanes (P3DT-b-PDMS) with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are investigated. The formation of supramolecular complexes of P3DT-b-PDMS with SWNTs is studied in THF, toluene, xylenes, and CHCl3, and the resulting complexes are characterized by UV-Vis-NIR absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. The P3DT-b-PDMS-SWNT and P3DT-SWNT complexes are further incorporated into a commercially available silicone rubber formulation. Percolation thresholds of <0.02% (P3DT-b-PDMS-SWNT) and <0.05% (P3DT-SWNT) are measured. A decrease in the percolation threshold when using the block copolymer for nanotube dispersion is observed, suggesting that the presence of a covalently-linked PDMS block improves SWNT distribution in the silicone elastomer and allows a percolation network to form at low SWNT loadings. In addition, it is found that entanglement of the silicone block of P3DT-PDMS with bulk silicones results in anchoring of the nanotubes within the composite, and leads to reversible conductivity changes upon repeated stretching and relaxation. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015, 53, 265–273


This paper introduces the character of embedded Array Blocks(EAB) ,then makes some examples to show the application of EAB in the jammer: program memery/data memeroy, fast frequency guide, fast sweeping frequency and jamming, waveform generator, direct digital frequency synthesizer.


Diversity in land management objectives has led to changes in the character of raw material available to the forest products industries in the US Pacific Northwest. Increasing numbers of logs from small-diameter trees, both plantation grown and those from suppressed or young stands, now constitute a large proportion of logs coming into the mill yard. Wood coming from plantations or young stands has different properties than wood coming from older, suppressed stands. This research examined wood properties of small-diameter plantation-grown Douglas-fir and western hemlock with the goal of a better understanding of utilization of small-diameter, fast-grown trees for use in manufacturing engineered wood composites. Twelve trees of each species were harvested and three bolts cut from each tree. Each bolt provided samples for X-ray densitometry profiles, compression, and tension parallel to grain and flexure tests. Both species were found to have a very high proportion of juvenile wood. Most wood properties dec...


Liver fibrosis is a primary threat to public health, owing to limited therapeutic options. Germacrone (GM) has been shown to exert various curative effects against human diseases, including liver injury. The aim of this study was to investigate the pharmacological effects of GM in the pathophysiology of hepatic fibrosis and determine its potential mechanisms of action. A liver fibrosis rat model was established via carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) treatment, and LX‐2 cells were stimulated with TGF‐β1. The effects of GM on liver fibrosis and its relationship with the phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling pathway were investigated. In the CCl4 fibrosis‐induced rat model, GM improved histological damage, inhibited the activity of hepatic α‐smooth muscle actin and improved serum alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase levels in a dose‐dependent manner. GM potently inhibited hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) growth and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) progression, as reflected by the altered expression of proliferative (Ki‐67, PCNA and cleaved caspase‐3) and EMT‐related (E‐cadherin and vimentin) proteins. In TGF‐β1‐stimulated LX‐2 cells, GM significantly inhibited the survival and activation of HSCs and induced cell apoptosis. GM also suppressed the migration ability and reversed the EMT process in HSCs. Following GM treatment, the phosphorylation of the PI3K, AKT and mTOR proteins was reduced in the liver of CCl4‐treated rats and TGF‐β1‐stimulated LX‐2 cells, indicating that GM may attenuate hepatic fibrosis via the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signalling pathway. These outcomes highlight the anti‐fibrotic effects of GM and suggest that it is a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of liver fibrosis.


Realization of causal current output‐based optimal full/reduced‐order observer and tracker for the linear sampled‐data system with a direct transmission term from input to output is proposed in this paper. First, a high‐gain optimal linear quadratic analog tracker based on the reduced‐order observer is proposed for the system model with a direct transmission term from input to output, so that it can effectively induce a high quality performance on state estimation and trajectory tracking design theoretically. Then, the prediction‐based digital redesign method enables it to make the digitally controlled system to track the desired trajectory closely. However, there induces a causal problem on the realization of current output‐based optimal full/reduced‐order observer and tracker for the sampled‐data system with a direct transmission term form input to measured output. To overcome this problem, a realization of the causal observer‐based sampled‐data tracker is newly proposed in this paper. An illustrative example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A general quasi-linear transport parameter for particle drift in arbitrary turbulence geometry is presented. The new drift coefficient is solely characterized by a nonresonant term and is evaluated for slab and two-dimensional turbulence geometry. The calculations presented here demonstrate that fluctuating electric fields are a key quantity for understanding quasi-linear particle drift in slab geometry. It is shown that particle drift does not exist in unpolarized and purely magnetic slab fluctuations. This is in stark contrast to previous models, which are restricted to slab geometry and the field line random walk limit. The evaluation of the general transport parameter for two-dimensional turbulence geometry, presented here for the first time for dynamical magnetic turbulence, results in a drift coefficient valid for a magnetic power spectrum and turbulence decay rate varying arbitrarily in wavenumber. For a two-component, slab/two-dimensional turbulence model, numerical calculations are presented. The new quasi-linear drift, induced by the magnetic perturbations, is compared with a standard drift expression related to the curvature and gradient of an unperturbed heliospheric background magnetic field. The considerations presented here offer a solid ground and natural explanation for the hitherto puzzling observation that drift models often describe observations much better when drift effects are reduced.


The Kalow allele for cholinesterase is a quantitative variant of the usual gene and has been shown to result from a single base pair change in the DNA. A new method based on the polymerase chain reaction to distinguish Kalow alleles of the cholinesterase gene was developed. Using the amplification refractory mutagenesis system, two different reactions distinguished the presence of a guanine (normal E1u allele) from that of an adenine (Kalow E1k allele) at nucleotide 1615 within the coding sequences of the gene. The frequency of the Kalow allele in our sample of 51 persons was determined to be 20%. The mean total cholinesterase activity in heterozygotes was 90% of that in persons who typed as E1uE1u homozygotes. Two E1kE1k homozygotes were identified and their cholinesterase activities were the two lowest measured.


This is an interview with 64 year old Maidhc Dainin O Se from Co. Kerry on his experiences with traditional Irish music.


Sociology is the science of the study of society. It studies man and social phenomena, his institutions, systems, processes, culture, and every aspect of man's social life. In attempting to theorize sociology few prominent perspectives come in handy. Such for example the Functionalist approach, Conflict model, and Interactionist perspective. The influence of social change has led to many structural changes and newer structures emerged to perform the same functions. But the social order maintained its balance. Unequal distribution of resources, power, privilege, status, and rewards give way to conflicts in modern societies. Such conflicts create rivalries among economic, religious, professional, and cultural groups. As a result, the divide in society emerges deeper to threaten the social order. A conflict model explains the discomfort affecting various segments of the population and the dynamics of confrontation, control, and resilience. The aggregate of interactions expressed in roles, relationships, positions, and processes points to an interactionist perspective. Roles determine the type and quality of interactions. Interactions are transformed into systems. This paper attempts to analyze the perspectives adopted for theorizing sociology. Areas chosen for analysis namely Marriage, Family, Religion, Faith, Politics, and Governance demonstrate their application in theorizing sociology from a broader context of evolution and change.


