A hybrid algorithm for the computation of rectangular conductor per unit length internal impedance is developed. Up to a switching frequency, the internal impedance is computed using a two dimensional analytical formula developed by Giacoletto. For these frequencies, 150 terms of Giacoletto infinite sum give a sufficiently good approximation. For higher frequencies, it is shown that the rectangular conductor can be quite accurately approximated by a cylindrical conductor. The proposed hybrid algorithm, for higher frequencies, features improved accuracy and speed when compared to the Giacoletto formula truncated after a small number of terms.


The question of lowering the voting age to 16 has long been debated in university circles. In the last Austrian elections, young people aged 16 and older were invited to vote, even if young people themselves are divided over this issue, even hostile to the idea. Nevertheless, isn't such a question, which is rarely discussed by the larger public and touches on several dimensions of a person's life, an ideal topic for a debate, where the confrontation of ideas may change opinions and reveal – or even modify – young people's global attitudes towards political interest and participation? A non-random sample of nearly two hundred 16to 22-year-old youth in French-speaking Belgium was selected to discuss the possibility of lowering the voting age to 16, as well as political interest and political participation, during one day with four experts. The same questionnaire was filled in in the beginning and at the end of the day. These first results are presented here. They show little evolution during the discussion, in a sample already largely against the idea of lowering the voting age. However, these are the consequences for political socialisation we would like to discuss with this research project based on political reasoning. Resume La question de l'abaissement du droit de vote a 16 ans a toujours fait l'objet de debats dans certains cercles universitaires. Lors des dernieres elections autrichiennes, les jeunes de 16 ans et plus ont ete invites a voter meme si les jeunes eux-memes sont souvent partages, voire hostiles a l'idee. Or, une question comme le droit de vote a 16 ans, peu discutee publiquement et engageant plusieurs dimensions de la vie d'un individu, n'est-elle pas une question de debat ideale, ou la confrontation des idees peut amener a modifier les points de vue et reveler – et meme modifier – les attitudes plus globales des jeunes envers l'interet politique et la participation ? Un echantillon non aleatoire de 182 jeunes de 16-22 ans en Belgique francophone a ete retenu pour discuter du vote a 16 ans, de l'interet et de leur participation politique lors d'une journee avec 4 experts. Le meme questionnaire a ete distribue avant et apres la rencontre. Ces premiers resultats sont presentes, qui montrent que peu d'evolutions ont ete enregistrees dans un echantillon peu favorable a l'idee. Cependant, ce sont les enseignements pour la socialisation politique que nous souhaitons mettre en evidence dans cette recherche basee sur le raisonnement politique. For several years, probably under the dominant influence of the rational choice theory in political science, political socialisation was not studied but in restricted specialised circles. However, this research field seems to gain more attention recently, particularly among those working on youth and politics. As several studies have shown, only a minority of young people seems interested in politics these days. For example, our research team has supervised lately an important survey which indicates that only one third of the 16to 21-year-old young people, in Wallonia and in Brussels Region, are very or rather interested in politics. These results will not surprise specialists of the issue. Beyond this observation, frequently repeated, ∗ Professor at the Department of Political Science of the University of Liege. This paper presents the first results of a research financed by the University of Liege. Raphael Darquenne was responsible for the collection of the data and we would like to thank him, as well as Elodie Flaba, who assists us in this research. We also would like to thank Geoffrey Grandjean, Aspirant du Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique-FNRS, for his support, as well as the principals and the teachers of the schools for their enthusiastic involvement in this project, and of course the 200 students who spent a whole day discussing politics. The collaboration of the Athenee Maurice Destenay of Liege was essential in the realisation of this experiment, and we would particularly like to thank their viceprincipal. About 60 animators also helped to make our project come true. A first version of this paper was discussed during the Joint Sessions of Workshops of the ECPR, in Munster (Germany), on March 2010. 1 Hugues Dorzee, « Le jeune vote, sans passion », Le Soir, May 19, 2009, p. 4. 2 Among recent works, we will note this important investigation on young people which was held by the political scientists of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, in collaboration with McGill University (Ellen Claes, Celine


INTRODUCTION:  This article explores Māori social work supervision in Aotearoa New Zealand, from cultural, iwi, hapū and whānau perspectives. It describes an emerging model of kaitiakitanga (supervision) entitled "He Maunga, He Tangata, He Tapu, He Kahu." APPROACH:  It is based on the author's experience and tribal relationships, and proposes a model reinterpreting the supervisory relationship by first re-examining the meanings of these relationships from a Mā ori perspective. It explains the rationale of the model in order to clarify its origins, principles, purpose, obligations and responsibilities in the field of kaitiakitanga (supervision). The nine principles discussed, along with four overarching themes identified within Te Ao Mā ori, reflect the importance of integrating customary practices in to achieve the best outcomes for the people we serve and work with. IMPLICATIONS:  These principles are crucial to the practice of kaimahi-a-iwi and kaitiakitanga, where it is important not only to care, protect, guide, teach, influence and encourage, but also to consider self-care, and develop safe and accountable practices for all people.


Abstract Semiconductor manufacturers are continuously driving efforts to put more computing power and speed into less volume. At the same time, consumers are demanding devices with more functionality that integrate a variety of interconnected circuit types. The result has been an increasing reliance on advanced packaging technologies that use fab-like processes to integrate multiple chips and to provide the increased I/O capability required. With continued focus on device miniaturization, the rapid detection of trace chemical residue during intermediate processing steps becomes increasingly difficult. In the lithography area, detection of polymer residue on wafer surfaces presents special opportunities. One area of opportunity for the detection of lithographic polymer residue takes advantage of the fact that these materials possess unique optical properties not found in metals or other inorganic materials used in semiconductor manufacturing. Rudolph Technologies has submitted patent applications for a nov...


Cyclic sulfamidates function as excellent precursors to a variety of unnatural α,α-disubstituted amino acid derivatives by ring opening with a suitable nucleophile. Addition of various nucleophiles to a sulfamidate derived from 2-methylserine is described.


The contemporary era features systematic correlations between creating wealth and the emergence of new and even more intensive risks. Globalization processes, volatile geopolitical conjunctures, global climate change, technological progress, which provoke constant and inevitable change in the environment of our existence, aggravate the condition of uncertainty at each level of the social life, thus increasing the social and psychological tensions. The latter constitute another source of risks manifesting in the emergence of extreme environments or extreme situations, apart from conventional risks of human existence. It raises the need for rethinking of established paradigms in psychology and related or other sciences in which the notion "extreme" is in a way explored, and their revision, in order to form a new scientific synergy for methodological support of preparing the population to behavioral adaptation and situational behavior in extreme environments and situations. This determines high importance of extremology as a new applied and interdisciplinary research filed. Considering the social demand, analysis of scientific sources and own experiences of the authors, extremology can be defined as the system for the protection of populations and active counteractions in the conditions of emerging extreme environments and extreme situations. It is argued that to be effective nowadays, such system should be built on methods developed as part of other fields of knowledge, i. e. risicology and statistics, especially the component of extreme risk control and quantitative assessment. But the latter cannot exclude studies of the possibilities for enhancing cross-disciplinary synergy of extremology through involving other methods and practices.


Let (X, d) be a compact metric space and let K be a nonempty compact subset of X. Let α ∈ (0, 1] and let Lip(X, K, d) denote the Banach algebra of all continuous complex-valued functions f on X for which pα,K(f) = sup{ |f(x)−f(y)| dα(x,y) : x, y ∈ K, x 6= y} < ∞ when equipped the algebra norm ||f ||Lip(X,K,dα) = ||f ||X + pα,K(f), where ||f ||X = sup{|f(x)| : x ∈ X}. We denote by lip(X, K, d) the closed subalgebra of Lip(X, K, d) consisting of all f ∈ Lip(X, K, d) for which |f(x)−f(y)| dα(x,y) → 0 as d(x, y) → 0 with x, y ∈ K. In this paper we obtain a sufficient condition for density of a linear subspace or a subalgebra of Lip(X, K, d) in (Lip(X, K, d), || · ||Lip(X,K,dα)) (lip(X, K, d) in (lip(X, K, d), || · ||Lip(X,K,dα)), respectively). In particular, we show that the Lipschitz algebra Lip(X, d) is dense in (Lip(X, K, d), ‖ · ‖Lip(X,K,dα)) for α ∈ (0, 1] and Lip(X, d) and the little Lipschitz algebra lip(X, d) are dense in (lip(X, K, d), ‖ · ‖Lip(X,K,dα)) for α ∈ (0, 1).


