The main interest of this research consists of introducing an outcome spectrum in studying the welfare state-trust nexus. The latter can be obtained by decomposing Esping-Andersen's welfare regime typology and directly evaluating the effects of decommodification and stratification on trust indexes. The expectation is formulated on the premise of the traditional crowding-out hypothesis which assumes that as the welfare state develops, trust levels decline. The hypothesis is checked based on a cross-sectional analysis for a set of 18 OECD countries while using a multi-level modeling as the main research method. The results obtained permit to reject the crowding-out hypothesis and infer that welfare states may enhance trust formation.


Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) using electromagnetic (EM) technology in marine shallow waters are examined, not just for environmental monitoring but for further interesting applications. Particularly, the use of EM waves is reconsidered in shallow waters due to the benefits offered in this context, where acoustic and optical technologies have serious disadvantages. Sea water scenario is a harsh environment for radiocommunications, and there is no standard model for the underwater EM channel. The high conductivity of sea water, the effect of seabed and the surface make the behaviour of the channel hard to predict. This justifies the need of link characterization as the first step to approach the development of EM underwater sensor networks. To obtain a reliable link model, measurements and simulations are required. The measuring setup for this purpose is explained and described, as well as the procedures used. Several antennas have been designed and tested in low frequency bands. Agreement between attenuation measurements and simulations at different distances was analysed and made possible the validation of simulation setups and the design of different communications layers of the system. This leads to the second step of this work, where data and routing protocols for the sensor network are examined.


There is a generic innovation process, grounded in models of how people learn, that can be applied across multiple sectors. It can be applied to the design and development of both hardware and software products, to the design of business models and services, to the design of organizations and how they work, and to the design of the buildings and spaces in which work takes place, or within which companies interact with their customers. This article describes such a model of innovation, grounding it in learning models and developing its implications for understanding, implementing, and engaging in the innovation process. The article focuses on the value and functions of multifaceted innovation teams. It notes the difficulties inherent in innovation efforts, shows where some of the pitfalls are for organizations attempting to innovate, and emphasizes the need to be flexible and adaptive in using the innovation process.


The need for a pretreatment staging system to accurately assess programs of therapy for the various sites and stages of childhood rhabdomyosarcoma has become apparent as detailed analyses of many factors affecting prognosis and treatment choices have been accomplished through the national cooperative trial, the Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study (IRS). Initiated in 1972, the IRS has thus far used a clinicopathologic grouping system that is based heavily on therapeutic decisions, particularly on whether or not excision is accomplished and the extent of such an operation. The major problem with this and several other staging classifications now in use is that they depend on pathologic data obtained after surgical treatment has been initiated or rejected. In addition, they do not consider histologic variations of this neoplasm which may be important in estimating prognosis. The large body of clinical data now accumulated in the IRS has provided an excellent opportunity for developing a database for evaluating the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) pretreatment staging system and also the potential for using histologic categories in the staging process. The records of 505 eligible patients entered into the IRS between 1978 and 1982 were used to determine the prognostic impact of a number of pretreatment factors. These included local invasiveness of the primary neoplasm on clinical examination, tumor size, clinical status of regional nodes, clinical or radiologic evidence of distant metastases, and favorable or unfavorable histologic categories. A retrospective assessment of the relationship of these pretreatment observations to survival experience has been carried out. This retrospective study indicates definite prognostic significance for all of the individual factors used on the UICC system except clinical status of regional nodes. Also, these data serve as a basis for considering the possibility of including favorable v unfavorable histology in the pretreatment staging system now being tested prospectively in the ongoing IRS protocols.


Coxiella burnetii, the etiologic agent of human Q fever, is a Gram-negative and naturally obligate intracellular bacterium. The O-specific polysaccharide chain (O-PS) of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of C. burnetii is considered a heteropolymer of the two unusual sugars β-D-virenose and dihydrohydroxystreptose and mannose. We hypothesize that GDP-D-mannose is a metabolic intermediate to GDP-β-D-virenose. GDP-D-mannose is synthesized from fructose-6-phosphate in 3 successive reactions; Isomerization to mannose-6-phosphate catalyzed by a phosphomannose isomerase (PMI), followed by conversion to mannose-1-phosphate mediated by a phosphomannomutase (PMM) and addition of GDP by a GDP-mannose pyrophosphorylase (GMP). GDP-D-mannose is then likely converted to GDP-6-deoxy-D-lyxo-hex-4-ulopyranose (GDP-Sug), a virenose intermediate, by a GDP-mannose-4,6-dehydratase (GMD). To test the validity of this pathway in C. burnetii, three open reading frames (CBU0671, CBU0294 and CBU0689) annotated as bifunctional type II PMI, as PMM or GMD were functionally characterized by complementation of corresponding E. coli mutant strains and in enzymatic assays. CBU0671, failed to complement an Escherichia coli manA (PMM) mutant strain. However, complementation of an E. coli manC (GMP) mutant strain restored capsular polysaccharide biosynthesis. CBU0294 complemented a Pseudomonas aeruginosa algC (GMP) mutant strain and showed phosphoglucomutase activity (PGM) in a pgm E. coli mutant strain. Despite the inability to complement a manA mutant, recombinant C. burnetii PMI protein showed PMM enzymatic activity in biochemical assays. CBU0689 showed dehydratase activity and determined kinetic parameters were consistent with previously reported data from other organisms. These results show the biological function of three C. burnetii LPS biosynthesis enzymes required for the formation of GDP-D-mannose and GDP-Sug. A fundamental understanding of C. burnetii genes that encode PMI, PMM and GMP is critical to fully understand the biosynthesic pathway of GDP-β-D-virenose and LPS structure in C. burnetii.


Three philosophical rationales--search-for-truth, self-governance, and self-fulfillment--have animated discussions of free expression for decades. Each rationale emerged and attained prominence in American jurisprudence in specific political and cultural circumstances. Moreover, each rationale shares a foundational commitment to the classical liberal (modernist) self. But the three traditional rationales are incompatible with our digital age. In particular, the idea of the classical liberal self enjoying maximum liberty in a private sphere does not fit in the postmodern information society. The time for a new rationale has arrived. The same sociocultural conditions that undermine the traditional rationales suggest a self-emergence rationale built on the feminist concept of relational autonomy. This novel rationale constitutionally protects expression that fosters the ongoing creative and dynamic process of self-emergence. As such, the rationale justifies protecting expression concerned with the emergent self's struggle to define itself and the broader culture. The self-emergence rationale has important ramifications, especially for free-expression issues related to the Internet. The Roberts Court has invoked the traditional rationales in granting expansive first-amendment protections to corporations. Many Internet-related issues involve multinational corporations, such as Google, Verizon, and Facebook. But under the self-emergence rationale, publicly held business corporations should not have free-speech rights for two reasons. First, they have fixed rather than emergent natures. Second, they manipulate and limit the sociocultural space available for the autonomous self-emergence of individuals.


A total of 129 pathogenic Escherichia coli strains (APEC) isolated from hens and broilers suffering from colisepticaemia and ovaritis were studied regarding their biological and pathogenic characteristics such as serogroups and virulence associated genes. For comparison were studied also other 100 poultry fecal E.coli strains originated from apparently healthy birds. Serotyping demonstrated that most of E.coli strains were untypable in both colibacillosis clinic division groups (62% for and 34%, whereas in 129 of E. coli strains the searched eight virulence genes for their presence showed relationship with colibacillosis infection outbreaks in poultry. Serotyping identified a very wide variety of serotypes according to APEC and AFEC strains. Serotypes most often associated with the presence of clinical signs resulted O86 (8, 75%), O2 (4, 86%), O8 (6, 77%), O15 (3, 88%), O139 (2, 92%) ; O157 (2.92%) 78 O (1, 94%), while those with apparently healthy birds: O8 (11, 53%), O157 (7, 69%), O73 (3, 85 %), O86 (3, 85%), O115 (3, 85%) and O2 (3, 75%). The lack of virulence factors in APEC strains resulted 18, 05%, while in AFEC strains 81, 95%. This study identified significant differences of virulence factors among strains isolated from lesions, compared to those from apparently healthy subjects. Anyway the detection of virulence genes present in serotypes O15, O86, O73, O101, O147, O157, brings a wider variety of APEC in serogroups classification. These data obtained from genetic characterization of avian E.coli strains constitute the first report in Albania, for colibacillosis infection outbreak in poultry flocks. The presence, appearance and distribution of virulence genes in poultry flocks, provides basic information for the control and eradication of the colibacillosis infection. Application of molecular biology methods to further knowledge of the serotyping data now is a time requirement for the prevention and eradication of avian colibacillosis or other bacterial poultry infections.


This volume examines crimes that violate environmental regulations, as part of an emerging area of criminology known as green criminology. The contributions to this book examine criminal justice concerns related to regulating and enforcing environmental laws, as well as the consequences for families and communities impacted by hazardous waste and pollution. It also describes possible strategies for deterring and preventing organized crime related to environmental regulations, including black market sales of ozone depleting substances. This innovative volume provides a criminological framework for understanding environmental harms.

Examining cases from the US, Europe and Australia, this volume compares and contrasts international approaches for regulating hazardous substances, and enforcing those regulations. This work will be of interest to researchers in criminology and criminal justice, particularly interested in green criminology or environmental law, as well as researchers in environmental sciences, white collar and corporate crime, and policymakers.


