Most of researchers in synoptic studies believe, there is a relationship between climatic and hydrological phenomena in different corners of the world with EL-Nino and southern oscillations index. therefore in this research, seven synoptic stations containing long-term data selected and analyzed the rainfall data in a regional study and investigated the correlation between Southern Oscillations index and incidence of dry/wet periods in north of Iran. The results in 95% level of significance showed that, there is a significant relation between mean annual rainfall in north of Iran and Southern Oscillation index. It should be considered that the correlation index between these two parameters was not equal in different spots and it decreased considerably from west to east. Mean while, there was a negative Pearson correlation between this index and monthly/annual rainfall in north of Iran which occurs with a few months delay. Whereas changes of Southern Oscillation index in summer and autumn, mainly showed more correlation with its influence on the rainfall in March and such changes, during the winter and spring was effecting on the rainfall in January until August in north of Iran.


In a semivowel recognition system developed by Espy‐Wilson [Mass. Inst. Technol. Res. Lab. Electron. Tech. Rep. No. 531 (1987)], the sounds /l/ and /w/ were frequently confused, especially when they occurred intervocalically. In this study, the perceptual importance of some of the cues used in the recognition system, as well as some others which appear to be salient, were investigated. An [ala]‐[awa] continuum was synthesized. The starting point was an easily identifiable [ala] stimulus. Three factors were varied orthogonally to shift the percept towards [awa]: (1) the rate of change in the formant transitions between the semivowel and following vowel, (2) the rate of change in the amplitudes of F3, F4, and F5 between the semivowel and following vowel, and (3) the spectral shape of the semivowel (coronal or labial). Preliminary results of an identification test show that spectral shape and the rate of change of the formant transitions are important cues, whereas the rate of change in the amplitudes of F3,...


In the conditions of modern education an apprenticeship is still the most important component of vocational training of students of medical schools. Performing of «Laboratorian» apprenticeship in well-equipped laboratories of medical institutions at the high methodical level allows not only to create practical skills and to receive idea of laboratory service, but also to adapt in a profession, to set the objects of the career development, to create own trajectory of professional development.


The purpose of this study was to examine constructions within the Swedish legal system of the plaintiff and the defendant in court cases involving domestic violence. Nils Christies theory of the id ...


Resumen en: Depression is the most common affective disorder in cancer patients. Understanding risk factors for depression or elevated depressive symptoms is key to ...


The author cites four cases of sweat-gland abscesses successfully treated by injecting patients' own blood into the tissue surrounding the abscess.


A method for measuring photo-fluorescence decay times to approximately 10-9 sec is described. Observations are made of the phase and modulation of the light from a 7·5 Mc/s air discharge tube, and of the fluorescence excited by this light, using a photomultiplier modulated at 15 Mc/s. The decay times of anthracene, stilbene, terphenyl and diphenylacetylene crystals of various thicknesses have been measured. Due to the overlap of the emission and absorption spectra, the technical decay time of a thick crystal is greater than the molecular decay time (t f )0 observed for a microcrystalline specimen. For anthracene t f = 14 ± 2 mμsec and (t f )0 = 3-5 + 1-0 m/xsec. This value of t f agrees with that derived from (t f )0 and the comparative technical and molecular emission spectra. For each of the compounds studied the molecular decay time (t f ),00 in the absence of internal quenching, is of the order of 3–4 mμsec.


In a global context of union decline and widening economic insecurity, unions must decide how to relate to extra-workplace struggles and those without stable or unionized employment. One possibility is that unions will adopt a paternalistic view, in which they attempt to serve the interests of nonunion individuals and groups by disciplining them or speaking for them. Drawing on seventy-five brief interviews with participants in a protest led by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), I examine how union activists understood their relationship to the unemployed and local protests within residential areas. Revealing support for union involvement in extra-workplace struggles, the results show that South Africa's legacy of social movement unionism remains strong. Yet, some union activists also wanted to discipline or substitute for community struggles, and felt the need to educate or speak for the unemployed. Such paternalistic views may become an obstacle to broad working-class solidarity, in South Africa or elsewhere.


The greater ease of travel in the twentieth century led Raymond Priestley, geologist to Ernest Shackleton's 1907–1909 Antarctic expedition, in discussing a University of Melbourne geology excursion to the gold mining area of Daylesford in September 1937, to record: "the new method of doing geology with a motor bus while very efficient is not as energetic as the old. It is true we see as much in a day as we used to see in the old days in a week, but it is not all gain for the modern geological student is not fond of using his legs and I don't think they do their work quite as thoroughly as their forebears" (The Diary of a Vice-Chancellor: University of Melbourne 1935-1938, Melbourne, 2002). The introduction of the first air photos, followed by other methods of remote sensing, and later the use of computers for mapping and modelling, have continued to provoke critical comments from older geologists about the 'modern geological student'. The editor of this new book on the interesting topic of geological travel is Patrick Wyse Jackson, and in his excellent introductory overview he asks: why did geologists begin to travel? It might be to understand the geology of another country, for geological education, to collect specimens, as part of the currently popular 'Grand Tour', or for exploration, as when Priestley went with Shackleton to the Antarctic. Some modes of geological travel discussed include: foot, horse, camels (also used in parts of Australia), horse and cart, bicycle, canoe, dog sledge, train (I can add tram, as my University is in a city with an extensive tram system, which made field trips to the outskirts of the city possible in the past). For seeing and understanding geology, perhaps nothing can still match the value of the old, slow, well-elevated and rock-transporting horse and cart, as used in geological survey gold exploration mapping in my own part of Australia in the mid-nineteenth century. The book is attractive, with a hard cover and the Geological Society's usual excellent presentation, but comes at a high price to the buyer unless also a Society Member. It is well illustrated with black and white and sometimes colour photographs, diagrams, reproductions of printed and handwritten pages, and maps (including a large fold-out 'volcano-geomorphological' map by François Pasumot and Nicolas Desmarest of part of the Auvergne, dated 1774). References are attached to each article, and a useful index of seven pages rounds off the book. The articles in the book are the result of a conference held in Dublin in July 2003, when the 28th Symposium of the International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences (INHIGEO), was held at Trinity College, Dublin (where Wyse Jackson holds an appointment). While the papers in this book are of great interest, the 'travelling part' of the conference itself sounds equally attractive, as the introduction records that conference attendees circumnavigated Ireland, visiting such sites as the Giants Causeway and the River Blackwater of Jukes's famous study, in search of more geological travellers' history. This book covers the period from the mid-seventeenth century to the early twentieth century (the 'last four centuries' in the book's title) from when geology became a science in the eighteenth century, to its expansion beyond Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There are twenty-eight papers in the book, including eight on Europe and three from Australasia. There is good world coverage, and three papers are about the Atlantic islands, reflecting European expansion to the West and to the Southern Hemisphere. However, there are none on China (except for two pages in the final paper on geophysical exploration), or on India—maybe there will be more on both these countries and their geological history at a future INHIGEO meeting? One of the most significant papers discusses Darwin's visit to the Cape Verde islands—one of those groups of Atlantic islands visited by early travellers—and reevaluates the influence of Lyell on Darwin's understanding of geology. Paul Pearson and Christopher Nicholas reviewed the geology of the area in the field and were able to demonstrate that Darwin's Lyellian insights into geology came, not on the Cape Verde islands as Darwin himself was to later claim, but rather later on during the voyage of the Beagle. This paper demonstrates the importance of historians of geology travelling to the areas whose influence on the history of geology they are evaluating. Pearson and Nicholas were able to show that Darwin in the early part of the voyage was still not convinced about Lyell's uniformitarianism, and only later when he was looking back and writing up his work for publication did he rethink his ideas about the Cape Verde islands. It's generally best not to 'list lengthy lists' in a book review, but a few papers might be mentioned to help demonstrate the book's contents: 'The organized traveller: scientific instructions for geological travels in Italy and Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries', by Ezio Vaccari (a most useful and appropriate introduction to the book's topic); 'Geological travellers in view of their philosophical and economical intentions: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) and Caspar Maria Count Sternberg (1761–1838)', by Claudia Schweizer; 'The geological travels of Charles Lyell, Charlotte Murchison and Roderick Impey Murchison in France and northern Italy (1828)', by Martina Kolbl-Ebert; 'Alexander von Humboldt in Russia: the 1829 expedition', by F. Naumann; 'Investigating the colonies: native geological travellers in the Portuguese Empire in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries', by Silvia Figueirôa, C. P. da Silva and E. M. Pataca. My own special interest is volcanoes, and there are five such papers in this book: a full account of early studies in the Auvergne, with a chronological inventory of travellers to the region, by Kenneth Taylor; on Vesuvius by Dennis Dean, on the Canary islands by Leonard Wilson, as well as the papers on the Azores and Madeira islands, and Cape Verde. From these, I learnt several new ideas about the history of my favourite study. I might also comment on what I should know more about: the three Australasian articles. In the area around Sydney, Wolf Mayer describes 'The quest for limestone in colonial New South Wales, 1788-1825', and how Sydney's early settlement was hampered by the lack of this basic building material for many years, due to the paucity of geologists and of the necessary geological expertise. From New Zealand, Mike Johnston writes on 'Nineteenth-century observations of the Dun Mountain Ophiolite Belt, Nelson, New Zealand and trans-Tasman correlations'. He describes the work of British-born geologist Thomas Ridge Hacket who first helped in the understanding of dunite, and so with important discoveries of local copper and chromite, leading to the building of New Zealand's first railway. Finally, I turn to a paper which combines both Australia and volcanoes: 'In the footsteps of Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (1792–1855): soldier, surveyor, explorer, geologist, and probably the first person to compile geological maps in Australia', by Australian colleague David Oldroyd. More might have been said about Mitchell's third expedition to Victoria (but Oldroyd tells me that he himself has not travelled much in that state). Mitchell travelled along the River Murray system to the area he called 'Australia Felix', later to become Victoria, passing through the deserts of the northwest of


An effect of nitrogen on damping in Fe-Mn alloys is studied. It is shown that nitrogen provides unchanged value of damping capacity in the alloy Fe-17Mn (wt. %) in spite of a decrease in the fraction of the thermally-induced h.c.p. ∈-martensite. This effect is attributed to an enhanced mobility of Shockley partials at the interface between the ∈-martensite bands and residual austenite. At the same time nitrogen increases the yield and ultimate strengths at nearly the same value of plasticity of the Fe-14Mn alloy and increases plasticity of the Fe-17Mn alloy by more than three times.