Efficient prediction of passive noise reduction means for jet noise was the main objective
in the joint research project OPTITHECK. Numerical nozzle design tools
for industry require short computational time and must provide enough prediction sensitivity
in noise level differences even for small geometry variations. Concerning these demands,
a broadband jet noise prediction concept was recently successfully validated.
The hybrid approach includes the following parts: Firstly a RANS computation which provides mean flow and statistical turbulence quantities. Secondly, fluctuating modal sound sources derived from the Tam & Auriault cross-correlation model, efficiently obtained from 2-D stochastic realizations using the Random Particle Method (RPM). Thirdly, a Computational Aeroacoustics (CAA) prediction step utilizing the fluctuating sound sources. In this step the near-field solution of jet noise is aquired, which is extrapolated into far-field by the Ffowcs-Williams and Hawkings method to obtain a spectrum that can be compared with far-field measurements.


artistic directorships of Frank Dunlop, Michael Bogdanov and David Thacker. The title of Zettner's volume suggests a theatre that is bright, popular, inexpensive, even quickly expendable. She demonstrates that such a theatre existed in the Young Vic's early years when its founder Dunlop fostered 'an energetically humorous and extroverted style' on stage. This popularization of what was somewhat surprisingly a repertoire of classic texts in the main (Zettner suggests to demarcate the theatre's literary territory from that of the Royal Court) was continued under Bogdanov who further cultivated the Young Vic's informal atmosphere, providing foyer and community events to bring in an audience of local young people. Thacker's regime built upon the established choice of modern and older classic plays. However, his artistic directorship (1984-93), although critically acclaimed, moved the theatre away from earlier demotic informality, instating a more conventional and decorous approach to both text and theatre-going. In tracing this history, Zettner relies very much on interviews with directors and actors, as well as press reviews. Such information has enabled her to build up a reasonably full production history. Directors' working methods emerge clearly, and actors' testimonies bear witness to the significant role the Young Vic has played in training young actors, particularly those attached to its original parent institution, the National Theatre. When it comes to assessing the success of these productions, Zettner relies heavily on press reviews. Such dependence is at times unhelpful. For example, the reviewers' notorious adjectival platitudes does not help us understand the nature of Tom Wilkinson's performance as Ibsen's Stockmann, which is recorded as 'wonderful', 'memorable', 'compelling', 'glorious', 'perfect', amongst other accolades. I feel Zettner has missed an opportunity here to raise questions about the wider reception of the Young Vic's plays and the efficacy of its educational practice. The newspaper reviewer here scarcely seems a typical member of the audience; as, according to the author, the large part of the audience, particularly in the Dunlop/Bogdanov years, was composed of young people, many of whom were not necessarily regular theatre-goers. Much more detailed audience research, involving perhaps the many schools and youth organizations with which the theatre has built up links, would surely have yielded more acute assessments of the Young Vic's work than the praise-chant cited. Despite this over-reliance on reviewers' opinions, Paperback Theatre still does young people's theatre, so often unrecorded, a good service with its painstaking documentation of a company's attempts to develop and sustain work for a young audience. In particular, her account is interesting for the way that it charts the gradual dissipation of the theatre's bold and radicalized experimentation in the 1970s in favour of Thacker's more meticulous concern with literary values in the Thatcher years.


A parental decision to forego corrective surgery for a baby born with spina bifida in October 1983 resulted in a legal controversy and a public debate about the care of all babies born with serious disabilities. Steinbock traces the medical and legal history of the "Baby Jane Doe" case, contrasts the approachs of the New York courts involved, and looks at two other decisions involving the treatment of minors with which the case has been compared. She considers the difficulties in establishing a prognosis for handicapped newborns, and concludes with a discussion of government intervention in decisions about their care.


Addressing heavy metal pollution isone of the hot areas of environmental research.Despite natural existence, various anthropomorphic sources have contributed to an unusually high concentration of heavy metals in the environment.They are characterized by their long persistence in natural environment leading to serious health consequences in humans, animals, and plants even at very low concentrations (1 or 2 μg in some cases). Failure of strict regulations by government authorities is also to be blamed for heavy metal pollution. Several individual treatments, namely, physical, chemical and biological are being implied to remove heavy metals from the environment.But, they all face challenges in terms of expensiveness and in-situ treatment failure.Hence, integrated processes are gaining popularity as it is reported to achieve the goal effectively in various environmental matrices and will overcome a major drawback of large scale implementation.Integrated processes are the combination of two different methods to achieve a synergistic and an effective effort to remove heavy metals. Most of the review articles published so far mainly focus on individual methods on specific heavy metal removal, that too from a particular environmental matrix only.To the best of our knowledge, this is the first review of this kind that summarizes on various integrated processes for heavy metal removal from all environmental matrices. In addition, we too have discussed on the advantages and disadvantages of each integrated process, with a special mention of the few methods that needs more research attention. To conclude, integrated processes areproved as a right remedial option which has been detaily discussed in the present review. However, more research focus on the process is needed to challenge the in-situ operative conditions. We believe, this review on integrated processes will surely evoke a research thrust that could give rise to novel remediation projects for research community in the future.


As well as to examine the differences in attitude of respondents in regard to their demographic characteristic, the purpose of this research is to identify the main barriers to Knowledge Sharing (KS) within the Jordanian hospitality industry; a quantitative approach has been adopted in order to achieve these research objectives, the data being collected via the questionnaire. The sample of this research consisted of 273 managers and employees within ten top hotels in Jordan and the researcher implemented the Statistical Analysis Package (SPSS) so as to analyse the data, the descriptive statistics, mathematical averages, and standard deviations being used to identify the main barriers of KS within the Jordanian hospitality industry. The T-test and One-way ANOVA test were additionally used to examine the hypotheses, the study showcasing that individual and organisational barriers were the main barriers to KS within the Jordanian hospitality industry; meanwhile, technology and knowledge nature were not considered as barriers to KS. The results additionally indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between the responses of the sample members at the level of α≤0.05 on the barriers to sharing knowledge from the employees at hospitality industry attributed to the following variables: gender; job; age; years of experiences; qualifications.


The full space effect of the minetransient electromagnetic method would increase the space positioning difficulty of the low resistance geological mass and would misjudge the location of the geological abnormal development.In order to improve the explanation accuracy and accurately obtain the location of the geological abnormal development,based on the diffusion theory of the electromagnetic field,a forward model of the mine transient electromagnetic field was established.A nine sector detection method was applied to study the influence law of the mine low resistance mass to the full space distribution of the electromagnetic field.The correction coefficient of the full space geological mass was provided and the test was conducted in Qidong Mine.The results showed that when the roof and floor both had the low resistance mass,the magnitude order of the max induced potential was 107 and would be one magnitude order higher than the floor with the low resistance mass only.At this moment,the decay of the single curve tailrace would be more gently and the correction coefficient would be 0.2~0.6.The apparent resistivity of the low resistance region detected in the floor was 10 Ω·m and could increase to 25 Ω·m after the correction.The apparent resistivity would be high resistance in reflection.The borehole was no water as confirmed and there was no low resistance abnormal development in the region.


The fourth in a series that explores cultural and ethical values in Classical Antiquity, this volume examines the negative foils, the anti-values, against which positive value notions are conceptualized and calibrated in Classical Antiquity. Eighteen chapters address this theme from different perspectives -historical, literary, legal and philosophical. What makes someone into a prototypically 'bad' citizen? Or an abomination of a scholar? What is the relationship between ugliness and value? How do icons of sexual perversion, monstruous emperors and detestable habits function in philosophical and rhetorical prose? The book illuminates the many rhetorical manifestations of the concept of 'badness' in classical antiquity in a variety of domains.


In this paper, the GTEM cell electric field using to UHF sensor calibration is simulated by HFSS software. According to the simulation results, the field uniformity of the total electric field strength in the "1/3 area" of the GTEM cell can meet the requirements before being placed in the UHF sensor. However, the field uniformity of the total electric field strength has been greatly changed after the UHF sensor is placed. In addition, the maximum amplitude of the field strength change in the UHF sensor test area exceeds 10 dB compared to that before the UHF sensor is placed. It has a great influence on the calibration accuracy of UHF sensors. Through the simulation study of the electric field of GTEM cell, it provides a reference for further improving the calibration accuracy of UHF sensor.


A B ST R A C T Granule size is used as a parameter and as a quality specification by manufacturers while designing a cost- effective prilling tower for obtaining a standard granule size. In this study, we obtained a standard 2 mm diameter granule using an alternate prilling method other than those available in the industry.


Pyridostigmine bromide is a carbamate AChE inhibitor with a positively charged "quaternary ammonium" group, which is believed to prevent its penetration through the "blood-brain barrier," a layer of cells that controls which substances may penetrate from the general circulation into the brain. Therefore, side effects of PB are typically those of heightened peripheral cholinergic activity (nicotinic and muscarinic). PB has been perceived as having an enhanced safety profile relative to such other carbamates as physostigmine, because of its relative disinclination to penetrate the blood-brain barrier. However, recent evidence suggests that PB can cross the blood-brain barrier under some circumstances, specifically in the context of stress or chemical combinations.


Nonlinear distortions must be compensated in many real-life systems, such as in digital satellite and microwave channels and others, so adaptive equalization is of considerable practical interest. Radial basis function neural networks have the ability to equalize nonlinear channels, and a simplified version is proposed for online implementation. We focus on the stochastic gradient technique, and get a good performance by adjusting only one coefficient and one center closest to the input vector. Simulations are included to verify the algorithm.


SUMMARYAlong with chromosome aberrations, 137Cs gamma-irradiation in high doses induces chromatid aberrations in the pre-synthetic phase G1 of the naturally synchronized cell population of embryonic radicles in C. capillaris seeds. This occurs in seeds with an artificially decreased moisture content.The irradiation of dry seeds seems to induce primary chromosome lesions of two qualitatively different types. In addition to usual short-lived potential lesions appearing in G1 as chromosome rearrangements, long-lived potential lesions that survive till the S phase to be fixed as chromatid aberrations also develop.


ABSTRACT Performance analysis (PA) has become a key requirement for association football coaches within England to aid their practice but less is known in other countries. We examined the perceptions of Danish association football coaches towards the use and engagement with PA. An online survey with 34 open-ended and close-ended questions was completed by 200 UEFA A and Pro Licenced coaches, gaining insights into how the coaches' engaged with PA, how PA supported their practice and the future of PA in Denmark. Additionally, five male coaches completed a semi-structured interview. UEFA Pro Licenced coaches had greater experience with analysis support and perceived the importance of video for opposition and reviewing their own team's performance with higher regard than UEFA A Licenced coaches. Cost and time were highlighted as barriers, but a clear desire to have a dedicated performance analyst was acknowledged by all coaches. The research findings provide key considerations regarding the knowledge and understanding of how Danish football coaches review and evaluate performances, highlight the perceived benefits of PA and acknowledge a desire to increase investment. The insights can be used to inform future decision making regarding the direction of PA provision and the education and development of Danish coaches.