It is of fundamental interest to develop a deeper understanding of transport in disordered materials. For metals, a simple qualitative relation between the conductivity s and the diffusion coefficient D of a mobile entity is given by Einstein's relation D}s. Only diffusive states will contribute to the metallic transport. For amorphous semiconductors, transport theory requires a different foundation. In celebrated work, Anderson, 1 using a random lattice model, proved that without thermal activation no diffusion takes place for a sufficiently disordered one-band model. Sophisticated hopping theory 2‐ 4 proposes that the quantum jump of electrons is the essential transport mechanism through the localized states, in which thermal-induced delocalization is the driving mechanism. This picture is essentially correct, but highly incomplete, since it does not incorporate known information about the topological disorder in materials and to date has not used highly accurate descriptions of electronic states. In this paper, we explore electron dynamics with the time


Despite much research and progress in the area of software project management, many software projects have a very high failure rate. This risk is not always avoidable, but it is controllable. The aim of this paper is to propose the new framework software risk management methodology for successful software project. There are 5 main phases such as identification risk, risk analysis and evaluation, risk treatment, risk controlling, risk communication and documentation for software development life cycle. Indeed, our approach focuses on identifying software risk factors, and risk management techniques and on how to manage software risk factors with statistical and mining techniques. Our framework derived data from questionnaires and historical data from software companies. Successful software project risk management methodology will greatly improve the probability of software project success.
Keywords:


With the first few cases being reported in non-endemic countries by May 2022, soon, the Monkeypox disease (MPXD) outbreaks received widespread global scientific and popular media attention. Within 3 months, by early September 2022, the global MPXD burden rose to more than 50,000 cases with the majority of the countries reporting cases [1] This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


The purpose of the study was to determine the morphology and distribution of vasoactive intestinal polypeptide‐ and peptide histidine isoleucineimmunoreactive (VIP‐ and PHI‐ir) neurons and innervation patterns in the main and accessory olfactory bulb, anterior olfactory nucleus, and piriform cortex of the adult cat. In these centers, VIP‐ and PHI‐immunoreactive material are present in the same neuronal types, respectively, therefore summarized as VIP/PHI‐ir neurons. In the main olfactory bulb, the majority of VIP/PHI‐ir neurons are localized in the external plexiform layer. These neurons give rise to two or more locally branching axons. They form boutons on mitral and external tufted cell bodies. According to the morphology and location, we have classified these neurons as Van Gehuchtencells. Some VIP/PHI‐ir neurons are present in the glomerular layer. They have small somata and give rise to dendrites branching exclusively into glomeruli. We have classified these neurons as periglomerular cells. In the granule cell layer, neurons with long apical dendrites and one locally projecting axon are present. In the accessory olfactory bulb, VIP/PHI‐ir neurons are localized in the mixed external/mitral/internal plexiform layer. They represent Van Gehuchten cells.


"Free Will" is not a problem which can simply be answered. The long history surrounding this issue would seem to indicate that. It is not that an answer is impossible; on the contrary, the problem is that many answers may be given and no single one can be established to the exclusion of all others. Which answer is adopted depends upon one's metaphysics, upon one's basic assumptions about the first principles which govern and structure the world. Does all this leave us lost in a helpless pluralism where freedom of the will is concerned, an issue which might well be the crucial problem of our own era and which certainly has been important in every philosophical age? No, not unless we adopt an attitude of scepticism where metaphysics is concerned. Thus, our success in dealing with free will depends upon our metaphysical competence. If we can analyze previous metaphysical views and then construct and defend our own, we can still structure an answer to the issue of freedom of the will.


A white woman, aged 64, was first admitted to St. Luke's Hospital in September, 1946, because of acute nervousness due to alcoholism and an acute hysterical episode following the death of her husband. She had been treated in another hospital for hypertension in August, 1946. The Kahn test of the serum was positive, and the Wassermann was weakly positive. An electrocardiogram was consistent with myocardial abnormality due to coronary artery disease. In August, 1947, she was readmitted for hypertensive cardiovascular disease and heat exhaustion, at which time the Kahn test of the serum was negative. In October, 1949, she was admitted for insulin regulation following a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, and at that time her blood pressure was 210/110 mm. Hg. She was admitted again on February 19, 1951, because of a sudden paralysis of both legs, urinary and fecal incontinence, and a slight pain in the lower thoracic and


The influence of synthesis in acidic or alkaline media on the incorporation of vanadium in the MFI (ZSM-5) lattice has been studied. An alkaline gel favors the incorporation of vanadium in the MFI framework, while an acidic gel does not. EPR and analytical data indicate that mostly V4+species are present in an octahedral (Oh) environment in the as-synthesized V-MFI prepared in acidic media, which latter transform into polymeric V5+species on calcination. In the alkaline media, vanadium is incorporated mostly as V5+in a distorted Td environment. Thermal analysis and XRD data indicate that phase transformation from orthorhombic to monoclinic takes place during the calcination process only when the sample is prepared from acidic medium. It is found that the sample prepared from alkaline medium contains Si–OH groups from defect centers while such groups are absent in the sample prepared in acidic medium. It appears that V-ions are present in the defect sites in the MFI framework in the sample prepared from alkaline medium.


This work presents wide range of compact and reliable single-pole-multi-throw (SPMT) radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switches where the M (output) varies from 3 to 14 throws. The single dc-contact switch dimensions are 0.144 mm  ×  0.29 mm which are fabricated on 635 µm alumina substrate using a surface micromachining process. SPMT switching networks demonstrate a measured return loss of more than 14 dB, a worst case insertion loss of ~1.76 dB and isolation of ~14.5 dB up to 12 GHz. The maximum area of the fabricated SPMT switch is ~1.2 mm2. The SPMT switches are capable of handling 1 W of RF power up to  >1 billion cycles at 25 °C, and sustained even up to  >80 million cycles with 0.5 W at 85 °C. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported wide range of MEMS SPMT switches and their respective performance evaluations in the literature that has undergone extensive measurement stages.


We present an experiment that compares how people perform search tasks in a degree-of-interest browser and in a Windows-Explorer-like browser. Our results show that, whereas users do attend to more information in the DOI browser, they do not complete the task faster than in an Explorer-like browser. However, in both types of browser, users are faster to complete high information scent search tasks than low information scent tasks. We present an ACT-R computational model of the search task in the DOI browser. The model describes how a visual search strategy may combine with semantic aspects of processing, as captured by information scent. We also describe a way of automatically estimating information scent in an ontological hierarchy by querying a large corpus (in our case, Google's corpus).


Objectives: To develop a diagnostic test in medical education on analysis of arterial blood gases (ABGs) by nurse students in Anesthesiology, using a concept and knowledge map to determine table of specification together with an open discussion and feedback providing method as documented by David F.Treagust Study design: A research and development study in which the developed diagnostic test was assessed for its efficiency through nurse students, residents and medical students who volunteered to join the project. Results: Nurse students had 4 misconceptions in ABGs 1) they could not clarify the significance and relationship of the symbols 2) they could not remember the formulas and use them appropriately 3) they did not understand the analytical steps and lack of knowledge for clinical 4) they could not apply the logical results as guideline for patient's management The assessment of criterion-referenced test item difficulty, discrimination and reliability (internal consistency) was 0.59, 0.38 and 0.91 respectively. The index of item objective congruency (IOC) of the test was equal to 0.88. Conclusions: By using a concept and knowledge map to establish table of specification together with an open discussion and feedback providing method helped to facilitate the scope of developing a diagnostic test more practically. Teacher can assess misconceptions of nurse students in Anesthesiology in a short period of time and have guidelines to improve pedagogy to response to their eagerness in learning. As a result, the technique is highly efficient in educational measurement and evaluation. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE TH /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:ตารางปกต; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:107%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:14.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}


Geothermal energy is a resource that has the potential for development in many countries around the world. Despite its versatility and economic viability, this resource faces numerous obstacles that hinder its deployment and capacity for achieving a similar market share as other renewable and clean energy sources. Both technical and non-technical barriers can be highly detrimental to the implementation of geothermal projects. A social license to operate (SLO) is a tool that can help the deployment of geothermal energy. As a new concept, SLO is little developed in the business literature but is still being adopted in many industries. Its main challenges reside in its context-dependence and the lack of clear frameworks to utilize it. This paper introduces, in a first known attempt, through a qualitative approach, a conceptual model of the social license to operate in the geothermal energy sector. For its development, three case studies, working group discussion and surveying were conducted in the framework of the H2020 funded CROWDTHERMAL project, which aims to empower EU citizens for direct participation in geothermal projects through crowdfunding. Findings of this paper also drew on existing general conceptual models of the SLO, and experiences from other sectors that have developed their own SLO models. The paper contributes to a more contextualized understanding of the social license within the geothermal sector and sheds the light on practices and challenges that influence the acquisition and maintenance of SLO in geothermal energy projects and initiatives.