Mass mortality events in wildlife are a growing concern. Under conditions of rapid global change, opportunistic responses in bacterial commensals, triggered by environmental stressors, may be increasingly implicated in die‐offs. In 2015, over 200,000 saiga antelope died of hemorrhagic septicemia caused by the pathogen Pasteurella multocida serotype B. We use this case to explore die‐offs from commensal bacteria more broadly, looking at factors which might favor such extreme events. We review other recorded disease outbreaks caused by Pasteurellaceae organisms, firstly in saiga and secondly in other wild ungulates, and ask whether the 2015 die‐off was unprecedented in terms of mortality rates, numbers dead, spatial scale, and in the nature of the predisposing or environmental factors involved. We also compare these outbreaks with mass mortality events associated with commensal bacteria in wildlife more generally. We identify three additional major die‐offs in saiga in which Pasteurellaceae organisms may be implicated, of which one in 1988 closely resembles the 2015 hemorrhagic septicemia event. No other recorded cases in wild ungulates approach the magnitude of these cases for any of the metrics considered, possible exceptions being die‐offs in Mongolian gazelles, in which the role of these pathogens is poorly substantiated. Environmental triggers were the most commonly suggested factor leading to pathogenesis, with warm humid conditions most commonly associated with hemorrhagic septicemia. Life history may also be significant—saigas are migratory and the largest pasteurellosis outbreaks outside this species also occur in migratory species of bird or other temperate ungulates aggregating in large numbers. Cases provoked by other commensals tend to be small in magnitude. Exceptions involve interactions between multiple pathogens and climatic conditions or sets of climatic conditions acting on different stages of the host–pathogen life cycle, leading to time lags between infection and subsequent disease. Overall, the scale and rapidity of the saiga die‐offs appear unprecedented among mortality events caused by bacterial commensals in wild mammals. Experimental research into the genetics and microbiology of host–pathogen interactions upon changes in the external environment, and monitoring of animals and conditions at calving sites, may eventually reveal the underlying causes of these die‐offs.


We present multifocus holographic 3-D image fusion based on independent component analysis (ICA). In this paper, the ICA technique is used to fuse multiple reconstructed holographic images at different distances from the image sensor. A hologram of two dice located at distances of 315 and 345 mm, respectively, from the sensor is recorded using phase-shifting digital holography and used in our experiments. The resulting reconstructed fused holographic image shows both dice objects clearly in focus. This is compared with a single reconstructed holographic image in which only one of the die objects is in focus at a particular reconstruction distance.


The numerical simulation of damage using phenomenological models on the macroscale was state of the art for many decades. However, such models are not able to capture the complex nature of damage, which simultaneously proceeds on multiple length scales. Furthermore, these phenomenological models usually contain damage parameters, which are physically not interpretable. Consequently, a reasonable experimental determination of these parameters is often impossible. In the last twenty years, the ongoing advance in computational capacities provided new opportunities for more and more detailed studies of the microstructural damage behavior. Today, multiphase models with several million degrees of freedom enable for the numerical simulation of micro-damage phenomena in naturally heterogeneous materials. Therewith, the application of multiscale concepts for the numerical investigation of the complex nature of damage can be realized. The presented thesis contributes to a hierarchical multiscale strategy for the simulation of brittle intergranular damage in polycrystalline materials, for example aluminum. The numerical investigation of physical damage phenomena on an atomistic microscale and the integration of these physically based information into damage models on the continuum meso- and macroscale is intended. Therefore, numerical methods for the damage analysis on the micro- and mesoscale including the scale transfer are presented and the transition to the macroscale is discussed. The investigation of brittle intergranular damage on the microscale is realized by the application of the nonlocal Quasicontinuum method, which fully describes the material behavior by atomistic potential functions, but reduces the number of atomic degrees of freedom by introducing kinematic couplings. Since this promising method is applied only by a limited group of researchers for special problems, necessary improvements have been realized in an own parallelized implementation of the 3D nonlocal Quasicontinuum method. The aim of this implementation was to develop and combine robust and efficient algorithms for a general use of the Quasicontinuum method, and therewith to allow for the atomistic damage analysis in arbitrary grain boundary configurations. The implementation is applied in analyses of brittle intergranular damage in ideal and nonideal grain boundary models of FCC aluminum, considering arbitrary misorientations. From the microscale simulations traction separation laws are derived, which describe grain boundary decohesion on the mesoscale. Traction separation laws are part of cohesive zone models to simulate the brittle interface decohesion in heterogeneous polycrystal structures. 2D and 3D mesoscale models are presented, which are able to reproduce crack initiation and propagation along cohesive interfaces in polycrystals. An improved Voronoi algorithm is developed in 2D to generate polycrystal material structures based on arbitrary distribution functions of grain size. The new model is more flexible in representing realistic grain size distributions. Further improvements of the 2D model are realized by the implementation and application of an orthotropic material model with Hill plasticity criterion to grains. The 2D and 3D polycrystal models are applied to analyze crack initiation and propagation in statically loaded samples of aluminum on the mesoscale without the necessity of initial damage definition.


Both Mycenologists and Near Eastern scholars have an interest in determining the extent to which the Mycenaeans were in contact with the rest of the greater Aegean area. Tho this end, the archaeological remains of the region have been used exhaustively. There is, however, another source of evidence for possible contacts which has not yet been studied systematically: the use of ethnics in the Linear ? tablets.


This article reports a study that explored user requirements for web-based interactive TV (iTV) services from the perspective of older users. Members of a University of the Third Age (U3A) group were recruited for the study in order to explore the potential for web-based iTV to be used as a tool for mediating social communities. Focus groups and user trials were used to explore participants' reactions to the concept of web-based iTV and to identify barriers to use. The study found that the web-based iTV service offered in some contexts several advantages to personal computer use that were valued by study participants. However, significant physical and cognitive barriers to use were identified, such as cost of services, lack of privacy, information overload and learning interface equipment. Recommendations for designing web-based iTV services for older users, generated in response to these concerns, include keeping the user interface simple, avoiding multi-modal keys on the keypad and providing information portals tailored to the interests of older users.


The Yilgarn Block of Western Australia consists mainly of Archean granite-greenstone terrain with oval areas of granitoid rocks fringed by arcuate greenstone belts. In a typical part of this terrain the outcrop pattern is shown to result from large-scale dome-and-basin fold interference structures rather than diapiric emplacement of steep-sided batholiths. The greenstones and underlying granitoid rocks were initially deformed together in a subhorizontal tectonic regime. As a result, the granitoid rocks recrystallized and a gneissosity developed subparallel to the stratigraphy of the greenstones. Thick subhorizontal monzogranite sheets were later emplaced into the lower part of the greenstone sequence. Subsequent deformation generated two successive sets of folds with vertical axial surfaces at a high angle to each other. These folds formed dome-and-basin interference structures ranging from a few centimetres to more than 50 km in diameter.


This investigation draws on theories of sacrifice to explore Wim Botha's sculpture Premonition of War: Scapegoat in relation to nationalist and patriarchal thought. Since the artist deals with myth, his approach is discussed in terms of Barthes' formulation of myth as a meta-language. It is maintained that Botha is using a meta-mythical language to deconstruct the narratives he deals with. Sacrifice is seen as an act that binds communities together but that also separates them from threats (Nancy Jay 1992:17). It is argued that the crucifix has been used as symbol of sacrifice to denote immortality, and that this over-emphasis of continuity has been to the detriment of those that do not fall within the boundaries of the "same" as defined by white men. The incorporation and exclusion of the feminine into male structures are discussed, as well as the role that institutionalised religious thought has played in South African Nationalism. An interpretation of Scapegoat using Freud and Žižek seems to point to the necessary compromise made by the Church with the dualisms it has created between its definitions of good and evil. Nietzsche's conception of sacrifice as a system of debt when applied to the Scapegoat also seems to point to a contradiction inherent within it, since Botha's inversion puts into question the idea of a gift given outside of a creditor/debtor system. The burnt appearance of the Scapegoat appears to indicate that the attempt to sacrifice the act of sacrifice is futile, since sacrifice eternally returns. However, the "pure gift", or don pur that Derrida writes of, seems to point to a way beyond dialectics, towards a morality freed from duty.


This paper describes Tica, an environment designed to explore the differences between tangible and screen based interfaces when teaching programming to children aged 5–7 years. Tica comprises several components: a tangible programming language and a screen based equivalent, an Android app to interpret the programming languages and record data, and a physical robot that can be programmed using either the tangible or screen-based language. Tica was designed using a learner-centred approach, with a specific focus on the needs and abilities of the target user group.
Once implemented, an initial pilot study was carried out with 14 adults. Although participants using the screen-based interface completed problems more quickly than those using the tangible interface, participants using the tangible interface reported a higher level of enjoyment. Next steps include a more extensive study with the target population as well as some refinements to the Tica environment.


The essay describes the most meaningful recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and of lower courts on single brand aftermarkets for replacement parts and services, putting into historical context the market economics that inspires current antitrust jurisprudence. Particularly, it shows that the post-classical approach has never entirely superceded neo-classical doctrines. Rather, several shifting tides of theory have swept, and still sweep, over the domain of antitrust doctrine influencing the debate unevenly.


PURPOSE
We aimed to evaluate the interscan, intraobserver, and interobserver reproducibility of basilar atherosclerotic plaque employing dark blood high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HR-MRI) at 3 Tesla.

METHODS
Sixteen patients (14 males and 2 females) with > 30% basilar stenosis as identified by conventional magnetic resonance angiography were prospectively recruited for scan and rescan examinations on a 3 Tesla MRI system using T2-weighted turbo spin-echo protocol. Two observers independently measured the areas of vessels and lumens. Wall area was derived by subtracting the lumen area from the vessel area. Areas of vessels, lumens and walls were compared for the evaluation of interscan variability of basilar plaque. To assess the intraobserver variability, one observer reevaluated all the images of the first scan after a 4-week interval.