In this prescient chapter from 1982, author and activist Anne Braden draws a direct line from the anti-Communist witch hunts of the McCarthy Era to state repression of mass movements from the civil rights era to the rapid expansion of the racist police state that continues to this day. This chapter is reprinted from Anne Braden Speaks (Monthly Review Press, 2022).


While U.S. consumption of olive oil has tripled over the past two decades, nearly all olive oil continues to be imported. Estimation of a demand system using monthly import data reveals that the income elasticity for virgin oils sourced from EU is above one, but demand for nonvirgin oils is income-inelastic. The demand for olive oil as a single product is price-inelastic. Differentiated by product characteristic and origin, olive oils are highly substitutable with each other but not with other vegetable oils. News about the health and culinary benefits of olive oil and the spread of Mediterranean diet contribute significantly to the rising demand.


We exhibit a triangulated category which is neither the stable category of a Frobenius category nor a full triangulated subcategory of the homotopy category of a stable model category.


Abstract Parasitoid studies were conducted concurrently with a pilot control project to test the efficacy of Dipel® WP, a formulation of Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner, in reducing western spruce budworm, Choristoneura occidentalis Freeman, populations. Twenty-one species of parasitoids were recovered in rearings of the budworm and an associated defoliator, the spruce coneworm, Dioryctria reniculelloides Mutuura and Munroe. Parasitoid population alterations occurred following application. Parasitism by Apanteles fumiferanae Vier. and Glypta fumiferanae (Vier.), which attack prediapausing first-instar budworm, was significantly higher in treatment blocks following B.t. application. Parasitism by Phaeogenes hariolus (Cr.), Cermoasia auricaudata Tns., and Madremyia saundersii (Will), parasitoids of late instars and pupae, was significantly lower following treatment. Comparisons of parasitoid populations were made between pre- and post-spray sampling periods and between treatment and check blocks.


Objective To investigate the clinical value of transaxillary minithoracotomy for radical resection of lung cancer,and compare with traditional posterolateral thoracotomy for radical resection of lung cancer.Methods 116 patients with lung cancer were divied into observation group and control group according to patient's wishes,every group was 58 cases.Observation group were given transaxillary minithoracotomy,and control group were given traditional posterolateral thoracotomy.The length of incision,operation time,volume of blood lose during operation,postoperative index(bed stay,hospital stay,pain intensity score,pulmonary function,prognosis and complications) of two groups were recorded.Results There were significant difference in length of incision,volume of blood lose during operation,postoperative bed stay,postoperative hospital stay,postoperative pain intensity score and pulmonary function in 2 months after surgery between two groups(P 0.05 or P 0.01).The complications rate of observation group(6.9%) was lower than that of control group(13.8%),there was significant difference(P 0.05).Conclusion Transaxillary minithoracotomy for radical resection of lung cancer has good clinical effect,minor injury and pain,fast recovery and less complications.


Like more and more cancer patients today, I have outlived several prognoses and am still hanging around, in a diminished life, trying to outlive the latest. Sooner or later, all of us get swept up into one or another of the collectively available cancer story lines in the culture.


The invention relates to an energy-saving type positive and negative pressure pneumatic air seal machine which is provided with a shell, wherein a feed port is formed in the upper part of the shell, a discharge port is formed in the lower part of the shell, a partition is vertically arranged in the middle of a cavity of the shell, so as to divide the inner cavity of the shell into a front discharge channel and a back discharge channel, and an upper blade and a lower blade are installed in each discharge channel by an upper rotating shaft and a lower rotating shaft. The energy-saving type positive and negative pressure pneumatic air seal machine is characterized in that a front sealing plate and a back sealing plate are installed on the upper part of the partition, a plurality of air blowing holes are formed in the front sealing plate and the back sealing plate, a front air inlet channel and a back air inlet channel are formed between the front and back arc-shaped sealing plates and the partition, and air inlets corresponding to the front and back air inlet channels are formed in the shell and externally connected with air inlet pipes; the upper rotating shaft in the front discharge channel and the lower rotating shaft in the back discharge channel extend to one side outside the shell, the lower rotating shaft in the front discharge channel and the upper rotating shaft in the back discharge channel extend to the other side outside the shell, and linkage transmission mechanisms are installed between the respective two rotating shafts on both sides of the shell. The energy-saving type positive and negative pressure pneumatic air seal machine can be applied to a positive and negative pressure wind transported or dust removal system, the problem that the existing valve type air seal machine cannot be suitable for a discharge port positive pressure wind network system is solved, and the energy-saving type positive and negative pressure pneumatic air seal machine is mainly suitable for pneumatic transmission and ventilation dust removal systems in industries of grains, feedstuff, food processing plants, medicine, chemical engineering, tobaccos, metallurgy, cement and the like.


Deficiency of national consuming demand has always been one of the most important reasons of restriction on China's sustainable and healthy economic development, and the research into Chinese consuming behaviors has to take into account the special backgrounds of Chinese economic reform. This thesis deals with the countermeasures as well as the factors and status quo of the deficiency of national consuming demands based on the characteristic of the special reform period.


Vocational education must operate within a lifelong learning context. Accounting is a vocational study. Besides core accounting knowledge, thinking and practicing capabilities are required for an accountant while judgement with ethical consideration is an important capability. Thus, accounting students should apprehend ethics. This research aims to investigate accounting students' perception on the importance on ethics themes which are represented by 17 keywords, students were asked to rate how important they perceive an accounting graduate should have learnt these keywords in a curriculum. The focus is on all students, further to gender and the studying year (senior and junior). Data were collected from nine higher education institutes in Hong Kong. Overall, students (n=72) rated "codes of ethics" the most important and surprisingly "independence" as second. Male (39) and female (33) rated differently in many keywords, e.g. "corruption" & "social responsibility". The difference in rating between students at senior (34) and junior (38) years is narrow, with exception on "corruption", "corporate governance" and "insider trading". The findings offer an insight for educators in vocational based education to include appropriate ethics elements in accounting curriculum so to let students attain both core technical skills and skills for surviving in this ever-changing world.


The poplar auto-catalytic ethanol lignin was fractionated into Mw 30000 four-level fraction by ultrafiltration, then the poplar auto-catalytic ethanol lignin of different relative molecular weight was grafted with acrylamide. The effect of different fractions on retention and filter was studied, at the same time, the structure of reaction product was analyzed through infrared spectrogram (IR). The results showed that the molecular weight of 5000 similar to 10000 poplar auto-catalytic lignin-based retention and drainage aid had better effect, when was added to the manufacturing stage, the paper ash content increased 8.21 percentage points, the filler retention rate increased 44.63 percentage points, and beating degree decreased 5.


This study was conducted to examine the occurrence of psychological breach and its influence on employee perception of organizational justice measured by distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactive justice. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 70 employees in the management and non-management category from a newspaper organization. The result showed that psychological contract breach occurred mostly at moderate and low level. The result also revealed that psychological contract breach has a significant negative influence on and distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice. Several study implications were discussed and suggested in this study.


Atmospheric concentrations of PCBs were measured in Birmingham, U.K., between 7/13/97 and 7/27/98. A significant positive relationship (>95%) was detected between the cosine of the wind direction and ln P for ΣPCB and tri- and tetrachlorinated PCBs. This is consistent with input from northerly winds passing over Birmingham city center, 3 km from our site. Plots of the enthalpy of surface-air exchange (ΔHSA) versus laboratory-measured heats of vaporization (ΔHv) for all congeners revealed a highly significant (>99.9%) positive linear relationship. According to Simcik et al. (1), this indicates local sources to be the predominant influence. However, separate plots of ΔHSA versus ΔHv for (a) the tri- and tetrachlorinated PCBs and (b) the penta-, hexa-, and heptachlorinated congeners revealed a highly significant linear relationship for the latter group but ΔHSA to be essentially constant for the former. Strict interpretation of Simcik et al.'s hypothesis (1) suggests long-range transport as the principal sou...


th , 2012; revised: Nov. 25 th , 2012; accepted: Dec. 4 th , 2012 Abstract: The Kuroshio Extension (KE) region is the key region in mid-latitude ocean-atmosphere interaction where mesoscale eddies achieve their largest magnitude. Mesoscale eddies' interaction with the mean flow plays a critical role in Kuroshio meander dynamics. Anticyclonic eddies prevailing in Kuroshio recirculation region are crucial to North Pacific subtropical mode water formation. This paper summarizes works on spatial-temporal characteristics of mesoscale eddies and their interaction with the local wind in the KE region. The characteristics of these eddies, such as spatial distribution, migration speed, water mass structure were intensively studied. The mechanism of the eddy formation was known as the baroclinic instability. The seasonal cycle of the eddy kinetic energy, which has a maximum in summer, is proved. The three dimensional structure, the nonlinearity, the temporal variation, the available gravitational potential energy of mesoscale eddies in the KE region will be the focus of near future study. The interaction between nonlinear eddies and local wind will be investigated to advance the understanding of the role of eddies in the mid-latitude ocean-atmosphere interaction.


We attempt to explore the implications of the "3C convergence" (convergence of content, computers and communications) on the HCI research agenda. The interaction between humans and the 3C's is becoming a daily staple as we continue to witness powerful computers unite in a networked environment where wireline and wireless communications enjoy broadening bandwidths that permit the transmission of multimedia content. We draw illustrative examples from the Hong Kong environment related to the 3C convergence, and we present issues which we believe to be important for the research and development of a universal, useful and usable human-computer interface.