Two-dimensional (2D) Nb2CTX MXene has outstanding physicochemical properties and great potential in biochemical sensing applications. Here, we proposed and designed an ultrasensitive microfiber sensor integrated with Nb2CTX nanosheets and tested its BOD detection power. The Nb2CTX nanosheets were coated on the microfiber surfaces to enhance BOD sensing performance. The Nb2CTX nanosheets have a sheet-like structure, large specific surface area, and hydrophilic surface functional groups that significantly increase light-matter interactions and refractive index modulation around the microfiber. The transmission spectrum red shift significantly increases with BOD concentration whereas the transmission spectrum blue shift significantly increases with external temperature. An ultrasensitivity value of 34.98 nm/mg/mL and a detection limit of 0.00057 mg/mL were obtained. These values were more than twice those obtained using the bare sensor. The temperature sensitivity was -0.41 nm/°C. The device had inverse spectral responses to BOD concentration and temperature. For this reason, we achieved temperature compensation by demodulating the shifts in the various transmission dips. As the proposed microfiber sensor is ultrasensitive and has temperature compensation, it is a novel and promising design for biosensing and environmental pollution monitoring.


In the last few years several strategies have been developed to engineer efficient light sources and amplifiers in Si-based materials, with the aim to demonstrate a convenient path to monolithic integration of optical and electronic devices within the mainstream Si technology In particular, light amplification by Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) in silicon waveguides has been recently demonstrated despite intrinsic limitations related to the nature of the bulk Si materials have been pointed out . The narrow-band (105 GHz) of stimulated Raman gain in Si limits its applicability in the context of Si photonics, and makes it unsuitable for its use in broad band division multiplexing (WDM) applications, unless expensive multi-pump schemes are implemented. Additionally, Raman amplification in Si is a small effect. Therefore, in order to build a laser based on stimulated Raman effects in Si, very high power intensity and very low absorption losses are required. Finally, Raman gain in Si is further reduced by the competing nonlinear effect of two-photon absorption. This effect generates electron-hole pairs, which remain excited in the sample for a long time (micro to milliseconds) and lead to strong absorption at both the pump and signal frequencies.


The architecture of a system-level hypermedia engine, designed both to manage full hypermedia functionality for an information system and to bind interface-oriented front-end systems is presented. The engine dynamically superimposes a hypermedia representation over a back-end application's knowledge components and processes. A set of minimal requirements for integrating the hypermedia engine is described. The more sophisticated and cooperative the information system, the higher the level of hypermedia support the engine will provide.<<ETX>>


Background : Post anesthetic complications cause pain that can inhibit the
mobilization of patients and become one of the reasons patients wont move.
According to health law number 36 of 2009 chapter III, that each person got
information about his/her health data from paramedic. Information about early
mobilization is done with pre-operative health promotion so that patients are able
to mobilize early post anesthesia
Objective : To know the effect of health counseling about early mobilization in
patients post spinal anesthesia in RSUD Kota Yogyakarta
Methode : This research is a quasy experiment. The sample of this study
amounted to 40 respondents who each group there are 20 respondents. The
treatment group carried out by verbal counseling, demonstration, and leaflet and
control group was given a leaflet. Sampling with random sampling. The test used
is Chi-Square test.
Result : Respondent of treatment group had more early mobiization in good
category there were 15 respondents (37.5%), while the respondents of control
group there were 8 respondents (20.0%) in good category. The results of data
analysis using Chi Square ρ = 0,025 (ρ <0,05).
Conclusion : There is a effect of counseling about early mobilization in patients
post spinal anesthesia in RSUD Kota Yogyakarta


Worldwide, highway accidents have important social and financial impacts. Crash Predictions Models (CPM) are used to reduce their frequency and gravity. They belong to two main categories: generalized linear models (GLM) and nonparametric machine learning (ML) algorithms. Broadly speaking, the former offer better interpretability but tend to have worse predictive performances than the latter. However, for highway infrastructures managers, efficient predictions of accident count must come with explanations so as to give rise to efficient safety actions. Therefore, to balance predictive power and interpretability, we propose a methodology that combines Bayesian learning of hierarchical GLM with automatic detection of latent structures and interactions through methods borrowed from the field of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). Promising results are obtained with experiments conducted on crash count data from 2008 to 2017 on a large part of the French highway network. Moreover, we tested our approach on three public datasets covering a broad variety of contexts in terms of volume, data types and tasks (viz. classification and regression). These experiments confirm that our framework outperforms traditional GLM models while getting close to the best ML models and remaining interpretable.


The cooling section (CS) of the low energy RHIC electron cooler (LEReC) consists of two 20 m long parts each containing several weak solenoids with trajectory correctors placed inside the solenoids and the BPMs located downstream of each solenoid. These weak solenoids are used to minimize divergence of electron beam due to the transverse space charge force of electron beam itself. To obtain the cooling it is required to keep the overall RMS electron angles in the cooling section below 100 urad. Possible mechanical misalignment, such as shift and inclination of the CS solenoids can cause an unacceptable misalignment of the e-beam trajectory with respect to the ideal trajectory set by ions. Therefore, it is critical to perform a beam based alignment of the CS solenoids. In this paper we suggest a procedure for such an alignment.


The discovery of the steep increase of electrical conductivity in Porous Silicon (PS) samples in contact with Nitrogen Dioxide, NO 2 , opens the possibility to study the electrical conduction processes in nanostructured systems from a completely new point of view. The system undergoes a change of conductivity of 5 orders of magnitude when exposed to few ppm of NO 2 , whereas the free charge concentration increases by only one order of magnitude in the same pressure range. Upon NO 2 exposure the system transition from an "insulator-like" to a "semiconductor-like" behaviour can be studied by means of several techniques. In this paper, the results from a Space Charge Limited Current (SCLC) study unambiguously demonstrate the change of the charging status of defects upon NO 2 exposure, and explain some "exotic" effects recently reported.


Following the recent growing interest on long-lasting structures, various researches attempt to exploit Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) to constructions owing to the remarkable reduction of maintenance costs brought by its outstanding resistance to corrosion. However, research dedicated to curved FRP construction material applicable to tunnel or arch bridge is still absent. This study conducts loading tests and finite element analysis in order to examine the behavior of curved FRP-concrete panel produced by pultrusion. The test results reveal that FRP and concrete exhibit linear elastic behavior until the maximum load. The parametric analysis with various FRP sections shows that the behavior of the curved FRP-concrete composite panel depends on the web height of FRP, the spacing of the webs, the length of the flange and the radius of curvature.


When it comes to the implementation of the concept of ATAWADAC (Any Time, Any Where, Any Device, Any Content) smartphones play a primary role. Smartphones are owned by more than 45% of the world's population. Therefore, the capacity of smartphone applications to be used in a simple, effective, and efficient way is fundamental, especially for individuals with special needs; knowing that 15% of the population worldwide live with at least one form of disability. Most of the people with special needs and novice users use smartphones to make/receive calls, send/receive SMS. In this paper, a UI for smartphone calling applications is proposed, and algorithms are developed to minimize the cognitive biases, motor, and visionary problems, with the main goal to improve the calling applications usability and to enhance user experience. A comparison of the proposed design and other applications is provided.


After the European Community was conferred competence of judicial cooperation in civil matters under the Amsterdam Treaty,the EU private international law has experienced dramatic transformation. Until the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty,around thirty legislative measures for judicial cooperation had been adopted in civil matters. The new development of EU judicial cooperation in civil matters,or,in other words,the Europeanization of private international law,demonstrates that,on the one hand,the EU's legislative measures are moving gradually from the traditional fields of jurisdiction,conflict of laws and mutual recognition of foreign judgments to the approximation of civil procedural rules in the Member States,and that,on the other hand,the influence of the EU law's principles on private international law aggravates this tendency of substantial value orientation.


A generalization of the Möbius resonator [1, 2] to higher Lens Spaces [3] is considered. A simple expression is derived that defines the resonant frequencies of the mode families for different Lens Spaces. Experimental results are shown to yield excellent agreement with the derived expressions. It is also shown that other modes can exist is a practical implementation which operate at modes that are forbidden for the Lens Space modes.