Roy Kitchin outlines the development of his sculpture and describes how his work altered following the installation of his large sculpture Lifting Engine in 1978. Five subsequent sculptures are discussed in relation to their effects on the final outcome of the author's Scunthorpe project. Finally he describes the construction of this large steel sculpture on the British Steel Corporation's premises in Scunthorpe, England, and discusses the completed work.


This research work creates computer models to simulate ballistic impacts of a small arm bullet vianon-linear finite element methods. This work studies the kinetic transformation behavior of the bullet to thetarget and their deformation right after the impact. The target materials in this work consisted of 3 homogeneousmaterials: AISI1008 and AA1100 with the thickness of 2, 4 and 6 mm, and AA5083 with the thicknessof 4 and 6 mm. In the physical test, a Glock 19 handgun and 9 mm Parabellum bullets were used. Theexperimental results showed that AA1100 targets were completely penetrated at every thickness whileAISI1008 and AA5083 were not completely penetrated by the bullets. And, AISI1008 at the 6 mm thicknessindicated the best performance on the penetration resistance and the energy reflection from the bulletimpact in this study. In the model tests, the bullet was modeled in 2 cases: rigid bullets and deformablebullets. The initial velocities in this study ranged between 100-200 m/s. The simulation results showed thatthe initial velocity of the bullet in the model has a significant impact to the prediction accuracy and thebullet model as a deformable body provides a much better prediction than that as a rigid body. Keywords : Ballistic Impact / Deformation / Non-linear Finite Element Model / Simulation / VirtualExperiment


Fabless supply chain management has been a core component of competitive strategy to enhance organizational productivity and profitability in nonintegrated Semiconductor industry. This paper develops an effective evaluation model to assess the packaging house and proposes a method to prioritize the different criteria and performance metrics in fabless supply chain using BSC-AHP methodology. Performance measurement and metrics have an important role to play in setting objectives, evaluating performance, and determining future actions. Using the current literature and the results of an empirical study of selected packaging house companies, we suggested performance metrics presented herein, it would stimulate more interest in fabless supply chain. The evaluation model developed in this paper also provides a useful guidance for the practical managers in performance measurement of packaging house.


The present invention discloses a chip packaging structure which comprises a carrier board and a chip set. The chip set comprises a pair of chips are reversely arranged on the carrier board in parallel and is electrically connected with the carrier board.


Smart Cameras are important components in Human Computer Interaction. In any remote surveillance scenario, smart cameras have to take intelligent decisions to select frames of significant changes to minimize communication and processing overhead. Among many of the algorithms for change detection, one based on clustering based scheme was proposed for smart camera systems. However, such an algorithm could achieve low frame rate far from real-time requirements on a general purpose processors (like PowerPC) available on FPGAs. This paper proposes the hardware accelerator capable of detecting real time changes in a scene, which uses clustering based change detection scheme. The system is designed and simulated using VHDL and implemented on Xilinx XUP Virtex-IIPro FPGA board. Resulted frame rate is 30 frames per second for QVGA resolution in gray scale.


The diffusion process in a transistor is simulated by two partial differential equations: Laplace's and Poisson's. The proposed solution consists in an iterative scheme for a determination of the interface between these two equations.The first one consists in the use of an adjoint potential for the reduction of the domain to the boundary integral. The second method consists in a an analytical reduction of the domain integral and a numerical evaluation of the boundary integral using Simpson's rule and Gauss quadrature scheme. The two methods are applied to a free boundary value problem : A Junction Gate Field Effect Transistor. The results obtained are analysed and compared.


T NHE PRESENT study represents an attempt to sum up some of the methods and results of the side-by-side measurement of religious orthodoxy and piety in extreme south-eastern South Dakota in I935. Although individual scores in these religious variables have been given, only group scores are used and reported in this study. Among college students, a group homogeneous in age and culture, five denominational groups were found and scored for orthodoxy and piety. A high correlation exists between these series, showing that, other things being equal, orthodoxy in religious belief is associated with piety in religious observance. Two church groups are used, one itself a combination of two denominations, Congregational and Methodist Episcopal, and the other the Lutheran church people. Comparisons are presented among these two church groups and a larger group of college students, containing students from a denominationally supported school, and from the State University. Different methods are shown for exhibiting these comparisons. The blank questionnaire shown contains spaces for recording doctrinal attitudes and devotional habits and attitudes, together with other data, such as age and denomination of churchmembership.


Fertilization is an important process in the growth of cocoa (Theobroma cacao L). Fertilizing cocoa usually used inorganic fertilizers. Using of inorganic fertilizers continuously could degrading soil fertility. One of the efforts to replace inorganic fertilizers was using endophytic bacteria as biofertilizers. Some endophytic bacteria are abundant in healthy plant tissues. The aim of this research was to obtain endophytic auxin-producing bacteria in cocoa plants and determine the effect of seed immersion and microcapsules addition of endophytic bacteria on cocoa plant growth. The research design used was Complete Randomized Design (CRD), 16 treatments and 3 replications. The first factor was immersion of cocoa seed using endophytic bacteria suspension consisting of S0= 0 hours; S1= 5 hours; S2= 6 hours and S3= 7 hours and the second factor was microcapsules addition consisting of B0= 0 gr; B1= 5 gr; B2= 10 gr; B3= 15 gr. Isolation from the roots and stems of cocoa obtained 5 isolates endophyte bacteria. Auxin assays showed that five isolates were able to produce auxin. Observations on plant height showed the best treatment was treatment B1 (32.49 cm). Observation of total leaves showed S3 treatment was the highest data (11.83 strands). Observation rod diameter parameter, highest data was S3 treatment (4.01 mm). For leaf area parameter, highest value was B1 treatment (66.64 cm2). For wet weight parameter, highest data was S3 treatment (18.41 g). Root length parameter, highest data was B3 treatment (15.78 cm).  Test results showed that the application of suspension and microcapsules of endophytic bacteria significantly increased growth of cocoa.


Laminated rotor induction motors (LRIM) for high-speed operation are compelled to take a circular rotor bar shape to restrain the stresses in the rotor. A 630 W, 150000 rpm LRIM is designed for PCB drilling application. The influence of the rotor bar geometry on the motor performance is analyzed. A novel rotor bar shape, which enhances the torque density of the motor by 13% and also satisfies the mechanical stress constraints, is proposed in this paper. The electromagnetic performance and the mechanical stress profile of the proposed rotor bar shape are analyzed, and the results are compared with those of the circle and drop-shaped bar.


Recently, several global temperature series have been updated using new data sets, new methods, and importantly, assessments of their uncertainties. This enables us to produce a timely estimate of the annual global mean temperature with a smaller combined estimate of uncertainty. We describe the hierarchical model we propose, and a Bayesian scheme for fitting the model, allowing for dependence between the data sets, which all use some of the same observations. The discrepancy between individual data series and the combined estimate illustrates potential sources of deviation between them. In addition, we test the sensitivity of the results to each of the series, using a leave‐one‐out approach. This is a way of combining all the data sets in a way that improves on the straight or precision weighted ensemble mean, thus providing a more authoritative global temperature series with corresponding standard errors, which are smaller than that of individual products. Using the combined estimate of the global temperature series, we estimate that the global temperature has increased 1.2°C with a standard error of 0.03°C over the 1880–1900 average. By taking into account the uncertainties of the estimates rather than just comparing the estimates, we find that the probability that 2020 was the warmest year on record is 0.44, while the years 2015–2020 are virtually certain to have been the six warmest years in recorded history. We show that our estimate performs similarly to the reanalysis product ERA5, and that the satellite record from University of Alabama does not agree very well neither with ERA5 nor with our product.


The aim of the research was to examine whether there is a relationship between the external integration capabilities and the performance of third party logistics (3PLs) providers. A survey of 80 3PLs in Taiwan was carried out. Research model was tested using structural equation modelling technique along with the Partial Least Square (PLS) approach. Results indicated that there was a positive correlation between 3PLs' external integration capabilities and operational performance. The results also suggested that cost competitiveness positively influenced 3PLs' financial performance. Although it was not supported that the external integration capabilities of 3PLs had the impact on their financial performance, the relationship between external integration capabilities and financial performance was mediated by the cost competitiveness of 3PLs.


