A 65-year-old man presented with apparent bronchopneumonia. After treatment with antibiotics, he showed eosinophilia. Computed tomography (CT) imaging revealed bilateral consolidation, ground-glass opacities with nodular consolidations and pleural effusion. Lung biopsy showed organizing pneumonia with lymphoplasmacytic infiltration in alveolar septa and in thickened pleura and interlobular septa. All pulmonary abnormalities spontaneously went into remission within 12-months. At 73 years old, a follow-up CT scan revealed small nodules in both lungs and the review of head CT scan showed thickening of pituitary stalk in studying prolonged headache. Two years later, he visited hospital complaining severe edema on the lower extremities with high serum IgG4 186mg/dL. Whole-body CT scan showed retroperitoneal mass surrounding aortic bifurcation and compressing inferior vena cava, pituitary stalk thickening and gland swelling, and enlarged pulmonary nodules. Anterior pituitary stimulation tests showed central hypothyroidism, central hypogonadism and adult growth hormone deficiency with partial primary hypoadrenocorticism. Retroperitoneal mass biopsy showed storiform fibrosis and obliterative phlebitis with marked lymphoplasmacytic infiltration with moderate IgG4-positivity. Immunostaining of the former lung specimen revealed dense interstitial infiltration of IgG4-positive cells. These findings indicated metachronous development of IgG4-related disease in lung, hypophysis and retroperitoneum, according to the recent comprehensive diagnostic criteria of IgG4-related disease. Glucocorticoid therapy ameliorated edema, on the other hand, unmasked partial diabetes insipidus at the initial dose of the treatment. Hypothyroidism and retroperitoneal mass regressed at 6-months of the treatment. This case warns us that long-term follow-up from prodromal to remission is necessary in the treatment of IgG4-related disease.


Introduction: Reduction in blood sugar and prolong the duration of fasting in infants and children's surgery have many damages. The aim of this study is to determine the affecting factors on the reduction of fasting blood sugar before an elective surgery for children. Methods: This study is a randomized single-blind clinical trial and examining the patients that are performed on 60 children for undergoing elective surgery and the effect of age variables and duration of fasting on fasting blood sugar before induction of anesthesia was reviewed. Children were divided into seven groups based on fasting duration and were divided into four groups based on the age. Clotted blood sugar levels before induction of anesthesia and injecting of serum were examined. The information was analyzed by using descriptive statistics and T-test with SPSS software. Results: The highest incidence of hypoglycemia (blood sugar of 59-50) was observed in children aged above 5 years (35.7%) and during the fasting hours more than 10.5 hours (40%). The impact of age and hours of fasting variables on blood sugar was statistically significant (P>0.0001). Conclusion: The causes of hypoglycemia are with increasing age, duration of fasting, likely less attention to children's clinical signs and hypoglycemia behavior, lack of adequate and proper fluids alternatives, giving lower risk and higher tolerance in older children to prolong fasting duration. It is recommended to prepare a checklist of clinical symptoms and behaviors in children and specified times before, during and after surgery shall be assessed and monitored. In addition, the fasting tolerance duration should be reviewed and new review and guide should be announced for the volume, type and duration of fluid intake before surgery in children. Obstacles to increase the waiting duration for patients' surgery must be reviewed and eliminated.


Based on theoretical reasoning and empirical evidence, the present study examined the unique and shared effects of attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and acculturation on attitudes toward seeking professional help among Latino college students. The research participants included 149 bilingual Latino college students from a large, public southwestern university. Results of a multiple regression analysis indicated that attachment avoidance was positively associated with both the recognition of need for psychological help and stigma of seeking professional help. Acculturation to American society was found to be statistically insignificant in predicting help-seeking attitudes in this sample of the population. Findings from exploratory questions suggested that Latino individuals would most likely seek help from parents, close friends, and then professionals. This study suggested that Latino individuals with high attachment avoidance acknowledge the potential benefit of professional help-seeking but distrust the process of approaching others for help. Limitations, implications, and future research directions will be discussed.


In this paper, a dedicated recursive least squares algorithm combining forgetting and weighted factors (FW-RLS) is proposed to identify parameters for the second-order K-T equation of marine robot in horizontal motion. First, the Abkowitz model in horizontal motion is converted into an equivalent second-order K-T equation to reduce the number of identification parameters. Second, a dedicated FW-RLS algorithm based on the equivalent second-order K-T equation is proposed. Finally, the superiority of the FW-RLS algorithm is verified by comparative numerical simulations, which show the FW-RLS algorithm has the online identification capability, higher identification accuracy, and faster convergence rate compared with the traditional batch least squares method.