RESULTS
Fourteen patients were included in the final analysis. No clinically significant difference was observed for interscan, intraobserver, and interobserver measurements. The intraclass correlations for vessel, lumen, and wall areas were excellent and ranged from 0.973 to 0.981 for the interscan measurements, 0.997 to 0.998 for the intraobserver measurements and 0.979 to 0.985 for the interobserver measurements. The coefficients of variation for quantitative basilar morphology measurements were 4.31%-10.35% for the interscan measurements, 1.41%-4.62% for the intraobserver measurements and 3.79%-8.46% for the interobserver measurements. Compared with the interscan and interobserver measurements, narrow intervals of the scatterplots were observed for the intraobserver measurements by Bland-Altman plots.

CONCLUSION
Basilar atherosclerotic plaque imaging demonstrates excellent reproducibility at 3 Tesla. The study proves that dark blood HR-MRI may serve as a reliable tool for clinical studies focused on the progression and treatment response of basilar atherosclerosis.


Maximum likelihood estimation of a log-concave density has attracted considerable attention over the last few years. Several algorithms have been proposed to estimate such a density. Two of those algorithms, an iterative convex minorant and an active set algorithm, are implemented in the R package logcondens. While these algorithms are discussed elsewhere, we describe in this paper the use of the logcondens package and discuss functions and datasets related to log-concave density estimation contained in the package. In particular, we provide functions to (1) compute the maximum likelihood estimate (MLE) as well as a smoothed log-concave density estimator derived from the MLE, (2) evaluate the estimated density, distribution and quantile functions at arbitrary points, (3) compute the characterizing functions of the MLE, (4) sample from the estimated distribution, and finally (5) perform a two-sample permutation test using a modified Kolmogorov-Smirnov test statistic. In addition, logcondens makes two datasets available that have been used to illustrate log-concave density estimation.


The Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network is the basis for monitoring visibility in Class I Areas throughout the United States. Monitoring is conducted by collecting PM2.5 and PM10 samples every third day at over 150 remote and rural sites nationwide, with PM2.5 samples being analyzed for chemical composition. Light extinction is reconstructed using an algorithm that relates speciated mass to light extinction based on aerosol mass and size (second IMPROVE equation). In addition, the National Park Service directly measures light scattering at a subset of IMPROVE sites using Optec NGN-2 integrating nephelometers. The optical measurements serve as a check of the reconstructed scattering, in that measured scattering from the nephelometers and reconstructed scattering from the second IMPROVE equation should be equivalent. During its development, the second IMPROVE equation was shown to accurately estimate light scattering for a broad range of aerosol compositions and loadings for samples collected through 2003. Here reconstructed scattering is assessed from the second IMPROVE equation by comparing measured light scattering from nephelometers to reconstructed light scattering at 11 collocated sites over a 16 year period (2001–2016). The comparisons suggest that the relationship between measured and reconstructed light scattering has changed over time and that in recent years the second IMPROVE equation has underestimated light scattering at many sites. This shift toward poorer agreement corresponds to periods with relatively large decreases in sulfate and organic mass concentrations. These decreases lead to biases in reconstructed scattering calculated with the second IMPROVE equation, due to the assumed relationship between mass concentration and size distribution. This relationship, referred to as the split component algorithm, appears to be flawed as currently implemented. A potential approach is explored that scales the split component algorithm each year and at each site, based on measured mass concentrations at the site. The proposed approach appears to reduce the biases in the second IMPROVE equation.


Background. Cancer patients using cannabis report better influence from the plant extract than from synthetic products. However, almost all the research conducted to date has been performed with synthetic products. We followed patients with a medicinal cannabis license to evaluate the advantages and side effects of using cannabis by cancer patients. Methods. The study included two interviews based on questionnaires regarding symptoms and side effects, the first held on the day the license was issued and the second 6–8 weeks later. Cancer symptoms and cannabis side effects were documented on scales from 0 to 4 following the CTCAE. The distress thermometer was used also. Results. Of the 211 patients who had a first interview, only 131 had the second interview, 25 of whom stopped treatment after less than a week. All cancer or anticancer treatment-related symptoms showed significant improvement (P < 0.001). No significant side effects except for memory lessening in patients with prolonged cannabis use (P = 0.002) were noted. Conclusion. The positive effects of cannabis on various cancer-related symptoms are tempered by reliance on self-reporting for many of the variables. Although studies with a control group are missing, the improvement in symptoms should push the use of cannabis in palliative treatment of oncology patients.


Both civilian and defense industry rely heavily on robotics which continues to gain a more prominent role. To exemplify, defense strategies in Middle East have relied upon robotic drones and teleoperative assistant robots for mission oriented tasks. These operations have been crucial in saving the lives of soldiers and giving us the edge in mitigating disasters. Future assistive robotics will have direct human interaction and will reside in normal human environments. As the advancement in technology continues to occur, there will be a focus towards eliminating the direct human control and replacing it with higher level autonomy. Further, advancements in electronics and electromechanical components will reduce the cost and makes the assistive robotics accessible to the masses. This thesis focuses on robotic teleoperation technology and the future high level control of assistant robotics. A dexterous 16 degree of freedom hand with bend sensors for precise joint positions was designed, modeled, fabricated and characterized. The design features a unique motor actuation mechanism that was 3D printed to reduce the cost and increase the modularity. The upper body was designed to be biomimetic with dimensions similar to that of a typical six foot tall male. The upper body of the humanoid consists of a 4 degree of freedom shoulder and upper arm with direct feedback at each joint. A theoretical nonlinear switching controller was designed to control these 4 degrees of freedom. The entire system was teleoperative controlled with an Xbox Kinect that tracks the skeletal points of a user and emulates these 3D points to the joints of humanoid upper body. This allows for a direct user control over a robotic assistive upper body with nothing more than a human emulating the desired movements.


Rachel and Kirsty are visiting Kirsty's grandmother by the sea for their spring break. One morning they spot a very sparkly shell on the beach and it whisks them away to Fairyland! It's the occasion of the yearly Ocean Gala, where Shannon the Ocean Fairy plays her Magical Golden Conch Shell to ensure that the seas and oceans remain peaceful and ordered for the year ahead. But Jack Frost is there to ruin things for everyone! His pesky goblins break the Magical Golden Conch Shell into seven pieces as they try to steal it and the pieces are whisked away into the oceans of the human world. Queen Titania uses her magic to send seven magical sea creatures to guard the pieces of the shell, but the Ocean Fairies, and Rachel and Kirsty must get the pieces back before chaos takes over the oceans! Can they outwit Jack Frost and his goblins and make the oceans a safe and happy place for everyone once again...? In this fourth book in the series, Kirsty, Rachel and Stephanie the Starfish Fairy must find Shimmer the starfish. This involves a midnight adventure by the rockpools and a goblin chase through the moonlight!


1. Beneficial 'services' in mutualistic interactions have often not evolved de novo, but from ancestral traits that had a function before the emergence of the association. These traits can then acquire novel functions in a mutualism. Even in many close insect–plant relationships, the services provided by each partner are still unclear.

2. In the well-known association between the carnivorous pitcher plant, Nepenthes bicalcarata, and Camponotus schmitzi ants in Borneo, the ants benefit by receiving food and nesting space in swollen, hollow pitcher tendrils, but the benefits to the plant are less clear. Previous studies have suggested that the ants protect against herbivory, prevent putrefaction of pitchers by removing prey items from them or increase the pitcher's prey retention rate by attacking pitcher visitors.

3. Field observations showed that C. schmitzi ants regularly clean the pitcher rim (peristome), which is the main surface responsible for prey capture. We found that this behaviour increases the carnivorous plant's prey capture efficiency and helps to maintain it over the pitcher's life span. Running tests with Oecophylla smaragdina ants on colonised and ant-free older pitchers demonstrated 45·8% higher capture efficiency in pitchers inhabited by C. schmitzi. Head counts of trapped ants showed that C. schmitzi-colonised pitchers indeed captured significantly (45·2%) more prey than uncolonised pitchers of the same age.

4. The peristomes of ant-free older pitchers were strongly contaminated by fungal hyphae and other particles. Experimental contamination of clean pitcher peristomes with starch also strongly reduced capture efficiency. While the peristome was cleaned rapidly in ant-colonised pitchers and capture efficiency returned to the previous level within approximately 1 week, no cleaning and recovery were observed in ant-free pitchers.

5. Within the genus Nepenthes, N. bicalcarata has exceptionally long-lived pitchers. We propose that C. schmitzi ants benefit N. bicalcarata by keeping the pitchers effective over long periods of time, likely allowing the plant to acquire more nutrients per pitcher and thereby minimise pitcher construction costs.

6. Our findings demonstrate that the cleaning behaviour typical of many plant–ants has acquired a novel function in this ant–plant association, giving rise to a new type of myrmecotrophic mutualism.


This article examines turn-of-the-twentieth-century US world's fairs and the postage stamps that were issued in their honor. The fairs celebrated the progress of industrial civilization, in part by anchoring themselves to a historical origin point (such as Columbus' voyages), and the post office designed the accompanying stamps to commemorate a historical story deemed to be nationally significant. Both the origin point and the history associated with it were located within a time-space matrix defined by prior processes of mapping the national territory and standardizing time reckoning within it. The commemorative stamps were sold on the fairgrounds, where they could be postmarked to locate them precisely in time and space as souvenirs of what would become past events that would have value in the future. These overlain commemorative practices reveal how the raw materials of history—time and space—have to be manipulated before the history-making practices of modern societies can even begin.