Aristotle (384-322 B. C.) was a native of northern Greece, where his father was a physician . At the age of seventeen he went to Athens, where he formed a close association with Plato and the Academy which lasted until the death of Plato twenty years later. He spent the next twelve years teaching and studying in several different places, including the court of King Philip of Macedonia, where for at least three years he was the tutor of the future Alexander the Great . Much has been written about the relationship between Aristotle and his famous pupil, but most of it is speculation. We simply know very little about it . After the battle of Chaeronea and the accession of Alexander to the Macedonian throne, Aristotle returned to Athens (335 B. C.) and founded the Lyceum, a school patterned after the Academy which survived with it until A. D. 529. During the uprising in Athens which followed the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B. C., Aristotle, whose name had been associated with the conqueror and his Macedonian governor of Greece, thought it best to flee the city. He died in the following year. [excerpt]


210Po, one of the harmful natural isotopes with a long enough half-life, plays a significant role in environmental processes. 48 samples, including groundwater (dug wells, thermal water, and drill wells) and surface water (lakes, rivers, and streams) in the Da Nang - Quang Nam region of Vietnam were analyzed by an alpha spectrometer. Relatively low activities of 210Po have been observed, whose mean values ranged from 0.15 to 4.58 and 1.34 mBq.L-1. There is no significant variation in 210Po activities between groundwater and surface water groups. The average 210Po activity of those groups is 1.28 and 1.40 mBq.L-1, respectively. The geological conditions of the study area, neutral pH values, and predominant oxidizing conditions supported the low 210Po activities in the selected water sources. Average annual effective doses for adults, children, and infants due to the consumption of water containing 210Po were found to be 1.15, 1.21, and 2.94 µSv.y-1, respectively.


Although the anthracyclines have gained widespread use in the treatment of childhood hematological malignancies and solid tumors, cardiotoxicity is the major limiting factor in the use of anthracyclines.


The economy of agricultural countries depends mainly upon agricultural production. Crop production is a medium of livelihood for most of the population. Crops can be affected by diseases owing to various factors such as climate change, pests, etc. that can damage the crops heavily. Multiple systems have been proposed to detect diseases in plants at an early stage. The existing plant disease identification methods are tedious and error-prone as they require handcrafted feature extraction and segmentation. Due to which, the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based automated and robust methods are being employed in different research areas. This manuscript explores plant disease identification and classification in leaf images via Deep Learning (DL) based and Machine Learning (ML) based algorithms. The leaf images are initially resized, segmented and then supplied to CNN models such as AlexNet and VGG19 to extract deep features. These features are then classified via an ECOC based SVM classifier. The system achieved the highest accuracy of 98.8% via AlexNet and 98.9% via VGG19. Our proposed method outperformed existing plant disease classification approaches and can be used by farmers to detect diseases in various crops.


Abstract Background Despite higher incidence of patellofemoral pain (PFP) and consequently morbidity, the understanding about PF factors leading to PF arthritis is way lacking. Material and Methods A prospective study of first 80 patients who were diagnosed with chondromalacia patella (CMP) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) divided into early and late CMP groups were evaluated clinically, radiologically, and in terms of functional outcome. Results : Quadriceps angle, Clark's test, and Insall–Salvati ratio results were nonsignificant despite greater values were observed in late CMP group, whereas trochlear morphology results (sulcus angle: 153:138 degrees and sulcus depth 3.9:5.4 mm) and clinical scores were significant in late CMP group (Kujala's score: 61:78, whereas PF pain score: 43:25). Type-C patellar morphology was found in greater number in late CMP cohort. Conclusion Trochlear and patellar morphologies along with clinical scores play a key role in understanding of the CMP.


Objective To analyse if the operation should be given or not for the patients with unoperable advanced esophageal cancer after pre operative radiotherapy.Methods From March 1989 to November 1994,114 cases with unoperable advanced esophageal cancer were treated by combined pre operative radiotherapy and surgery(R+S).Another 114 cases were purely treated by radical radiotherapy (RT).A dose of D T 40Gy/4 weeks was given by PA AP fields,then the R+S group received surgery in 2~3 weeks and the RT group increased the dose to 60~68Gy/6~7 weeks by the back obique angle irradiation fields.Results The 1 ,3 ,5 year survival rate of the R+S group and RT group were 79.4%,46.3%,29.4% and 62.4%,34.3%,17.6%,respectively (log rank test,x 2=4.50,P=0.034).The 1 ,3 ,5 year survival rate of the R+S group and RT group ,for the X ray photography grade Ⅰ were 100%,72.7%,52% and 92.7%,74%,respectively(x 2=0.10,P=0.752),for grade Ⅱ were 85.2%,51.9%,35.1% ane 82.4%,52.4%,32.7%,respectively(x 2=0.22,P=0.64),for grade Ⅲ were 77.7%,44.1%,26.8% and 53%,31.4%,16.8%,respectively(x 2=4.78,P=0.029),for grade Ⅳ were 60%,26.7%,17.8% and 32%,16.3%,4.3%,respectively(x 2=4.33,P=0.038).Conclusions patients with unoperable advanced esophageal cancer after pre operative radiotherapy,whose the X ray assesement showed grade Ⅰ and Ⅱ,should be treated by radical radiotherapy;whose X ray assesement showed grade Ⅲ and Ⅳ should undergo operation. [


Denitrification is considered to be an important N removal process in land-based wastewater treatment systems, although in situ denitrification rates have rarely been reported. We investigated the contribution of denitrification to N removal in a land treatment system by measuring in situ denitrification rates for 12 mo in a Monterey pine (Pinus radiata D. Don) forest irrigated with tertiary-treated wastewater. The variability of denitrification rates was investigated using a nested field design that divided the land treatment system into four spatial components (irrigation block, topographic position, field site, and sample plot) and two temporal components (sample period, sample day). Denitrification was measured using undisturbed soil cores collected daily, for six consecutive days on 21 occasions throughout the year. Soil moisture content, NO 3 concentration, available C, denitrifying enzyme activity, and temperature also were measured. The annual denitrification rate in the irrigated soil was 2.4 kg N ha -1 yr -1 , and only slightly higher than the unirrigated soil (1.7 kg N ha -1 yr -1 ). Temporal effects (i.e., seasonal and day-to-day variation) contributed more than spatial effects to the overall variation in denitrification rates. Multiple regression analysis showed that soil factors could only explain 29% of the variation in denitrification rates. Soil water-filled porosity was low in the land treatment system, and less than the critical threshold value (74% water-filled porosity) determined in a laboratory study. We concluded that denitrification in this land treatment system studied was limited by excessive aeration in the free-draining soils.


The invention relates to a stator cover unit (1) for a camshaft adjuster which is adapted for use in an internal combustion engine, with a gear rim (2) for receiving a torque, is attached to the integrally designed as a housing stator (3), with the stator (3) separate locking cover (4), wherein the locking lid (4) is mounted rotationally fixed on the stator (3), wherein the stator (3) and the lock cover (4) via a projection (9) on one of the two components of the form-locking engages in a recess (11) at the other of the two components, is non-rotatably secured at least during the assembly held in this position. The invention also relates to a camshaft adjuster with a rotor and a correspondingly formed stator cover unit (1), wherein a piston is introduced axially movable in an opening of the locking lid (4).


Measurements have been made of the intradiffusion coefficients of both components in the acetonitrile/water system over the whole mole fraction range at 278.15 K. Interdiffusion coefficients have also been measured in the same system at two temperatures, 278.15 and 298.15 K. Velocity cross-correlation coefficients (VCC) then have been calculated using the fj formalism first introduced by Hertz [1, 2]. The three sets of VCC show very interesting features which are discussed from both the velocity field and thermodynamic points of view.


The sad plight of homeless infants, the most vulnerable and totally powerless and dependent on adults, accompanying homeless adults is discussed. The various levels on which the needs of homeless infants need to be discussed are highlighted.


The invention relates to a titanium dioxide nanometer tube electrode in the technology field of fathering the environmental pollution and its preparation method as well as its application. Its features lie in: choose the pure titanium or titanium alloy as the substrate, carry out the electrochemical oxidation in the condition of hydrofluoric acid with its density between 0.01wt% and 0.5wt%, form a titanium dioxide nanometer tube with its diameter between 40nm and 100nm and its length between 20nm and 50nm on the substrate vertically and get the integrative titanium dioxide nanometer tube electrode. The preparation features lie in: choose the substrate as the anode after grinding, etching and drying and the platinum sheet as the cathode, control the distance between the two electrodes between 10mm and 50mm, put them into the reactor, power on the stabilized voltage power supply with it voltage between 15V and 25V, after 1-to-30-minute reaction calcine them at the temperature of 400deg.C to 600deg.C for 40nin to 80min, cool it in natural condition and get the titanium dioxide nanometer tube electrode. The titanium dioxide nanometer tube electrode can be applied to the photocatalysed degradation and photoelectroncatalysed degradation to the organic pollutants. It has larger surface area and simple preparation method.


In supersymmetric unified theories the dark matter particle can decay, just like the proton, through grand unified interactions with a lifetime of order of $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{26}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{sec}$. Its decay products can be detected by several experiments\char22{}including Fermi, HESS, PAMELA, ATIC, and IceCube\char22{}opening our first direct window to physics at the TeV scale and simultaneously at the unification scale $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{16}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$. We consider possibilities for explaining the electron/positron spectra observed by HESS, PAMELA, and ATIC, and the resulting predictions for the gamma-ray, electron/positron, and neutrino spectra as will be measured, for example, by Fermi and IceCube. The discovery of an isotropic, hard gamma ray spectral feature at Fermi would be strong evidence for dark matter and would disfavor astrophysical sources such as pulsars. Substructure in the cosmic ray spectra probes the spectroscopy of new TeV-mass particles. For example, a preponderance of electrons in the final state can result from the lightness of selectrons relative to squarks. Decaying dark matter acts as a sparticle injector with an energy reach potentially higher than the LHC. The resulting cosmic ray flux depends only on the values of the weak and unification scales.