The existence of partially coherent planar sources with different states of coherence that generate identical radiant intensity distributions after light goes through a general optical system has been investigated. The relationship that must be satisfied by the cross-spectral density functions of all such sources has been derived. A general procedure for obtaining the common part of these sources from measurable radiant intensity data is presented. Also, the possibility of the existence of planar sources producing both identical optical intensity distributions at the output plane of the system and the same radiant intensity in the far zone has been analyzed. The general functional relationship among the cross-spectral density functions of all these sources has been determined.


A number of studies have recently reported the bioaccumulation of the commonly used fire retardants, Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs), in humans and wildlife. Exposure of animals to PBDEs has been shown to result in developmental neurological, reproductive abnormalities and the disruption of endocrine function. Thyroid hormone equilibria was also shown to be altered by PBDE exposure. There is evidence that hydroxylated metabolites of PBDEs are directly involved in some of these adverse effects. Although metabolites of PBDEs have been isolated and characterized during in vivo studies, the identification of metabolites from an in vitro system has been problematic. We investigated the in vitro metabolism of four PBDEs, with varying numbers of bromine atoms, in rat and human liver microsomes. The addition of small amounts of a nonionic surfactant to the reaction mixture was necessary to obtain measurable amounts of metabolites due to the low aqueous solubility of the PBDEs. Using gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy, mono and/or dihydroxylated metabolites were identified from three of the four PBDEs with phenobarbitol- and β-naphthoflavone-induced rat liver microsomes. When using uninduced rat or human liver microsomes, metabolites were found with only one of the PBDEs. The ease of PBDE metabolism appears to be inversely related to the number of bromine atoms on the parent compound.


Peripheral nervous system involvement frequently occurs in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. However, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) is an unusual presentation that can develop before, after, or simultaneously with the onset of SLE. This paper reports the case of a 20-year-old man with diabetes mellitus (DM) and CIDP accompanied by SLE. The patient complained of progressive weakness in the bilateral upper and lower extremities that had begun 2 months prior to this visit. He was diagnosed with CIDP and treated with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), but had little improvement. A plasma exchange was then scheduled, but it was not helpful either. The patient developed polyarthritis, oral ulcer, and a worsening of his muscle weakness two weeks later. A neurologic examination revealed 3/5 muscle strength in the upper and lower extremities, absent deep tendon reflex (DTR), and impaired position sense. The patient was diagnosed with SLE because of pancytopenia, lymphopenia, pleuropericardial effusion, proteinuria, high titer anti-nuclear antibody (ANA), and anti-dsDNA. A kidney biopsy revealed stage IV lupus nephritis. The patient received 3 pulses of methyl prednisolone, 6 months of cyclophosphamide, and a high daily dose of prednisolone. His proteinuria improved, and he regained the ability to ambulate with a normal gait after about 2.5 months. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the concurrency of CIDP with SLE and DM has not been previously reported.


Photonic bandgap fibers which guide light in a hollow core are becoming directly competitive with conventional single-mode fibers for some applications. They have a very low nonlinearity, unusual dispersion, and high damage thresholds. We describe the current status of research into their properties, and their prospects for laser beam delivery.


The Arabidopsis ACCELERATED CELL DEATH 2 (ACD2) protein protects cells from programmed cell death (PCD) caused by endogenous porphyrin-related molecules like red chlorophyll catabolite or exogenous protoporphyrin IX. We previously found that during bacterial infection, ACD2, a chlorophyll breakdown enzyme, localizes to both chloroplasts and mitochondria in leaves. Additionally, acd2 cells show mitochondrial dysfunction. In plants with acd2 and ACD2 (+) sectors, ACD2 functions cell autonomously, implicating a pro-death ACD2 substrate as being cell non-autonomous in promoting the spread of PCD. ACD2 targeted solely to mitochondria can reduce the accumulation of an ACD2 substrate that originates in chloroplasts, indicating that ACD2 substrate molecules are likely to be mobile within cells. Two different light-dependent reactive oxygen bursts in mitochondria play prominent and causal roles in the acd2 PCD phenotype. Finally, ACD2 can complement acd2 when targeted to mitochondria or chloroplasts, respectively, as long as it is catalytically active: the ability to bind substrate is not sufficient for ACD2 to function in vitro or in vivo. Together, the data suggest that ACD2 localizes dynamically during infection to protect cells from pro-death mobile substrate molecules, some of which may originate in chloroplasts, but have major effects on mitochondria.