Induction motors are widely used in different indus-try areas and can experience various kinds of faults in stators and rotors. In general, fault detection and diagnosis techniques for induction motors can be supervised by measuring quantities such as noise, vibration, and temperature. The installation of mechanical sensors in order to assess the health conditions of a machine is typically only done for expensive or load-critical machines, where the high cost of a continuous monitoring system can be justified. Nevertheless, induced current monitoring can be implemented inexpensively on machines with arbitrary sizes by using current transformers. In this regard, effective and low-cost fault detection techniques can be implemented, hence reducing the maintenance and downtime costs of motors. In this work, machine learning techniques have been combined with traditional Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to proposes a simple but yet efficient method for fault detection and diagnosis of induction motors. Raw signals are converted from time domain to frequency domain using FFT. The FFT spectrum are then divided into frequency segments and energy coefficients of each segment are calculated as the sum over the FFT amplitudes. These energy coefficients are used as features for machine learning in our platform. The proposed method is validated on real-world data and achieves a precision of 99.7% for fault detection and 100% for fault classification with minimal expert knowledge requirement. In addition, this approach allows users to be able to optimize/balance risks and maintenance costs to achieve the highest benefit based on their requirements. These are the key requirements of a robust prognostics and health management system.


In the field of fractional calculus and applications, a current trend is to propose non-singular kernels for the definition of new fractional integration and differentiation operators. It was recently claimed that fractional-order derivatives defined by continuous (in the sense of non-singular) kernels are too restrictive. This note shows that this conclusion is wrong as it arises from considering the initial conditions incorrectly in (partial or not) fractional differential equations.


The Year of the Rooster. Chinese New Year celebration and blessing of business houses in Cavanagh Street. Lion reaches for the lettuce leaf at Sun Cheong Loong mens wear shop.


Superdirectivity is a very attractive option in array aperture constrained applications due to its high directivity and good angular discrimination. However, it is hardly applied in practice because of its extreme sensitivity to small random array errors. In this paper, we propose an online calibration method for superdirective arrays with gain-phase errors. Unlike the currently well-known robust superdirective solutions, which attempt to achieve a trade-off between the directivity factor and the sensitivity function, the proposed method could almost reach the theoretical superdirectivity after calibration. Our calibration method is based on orthogonal subspace theory and does not need any calibration sources. To assure the stability and accuracy of this method, an iterative process is applied. In addition, it can be applied to arbitrary geometric superdirective arrays with known sensor locations. At last, a widely used circular array is taken as an example to show the good performance and effectiveness of this method by numerical simulations.


A simple, precise, accurate and rapid HPLC method has been developed, and validated for the determination of ofloxacin and satranidazole simultaneously,in combined dosage form. Acetonitrile and ammonium di-hydrogen orthophosphate buffer with ph7.0 (50%:50%)is used as the mobile phase, 300 is the detection wavelength for this study. The applicability of the method for simultaneous determinations of oflaxacin and satranidazole was verified by the determination of these compounds in marketed tablets. Results of the analysis were validated statistically, and by recovery studies (99.43–101.28%). The recovery and RSD values with in limits given in ICH guidelines method developments indicates that the suitability of proposed for the routine determination of the these compounds in tablets the validation parameters; linearity (r=9999) sensitivity (LOD (1.0 -1.5x10−4), LOQ(3.0–4.5×10−4) accuracy(99.43–101.28%) and reproducibility were found to satisfactory. The proposed method can be successfully used to determine the drug contents of marketed formulation.


Sustainable urban development is a phenomenon with wide and complicated effects that is effective in growth and creation of cities and paying attention to economic, social and environmental and ecological factors. In order to, the aim of this paper is analysis and comparison of regional development indicators in Mashhad and Chenaran using sustainable development approach. Applied methodology is descriptive analytical, based on library studies, modeling, and field survey studies. We have used of documental method to collect information's. Results showed that Mashhad as the biggest city in the case study region is ranked in the first level with national and international functions but Chenaran city is ranked in the fourth levels with other cities such Fariman, Kashmar & etc.


A double spreaded CDMA system employing Parity bit selected spreading sequences is proposed in this paper for improving the Bit error rate (BER) performance of Multiuser CDMA systems. In a CDMA system with parity bit selected spreading sequences (CDMA/PB), the transmitted data bits is used to select the spreading code from a set of mutually orthogonal spreading waveforms allocated to each user. After this the spreaded data is again undergone a second spreading using a unique PN sequence. Multiple Access Interference (MAI) caused in Multiuser CDMA/PB systems can be mitigated by this double spreading method. A new detection algorithm is also used at the receiver for the betterment of the BER performance. The complexity of this proposed method is less compared to Parallel Interference Cancellation (PIC) method in Multiuser CDMA systems. Hadamard codes are used for spreading in the proposed system in order to maintain the orthogonality between the spreading codes.


We have developed a simple, rapid method for analysing faecal iron using a microwave oven for digestion followed by atomic absorption spectrometry. The chelating effect of l,2‐dimethyl‐3‐hydroxy‐pyrid‐4‐one (DMHP) has been tested in rats with experimental iron overloading and three routes of DHMP administration, oral, subcutaneous, and intraperitoneal, have been compared. Regardless of the route of administration, we have found that DMHP promotes iron excretion via the urine. We have not observed a difference in the amount of iron excreted in the faeces before and after DMHP administration by any route. The subcutaneous route of administration is the most effective in promoting iron excretion, followed by the intraperitoneal route. Although most convenient for clinical use, oral administration promotes the excretion of only a small fraction of that by the subcutaneous route.


The horizontal lateral displacement of reinforced concrete or rail anti-slide piles is measured by setting up borehole incline-tube in pile. For reinforced concrete anti-slide piles,it is considered as beams on elastic foundation so as to obtain elastic curve differential equation,and the rotating-angle,bending moment,shear and resistance of soil or rock piles are deduced then. For rail anti-slide piles,the bending moment,normal stress and anti-slide force of rail anti-slide pile are calculated inversely based on flexure deformation measured by inclinometer. Finally,this method is applied to Hanjiaya and 0509 landslide with satisfying effects.


When starting receiving the multiplexed signal to BPSK, QPSK and 8PSK modulation PSK mode demodulation circuit (1A) of the selector (16A) from a plurality of phases for each modulation system and each phase rotation angle provided error table, for a phase error table for BPSK (15-1), the read out phase error data corresponding to the higher of the I and Q symbol stream of three bits Δφ (3). Reception signal phase rotation angle detecting circuit (8A) MSB from Δφ (3) and the I symbol stream is detected, phase (1) of the bit-stream of symbols corresponding to the received frame synchronization signal, and (O) rotation angle, and outputs the phase rotation angle to the remapper (7) to allow the remapper (7) for the absolute phasing. The phase error data selector (16A) from a certain modulation system corresponding to the phase error table read out corresponding to the received symbol streams, and the phase rotation angle from the transmission configuration identification circuit (9) is identified, the phase difference data is output to the D / a converter (17), the correction of the carrier phase reference for quadrature detection, and that for the transmission signal point, the reception signal point comes to have a constant phase.


Studies report that metabolites, such as peptides, present in fermented milk with specific lactic acid bacteria, may regulate cytokine production and exert an anti-inflammatory effect. Hence, the cytokine regulatory effect of fermented milk by specific Lactobacillus strains was evaluated in a lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated murine model. From twelve strains, three (J20, J23 and J28) were selected for their high proteolytic and acidifying capacities in milk and used for the in vivo study. Three treatments (fermented milk, FM; pasteurized fermented milk, PFM; and its <10 kDa fractions, PFM10) were administrated daily for four weeks. After treatments, animals were induced to a systemic inflammation with LPS, and blood samples were collected 6 h post-LPS injection for cytokine analyses. Results showed that FM or PFM significantly (p > 0.05) reduced pro-inflammatory cytokine (IL-6 and TNF-α) concentrations and significantly increased anti-inflammatory (IL-10) cytokine concentrations in comparison to the control; also, pro-inflammatory cytokines were reduced for animals treated with PFM10 (p < 0.05). RP-HPLC-MS/MS analysis showed that water-soluble extracts (<10 kDa) from PFM with J28 presented 15 new peptides, which may be the metabolites involved in the cytokine regulatory effect of fermented milk.


Objective: To explore the influence of nursing intervention of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine on hearing rehabilitation in patients with paroxysmal deafness.Method: Seventy-two patients with paroxysmal deafness were randomly assigned into control group and intervention group.Control group were administered with conventional therapy and nursing while intervention group received emotional nursing,dietary nursing,syndrome differentiation and nursing,rehabilitation guidance based on the treatment given to control group.Rehabilitations of hearing were observed in both groups.Result: Among 36 cases in intervention group,12 cases(33.33%) were cured,24 cases(66.67%) improved;among 36 cases in control group,five cases(13.89%) were cured,30 cases(83.33%) improved,one case(2.78%) was ineffective.Cure rate of intervention group was superior to that of control group with statistical meaning(P0.05).Conclusion: Nursing intervention of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine is positive for hearing rehabilitation of paroxysmal deafness.


Introduction: Knowledge about AI in university professors allows them to integrate these technological tools into their teaching strategies and improve the quality of learning.
Objective: To determine the sustainable factorial structure of the relationship dimension of an instrument to evaluate the level of knowledge about artificial intelligence in university professors.
Methods: A cross-sectional metric validation study was conducted. A sample of 83 university professors was selected. An instrument on artificial intelligence for university professors was applied, consisting of 15 questions divided into three sections. Psychometric analysis was carried out to evaluate its validity and reliability.
Results: The results show that Part 1 has an alpha coefficient of 0.77, Part 2 has an alpha coefficient of 0.65, and Part 3 has an alpha coefficient of 0.83. The alpha coefficients for each subscale (0.77 for Part 1, 0.65 for Part 2, and 0.83 for Part 3) indicate that the instrument has good internal consistency and that the questions within each subscale are related to each other. The χ2/gl ratio of 2.1 indicates a good fit of the model, and the GFI, NFI, and CFI values are close to 1, indicating a good fit of the model.
Conclusions: The results of the present study support the validity, reliability, and sustainable factorial structure of the instrument on artificial intelligence for university professors, making it an appropriate tool to evaluate the level of knowledge about AI in university professors.