Photograph of a group portrait of the Dallas Fire Department. The men in the front row are identified as Kenard, Prator, Daniels, Hughes Pitt, Holbrook, and an unknown man. In the back row, the third man from the left is identified as Saver, the fifth from the left as Leon Green, and the eighth from the left as Arthur.


The financial market traders must be able to make accurate prediction. This is due to the very dynamic and fast-moving market conditions. Recently the use of machine learning in financial market forecast technology has been highly developed. Machine Learning makes forecast based on the values of the current financial market index by practicing previous values. Machine learning itself uses many different models to make prediction easier and more authentic. In this paper, the focus is on discussing the use of Machine Learning-based Support Vector Machine (SVM) used as a regression method in Support Vector Regression (SVR) for classification and forecast the value of stock prices. The factors considered are open, close, low, high and volume. The results of this study are expected to be a reference for the investors to pay more attention to the level of stock and market of its finances so that the life expectancy of the market will be higher.


Strengthening artistic education in colleges universities is of great significance to pushing forward quality education in an all-round way and promoting university students' comprehensive development.Based on a brief analysis of the present situation of the artistic education in China,the paper deals with some thinking on such aspects as optimizing the course structure of artistic education and constructing artistic atmosphere on university campus.


Aim/purpose – The primary aim of the paper is to verify the hypothesis on the normal distributions of 65 stock index returns, while the secondary aims are to examine normal distributions for specific years (for six indexes) and for bull and bear markets (for DJIA), demonstrate that the distribution of rates of return for individual indexes can be normal in short time intervals, and then rank analyzed indexes according to the proximity of the distribution of their rates of return to the normal distribution. Design/methodology/approach – The research sample consists of the value of 65 stock indexes from various time intervals. The sample includes both developed markets and emerging markets. The following rates of return were tested for the normality of the rate of return distribution: close-close, open-open, open-close and overnight, which were calculated for daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly data. Statistical tests of different properties and forces were used: Jarque–Bera (JB), Lilliefors (L), Cramer von Mises (CVM), Watson (W), Anderson–Darling (AD). In the case of six indexes of developed markets (DJIA, SP500, DAX, CAC40, FTSE250 and NIKKEI225), normality tests of rates distribution were calculated for individual years 2013-2016 (daily data). In case of the DJIA index, the normality tests of the distribution of returns for individual bull and bear markets were analyzed (daily data, rates of return close-close). In the last part of the paper the analyzed indexes were ranked due to the convergence of their return to normal distribution with the use of the following tests: Jarque–Bera, Shapiro–Wilk and D'Agostino-Pearson. Findings – The distribution of daily and weekly returns of equity indexes is not a normal distribution for all analyzed rates of return. For quarterly and annual data compression the smallest number when there were no reasons to reject the null hypothesis was observed for overnight returns compared to close-close, open-close and open-open returns. For the daily, weekly and monthly overnight rates of return, the null hypothesis was Krzysztof Borowski 6 rejected for all analyzed indexes. The following general conclusion can be formulated: the higher the data compression (from daily to yearly), the fewer rejections of H0 hypothesis. The distribution of daily returns can be normal only in given (rather short) time intervals, e.g., particular years or up or down waves (bull and bear markets). The position of the index in the ranking is not dependent on the date of its first publication, and hence on the number of rates of return possible to calculate for analyzed index, but only on the distribution of its rates of return. Research implications/limitations – The main limitations of the obtained results are different time horizons of each of the analyzed indexes (from the first date in a data base until 30.06.2017). The major part of the returns of the analyzed indexes differs from the normal distribution, which question the possibility of unreflective implementation in practice of economic such models as CAPM and its derivatives, Black–Scholes options valuation, portfolio theory and efficient market hypothesis, especially in long time horizons. Contribution/value/contribution – The contribution of this paper is verification of the statistical hypothesis regarding normal distribution of rates of return: (1) other than close-close, i.e. open-open, open-close and overnight with the use of various statistical tests, various data compression (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly) for 65 indexes, (2) for six stock exchange indexes in each of the years from the period of 20132016 (daily data) and (3) for individual up and down waves for the DJIA index (daily data). In addition, other papers focused only on one or two statistical tests, while five different tests were implemented in this paper. This paper is the first to create a ranking of stock market indexes due to the normal distribution.


Rheo discolor Hance is extensively used in Indian traditional and folklore medicines to cure various human ailments. The preliminary phytochemical screening of the leaves revealed the presence of Alkaloids, Flavonoids, Saponins, Tannins & Phenolic compounds, Cardiac glycoside and Terpenoids. In vitro antibacterial studies on the leaf extracts were carried out on eight medically important bacterial strains, including Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus citrus, Serratia sp. Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, Proteus vulgaris which were procured from Department of Microbiology, RVS Hospital, Sulur, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, using agar disc diffusion method. The results of our antibacterial assay revealed that the extract showed good inhibitory activity against all the tested pathogens compared with standard antibiotics like chloromphenicol. INTRODUCTION There is a continuous and urgent need to discover new antimicrobial compounds with diverse chemical structures and novel mechanisms of action because there has been an alarming increase in the incidence of new and reemerging infectious diseases. Another big concern is the development of resistance to the antibiotics in current clinical use (Rojas R, et al., 2003). Higher plants produce hundreds to thousands of diverse chemical compounds with different biological activities (mer ERT.RK1 et al 2006). World Health Organization (WHO) described plant as a plant with one or more organs which contain substances that can be used for therapeutic purposes or which are precursors for the synthesis of useful drugs. The results of investigation performed in the late 19 and 20 century and the advent of streptomycin and other antibiotics provide the ground for experimentation of a vast number of plants for antibiotic or antimicrobial activities that are useful to man (Asirvatham Doss and Rangasamy Dhanabalan., 2008). Rheo discolor Hance belongs to the family Commelinaceae. It is commonly grown in gardens, and is usually known as Tradescantia. They are weakly upright to scrambling plants, growing to 30-60cm tall, and are commonly found individually or in clumps in wooded areas and fields. The leaves are large, imbricated, green above and purple beneath. The study is aimed at investigating the anti bacterial properties Rheo discolor leaves as well as to identify the active ingredients of the plant. MATERIALS AND METHODS Collection of plant materials Mature leaves were collected from the healthy plant at Nilgiris, Tamilnadu, India. The collected plant materials were botanically authenticated by Botanical Survey of India (Southern Circle), Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. Preparation of plant extract The leaves were washed in tap water, shade dried for 10 days and made into a fine powder of 40 mesh size using the laboratory mill. Following that, 100g of the powder was extracted with different organic solvents viz, Benzene, Chloroform, methanol, Petroleum ether and Water and it was stand for over night. The extract was filtered through Whatman no.1 filter paper to remove all un extractable matter, including cellular materials and other constitutions that are insoluble in the extraction solvent. The entire extract was concentrated to dryness using rotary flash evaporator under reduced pressure. Test organisms The extract was tested on the following three Gram positive bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus citrus, Bacillus subtilis . Five Gram negative bacteria were also tested, including Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, Serratia sp., Proteus vulgaris . All the strains were procured from Department of Microbiology, RVS Hospital, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu. Phytochemical screening Phytochemcial analysis of the extract was conducted by Trease and Evans.,1989 : Harborne (1998). By this analysis, the presence of several phytochemicals like Sugar, Protein, Alkaloids, Flavonoids, Saponins, Tannins, Cardiac glycoside, Terpenoids and Lipids were tested. Anti bacterial assay The three different concentrations of the leaf extracts were tested for antibacterial activity using agar disc diffusion assay according to the method of Bauer et al., 1966. The strains of microorganisms obtained were inoculated in conical flask containing 100 ml of nutrient broth. These conical flasks were incubated at 370 C for 24 h and were referred to as seeded broth. Media were prepared using Muller Hinton Agar (Himedia), poured on Petri dishes and inoculated with the test organisms from the seeded broth using cotton swabs. Sterile discs of six millimeter width had been impregnated with 20 μl of test extract and introduced onto the upper layer of the seeded agar plate. The plates were incubated overnight at 370 C. Antibacterial activity was assigned by measuring the inhibition zone formed around the discs. The experiment was done three times and the mean values were presented. Streptomycin (10μg/disc) was used as standards. RESULTS The preliminary phytochemical analysis of the leaf extract revealed the presence of Alkaloids, Flavonoids, Steroids, Saponins, Cardiac glycoside, Terpenoids, Tannin & Phenolic compounds and Oil as presented in Table 1. The results obtained from the disc diffusion assay showed that there has been an increasing effect on bacterial growth inhibition with increasing concentration of the extract. And the extract showed good inhibitory activity on almost all the bacteria tested. It has been found that among all the tested organisms, the Gram negative bacterial strain, K.pneumoniae was found to be more susceptible to the plant extract by showing inhibition zone ranging from 11 mm and the gram positive strains were least susceptible with the inhibition zone ranging from 10 mm. The antibacterial activity in terms of zone of inhibition was presented in Table 2. The observed activity may be due to the presence of potent phyto constituents in the leaf extracts. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Medicinal plants have formed the basis of health care throughout the world since the earliest days of humanity and are still widely used and have considerable importance in international trade (Patrick Ekong Ebong, et al., 2008). The medicinal value of plants lies in some chemical substances that produce a definite physiological action on the human body. The most important of these bioactive compounds of plants are alkaloids, flavanoids, tannins and phenolic compounds (Veeramuthu Duraipandiyan et al., 2006).According to World Health Report of Infectious diseases 2000; overcoming antibiotic resistance is the major issue of the WHO for the next millennium. Hence the last decade witnessed an increase in the investigation of plants as a source of human disease management. The antibacterial activity of Rheo discolor is reported for the first time. No previous report on the antibacterial activity of this plant species could be found in the literature. In the present study, Rheo discolor showed maximum antibacterial activity and so this plant can be used to discover bioactive natural products that may serve as leads for the development of new pharmaceuticals that address hither unmet therapeutic needs. Such screening of various natural organic compounds and identifying active agents is the need of the hour, because successful prediction of lead molecule and drug like properties at the onset of drug discovery will pay off later in drug development. REFERENCES 1. Bauer A.N, Kirby, W.M.M. Sherries, J.C and Truck M., Amer.J.Clin.Pathol. 1996: 45-493. 2. Asirvatham Doss and Rangasamy Dhanabalan., 2008. Preliminary Phytochemical screening and Antibacterial studies of Leaf extract of Solanum trilobatum Linn. Ethnobotanical Leaflets.,12: 638 – 42. 3. Evans, C.W., 1989. Trease and Evans' Mexican medicinal plants. J. Ethnopharmacol.,Pharmacognosy, 13th Edn. Bailli`ere Tindall, London. 4. Harborne, J. B. (1998). Phytochemical methods: A guide to modern techniques of plant analysis. 3rd edition. Chapman & Hall Pub. London, UK. 5. Veeramuthu Duraipandiyan, Muniappan Ayyanar and Savarimuthu Ignacimuthu., 2006. Antimicrobial activity of some ethnomedicinal plants used by Paliyar tribe from Tamil Nadu, India. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2006., 6: 35. 6. World Health Organization, 1976. African Traditional Medicine. Afro-Tech. Rep., 1: 3-4. 7. mer ERT.RK1, Hatice KATI2, Nurettin YAYLI3, Zihni DEMÜRBAÚ2 Antimicrobial Properties of Silene multifida (Adams) Rohrb. Plant Extracts. Turk J Biol 30 (2006): 17-21. 8. Patrick Ekong Ebong, Item Justin Atangwho, Eyong Ubana Eyong and Godwin Eneji Egbung., 2008. The Antidiabetic Efficacy of Combined Extracts from Two Continental Plants: Azadirachta indica (A. Juss) (Neem) and Vernonia amygdalina (Del.) (African Bitter Leaf) American Journal of Biochemistry and Biotechnology 4 (3): 239-244, 2008. 9. Rojas R, Bustamante B, Bauer J et al. Antimicrobial activity of selected Peruvian medicinal plants. J Ethnopharmacol 88: 199204, 2003. Table 1. Phytochemical screening of Rheo discolor. S.No Secondary Metabolites P.ether Benzene Chloroform Methanol Water