The Western Cape is the one part of South Africa that has experienced strong competition in democratic elections and a dramatic shift in power between political parties. Between 1994 and 2004 the initially dominant National Party lost almost all of its support, whilst support rose steadily for the African National Congress. Neither voting patterns nor shifts in the Western Cape fit neatly with a simple racial explanation of voting behaviour, because of both the heterogeneity and supposed fluidity of the 'coloured vote'. First, coloured voters have voted for opposing parties. Secondly, it has been asserted widely that there was a swing among coloured voters from the National Party to the African National Congress. This paper explores ward-level election results and survey data on Cape Town to show that coloured voters continue to be heterogeneous in their voting behaviour but that there is little evidence that former National Party supporters have become ANC supporters. The major cause of shifting partisan power in Cape Town is not voter realignment, but rather demographic change, with differential turnout playing a role in specific elections. It is the overall electorate, rather than the individual voter, that has changed.


We reassess the variation of elastic thickness as a function of lithospheric plate age using a global database of bathymetric and free-air gravity profiles which are perpendicular to oceanic trenches. As in many previous studies, our starting point is the well-known floating elastic plate model. In order to remove the influence of short-wavelength features not associated with lithospheric bending, adjacent profiles from 10-Myr bins have been stacked together to construct average profiles with standard deviations. Each average profile was then inverted in a two-stage procedure. First, singular value decomposition was used to determine two unknown flexural parameters, together with a regional slope and offset, for any given elastic thickness. This procedure was repeated for a range of elastic thicknesses. Second, residual misfit was plotted as a function of elastic thickness, and the global minimum was identified. This two-stage procedure makes no prior assumptions about magnitude of the load, size of the bending moment, or whether the elastic plate is broken/continuous. We obtained excellent fits between theory and observation for both bathymetric and gravity profiles from lithosphere with an age range of 0–150 Ma. The shape of the residual misfit function indicates the degree of confidence we have in our elastic thickness estimates. The lower limit of elastic thickness is usually well determined but upper limits are often poorly constrained. Inverse modeling was carried out using a range of profile lengths (250–300, 500, and 700 km). In general, our estimates show no consistent increase of elastic thickness as a function of plate age. This surprising result is consistent with recent reassessments of elastic thickness beneath seamounts and implies either that elastic thickness is independent of plate age or that elastic thickness cannot be measured with sufficient accuracy to reveal such a relationship. Modeling of short free-air gravity profiles (250–300 km) does tentatively suggest that elastic thickness increases linearly from 5 to 10 km between 0 and 20 Ma and from 10 to 15 km between 20 and 150 Ma. This variation roughly matches the depth to the 200°C isotherm which corresponds to an homologous temperature of 0.4 for wet peridotite. Unfortunately, for longer profile lengths, there is no temporal dependence, and elastic thicknesses vary considerably for all plate ages. Bathymetric profile modeling yields similar results although uncertainties are larger.


The Joint Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Real-Time Systems was held in Santa Barbara, April 1–3, 1997 as part of the 9th IEEE International Parallel Processing Symposium (IPPS). The workshop combined the 5th International Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Real-Time Systems (WPDRTS) and the 3rd Workshop on Object-Oriented Real-Time Systems (OORTS). The meeting brought together researchers from different  communities  to address issues of mutual interest since it has become evident that the existing methods employed by these different communities have been unable to solve all the problems associated with the construction of distributed and dependable real-time systems. An example is the domain of object-oriented real-time systems, that has been explicitly addressed at the workshop by members of several different  communities . The event clearly showed that various problems can only be solved if the many relevant disciplines join their forces in an systems engineering approach towards system construction. To disperse the findings reported at the workshop, several papers from the workshop's proceedings were selected for enhancement and subsequent inclusion in this special issue. These papers give a good overview about the various issues a system engineer of a complex distributed real-time system is confronted with: Requirements engineering and architecting (H. Gomaa), formal specification and validation of real-time systems (J. Hooman and O. van Roosmalen as well as S. Yamane), formal specification and verification of hybrid systems (R. Huuck, Y. Lakhnech, L. Urbina, S. Engell, S. Kowalewski and J. Preussig), program analysis (J. Gustafsson and A. Ermedahl), distributed real-time scheduling (G. Manimaran, M. Shashidhar, Anand Manikutty and C. Siva Ram Murthy), single-processor real- time scheduling (E. A. de Kock, E. H. L. Aarts and G. Essink) and real-time operating systems (A. Miyoshi and H. Tokuda). The guest editors would like to express their gratitude to the authors and the reviewers. We would also like to thank Eui-nam Huh whose help in the editorial process was invaluable. Lonnie R. Welch University of Texas at Arlington email@example.com Dieter K. Hammer Eindhoven University of Technology email@example.com General Co-Chairs of WPDRTS'97


ENGLISH:

The development of the world brings development of value. The institution of slavery was known to be practiced and accepted by society in the classic world, but today it has been treated as an illegal practice. Islam accepted this practice in the prophet era, but it also has been accepted this practice to be wrong by the time being. Several scholars consider the issue of polygamy as the same as the issue of slavery in term of the changing of its legalization. It may be legal in the classical era, but it can be illegal for the modern era. The illegality of polygamy due to its use to legitimate marriage in the shake of fulfilling desire. Because of this phenomena, polygamy did not result a good protection for member of family. In contrary, it leads to domestic violence and divorce.

Indonesia and Malaysia has regulated the practice of polygamy on their law, Indonesia has the marriage regulation number 1 year 1974, while Malaysia has the Islamic family law year 1984. Both of country want to ensure their people welfare particularly in family matter. They did not expect polygamy resulting in chaos and social injustice among citizens.

However, several sides on both of countries see those regulations have some injustice articles within. Anik Farida asserted that Marriage Law number 1 year 1974 of Indonesia does not provide the value of pluralism and women emancipation. Similarly, Roslina Che Soh thinks that Islamic Family Law year 1984 of Malaysia regulation still need to be improved to guarantee the quality of justice towards wifes.

This research analyzes the justice value on both regulations in the view of Asghar Ali Engineer. He is one of International Islamic Scholar concern on justice and women emancipation. In his view, justice is an important value in Islam as important as equality in husband-wife relationship. The analysis on this research find that regulations of both countries legitimate the wife disability as one excuse for husband to practice polygamy. Those regulations did not reflect the spirit of justice by considering wife's disability as an obstacle for being equal with her husband. Therefore, it is necessary to revise the existing regulation.


Mixing sewage sludge with the surface layer of soil in columns was tested as a way to increase N removal in soil columns flooded with secondary effluent containing 18 mg/L total N. Dry sludge was mixed in the top 5 cm of two columns at an application rate equivalent to 50 Mg/ha. The infiltration rates of the two columns were 30 and 60 cm/d. The infiltration rates were the same before and after addition of sludge. Nitrogen (total) removed by the 30 cm/d column was increased from about 22 to about 55% by adding sludge. The same amount of sludge added to the 60 cm/d column decreased N removal for several cycles before N removal stabilized at 34% or at about double the rate measured before sludge was added. Sludge decomposition in the soil columns apparently provided a steady source of organic C for denitrifying bacteria. Nitrogen removal at the 30 cm/d infiltration rate was sufficient to maintain the average total N content in the water from the column outlet at 8 mg/L. These results show that mixing sludge with soil in ground-water recharge basins could allow increased application rates of sewage water and thereby reduced costs. Utilization of some sludge without contaminating the groundwater would be an added benefit.


This paper presents the well define method for the design of single stage and two stage Op–amp in 180nm CMOS process. We have simulated diode connected load with two more PMOS to overcome trade-off between the output voltage swing, the voltage gain, and the input CM range. The operational amplifier has high gain, high input impedance and low output impedance. We have designed two stage op-amp of gain 72dB, CMRR 77dB, slew rate 133V/µs PSRR 57dB. Phase-margin 51˚.Design simulation has been carried out in NGSPICE.