Exergame, a type of enjoyable active video game that combines physical exertion and game is a technological innovation that has generated important information for the health field. In the cardiovascular area, exergames have been used to manage blood pressure in adults with some positive results. Despite this, in primary studies, it is possible to identify that participants dropout of the exergames interventions, but no synthesis of evidence has been produced so far to explore that. The aims of this review are i) to estimate the pooled rate of dropouts in controlled trials assessing the effects of exergame-based interventions on resting blood pressure in adults and older people; ii) to compare dropout rates between exergame and controls groups, and iii) to investigate the intervention characteristics associate with dropout rates. Inclusion criteria: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-RCTs (≥ 4 weeks) assessing the effects of exergame-based interventions on resting blood pressure in adults aged ≥ 18 years old. Without restriction to language, date of the publication, and intervention setting. Literature searches will be conducted using PubMed, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Web of Science, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Scientific Electronic Library Online. The quality of the RCTs will be assessed using Cochrane's risk of bias tool. A descriptive narrative synthesis and a random-effects model meta-analysis of the pooled event rate (prevalence) will be provided (p < 0.05). This protocol is registered with PROSPERO: CRD42020199547.


Cybercrime is an illegal action committed in the area of ITC and it is high speed, low cost and high tech offence. This kind of activity usually involves a modification of a conventional crime by using computers. The term 'cyber-laundering' is the practice of money laundering carried out in cyber space through online transactions. This article presents the meaning of cyber laundering dealing with offences concerned with the abuse of computers or other electronic gadgets. Cyber criminals also target at loopholes of mobile devices and the threats are growing faster than it does on personal computer. An effective legal frame work for combating cybercrime is important to develop the correct conceptual apparatus. Cyber criminals often favour those e-commerce portals and payment system where a great number of personal information and credit card data are being stored and processed. On the whole, an effective anti-cybercrime strategy is the need of the hour.
KEY WORDS: Cybercrime, Money laundering, Information technology, Cyber security, Electronic gadgets, Financial services.


The Total Maternity Care Programme, launched in June 1975 by the University of the Philippines at the Philippine General Hospital, aims at complete care for both mother and baby. Since the program began, requests for female postpartum sterilization have exceeded capacity. The postpartum ligation rate increased from 14% to 30% in a 6-month period. Reasons for this increase are word of mouth publicity, growing consciousness of the disadvantages of large families, and diseases contraindicating pregnancy. Reasons why women declined sterilization are mentioned. Based on the success of the program so far, it is recommended that Total Maternity Care Programmes be extended to the other maternity hospitals in metropolitan Manila.


A drainage bag with a through hole cross valve comprises a bag body, a liquid inlet catheter and the cross valve. The cross valve consists of a valve body, a transverse pipe and a slide rod, the length of the slide rod is larger than that of the transverse pipe, the valve body and the transverse pipe are crossed and connected integrally, a liquid inlet is arranged at one end of the valve body, a liquid outlet is arranged at the other end of the valve body, an inner cavity of the transverse pipe is respectively communicated with the liquid inlet and the liquid outlet, the slide rod is inserted with the transverse pipe, an outer circle of the slide rod at a joint matches with the inner wall of the transverse pipe, a circular through hole is arranged on the slide rod, when the slide rod is pushed to one end, the circular through hole, the liquid inlet and the liquid outlet are staggered, and when the slide rod is pushed to the other end, the circular through hole is simultaneously communicated with the liquid inlet and the liquid outlet. The drainage bag with the through hole cross valve is simpler in structure and easy in manufacture, impurities in liquid of the drainage bag can smoothly flow through a channel of the valve body, and accordingly the drainage bag is safer and more reliable.


In this paper, a new approach is presented to stabilize linear time-invariant singular fractional-order systems with time delay whose delays belong to any given interval. This study presents a new method for decomposing a singular time-delay systems (STDSs) and transforming it into a normal time-delay systems (TDSs) with a lower order. One advantage of employing the decomposition is the reduction of the computational complexity by reducing the order of the system. In addition, a stabilization method is provided to stabilize the linear singular fractional delay systems in a range of zero to a given delay. Eventually, the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method are studied through two practical examples.


The effectiveness and safe use of herbicides registered for forest vegetation management in Florida requires developing site-specific herbicide prescriptions made with careful consideration of site factors and knowledge of the chemical and physical properties of herbicides and their effects on biological systems. This 9-page fact sheet was written by Anna Osiecka and Patrick J. Minogue, and published by the UF Department of School of Forest Resources and Conservation, May 2011.
FOR283/FR345: Forest Herbicide Characteristics (ufl.edu)


In order to reduce the harm of the computer virus, the proposal is presented to cut off the computer virus' lifecycle based on the working principles of the computer virus. The effective strategy is to implement the defense mechanism during the design stage, the propagation phase and the operation phase with the safety education, which demonstrates it is effective to reduce the average probability of poisoning about 23% and the percentage of working hours is improved 25% in lab of universities and colleges.


In this work we introduce a probabilistic model for classifying segmented images. The proposed classifier is very general and it can deal both with images that were segmented with deterministic algorithms, such as the k-means algorithm, and with probabilistic clustering approaches, such as the Hidden Markov Random Field (HMRF) algorithm. Similarly, our model can be used on either binary images or on images that contain multiple clustering labels as well as on images with any cluster boundaries (sharp, fuzzy or irregular). We tested our classifier on real fMRI images and showed that it outperforms the region-based Maximum Likelihood k-means classifier. Furthermore, we showed that higher classification rates are obtained when the images are segmented using a probabilistic HMRF algorithm compared to deterministic k-means method.


Motivated by practical VLSI routing applications, we study the maximum vertex degree of a minimum spanning tree (MST). We prove that under the Lp norm, the maximum vertex degree over all MSTs is equal to the Hadwiger number of the corresponding unit ball; we show an even tighter bound for MSTs where the maximum degree is minimized. We give the best-known bounds for the maximum MST degree for arbitrary Lp metrics in all dimensions, with a focus on the rectilinear metric in two and three dimensions. We show that for any finite set of points in the Manhattan plane there exists an MST with maximum degree of at most 4, and for three-dimensional Manhattan space the maximum possible degree of a minimum degree MST is either 13 or 14.


The main result of this paper is that if N is a von Neumann algebra that is a factor and has the weak* operator approximation property (the weak* OAP), and if R is a von Neumann algebra, then every σ-weakly closed subspace of N⊗R that is an N⊗C1 R -bimodule (under multiplication) splits, in the sense that there is a σ-weakly closed subspace T of R such that S = N⊗T. Note that if S is a von Neumann subalgebra of N⊗R, then S is an N⊗C1 R -bimodule if and only if N⊗C1 R C S. So this result is a generalization (in the case where N has the weak* OAP) of the result of Ge and Kadison that if N is a factor, then every von Neumann subalgebra M of N⊗R that contains N⊗C1 R splits. We also obtain other results concerning the splitting of σ-weakly closed subspaces of tensor products of von Neumann algebras and the splitting of normed closed subspaces of C*-algebras that generalize results previously obtained for von Neumann subalgebras and C*-subalgebras.


OBJECTIVE:To establish a new training mode with distinctive practical feature for TCM postgraduates of professional degree.METHODS:The status quo of TCM postgraduates training were analyzed in China,and reasonable suggestions for the training of TCM postgraduates of professional degree were put forward.RESULTS CONCLUSION:It is suggested to adjust entrance examinational subjects according to the requirements of professional degree;improve the construction of the tutor team for professional degree postgraduates;construct application-oriented professional degree postgraduates teaching system with practice as main line.The training for TCM postgraduate of professional degree has been improved gradually in order to meet the demand of the society on practice-oriented high-level talents.


The CPTC characteristics of the low resistivity Barium Titanate,high lift drag ratio and bigger PTC domino offect were studied using BTiO3 pulverous and the method that many donor Y3+、Nb5+ etc doping to acceptor to repair,and controlling prilling and the mould pressure,and solid phase synthesis once.