Among the experimenters listed in 'A Directory of Heavier-Than-Air Flying Machines in Western Europe, 850 BC-AD 1783', was the name of Charles Bernouin, a surgeon of Grenoble, who was said to have flown from a high tower in Regensburg on 15 January 1673. A colleague in Germany has recently sent me two broadsheets, published soon after the event, which show that Bernouin, who has often been mentioned in histories of aviation, should be removed and placed in the 'List of Rejected Items.'


The propagation of an electric pulse in a finite interval is investigated in the case when the pulse is generated at the input of the interval and absorbed at the end of the interval. The pulse propagation is described by a hyperbolic equation with regard for dissipation. The pulse generation at the input is specified as a Heaviside function, and the absorption at the output is set by a permanent magnet. The model describes the propagation of disturbances with a finite speed. A formulation of the corresponding initial boundary value problem is given, for the solution of which the Laplace transform in time is applied in the case of arbitrary coefficients. An exact analytical solution in the Laplace image space was obtained, and other applications with the complete absorption are presented. A general solution is constructed, and the case of low dissipation is considered for some values of the coefficients characterizing real situations.


We examined the effect of speaking more than one language (multilingualism) or two dialects of the same language (bidialectalism) on executive control (EC) by administering seven EC tasks to 46 multilingual, 72 bi-dialectal and 47 monolingual young adults. We used the EC model of Miyake, Friedman, Emerson, Witzki, Howerter and Wager (2000) according to which EC comprises three components: working memory, task-switching and inhibition. We also tested two theoretical views regarding the locus of the bilingual advantage: first, that bilingualism affects specific EC components and, second, that bilingualism has a more general effect on the whole EC network. Miyake et al.'s (2000) model was a good fit to our EC data. We also found that both multilinguals and bi-dialectals had significantly higher EC scores than monolinguals. Moreover, both the multilingual and the bi-dialectal advantage was found in overall EC ability and could not be attributed to a specific EC component.


Augmenting digital textbooks with assessment material improves their effectiveness as learning tools. It can be a laborious task requiring considerable amount of time and expertise. This paper presents an automated assessment generation tool that works as a component of the Intextbooks platform. Intextbooks extracts fine-grained knowledge models from PDF textbooks and converts them into semantically annotated learning resources. With the help of the developed assessment components, these textbooks become interactive educational tools capable to assess students' knowledge of relevant concepts. The results of an expert-based pilot evaluation show that generated questions are properly worded and have a good range in term of difficulty. From the point of assessment value, some generated questions types fall behind manually constructed assessment, while others obtain comparable results.


We report a conformal flexible brain electrode array with 1024-recording sites within $1\times 1\ \text{cm}^{2}$ through multilayer wiring for high-density and high-quality recording of neural activity. Compared with existing cortical electrode applied in clinic, our electrode array has one order of magnitude enhancement in terms of the spatial resolution. In addition, water-soluble silk film is served as the supporting layer to make the ultrathin device easier to manipulate and ensures the conformal wrapping over the curved cortex after its dissolution. Based on the fabricated electrode array, effective neural decoding has been achieved, dynamic processes of normal status, the initial status after induced epilepsy, the status of high frequency seizure, the status of remission after medication, and the succedent recovery status can be efficiently distinguished.


The ultimate aim of this working paper is to determine the implications of Extra/Intrapositionl) phenomena2) in Afrikaans for the Revised Extended Standard Theory (REST). In order to achieve this aim, an attempt is made to construct a descriptively adequate grammar of the phenomena in question within the framework of the REST. The version of the REST referred to here is outlined in Chomsky and Lasnik (1977), Chomsky (unpublished) and Chomsky (1978). Sinclair (1978) provides a systematic exposition of this theory.


The case teaching accords with the instructive thoughts of strengthening practical teaching and implementing quality education. It tallies with the trend of development by academic to the application transformation in administration speciality. It plays an important role in stimulating students' enthusiasm and autonomy in learning,and in training students' cognizing ability and practicing ability. But in teaching practice,the misunderstanding of case teaching and scarcity of native case restrict the case teaching in administration speciality. The comprehensive understanding of nature and characteristics of case teaching,and the strengthening the collecting and compiling of native case is the inevitable choice to break through the dilemma.


The authors examine the theoretical and methodological basis for the compilation, from space imagery, of complex maps depicting land use, settlement, and types of hazards posed to the environment by different economic activities. Map content and level of detail vary by scale, and the types of information conveyed at different scales (1:100,000; 1:500,000; and 1:1,000,000) are described on the basis of specific mapping projects in the Urals, Kola Peninsula, and Russian Far East. Translated by Edward Torrey, Alexandria, VA 22308 from: Geografiya i prirodnyye resursy, 1997, No. 1, pp. 145-150.


A virtual hardware resource is provided by dynamically reconfigurable Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) where the hardware circuits can be scheduled dynamically to the available resources. Significant performance and energy overheads are involved in reconfiguring an FPGA. The relationship between several hardware task scheduling algorithms and their impact on the amount of reconfigurations required to execute a set of hardware tasks is shown in this paper. By selectively locking the configurations within the reconfigurable tiles of an FPGA, the number of reconfigurations required can be reduced. Working area of the tiles can be improved and utilized for more number of tasks by assigning specific range of tiles for every task set.


We establish partial regularity for the ω -minimizers of quasiconvex functionals of power growth. A first-order partial regularity result of BV ω -minimizers is obtained in the linear growth case under a Dini-type condition on ω . Only assuming the smallness of ω near the origin,weshowpartialHöldercontinuityinthesubquadraticcasebyconsideringanormalised excess


Introduction: Strategic planning for human missions of exploration to Mars has conclusively identified insitu propellant production (ISPP) as an enabling technology [1]. A team of scientists and engineers from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Lewis Research Center is preparing the MARS ISPP PRECURSOR (MIP) Flight Demonstration. The objectives of MIP are to characterize the performance of processes and hardware which are important to ISPP concepts and to demonstrate how these processes and hardware interact with the Mars environment. Operating this hardware in the actual Mars environment is extremely important due to both uncertainties in our knowledge of the Mars environment as well as because of conditions that cannot be adequately simulated on Earth.


The rise of imperialism has given birth to the notion of globalization that connotes several ideas: First, threat to national boundaries; second, rapid technological progresses; and third, the policy of homogenization or uniformity. Technological progresses have been regarded as the main threat on national identity and the main cause of global identity. The discursive reflection of globalization can be studied in literature and best in poetry. Because the local aspect of English poetry places more emphasis on the significance of poetry in the latter half of the 20th century, "The Horses" by the Scottish Edwin Muir (18871959) can be an excellent study of the poet's local attitude towards globalization. Although Muir wrote in English, he never lost sense of regionality and national identity. He was always concerned about feeling in one language and thinking in another. This study is an attempt to show Muir's view, as a localized figure, about globalization and the aftermath of technological progresses with a brief look at "The Horses" offering possibility of nationalism.


At present, underdevelopment of credit system and prevalence of dishonest operation have seriously hindered national economic development. This essay analyzes the importance of credit and its existing problems together with the causes leading to them. Various ways to establish a reliable national credit system are also revealde.