The paper deals with the design of an inverter supplying power to the drive of fans cooling the subway car brake resistors and the traction electric drive power converter's heat sink fins. Since this fan drive is a low-capacity one, it was decided to make the inverter for it with the minimal possible cost. To achieve the desired objective, it was decided to exclude protections from certain very unlikely emergency modes. It was proposed to use cheap IC chips of transistor switch drivers and to implement short-circuit protection using current transformers. The current transformers have a very large bandwidth and can be used in the application in question not only to protect the motor, but also to protect the inverter transistor switches. The current transformer signals are rectified by a low-capacity rectifier, thus making it possible to eliminate separate processing of the phase current positive and negative half-waves. The rectified signals are fed to the input of the protection circuit implemented on operational amplifiers. The total time of short-circuit protection system response to the input signal is about 1 μs. In measuring the current transformers' output signals, it is possible to obtain a sufficient amount of data for making overload protection, phase open-circuit fault protection, load imbalance protection, and thermal protection. Emergency modes detection algorithms for implementing them in the scope of the electric drive microprocessor control system are presented. The proposed solutions were investigated on a mathematical model and on the inverter mockup prototype, and the obtained results have demonstrated their efficiency.


Political analysts like to speculate about what presidential elections mean. The 1992 election was famously about "the economy, stupid," for example, with some observers arguing that the 1996 election was, too. The 2000 election was likewise thought to be the result of "Clinton fatigue," with 2004 cast as a culture war between "red states and blue states." In these discussions commentators play games of amateur semiotics, linking sign, thought, and reference in ways that are supposed to capture nothing less than the national zeitgeist. Yet we are typically less likely to talk about how presidential elections are represented in another sense—that is, how they are represented as behavioral enactments of democracy in the United States. To be sure, U.S. journalists commonly report on how democracy is performed in other countries. During the historic Iraqi elections of 2005, there was no shortage of visual and verbal imagery of individuals eagerly waiting in line to cast votes, with the triumphant blue-inked index finger quickly becoming an iconic representation of this event. Within coverage of U.S. elections, for some reason it seems more important for armchair commentators to talk about the election as a referendum on ideas than it is to discuss the actual behaviors that constitute democracy, voting chief among them. For any behavioralists troubled by such tendencies, there was hope in 2000. The Florida recount made both the act of voting and the process of vote tabulation interesting indeed. Consider the many images reported in print FORUM: COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND CAMPAIGN 2004


To be effective, school administrators require support from the community which forms the school's catchment area. This support could be financial, moral or religious. But, however well intended the support is, it could be a source of strife if the providers of support do not observe the boundaries within which they should operate. This study set out to investigate sponsor support and what possible effect it may have on school management. To this end, the study aimed at finding out the extent to which the sponsor was involved in providing various forms of support; to determine the level of sponsors' involvement in management of schools; to identify existing areas of conflict between the sponsor and other educational stakeholder; to establish the existing relationship between the sponsors and these stakeholders and to suggest ways of smoothening sponsor involvement in the effective management of public secondary schools. The research questions were formulated in line with the aforementioned objectives. The literature review looked into the legal provisions for sponsors' involvement in school management, the history of sponsor involvement in school management and the problems likely to arise from unclear policy. From the literature review conceptual framework was developed. The research design employed was the survey design. All the public sponsored secondary schools in Koibatek District participated in the study. Three questionnaires were used to collect data and their validity was established as adequate. The average questionnaire return rate was 92.6%. Data from the questionnaires was analysed and interpreted using descriptive statistics which included percentages and frequencies. In answering the research questions, it was found out that only half of the schools had a pastoral care programme despite the provision of religious education being the main purpose of the sponsor. The education qualification of the chaplains was not up to standard. As pertains to sponsor's adherence to the stipulations of the Education Act, v sponsors generally flaunted the rules by insisting that their person of choice be installed as headteacher instead of merely recommending and by being involved much more closely in academics than was required of them. Further, the sponsor's involvement in selecting members to constitute the BOG, and their participation in the proceedings of the Board were applauded, but they were overstepping the boundaries when they took part in student admission. Several areas of conflict were identified and mainly blamed on the ambiguity of the stipulations about the sponsors' role in the Education Act. Such conflicts were in the areas of appointment of headteachers, matters of faith and in the use of school facilities. Despite these conflicts that negatively affected effective school management and thereby the education quality, the relationship between the headteachers, the AEOs and the sponsor was rated as cordial. All the three groups of respondents had various suggestions to make to streamline sponsor involvement in education management in schools. Among the most favoured was the clarification of sponsors' role in the legal education frameworks, scrapping church sponsorship of public schools; sponsors' increased financial support to the institutions they purport to sponsor and the involvement of church sponsors in religions matters only. Some of the conclusions arrived at; the sponsor did not adequately provide religious education to the schools; and that the sponsor's role in school management as provided by the Education Act and other education frameworks was glaringly unclear. In addition, the study made a few pertinent recommendations like the clarification of the Education Act and ceasing church sponsorship in public institutions. Lastly, areas for further research have been suggested and this includes the need to investigate the community's perception of the role of the sponsor in public secondary schools. This will generate more information for conflict-free sponsor involvement in school management.


Over the course of only some twenty years, Munich-based ESCADA AG became one of the most renowned brands in the luxury fashion industry and generated almost €1bn in sales at its peak. During an ongoing crisis in the new millennium which finally led to the company's bankruptcy in 2009, ESCADA missed an optimal point in time to divest itself of its non-core segment PRIMERA AG which accounted for roughly one third of its total sales. In this paper we explain the causes of management's disposal hesitation with behavioral finance phenomena such as loss aversion, escalating commitment and status quo bias. This case study therefore illustrates the strong influence that psychological effects and a non-efficient market for corporate control can exert on financing decisions in a real-life corporate scenario. JEL classifications: D03 · G34 · L67


This report describes changes in the offending outcomes observed for 79 young people who between October 2010 and December 2013 graduated from 11 Military-style Activity Camps (MACs) held at Te Puna Wai ō Tuhinapo youth justice residence in Christchurch, New Zealand. The MAC programme was introduced as part of a Fresh Start package of reforms in October 2010. MACs are intended to target the most serious and repeat young offenders, and are undertaken as part of a Supervision with Residence (SwR) order.  All of these young people had a post-MAC follow-up period of at least 12 months so their follow-up offending could be observed. Caution must be taken in interpreting reoffending outcomes as they are not always a measure of the effectiveness of an intervention alone. For example, some people may reoffend less often simply due to the fact that they were caught by the Police and made to account for their actions, regardless of the particular intervention applied. Key findings Offending outcomes observed for the MAC graduates included: Eleven (14%) of the 79 young people did not reoffend (ie they did not come to the attention of Police with a new offence) in the 12 months after exiting the residence. Sixty (76%) of the 79 young people offended less often, and 62 (78%) reduced the seriousness of their offending in the 12 months after the MACs compared with the 12 months before. Theft and burglary were the most common offences committed by the young people. Overall, in the 12 months after the MACs, these offences reduced by 43% and 57% respectively compared to the 12 months prior. Violent offending by the 79 young people reduced by 54% in the 12 months after the MACs compared with the 12 months before. While the majority of young people reduced the frequency and seriousness of their offending, around one-fifth of MAC graduates increased the frequency and/or seriousness of their offending after the MACs. Twenty-four (30%) of the 79 young people were imprisoned or received a new Supervision with Residence (SwR) order in the 12 months after completing a MAC. This rate was higher for Europeans than Māori, although due to small numbers, this result needs to be treated with caution. Further research The reoffending outcomes observed for MAC graduates appear very similar to those for all young people who have received SwR orders. However, to test differences, a robust statistical approach such as a matched comparison analysis is required. Such an analysis was not in scope for this report, but could usefully be undertaken in the future. Some of the MAC graduates spent time out of the community on custodial remand or subject to custodial orders/sentences which may have had some effect on their rates of offending. The feasibility of calculating an adjusted reoffending rate that reflects actual time spent in the community could usefully be investigated in the future


