The use of virtual environments (VE) for navigation-related studies, such as spatial cognition and path retrieval has been widely adopted in cognitive psychology and related fields. What motivates the use of VEs for such studies is that, as opposed to real-world, we can control for the confounding variables in simulated VEs. When simulating a geographic environment as a virtual world with the intention to train navigational memory in humans, an effective and efficient visual design is important to facilitate the amount of recall. However, it is not yet clear what amount of information should be included in such visual designs intended to facilitate remembering: there can be too little or too much of it. Besides the amount of information or level of detail, the types of visual features ('elements' in a visual scene) that should be included in the representations to create memorable scenes and paths must be defined. We analyzed the literature in cognitive psychology, geovisualization and information visualization, and identified the key factors for studying and evaluating geovisualization designs for their function to support and strengthen human navigational memory. The key factors we identified are: i) the individual abilities and age of the users, ii) the level of realism (LOR) included in the representations and iii) the context in which the navigation is performed, thus specific tasks within a case scenario. Here we present a concise literature review and our conceptual development for follow-up experiments.


This paper deals with the definitions, explanations and testing of the PageRank formula modified and adapted for bibliographic networks. Our modifications of PageRank take into account not only the citations but also the co-authorship relationships. We verified the capabilities of the developed algorithms by applying them to the data from the DBLP digital library and subsequently by comparing the resulting ranks of the sixteen winners of the ACM SIGMOD E.F.Codd Innovations Award from the years 1992 till 2007. Such ranking, which is based on both the citation and co-authorship information, gives better and more fairminded results than the standard PageRank gives. The proposed method is able to reduce the influence of citation loops and gives the opportunity for farther improvements e.g. introducing temporal views into the citations evaluating algorithms.


This thesis describes an adaptive control system capable of rejecting unbalance disturbances for an accelerating rotor supported by active magnetic bearings (AMBs). The control of accelerating rotor during start-up and shut-down for rotating machines with AMBs is difficult, especially when the rotor has strong unbalance, which results in sinusoidal disturbances of time-varying frequency and time-varying amplitude. A stabilizing controller alone is not able to obtain a satisfying dynamic performance in this situation. Therefore, unbalance disturbance rejection control is needed. The research work on this topic is mostly based on steady-state rotor model, therefore, those methods are not applicable during rotor acceleration. In this thesis, a transient rigid rotor model is first developed and then used for controller design and stability analysis. The adaptive control system, which falls into the category of model reference adaptive system (MRAS), includes a PD-typed controller for stabilizing the system, and an adaptive disturbance rejection (ADR) controller for rejecting disturbances. The ADR controller utilizes rotor speed measurement, which is a piece of known information for most rotating machines, to construct a feedforward regressor vector, and makes the rejection of unbalance disturbances during rotor acceleration possible. It is proved by Lyapunov theory that the adaptive control system is asymptotically stable. Dynamic performances of the adaptive control system are shown by computer simulation.


Statement regarding Grant Palmer's Book An Insider's View of Mormon Origins January 2004 Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History I the preface to his book, An Insider's View of Mormon Origins, Grant Palmer speaks approvingly of historical work done by the faculty of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History (pp. vii–viii). To some readers, this has suggested that Smith Institute faculty are among Palmer's category of "historians and religion teachers like myself " who share his views of Latter-day Saint origins (p. x). In subsequent remarks to audiences Palmer has encouraged this view. Smith Institute scholars are unified in rejecting Palmer's argument that Mormon foundational stories are largely inaccurate myths and fictional accounts. Palmer writes of a "near-consensus on many of the details" (p. ix) regarding early Church origins, as if most scholars see them in much the same way that he does. We and many other historians take issue with a substantial portion of Palmer's treatment of such details. We encourage and participate in rigorous scholarly investigation and discussion of the historical record, and from our perspective acceptance of Joseph Smith's foundational religious claims remains compatible with such investigation. Our publications, past and present, which are readily available to the public, speak for themselves on these matters.


In implementing its patent-related obligations to the TRIPS Agreement, India decided to use the optional additional transitional provisions in Article 65(4). Thus, delaying the introduction of product patents in exempt technologies, notably pharmaceuticals, till 1 January 2005. Ostensibly, this gave it the opportunity to exploit changing circumstances to and emergent views on TRIPS-implementation; in particular exploring new interpretations to residual flexibility in TRIPS and any continuing legal ambiguity in TRIPS obligations. In terms of the latter, the Panel Report in Canada – Patent Protection of Pharmaceutical Products is pertinent in having exhibited rare reticence in stepping back from defining the principle of non-discrimination in Article 27(1), TRIPS Agreement. While maintaining legal ambiguity, this reticence also provides space for law-making and regulatory diversity. The article reviews the three amendments to India's Patent Act, 1970 and finds mixed use of residual flexibility and some evidence of efforts to explore legal ambiguity. Thus, despite a favourable climate to TRIPS implementation and an active transnational access to medicine campaign, legislators in India have demonstrated a degree of caution. The article concludes that this caution is best explained in terms of deepening ambivalence concerning intellectual property within the government and the changing economic interests of sections of Indian pharma.


Healthy racehorses in active training, as well as human athletes, experience constant musculoskeletal stress and trauma that affect their performance. In this study we evaluated the effectiveness of a mechanical stochastic resonance (SR) device in treating inflammation and muscle injury in standardbred racehorses. Although inflammation is often a part of the body's natural response to tissue injury which can initiate a healing process, inflammation is frequently painful, can impede healing, and often leads to hypersensitivity to mechanical stimuli, which is difficult to treat clinically. The Infratonic device generates a low frequency mechanical noise, or SR, able to treat this condition without pain. We measured the temperature on the hocks of 10 horses in active training by infrared thermography before and after Infratonic treatment. The results show that Infratonic therapy is able to decrease the temperature in the treated hocks, indicating a reduction in inflammation. Moreover, this result correlates with our finding of a decrease in the amount of serum enzymes, markers of muscle damage, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and creatine phosphokinase (CPK). We demonstrate that Infratonic therapy is effective in reducing inflammation and muscle damage in standardbred racehorses and suggest that it might be also effective in human athletes.


Background—Fibrotic changes in the heart and arteries have been implicated in a diverse range of cardiovascular diseases (CVD), but whether circulating biomarkers that reflect fibrosis are associated with CVD is unknown. Methods and Results—We determined the associations of 2 biomarkers of fibrosis, transforming growth factor- &bgr; (TGF-&bgr;), and procollagen type III N-terminal propeptide (PIIINP), with incident heart failure, myocardial infarction, and stroke among community-living older adults in the Cardiovascular Health Study. We measured circulating TGF-&bgr; (n=1371) and PIIINP (n=2568) from plasma samples collected in 1996 and ascertained events through 2010. Given TGF-&bgr;'s pleiotropic effects on inflammation and fibrogenesis, we investigated potential effect modification by C-reactive protein in secondary analyses. After adjustment for sociodemographic, clinical, and biochemical risk factors, PIIINP was associated with total CVD (hazard ratio [HR] per SD=1.07; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01–1.14) and heart failure (HR per SD=1.08; CI, 1.01–1.16) but not myocardial infarction or stroke. TGF-&bgr; was not associated with any CVD outcomes in the full cohort but was associated with total CVD (HR per SD=1.16; CI, 1.02–1.31), heart failure (HR per SD=1.16; CI, 1.01–1.34), and stroke (HR per SD=1.20; CI, 1.01–1.42) among individuals with C-reactive protein above the median, 2.3 mg/L (P interaction <0.05). Conclusions—Our findings provide large-scale, prospective evidence that circulating biomarkers of fibrosis, measured in community-living individuals late in life, are associated with CVD. Further research on whether TGF-&bgr; has a stronger fibrogenic effect in the setting of inflammation is warranted.


This study investigates the characteristics that affect access to social capital for employees in a single industrial firm in Sweden, and the impact of their social capital on their monthly salaries. The results demonstrate that being a member of a stigmatised immigrant group is associated with a substantial social capital deficit. This deficit arises because immigrant workers are embedded in social networks that constrain their ability to acquire valuable social resources or are excluded from social networks with valuable resources. Another finding is that the average salary earned by members of stigmatised immigrant groups is lower than that earned by native-born workers. The observed wage gap cannot be explained by 'human capital' variables. However, when social capital variables were taken into account, wage gaps noticeably shrank, which indicates that part of the wage disadvantage experienced by immigrants is likely to represent the impact of unequal access to social capital.


The potential benefits, costs, and risks of severe violence dialog (SVD) are analyzed using constructivist theories. Implications for mediating SVD, selecting and preparing participants, securing informed consent, and controlling the process are discussed. This paper examines the need for more sophisticated guidelines for SVD, and for scientific research aimed at improving participant selection and preparation, a fuller understanding of SVD dynamics, and better control over the process.


Abstract Objective The present study investigated the relationship between different types of childhood maltreatment (emotional abuse, sexual abuse, multiple abuse types, and no abuse) and the occurrence of later traumatic events during later adolescence and young adulthood. Method Data were collected from a Danish national study conducted by The Danish National Centre for Social Research in 2008 and 2009. A sample of 4718 young adults who were 24 years old was randomly selected using the total birth cohort of children born in 1984. A structured interview was conducted during which participants were asked about a range of traumatic and abusive experiences. Results A response rate of 63% was achieved for a total sample size of 2980. Chi-squared analyses revealed significant relationships between all child maltreatment groups and direct exposure to 10 of the 13 traumatic events; there were also significant relationships between all child maltreatment groups and indirect exposure to 12 of the 13 traumatic events. Conclusions The results showed that childhood maltreatment was associated with increased risk of exposure to traumatic events, both directly and indirectly, during adolescence and young adulthood. The findings of this study suggest there is an increased risk of being exposed to both direct and indirect traumas during later adolescence and young adulthood after any form of child maltreatment.