In order to study the bioimpedance method for evaluating body fluid equilibrium in hemodialysis patients, an instrument based on multi frequency bioimpedance measurement was developed. The hardware and software design of the instrument was introduced in this paper. The instrument is of safety and good duplicity.


Over the past few years, Augmented Reality has become widely popular in the form of smart phone applications, however most smart phone-based AR applications are limited in user interaction and do not support gesture-based direct manipulation of the augmented scene. In this paper, we introduce a new AR interaction methodology, employing users' hands and fingers to interact with the virtual (and possibly physical) objects that appear on the mobile phone screen. The goal of this project was to support different types of interaction (selection, transformation, and fine-grain control of an input value) while keeping the methodology for hand detection as simple as possible to maintain good performance on smart phones. We evaluated our methods in user studies, collecting task performance data and user impressions about this direct way of interacting with augmented scenes through mobile phones.


: In recent years, more attention has been paid to the problems of the development of the PPP sphere in Kazakhstan. The necessity to further expansion of PPP and increase in the attractiveness of private capital to this sphere were repeatedly highlighted at the state level. In this article, a literature review of domestic and foreign authors, which carried out research in the field of public-private partnerships that enhance the effectiveness of innovative management, is conducted. In this article, the authors studied the features of the functioning of the public-private partnership system in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the organizational, legal and economic conditions and prerequisites that stimulate the development of partnership practices; development of perspective innovative forms and mechanisms of partnership. The problematic issues of cooperation between the state and business in the development of entrepreneurship were shown. Entrepreneurial risks were determined. As a result, conclusions were drawn. bodies in the implementation of investment projects under the PPP scheme; low level of knowledge in the field of PPP, which leads to poor-quality selection and preparation of PPP projects, as well as their further management.


Public libraries offer a variety of STEM learning opportunities for children and youth to allow them to experience emerging technologies in a hands‐on, play‐based manner. Opportunities like these are important for all children as research has identified the importance of STEM learning in informal learning environments (Bell, Lewenstein, Shouse & Feder, 2009). However, a variety of barriers may prevent many children in underserved communities from taking advantage of the STEM opportunities that public libraries offer. Because of this, some libraries are taking their programs and services out to community locations to reach these children. This poster highlights findings from Project LOCAL, an IMLS‐funded planning grant, around STEM learning opportunities offered by libraries out in community locations for children in underserved communities.


: This is a panel data study of the effects of the minimum wage increase on youth employment and productivity for the years 2000 to 2017. To address the implementation of sub-state minimum wages during my time sample, I use a weighted average formula when calculating the minimum wage. Overall, I find no statistical significance in the effects of the minimum wage on employment and productivity. I do however find statistical significance when not accounting for sub-state minimum wages, as much of the general literature on the effects of the minimum wage has done. This suggests that accounting for sub-state minimum wages is important, as otherwise researchers may find conclusions that are not truly statistically significant.


A graph G is called k-degenerate if every subgraph of G has a vertex of degree at most k. A k-degenerate graph G is maximal k-degenerate if for every edge e ϵ E(G), G + e is not k-degenerate. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the sequence II = (d1, d2, , dp) to be a degree sequence of a maximal k-degenerate graph G are presented. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


In this article, polarization measurement is presented as a useful tool for characterizing the net transfers of income between individuals caused by a tax reform. The bipolarization measure, which considers just two poles and involves the disappearance of the middle class, may complement inequality measures insofar as it provides an alternative explanation of the distributional impact of inequality neutral tax reforms. Some theoretical implications of an inequality- and revenue-neutral tax reform concerning polarization are examined. We conclude with an empirical application where we carry out a simulation to evaluate the effects on polarization of a potential substitution of the current Spanish tax system for an inequality- and revenue- neutral linear tax.


Overhead conductors for transmission lines are subjected to cyclic loading due to Aeolian vibration which can lead to the failure of their wires. One of the most critical transmission power line points where fatigue failure occurs is the vicinity of the assembly consisting of the conductor and the suspension clamp. This work evaluates the fatigue life of assemblies made by two types of conductors, i.e., All Aluminium Alloy Conductor (AAAC) 1120 and 6201. Furthermore, metallic and elastomeric clamps are examined. Based on the generated S-N and ${\boldsymbol{f}}{{\boldsymbol{y}}_{{\boldsymbol{max}}}}$-N graphs, it was proved that the assembly AAAC 1120 with elastomeric clamp presented a better fatigue performance than the other three assemblies. Additionally, the change in fatigue life was investigated, failure and contact marks analyses were also performed on all samples after the fatigue test with respect to the conductor layer where the failure occurred as well as the types of break and the position of wires' break (whether radial and longitudinal position).


In the labor contract, the employee's primary obligation is to perform the work and the employer's primary obligation is payment wage. However, since it established a permanent debt relationship and this contract has a personal nature, thus there are other mutual rights and obligations in the labor contract besides the primary debts. So, the employer's management right corresponds to the employee's obligation to follow the instructions. But these rights and obligations are not surely unlimited when the essential principles of labor law are considered. One of the most important limits is the procedure of fundamental amendment in the working conditions included in the 22nd article of the Labor Law by the legislator.
 In the study; the employer's management right and scope of this right, the employee's obligation to follow the instructions and scope of this obligation, the concept of fundamental amendments in working conditions, the cases of fundamental amendments in working conditions that are frequently encountered in practice were examined. And the procedure of fundamental amendments in working conditions, the legal validity of the amendment clauses and its relationship with the fundamental amendment in working conditions, finally amendment termination were examined in the light of doctrine and judicial decisions.


Background The pattern of skin diseases differs from region to region based on geographical, racial and cultural circumstances. For the purpose of education and reeducation of physicians, it is necessary to have knowledge of the conditions and distribution of diseases. Objective To elicit pattern of common skin diseases in the region of Central Iran, Yazd Province.  Patients and methods Two separate descriptive studies were conducted in order to analyze the dermatoses seen in outpatients and inpatients at the Dermatology Department, Shahid Sadoughi Medical Science University, Yazd, Iran. Patient files who visited the dermatologists were reviewed. Diagnosis was coded, categorized, discussed and analyzed according to International Classification of Diseases, revision 10 (ICD-10). Results Skin infections with 23.4% were the most common cause of referral to dermatology outpatients, followed by dermatitis 19.2%, acne 10.8%, melasma 7.8% and urticaria 5.3%. Melasma in women and psoriasis in men were significantly more common. In inpatient group skin infections were the most common 34.3%, followed by dermatitis 13.2%, drug reactions 11.2%, psoriasis 9.6% and malignant tumors. Psoriasis was significantly more common in men and viral infections (herpes zoster) in women. Conclusion The high occurrence rate of skin infections and dermatitis in our study population requires further study in order to pinpoint its root causes. Improving the socio-economic status, environmental and personal hygiene, as well as specific instruction to the at-risk group can be beneficial.


The first part of this paper provides an overview of recent developments in accessing cultural heritage information on the web. A short introduction to documentation and digitization in the field of museums will be given. The next part describes the process of digitizing and virtualizing museum artefacts. A categorization is presented illustrating the development from simple web sites, their shift to more elaborate ones and their latest transformation into service portals making use of collaborative elements and integrating different sources of content. In the last part the Veröffentlicht in: OSSWALD, Achim; STEMPFHUBER, Maximilian; WOLFF, Christian (Hrsg.) (2007). Open Innovation. Proc. 10. Internationales Symposium für Informationswissenschaft. Konstanz: UVK, 221-236.


The discussion about the natures of the residence class ring and the connection between the residue class ring and the ring.


Differential cross sections dSsigma/d dE have been measured with a germanium telescope for the ( , /sup +prime/) reaction on C, Ca, Sn, and Pb at incident energies of 67, 85, and 100 MeV. The yields at backward angles along with available information on total reaction cross sections are interpreted in terms of a simple classical model in which it is assumed that free-space pion nucleon interaction parameters prevail inside the nucleus. Among the experimental findings which can be accounted for in terms of the model (to within 10-15%) are the measured pion reaction cross sections and their dependence on target mass, the energy and mass dependences of the differential scattering cross section at backward angles, and the ratio of normal to charge exchange scattering cross sections. The model appears to overestimate the ratios to reaction and scattering cross sections but there appear to be some inconsistencies in the available data.


In Finland, women have advanced to top positions, and this positive development is the result from a long legislative development and advances in attitudes. How has this development happened and why? What kinds of obstacles women may face? How to bring women's expertise forward? In this article, we discuss these questions. We highlight the importance of courage to do the effort for the better society.


Combining the Integrated Process of the Lubricant Furfural Refining - Catalytic Cracking Cycle Oil Extraction, the properties of the heavy aromatic extract oil and its comprehensive utilization on the optimizing refining process, blending components of asphaltum, rubber industry, plastic industry, needle coke, heat transfer oil and as the stuff of asphaltum carbon fiber and so on were reviewed.


Analyses of the oblique propagation of large amplitude electrostatic waves, encountered in the literature, use as additional assumptions that the plasma response is quasi-neutral and that there is no more than one inertial fluid species, so that the result is either a second-order differential equation or a Sagdeev-type energy integral. A careful discussion shows that, as electrostatic modes require that plasma currents be weak, lest unwanted wave magnetic effects are generated, the nonlinear amplitudes, at significant obliquity, have to be small, or, for stronger nonlinearities, the obliquity must remain small. Within the frame of the multispecies model assumptions, the description always leads to a Sagdeev-type of integral, the derivation of which has been given in a general and compact notation, to avoid all possibility of algebraic oversights.