The study examined the relationship between counsellor- deliberate self-disclosure and therapy-seeking behaviours among undergraduate students in Kenyan universities. The Social Comparison Theory informed this study. The study utilized the convergent parallel mixed-methods design. A sample size of 352 students was obtained using stratified random sampling. The Deliberate Self-disclosure and Intentions to Seek Therapy Inventories. The internal validity of the constructs in the questionnaires was tested by subjecting the survey data to suitability tests using the Kaiser-Meyer-Oklin measure of sampling adequacy (KMO Index) and the Bartlett's Test of Sphericity. Cronbach's alpha coefficient analysis was used to investigate the internal consistency of the questionnaires. Quantitative data were analysed using inferential statistics in the Pearson Correlation coefficient and simple linear regression analysis, while qualitative data was analysed thematically. The findings indicated a weak but positive correlation between counsellors' deliberate self-disclosure and Therapy seeking behaviour (r=.140, n=352, p=008) among university students. The study recommends that university counsellors should be trained on the effective use of self-disclosure as a technique in therapy practice.


Combustion measurements, such as heat release rate, critical flux, time-to-ignition, ignition temperature, thermal inertia, and kinematics—activation energy as well as preexponential factor—on epoxy polymer (Prime™ 20LV) with expandable graphite (EG) inorganic filler of different weight percentage composites, are conducted using the Dual Cone Calorimeter, the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Linseis (Germany) THB100 Transient Hot Bridge thermal conductivity analyser. The results indicate that increasing the amount of EG in polymer composite leads to reduction in the critical flux, the time-to-ignition, the ignition temperature, the thermal inertia, the average thermal conductivity, and the activation energy (from 159.1 ± 2.3 to 145.9 ± 3.1 kJ/mol for neat epoxy to 3 wt.% EG-epoxy) of the composite samples. There is, however, an increase in the heat of gasification with increasing EG content.


Edward Said's last published work, which went to press weeks before his death in September 2003, was Humanism and Democratic Criticism (2004). I want to read this book not as the summation of Said's fifty years of engagement with literary and cultural studies and with the plight of the Palestinians but as an engagement with a problematic that has been at the centre of his writings, and by extension at the centre of Salman Rushdie's creative output. Said refers to the book (which began as lectures at Columbia and Cambridge) as his re-engagement with the 'relevance of humanism' at a time when the 'setting' of humanism is being dramatically transformed, especially in the wake of 9/11 since when, in one view, 'Islamist' extremism has confirmed the location of humanism only in the enlightened West where the practitioners of humanism feel that true humanism has been violated by unruly intruders with their 'disreputable modishness ... uncanonised learning'. This narrow affirmation of an exclusivist humanism is what Said sets out to challenge as he did in his 1978 masterpiece Orientalism. After examining an ambivalence, an 'increasingly global predicament' as James Clifford termed it, in that book between Said's commitment to humanism and the subject matter's antihumanism (Orientalism as discursive representation without agencies), something that Said himself has subsequently acknowledged, this paper looks at Salman Rushdie's engagement with Islam in the context of Said's own redefinition of humanism as a universal critical practice.


This study focuses on trust formation and development in global buyer-supplier relationships. Trust affects all business relationships, especially global business-to-business (B2B) transactions due to the distances between buyers and suppliers. We use information signaling theory to examine how information indices and signals affect buyers' trust in suppliers in global B2B commerce. Specifically, we examine how buyers' trust is affected by (1) their perceptions of the national integrity and legal structure of suppliers' country, and (2) third-party verifications of suppliers on B2B exchanges. Because buyer-supplier relationships usually evolve over time, we study how the effects of indices and signals change as the number of transactions between the partners increases. A survey of global organizational buyers finds that perceptions of national integrity, legal structure, and supplier verifications are all positively related to buyers' trust. However, the number of prior transactions between buyers and suppliers moderates the impact of perceived legal structure on buyers' trust.