Kangaroo mother care (KMC) is defined as early, continuous, and prolonged skin-to-skin contact between the mother and preterm baby, exclusive breastfeeding, early discharge after hospital-initiated KMC with continuation at home, and adequate support and follow-up for mothers at home.1) The World Health Organization issued recommendations for the care of preterm infants, including KMC, in 2015.1) Globally, the Every Newborn Action Plan emphasizes KMC as an essential component of neonatal health initiatives.2) KMC has been identified as a useful and effective intervention for improving the outcomes of preterm infants. Compared with conventional care, KMC reduced mortality by 40%, sepsis by 65%, and hypothermia by 72%.3) It also reduced the incidence of severe illness and lower respiratory tract disease, hypoglycemia, and hospital readmissions.3) Moreover, KMC increased weight, length, head circumference, breastfeeding, maternal satisfaction, and maternal-infant attachment.3,4) It also led to beneficial neurodevelopmental, behavioral, social, cognitive, and emotional outcomes.5) However, limited national adoption and implementation of KMC was observed, and its global coverage remains low.6) In addition, there are significant variations in the onset and duration of skin-to-skin contact, holding position, essential equipment and supplies, discharge criteria, follow-up frequency, indicators and measurement, and medical personnel requirements.6) Various studies have emphasized the importance of understanding the barriers to and enablers of KMC at 3 levels, namely, with respect to healthcare providers, caregivers, and facilities, for its successful launch and implementation.7-9) The International Network on KMC suggested proper training for clinicians, adherence to protocols, and the creation of a welcoming environment for families as key elements for effective implementation of KMC.7) In a multicountry study, including KMC in the preservice curriculum and service training and providing training to other healthcare administrators were facilitating factors for implementing KMC.8) In a qualitative study, the respondents highlighted the importance of ensuring availability of equipment, supplies, facilities, modified patient ward, and quality of services, as well as proper training as critical prerequisites.9) Bonding, social support, sufficient mother-infant bonding time, medical concerns regarding the health of the mother or the newborn, availability of KMC and social context were identified as main themes affecting the interaction between families and KMC intervention.10) Based on a descriptive survey performed in Korea, the major barriers to practicing KMC by nurses were infant safety concerns and the workload of nurses, with 61.1% of the nurses in 67 neonatal intensive care units adopting KMC.11,12) The respondents (31.3%) who had practiced KMC were more knowledgeable and positive in their outlook towards KMC.12) The availability of educational programs and development of KMC practice guidelines are recommended.11) A recent qualitative study assessing knowledge and perception regarding KMC among healthcare providers in 2 district hospitals in Indonesia that the healthcare providers believed that low birthweight infants in incubators could not be treated with KMC and that KMC could be practiced only if a special gown was used to hold the baby. The author attributed this perception to a lack of formal training in KMC, which led to misunderstandings, although the healthcare providers had sufficient knowledge about KMC. However, the results of this study should be interpreted with caution. First, KMC was based on skin-to-skin contact between the mother and preterm baby, and the healthrelated knowledge could have been insufficient. Second, since 1997, the Indonesian Society for Perinatology has been training healthcare providers through workshops in 17 cities within 16 provinces; by the end of 2013, 73 KMC courses were offered to 2,190 medical professionals.13) In 2009, the Indonesian Ministry of Health provided 3 batches of regional healthcare providers with KMC training courses including training materials, maintenance of records and checklists, and other tools for health personnel.13) However, knowledge regarding KMC was mostly gained through observation, the respondents' own experience, or from pediatricians, indicating the interruption in accessing national KMC training in Indonesia. Third, various aspects concerning the barriers to and enablers of KMC at the 3 aforementioned levels must be considered in the implementation of KMC. However, this study included only training aspects tailored to healthcare providers. In conclusion, KMC should be applied and adopted nationally


Mamuju has been known to have high radiation dose rate which is comes from NORM in rock and soil. Major concern is due to its location which is near inhabitant settlement area. Preliminary research has been done by environmental team which is limited to main access road only, while some remote area has left untouched. The purpose of the research is to delineate the location and distribution of thorium and uranium anomaly in Mamuju, and also to provide adequate information regarding the anomaly and high dose rate area to decision makers and stakeholders in neither local nor central government. Method applied is radiometric mapping using spectrometer RS-125 with NaI(Tl) detector in the area of interest Geological Formation of Adang Volcanic, which is more than 800 square km in size. The radiometric mapping method is widely used in uranium/thorium exploration, and now has been added with the measurement of radiation dose rate which is appropriate to environmental surveys. The mapping has been successfully delineated the area of NORM or the area with thorium and uranium anomaly. Thorium and uranium anomaly identified related with multi-geological-process resulting the increase of grade into several fold from its original state. Received: 08 November 2013; Revised: 20 February 2014; Accepted: 10 March 2014


The possibility of large-scale communication with stakeholders brought about by social media has made these new channels of communication an important arena for spending marketing budgets. Despite the increasing share of social media in firms' marketing budget, there is significant heterogeneity in firms' social media communication practices even within the same venue and among firms from the same industry. As such, there is need for more research on how firms can leverage social media to achieve better performance. In order to address this broad question, two essays have been designed and executed. The first essay utilizes integrated marketing communication as the theoretical lens to explores the implications of a unique opportunity offered by social media, that is, the ability to simultaneously broadcast to the mass audience (impersonal communication) and interact with individuals (personalized communication). Using a unique dataset, which includes the tweets, as well as financial data of S&P 500 firms present on Twitter, this essay reveals that the effects of communication modes are more intricate than a sole focus on the main effects would suggest. Complementing the first essay which focuses on established firms, the second essay explores the implications of social media communication for B2B new ventures. Building on the literature on strategic similarity and dissimilarity, and comparative linguistics, this essay demonstrates that the lingual similarity of a B2B new venture's social media communications to those of its competitors and customers, can signal important information about the venture's marketing capabilities, thus impacting its success in fundraising.


A mild and efficient procedure for the racemisation of optically active amines has been developed and applied to the dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR) of a racemic amine. Pentamethylcyclopentadienyliridium (III) iodide dimer dissolved in a convenient solvent is the precatalyst that reacts in situ with primary, secondary, or tertiary amines to form what we have named a SCRAM catalyst. This is able to dehydrogenate a substrate amine to form an imine, which, depending upon the reaction conditions, is then reduced back to the amine. When an optically active amine is mixed with the iridium precatalyst, racemisation is observed. The SCRAM catalyst is used under mild conditions compatible with suitable enzymes and acyl donors, and thus the DKR of an amine has been effected, giving significantly higher yield than if the enzyme alone was used. A mixed carbonate was identified as the optimal acyl donor, giving a carbamate product that is readily removed by acidic hydrolysis.


Near-infrared surface-enhanced Raman scattering (NIR SERS) spectra were obtained for 2,2-bipyridine, 5,6-benzoquinoline, pyrene, anthracene, and fluoranthene on SERS pre-activated thin-layer chromatography (TLC) plates by Fourier transform (FT) Raman spectroscopy. The pre-activation of TLC plates was based on a procedure of dipping the plates into a solution of silver oxalate and the subsequent pyrolysis of adsorbed silver oxalate forming silver particles on the plates. The effects of the type of TLC plates, the time of immersion in the silver oxalate solution, and the time of pyrolysis are discussed with respect to the SERS activity of the systems formed.


Retinoblastoma, the most common childhood eye cancer, presents in two forms: heritable or sporadic. Heritable retinoblastoma is caused by a germline mutation in the RB1 gene. Early diagnosis of children at risk of inheriting an RB1 mutation is crucial to achieve optimal clinical outcome. Currently, the majority of genetic testing is performed on newborns, which has multiple disadvantages for both families and the healthcare system. We have developed a non-invasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD) service for retinoblastoma, available from 8 weeks' gestation, which uses a combination of massively parallel sequencing (MPS) techniques, dependent on the inheritance model. Detection of paternal or suspected de novo RB1 variants is achieved through amplicon-based MPS. NIPD of a fetus at risk of maternal inheritance is performed using capture-based targeted sequencing and relative haplotype dosage analysis. In addition, we show proof of principle of how capture-based sequencing can be used for de novo variants unsuitable for amplicon-based testing. In total, we report the NIPD of 15 pregnancies, results of which show 100% concordance with all postnatal testing performed at the time of publication (n = 12) with remaining pregnancies ongoing. NIPD of retinoblastoma therefore offers a viable alternative to newborn genetic testing.


This article argues that, post Enron, governance reforms around the world have served to raise the profile of risk management, and emphasise the need for a corporate wide approach to internal control that is overseen by the Board of Directors. In the US, this is most clearly demonstrated by the emergence of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), defined as 'a process, effected by an entity's board of directors, management and other personnel, applied in strategy setting across the enterprise, designed to identify potential events that may affect the entity, and manage risk to be within its risk appetite, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of entity objectives.' (COSO, 2004, p.2). In practical terms, however, the introduction of an enterprise wide holistic risk management system poses a big challenge to all but the smallest of organisations. The financial crisis has clearly shown that enterprise wide risk management remains a dream rather than a reality for even the world's largest and once highly respected companies.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the cervical spine (c-spine) and mandible reproducibility of the CDR Mayo Mold and Civco Type-S head and neck immobilization system using Mosaiq Setup Intelligence Curve Image Registration Methods: Patients were immobilized with either the Mayo Mold or Civco Type-S head and neck immobilization systems. Using curve image registration tools in Mosaiq, the c-spine and mandible were outlined. For each lateral image, two separate image registrations were performed using an initial kV image as reference - 1) c-spine only 2) mandible only. To evaluate the relative difference between the c-spine and mandible position, the mandible image registration results were subtracted from the c-spine image registration results. To evaluate whether the initial difference between the planning CT and the first kV setup image is larger than subsequent daily imaging variations, the difference in the image registration of the DRR was compared to the variation in subsequent image registrations. The degree of neck flexion was determined by observing the amount of mismatch between the upper and lower cervical spine after the pitch correction.

RESULTS
During the first weeks of treatment, there was minimal difference in the image registration results for both the c-spine and mandible individually, and in the relative difference between them. For neck flexion, the Mayo Mold system demonstrated 82.6% minimal difference and 3.8% significant difference between the alignment of upper and lower c spine, vs. 84% and 5.2% for the S frame. For some patients, there is a greater difference between the DRR and the initial kV image registration than the variation in registrations for subsequent daily imaging.

CONCLUSIONS
Preliminary results indicate minimal difference in the c-spine and mandible reproducibility between the two immobilization systems during the first weeks of treatment. Further analysis of whether this minimal difference remains consistent throughout the entire course and treatment and with greater number of patients is needed.


Psychopathy is a severe personality disorder. Despite results indicating that extraversion and agreeableness are two markers of the big five as its predictors, evidence in Brazil are limited. Therefore, this study aimed to know whether normal personality (non-psychotic) factors predict the three phenotypes evaluated by the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM). Participants were 228 undergraduate students from Joao Pessoa (PB), with mean age of 25.1 years, mostly were female (76%). They answered the TriPM, the Big Five Inventory, and demographic questions. Results indicated that the factors extraversion, openness to experience and agreeableness predicted psychopathy, which corroborated previous studies. These findings are discussed on the basis of the big five model in order to understand this socially deviant trait, in which the lack of affection and the manipulative behavior are central features.