You bought your Centrino laptop computer because of its ease-of-use and portability. But are you using your laptop to its maximum potential? Anywhere Computing with Laptops: Making Mobile Easier will show you what to expect when buying and configuring your laptop and how to use built-in features such as digital cameras and Internet telephones. When you're on the road, there are hotspots that will allow you to connect to multiple national networks for access to data and the Internet. This book will show you how to find these hotspots, as well as how to install and configure a wireless network for your home or office. Use your laptop the way it was intended - from anywhere!


Introduction Lung cancer survival is low and comparatively poor in the UK. Patients with symptoms suggestive of lung cancer commonly consult primary care, but it is unclear how general practitioners (GPs) distinguish which patients require further investigation. This study examined how patients' clinical and sociodemographic characteristics influence GPs' decisions to initiate lung cancer investigations. Methods A factorial experiment was conducted among a national sample of 227 English GPs using vignettes presented as simulated consultations. A multimedia-interactive website simulated key features of consultations using actors ('patients'). GP participants made management decisions online for six 'patients', whose sociodemographic characteristics systematically varied across three levels of cancer risk. In low-risk vignettes, investigation (ie, chest X-ray ordered, computerised tomography scan or respiratory consultant referral) was not indicated; in medium-risk vignettes, investigation could be appropriate; in high-risk vignettes, investigation was definitely indicated. Each 'patient' had two lung cancer-related symptoms: one volunteered and another elicited if GPs asked. Variations in investigation likelihood were examined using multilevel logistic regression. Results GPs decided to investigate lung cancer in 74% (1000/1348) of vignettes. Investigation likelihood did not increase with cancer risk. Investigations were more likely when GPs requested information on symptoms that 'patients' had but did not volunteer (adjusted OR (AOR)=3.18; 95% CI 2.27 to 4.70). However, GPs omitted to seek this information in 42% (570/1348) of cases. GPs were less likely to investigate older than younger 'patients' (AOR=0.52; 95% CI 0.39 to 0.7) and black 'patients' than white (AOR=0.68; 95% CI 0.48 to 0.95). Conclusions GPs were not more likely to investigate 'patients' with high-risk than low-risk cancer symptoms. Furthermore, they did not investigate everyone with the same symptoms equally. Insufficient data gathering could be responsible for missed opportunities in diagnosis.


Simultaneous measurements using a scanning spectrograph system and transmissometer were performed for the first time over an urban site in Gwangju, Korea, to derive the ambient NO2 volume mixing ratio. The differential slant column densities retrieved from the scanning spectrograph system were converted to volume mixing ratios using the light traveling distance along the scanning line of sight derived from the transmissometer light extinction coefficients. To assess the performance of this system, we compared the derived NO2 volume mixing ratios with those measured by an in situ chemiluminescence monitor under various atmospheric conditions. For a cloudless atmosphere, the linear correlation coefficient (R) between the two data sets (i.e., data derived from the scanning spectrograph and from the in situ monitor) was 0.81; the value for a cloudy atmosphere was 0.69. The two sets of NO2 volume mixing ratios were also compared for various wind speeds. We also consider the measurement errors, as estimated from an error propagation analysis.


Extracted from text ... SA Fam Pract 2006;48(4) 32
Disease Awareness
In 1998 the ISAAC Study reported a
12 month prevalence of self-reported
asthma symptoms ranging from 7.5%
to 17%.1 The prevalence of "asthma
ever" was 13.3% in this group of
children (Figure 1). The International
Study of Asthma and Allergies in
Childhood (ISAAC) Programme was
designed to compare the global
prevalence of childhood asthma.1
A subsequent ISAAC follow-up
study conducted in the same region
revealed a rise in the prevalence of
asthma, with an increase in more
severe asthma. What was of concern
in this audit was that a diagnosis of
asthma was ..


A total of 111 local pollen beetle populations were collected from both winter and spring oilseed rape fields, in the main oilseed growing regions of Estonia between 2015−2019. The objective was to analyse the insecticide-susceptibility of the pollen beetle population (in the form of Brassicogethes aeneus). The pollen beetle samples were tested for sensitivity to lambda-cyhalothrin, thiacloprid, and chlorpyrifos. The efficacy of the tested insecticides varied considerably by region. We observed a clear decrease in susceptibility to lambda-cyhalothrin and thiacloprid, but sensitivity to chlorpyrifos remained stable throughout the period between 2015 and 2019. Amongst the tested samples in that period, a total of 3% were classified as susceptible to lambda-cyhalothrin, 18% as moderately resistant, 70% as resistant, and 7% as highly resistant. In the case of thiacloprid, 21% of the samples were highly susceptible to the insecticide, 39% were susceptible, and 41% had reduced levels of susceptibility to the insecticide. The information which was presented tended to confirm the ongoing evolution of insecticide resistance in the B. aeneus population in Estonia, while also highlighting the importance of data-based decisions when optimising insecticide resistance management in the field.


The simultaneous control of the number and position of negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond was achieved. While single near-surface NV centers are known to exhibit outstanding capabilities in external spin sensing, trade-off relationships among the accuracy of the number and position, and the coherence of NV centers have made the use of such engineered NV centers difficult. Namely, low-energy nitrogen implantation with lithographic techniques enables the nanoscale position control but results in degradation of the creation yield and the coherence property. In this paper, we show that low-energy nitrogen ion implantation to a 12C (99.95%)-enriched homoepitaxial diamond layer using nanomask is applicable to create shallow NV centers with a sufficiently long coherence time for external spin sensing, at a high creation yield. Furthermore, the NV centers were arranged in a regular array so that 40% lattice sites contain single NV centers. The XY8-k measurements using the individual NV centers reveal that the created NV centers have depths from 2 to 12 nm, which is comparable to the stopping range of nitrogen ions implanted at 2.5 keV. We show that the position-controlled NV centers are capable of external spin sensing with a ultra-high spatial resolution.


To remain sustainable in an atmosphere of shrinking budgets and curricular retrenchment, oral communication instruction via communication centers on college and university campuses must satisfy several constituencies. How can communication centers meet stakeholder interests driven by different paradigms of higher education? This study examines how student clients (n = 29) and peer consultants/tutors (n = 11) characterize their educational experiences at communication centers in responses to open-ended surveys. Thematic analysis using grounded theory reveals two divergent perceptual frameworks: a transactional paradigm geared to pleasing consumers and a transformational paradigm oriented to persona development and self-sufficiency. Reconciliation of these potentially conflicting perspectives may enable communication centers to meld effective instruction with efficient service.


Governments worldwide have agreed that international climate policy should aim to limit the increase of global mean temperature to less than 2oC with respect to pre-industrial levels. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the emission reductions and related energy system changes in various countries in pathways consistent with the 2oC target. We synthesize and provide an overview of the national and regional information contained in different scenarios from various global models published over the last few years, as well as yet unpublished scenarios submitted by modelling teams participating in the MILES project (Modelling and Informing Low-Emission Strategies). We find that emissions in the mitigation scenarios are significantly reduced in all regions compared to the baseline without climate policies. The regional cumulative CO2 emissions show on average a 76% reduction between the baseline and 450 scenario. The 450 scenarios show a reduction of primary energy demand in all countries of roughly 30-40% compared to the baseline. In the baseline scenario, the contribution of low-carbon energy technology remains around 15%, i.e. similar as today. In the mitigation scenario, these numbers are scaled up rapidly towards 2050. Looking at air quality, sulphur dioxide and black carbon emissions are strongly reduced as a co-benefit of greenhouse gas emission reductions, in both developing and developed countries. However, black carbon emissions increase in countries that strongly rely on bioenergy to reach mitigation targets. Concerning energy security, energy importing countries generally experience a decrease in net-energy imports in mitigation scenarios compared to the baseline development, while energy exporters experience a loss of energy export revenues.


A relationship between participation in musical activity and well-being has frequently been observed in recent research reports. Of these, some propose various well-being-related correlates of musical participation, but the varying samples and foci leave researchers without a reasoned appraisal of these correlates or a data-driven categorization of them. To address this lacuna, the current research reviewed of existing literature, identifying 562 benefits of well-being benefits perceived to be associated with musical participation. These items were used as the basis for developing a new quantitative measure to evaluate the perceived benefits of well-being arising from music participation. Principal axis factor analysis of data using this new, 36-item measure identified five discrete dimensions: mood and coping, esteem and worth, socialization, cognition, and self-actualization. The development of this well-being measure addresses a gap in the research and provides a tool for future research concerning musical participation.


During mouse embryogenesis, reversion of imprinted X chromosome inactivation in the pluripotent inner cell mass of the female blastocyst is initiated by the repression of Xist from the paternal X chromosome. Here we report that key factors supporting pluripotency—Nanog, Oct3/4, and Sox2—bind within Xist intron 1 in undifferentiated embryonic stem (ES) cells. Whereas Nanog null ES cells display a reversible and moderate up-regulation of Xist in the absence of any apparent modification of Oct3/4 and Sox2 binding, the drastic release of all three factors from Xist intron 1 triggers rapid ectopic accumulation of Xist RNA. We conclude that the three main genetic factors underlying pluripotency cooperate to repress Xist and thus couple X inactivation reprogramming to the control of pluripotency during embryogenesis.