An analysis is presented of measured and calculated cross sections for inner-shell ionization by electron impact. We describe the essentials of classical and semiclassical models and of quantum approximations for computing ionization cross sections. The emphasis is on the recent formulation of the distorted-wave Born approximation by Bote and Salvat [Phys. Rev. A 77, 042701 (2008)] that has been used to generate an extensive database of cross sections for the ionization of the K shell and the L and M subshells of all elements from hydrogen to einsteinium (Z = 1 to Z = 99) by electrons and positrons with kinetic energies up to 1 GeV. We describe a systematic method for evaluating cross sections for emission of x rays and Auger electrons based on atomic transition probabilities from the Evaluated Atomic Data Library of Perkins et al. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, UCRL-ID-50400, 1991]. We made an extensive comparison of measured K-shell, L-subshell, and M-subshell ionization cross sections and of ...


In the past several decades, epidemiology has emerged as an integral part of cancer research. It has become important not only as related to risk factors, but in the investigation of molecular theories, in issues of environmental regulation, and in providing rational approaches to cancer prevention and control. This text, edited by Drs Schottenfeld and Fraumeni, containing contributions by many notable experts, is a highly successful attempt to put much of this wealth of information together in a useable format. The text is divided into five sections. The first, "Basic Concepts," contains six chapters on epidemiologic methods and the biology of cancer. While impossible in a single chapter to present full discussions, a suitable framework of definitions and concepts is provided. Section 2, "The Magnitude of Cancer," has six chapters that include not only national and international cancer data but information on survival and the economic impact of cancer. The


An all-solid photonic crystal fiber can be developed using two thermally matched glasses with one glass forming the background, and the other the lattice of inclusions. Optical properties of all-solid holey fibers (SOHO) are sensitive to the photonic cladding configuration, much the same as PCFs with air holes, and strongly depend on dispersion properties of the materials used. When a high index contrast between the glasses is assured photonic crystal fiber can effectively guide light with photonic band gap mechanism. This can be easily achieved when multicomponent soft glass is used for fiber fabrication. We report on new developments of F2/NC-21 silicate all-glass PCFs. F2 is a commercially available glass (Schott Inc.) with a high concentration of lead-oxide (PbO=45.5%) and the refractive index nD=1.619. It can be used both as the background material and as a material for micro-rods (inclusions). A borosilicate glass (B2O3=26.0%) NC-21 glass has been synthesized in-house at IEMT. NC21 has the index nD=1.533 and was used as the material for micro-rods (inclusions) or as a background glass in the structures. The two selected glasses have a high index contrast equal to 0,084 at 1,55μm wavelength. In this report we present new results on optimization of the filling factor d/Λ and reduction of the lattice pitch Λ necessary to obtain efficient guidance at 1.55 μm. The numerical analysis of SOHO F2/NC21 fibers has been carried out using a full-vector mode solver based on the plane-wave expansion method. In our paper we report on photonic crystal fibers with two guiding mechanisms: an effective index with a high index core (low index inclusions made of NC21 glass and F2 used as a background glass) and a photonic band gap with a low index core (high index inclusions made of F2 glass and NC21 used as a background glass).


Floods are natural phenomena that have a major impact on society, agriculture and socioeconomic activities. Therefore, flood hazard mapping plays a key role in the decision-making process since it provides essential information to improve the understanding of the nature, risk and characteristics of floods. The application of a GIS-based multi-criteria analysis in the context of flood risk assessment has been recognized as a powerful tool to integrate and analyze data from different sources, thus providing different scenarios. The present work introduces the results of a preliminary assessment of flood hazard areas in the Nabao River basin located in the center of Portugal. Results show that 12.5% of Nabao River basin is prone to moderate flood hazard. It is noticeable that, 15% and 2.2% of this basin is susceptible to high and very high flood risk, respectively. These areas are those closest to Nabao River and its tributaries, as expected and are generally laying at low elevations. A high concentration wi...


A review of scientific literature, specifically in English, was carried out to identify the main impacts generated by the construction of large dams in Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas. In addition, a comparison was made between the impacts found in ex-ante studies and those found in ex-post investigations and significant differences were detected between the impacts identified in the studies before and after the construction of the projects. Thus, the interest in ecological and socioeconomic impacts, especially negative ones, predominates in the two types of studies, in contrast to the small number of investigations where the benefits of dams are evident. Finally, there are common impacts seen in almost all hydroelectric projects around the world such as the loss of economic sustenance, fertile land, jobs and physical displacement of people, among others.


In order to make the credit management in SMEs become the streamline,scientism and standardization,it is presented that credit management in SMEs should follow the principle of comprehensive recycling,interlocking and spiraling,and adopt the method of plan,execution,detection and optimization in the credit management. It is hopeful this study can provide scientific basis for the credit management of SMES in China.


The dual challenge of globalisation of competition and global economic slowdown has increasingly forced businesses to do introspection not only in terms of their cost structures, but also in terms of their value proposition in search of sustainable organisational success. Given the limited influence that organisations, in general, have over their external environments, organisations have become more focussed on identifying internal constraints that inhibit rapid responses to market challenges and opportunities, and on identifying the interventions that are most critical to address these issues. This study focussed on the organisational characteristics that drive high performance, derived from De Waal's high-performance organisation (HPO) framework, and proposed interventions to enhance the development of a high performance culture within the case company. Employing a self-administered questionnaire, it was possible to determine the performance of the case company across a range of five critical dimensions for high performance. A detailed analysis of each of the 35 questions provided an in-depth picture of the organisation's strong and weak points and, from this analysis, specific actions to address the areas of weakness were identified. The study confirmed the robustness of the HPO framework employed as well as demonstrating its usefulness to management in terms of a detailed analysis of where the organisation was positioned in terms of the various high performance factors that are linked to organisational success.


Microbial populations' inhabitants in crude petroleum contaminated soils were analyzed in relation with the soil characteristics. A noticeable greater decline of bacterial counts and diversity but a prevalence of the genus Pseudomonas over the other identified genera in the fresh contaminated soils as compared to the old ones was observed.


The effects of the roundness of the cutting edge and the depth of cut on the static and dynamic cutting forces are researched experimentally under the condition with a gradually increasing depth of cut. And the behavior of the chip flow is observed by the use of a high-speed camera. The following findings were obtained: (1) the static cutting force doesn't depend on the cutting condition, i.e., the cutting speed and the feed rate in the rubbing and the rubbing-cutting transition regions; (2) the flow of the chip is unstable in the rubbing-cutting transition region; (3) the amplitude of chatter vibration depends on the time when the tool passes through the rubbing-cutting transition region; and (4) this unstable behavior of the chip flow is one of the causes of the primary chatter vibration.


Diesel engines are the most commonly used in public transportations and power plant of freight in the world due to its excellent fuel economy benefit. However emission regulations have become more stringent as a result of increased environmental awareness in each region of the world. In order to meet the Euro IV heavy-duty diesel emission standard legislation limits, a diesel engine can be optimized by internal means to give low particulate emissions and lower fuel consumption. These modifications of the engine lead inevitably to higher NOx emissions due to the NOx/PM trade off. An efficient Urea SCR aftertreatment system is then able to reduce the higher NOx emission to below the Euro IV 3.5g/kWh legislation limit. This paper presents test results obtained by one engine serving in China with an efficient SCR system. The engine had base NOx emission of 8.59g/kWh over the ESC and 8.7g/kWh over the ETC. Outfitted with a urea-SCR catalyst, the engine NOx emission dropped to 2.93g/kWh over the ESC and 2.80g/kWh over the ETC.


Natural disasters over the past few decades have necessitated mass migration of Haitian immigrants to the United States. Haitians residing in the United States have experienced significant cultural and social challenges. Recent political deportation mandates have increased the systemic challenges that Haitian students and their families are currently facing in the United States. These systemic barriers have fostered an increase in stressors affecting the mental wellness of Haitian students and their families. This article introduces school counselors to the culturally focused, multiphase model of psychotherapy, counseling, human rights, and social justice as a framework to assist Haitian students and their families.


Disclosed is a tobacco stem pulping process. The process includes the following steps: delivering a mixture of tobacco stems 10-18% in mass concentration and water to a middle-concentration pulping machine in two-stage series for defibering pulping; delivering pulp after being defibered to a high-concentration hydrapulper, wherein mass concentration of the pulp is 10-18%, pulping temperature is maintained to be at 60-80 DEG C, and pulping time is 15-30min; entering a leaching stage after pulping is completed, and manufacturing paper with the pulp after retreatment. The tobacco stems are properly defibered, so that uniformity in tobacco stem pulping is realized, and smooth extraction of soluble substances in the process of leaching is facilitated; due to adoption of high-concentration grinding and high-concentration hydrodynamic pulping, overmuch tiny broken tobacco stems cannot be generated as high-concentration pulping does, and macromolecular substances like pectin cannot be dissolved out too much, so that purification of leaching liquid and improvement of sensory quality are facilitated, favorable factors in two aspects are combined, products are enabled to be good in bulk, higher in softness and excellent in liquid absorbing performance, and physical quality and sensory quality are improved.