Fused silica surface structuring has been performed using temporally shaped femtosecond laser pulses. For this purpose we have designed pulse bursts with a triangular intensity envelope and different slope sign and interpulse separation that were experimentally generated using a home-made temporal pulse shaper. We have found that pulse bursts with decreasing intensity envelopes are remarkably more efficient in terms of surface ablation than bursts with increasing intensity envelopes. The results reveal that laser energy coupling in the material is enhanced as the interpulse spacing decreases. A study of the ablation depth using stretched single pulses was carried out and compared to results obtained for pulse bursts with different interpulse spacing. We find that the deepest crater was achieved with bursts of 0.5 ps interpulse separation and decreasing envelope. This pulse form also induced the largest change of the surface reflectivity after irradiation. The results are discussed in terms of how the laser energy coupling efficiency is linked to the temporal pulse shape.


Astronomical images obtained with adaptive optics systems can be enhanced by using image restoration techniques. However, this usually requires an accurate knowledge of the system point-spread function (PSF) which is variable in time. We present a method to estimate the PSF related to each image, using data from the adaptive optics control computer, namely, the wave-front sensor measurements and the commands to the deformable mirror, accumulated in synchronization with the acquisition. This method requires no extra observing time and has been successfully tested on PUEO, the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope adaptive optics system. With this system, accurate PSF estimations could be achieved for guide stars of magnitude 13 or brighter.


The recent growth of interest in heritage events has relied implicitly upon a modernist ontology in the way assumptions are made about the distinctiveness between visitor and performer identities. This article questions these assumptions through an analysis of the different groups of social actors attracted to war‐weekends organised through preserved steam railways. War‐weekends bring together in the same locality visitors, volunteers, performers, dressers‐up and re‐enactors sharing stories, enjoying the present and reflecting on the past—experiences in which each individual's participation is enhanced. Although these and other 'events' are crucial to the continued existence of preserved railways in the UK they provide the participants with more than just a nostalgic trip back to the community spirit articulated through the so‐called 'blitz mentality' of the 1940s. They provide the opportunity for participants to engage both in the theatrical act of 'being on'; of being observed by the 'audience' whilst at the same time acting as audience in the way they observe the other participants in the spectacle. The participants' need to be observed is accomplished without the necessity of engaging in the rigorous training and audition processes associated with formal theatrical environments, whilst audience participation and interaction is not constrained by the usual formalities of traditional theatre.


Nursing is an emotionally demanding and a highly stressful profession as nurses has to deal with different people, in various situations and different times of the day. During their everyday work, they have to cope with extremely emotionally charged and rapidly changing circumstances. It is a universally accepted fact that human nature is prone to wears and tears associated with daily activities. These manifest in the form of stress and strains as witnessed in everyday life. Nurses and other healthcare professionals are exposed on daily basis to different levels of stress and burnout arising from the demand for their jobs. To explore the coping strategies of nursing student against clinical and academic stress. A quantitative, descriptive cross-sectional study design was used to explore coping strategies of nursing students against academic and clinical stress at public hospital Lahore. The instrument use for the data collection was adopted questioner and convenient sampling technique was used. The mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level. It is observed that academic and clinical stress sources and coping mechanisms are statistically significant, as p-value < 0.05. The present study was considered as a cornerstone that gives strong support towards coping strategies of nursing student against academic and clinical stress. It highlighted there are number of clinical and academic stress that hinder good performance of student. These results substantiate the belief that aspects of the practice environment affect student nurse academic performance and most importantly, the quality of care delivered on clinical placement to the patient.Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 5, Issue-3: 209-218


Problem statement: Anaerobic digestion was a biological method used to convert organic wastes into biogas and a stable product for land application without adverse environmental effects. The biogas produced could be used as an alternative renewable energy source. The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of total solid contents on biogas yield from cattle manure using fluid rumen inoculums. Approach: A series of laboratory experiments using 400 mL biodigester were performed in batch operation mode. Given 100 g of fresh cattle manure was fed to each biodigester and mixed with fixed 50 mL of rumen fluid and different volumes of tap water resulting six different Total Solid (TS) contents i.e., 2.6, 4.6, 6.2, 7.4, 9.2, 12.3 and 18.4%. Results: The results showed that the best performance for biogas production was the digester with 7.4 and 9.2% of total solid i.e., gave biogas yield 184.09 and 186.28 mL gVS1, respectively after 90 days observation. While the other TSs content of 2.6, 4.6, 6.2, 12.3 and 18.4% gave the biogas yield 115.78, 122.33, 172.34, 137.99 and 54.87 mL gVS1, respectively. Conclusion: These results suggested that, based on TS content effects to biogas yield, rumen fluid inoculum exhibit the similar effect with other inoculums. In all cases, there was no variation of pH, fat, protein and ash content in sludge after digestion at several variation of pH. During digesting, pH tends to increase to neutral pH i.e., optimum pH for methanogenic bacteria. The effect of rumen fluid concentration to biogas production will need to be studied in the next step
research.


Acute respiratory failure is one of the major causes for concern in intensive care units (ICU). It is a condition that occurs when fluid builds up in the air sacs in the lungs. When this happens the lungs cannot release oxygen into the blood and get rid of carbon dioxide from the body. The lack of oxygen in the blood will cause the organs to malfunction and in severe cases could lead to failure of vital organs such as heart and brain. Patients with acute respiratory failure are usually supported by the mechanical ventilator. The goal of mechanical ventilation is to ensure adequate ventilation, which involves a magnitude of gas exchange that leads to the desired blood level of carbon dioxide, and adequate oxygenation, which involves a blood concentration of oxygen that will ensure proper function of vital organs. A plausible reference lung volume pattern, which corresponds to an optimal patient outcome, is specified by clinical personnel and the task of automated mechanical ventilation is to apply appropriate input pressure so that the output from the system is able to track the given reference voulme pattern. One of the main challenges in mechanical ventilation that needs to be carefully considered is that the applied pressure cannot be arbitrarily large since large applied pressure could potentially damage the lungs, and hence, worsen patients outcome. Another challenge in designing an efficient control algorithm for mechanical ventilation is that the parameters characterizing the dynamics of the lungs, that is, the lung resistances and lung compliances, vary from patient to patient as well as within the same patient under different conditions. Furthermore, the volume of each compartment of the lungs cannot be directly measured and only the total volume of the lungs is available. Therefore, a robust control methodology, which only uses output information and limited applied pressure, is needed in order to design an efficient control algorithm for automated mechanical ventilation. In this research work, we propose an output-feedback sliding mode control methodology for a nonlinear multicompartment respiratory system with amplitude and integral input constraints. The amplitude input constraint is needed to ensure that the applied pressure is not too large, as not to damage the lungs, while the integral input constraint enforces the upper bound on the amount of work done by the ventilator. The proposed controller only uses output information (i.e., the total volume of the lungs) and automatically adjusts the applied input pressure so that the system is able to track a given reference volume pattern in the presence of parameter uncertainty (i.e., modeling uncertainty of the lung resistances and lung compliances) and system disturbances. A Lyapunov-based approach is presented for the stability analysis of the system and the proposed control framework is applied to a two compartment lung model to show the efficacy of the proposed control method.


Children occupy a unique position in our public systems. Once treated as miniature adults, our perception of young people's innocence and ongoing development has led, over time, to granting children leniency when determining the consequences of their behavior. The special legal status bestowed on youth, in particular, is based on a well-established understanding of children's social and psychological development — that they should be held less responsible and culpable for their actions, and that they are capable, through the ongoing developmental process, of rehabilitation. These foundational legal and moral principles protect children from criminalization and extend safeguards that shield them from the harsh penalties levied on adults.
To date, limited quantitative research has assessed the existence of adultification for Black girls — that is, the extent to which race and gender, taken together, influence our perception of Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers. This groundbreaking study provides — for the first time — data showing that adults view Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers, especially in the age range of 5-14.
In light of proven disparities in school discipline, we suggest that the perception of Black girls as less innocent may contribute to harsher punishment by educators and school resource officers. Furthermore, the view that Black girls need less nurturing, protection, and support and are more independent may translate into fewer leadership and mentorship opportunities in schools. Given established discrepancies in law enforcement and juvenile court practices that disproportionately affect Black girls, the perception of Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like may contribute to more punitive exercise of discretion by those in positions of authority, greater use of force, and harsher penalties.


Four RPA scenarios corresponding with scenarios from the Third and Fourth Assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were simulated with the Global Forest Products Model to project forest area, volume, products demand and supply, international trade, prices, and value added up to 2060 for Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America, and selected countries. Scenario A1B presents a 5.5-fold increase in world fuelwood use that leads to high prices of fuelwood and industrial roundwood, driven by especially strong demand in Asia for large imports from South America and Europe. World roundwood consumption reaches 11.2 billion m3 in 2060, exceeding the increment of forests, particularly in Asia. Even under scenarios A2 and B2, the harvest in Asia is unsustainable. However, scenario A1B and a low fuelwood demand lead to a global harvest of 3.6 billion m3 only and to a sustainable forest volume. The world consumption of manufactured wood products grows modestly under most scenarios, with slight changes in prices. Consumption and value added in industries increases more rapidly in Asia, due to the fast economic growth of China and India in all scenarios. As a result, Asia is a large importer of industrial roundwood from South America and Europe and of paper and paperboard from Europe and North America.