Abstract Depending on the neutron energy used, neutron radiography can be generally categorized as fast and thermal neutron radiography. Fast neutron radiography (FNR) with neutron energy more than 1 MeV opens up a new range of possibilities for a non-destructive examination when the inspected object is thick or dense. Other traditional techniques, such as X-ray, gamma ray and thermal neutron radiography, do not meet penetration capabilities of FNR in this area. Because of these distinctive features, this technique is used in different industrial applications such as security (cargo investigation for contraband such as narcotics, explosives and illicit drugs), gas/liquid flow and mixing and radiography and tomography of encapsulated heavy shielded low Z compound materials. The FNR images are produced directly during exposure as neutrons create recoil protons, which activate a scintillator screen, allowing images to be collected with a computer-controlled charge-coupled device camera. Finally, the picture can be saved on a computer for image processing. The aim of this research was to set up a portable FN R system and to test it for use in non-destructive testing of different composite materials. Experiments were carried out by using a fast portative neutron generator Thermo Scientific MP 320.


The proposed study seeks to examine the determinants of participation of boys and girls in student leadership in mixed secondary schools in Laikipia East Constituency, Laikipia County of Kenya. This is because, while population by gender in these schools is almost equal; 55.4% boys and 44.6% girls, most leadership positions are held by boys. The above scenario poses possible challenges to the quest to have boys and girls enjoy equal opportunities in all spheres. If not addressed from all plausible angles, it may hinder any positive outcomes of a gender responsive society. The key aspects to be established by this study shall include; the exact ratio of boys and girls in student councils, characteristics considered in selection of student leaders, methods used in the selection and any effective strategies that may help in achieving parity in student representation in mixed secondary schools. The proposed study shall employ a descriptive survey design to collect primary and secondary data with the main instrument being the questionnaire backed up by interviews. The target population shall be all the twelve mixed secondary schools of which a 30% sample of four shall be picked using probability sampling methods. Data will be coded and later analyzed using SPSS 11.5 software. The anticipated results can be of help to school administrators, policy makers, education counselors and sociologists who are constantly making efforts to achieving a gender responsive society.


An academic and policy debate has been running in recent decades on whether and to what extent travel behaviour is influenced by the built environment. This dissertation addresses this influence on daily travel distance, chaining behaviour, car ownership, and car commuting. As cars are the dominant mode of transport, car travel received most attention. The analyses were based on a comprehensive dataset collected in the North Wing of the Randstad in the Netherlands. The study findings indicate that a more compact urban structure reduces car use. But the effects are small. One important lesson is that behavioural mechanisms are never simple but invariably elicit compensation. The challenge facing planners is to design cities and neighbourhoods that make it easier to drive less and are attractive to live in.


An endoscope capable of Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) imaging would be of significant clinical value for improving early detection of endoluminal cancers. However, developing this technology is challenging for many reasons. First, nonlinear imaging techniques such as CARS are single point measurements thus requiring fast scanning in a small footprint if video rate is to be achieved. Moreover, the intrinsic nonlinearity of this modality imposes several technical constraints and limitations, mainly related to pulse and beam distortions that occur within the optical fiber and the focusing objective. Here, we describe the design and report modeling results of a new CARS endoscope. The miniature microscope objective design and its anticipated performance are presented, along with its compatibility with a new spiral scanningfiber imaging technology developed at the University of Washington. This technology has ideal attributes for clinical use, with its small footprint, adjustable field-of-view and high spatial-resolution. This compact hybrid fiber-based endoscopic CARS imaging design is anticipated to have a wide clinical applicability.


Under intense scrutiny for safety and authenticity, our food supply encompasses probiotic supplementation, fermentation organisms, pathogenic bacteria, and microbial toxins—in short, the microbiome and metabolome of food. Recent claims regarding probiotic supplements, additives, and cultured foods highlight the need for widely accepted protocols for evidence-based oversight of such products, as well as specific methods to assess their safety and authenticity. Rapid improvements in high-throughput sequencing technologies, curated and annotated reference databases of whole genome sequences, bacterial strain banks, and novel informatics techniques coupled to a scalable computing platform are poised to provide a robust solution extendable to encompass systematic authentication of the microbiome and its variations up and down the supply chain. Members of the Sequence the Food Supply Chain Consortium are working to characterize and quantify the microbiome at a baseline and after processing. They are also working to create reference databases and develop a Metagenomics Computation and Analytics Workbench, capable of verifying the effectiveness of good manufacturing practices and monitoring control measures highlighted in a site's Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point plan. In this paper, we propose how microbial ecology, evolvability, and phylogenetic diversity exhort the application of new molecular techniques to assure safety, authenticity, and traceability for wholesome food.