This paper presents a brief overview and focuses on two key aspects of a technology for representing and recognizing complicated 2D and 3D shapes subject to partial occlusion and missing data, based on implicit polynomials. The two key aspects are new concepts and results for fast, robust, repeatable tting of implicit poly-nomials to data, and new approaches to representing and recognizing complicated shapes based on these polynomials. This representation is built around signature curves of vector valued algebraic invariants which permit a recognition machine to start anywhere in a shape data set, choose a data patch of appropriate length, t an implicit polynomial to the patch, and recognize the shape or index into a database by comparing algebraic invariants of the polynomial with those stored in the signature curves. Fitting and recognition or indexing can be multiscale. This technology can also be applied to curves obtained from shape data, such as Kimia's shocks and time to shock-formation 1 , and our set-of-curves representation for generalized cylinders 2. Shape modeling for what purpose? Shape model development should depend on the intended use. In this paper, we are interested in shape models for the purposes of machine recognition of shapes and shape-based indexing into databases for 2D curve and 3D surface shapes, and shape models that have good representation power and are easy to manipulate for animation and deformation in computer graphics or virtual reality. Desirable characteristics for the rst two uses are low computational cost and low error rate. Of interest are both the case of speciic rigid or articulated objects, and the more diicult case of speciic deformable objects or determining the class association of a shape in the data. This paper presents a brief overview and focuses on two key aspects of a technology for representing and recognizing or indexing complicated 2D and 3D shapes subject to partial occlusion and missing data, based on implicit polynomials. The two key aspects are new concepts and results for fast, robust, repeatable tting of implicit polynomials to data, and new approaches to invariantly representing and recognizing complicated shapes based on these polynomials. Implicit polynomial planar curves and 3D surfaces can be thought of as extensions of quadric curves and surfaces to polynomials of higher de


Existing multi-target tracking systems might be non-modifiable, but still provide qualitatively insufficient trajectory outputs. In this case, improvements are achievable by means of post-processing. This thesis intends to qualitatively improve the multi-target tracking performance at the AiM research crossroads, which is operated by the German Aerospace Center. The focus is set on metrics relevant for traffic security analysis, that is ID switches and track fragmentation specifically. A two-phase track stitching method is proposed, which introduces a novel breaking phase for tracklet creation. Beside track stitching mechanisms, common minimum-cost network flow techniques are utilized. In addition to the evaluation regarding trajectories at the research crossroads, standardized MOTChallenge benchmarks are applied, in order to review the method's general performance. Improvements between 14% and 33% concerning ID switches 40% in terms of track fragmentations are achieved. Post-processing, as applied in the presented setting, is applicable in specific problem scenarios. However, the approach of pipelining a set of specialized, cascaded tracking algorithms is encouraged for in-depth research.


Handhelds and smart Personal Digital Assistants' (PDAs) use and applications have been growing exponentially. Their mobility and increasing computing power have made them attractive for use in daily life. Many electronic applications on such devices have been developed for healthcare and life sciences. Educational use for medical and health profession students have been suggested [1]. The goal of this paper is to overview three examples of how handhelds and PDAs are used in a healthcare context. This article combines three review articles published at Mobile Medical Computing Online journal.


Objective: To estimate the economic impact of the introduction of heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) in high risk populations of Colombia. Methods: A full economic evaluation was done regarding potential introduction of PCV-7. A cost-effectiveness study from the perspective of the third payer was done using a Decision Model. The model considered two alternatives: with and without vaccination. As measurement of results the avoided events were taken [cases, hospitalizations, deaths and Life-Years Saved (LYS)]. In addition the net costs and the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) were evaluated. Results: In a cohort of 70 thousand children of under 2 years old in situation of high risk, can generate 532 deaths that would produce a little more than 21 thousand Years of Life Lost (YLL) with costs between 7.7 and 13.3 million dollars. If we vaccinate this same cohort the deaths can be reduced to 355, and the costs of burden of disease would be between 5.7 and 10 million dollars. It is estimated a reduction of 25% of the costs of burden of disease and of 33% of the deaths. In addition the ICER by YLS would be between 590 and 762 dollars. Conclusion: The introduction of the Heptavalent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in populations of high risk is highly cost effective in Colombia. Colomb Med. 2010; 41: 315-22 Keyword: Cost effectiveness; Vaccination; Pneumococcal vaccine; High risk; Pneumonia.


Postlingual non-syndromic genetic deafness is a rare, genetically highly heterogeneous otorhinolaryngologic disease, resulting from inner and/or middle ear or auditory nerve anomalies, typically characterized by progressive, bilateral, moderate to profound hearing loss (mean sensorineural hearing impairment equal to 40 dB or more for 500-, 1,000-, and 2,000-Hz frequency tones in the better ear) which occurs after the onset of speech development and is not associated with visible external ear abnormalities or any other medical problems. Language development is not initially significantly delayed..


When water is treated in industrial clarifiers a slime suspension is produced that has a pH 11-12.5 and contains up to 5% solid phase. In order to utilize the excess alkalinity of the suspension and save fresh lime milk, the suspension is used to neutralize the acidic regenerates past the cation-exchanger columns. The operation of the vacuum filter is a narrow part of the wastewater treatment area. The filter cloth often gets choked, the sediment being sticky and difficult to remove from the cloth. We proposed to alter the mode of removal of the slime suspension by submitting it to filtration immediately after its exit from the clarifier. For mixing with the acidic regeneration from the cation-exchanger columns the filtrate was delivered after the vacuum filter.


Immunohistology was invented as a specific tool for the identification of biomarkers in the microscope and to understand structure-function-relationships. The term biomarkers may be defined or used for biomolecules possessing particular features that make them useful in the context of histological tracing or measuring or monitoring under certain conditions which include a variety of aspects in phylogenetic, ontogenetic and disease development. Today, immunohistological techniques are essential tools for proteom and transcriptom analysis as well as for histopathologic diagnostics. In order to get familiar with histological techniques in general it is recommended to begin the studies with one or more of the classical histology handbooks (GRAUMANN W and NEUMANN K, 1958; ROMEIS B, 1968; GLAUERT AM, 1975; LILLIE RD and FULLMER HM, 1976; BÖCK P, 1989; BANCROFT JD and GAMBLE M, 2007; KIERNAN JA, 2008).


There is a misimpression in some quarters that artificial life concerns just building and studying computational systems. This is certainly one of artificial life's central aims, perhaps even the one that has occupied the most people and generated the most attention. And contemporary artificial life was born because of the new role that computer experiments play today in the study of complex systems, alongside the traditional twin partners of theory and experiment. But computational investigations certainly do not exhaust artificial life. This should be clear from reading the ''Instructions to Authors'' printed inside the back cover of each issue, but it is worth elaborating a little. If we let soft artificial life refer to computer simulations or other purely digital constructions that exhibit lifelike behavior, then we should also recognize two other activities: hard artificial life, which produces hardware implementations of lifelike systems, and wet artificial life, which involves the creation of lifelike systems from biochemical substances in the laboratory. These activities are often interconnected, of course, as when computer simulations are used to guide and instruct hardware efforts or wet experiments in the laboratory. But soft, hard, and wet artificial life are united at a deeper and more important level. They all focus on the essential rather than the contingent features of living systems, and they all employ the constructive methodology of studying life by synthesizing lifelike processes in artificial systems. These synthetic methodologies help artificial life focus on essential rather than contingent properties of living systems, because they provide wide scope for exploring the full range of possible life forms. Although this journal publishes research in all three branches of artificial life (for some recent examples, see [7, 8, 16]), wet artificial life has been in the minority. This essentially reflects simply the relatively small number of submissions in wet artificial life, and this in turn is almost certainly the result in part of the relatively long lead time of wet artificial life experimentation. Nevertheless, I strongly suspect that wet artificial life will be the source of especially exciting scientific innovations in the next five years. If so, the center of gravity in artificial life will inevitably shift toward the experimental biochemical pole, and the coverage of this journal will shift accordingly. With this in mind, I chose the cover of this volume to depict an experimental result in wet artificial life (for more details, see [5]), and I want here to bring the readers of this journal up to date on some current work in wet artificial life (with a bias toward what I know best). The holy grail of wet artificial life is to create artificial cells out of biochemicals [15]. Such artificial cells would be microscopic, autonomously self-organizing and self-replicating entities built from simple organic and inorganic substances. Although artificial, for all intents and purposes they would be alive, for they would spontaneously organize and repair themselves, grow and reproduce, and ultimately evolve and adapt in an open-ended fashion. If one could make artificial cells from scratch, especially using materials or methods that are not employed by natural forms of life, one would have dramatic proof that one grasps the essential molecular foundations of living systems. Nobody has yet created an artificial cell, but research aimed at this goal is actively under way. Two main approaches are being pursued. The human genome pioneer J. Craig Venter and the Nobel Prize winner Hamilton Smith recently publicized their intention to create a certain kind of artificial cell, with support from the US Department of Energy [4]. Venter and Smith are using a top-down strategy that starts by simplifying the genome of the simplest existing cell with the smallest genome: Mycoplasma genitalium [3, 6]. Once that is accomplished, they plan to remove the genetic material from an existing Mycoplasma bacterium, replace it with a man-made minimal genome, and then coax the resulting entity to express its synthetic DNA. This top-down approach has the virtue that it can simply borrow the biological wisdom embodied in Mycoplasma biochemistry. It has the corresponding disadvantage that its insights will be limited by those same evolutionary contingencies. The other approach is bottom-up. It starts with nonliving materials and builds physiochemical systems with more and more lifelike properties. Szostak, Bartell, and Luisi [17] and Pohoril and Deamer [14] have each presented bottom-up strategies that are strongly inspired by the lipid bilayer


The essay reconstructs occult theories of dreaming in 19th century British culture, focusing in particular on their contribution to the invention of the modern self.


Framing health messages systematically in terms of either gains or losses influences the behaviors that people adopt. Rothman and Salovey proposed that the relative influence of gain-and loss-framed messages is contingent on people's perception of the risk or uncertainty associated with adopting the recommended behavior. Specifically, loss-framed messages are more effective when promoting illness-detecting (screening) behaviors, but gain-framed messages are more effective when promoting health-affirming (prevention) behaviors. Two experiments provide a direct test of this conceptual framework. In Experiment 1, participants' willingness to act after reading about a new disease was a function of how the information was framed and the type of behavior promoted. Experiment 2 replicated and extended these findings with a real health concern—gum disease. Gain-framed pamphlets heightened interest in a plaque-fighting mouth rinse, whereas loss-framed pamphlets heightened interest in a plaque-detecting disclosing rinse. Research on message framing provides a theoretically based guide for the development of effective health messages.


Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) is important as an enzyme marker for osteoclasts and their precursor cells. Therefore, many investigators have employed different methods to investigate the localization of TRAP in the bone. For example, Hammarstrom et al. (3) showed TRAP activity in the unfixed frozen sections of bone, and Chappard et al. (1) also reported the localization of TRAP in undecalcified bone by the cold embedding method of glycol and methyl methacrylates. However, these studies lacked morphological detail because the bone used was not fixed and decalcified. Recently, according to the relatvie sensitivity to tartrate inhibition of tartrate-(sensitive) acid phosphatase using the cold-embedding method in JB-4 plastic, Cole and Walters (2) demonstrated TRAP in the osteoclasts and their mononuclear precursor cells but not in the monocyte-macrophage lineage. Although their method was superior to one using frozen sections, unfortunately they did not provide any photograph of monocyte-macrophage inhibition by tartrate, and the JB-4 sections (3 pm) were still too thick to provide sufficient morphological details of osteoclasts. In addition, it is doubtful whether JB-4 plastic is cold-embedding method, because JB-4 polymerization requires a high temperature. The present study was therefore designed to get clearer localization of TRAP in the osteoclasts and their mononuclear precursor cells than that of previous studies using Lowicryl K.4M as an embedding medium, which is polymerized by UV irradiation under a low temperature to preserve the enzymes and hormones in the tissue (7). Six-hour-old Sprague Dawley neonatal rats were used, because osteoclasts and their mononuclear precursor cells were easily detected in the alveolar bones adjacent to the upper tooth germs of the neonatal rats (10, 11). Palatal shelves, including the alveolar bones adjacent to the tooth germs, were removed from the upper jaws, were then fixed for 3 hr with 2.5% cacodylate-buffered glutaraldehyde (pH 7.4) with 4% sucrose at 0-4°C and were decalcified for 48 hr in 10% EDTA solution (pH 7.4) at 04°C. The palatal shelves were cut into thick sections (50-100 pm) with a Microslicer (DTK1000, Dosaka EM, Kyoto, Japan) and were then dehydrated in graded series of ethanol at a lower temperature: 50, 70, 95 and 100% (two changes) for 1 hr each at -20 to -30°C . The thick sections were infiltrated with Lowicryl K4M (Polaron, Watford, Herts.) at -20 to -30°C as follows: 1 part ethanol (100%) and 1 part complete K4M (containing Crosslinker A, Monomer B and Initiator C) for 1 hr; 1 part ethanol (100%) and 2 parts complete K4M for 1 hr; 100% complete K4M for 1 hr; 100% complete K4M overnight and were embedded in complete K4M in BEEM capsules. Polymerization at -20 to -30°C was brought about for 48 hr in the polymerization freezer (Chiyoda Manufacturing, Co., Ltd., Nagano, Japan) by ultraviolet irradiation from two fluorescent lamps (wavelength peak at 360 nm).


The study investigated the effect of Omega-3 preparation (countering Omega-3 fatty acids) on the oculo-visual health of rabbits, with emphasis on the intraocular pressure. The experimental animals were separated into two groups of 'A' (which was control) and 'B' with group 'A' being subdivided into R1, R2, R3 and group 'B' subdivided into R4, R5 and R6. The twelve rabbits that constituted groups 'A' and 'B', respectively were fed liberally and medically tended to in the course of the experimentation. Group 'A' rabbits (control) received no Omega-3 capsules, but were placed on placebo while the group 'B' rabbits were treated with Omega-3 capsules, each rabbit receiving 1500mg of the preparation daily (500mg in the morning, afternoon and evening respectively) for five days. The intraocular pressure of the animals was monitored and measured once a day before the oral administration of the Omega-3 preparation, and likewise the control group on placebo. It was observed that while the intraocular pressure of the control group animals(Group A) remained fairly constant, being confined between 15.73mmHg and 15.23mmHg from day 1 to day 5, the intraocular pressure of the group 'B' animals treated with the omega-3 capsules widely vacillated from 17.00mmHg on day 1, to 9.17mmHg on day 5, giving a 46% decrease in intraocular pressure on the last day of experimentation (day5).


AIM:To investigate the status of this syndrome among the people who were born between 1959 and 1961 in Chongqing,and understand the relationship between the early-life nutritional status of the Chinese who had experienced the "Great Leap Forward" famine and the MS in their adulthoods,and then provide the reference for effective precautions and control measures.METHODS:3482 cases born from 1959 to 1961 were sampled from the Personal Medical Examination Database(data between 2005 and first half of 2008) of the Medical Examination Center in the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University,and SAS version 9.1 was used to analyze the occurrence of MS.RESULTS:The MS morbidity of the people in Chongqing who were born in the famine period is 11.52%,and the morbidity of male is 16.41% and 3.78% for the female.Compared with the results(male is 10.06%,for female is 3.2%) of the 2002 nationwide survey carried out with the same CDS diagnostic criteria and also from the same age group,the results of this study are significantly higher than the national average.the morbidity of male is higher than that of female,and this difference is meaningful to statistics.Only about one third(31.85%) of the cases didn't surpass any single index of the MS diagnostic criteria,among them,462 cases are male and account for 13.27%;647 cases are female and account for 18.58%.Diagnostic indexes of metabolic abnormality(MA) among people:cases with one kind of abnormalities account for 35.07%;cases with two kinds of abnormalities account for 21.57%;11.52% of the cases have three or more abnormalities.The single-factor and multi-factors Logistic Regression Analysis on the MS showed that the top three risk factors,besides overweight and obesity,are high triacylglycerol,high diastolic blood pressure and high systolic blood pressure.CONCLUSION:The early malnutrition in the famine period may result in chronic diseases in adulthood.Severe MA and various independent chronic diseases also influenced the MS morbidity.In order to release the social burden,improving citizens' knowledge of nutrition and promoting a healthy living concept are imminent.


This entry describes a sociocultural perspective on academic language development informed by Halliday's theory of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) (Halliday, 1996; New London Group, 1996).

Keywords:

esl/efl;
language teaching;
second language acquisition;
teaching methods in applied linguistics;
literacy;
sociocultural language studies


Knowledge sharing, an important part of knowledge management, has particularly been regarded as an important way of increasing competitiveness and performance of organisations. This study investigated knowledge sharing practices among non-academic staff at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Descriptive research designed was adopted. Findings reveal that the staff shared knowledge among themselves, and majority had understanding of, and good disposition to, knowledge sharing. The study found that the staff shared both tacit and explicit knowledge, but majorly tacit, and mainly through face-to-face interactions. The major knowledge sharing enabler is improved productivity, while lack of time is the major knowledge sharing barrier. The study concludes that there is a good knowledge sharing practices among the staff. However, there is need for the university to promote more collaboration and knowledge sharing practices among the staff by providing enabling environment for knowledge sharing, in addition to provision of adequate information and communication technologies.


Nurses in Intensive Care Units (ICU) may be exposed to considerable stress of work. High levels of stress in ICU nurses affect the quality of nursing and the quality of life at work. Determination of occupational stress levels, burnout syndrome and overall job satisfaction among ICU nurses. The research was conducted in Intensive Care Unit of Emergency Clinical County Hospital of Oradea, Romania. Data were collected from the questionnaires, 29 nurses (of the 35) were selected for this study. Professional stress factors have been assessed through Expanded Nurses Stress Scale (ENSS), burnout syndrome through Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS), while overall job satisfaction was measured by a 7-step Likert scale. The highest levels of stress were associated with workload and conflicts with other health professionals, professional relationship between nurses have been described as the least stressful. About burnout levels: a high score for emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and a low score for professional achievements. Professional satisfaction has reached an average level. The fidelity of the scales was verified by the Cronbach's alfa coefficient: Expanded Nurses Stress Scale (ENSS) (0.98) and Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) (0.73).


The 5th, and so far largest, Polar Marine Diatom Workshop (PMDW) was hosted by Maria Angeles Barcena at the University of Salamanca, Spain. Since its initiation in 2005, this biennial event has bec...


To the Editor: The debate about the cardiotoxicity of trastuzumab remains alive in the literature. In patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2) positive breast cancer, trastuzumab has signifi cantly improved the overall survival and is the gold standard treatment in association with chemotherapy. Cardiotoxicity, expressed as a decrease in the left ven tricular ejection fraction (LVEF), is not rare with trastuzumab: it occurs in 7% of patients when used as a single agent, peaking up to 27% when it is combined with anthracyclines. The cardiotoxicity is, however, usu ally reversible 1 .


Introduction: Yogurt is a potential source of probiotic organisms, probiotic are viable microorganism that exhibit beneficial effect on the health of human beings, improving the intestinal microbial balance. This project examined the potential of yogurt drinks sold in Benin City to serve as probiotics beyond offering nutritional benefits. Methodology: Eleven samples of different brands yogurt (Cami yogurt, Goon super yogurt, Solmax, La Cerem, Yugo, Hollandia, Elite, Blessed, Fresh yo, Life Nice, Sargo yogurt) were purchased from major markets in Benin City. Samples were inoculated on de Mann Rogosa Sharpe (MRS) agar at 37?C they were presumptively identified as Lactobacillus and Lactococcus species. These were tested for their antimicrobial activity against some pathogens of public health importance (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus mirabilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). Results: Twenty isolates showed antimicrobial activity while eleven did not, for a proper probiotic; potential, inhibitory isolates were further tested for resistance to bile salt, sodium chloride and pH. Isolates J1 and J2 had the highest inhibitory activity, inhibiting all indicator organisms and they were from Life Nice yogurt while the least was D2 from Solmax yogurt. Isolates J1 and J2 grew best when inoculated into broth containing bile salt, NaCl and pH with A3 from Cami yogurt the lowest for bile salt, B6 from Goon super yogurt the lowest for NaCl and A1 the lowest for pH. Conclusion: After the study was concluded out of the eleven yogurt drinks sampled only six (Life nice, Elite, La cerem, Solmax, Goon super and Cami yogurt) drinks could be classified as probiotics.