Public debts in the euro area have increased sharply due to the economic crisis, and remain at historically high levels in several countries. In a monetary union, high-debt members represent a permanent threat to financial stability, as they are subject – even if fundamentally solvent – to significant rollover risk. Given the tight financial and economic links between member states, a liquidity crisis in one of them would trigger area-wide turmoil. While prudent fiscal policies are essential to address the legacy debt problem, it takes time for them to bring the debt back to (at least) pre-crisis levels. Against this background, the paper explores the feasibility and desirability of transferring a share of national public debts to a European Redemption Fund. In exchange, each country would transfer a yearly flow of resources to the Fund. We show that it is possible to design such a scheme so that it does not entail any ex-ante cross-country redistribution, while the euro area as a whole would benefit as the lowering of member states' annual refinancing needs would improve financial stability. The fraction of mutualized debt would be fully redeemed over a reasonable number of years. The scheme would not jeopardize national commitment to debt reduction; if anything, market discipline would become more effective at the margin.


This paper explores the consequences of pension reforms in Western Europe in a world economy setting. Whereas various economic and social consequences of population ageing have been investigated in OECD countries, very few analyses have explicitly taken the worldwide aspect of the problem into account. In order to do so, this report relies on the latest version of the INGENUE World Model (2). This applied, international, overlapping-generations, general-equilibrium model of the world economy has been built specifically to analyse the international capital flows and growth dynamics induced by the different degrees of population ageing taking place in the various regions of the world. After a description of the major features of the baseline scenario of the model for the world economy over the next 50 years, the authors explore the domestic and international macroeconomic consequences of two scenarios of pension reform in Western Europe as well as their intergenerational distributional effects. These scenarios are then compared with a specific migration scenario, making use of the new features of the INGENUE 2 model.


In Twombly v. Bell Atlantic Corp., 550 U.S. 644 (2007), and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 129 S. Ct. 1937 (2009), the Supreme Court introduced a new plausibility pleading standard, abrogating well-established precedent. Under this standard, a plaintiff must now allege enough facts in the complaint to state a plausible claim to relief. Twombly and Iqbal transformed civil procedure law, and both the courts and litigants have struggled with its meaning. One area that has been dramatically affected by these recent decisions is the field of workplace discrimination. There are two types of employment discrimination claims – intentional (or disparate treatment) and unintentional (or disparate impact) discrimination. The academic scholarship is replete with discussions of the problems that the plausibility standard has created for victims alleging disparate treatment claims. Discriminatory intent is difficult to establish, and this is particularly true where a plaintiff has not had access to discovery. One area that has remained unexplored in the academic literature, however, is the effect of Twombly and Iqbal on disparate impact cases. This Article seeks to fill that void in the scholarship. This paper closely examines the two most likely approaches for applying the plausibility standard to unintentional discrimination claims. This paper offers an analytical framework for considering these claims under either standard, and explains why a more streamlined approach to the Supreme Court's recent decisions is preferable. Navigating Twombly, Iqbal and other Supreme Court decisions, this paper explains how the plausibility standard should be applied to unintentional discrimination cases. This Article provides a blueprint for the courts and litigants to follow when considering a disparate impact claim, and addresses the implications of adopting the proposed approach. Twombly and Iqbal represent a sea change for workplace plaintiffs, and this Article attempts – for the first time – to make sense of these decisions in one of the most complex areas of employment discrimination law.


Objective Patients with craniopharyngioma (CP) frequently suffer from morbid obesity. Endocannabinoids (ECs) are involved in weight gain and rewarding behavior but have not been investigated in this context. Design Cross-sectional single-center study. Methods Eighteen patients with CP and 16 age- and sex-matched controls were included. Differences in endocannabinoids (2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) and N-arachidonoylethanolamine (AEA)) and endocannabinoid-like molecules (oleoyl ethanolamide (OEA), palmitoyl ethanolamide (PEA), and arachidonic acid (AA) were measured at baseline and following endurance exercise. We further explored ECs-dynamics in relation to markers of HPA-axis activity (ACTH, cortisol, copeptin) and hypothalamic damage. Results Under resting conditions, independent of differences in BMI, 2-AG levels were more than twice as high in CP patients compared to controls. In contrast, 2-AG and OEA level increased in response to exercise in controls but not in CP patients, while AEA levels decreased in controls. As expected, exercise increased ACTH and copeptin levels in controls only. In a mixed model analysis across time and group, HPA measures did not provide additional information for explaining differences in 2-AG levels. However, AEA levels were negatively influenced by ACTH and copeptin levels, while OEA levels were negatively predicted by copeptin levels only. There were no significant differences in endocannabinoids depending on hypothalamic involvement. Conclusion Patients with CP show signs of a dysregulated endocannabinoid system under resting conditions as well as following exercise in comparison to healthy controls. Increased 2-AG levels under resting conditions and the missing response to physical activity could contribute to the metabolic phenotype of CP patients.


We hypothesized that the store operated calcium entry (SOCE) channel, Orai1, participates in the activation of T-helper (Th17) cells and influences renal injury. In rats following renal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R), there was a rapid and sustained influx of Orai1+ CD4 T-cells and IL17 expression was restricted to Orai1-positive cells. When kidney CD4+ cells of post-AKI rats were stimulated with angiotensin II and elevated Na+ (10-7M/170 mM) in vitro, there was an enhanced response in intracellular Ca2+ and IL17 expression, which was blocked by SOCE inhibitors 2APB, YM58483/BTP2, or AnCoA4. In vivo, YM58343/BTP2 (1 mg ∙ kg-1) attenuated IL17+ cell activation, inflammation and severity of AKI following either I/R or intramuscular glycerol injection. Rats treated with high-salt diet (5-9 weeks post I/R) manifested progressive disease indicated by enhanced inflammation, fibrosis and impaired renal function. These responses were significantly attenuated by YM58343/BTP2. In peripheral blood of critically ill patients, Orai1+ cells were significantly elevated by ~10-fold and Th17 cells were elevated by ~4 fold in AKI vs non-AKI patients. Further, in vitro stimulation of CD4+ cells from AKI patients increased IL17, which was blocked by SOCE inhibitors. These data suggest that Orai1 SOCE is a potential therapeutic target in AKI and CKD progression.


Investment banking taken generally to mean the financing of long-term capital needs, came into being with the merchants of medieval trade routes. In almost all developed economies of the world, even those developing late in the 19th century, investment bankers emerged from merchant roots. The provision of investment banking services has come from a variety of institutions over time and across countries. Products and services have evolved to include complex, often derivative, securities; and the legal regulation of investment banking has often changed abruptly, particularly in the last 100 years. Thus, even well-known investment banking names that have endured over the centuries bear little resemblance to their ancestors.


An electrically-operated fish feed pelletizer was designed, fabricated and tested. The machine was incorporated with an easily detachable die plates capable of extruding different sized feed. Performance evaluation of the machine was carried out using a non-conventional feed resources of fermented citrus and plantain peels each formulated with fish feed constituents such as fish oil and groundnut cake prepared at a moisture content of 20% wet basis. The performance indices considered in the evaluation of the pelletizer were pelleting efficiency, percentage recovery and percentage of unpelleted feed. Results obtained when 250 g of formulated feed was introduced into the pelletizer showed an higher pelleting efficiency (91.50%), percentage recovery (73.20%) and a lower percentage of unpelleted feed (26.81%) when die plate having screen size of 5 mm holes was used. Evaluation using die plate having 3 mm holes showed that the average values for pelleting efficiency, percentage recovery, and percentage unpelleted feed were 82.09, 65.67 and 35.73% respectively. Statistical analysis of the performance indices with respect to the 3 mm and 5 mm die sizes showed that performance indices had significant difference on formulated feed having fermented citrus peel while not statistically significant for feed formulated with fermented plantain peel at p < 0.05.


Purpose: The accuracy of respiratory gated radiation therapy (RGRT) depends on the respiratory regularity because external respiratory signals are used for gating the radiation beam at particular phases. Many studies have applied a respiratory guiding system to improve the respiratory regularity. This study aims to evaluate the effect of an in‐house developed respiratory guiding system to improve the respiratory regularity for RGRT. Methods: To verify the effectiveness of this system, respiratory signals were acquired from 5 volunteers. The improvement in respiratory regularity was analyzed by comparing the standard deviations of amplitudes and periods between free and guided breathing. The reduction in residual motion at each phase was analyzed by comparing the standard deviations of sorted data within each corresponding phase bin as obtained from free and guided breathing. Results: The results indicate that the respiratory guiding system improves the respiratory regularity, and most volunteers show significantly lesser average residual motion at each phase. The average residual motion measured at phases of 40, 50, and 60%, which showed lower variation than other phases, were respectively reduced by 41, 45, and 44% during guided breathing. Conclusion: The results show that the accuracy of RGRT could be improved using the in‐house developed respiratory guiding system. Furthermore, this system should reduce artifacts caused by respiratory motion in 4D CT imaging. This program was supported by the program of Basic Atomic Energy Research Institute (BAERI) which is a part of the Nuclear R and D programs (No. 20120004886) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) and a grant (2012‐007883) from the Mid‐career Researcher Programfunded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) and Leading Foreign Research Institute Recruitment Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF)(Grant No.2009‐00420) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science & Technology (MEST) of Korea.


To deal with difficulties in accessing care that arise in the context of cost recovery programs, many African countries are now implementing user fee exemption policies for certain vulnerable population groups. Based on a study of public policies and socio-anthropological fieldwork, this article presents a comparative analysis of the situation in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which have chosen to apply relatively different exemption measures. However, the problems encountered in the design and implementation of these policies are very similar. Exemption measures are often adopted on the basis of a mix of internal political calculations and external pressures. Due to the lack of preparation, communication, effective management and most of all, adequate funding, the operation of measures is chaotic and inconsistent in most cases. Many unexpected effects were revealed by the research, notably the fact that quality of care is far from reliable due to shortages in supplies.