Climate change mitigation is urgent, and adaptation to climate change is crucial, particularly in agriculture, where food security is at stake. Agriculture, currently responsible for 20-30% of global greenhouse gas emissions (counting direct and indirect agricultural emissions), can however contribute to both climate change mitigation and adaptation. The main mitigation potential lies in the capacity of agricultural soils to sequester CO2 through building organic matter. This potential can be realized by employing sustainable agricultural practices, such as those commonly found within organic farming systems. Examples of these practices are the use of organic fertilizers and crop rotations including legume leys and cover crops. Mitigation is also achieved in organic agriculture through the avoidance of open biomass burning, and the avoidance of synthetic fertilizers, the production of which causes emissions from fossil fuel use. , Andreas Gattinger1, Nic Lampkin3, Urs Niggli1 Common organic practices also contribute to adaptation. Building soil organic matter increases water retention capacity, and creates more stabile, fertile soils, thus reducing vulnerability to drought, extreme precipitation events, floods and water logging. Adaptation is further supported by increased agro-ecosystem diversity of organic farms, based on management decisions, reduced nitrogen inputs and the absence of chemical pesticides. The high diversity together with the lower input costs of organic agriculture is key to reducing production risks associated with extreme weather events. All these advantageous practices are not exclusive to organic agriculture. However, they are core parts of the organic production system, in contrast to most non-organic agriculture, where they play a minor role only. Mitigation in agriculture is however not restricted to the agricultural sector alone. Consumer preferences for products from conventional or organic farms, seasonal and local production, pest and disease resistant varieties, etc. strongly influence agricultural production systems, and thus the overall mitigation potential of agriculture. Even more influential are meat consumption and food wastage. Any discussion on mitigation of climate change in agriculture thus needs to address the entire food chain, and to be linked to general sustainable development strategies. The main challenges to dealing appropriately with the climate change mitigation and adaptation potential of organic agriculture, and agriculture in general, stem from a) insufficient understanding of some of the basic processes, such as the interaction of N2O emissions and soil carbon sequestration, contributions of roots to soil carbon sequestration, and the life-cycle emissions of organic fertilizers, such as compost; b) lack of procedures for emissions accounting which adequately represent agricultural production systems with multiple and diverse outputs, which also encompass ecosystem services; c) the problem to identify and design adequate policy frameworks for supporting mitigation and adaptation in agriculture, i.e. such that do not put systemic approaches at a disadvantage due to difficulties in the quantification of emissions, and in their allocation to single products; d) the necessity to assure that the current focus on mitigation does not lead to neglect of other factors influencing the sustainability of agriculture, such as pesticide loads, eutrophication, acidification or soil erosion; and e) the open questions, how to address consumer behaviour and how to further changes in consumption patterns, in order to utilize their mitigation potential.


Waste to energy is a promising way to ease the urban burden of waste treatment and hydrothermal carbonization (HC) can dewater the municipal wastes with high moisture efficiently with hydrochar left. The hydrochar with outstanding fuel characteristics can be used as fuel for incineration to generate power. To predict the fuel characteristics of hydrochar including the yield, higher heating value (HHV) and carbon content (C_char) based on the information of the wet municipal waste, machine learning methods have been explored in this work. Results show that the optimized Random Forest (80 trees with 10 maximum depths) has good multi-task prediction capability of fuel characteristics. The R for the predictions of the yield, HHV and C_char are 0.80, 0.91 and 0.95, respectively. Moreover, according to the feature importance analysis, the yield of hydrochar is mainly determined by the temperature and water content of HC, while the HHV and C_char are dominated by the carbon and ash content of the feedstock, respectively.


The proliferation of ubiquitous computing applications created a multi-dimensional optimization problem that includes several conflicting variables such as spectral efficiency, complexity, power consumption, delay, and error probability. To relax the problem and provide efficient solutions, it was necessary to augment the currently overutilized radio spectrum with new frequency bands such as the optical spectrum, which can be used to off-load some of the traffic of certain applications. Therefore, this paper presents an efficient system design that uses amplitude-coherent (AC) detection to reduce the complexity of optical wireless communication systems (OWC), improve its reliability and spectral efficiency. More specifically, we use amplitude shift keying with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) at the transmitter, and AC detection at the receiver. The complexity reduction is achieved by using a low complexity detector, channel estimator, and peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction scheme. The spectral efficiency is achieved by using real data symbols with discrete cosine transform (DCT), which requires a subcarrier spacing that is 50% of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT), and does not require Hermitian symmetry to generate real-valued OFDM signals. Moreover, the derived channel estimator is blind, and the PAPR reduction scheme does not require a feedback overhead between the transmitter and receiver.