We report the numerical and experimental study of a liquid crystal (LC) core periodically segmented waveguide (PSW) based mode size converter, fabricated on an ITO coated glass substrate. The effective index and mode size of the proposed device can be dynamically tuned by changing the applied voltage. The 5CB (4-cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl) nematic LC has been used as the guiding layer, surrounded by the cladding of negative photoresist AZ15nXT. An equivalent waveguide model has been used to determine the waveguide characteristics, and we have shown that the effective index and mode size of the guided modes change with the duty cycle and the applied voltage. For a fixed duty cycle, we have experimentally demonstrated that the size of the fundamental mode can be tuned by the applied voltage. The advantage of using LC-PSW for mode size transformation is that the effective index and mode size in the fabricated waveguide can be varied by an externally applied electric field. It has also been experimentally demonstrated that the coupling efficiency between the LC-PSW and a single mode fiber can be maximized by appropriate choice of the applied voltage. The proposed mode size converter can be used in LC photonic lightwave circuits to couple the light between optical devices with maximum efficiency.


With the increase of load types and power consumption, the scale of power grids continues to expand. Traditional AC distribution networks face a series of problems, such as distributed power grid-connected power generation, low power quality, and DC power distribution technology. There are clear advantages in these areas. This paper first analyzes the advantages of analyzing flexible DC distribution networks, and clearly analyzes several common topologies of flexible DC distribution networks. Secondly, the distributed photovoltaic model is established, and its way of accessing the AC grid and DC grid is analyzed. It is learned that the DC distribution network has great economic significance. Finally, the four-terminal toroidal DC distribution network in different scenarios is simulated. The simulation results show that the DC distribution network can effectively adjust the voltage through the energy regulation of the energy storage module and the photovoltaic module, and quickly realize the power balance of the DC distribution network.


We endow agents with the capability to open interactions based on their perception of the gaze and direction of attention of others in a virtual environment. The capability is geared towards the earliest part of interaction initiation, where agents may be at some distance from each other and may not initially have knowledge of each other's presence. An important idea in our work is that the start of interaction be initiated in a graceful manner involving exchanges of subtle cues before overt interaction commitments are made. Synthetic vision, attention and memory are used to implement the perceptually-based agent theory of mind. Theory of Mind is used to infer information about the intention of the other to interact based on their eye, head and body directions, locomotion and greeting gestures. An agent's interaction behavior is therefore driven not only by its interaction goal, but also by its theory of the goal of the other based on perception. We have implemented this system and used it to automate and evaluate social interaction behaviors between humans and agents in a virtual environment.


Bi/sub 2/Sr/sub 2/CaCu/sub 2/O/sub x/(BSCCO)/SrTiO/sub 3/(STO)/BSCCO trilayer structures were prepared by the metal-organic decomposition (MOD) method. In this study, annealing condition of BSCCO thin films prepared by the MOD method were investigated. High quality films having critical temperature (Tc) of 84 K were obtained on STO [001] substrate by a 2-step annealing process with 100% O/sub 2/ for 2 h at 870/spl deg/C and 10% O/sub 2/ for 2 h at 885/spl deg/C. The STO layer prepared by the MOD method was grown epitaxially on the BSCCO thin films, and the top BSCCO layer was also grown epitaxially on the STO layer. The BSCCO/STO/BSCCO structure showed a Tc of 77 K.


In non-invasive brain-computer interface systems, pre-movement decoding plays an important role in the detection of movement before limbs actually move. Movement-related cortical potential is a kind of brain activity associated with pre-movement decoding. In current studies, patterns decoded from movement are mainly applied to the binary classification between movement state and resting state, such as elbow flexion and rest. The classifications between two movement states and among multiple movement states are still challenging. This study proposes a new method, the star-arrangement spectral filtering (SASF), to solve the multi-class pre-movement classification problem. We first design a referenced task-related component analysis (RTRCA) framework that consists of two modules. This first module is the classification between movement state and resting state; the second module is the classification of multiple movement states. SASF is developed by optimizing the features in RTRCA. In SASF, feature selection on filter banks is used on the first module of RTRCA, and feature selection on time windows is used on the second module of RTRCA. A linear discriminant analysis classifier is used to classify the optimized features. In the binary classification between two motions, the classification accuracy of SASF achieves 0.9670$\pm$0.0522, which is significantly higher than the result provided by the deep convolutional neural network (0.6247$\pm$0.0680) and the discriminative spatial pattern method (0.4400$\pm$0.0700). In the multi-class classification of 7 states, the classification accuracy of SASF is 0.9491$\pm$0.0372. The proposed SASF greatly improves the classification between two motions and enables the classification among multiple motions. The result shows that the movement can be decoded from EEG signals before the actual limb movement.


National economy in China continued to maintain good momentum in 2005,and the accomplishment of macroeconomic control was further strengthened.SGCC learned a lesson carefully from power failure in large area abroad,deepened the movement of anti-accident, improved safety system in production,strengthened supervisory and management of safety production,and ensured the power grid security operation under the weak structure of power grid,short of power supply and demand,natural calamity attack from time to time,and serious influence of damage from outside force etc.Combined with the security accidents occurred in 2005 with greater influence on power grid,the reason and consequences and the precautionary measures for the accidents were analyzed.It is hoped that the relevant departments should pay attention to learning the experiences and lessons,and taking effective measures,strengthening and normalizing power grid security and management continuously,raising the ability of power grid to resist accident.


This paper describes the calibration and experimental validation of the numerical model of a railway viaduct with precast deck located in the Portuguese railway network. The three-dimensional numerical model used to evaluate the dynamic behavior of the structure for the passage of Alfa Pendular trains is presented. The calibration of the numerical model is performed by an optimization process based on the application of a genetic algorithm. The dynamic test under railway traffic allows obtaining the dynamic response in terms of displacements and accelerations at different deck locations for the passage of Alfa Pendular train. This dynamic test shows the existence of a non-linear behaviour of the viaduct's supports. The calibrated model was validated based on a comparison between numerical and experimental responses and a very good correlation was obtained.


Morphology, the science of words, is a complex theoretical landscape, where a multitude of frameworks, each with their own tenets and formalism, compete for the explanation of linguistic facts. The Oxford Handbook of Morphological Theory is a comprehensive guide through this jungle of morphological theories. It provides a rich and up-to-date overview of theoretical frameworks, from Structuralism to Optimality Theory and from Minimalism to Construction Morphology. In the core part of the handbook (Part II), each theory is introduced by a practitioner, who guides the reader through its principles and technicalities, its advantages and disadvantages. All chapters are written to be accessible, authoritative, and critical. Cross-references reveal agreements and disagreements among frameworks, and a rich body of references encourages further reading. As well as introducing individual theories, the volume speaks to the bigger picture. Part I identifies time-honoured issues in word-formation and inflection that have set the theoretical scene. Part III connects morphological theory to other fields of linguistics. These include typology and creole linguistics, diachronic change and synchronic variation, first and second language acquisition, psycho-/neurolinguistics, computational linguistics, and sign language theory. Each of these fields informs and challenges morphological theory in particular ways. By linking specialist data and insights from the various subfields, the volume fosters the dialogue among sub-disciplines that is much needed for a graceful integration of linguistic thinking.


The article considers foreign and domestic organizational-theoretic approaches to constant education and it justifies legal and organizational proposals for improving constant education of internal affairs officers to ensure clear interrelation between education and professional career.


The CNT-SiC/SiC composite coating was deposited on carbon/carbon composites by chemical vapor deposition(CVD) with methyltrichlorosilane(MTS) as the precursor.The SiC deposition rate and surface micro-morphology of the in-situ growth CNTs sample were investigated.The results show that CNTs accelerates the SiC deposition rate and improves the deposition uniformity,the average mass gain rate is improved by 5% and finer grain SiC is obtained.After oxidation at 1 100 ℃ for 10 h,the mass losses of the single SiC and CNT-SiC/SiC coated samples are 41.11% and 34.32%,respectively.After thermal cycling between(1 100 ℃,3 min) and(room temperature,3 min) for 15 times,the mass losses of the single SiC and CNT-SiC/SiC coated samples are 33.17% and 30.25%,respectively.The mass loss of the coated samples is mainly resulted from the debonding of some coating and the formation of holes on the coating surface.


Peru is facing a crisis of citizen insecurity that stems in part from the rule of law deficits connected to judicial problems and corruption that transitional justice mechanisms sought to remedy but failed to accomplish. This insecurity has fuelled the appeal of Keiko Fujimori, daughter and political heir of the authoritarian regime that ruled Peru in the 1990s, who offers iron-fist policies to defeat crime. To understand how unresolved human security concerns – such as citizen security – are potentially threatening to the consolidation of transitional justice policies, transitional justice needs to be conceptualised as encompassing two related but distinct transitions. While the first phase addresses the injustices from the immediate aftermath of a conflict or fall of an authoritarian regime, the second transition must address the insecurities that can potentially threaten any progress the state and society have made towards establishing democracy and rule of law. It is argued here that the failure to address these insecurities risks the successful completion of the second transition in Peru, and can potentially cause authoritarian reversals by enhancing the appeal of politicians that peddle law-and-order policies to address them.


This study examined the effects of Ramadan fasting on various training regimes, running endurance performance and recovery in a controlled environment. Twenty male athletes (fasting and non-fasting) performed a 20m shuttle run test (20SRT) pre and post a 4-week periodized training programme. Training loads from various types of exercises, ratings of perceived exertions (RPE), total quality recovery (TQR) and heart rates were daily monitored. No significant differences existed between groups for SRT, heart rates, training volume and RPE. A strong relationship (r=0.88; p<0.05) was evident between TQR and recovery duration (modalities: stretching, cool down, swimming, whirlpool and sauna) for fasting athletes. Ramadan fasting does not affect the achievement of daily training goals and the improvement of endurance performance throughout a mixed endurance and strength training programme where daily undulating periodized models are used. Allowing athletes to freely select from various recovery modalities above the 26 min span daily, can eventually increase their training recovery under Ramadan fasting conditions.