SummaryNeuropathic pain might best be considered as a collection of various pain states with a common feature, that being symptoms suggestive of dysfunction of peripheral nerves. The development of therapeutic options for the treatment of neuropathic pain is complicated significantly by several factors. Neuropathic pain may arise from widely diverse etiologies such as physical trauma, disease, infection, or chemotherapy. Symptoms indicative of neuropathic pain may also arise in individuals with no evidence of any type of nerve trauma (idiopathic). Although neuropathic pain is a substantial health care issue, it is relatively uncommon and only occurs in a small fraction (<10%) of individuals with these initiating factors. Moreover, the efficacy of treatment protocols, even against the same type of symptoms, differ depending on the underlying initiating cause of the neuropathy. Although these observations strongly suggest that there are predisposing factors that may impart susceptibility to the development of neuropathic pain, no common predisposing factors or genetic markers have been satisfactorily identified. Because of these vagaries, treatment of neuropathic pain has been based on trial and error. However, recent progress in the understanding of neurophysiologic changes that accompany peripheral nerve dysfunction indicate that regulation of ion channels that maintain membrane potentials or generate action potentials may provide an important therapeutic approach. Neuropathic pain is accompanied by increased activity of peripheral nociceptors, which is produced in part by changes in levels of specific calcium and sodium channels. The identification of sodium and/or calcium channels subtypes that are expressed almost exclusively on nocicpetors may provide a way of regulating the activity of exaggerated nociceptor function without altering other sensory modalities. Thus, the selective targeting of ion channels may represent a viable therapeutic target for the management of the neuropathic pain state, regardless of etiology.


Stance is inherent in conversational interaction and is interactional in nature. When speakers take a stance, they pay attention to both prior stances and stance relations, as well as to the anticipated consequences of their stancetaking. They manage stance relations as a way of dealing with the "sociocognitive relations" of intersubjectivity (Du Bois 2007). Using the dialogic framework proposed by Du Bois, this paper shows that the discourse marker well in American English works as a resource for the management of relationships among stances. With its referential and grammatical flexibility, it is uniquely characterized as a meta-stance marker because, rather than indexing a specific stance, it negotiates and regulates stance relations. Well is analyzed in two contextual categories: first, at stance divergence among utterances, and second, at stance shifts embedded in topic shift.


Incorrect posture is a problem that becomes increasingly wide-spread in today's world. It can lead to short and long term pain in the back and neck areas, and has further been linked to depression. Modern lifestyle facilitates poor posture, especially because of the increasing amount of time people spend sitting. Even individuals that are considered physically active often still spend a considerable amount of time in sedentary behaviors. The spine presents itself with 3 physiological curves in the sagittal plane: concave cervically, convex thoracically, concave in the lumbar region. With the increase of curvature degrees in kyphosis come along the following risks: vertebral fractures, intervertebral discs degeneration, loss of bone density, and increase in mortality, reduction of physical activity, altered respiratory function, and implicitly, loss of quality of life. This project outlines an educational concept, which meets the need for the development of a postural educational system, based on sound signaling, meant to enforce an anatomically correct posture. It is based on the idea that every human has a 'flex point', a point where the body bends when one slouches. In other words: it is impossible to have a poor posture and keep the front of the body straight. The system consists of two main hardware parts: the controller and the bending sensor. According to specifications, the physician will define the anatomically correct position for the patient. After posture memorization, the device will send a sound signal for any deviation greater than 10% off the posture the doctor established.


The transmission spectra of a Fabry-Perot etalon coupled to a microtoroid resonator are studied theoretically and experimentally. The resonance line shapes depend strongly on the resonance wavelength detuning and coupling strength between the two resonators. A wide variety of line shapes, ranging from a single to triple peaks, symmetric to asymmetric Fano-like peaks, and notches were predicted and observed experimentally. The capability to modify the spectral line shapes by tuning the coupling between or losses of two resonators may find applications in optical filtering, switching, sensing, and dispersion engineering.


Change impact analysis plays an important role in identifying potential affected areas that are caused by changes that are made in a software. Most of the existing change impact analysis techniques are based on architectural design and change history. However, source code-based change impact analysis studies are very few and they have shown higher precision in their results. In this study, a static method-granularity level change impact analysis, that uses program slicing and Bayesian Network technique has been proposed. The technique proposes a directed graph model that also represents the call dependencies between methods. In this study, an open source Java project with 8999 to 9445 lines of code and from 505 to 528 methods have been analyzed through 32 commits it went. Recall and f-measure metrics have been used for evaluation of the precision of the proposed method, where each software commit has been analyzed separately.


Abstract. The Zackenberg River delta is located in northeast Greenland (74°30′ N, 20°30′ E) at the outlet of the Zackenberg fjord valley. The fjord-valley fill consists of a series of terraced deltaic deposits (ca. 2 km2) formed during relative sea-level (RSL) fall. We investigated the deposits using sedimentological and cryostratigraphic techniques together with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating. We identify four facies associations in sections (4 to 22 m in height) exposed along the modern Zackenberg River and coast. Facies associations relate to (I) overriding glaciers, (II) retreating glaciers and quiescent glaciomarine conditions, (III) delta progradation in a fjord valley, and (IV) fluvial activity and niveo-aeolian processes. Pore, layered, and suspended cryofacies are identified in two 20 m deep ice-bonded sediment cores. The cryofacies distribution, together with low overall ground-ice content, indicates that permafrost is predominately epigenetic in these deposits. Fourteen OSL ages constrain the deposition of the cored deposits to between approximately 13 and 11 ka, immediately following deglaciation. The timing of permafrost aggradation was closely related to delta progradation and began following the subaerial exposure of the delta plain (ca. 11 ka). Our results reveal information concerning the interplay between deglaciation, RSL change, sedimentation, permafrost aggradation, and the timing of these events. These findings have implications for the timing and mode of permafrost aggradation in other fjord valleys in northeast Greenland.


An organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is often used in waste heat recovery applications. These are typically small-scale applications where cycle thermal efficiency is low, and the benefits of traditional cycle enhancements (such as reheat stages or feed-water heaters) do not typically outweigh the costs required to implement them. An ORC with flooded expansion and internal heat regeneration is an alternative enhancement that provides comparable benefits at reduced cost and complexity. The improvement in efficiency for the ORC with flooded expansion and internal regeneration is analyzed for several working fluids and for two flooding media: water and Zerol 60 compressor lubricant. It is shown that internal regeneration alone provides most of the efficiency enhancement for dry working fluids (R600a, n-Pentane, and R245fa). n-Pentane is shown to offer the most efficient cycle even without flooded expansion in most cases. A quantitative comparison is given between the proposed cycle and the reheat and feedwater heater cycles with internal regeneration. In applications where a hydrocarbon may not be appropriate as a working fluid, R245fa and R717 show promise as alternatives. R717, which shows the most benefit from flooded expansion and internal regeneration, requires this enhancement in order to be competitive with the dry working fluids.


This paper examines issues of language choice and languages use patterns, attitudes to English and to indigenous languages in official communicative interaction in Nigeria as they exist in the offices today. The report is projected against the background of the claim that English is "the language of government, education, commerce, etc." in Nigeria; a claim that does not present the current roster of functions performed or shared by English and the other languages. It does not correctly portray workers' preferences of language medium in participating in the numerous communicative interactions they get into the course of their day's work.
This report acclaims the importance of English particularly in a multiplex society such as Nigeria's, but also goes on to role-sharing and competition for certain communicative functions is actually going on between English and the indigenous languages in the offices today. The report therefore represents a state of the art commentary on language use practice and preferences in the offices. It is a signal to the writers of the Nigerian Constitution and drafters of National Language Policy per se that a reworking is due. And for other English as a second language (ESL) nations, the report is a hint that assessment of the actual roles of English in national life is a continuous process rather than a once-and-for-all issue.


We examine the stock price reaction of rival firms to privatization announcements to infer information about industry effects of privatization. We find that the rival firms reacted negatively to privatization announcements, thus suggesting that the announcement effects reflect competitive considerations rather than positive industry-wide effects. In comparison, we find that the adverse reaction of the rival firms to privatization announcements in developing countries is stronger than that in the developed countries. Interestingly also, we find that full privatization announcements generate larger negative abnormal returns for rival firms than partial privatization announcements where the firm gains only partial autonomy from the government. We present some, albeit weak evidence that the rival firms' reaction to privatization announcement is increasing in the degree of government ownership of the privatized firm. Thus as the proportion of government ownership reduces, subsequent partial privatization elicits stronger market reaction from rival firms. We further demonstrate that the negative abnormal returns earned by shareholders of the rival firms' are not due to price pressure effects.


In this paper, we have achieved a compact fractal antenna based on Sierpinski gasket geometry. Operators are looking for systems that can perform over a broadband width. To satisfy the requirements, a novel Low Profile, Fractal Antenna (LPFA) which is a new paradigm in communication is proposed. Miniaturization of fractal antenna is achieved through fractal geometry. Fractal geometry on microstrip platform is a methodology through which the miniaturization is achieved. The proposed antenna exhibit broadband characteristics with a small return loss and high efficiency at design frequency of 2.45GHz. The ultimate aim of implementing self-similar fractal concept in antenna design makes it flexible in controlling the resonance and bandwidth. This project is aimed at examining novel self-similar fractal geometry to reduce the size and to resonate for 2.45 GHz frequencies. It covers ISM (Industrial Scientific Medica) l band, microwave oven, cardless phones, Bluetooth devices and wireless applications.