The purpose of this study is to investigate the students' perception towards e-learning in the Content Management course during the Covid-19 pandemic. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Bahrain Polytechnic. The participants n=19 in the study were Bahrain Polytechnic students enrolled in the Content Management course, which is Level 6 (Year 1) course at the National Qualification Framework (NQF). The questionnaire was administered to the participants for data collection at the end of the semester. Descriptive statistics were applied for determining the perceptions of students towards e-learning where frequencies and percentages were computed for demographics. Overall, 97% of students have positive perceptions towards e-learning. Blended learning approach was adopted with synchronous and asynchronous teaching methodologies throughout the semester to increase students' interaction and task engagement. The overall results indicated positive student's perception toward e-learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results of this study can also be used as a source of information for educators, researchers or anybody interested in e-learning.


women, and children as readily and with as little evident compunction as one might cash in a certificate of deposit today. As Walter Johnson (Soul By Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market [1999]) and others have argued, to oppose slaveholding and capitalism makes little sense. In the everyday life of the expanding plantation South, white people bought and sold black people in the quest to create, preserve, and recreate themselves and their hopes for themselves through the entrepreneurial opportunities and commodified dreams of the market. Indeed, one could see the Brown sisters, though women and thus barred by custom and their own assumptions from seizing all the opportunities of a modernizing American society (and both Ellen and Corinna, in different ways, chafed under those restrictions), as entrepreneurs of the self. Left with little by the deaths of their parents, they moved 1,500 miles from their birthplaces and carved lives out of the frontier's opportunities. Their education, their wits, their pens, and the lives and bodies of enslaved human beings all served as tools for escape from the abyss of poverty-stricken, housebound spinsterhood that Ellen and Corinna saw yawning all around them. And yet Ellen and Corinna would, each in her own particular way, be undone by the opportunities that they seized, the options offered by their society, and the commitments necessary for full participation in the market-driven, expansive society with which they sought to rise. The reader of these letters will find out what I mean—and will find the process worthwhile.


In this paper, we partially modify our definition of Hyperbolic Fuzzy Set (HFS), where we have mentioned about the indeterminateness degree of HFSs.


The existing problems of the development of the kindergarten teachers in primary schools in China lie in three aspects: fault training before their practice, negative effect of exam oriented education, and the teacher's further training to be improved and enhanced. In order to this work well, we should begin with four approaches: formulation and implement of the planning; construction of the network and administration of the training; pushing forwa key teachers' training; strengthening the exemplary role of "windows".


This article presents the data survey conducted onthe internet and audiovisual production to identifyprofiles on social networks, blogs, pages and mediaproduced by the indigenous people of MatoGrosso, Brazil, with a brief analysis of the contentand indigenous presence in the internet and inmedia production. This article is part of a researchproject that aims to think the presence of informationand communication technologies in thecontext of the education of the indigenous peopleof Mato Grosso.


Usage of biofuels received much attention in the current situation of depleting fossil-fuel reserves and in- creased emission legislation. Many ideas have been implemented upon usage of biofuels for energy production to achieve low-emission levels. Internal combustion engines are the basic prime movers for power generation as well as for transpor- tation purpose, which are basically run on fossil petroleum. Usage of eco-friendly fuels like ethanol and biodiesel as alter- nate fuels in engines attracted the attention of researchers. The present work envisages the effects of ester addition to the ethanol-diesel blends like E10, E20 and E30. The performance and emissions nature of ethanol-diesel blended fuel was observed using a single-cylinder, direct injection, constant speed diesel engine. Exhaust gas recirculation was adopted to control NOx emissions. Engine performance in terms of brake specific fuel consumption, and brake thermal efficiency is compared. The results showed that, the engine performance has been improved with an addition of ester to ethanol-diesel blend. Considerable reductions in emissions also been observed with the addition of ester, and using the EGR option reduc- tion of NOx emissions was observed.


Discontinuous precipitation of chromium-rich Co3V lamellae has been found in a Co-based alloy containing 2 wt% V after prolonged ageing at 800 {\degr}C. This discontinuous precipitation is associated with a noticeable redistribution of alloying elements in the alloy relative to those parts of the aged alloy that preserve the c.c.p.-L12 microstructure found in the as-cast and homogenized condition. The orientation relationship between the c.c.p. Co-rich matrix and these hexagonal phase chromium-rich Co3V precipitates is shown to be || and [1 1 1]Co || , i.e. || and [1 1 1]Co || in the four-index notation. 3 × 3 transformation matrices relating directions and planes in the two phases have been established. The observed orientation relationship between the two phases is consistent with low lattice misfit between the two phases.


In order to study the spectral response of GaAs(Cs, NF3) photocathodes, Quantum Efficiency was measured as a function of incident photon energy and compared with Monte Carlo simulations. Experimental data has been taken on two different photocathodes after they have been activated and as they are "dying". Monte Carlo simulations of activated GaAs have been done with different electron affinity while the photon energy is being varied. A comparison of experiment and simulation is promising, although more work on the simulation is being done.


Classical parking functions arise from an analogy of drivers attempting to park in spots along a one-way street, which we consider a directed path, via a fixed parking process. We give a new generalization of the parking process, as well as prime parking functions, to all directed graphs. We then present some enumerative results for trees with edges oriented either towards or away from a root.


On the basis of the data on actually measured 10 minutes average wind speed at 10 m height,the distribution characteristics of raw wind speed are analyzed.The parameters of Weibull distribution,average wind speed and distribution variance are calculated with the least error approach method.According to the analysis of local Weibull distribution,the average wind power density,effective average wind power density and possible utilization hours of wind farm at each height are obtained.The results are available for the wind energy development in local region.


The effect of monthly rainfalls and temperatures during the growing season, upon the resultant yields of oats is studied by the correlation coefficient method and also by the isopract technique.Cool, wet Junes and Julys are the most important features for high subsequent yields, the degree of significance of these varying, however, according to latitude and topography.A system of 13 zones, each more or less homogeneous in these respects is discussed for the Southern Ontario region.Suggestions for future improvement of varieties in the poorer areas, as well as for more reliable crop and climatic statistics is made.The paper also contains a historical summary of similar work done elsewhere in the world, the results so obtained being contrasted with the present ones.


Banks have been required to report many securities and all derivatives at fair values under U.S. GAAP rules for many years. Soon, International Accounting Standards will provide some banks with a "fair-value option" for loans, also. A similar movement toward applying fair values to loans may occur in the U.S. in the near future, too. ; This paper argues that fair-value accounting is inappropriate for banks' relationship loans from the standpoint of safety-and-soundness supervision—that is, for the purposes of calculating a bank's regulatory capital. The argument is straightforward, although perhaps not obvious.


In the era of a super-aged society, along with the rapid development of medical techniques to treat cardiovascular disease, there are an increasing number of aged patients with heart failure (HF). To cope with this near pandemic, coordinated-HF management combining hospital-based optimal therapy and home-based care is required. Accordingly, the concept of "living with HF" is advocated and is widely accepted as a key to improve patients' quality of life as well as prognosis. To achieve it, home visiting nursing services are essential. But these services have some difficulties. This chapter shows the importance of promoting self-management for patients with heart failure and intervention strategies in the home care setting.


Perhaps, of the two sides of the coin of 'Indian identity' that of the Indian in a changing India and of the Indian in a foreign country Indian novelists appear better qualified to handle the former. The background at least, with the description of the typical Indian festivals like Holi or Gokul .Asthami, the heat, the squalor, and the splendour of Indian cities like Bombay or Calcutta come out appealingly, as in Santha Rama Rau's Remember the House or Anita Desai's Tloices in the


Part I Oxford Historians: The Righteous Wrath of James E. Thorold Rogers Professors and Tutors Tutors and Students. Part II The Cambridge Economists: Economics at Cambridge, c1885 Tinkering with the Triposes The Liberation of Economics. Part III Economic History and the Contraction of Economics: The Contraction of Economics.