Using a coupled ice/ocean model, an impact study on the influence of increased west- erly winds in the North Sea and Baltic Sea due to strengthening of the polar front was carried out, as part of the German research project KLINO (Modelling inter-annual variability of hydrographic conditions in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea). By means of a simple sensitivity experiment it could be shown that the impact of a positive westerly wind anomaly (i.e. high North Atlantic Oscillation Index, NAO) results in an intensification of the cyclonic circulation in both the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. However, the impact on salt exchange and content is opposite for the 2 shelf seas: exchange between the North Sea and the North Atlantic increases with intensified westerly wind forcing and thus the North Sea salt content increases; for the Baltic Sea, the intensification of west- erly winds inhibits exchange with the Kattegat. In combination with the increased doming of the lower layer (i.e. saltier) water in the center of the cyclonic eddies, and thus intensified vertical mixing, an overall decrease of salt content in the Baltic Sea and an erosion of the permanent halocline result. Thus, as it is expected that future climate, under the influence of increased atmospheric CO2 con- centration, will lead to an intensification of the NAO, it was concluded that expected anthropogenic climate change will result in a weakening of haline stratification and a decrease in the salt content of the Baltic Sea.


The knowledge of workload fluctuations is fundamental in all performance studies in which the dynantic characteristics of the resource demands must be taken into account. Among the several workload data sequences that may be considered, the arrival pattern of workload components is certainly one of the most important. An approach to the identification of the arrival rate functions through a numerical fitting technique that allows one to have concise representations of the arrival patterns during one-day periods is presented. The variability of the arrival pattern over different days is also investigated. The patterns which may be considered as "representatives" of the analyzed workload are found through the application of the clustering technique. The parametric model of the arrival process may easily be used to forecast the load of the system in the near future or to drive system simulations when several dynamic control policies are to be investigated. The proposed modeling approach has been validated, in the sense of establishing its predictive value, through the analysis of workload data for the same installation collected during different periods.


Mirrors dating from Egypt's New Kingdom, circa 1300 B.C., through the Art Nouveau movement at the beginning of the twentieth century A.D. are arranged in chronological groups to demonstrate the gradual development of artistic styles. The rich history of glass production in Europe directly influenced interior design in general and mirror designs in particular. Here are European, English and American examples from common as well as Royal households. The author has included reproductions of period paintings of room interiors which display mirrors in their normal surroundings in taverns, bedrooms, dressing rooms and reception rooms alike. There are 16 color and 660 black and white photographs and many engraved drawings.


We have developed a new rapid cell‐free assay for endocytic clathrin‐coated vesicle formation using highly purified rat liver plasma membrane sheets. After incubation in the presence of cytosol and nucleotides, released vesicles were collected by high‐speed centrifugation and incorporated cargo receptors were detected by Western blotting. Three different cargo receptors were internalized into vesicles while a receptor, known to be excluded from coated pits, was not. The recruitment of cargo receptors into the vesicle fraction was cytosol, ATP and temperature‐dependent and was enhanced by addition of GTP. Vesicle formation in this assay was confirmed by subcellular fractionation and EM analysis. Plasma membranes stripped of their endogenous coat proteins with 0.5 m Tris retained vesicle formation activity, which was highly dependent on clathrin and dynamin. Coat proteins and dynamin were not sufficient for clathrin‐coated vesicle formation, and other peripheral membrane proteins recruited from the cytosol are required. The nonhydrolyzable ATP analogue, AMPPNP did not support clathrin‐coated vesicle formation; however, surprisingly, GTPγS was as effective as GTP. This assay will provide a powerful tool to dissect the minimum machinery and to probe the hierarchy of events involved in cargo selection and endocytic clathrin‐coated vesicle formation.


This report analyses key job quality indicators, devoting particular attention to informality, underemployment and temporary employment. It also takes stock of structural sectoral shifts and ageing, two long-term trends likely to add further pressures on the labour market. Key findings include: (1) global economic growth has rebounded and is expected to remain stable but low; (2) global unemployment remains elevated at more than 190 million; (3) vulnerable employment is on the rise; (4) the pace of working poverty reduction is slowing; (5) significant variations in employment outcomes continue to exist between regions and countries; (6) inequalities in labour market outcomes persist; (7) looking ahead, the projected structural shifts to the service sector could create complex pressures on job quality; and (8) an ageing population will add further pressure to future labour market challenges.


Securitization is the process whereby financial assets are pooled together, with their cash flows, and sold to a specially created third party that has borrowed money to finance the purchase. The borrowed funds are raised through the sale of securities, in the form of debt instruments, into the market. Securitization is thus a technique used to transform illiquid assets into securities. Securitization creates value by increasing liquidity and funding, reducing the cost of funding, allowing originators to reach a funding sources diversification, improving originators' risk management, increasing the segmentation between the origination and investment functions, and allowing originators to benefit from regulatory (and/or tax) arbitrage and to improve key financial ratios. Although the economic advantages, securitization also has problems, especially when used inappropriately. Considering the important role played by securitization in the development and propagation of the 2007/2008 financial crisis, the most commonly referred problems of securitization are complexity, off-balance sheet treatment, asymmetric information problems, agency problems, and higher transaction costs. Besides describing the economic motivations and problems of securitization, this paper provides details on asset securitization characteristics and players, presents the recent trends of securitization markets, describes the role played by securitization in the 2007/2008 financial crisis, and provides some statistics of asset securitization activity in Western Europe between 2000 and 2013.


Background Little is known about injury patterns in women's rugby sevens. Objective To investigate the incidence of match and training injuries sustained by elite female rugby sevens players during preparation for and during the world cup. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting England Women's Rugby Sevens World Cup Squad. Participants 17 members of the England Women's Rugby Sevens World Cup training squad. Independent variables Match and training exposure. Main outcome measurements: Match and training injury incidence and severity. Results 34 time-loss injuries (12 match and 22 training) were recorded during 2308 hours of exposure (64 hours match-play and 2244 hours training). Match and training injury incidence rates were 187/1000 hours (95% CI: 106-330) and 10/1000 hours (95% CI: 7–15), respectively. Mean severity of match injuries was 33 days (median=14 days), and 40 days (median=15 days) for training injuries. Typically, match injuries were acute onset (10 out of 12 injuries; 83%) and occurred during contact (8 out of 12; 67%). In contrast, 15 out of 22 (68%) training injuries were non-contact with an associated injury burden of 369 days absence per 1000 training hours. Over two thirds of these non-contact injuries were associated with running and the remainder recorded as chronic injuries. Conclusions Match injury incidence in this small cohort was higher than in women's 15s (36/1000 hours) (Taylor et al., 2011) and in men's sevens (106/1000 hours) (Fuller et al., 2010). In addition, training injury incidence rate is much higher than has been reported previously. Given that a total of 827 days were lost to non-contact training injuries, a specific focus on injury reduction in this context could have a major impact on player availability.


Among new energy systems, fuel cells are electrochemical devices transforming chemical energy directly into electrical energy. In our previous works, MWCNTs (the multi walled carbon nanotubes) supported palladium anodic electrocatalysts for DFAFCs (direct formic acid fuel cells) have been studied. MWCNTs can be modified by appropriate oxides, for example, cerium oxide, zirconium oxide and N-doped titanium dioxide, to enhance the electrocatalytic performance of the catalysts. But the oxides and the defects of the acid oxidized MWCNTs, denoted as AO-MWCNTs, can cause the electron capture and reduce both the catalyst conductivity and the catalysts activity. In order to improve the conductive properties of the support, in the present work a conductive polymer was introduced to modify the surface of carbon nanotubes. PANI (polyaniline) has a long-chain structure and conjugated structure and exhibits good conductivity, high stability, and is non-toxic. After PANI modification, AO-MWCNTs can provide efficient electronic conduction network. In this study, PANI modified AO-MWCNTs were prepared via polymerization process. AO-MWCNTs were homogeneously coated with PANI to obtain composite with weight ratio 50:50 PANI to MWCNTs. The thickness of the PANI layer was 4-9 nm. It was shown that the photosynthesis process is a better method to reduce Pd on PANI/AO-MWCNTs than by using NaBH4. By adjusting pH value to 9, during preparation of Pd/PANI/AO-MWCNTs composites by X-ray irradiation process, smaller Pd particles were obtained and PANI deprotonation was avoided which explains better activity of this composite in formic acid electro oxidation.


Given a compact set K in an open set D on a Stein manifold Ω of dimension n, the set A[D,K] of all restriction of functions to K, analytic in D with absolute value bounded by 1 is a compact subset of C(K). The problem on the strict asymptotics for Kolmogorov diameters (widths):
ln di(A[D,K]) ~ -σi[1/n],i —> ∞
was stated by Kolmogorov in an equivalent formulation for e-entropy of that set. For n = 1, this problem is solved by efforts of many authors (Erokhin, Babenko, Zahariuta, Levin-Tikhomirov, Widom, Nguyen, Skiba - Zahariuta, Fisher-Mic-cheli, et al) with σ = 1/τ where τ(K,D) := 1/2π ∫∆w (∆w is a positive measure supported on K).
For n > 1 Zakharyuta conjectured that for "good" pairs (K, D) such an asymptotics holds with σ = 2π (n!/C(K,D))[1/n] where C(K,D) is the pluricapacity of the pairs (K, D) introduced by Bedford-Taylor [3]. In [31,35] Zakharyuta reduced this problem to a problem of pluripotential theory about approximating w(K, D; z) — 1 on any compact subset of D \ K by pluricomplex Green functions on D. The latter problem which is known as Zakharyuta's conjecture has been solved by Nivoche [23] and Poletsky [25]. In this thesis we give the detailed proofs of Zakharyuta's reduction of Kolmogorov problem to his conjecture and the Nivoche-Poletsky result.