Prochlorococcus, a small unicellular cyanobacterium, is an important member of the phytoplankton community in the eastern equatorial Pacific. When these waters were enriched with iron during IronEx II, the chlorophyll per cell and cell size of Prochlorococcus increased, implying that they were iron limited. The extent of this limitation was unclear, however, and the number of Prochlorococcus remained constant. To examine whether cell division rates were stimulated significantly by iron, we used a cell cycle analysis approach to measure them in and out of the Fe‐enriched patch and in Fe‐enriched bottles. The cell division rate increased from 0.6 to 1.1 d−1 over 6 d of exposure to the elevated iron concentrations in the patch. Cells incubated in bottles with additional iron had rates of 1.4 d−1 or two doublings per day. Prochlorococcus mortality rates, measured independently, nearly doubled after the addition of iron. This matched the increase in the cell division rate and maintained a relatively constant population size. Thus the cell division rates of even the smallest phytoplankton in the equatorial Pacific are significantly iron limited, but biomass is constrained by both iron limitation and microzooplankton grazing. The differential response of individual phytoplankton groups to the addition of iron during IronEx II was at least partially a result of differential mortality rates over the time course of the experiment. How the community would respond to sustained fertilization, however, is not obvious.


The Murray-Darling Basin is the heart of Australia's agricultural industry, representing 14 per cent of all agricultural output and housing almost 40 per cent of Australia's farmers. The area is also one of the biggest consumers of Australia's scarce water resources and was subject to a severe drought over the period from 1997-2009. The drought years placed intense pressure on agricultural communities and industries within the Basin. The drought and its effects have placed additional pressures on rural communities, with population growth in some areas decreasing or non-existent. Within this setting, this article analyses migration patterns and makes a judgement on how severe internal migration issues are in the Murray-Darling Basin. Conceptualising internal migration as a movement from one local government area to another, we find that although enduring a negative net migration pattern especially among the youth, the net migration in the Murray-Darling Basin during the drought is not significantly different to other areas in Australia.


High-fidelity physics enhances user interfaces with realism that more closely engage users. However, indirect control of UI objects through physical forces interferes with direct control of the user experience, which limits the use of physics in productivity UIs. This paper demonstrates how UI physics should and can be enhanced with magic that violates physically consistent reasoning to allow for control over the user experience. We have found that magical forces such as teleportation, telekinesis, morphing, and lucky shots can be implemented in a straightforward way via a UI physics engine that supports direct constraints on positions. We demonstrate the compatibility of magic and high-fidelity physics by applying such a physics engine to a UI case study. ACM Classification: H5.2 [Information interfaces and presentation]: User Interfaces. Graphical user interfaces. General terms: Design, Human Factors


Climate change and migration are two cross-cutting issues demanding immediate and appropriate responses from duty-bearers. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), human-induced climate change will transform the ecological balance of our planet and lead to calamitous consequences for the human rights of millions of people all over the world. The threat of climate change encompasses the livelihoods of peoples in distant corners of the world contributing to the rise of sea levels, altered patterns of desertification, and to the increase in number and intensity of disastrous environmental events. Climate change induced droughts, flooding, wildfires, extreme weather, soil erosion, desertification, deforestation and natural disasters are likely to further intensify pre-existing stresses in vulnerable regions in the world. Consequently, there are apprehensions of problems like food insecurity, scarcity of water, reduced agricultural production, population pressures, unequal access to resources, poverty, break-out of epidemics and spreading of diseases. Each and all of these factors and risks can lead to displacement and migration on an unprecedented scale. In turn, such climate-induced movements can also carry a wide range of implications for the enjoyment of human rights. This article is available in Bond Law Review: http://epublications.bond.edu.au/blr/vol21/iss3/4 139 HUMAN RIGHTS IMPLICATIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE INDUCED DISPLACEMENT


Background Hemodialysis (HD) catheters can get stuck in the central vein after long-term use and their removal might become difficult especially in patients with fibrosed or occluded central veins. Herein, a breakthrough technique is reported for the easy removal of a stuck HD catheter from the central vein. Case Report Attempts were made to remove a tunneled double-lumen HD catheter from the central vein of a 74-year-old woman, only to find that the catheter was stuck. The patient was transferred to the operating room and a skin incision was made in the neck and the subcutaneous portion of the HD catheter was retrieved from the tunnel. Under fluoroscopy, a guide wire was inserted into one lumen of the HD catheter and advanced into the right atrium beyond the catheter tip. A 5 mm × 4 cm balloon angioplasty catheter was then inserted into the HD catheter lumen over the guide wire and advanced into the jugular vein junction of the HD catheter around the thoracic inlet. The balloon was inflated to its maximum dimension and pressure. This endoluminal dilatation of the HD catheter was continued by deflating the balloon and then pushing the angioplasty catheter 4 cm at a time towards the tip of the HD catheter in the right atrium. After a second balloon angioplasty catheter of 6 mm × 4 cm was used to expand the entire segment of the other lumen, the HD catheter was pulled out easily from the central vein without any resistance. Comments The endoluminal balloon dilatation of the HD catheter not only separates the stuck HD catheter from the adherent vein by breaking the adhesions between them, but also expands the vein simultaneously, thus enabling easy removal of the HD catheter.


The main objective of this study is to investigate the formation and evolution mechanism of the regional haze in megacity Beijing by analyzing the process of a severe haze that occurred 20–27 September 2011. Mass concentration and size distribution of aerosol particles as well as aerosol optical properties were concurrently measured at the Beijing urban atmospheric environment monitoring station. Gaseous pollutants (SO 2, NO-NO2-NOx, O3, CO) and meteorological parameters (wind speed, wind direction, and relative humidity) were simultaneously monitored. Meanwhile, aerosol spatial distribution and the height of planetary boundary layer (PBL) were retrieved from the signal of satellite and LIDAR (light detection and ranging). Concentrations of NO, NO2, SO2, O3, and CO observed during 23–27 September had exceeded the national ambient air quality standards for residents. The mass concentration of PM 2.5 gradually accumulated during the measurement and reached at 220 μg m −3 on 26 September, and the corresponding atmospheric visibility was only 1.1 km. The daily averaged AOD in Beijing increased from∼ 0.16 atλ = 500 nm on 22 September and reached∼ 3.5 on 26 September. The key factors that affected the formation and evolution of this haze episode were stable anti-cyclone synoptic conditions at the surface, decreasing of the height of PBL, heavy pollution emissions from urban area, number and size evolution of aerosols, and hygroscopic growth for aerosol scattering. This c se study may provide valuable information for the public to recognize the formation mechanism of the regional haze event over the megacity, which is also useful for the government to adopt scientific approach to forecast and eliminate the occurrence of regional haze in China.


In order to assess the scientific production of a country, it is usual to quantify and qualify the scientific research articles published by its researchers. The objective of this study was to identify the number of publications of Paraguayan authors indexed to the Pubmed database in the last 20 years, to determine its temporal distribution and the contribution of different institutions to scientific development of Paraguay. Thus, articles published between 1986 and 2005, and indexed in the PubMed database were retrieved using boolean operators. Seventy one (67%) out of 106 articles were published in the last 10 years (1996-2005), indicating an improvement in the biomedical sciences in Paraguay. Three of all the Paraguayan institutions had the highest numbers of published articles, and they belong to the Universidad Nacional de Asuncion being as follow: IICS (39, 6%), FCM (16%) and FCQ (15%). It is remarkable the great number of articles published by the IICS and FCM-76% and 88% from their total articles, respectively- in the last 10 years in journals indexed to Medline. Finally, 82% of the articles were published in journals with an impact factor (range 0,191-4,927), giving an average value of 1,932. Although this may seem as a low value in comparison to other countries of the region, it is still acceptable for a scientific developing country. Although a linear increment in number of articles annually published by Paraguayan authors it is actually registered, the scientific productivity in biomedical science in Paraguay is very low. Therefore, we believe it is important to promote it because the excellence in education and public health is essential for the social and economic development of the country.


Sticky Responses A textbook example of an unaccounted-for consequence (externality) of commercial or industrial activity is the production of pollutants where neither the producer nor the buyer bears the cost of using common environmental resources. Dasgupta and Ehrlich (p. 324) offer a theoretical analysis of externalities in two other areas of modern life—human fertility and material consumption. For example, when fertility decline lags mortality decline, the consequence could be environmental crash, the likelihood of which is greater if the environmental effects of consumption or population growth are external to the market. Challenges posed by the economic consequences of population growth and consumption require collective action. Growing concerns that contemporary patterns of economic development are unsustainable have given rise to an extensive empirical literature on population growth, consumption increases, and our growing use of nature's products and services. However, far less has been done to reach a theoretical understanding of the socio-ecological processes at work at the population-consumption-environment nexus. In this Research Article, we highlight the ubiquity of externalities (which are the unaccounted for consequences for others, including future people) of decisions made by each of us on reproduction, consumption, and the use of our natural environment. Externalities, of which the "tragedy of the commons" remains the most widely discussed illustration, are a cause of inefficiency in the allocation of resources across space, time, and contingencies; in many situations, externalities accentuate inequity as well. Here, we identify and classify externalities in consumption and reproductive decisions and use of the natural environment so as to construct a unified theoretical framework for the study of data drawn from the nexus. We show that externalities at the nexus are not self-correcting in the marketplace. We also show that fundamental nonlinearities, built into several categories of externalities, amplify the socio-ecological processes operating at the nexus. Eliminating the externalities would, therefore, require urgent collective action at both local and global levels.