20 kV distribution network. PT.PLN (Persero) APJ Purwokerto form air
channels 3 phase 4 wires to form a network of loop networks. On a system of
distribution network must have experienced power shrinkage. Due to a
distribution system, energy is transferred from a source or generator will not be
delivered to a full 100% loading. Therefore to monitor the amount of loss or
losses which must be experienced to formulate a plan, calculation. and
maintenance to minimize such losses. Although the results will not be able to
reach 100% effort to minimize losses must still be done. By analyzing the neutral
currents and electrical leakage that occurs outside the system (power theft) and
perform periodic maintenance and monitoring, is expected to minimize these
losses.
From the recent analysis we know that more greater neutral flow which is
spawn and more electric leak happens will make losses more greater.
The result of project recently is that can analyze the effect of unbalance
load on the neutral current, cause and solution losses.


Abstract The way in which economic trends such as globalization and cultural trends such as the African Renaissance become economically as well as linguistically influential has repercussions for the quest for new political, cultural, and linguistic identity formations in the "New South Africa." Background knowledge about the cultural, linguistic, and political identification processes that speakers are engaged in is a crucial part of the meaningful linguistic interpretation. In this paper, the role of English in national reidentification in South Africa is discussed against the backdrop of these two major sociopolitical trends. Issues relating to the position of African languages are also alluded to. Finally it is argued that "creeping global monolingualism" can only be countered by large-scale financial investment in large-scale language-policy planning in Africa which may elevate the status of African languages in the different regions.


This paper presents a technique to detect cyber terrorists suspected activities over the net by integrating the Krill Herd and Simulated Annealing algorithms. Three new level of categorizations, including low, high, and interleave have been introduced in this paper to optimize the accuracy rate. Two thousand datasets had been used for training and testing with 10-fold cross validation for this research and the simulations were performed using Matlab®. Based on the conducted experiment, this technique produced 73.01% accuracy rate for the interleave level; thus, outperforming the benchmark work. The findings can be used as a guidance and baseline work for other researchers with the same interest in this area.


Response of rainfed crops viz., groundnut, red gram and gingelly to improved agronomic practices were tested on farmer fields of Chittoor and YSR Kadapa districts during kharif 2014 and kharif 2015. Adaption of improved agronomic practices in groundnut such as use of drought tolerant variety Dharani, maintaining optimum plant population by adapting proper seed rate @ 150 kgha-1 (30 cm x 10 cm), seed treatment with recommended chemicals, recommended dose of fertilizer i.e., NPK @ 20:40: 50 kgha-1 at the time of sowing and top dressing of 500kg gypsum per ha at the time of flowering, application ZnSO4 @ 25 kgha-1and Borax @10 kg ha-1 at the time of sowing, pre emergence application of herbicide Pendimethalin @ 1 Kg a.i ha-1 with three rows of border crop of Jowar, In red gram improved wilt tolerant variety TRG-59, Thinning and application of 20-50 N,P kgha-1and suitable and timely plant protection measures. In gingelly improved variety swethatil, thinning and plant protection measures would effectively reduce the technology gap and resulted in enhanced productivity of rainfed crops in both the districts of Andhra Pradesh.


Limnoperna fortunei (Dunker, 1857), during its invasion process in South America, has caused severe impacts both on natural environments altering native biodiversity, ecosystem structure and function-, and on man-made structures causing economic looses. Twenty-one samples were taken from the right bank of the Uruguay River, from tributaries of the Uruguay and Parana Rivers, the drainage of the Esteros del Ibera Wetland. Based on this fieldwork, the presence of larvae and adults of L. fortunei was determined. Also, through the comparison of environmental characteristic with the known tolerance limits for the species, the possibility of its establishment in environments not yet invaded was determined. Most of the sampling stations have features that allow the development of stable populations L. fortunei, including the rivers that drain the Esteros del Ibera, allowing access of this invasive species to this important wetland.


Llinas de Sota used to say that the master can turn a string into an umbrella. More like a virtuoso magician -nothing here, nothing therethan an architect. Maybe like a beloved wizard. And for Llinas, the sorcerer's apprentice who long since turned more master than apprentice. I would like to think also that architecture is a matter of stringing. Of strings and boxes. Of shaping boxes and tightening strings on them so that like musical instruments, they can rings. And as the music rings out, being enveloped in its chords, the mechanism which produces it is forgotten. When all is said and done, is not architecture like music? Is not every work of architecture, every building, like a musical instrument which, mellowed by sunlight and played on by the use of man, produces tones which make us quiver with emotion? Is not the architect like a maker of musical instruments? Is not the architect one who, with the simplest materials makes something beyond words (How difficult it is to define Architecture') who, absorbed by light and tuned by men's lives, is able to bring forth the innermost vibrations? Llinas, more as a talented lutemaker than architect, and manipulates the simplest materials .. And with these, their qualities chosen in silence by wisdom, and their shape fashioned with intelligent perfection, he produces their instruments: marvellous boxes, which, once their strings have been tightened, are able to bring forth the most melodious of harmonies. (Do you not hear the noises of John Cage? Perhaps you do not listen to the sacred sound of gentle life? Maybe you do not recognize the moving sarabands of Marin Marais? Boxes and taut strings whose final purpose will be, not so much to flaunt the beauty of their shape, nor to show off their sound construction, nor to be true to their history, but mainly and above all else, to be able to produce the most harmonious of music. What is the fascinating cylinder of the Collblanc School in Barcelona, but a sound box, a powerful drum? The roundness of the classical cylindrical shape, far from~ empty formalisms, gaining all its meaningfrOm its adeptness to respond, differently according to different tensions tugging at it. Urbanity regained' Silently closing its eyes to the monster's threatening shadows, it finds its counterpoint in its serene opening to the light. The powerful cylinder lives, it opens up and rises, feeling part of its surroundings. As Norberg Schulz put it so well about the Kahnian work, it rises above «a cloud of leaves». It opens up, looking slyly and roguishly «everywhere, SON LO QUE SON


Measures of horizontal extinction were initiated at the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona In January of 1972, and by October of 1973 an instrumental accuracy compatible with the best observing conditions was achieved. Excellent data obtained in a horizontal direction during a seven night run are compared with long term highly standardized astronomical measures of extinction obtained at Flagstaff during the period 1955–1972. The data obtained both vertically and horizontally suggest that the extinction and scattering due to aerosols were at times as low as 10% of that caused by molecular (Rayleigh) scattering alone. The vertical extinction seems to correspond (with several months lag) to rough estimates of volcanic loading; the effect of the March 17, 1963 outburst of Mount Agung, a volcano on the island of Bali, very probably caused abnormally high extinction in late summer of that year. A generally high extinction level was observed throughout 1964-1965 with a rather slow decay to a "normal" level...


Heart failure (HF) shares a bidirectional cause and effect relationship with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). This review aims to address the epidemiology, etiopathogenesis, and treatment for such patients as early suspicion, and treatment is the key to improved morbidity and mortality.


A mobile communication terminal capable of editing avatar motions. The mobile communication terminal includes a memory and a controller. The memory Stores a plurality of commands corresponding respectively to a plurality of ava tar motions. The plurality of commands are associated with a plurality of numerals, respectively. The controller displayS Specific avatar motions of the plurality of avatar motions in order. The Specific avatar motions correspond respectively to numerals included in a phone number corresponding to an incoming or outgoing call if the incoming or outgoing call is performed.


Lumateperone (ITI-007) is a serotonin 5HT2A tosylate salt with high affinity for dopamine D2 and D1 receptors and the serotonin transporter. It is unusual in that it controls serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate neurotransmission concurrently, all of which have been implicated in severe mental illness. Consider it a multi-targeted ligand and multifunctional modulator of the serotoninergic system with possible precognitive, antipsychotic, antidepressant, and anxiolytic properties. While lumateperone has been explored as a new agent for schizophrenia therapy, it also provides a unique therapeutic option for a range of other psychiatric and neurological diseases, including behavioural signs of dementia or Alzheimer's disease, sleep problems, and bipolar depression. Additionally, it had a better safety profile than placebo, with no significant extrapyramidal side effects, hyperprolactinemia, or changes in cardiometabolic or endocrine characteristics. Additional study is needed to validate and analyse lumateperone's effectiveness, as well as to identify prospective therapeutic targets. This article gives a comprehensive overview of the most notable results and potential future applications of this chemical in personalised medicine, particularly for neurodegenerative diseases.