Window Seat is an interactive furniture piece ("chairware") that acts as a control mechanism for viewing and navigating remote or non-existent locations, such as a scale model of a building or virtual world. We built a rocking chair as an interface that controls the two axes of movement of a pan and tilt camera. A video projector and mirror are mounted on the chair to display the remote interior space onto the wall in the front of the chair for a virtual space immersion experience.


Groundwater plumes containing volatile organic contaminants (VOCs) such as trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) remain a major groundwater remediation challenge at various industrial and governmental facilities, including the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS) located near Aiken, SC. In an effort to address such challenges, the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (SREL) working in collaboration with Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, LLC-Area Completion Projects (SRNS-ACP) and Redox Tech, Inc. conducted a field-scale technology demonstration to evaluate the utility of in situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) to address residual VOC contamination on the SRS. The chemical oxidant persulfate (S2O8) was chosen because of its limited hazard and extended persistence in the groundwater environment, an advantage in systems where effective contact between the oxidant and target compounds may be kinetically limited. Prior to designing the field demonstration, a series of laboratory batch experiments were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of various ISCO treatment scenarios under geochemical conditions representative of the SRS. The batch studies evaluated the effectiveness of persulfate and permanganate as oxidants in the presence and absence of various activating agents, including a strong base (i.e., NaOH), Fe(II), common Fe minerals, and Fe-oxide rich SRS sediments. Results indicated that base-activated persulfate was effective in destroying VOCs within two weeks both in the presence and absence of Fe-oxide rich SRS sediments. The ISCO demonstration site was located in an area of the SRS with an extensive VOC plume with TCE concentrations ranging from 10 to 40 mg L. The test site consisted of an injection well (IW) and three observation wells (OW1-OW3), with monitoring wells OW1 and OW2 screened at two depths within the contaminated aquifer. The persulfate reactant was injected intermittently over a ten day period as 10 oxidant batches (≈230 g Na2S2O8 L) totaling 4,800 gallons (18,168 L). After injection, the observation wells were sampled periodically with the pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and oxidation reduction potential (ORP) determined in the field, and samples were collected for VOC, persulfate, chloride (Cl), sulfate (SO4), and metals analyses. The current discussion will focus on the results from OW1 located closest ( ≈15 ft) to IW, the only observation well clearly impacted by persulfate injection. Quantifiable concentrations of persulfate were detected in OW1 approximately two weeks after injection, peaking at ≈ 150 mg L and then slowly decreasing over the 295 days of monitoring. Injectate breakthrough in OW1 was also evident in the EC and Na concentrations, with ORP increasing initially and then becoming more variable with continued monitoring. TCE and PCE concentrations in OW1 were much lower than observed in OW2 and OW3 throughout the duration of the study. Although some dilution is inherent in the in situ chemical treatment of aqueous phase contaminants, elevated concentrations of Cl and SO4 observed in OW1 are indicative of VOC destruction resulting from chemical oxidation. Subsequent laboratory experiments confirmed the somewhat limited mobility of persulfate in the SRS subsurface environment due to sorption in Fe-oxide rich materials, a factor that can in part account for low persulfate recoveries in the current study. However, some degree of reversible sorption combined with oxidant persistence can facilitate the remediation of aqueous-phase VOCs through the formation of a chemically reactive treatment zone. Furthermore, batch results confirmed the continued effectiveness of persulfate in degrading VOCs in the absence of an activating agent at the relatively low persulfate concentrations ( ≤ 192 mg L ) observed in OW1.