Authors examine the nature and scope of the tourism law and its place in the Lithuanian legal system according to the theory of law, assess the main legal acts regulating the tourism sector, their relation to each other and problematic aspects of their application in practice, disclose the status of the legal framework of the tourism sector at national, international and supranational levels, examine the impact of European Union law on the Lithuanian tourism law. Authors conclude that currently the tourism law may be treated not as a separate branch of law, but, according to its subject and method of regulation, as a separate inter-branch law institute. Legal norms of this law institute regulate the whole spectrum of social relations formed between various subjects acting in the field of tourism industry when organizing a travel (directly or through agents), providing tourist information, accommodation, health and wellness, transportation, catering, entertainment, conference organisation and other tourist services. After discussing the complex nature of legal norms regulating the tourism field it is concluded that the scope of the tourism law is changing, by encompassing new more complex relations with greater diversity, therefore the institute of the tourism law may gradually transform into an independent branch of law. The authors also discuss the legislative trends at national, international and supranational levels in the tourism law area with particular attention to the new Package Travel Directive. The article, inter alia, concludes that this Directive, due to a maximum harmonisation approach (as opposed to an earlier minimum harmonisation approach), is of particular importance to the national tourism law in Lithuania.


ProQuest: ... denotes Greek characters omitted (or Cyrillic characters omitted.) The role of etymology in Heidegger's thinking is curiously under-studied. In the English-language Heidegger literature, there are currently no book-length studies devoted to it, and discussion of it is surprisingly absent from books on Heidegger's thinking on language. Frank Schalow's "Language and the Etymological Turn of Thought"1 is apparently the only article to appear as yet that takes up the philosophical significance of Heidegger's etymologies, though it does not address the etymological method as such. What I want to do in this essay, then, is look at what Heidegger is doing when he does etymology, so that we might see how and why we might do it, too. Lack of reflection on Heidegger's etymological method seems to have left philosophers with two default attitudes toward his etymologies. On one hand, for those generally hostile to Heidegger, the etymologies may come across as the kind of pretentious, inconsequential hand-waving that Plato seems to be sending up with the spurious etymologies in the Cratylus-in other words, they may come across as if there were no method to them at all. On the other hand, for those generally sympathetic to Heidegger, his use of etymology may be linked to his supposed goal of retrieving the "purer" concepts of earlier times. This essay will argue that there is indeed a method behind Heidegger's use of etymology, but that the purpose of this method is not to replace degraded modem concepts with purer archaic ones. Rather than seeking to discover an original meaning, I argue that Heidegger's etymologies seek to recover the whole range of historical meanings of a word. The etymological method's purpose-in contradistinction to the purpose of philosophical analysis-is to open up the word, to overcome the tendency for the meaning of words-which is also to say, their ability to present to us the being of beings-to become restricted over time. Whereas the function of analysis is to "tighten up" and narrow our sense of a term, to precisely define its limits and eliminate equivocation so that we know precisely what is at issue in a philosophical investigation, the function of etymology is rather the opposite. In the midst of and by way of contrast with his exposition of the etymological links between "thinking" and "thanking," Heidegger warns that "academic philosophy"-that is, analytic philosophy, broadly speaking-"has done its share to stunt the word," that "conceptual definitions of terms, while necessary for technical and scientific purposes, are by themselves unfit to assure, much less advance, the soundness of language."2 Of course, it is one of the later Heidegger's theses that in the current epoch, which he calls the epoch of das Ge-Stell or the be-setting of things by technological "enframement," technical and scientific purposes are the only ones that ordinarily can show themselves. Thus when Wittgenstein tells us that language is simply a tool, a means of advancing our purposes, he is correct, but only for the current epoch (just as, in Heidegger's view, Nietzsche's doctrine of the will to power is a profoundly acute diagnosis of the times rather than an absolutely true metaphysics).3 But it is not only in the current epoch that words become less meaningful through their restriction for practical use. It is necessarily the case that we almost always do not hear what words say; when this is so, our discourse takes the form of what Being and Time calls Gerede, "idle talk." In Being and Time, Heidegger tells us that Gerede is the mode of discourse belonging to entangled (verfallen) Da-sein-that is, Da-sein that is caught up in the practical pursuit of its various everyday endeavors-and that Da-sein is usually so entangled. Heidegger writes that Gerede "is the mode of being of the uprooted understanding of Da-sein" and that "this uprooting is constant."4 In idle talk, language does not fulfill its role of bringing us into contact with the being of beings: "idle talk is the possibility of understanding everything without any previous appropriation [Zueignung] of the matter"; "it omits going back to the ground [Boden] of what is being talked about. …


We derive a conceptual bridge between technical concepts from the deep learning literature and natural metaphors for international development. We start with a rather technical review of four of the characteristic traits of deep learning technologies: representation, reuse, robustness, regularization (4Rs of deep learning). Based on the empirical evidence of 24 case studies, we derive four characteristics of the use of AI4D that align with the four technological traits, namely development foci on local and distance intelligence, and mirrored and detailed reality representations. In isolation, each one of the identified issues presents a plethora of opportunities to contribute to international development, especially to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, in combination, they create a clear tension between a looming threat of a hegemonic intelligence indoctrination pushed by global economies of scale and the potential promise to not only honor but also celebrate local diversity with the help of flexible AI designs.


We identify the multilayered compound GeBi4Te7 to be a topological insulator with a Dirac point slightly above the valence band maximum, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements. The spin polarization satisfies the time reversal symmetry of the surface states, visible in spin-resolved ARPES. For increasing Sb content in GeBi4-xSbxTe7 we observe a transition from n to p type in bulk sensitive Seebeck coefficient measurements at a doping of x = 0.6. In surface sensitive ARPES measurements a rigid band shift is observed with Sb doping, accompanied by a movement of the Dirac point towards the Fermi level. Between x = 0.8 and x = 1 the Fermi level crosses the band gap, changing the surface transport regime. This difference of the n- to p-type transition between the surface region and the bulk is caused by band bending effects which are also responsible for a noncoexistence of insulating phases in the bulk and in the near surface region.


We develop a theory of sovereign borrowing where default penalties are not implementable. We show that when debt is held by both domestic and foreign agents, the median voter might have an interest in serving it. Our theory has important practical implications regarding a) the role of financial intermediaries in sovereign lending; b) the effect of capital flows on price volatility including the possible over-valuation of debt to the point that the median voter is priced out of the market; and c) debt restructuring where creditors are highly dispersed.


EU countries closely regulate pharmaceutical prices whereas the U.S. does not. This paper shows how price constraints affect the profitability, stock returns, and R&D spending of EU and U.S. firms. Compared to EU firms, U.S. firms are more profitable, earn higher stock returns, and spend more on research and development (R&D). Some differences have increased over time. In 1986, EU pharmaceutical R&D exceeded U.S. R&D by about 24 percent, but by 2004, EU R&D trailed U.S. R&D by about 15 percent. During these 19 years, U.S. R&D spending grew at a real annual compound rate of 8.8 percent, while EU R&D spending grew at a real 5.4 percent rate. Results show that EU consumers enjoyed much lower pharmaceutical price inflation, however, at a cost of 46 fewer new medicines introduced by EU firms and 1680 fewer EU research jobs.


Background: Numerous studies have illustrated the therapeutic effects of the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) while simultaneously leading to a plethora of associated adverse effects including changes in the craniofacial growth and development. The present study was planned to analyze the craniofacial morphology in adolescents by evaluating the skeletal cephalometric profile of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients in this age group and comparing them with the HIV-negative controls. Methods: The present study was a planned case–control study that included 25 HIV-positive adolescent patients aged between 10 and 19 years (study group) who were compared with 25 age and sex-matched HIV-negative adolescent controls (control group). All the patients had been HIV-infected via vertical transmission with positive serology confirmed in two different tests and had been on HAART since they were born. Results: In the 10 to 12-year age group, positions of maxilla and mandible in the study group were found to be retruded in relation to the skull base when compared with the control group whereas in the 13 to 15 and 16 to 18-year age groups, maxilla was retruded slightly while the mandible was found to be protruded in the study group in relation to the skull base. Conclusion: Although the differences in majority of the measurements made were not found to be significant enough, the study highlighted the significance of further studies to be conducted in this regard, especially, the longitudinal study designs wherein the said variables can be studied on a follow-up basis to have an idea of the exact changes observed and their pattern in the included groups.