The brains of two confirmed cases of multiple sclerosis are cut into hemisphere blocks, each of about one cm thickness, and sectioned by a Jung macrotome after celloidin embedding. Each section is taken up in alcohol and stained with the Mallory connective tissue stain. The section thickness is 3 0 p in case I and 2 0 p in case 11. Two different methods were tried. In one method, each total hemispheric section is projected-enlarged three t imes-on a screen by an apparatus so constructed that the distance between the specimen and the screen remains constant (See Figs. 2 and 3). A quite thin and transparent sheet of draw-clear acetate (0.1 mm thick) is placed on the screen and the outlines of the sections as well as the outlines of plaques and blood vessels are delineated. The advantage of this method is of course that the localization of the plaques in the hemispherc as well as the course of all the big vessels can be clearly demonstrated. The disadvantage is that arteries and veins cannot be distinguished from each other. In addition, the detailed outlines of the single plaque vary with the quality of each single preparation as regards both colour, fixation and embedding. Originally the intention was to place these transparent "model drawings" in succession, one behind the other, so that the vessel-plaque relationship could ,be demonstrated and a plastic model constructed. However, this was not possible because of the differences between the individual sections, as just mentioned, but the course of the great periventricular plaques and of the vessel system could easily be demonstrated. Therefore in the text the term "model drawings" indicates, that a given number of acetate-folia have been placed one behind the other in series. The whole number is placed on an illuminated screen. In this way divisions of the brain-plaques and vessels are reconstructed in hemispheric sections. The slides are described in the text, and the number indicated refers to the microscopic section, sometimes drawn by Wild's method, as dcscribed below. Compared to the total number of sections, only a relatively small number of drawings have been shown. The drawings are re-


This paper proposes a new voltage detection method to assist the low-voltage ride-through operation of grid-tied converters. In particular, it consists of one synchronous reference frame phase-locked-loop (SRF-PLL) and two voltage detection modules. The fast voltage detection module tracks maximum points or zero points of three-phase grid voltage waveforms to calculate the phase voltage amplitude. The accurate voltage detection module operated in parallel assumes an additional cascaded delayed signal cancellation block to filter out the possible low-order voltage harmonics and then employs the same operational principle as the fast voltage detection module to precisely derive the phase voltage amplitude. Coupling with the SRF-PLL, where the grid voltage amplitude before voltage sag or surge can be precisely calculated, the voltage variation ratios can then be derived in sequence. A progressive logic algorithm is designed to determine the converter control commands by fully considering the different voltage variation ratios derived at different time points. Doing so, the proposed method can assist the grid-tied converter to satisfy the grid voltage ride-through operation requirements under various grid voltage distortion conditions. Finally, validity and accuracy of the proposed method were verified by simulation and experimental results.


The state of the art in power monitoring technology in the pulp and paper industry is described. The value of two-wire communications and how it can be linked into computers, programmable logic controllers, and distributed control systems are explored. Application examples illustrate the cost and capability benefits of collecting data from an integrated network of electronic sensors as compared with traditional electrical instrumentation wired to input/output modules.<<ETX>>


The Bird Park of Cemara Asri is a form of tourist landscape by creating a wildlife habitat initiated by Haji Anif Shah. With the passage of time this landscape has been visited by the public as a recreation area. This paper is focused on the concept process of the initiator in the formation of tourist spaces of Cemara Asri Park Medan as a landscape model and describe the values (meaning) in the tourist spaces of Cemara Asri Park Medan. To find out the various things that will be used Landscape Anthropology study approach with the aim of reviewing the conceptual definition of tourist spaces that describe the physical and partial will be replaced with every space to create a culture.


Summary In Argentina the original landscape structure of the pampas grasslands has changed rapidly due to intensified and specialized agricultural practices. The conversion of grasslands into croplands has been suggested as a threat to Greater Rhea Rhea americana populations. The main goals of this study were to estimate the abundance of Greater Rheas and to analyse the species' spatial distribution at two sites of the pampas region with different land use: agro-ecosystem and grassland. The former was mainly devoted to crop production whereas the latter was mostly used for livestock grazing. Data were collected through 14 aerial surveys from 1998 to 2001, and in 2004. Each survey consisted of six strip-transects per site, spaced at regular intervals. The total area surveyed represented 4% of each study site (113 km 2 in the grassland and 95 km 2 in the agro-ecosystem). Greater Rhea density (iSE) was significantly higher in the grassland (from 0.22 i0.11 to 0.86 i 0.24 ind. km 22 ) than in the agro-ecosystem (from 0.05 i 0.05 to 0.12 i 0.08 ind. km 22 ). Greater Rheas occupied 51% of the study area in the grassland but less than 5% in the agro-ecosystem. They showed a wide and uniform spatial distribution in the former area, whereas in the latter individuals occurred in small and isolated clusters. These results raise concern about the future of the species because, over recent years, land has been increasingly used for crop production. Hence, if the current rate of change in land use continues, the conservation status of this species will be seriously affected.


The article presents personalized education as a special type of education, aimed at personality development, considers his/her moral, spiritual and intellectual development in terms of transition from post-industrial to humanitarian society, singles out levels and forms of personality development. The content and structure of personalized education are determined. The characteristics of students' psychological types, extraordinary educational interaction and technology of personalized education are introduced.


The President and Officers of the Society received over 300 congratulatory Addresses, from Academies, other learned Societies, Universities and International Scientific Organizations. The representatives attending the Celebrations presented these addresses to the Officers in the Council Room of the Society on Monday 18 July 1960. Many of the addresses were beautifully inscribed, some on parchment and other skins, some on silk, and all showed clearly the bond which exists between the Royal Society and other learned institutions and universities from all over the world. The Society wishes to record its deep-felt gratitude for this demonstration of good will.


Abstract Nanocrystalline (grain size approximately 25 nm) stainless steel films were prepared by sputter-depositing the conventional 304 type stainless steel on glass substrates. Despite the same chemical composition, the breakdown potential (Eb) of the sputtered stainless steel films is found to be approximately 850 mV higher than that of the conventional material. Also, the breakdown potentials of the sputtered nanocrystalline stainless steel films are close to those of the amorphous FeCr18Ni9W11 and FeCr10P13C7 alloys reported in the literature. The high corrosion resistance of the sputtered films is attributed to the smaller grain size of the films.


The present invention relates to an antiglare film, a polarizing plate and an image display apparatus, the anti-glare film having hardcoat property, a height capable of suppressing generation of rainbow unevenness and displaying an image of interference fringes, and to prevent whitening display screen glare, but is also possible in the next room and a dark room to obtain a high contrast. It characterized in that the antiglare film, a surface of a transparent substrate having birefringence in a plane having the shape of the antiglare layer surface is uneven, the transparent substrate having the in-plane birefringence of more than 3000nm having delay, the antiglare layer containing silica fine particles, organic fine particles and a binder resin, the silica fine particles form aggregates contain aggregates and density in the antiglare layer, the organic fine particles in the aggregate densely distributed around the periphery of the silica fine particles in the organic fine particles aggregated densely distributed in the organic fine particles adhered to the surface of the body portion and / or partially impregnated silica particles constituting the aggregate in the interior.


Vertical aerial photographs were collected of gray whales migrating along the California Coast between 1994 and 1998 to readdress some published findings on the biology and life history of this population based on examination of specimens. For each whale, an attempt was made to measure standard total length, the width of the whale at its widest point, the distance from the tip of the rostrum to the widest point, and the width of the flukes. For southbound gray whales, early migrants were longer on average and more likely to be parturient than those migrating later. Near-term pregnant females were wider relative to their length than other southbound gray whales. This difference was easily detected by visual inspection of the images and through statistical evaluation of length and width data. There was 100% agreement between identification of parturient females based on linear regression analysis of length and width and discriminate analysis of all measurements. Based on the proportion of parturient females to those with calves during sampling of southbound whales, the median calving date was estimated to be 13 January. Southbound calves averaged 4.6m in length; those photographed northbound in late April, at an age of about three months, averaged 7.1m. Average length for yearlings, based on combined southbound and northbound data, was 8.5m. Residuals from a regression of width on length were compared, and significant changes in the relationship were detected which were consistent with changes in nutritive condition or fatness described from examination of whales taken along the California Coast between 1959 and 1969 (Rice and Wolman, 1971). Parturient females were the widest relative to their length and northbound cows with calves were the narrowest in the sample. The relationship between length and width for migrating gray whales that were not parturient or associated with a calf, showed that southbound gray whales were significantly wider than northbound whales photographed approximately 60 days later. These results indicate that the predictable but relatively small changes in condition or fatness of gray whales associated with fasting during their winter migration can be reliably detected in measurements from vertical aerial photographs.


A cryptocurrency is a type of digital or virtual money that may be used to make online purchases of goods and services without requiring actual coins or bills. Cryptocurrency serves as a decentralized means of trade, where each transaction is verified and facilitated via encryption. The blockchain technology that supports cryptocurrency will offer trading transactions in a decentralized nature. The development of IT industry in the recent past has made the idea of cryptocurrencies very popular. Cryptocurrencies are available in a variety of forms, and several businesses use and accept it for transactions. Different types of cryptocurrencies, their benefits, and drawbacks are briefly explained in this study. Additionally, this study discusses about the real-time implementations and upcoming advances.


We have integrated computer programming instruction into the required courses of our mathematics major. Our majors take a sequence of four courses in their first 2 years, each of which is paired with a weekly 75-minute computer lab period that has a dual purpose of both computationally exploring the mathematical concepts from the lecture portion of the course, while simultaneously teaching programming fundamentals. Building on this foundation, we give significant programming assignments to our upper-division students, requiring them to regularly use and apply their programming skills to investigate the mathematical topics.