Fluid inclusion microthermometric analyses and O and C stable isotopic analyses of vein minerals are used to determine the chemistry and trapping conditions of fluids present in the central Appalachian fold-and-thrust belt during the late Paleozoic Alleghanian orogeny. The upper Paleozoic rock section contains three regional hydrostratigraphic systems based on fluid chemistry and temperature. The Ordovician Trenton Formation through the Devonian Helderberg Group was a regional aquitard and was dominated by high-salinity, CH 4 -saturated, in situ fluids. The Devonian Oriskany Formation through the lower portion of the Chemung Formation was a regional aquifer system and underwent an influx of warm migrating fluids. The upper portion of the Devonian Chemung through Pocono Formations was also a regional aquifer, but it was dominated by an influx of meteoric water that mixed with in situ fluids. The migrating fluid was a warm (160 to >220 °C) CH 4 -saturated NaCl-CaCl 2 brine that was stratigraphically restricted to the Oriskany Formation through the lower portion of the Chemung Formation, although there is evidence for infiltration into lower stratigraphic units. Two separate fluid migration events are recorded in the rocks. The first event is either late synfolding to postfolding, and the second event is postfolding. Approximately 2‐4 km of overburden were removed by erosion between the two migration events. The source of the warm migrating fluids is still unknown. However, the most likely source would be fluids that were tectonically driven through the fold-and-thrust belt by large-scale, out of sequence thrusting in the hinterland. The migrating fluids were transported far into the foreland where they may have been directly responsible for (1) flushing of hydrocarbons from the upper Paleozoic of the Valley and Ridge into the Plateau province and (2) elevated thermal maturation indicators in the Valley and Ridge and Plateau provinces.


SummaryIn this prospective study, abruptio placentae and associated haematological and nutritional factors were examined at three large university hospitals in Karachi from January 1990 to December 1992. The incidence of abruptio placentae was 5.0 per cent amongst poor uneducated women and 0.5 per cent amongst women of middle or high socio-economic class. Ninety-five patients with placental abruption who delivered at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Civil Hospital, Karachi, were compared with 150 controls matched for age and parity delivering over the same time. Antenatal anaemia (haemoglobin < 10 g/dl) was found in 67 cases (71 per cent) and 52 controls (33 per cent; P < 0.001). Iron deficiency anaemia predominated, with a strong association with placental abruption (P < 0.001). Protein deficiency was present in 47 per cent of cases and 24 per cent of controls (P < 0.05).


This paper investigates how layers of spiking neurons can be connected using lateral inhibition in different ways to bring about synchrony, reduce noise, and extract or enhance features. To illustrate the effects of the various connectivity regimes spectro-temporal speech data in the form of isolated digits is employed. The speech samples are preprocessed using the Lyon's Passive Ear cochlear model, and then encoded into tonotopically arranged spike arrays using the BSA spiker algorithm. The spike arrays are then subjected to various lateral inhibitory connectivity regimes configured by two connectivity parameters, namely connection length and neighbourhood size. The combination of these parameters are demonstrated to produce various effects such as transient synchrony, reduction of noisy spikes, and sharpening of spectro-temporal features.


Despite broad public concern with the effect of offshoring on inequality, there is scant research. The authors shift the focus to the effect of offshoring on the labour share in value added. Regression analysis for a sample of 14 OECD countries in 21 manufacturing sectors covering the period 1995 to 2008 reveals that the effects of offshoring on the labour share are negative. They also show that different policy regimes with regard to labour markets, education and innovation, and trade liberalisation mediate these effects whilst contrasting the experiences of Germany and the U.S. where the manufacturing labour share decline was particularly strong.


Many people operate under the assumption that Open/Closed access is a binary proposition. Either the material is available to everyone on the web or it is closed to a limited number of subscribers. The reality, however, is much more complicated. What is the use of a digital library, no matter how open, if it is unable to sustain and maintain itself over time? What is the point of a well funded collection that is closed to the people who need it most? There are in fact many models for maintaining both open and closed access digital libraries. Though the conversation often focuses on the furthest ends of the spectrum (greedy publishers extorting money to content, or, conversely, benevolent academics making knowledge freely available to the world via grants), there are in fact many models that are in between these extremes that exhibit characteristics of both closed and open access models. In particular, the Text Creation Partnership (TCP) tries to work with commercial publishers to create a middle road between these extremes. By investigating the many types of open and closed access models, and seeing how models like the TCP fit in this landscape, it is possible to make better determinations on how to build digital libraries in the future. How should the community come together to find a more moderate path, and what will that road look like?