The purpose of this paper is to present a brief discussion of contemporary well-information systems. Equipment and procedures useful for geopressured reservoir description are emphasized. Efficient execution of a proposed drilling operation begins with preplanning. The well information systems to be employed depend upon the cost and complexity of the operation. If abnormal pressures are anticipated, equipment and techniques have been developed for monitoring instantaneous indicators and drilling trends. The occurrence of pressure can be detected with sufficient accuracy to ensure safe and economical operation. Reservoir data accumulated during the drilling operation can be beneficial to both drilling and reservoir engineers. These data can be made available in the form of tables and logs. Computer-generated data can be stored for later processing. (6 figs., 2 tabs., 8 refs.)


This study examines the relations between beliefs about the causes of rape and attitudinal and cognitive style (the tendency to think about social problems systemically, the view of people as complex and changeable, and an intellectual personality) measures in a sample of 270 community-college students. The Perceived Causes of Rape (PCR) Scale included the following subscales: Male Dominance, Society and Socialization, Female Precipitation, Male Sexuality, and Male Hostility. Beliefs about the causes of rape varied on three dimensions: individual versus sociocultural causes of rape, those causes that focus on the perpetrator versus those that focus on the victim, and rape myths versus feminist beliefs. The causes of rape identified as rape myths were associated with male sexuality stereotypes, a version of Burt's (1980) Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, attitudes toward feminism, and self-identification as a feminist. Agreement with the sociocultural causes of rape was associated with cognitive style measures and age. We suggest that belief in sociocultural causes of rape may require a predisposition to think systemically as much as an ideological stance.


Library Quarterly's seventy‐fifth anniversary invites an analysis of the journal's bibliometric dimension, including contributor attributes, various author rankings, and citation impact. Eugene Garfield's HistCite software, linked to Thomson Scientific's Web of Science, as made available by Garfield, for the period 1956–2004, was used as the core database for analysis in this essay. A brief comparison of Library Quarterly contributor citation impact and that of College & Research Libraries is also provided. Library Quarterly continues to attract a roster of highly productive, international scholars.


Aims & method Learning psychotherapy can be difficult and stressful. We explore core trainees' (n = 5) views on undertaking a psychodynamic psychotherapy training case using transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP), in an East London NHS Foundation Trust supervision group. We used framework analysis of focus group interviews to examine trainees' concerns, their views about this experience and its impact on general psychiatric practice. Results Trainees described various concerns on starting: providing an effective intervention, insufficient experience and training-related pressures. However, they found that TFP addressed some of them and was helpful for learning psychodynamic psychotherapy. Difficulties around the countertransference remained at end-point. Trainees suggested that introductory teaching and learning through observation might be worthwhile. Clinical implications Trainees' experience suggests that an evidence-based operationalised approach such as TFP can be integrated into the core psychiatry curriculum as a psychodynamic psychotherapy learning method. Trainees report benefits extending to other areas of their practice.


Antihistamines are widely used drugs in pediatric population. First-generation antihistamines have been in use since last many years, though adequate data on their efficacy and safety in pediatric population is scarce. In contrast, second-generation antihistamines have been studied extensively in children and have a better safety profile with more receptor selectivity and less adverse effects. Pruritus has a significant impact on the quality of life in children and its management is of paramount importance. This article reviews the first and second-generation antihistamines in the light of recent advances in the understanding of their pharmacological properties and safety profile in children. An extensive literature search was done; all clinical trials, randomized double-blinded or single-blinded controlled trials, open-label studies, retrospective studies, reviews, case series, and case reports focusing on the use of antihistamines in pediatric age groups were screened. The selected articles were retrieved; the final manuscript was prepared, analyzed, and presented in a narrative fashion.


The end of communist rule and of the USSR itself brought an end to the restrictions upon freedom of worship with which Russian religious believers had previously been obliged to contend. 1 There had certainly been significant changes in the position of believers and their churches in the late communist period. Mikhail Gorbachev, it emerged, had himself been baptised; his mother was a regular worshipper. 2 An early gesture of some importance was the return of the Danilov monastery in Moscow to the Orthodox Church; refurbished, it played a central role in the millennium of the Orthodox Church in 1988, which brought church and state more closely together than at any time in the recent past. Speaking at this time the patriarch described the communist party programme as 'highly humane' and 'close to the Christian ideal';3 Gorbachev himself met the patriarch during the celebrations and noted that church and state shared a 'common interest' in protecting public morality.4 In December 1989 Gorbachev had met the pope, in what was the first encounter of its kind; the following year diplomatic relations were formally established with the Holy See.5 In 1990 the Communist Party adopted a new set of rules allowing religious believers to join its ranks. Believers, even priests, began to appear in the press and electronic media; the first religious leaders were elected to the Soviet parliament in 1989; a weekly religious newspaper was launched; and a religious presence began to establish itself in charitable and educational work. The last months of communist rule, in 1990 and 1991, extended the liberties of believers through a series of more formal measures. The Law on Property, approved in 1990, gave the churches full rights of ownership,6 and a Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organisations, adopted later in the year, affirmed the right of believers to practise and of parents to give their children a religious upbringing. The churches, for their part, had the right to participate in public life and establish their own media outlets, although not to establish or finance their own political parties; and they had the right to establish their own schools and higher educational institutions, and to produce and sell their own literature.7 The USSR parliament, in one of its last acts, adopted a Declaration of the Rights and Freedoms of the Individual which guaranteed freedom of religious belief and practice, including the right to evangelise and to conduct religious education.8 The Russian parliament, meeting in November 1991, adoted a more specific set of 'rights and freedoms of the individual and citizen', and in April 1992 they were incorporated into the Russian constitution. The


Fresh fish is a highly perishable product due to its high protein content. A preservative may be needed to inhibit it. Nowadays, many fishes were reported to be exposed to formalin. This study aimed to determine the effect of short period processing (washing, frying, boiling in short-period) and storage (at the room and at freezing temperatures) on the residue of formalin in catfish, as a food model. Catfish, Clarias gariepinus, were divided into 8 groups, e.g. before treatment, washing in airflow for 1 minute, frying in 200°C for 8 minutes, boiling in 100°C for 7 minutes, storage at room temperature (29±1°C) for 24 and 48 hours, storage at freezing temperature (-3°C) for 24 and 48 hours. Before treatment, C. gariepinus was soaked in 1,480 ppm of formalin solutions. The residue of formalin was measured at the end of each treatment by using a spectrophotometer. Data were then analyzed with analysis of variance with SPSS software. The results showed that there were significant effects of processing and storage treatment on the formalin residue of C. gariepinus. The formalin residue of all treatments was lower than before treatments. The frying processing and storage at freezing temperatures were the most effective treatments in reducing the formalin residue.


In the conventional rate distortion optimization (RDO) video coding, the measure of distortion is mainly from the perspective of signal processing, while dose not fully take into account the characteristics of visual perception. People have concerns about not only the information of independent pixels, but also the temporal and spatial correlations between them. For different video content, human visual perception has different sensitivity. In this paper, in order to establish a RDO model which is more consistent with the human visual perception, we introduce the structural similarity and the content saliency information into the distortion metric. An adaptive Lagrange multiplier selection scheme is presented to allocate the bit resources more rationally by keeping the balance of the bit-rate and the visual quality. Experimental results show that the proposed method averagely reduces 10.14% bit-rate under the similar visual quality.


In the case of agency theory and information asymmetry, cost of capital should be considered during the process of making dividend decisions. The concept of capital cost is formed under the cost of capital mechanism with specific conditions. The random quantity of dividend payment in Chinese listed companies shows, corporate managers are lack of concept of capital cost because of the absence of conditions required by capital cost mechanism. As a result, in order to standardize listed companies' dividend payment behavior, stakeholders should start with consummating the capital cost mechanism required conditions.


The integral equation describing the transport of monoenergetic, isotropically scattered neutrons in a one‐, two‐, or three‐dimensional body of arbitrary convex shape, containing distributed sources, is considered. An exact representation of the neutron density ρ(r) is obtained, involving a superposition of functions belonging to the null space of a simple differential operator. In general, when a countable basis is chosen to span the null space, the coefficients in the expansion of ρ(r) satisfy a coupled system of singular integral equations which is reducible to a system of Fredholm equations. If no sources are present, an exact criticality condition is also obtained. Some techniques for evaluating the expansion coefficients are given and several examples are considered.