Abstract
Background
Endovascular methods for hemorrhage control, including Resuscitative Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta (REBOA), are evolving and are increasingly being applied clinically. Partial flow strategies to mitigate the consequences of complete aortic occlusion have been demonstrated in pre-clinical models to enhance REBOA and expand its application to various shock states. Initial studies demonstrated that controlled partial flow requires precision beyond the capabilities of manual balloon volume adjustment, therefore automation is required. Our group previously developed a proof-of-concept computer-controlled extracorporeal flow circuit capable of precision aortic flow regulation, but it was not clinically applicable. To bring this concept closer to clinical applicability, we have developed the first endovascular strategy to achieve precision aortic flow regulation, termed Endovascular Variable Aortic Control (EVAC).
Methods
Following instrumentation, 5 Yorkshire-cross swine were subjected to controlled 25% hemorrhage, followed by precision low volume aortic flow regulation using a commercially available compliant balloon catheter pre-positioned in the descending thoracic aorta, connected to a custom, wireless syringe pump. Closed-loop feedback algorithms based on streaming physiologic data were used to determine balloon volume changes.
Results
The EVAC syringe pump was highly effective at maintaining precise aortic flow throughout the 45-minute intervention period during steady state conditions as well as during rapid fluid administration. Aortic flow and distal mean arterial pressure remained stable during EVAC, despite changing proximal hemodynamics. Balloon volume was dynamic, averaging over 500 changes during intervention, with a mean volume change of 6.7 uL and a maximal change of 100 uL.
Conclusion
The EVAC syringe pump is capable of achieving aortic flow regulation with high precision, beyond what is achievable with manual control. This serves as a model for future device design, enabling as-of-yet unachievable clinical therapies for hemorrhage and shock states. Future technological development is required to fully translate this into clinical use.
Level of Evidence – Level V
Study Type – Translational Science
Keywords – EVAC, P-REBOA, REBOA, automation, hemorrhage


This paper presents experiments and in-depth analysis of the imaging of surface acoustic waves by means of the photoelastic effect. Gigahertz surface acoustic waves, generated by optical pump pulses in a thin gold film on a glass substrate, are imaged in the time domain by monitoring ultrafast changes in optical reflectivity. We demonstrate how images of the in-plane acoustic shear strain component can be obtained by measurements with two different optical probe pulse polarizations incident from the substrate side. © 2010 Optical Society of


This exploratory study examines differences in K-12 educators' use of technology for instruction across school economic factors. Survey data from 94 practicing K-12 teachers are analyzed. This study finds that schools' economic factors explain variation in how teachers use technology to promote higher-order thinking skills. Our findings support the existence of a Second-Level Digital Divide. The study also identifies a need for access to technology facilitators, as well as in-service training for practicing teachers on how to use technology to promote higher-order thinking skills. Keywords: Higher Order Thinking Skills, K-12 Education, Second Level Digital Divide, Technology Use, Technology Facilitator This exploratory study investigates the Second-Level Digital Divide as it relates to K-12 environments in a large urban area in the Midwestern U.S. The study tests for differences across school economic factors in K-12 teachers' use of technology for instruction. The study investigates the extent to which teachers integrate technology to maximize student learning by examining teachers' pedagogical and technological practices in the classroom. A growing body of research indicates that the Second-Level Digital Divide is a subtle, yet complex, divide that impacts people in various ways, and which has the potential for social exclusion (Singleton & Longley, 2009). Most research on the Second-Level Digital Divide comes from the sociology literature rather than the K-12 education literature. While there is some research from within the K-12 environment, the majority have examined the general population. This study focuses upon K-12 environments to provide greater insight into the Second-Level Digital Divide. The Second-Level Digital Divide describes the difference, or "divide," in how technology is used, while the Top-Level Digital Divide refers to the difference between the technology "haves" and "have nots" (Hargittai, 2002). This newer divide, referred to here as the Second-Level Digital Divide (SLDD), is no longer a simple delineation between those who have access to technology and those who do not. The SLDD refers to the difference in how technology is utilized. The following literature review discusses the complexities of the SLDD, and the factors that influence the SLDD with respect to K-12 learning. Literature Review Overview of the Digital Divides: Factors Influencing How Technology is Used Gone are the days of believing that the Digital Divide is simply a partition between those who have access to a computer and a modem, and those who do not (Stevenson, 2009; Stevenson, 2008). Rather, researchers have found a subtler divide that has more to do with how the technology is used (Hargittai, 2002; Stevenson, 2009; Stevenson, 2008). The SLDD is a complex concept of interacting physical/digital, human, and social resources (Underwood, 2007). For consistency throughout the paper, the terms physical/digital ,human, and social resources, respectively, will be used as a way of classifying the different influences on the SLDD. The factors influencing the use of technology are wide and varied. As early as 2002 Hargittai found differences in how members of the general population used computers to find digital information. Hargittai (2002) found that these differences in how technology is used can be explained, in part, by human factors including age, education level, and amount of experience with the technology. For example, younger people have more experience with technology and are able to use the technology to access information that those with less experience are not able to. It is interesting to note that the reported results in the literature on the difference in use, based on age, are mixed. Guo, Dobson, and Petrina (2008) found no difference in information and communication technology (ICT) use based simply on age. Yet Prensky (2001, 2005) argues that there is a marked difference, based on age, in the manner in which technology is used. …


Objectives: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2) remains a serious global threat At the time of writing, there are no specific therapeutic agents or vaccines to combat this disease This study was designed to identify the SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors using drug molecule information retrieved from DrugBank 5 0 (Wishart et al ) Methods: A set of common pharmacophores were generated from a series of 22 known SARS-CoV inhibitors The best pharmacophore used for virtual screening (VS) of DrugBank using the Phase module followed by structure-based virtual screening (VS) using Glide (Release 2020-1;Schrodinger LLC, New York, NY, USA) with SARS-CoV-2 main protease and 50 ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulation studies Results: Six hits were selected based on the fitness score, extra-precision Glide score, and binding affinity with the main protease (Mpro) The predicted inhibitor constant (Ki) values of the 3 best hits, DB03777, DB06834, and DB07456, were 0 8176, 0 2148, and 0 1006 mu M, respectively An MD simulation of DB07456 and DB13592 with the Mpro demonstrated stable protein-ligand complexes Conclusion: The selected inhibitors displayed a similar type of binding interaction with co-ligands and remdesivir, and the predicted Ki values of 2 inhibitors were found to be superior to remdesivir These selected hits may be used for further in vitro and in vivo studies against the SARS- CoV-2 Mpro


This paper provides an economic perspective on the prevention of chronic diseases, focusing in particular on diseases linked to lifestyle choices. The proposed economic framework is centred on the hypothesis that the prevention of chronic diseases may provide the means for increasing social welfare, enhancing health equity, or both, relative to a situation in which chronic diseases are simply treated once they emerge. Testing this hypothesis requires the completion of several conceptual and methodological steps. The pathways through which chronic diseases are generated must be identified as well as the levers that could modify those pathways. Justification for action must be sought by examining whether the determinants of chronic diseases are simply the outcome of efficient market dynamics, or the effect of market and rationality failures preventing individuals from achieving the best possible outcomes. Where failures exist, possible preventive interventions must be conceived, whose expected impact on individual choices should be commensurate to the extent of those failures and to the severity of the outcomes arising from them. A positive impact of such interventions on social welfare and health equity should be assessed empirically through a comprehensive evaluation before interventions are implemented.


Physics and geometry: A look at the last twenty years by M. Atiyah Complex cobordism and the elliptic genus by F. Hirzebruch On Galois cohomology of some $p$-adic representations and etale $K$-theory of curves by G. Banaszak, W. Gajda, and P. Krason Equivariant intersection cohomology of toric varieties by G. Barthel, J.-P. Brasselet, K.-H. Fieseler, and L. Kaup Lattices and number fields by E. Bayer-Fluckiger $\mathcal G$-connectedness of compact Kahler manifolds. I by F. Campana Singular bidouble covers and the construction of interesting algebraic surfaces by F. Catanese Quantum statistical mechanics and number theory by P. B. Cohen Semistable bundles on curves and irreducible representations of the fundamental group by H. Esnault and E. Viehweg Does there exist an arithmetic Kodaira-Spencer class? by G. Faltings The Virasoro conjecture for Gromov-Witten invariants by E. Getzler Degenerations of (1,3) abelian surfaces and Kummer surfaces by K. Hulek, I. Nieto, and G. K. Sankaran On the extension problem of pluricanonical forms by Y. Kawamata Enumerating singular curves on surfaces by S. Kleiman and R. Piene On the structure of moduli spaces of framed vector bundles on rational and ruled surfaces by H. Kurke and A. Matuschke A note on $k$-jet ampleness on surfaces by A. Langer About the "$y$" in the $\chi_y$-characteristic of Hirzebruch by A. Lascoux The splitting field of Mordell-Weil lattices by T. Shioda Hirzebruch surfaces: Degenerations, related braid monodromy, Galois covers by M. Teicher Integrales orbitales modulo $1$ pour un groupe reductif p-adique by M.-F. Vigneras A morphism of intersection homology and Hard Lefschetz by A. Weber On characteristic classes of complete intersections by S. Yokura.


Background— The relationship between gestational age at birth and alcohol use measures in early adulthood was examined in a large UK community-based birth cohort (ALSPAC). Methods— A series of linear and logistic regression models were used to test for main effects of a continuous measure of gestational age at birth (GA) on a range of alcohol use measures, and moderation of these associations by sex. In addition, mediation analyses assessed the extent to which significant associations between GA and alcohol use operated indirectly, through influences of the parental environment and/or childhood measures of emotional and behavioral health. Results— Earlier GA significantly predicted never drinking by age 18, but was not associated with other measures of alcohol use behavior among young adult drinkers (i.e. SRE, AUDIT, or DSM-IV-TR Criteria for Alcohol Dependence). The association between earlier GA and never drinking by age 18 was moderated by sex, such that females born early were less likely to have ever had a drink by age 18. In the full sample, childhood measures of emotional and behavioral health were found to mediate the association between earlier GA and never drinking by age 18. This association was not mediated by parenting factors. Conclusions— Earlier GA is associated with never drinking alcohol in early adulthood, in females. Emotional and behavioral difficulties experienced in early childhood may mediate the relationship between earlier GA and never drinking by age 18.


Objective: Ceftiofur, a third-generation cephalosporin, is used as a usual antimicrobial drug in veterinary medicine. Positive efficiency of ceftiofur for treatment of retained fetal membrane (RFM) and acute puerperal metritis has been previously reported. Thus, this study was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of ceftiofur hydrochloride (CH) in prevention of uterine postpartum infections and improvement the fertility parameters in Holstein dairy cows. Methods: After parturition, 300 dairy cows affected with dystocia and RFM, from a single dairy herd, were randomly assigned into 2 groups (n=150). Group1 (control) was not treated but other group (CH) was subcutaneously treated with 2.2 mg/kg CH for 5 days. Results: CH could significantly reduce rate of uterine infections compared with control groups (P<0.01). Open days and first service rate were significantly lower in CH group compared with control group (P<0.01). It can be concluded that uterine infections and metritis are inevitable part of dairy cow transitional period. Injection of CH had beneficial effects on reduction the infections and thus it can be advised use of CH to reduce infections and increasing fertility rate in dairy cows affected with RFM and dystocia, before other control program.


Tents cities have reemerged in the public view as a result of economic depression and the housing crisis in recent years. Despite the growing number of tent cities and their homeless residents, these encampments have received almost no academic attention or analysis. This Comment seeks to open the dialogue on tent cities in the context of informal housing law and policy in the United States. In doing so, it provides background on homelessness, informal housing, and tent cities, explores the benefits derived from tent cities both for encampment residents and for local government actors, and also considers the ethical and legal constraints associated with homeless encampments. The Comment then explores innovative government responses that have allowed tent cities to survive and sometimes thrive. Finally, the Comment proposes several ways in which tent cities can be acknowledged, addressed and improved. The complicated social and political context in which tent cities exist, and the substandard conditions that many tent city residents endure, underscore the immediacy of the issue, and the importance of addressing encampments in a coherent, cohesive, and compassionate


Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) is an important protein source grown in several tropical and sub-tropical countries, and is considered a multi-purpose plant that is resistant to the conditions where drought and salinity is a common phenomenon. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diversity of rhizobial isolates obtained from root nodules of pigeon pea plants grown in central and southern Ethiopia. A total of 116 nitrogen-fixing rhizobial strains were isolated. The bacterial isolates were characterized by 91 phenotypic traits including cultural characteristics, intrinsic antibiotic and heavy metal resistance, salt, pH and incubation temperature tolerance, and carbon and nitrogen sources utilization ability. Preliminary symbiotic properties of the isolates were also evaluated. The isolates were compared with seven reference strains of rhizobia by application of the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic means (UPGMA) using NTSYSpc Version 2.1 software program. The dendrogram constructed from cluster analysis of 91 phenotypic traits, grouped them into six clusters and eight un-clustered positions at 80% relative similarity. Cluster I contained 83% of the test isolates that were grouped together with the reference strains Bradyrhizobium japonicum (HAMBI 2314T) and Bradyrhizobium elkanii (LMG 6164), suggesting that pigeon pea is commonly nodulated by bradyrhizobia. Results from symbiotic effectiveness test revealed that majority of the isolates were found to be effective. Generally, this investigation demonstrated that rhizobial population nodulating C. cajan on the study area were phenotypically diverse and symbiotically effective. Furthermore, the result indicates the existence of strains in the collection, which can tolerate environmental stresses, thus can be developed into inoculant for pigeon pea inoculation and production in Ethiopia and beyond.

 Key words: Bradyrhizobium, Cajanus cajan, phenotypic characteristics, rhizobium.


The Achievement Goal Framework describes students' goal orientations as: task-based, focusing on the successful completion of the task; self-based, evaluating performance relative to one's own past performance; or other-based, evaluating performance relative to the performance of others. Goal orientations have been used to explain student success in a range of educational settings, but have not been used in post-secondary chemistry. This study describes the goal orientations of General Chemistry students and explores the relationship of goal orientations to success in the course. On average, students report higher task and self orientations than other orientation. Task orientation had a positive relationship with exam performance and self orientation had a negative relationship with exam performance. Clustering students showed that for the majority of students task and self orientations moved concurrently and students with low preference across the three orientations also performed lowest on exams. Finally, students in classes using Flipped-Peer Led Team Learning, a pedagogy designed to bring active learning to a large lecture class, showed higher task orientation than those in classes with lecture-based instruction.


Abstract. Multi-model ensemble climate projections in the ENSEMBLES Project of the EU allowed the authors to quantify selected extreme-weather indices for Poland, of importance to climate impacts on systems and sectors. Among indices were: number of days in a year with high value of the heat index; with high maximum and minimum temperatures; length of vegetation period; and number of consecutive dry days. Agricultural, hydrological, and human health indices were applied to evaluate the changing risk of weather extremes in Poland in three sectors. To achieve this, model-based simulations were compared for two time horizons, a century apart, i.e., 1961–1990 and 2061–2090. Climate changes, and in particular increases in temperature and changes in rainfall, have strong impacts on agriculture via weather extremes – droughts and heat waves. The crop yield depends particularly on water availability in the plant development phase. To estimate the changes in present and future yield of two crops important for Polish agriculture i.e., potatoes and wheat, some simple empirical models were used. For these crops, decrease of yield is projected for most of the country, with national means of yield change being: –2.175 t/ha for potatoes and –0.539 t/ha for wheat. Already now, in most of Poland, evapotranspiration exceeds precipitation during summer, hence the water storage (in surface water bodies, soil and ground) decreases. Summer precipitation deficit is projected to increase considerably in the future. The additional water supplies (above precipitation) needed to use the agro-potential of the environment would increase by half. Analysis of water balance components (now and in the projected future) can corroborate such conclusions. As regards climate and health, a composite index, proposed in this paper, is a product of the number of senior discomfort days and the number of seniors (aged 65+). The value of this index is projected to increase over 8-fold during 100 years. This is an effect of both increase in the number of seniors (over twofold) and the number of senior-discomfort days (nearly fourfold).


The Post-Globalisation era has thrust businesses everywhere into new and different competitive situations where knowledgeable, effective and efficient behaviour has come to provide the competitive and comparative edge. Enterprises have turned to Knowledge Management to elaborate a systematic approach to develop and sustain the Intellectual Capital needed to succeed. To be able to do that, you have to be able to visualize your organization as based on knowledge and knowledge flows presented in a graphical and visual framework, referred to in this article as automated organizational cartography. This builds upon the ability to actively classify existing organizational content evolving from and within data feeds in an algorithmic manner. The article firstly reviews certain definitions and classifications of knowledge management, representing a wide range of views from mechanistic (systematic, data driven) to a more socially (psychologically, cognitive/metadata driven) orientated. The paper reports more elaborate continuum models for knowledge acquisition and reasoning purposes and suggests that they can be used for effectively representing the domain of information that an end user may contain in their decision making process for utilization of available organizational intellectual resources.


The case asks students to develop a method for identifying individuals at risk of having chronic kidney disease. A 6,000 subject training set containing 34 potential predictor variables is provided along with a 2,819 subject validation set the instructor uses to evaluate student predicitons. The case is based on an actual study which resulted in a simple nine-question survey that instrument health professionals use to help patients decide whether to be tested for chronic kidney disease.


The relationships between dental infections and degenerative diseases, if such exist, should be demonstrable by other means than the establishment of simply an association of the two in the same person, or the development of such lesions in experimental animals with cultures taken from focal infections. In this paper I summarize some new data developed in my researches on the relation of focal infection to systemic disease, with particular consideration of dental focal infections and the degenerative diseases, and with especial reference to structural changes that take place in the supporting structures about dental focal infections, and to serologic changes in body serums. In a previous communication1I have given a preliminary report, indicating that patients can be divided into three groups on the basis of the type of structural change that develops in the supporting structures of infected teeth, as the result of the presence of a given


The Physarieae tribe (Brassicaceae or mustard family),
predominately with a base chromosome number of x=8, exhibits a
remarkable diversity of haploid chromosome number, thereby
suggesting a dynamic rate of chromosomal change. The goal of
this research was to study, in a molecular phylogenetic
context, the evolution of chromosome number and genome size
within the tribe. Our molecular phylogenetic studies were
generated with three independent loci (chloroplast ndhF, nrDNA
ITS, and LUMINIDEPENDENS 5-7 exons and 5, 6 introns). The
results suggest that Physarieae is a monophyletic lineage
closest related to the Halimolobeae tribe. Within the tribe,
three monophyletic clades are recovered: The NDDLS clade
including five genera (Nerisyrenia, Dithyrea, Dimorphocarpa,
Lyrocarpa, and Synthlipsis), the Paysonia clade, and the
Physaria clade. The phylogenetic findings further suggest that
there was a 2-fold genome size expansion after the divergence
of Physarieae from closely related tribes (2C = 0.873 vs. 0.47
pg). The genome size of Physarieae has fluctuated widely during
the evolution of Physarieae, and both genome size expansion and
contraction occurred repeatedly. Overall DNA contents of
Physarieae ranged from 0.5 to 4.364 pg/2C. Between the three
major lineages of Physarieae, the Physaria clade showed the
largest genome size on average, a finding that is rather
unexpected considering known patterns of variation in other
Brassicaceae. In Physarieae no obvious correlation was found
between changes in genome size and chromosome number.