A study was conducted to determine the effects of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations and P use efficiency from Minjingu phosphate rock (MPR), Minjingu mazao and Triple Super Phosphate (TSP) fertilizers under irrigated rice (Oryza sativa L.) production in Lekitatu village, Meru district, Arusha region, Tanzania. The initial soil pH in the two experimental sites was slightly alkaline while total N and available P was low and medium respectively. Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications was adopted and phosphorus was applied at the rates of 0, 20, 40 and 60 kg P ha-1 as MPR, Minjingu mazao and TSP. Nitrogen was applied uniformly at a rate of 60 kg N ha-1 as urea taking into account the 10% N contained in the Minjingu mazao fertilizer. Phosphorus application increased N and P contents in the rice plants and phosphorus use efficiency (PUE) with the increase of P levels from 0 to 60 kg P ha-1 for all P sources. The site 1 had more PUE than site 2 due to higher moisture content. These effects were due to increased availability and nutrients uptake by plants, particularly P. Based on the results, it is recommended that; Minjingu mazao at the rates of 40 to 60 kg P ha-1, MPR and TSP at a rate of 60 kg P ha-1, respectively have to be adopted for sustainable soil P use in rice production areas of Lekitatu village.


Purpose: This study aims to explore and develop a clearer understanding of the factors that influence success in Malaysian small and medium enterprises by implementing entrepreneurship and strategic management, as perceived by local owner and/or managers. Design/Methodology/Approach: Using a qualitative approach, fifteen in-depth face-to-face semistructured interviews were conducted with selected owner-managers of SMEs, forming a judgmental selection, to explore their experiences, beliefs, and attitudes with respect to the external factors of


Neural networks are now a popular technology for a broad variety of application domains, including the electric utility industry. Yet, as the technology continues to gain increasing acceptance, it is also increasingly apparent that the power that neural networks provide is not an unconditional blessing. Considerable care must be exercised during application development if the full benefit of the technology is to be realized. At present, no fully general theory or methodology for neural network design is available, and application development is a trial-and-error process that is time-consuming and expertise-intensive. Each application demands appropriate selections of the network input space, the network structure, and values of learning algorithm parameters-design choices that are closely coupled in ways that largely remain a mystery. This EPRI-funded exploratory research project was initiated to take the key next step in this research program: the validation of the approach on a realistic problem. We focused on the problem of modeling the thermal performance of the TVA Sequoyah nuclear power plant (units 1 and 2).


SUMMARY The use of satellite based Global Positioning System (GPS) is normal in engineering and surveying for a wide range of applications as the accuracy capability increases. The GPS satellites transmit signals that are received by the receivers on the earth's surface to determine the position. As long as each satellite's signal travels along a direct path straight to the receiver's antenna, the unit can determine the satellite range quite accurately. However the ground and other objects easily reflect GPS signals, often resulting in one or more secondary paths, which are superimposed on the direct-path signals at the antenna and caused longer propagation time and can significantly distort the signals waveform's amplitude and phase. This paper will discuss the detection of the multipath errors from test carried out using two different types and design of GPS antenna. The existence of the multipath is analyzed.


This paper presents the parallel implementation and performance evaluation of a fast third-order Volterra digital filtering algorithm mapped onto an AT&T DSP-3 parallel processor. Five different implementations are considered. A timing analysis of the parallel implementations is presented. Based on execution time measurement, we determine the important factors affecting the performance of the filtering algorithm. Reservation tables are used to illustrate the different implementations. Speed-up results indicate that the "time-skewing" implementation has the highest throughput. An application to nonlinear communication channel equalization is also presented.


This paper introduces the testing processes and methods for 100,000m3 thin oil sealed dry gas holder and discusses the main causes of weld breakage and oil leakage.Based on the results of testing and appraisal,some corresponding repair programs are put forward,as well as the maintenance and supervision in the running after the repair.


Accelerating the construction of a low-carbon, safe, and modern energy system is becoming a critical developmental path toward solving the climate change problem. China provides institutional support in various ways for this clean and efficient new energy, but there is still a gap between the developmental scale and the planned target. Considering the theory of system support and the coalbed methane industry, we combed the existing institutional support for the coalbed methane industry based on grounded theory and defined the initial model. We used the system dynamics method to construct and simulate the model and verified the system's effectiveness by using the goodness of fit. The results show that institutional support promotes the development of the coalbed methane industry, and the interaction between the two forms a dynamic system. Based on the sensitivity analysis method, the enlightenment of the management with respect to the improvement of the development of the coalbed methane industry was obtained. Firstly, the management of coalbed methane mining rights should be supervised and large-scale utilization should be strengthened. Secondly, the central government's subsidies should be raised and local governments should be encouraged to provide support. Thirdly, technological innovation should be enhanced and fair competition should be ensured.


The number of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) requiring hemodialysis is constantly rising worldwide. Vascular hemodialysis access is considered the lifeline for patients with end-stage renal disease, and arteriovenous fistula (AVF) has been the golden standard access for hemodialysis. In Europe, over 25% of all hospital admissions for ESRD are for the construction or maintenance of a patent vascular hemodialysis access.


The present invention relates to an optical pickup apparatus, the apparatus comprising a biaxially against the signal recording surface of the objective lens actuator of the optical disc; on which is mounted a biaxial actuator and movable along the radial direction of the optical disc carriage ; emitting surface and the shutter opened and closed by a laser beam for transmission of the objective lens. A shutter connected to the slide, so as to be movable, and is provided with a trigger portion manipulated by the rack, the rack carriage movably supported to open and close operations.


There is a general acknowledgement in almost all civilizations that the heart is the most important organ in the human body. Both Chinese medicine and Western traditional medicine have a long history of heart research, but they have developed different points of view based on the basic cognition. Traditional Chinese medicine is good at summarizing the correspondence and relationship between the heart and exterior things. The physiological functions of the heart are governing blood and vessels, controlling the mind, opening into the tongue, manifesting on the face, and so on, while modern Western medicine does well in exploring the anatomical structure, spacial connection, and micromechanical character of the organ. Chinese medicine and Western medicine have established the diagnosis and management system, respectively, from their own angles. Combining the knowledge of Chinese and Western medicine can take the advantages of either of the two, making it deeper and more comprehensive for studying and treating heart diseases.


To the Editors: Very interesting! That's what I thought when I read the article by Leterrier et al. (1992) on the molecular mechanism of the induction of neurofilament (NF) bundling by A1 ions. The authors presented in vitro experiments suggesting that A1 alone or in combination with ligainds increases the phosphorylation of H and M NF subunits and induces strong cross-linking between NFs. These alterations might be involved in the formation of tangles in situ. A problem that is not clear is the chemical nature of the binding sites of A1 ions on the NF molecules. Some experiments showed that the phosphate groups may not be the exclusive A1 binding sites. The role of the tract of negatively charged residues that is found in the three NF proteins is suspected but not proved. Here, I remembered the existence of a conservative domain between a part of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) and the three NF subunits (Delamarche, 1989). APP is the membrane precursor of the A4 peptide, the major component of the amlyloid plaques found in Alzheimer's disease. The APP sequence, including residues 222-264, contains 50% amino acids in consensus with the corresponding stretch of the NFs. So, this APP domain is as close to each NF sequence as NF-H and NF-M themselves (Fig. 1). What is the significance of this information? That's the question! One can suggest that acidic sequences could serve as specific targets for positive ions and could be involved in mechanisms of protein maturation and cross-bridge formation. Ca2+ and Mg2+ could be suspected of causing these effects. Calcium plays a central role in the regulation of neuronal function (Kennedy, 1989). It can bind on proteins at the level of negatively charged oxygen atoms that are present on glutamic/aspartic residues and can induce conformational changes. These create new epitopes that can react with molecules of the neuronal environment: kinases and phosphatases, proteases and their inhibi-