Cytochrome P450 peroxygenases belonging to the CYP152 family catalyse the oxidation of fatty acids using H2O2. CYP152N1 isolated from Exiguobacterium sp. AT1b exclusively catalyses the α-selective hydroxylation of myristic acid at physiological H2O2 concentration. However, a series of shorter-alkyl-chain fatty acids such as tridecanoic acid were produced from myristic acid by increasing the concentration of H2O2 (1–10 mM). The yield of tridecanoic acid from myristic acid reached 17%. An 18O-labeled oxidant study suggested that CYP152N1 catalysed the overoxidation of α-hydroxymyristic acid to form α-ketomyristic acid, which in turn was spontaneously decomposed by H2O2 to yield tridecanoic acid. Crystal structure analysis of CYP152N1 revealed its high similarity to other CYP152 family enzymes, such as CYP152A1 and CYP152B1. MD simulations of α-hydroxymyristic acid accommodated in CYP152N1 proposed a possible pre-oxidation conformation of α-hydroxymyristic acid for the decarboxylation reaction.


This thesis concerns the problem 2-NASH of finding a Nash equilibrium of a bimatrix
game, for the special class of so-called "hard-to-solve" bimatrix games. The term "hardto-solve" relates to the exponential running time of the famous and often used Lemke–
Howson algorithm for this class of games. The games are constructed with the help of
dual cyclic polytopes, where the algorithm can be expressed combinatorially via labeled
bitstrings defined by the "Gale evenness condition" that characterise the vertices of these
polytopes.
We define the combinatorial problem "Another completely labeled Gale string" whose
solutions define the Nash equilibria of any game defined by cyclic polytopes, including
the games where the Lemke–Howson algorithm takes exponential time. We show that
"Another completely labeled Gale string" is solvable in polynomial time by a reduction to
the "Perfect matching" problem in Euler graphs. We adapt the Lemke–Howson algorithm
to pivot from one perfect matching to another and show that again for a certain class
of graphs this leads to exponential behaviour. Furthermore, we prove that completely
labeled Gale strings and perfect matchings in Euler graphs come in pairs and that the
Lemke–Howson algorithm connects two strings or matchings of opposite signs.
The equivalence between Nash Equilibria of bimatrix games derived from cyclic polytopes, completely labeled Gale strings, and perfect matchings in Euler Graphs implies that
counting Nash equilibria is #P-complete. Although one Nash equilibrium can be computed in polynomial time, we have not succeeded in finding an algorithm that computes
a Nash equilibrium of opposite sign. However, we solve this problem for certain special cases, for example planar graphs. We illustrate the difficulties concerning a general
polynomial-time algorithm for this problem by means of negative results that demonstrate
why a number of approaches towards such an algorithm are unlikely to be successful.


Everything in this contemporary world can be
exploited including a smartphone. Smartphone has both pros and cons. So, our
research is focusing on the dark side of the smartphone and how it creates a
potential risk to our mental health, productivity, time and academic
performance. We are conducting a survey that examines the relationship
between social media use and academic performance. We want to show that heavy
social media usage is positively related to lower GPA i.e. Academic performance
has a negative correlation to social media addiction and suggesting to them the
best ways to get rid of smartphone addiction. Several mobile phone
applications are available to help smartphone users to self-monitor their
smartphone usage. These mobile applications may provide a means of delivering
behavioral interventions to protect smartphone users from their potential
problematic usage. At last, we want people to let them know the truth
of how heavy smartphone usage is affecting their mental health, productivity,
and safety in performing their daily tasks.


"Pirates have green teeth when they have any teeth at all. I know about pirates, because one day, when I was at the beach building a sand castle and minding my own business, a pirate ship sailed into view." So proclaims Jeremy Jacob, a boy who joins Captain Braid Beard and his crew in this witty look at the finer points of pirate life by the Caldecott Honor winning illustrator David Shannon and the storyteller Melinda Long. Jeremy learns how to say scurvy dog, sing sea chanteys, and throw food . . . but he also learns that there are no books or good night kisses on board: Pirates don t tuck. A swashbuckling adventure with fantastically silly, richly textured illustrations that suit the story to a T."


The report analyses the ways in which unpaid care work is recognized and organized, the extent and quality of care jobs and their impact on the well-being of individuals and society. A key focus of this report is the persistent gender inequalities in households and the labour market, which are inextricably linked with care work. These gender inequalities must be overcome to make care work decent and to ensure a future of decent work for both women and men.

The report contains a wealth of original data drawn from over 90 countries and details transformative policy measures in five main areas: care, macroeconomics, labour, social protection and migration. It also presents projections on the potential for decent care job creation offered by remedying current care work deficits and meeting the related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.


This policy brief puts into perspective the trial of the former president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his clandestine role in Sierra Leone Civil War of 1991–2002. The brief gives a critical analysis of issues in the case in relation to Sierra Leone as far as state sovereignty, immunity and international humanitarian law are concerned. The indictment and trial of Taylor at the ICC highlight the problem of African identity and judicial imperialism in an era of the African renaissance and globalisation. The trial therefore heralds a new political culture in the struggle for accountability, rule of law and an impunity-free Africa.


It is hard to find any kind of media with a growth-rate as high as the World Wide Web. At the same time, it is hard to find one that stores within itself such an amount of metadata, useful for an in-depth study. It is wrong to look at the WWW simply as a kind of information store. Although all its contents are information one way or the other, the truth is there are quite a few ways of letting the users interact with that information, either to manipulate it (via ajax-based applications), to alter it (through the use of wikis), to add to it (via blogs and web sites themselves) or to transform and amplify its meanings. These are only a few examples of what can be done today. Web site access logs are the main information source on how the WWW is used. Rather than asking the users if they viewed the pages (such as a TV station might do), any web site has the means to keep a permanent record about its visitors. By analyzing these logs, we are able to get a better understanding of the roles played by the web site. In this paper we borrow a few concepts from biology, in order to establish a kind of 'DNA' for each document on the web site of the Portuguese Tribunal de Contas (Court of Auditors). We do this by looking at the WWW as an information source and by processing what we find. At the same time, we try to extend the same approach to the users who looked for those documents, by processing the web access logs. The results of such an approach might enable future uses of automatic document classification, as well as an effective personalization of information delivery.


This article reevaluates the first phase of Taiwan's democratization process (1914-1986) by exploring the similarities and differences between oppositional political organizations under Japanese and Kuomintang (KMT) rule. Employing a parallel structure, the article compares two distinct periods of time, 1914-1937 and 1977-1986. Including the Japanese colonial era in the evaluation of Taiwan's democratization process makes it possible to examine long-overlooked issues in Taiwan's political development such as the question of continuity and disjuncture. The author argues that the Japanese colonial era should be recognized as the starting point of Taiwanese political activities and the era of KMT one-party rule that followed as a re-colonization of Taiwan (lasting from 1947 until the early 1980s). The author's analysis reveals that (1) Taiwanese political opposition during both eras originated within rather than outside repressive political frameworks and that moderate opposition organizations emerged as the best possible reaction given those circumstances; (2) domestic organizations had a greater impact on the Taiwanese polity and society than those in exile; and (3) peaceful approaches were an important alternative to revolutionary movements. The author recounts the story of Taiwan's democratization process (until 1986) through the careers of two long-neglected moderate political activists, Lin Xiantang (1881-1956) and Kang Ningxiang (1938-).


A distinction between interpersonal and content interaction was identified in the literature, and applied in research undertaken on a selection of 36 courses. These courses differed in both the kinds of interaction offered and its integration in the teaching and assessment. They included different combinations and use of conferencing, email, interactive software and the Internet. Student comments on their perceptions of the positive and negative contributions of these computer-mediated elements are presented. The perceived benefits of interpersonal and content interaction are distinctive, and both can also have negative effects. Students value content interaction and interpersonal interaction for different reasons, and it is not helpful to privilege one form of interaction over another.


The conventional wisdom regarding the nature of the yielding varieties (HYV) which have ushered in the "Green Revolution" includes the following beliefs: (1) The HYV's give higher response to fertilizers than the "local" varieties. (2) The HYV's need fertilizer and irrigation for realizing their higher responses. (3) The HYV's respond synergistically to a package of inputs and practices, the most important among the inputs being the three fertilizers--nitrogen, phosphorus and potash--and irrigation.

The policy implications of these beliefs are obvious: (1) It is more efficient to allocate fertilizer to HYV's than to "local" varieties. (2) HYV's should be adopted only when assured water and fertilizers are available. (3) Since inputs act synergistically, it is more efficient to concentrate the developmental efforts in selected areas for promoting intensive agriculture.

It is argued here that the extensive analysis of yield responses to fertilizer that was carried out by Parikh, Srinivasan et al. does not seem to support the conventional wisdom regarding the nature of the HYV technology at least at the low level of inputs used by the Indian farmers and consequently questions the policy implications of that conventional view.

Based on the data from more than 15,000 trials carried out on farmers' fields by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, it is shown that the yield response functions are such that the best HYV for the zone dominates the local variety and gives higher yield even without fertilizer. It is also found that for some cases the yield response to fertilizer of a local variety is higher than the yield response of the HYV. The paper also argues that it is not easy to reject the hypothesis that the data from the simple fertilizer trials are representative of Indian farms.

The paper also presents in an appendix the estimated yield response of the dominant varieties for 8 major crops of India for different agro-climatic zones along with their plots.


This research was to design a 2.4 GHz class E Power Amplifier (PA) for health care, with 0.18um Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation CMOS technology by using Cadence software. And also RF switch was designed at cadence software with power Jazz 180nm SOI process. The ultimate goal for such application is to reach high performance and low cost, and between high performance and low power consumption design. This paper introduces the design of a 2.4GHz class E power amplifier and RF switch design. PA consists of cascade stage with negative capacitance. This power amplifier can transmit 16dBm output power to a 50{\Omega} load. The performance of the power amplifier and switch meet the specification requirements of the desired.