Objective: There are various adverse drug reaction (ADR) associated with pharmacological therapy that differ in clinical presentation, prognosis and therapy. Among these, cutaneous eruptions are the most common type of all ADRs.Theclinical presentation of cutaneous drug eruptions ranges from common transient and benign erythema to the most severe forms such as Steven-Johnson syndrome (SJS), Toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN). Acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP) is a rare cutaneous drug reaction accounting for 1–5 cases/1,000,000 per year. Antibiotics like β‑lactams and macrolides are the usual offending agents. Among anticonvulsants-carbamazepine, phenobarbital and phenytoin are commonly associated with AGEP. Sodium valproate is relatively free from cutaneous drug reaction. Thus, we hereby, report a rare case of AGEP in a 24 years old male, reaction following valproate intake used to control post traumatic seizure. Key words: Acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis, Valproate, Adverse drug reaction.


Nation-building and the tasks of encouraging a sense of national identity and political community pose an immense challenge in Papua New Guinea (PNG). With over 830 languages, it is one of the most linguistically and ethnically diverse countries in the world. Since independence in 1975, PNG has experienced high levels of political instability with frequent changes of government and allegations of corruption. Local and traditional obligations to extended family and language groups frequently supersede allegiances to the nation-state. This paper examines the attitudes of tertiary students from the University of PNG to national identity and key issues of nation-building. These students are highly likely to feature strongly among the next generation of leaders. Findings highlight the importance of family, religion and maintaining traditional customs. They also illustrate the importance of geographical region and gender in explaining differences in key attitudes towards national identity.


In Japan, Guidelines for Disclosure of Intellectual Assets Based Management were issued in December 2005. These guidelines focused on the role of not only intellectual property (in Japan, ``Guideline for Intellectual Property Information Disclosure" was issued in January 2002, but only 22 firms complied with this guideline in 2006), but also intellectual assets management in the same points of view with MERITUM and Danish Guidelines. However Intellectual Assets Based Management Report (IABMR) was disclosed by only 11 firms in 2006. Therefore Ministry of Economic and Trade Industry in Japan has set to encourage the widespread use of the guidelines for better communication with financial institutions, especially for small- and medium-sized firm financing. Their efforts were effective, and these guidelines succeeded in being introduced as a communication tool of ``Action Program concerning the enhancement of Relationship Banking Functions" (2003) by Financial Service Agency in Japan. This paper reports the result of our questionnaire analysis to Japanese financial institutions. Our questionnaire is on how financial institutions use financial and non-financial information, and in which stage, of their credit rating and analysis. Our questionnaire includes 13 financial items as well as 54 non-financial items to compare these differences. It also includes 11 traditional non-financial items as well as 43 intellectual assets items to get a better understanding of which items are prospective to the prevalence IABMR. Our questionnaires were sent to all 575 financial institutions in Japan in May 2008. We received answers from 439 (76.3%). It has not been surveyed systematically at which stage of due diligence, nor to which degree, non-financial information is used so far, in Japan. Our paper is the first one to illustrate which non-financial information is prospective to credit rating and analysis in the view points not only of financial decisions, but also business support (business matching and business planning support, etc), which leads to future financing to the financial institutions. Firstly, it can be said that financial institutions are starting to recognize the increasing importance of non-financial information in general, though the level of importance varies between institutions. Almost half of financial institutions keep a record of non-financial information by using ``Customer management check-sheets" in their due diligence, and input it to ``Customer management support system" systematically. Non-financial information including business planning, business activities and conditions of the counter party, and intellectual assets, is accumulated and these data may be shared. Moreover shared information is being used at internal or external seminars or lectures to improve employee skills of credit rating and analysis. Secondly, the usage ratio of non-financial information vs. financial information is about 26% (within secondary regional banks, 23.8%; Mega banks, 27.5%; regional banks, 28.15%; credit banks, 28.0%; and credit unions, 28.9%). One credit union said that it has started to use more non-financial information for financing judgments, as competition in the region intensifies. On the other hand, one credit bank said that it is not easy to prove the accuracy of non-financial information when in the self-assessment stage. These trade-off effects might lead to the compromise point of 26% usage of non-financial information. This result is almost the same as the ratio of non-financial information when financial analysts make decisions on investments (Koga, 2006). Thirdly, financial institutions usually put great importance on financial information in the first ranking stage of the financing decision, because they calculate the default rate referring to ranking scoring models. However we find that they use non-financial information, including intellectual assets such as management skills and core technologies, to adjust ranking scoring models even in the ranking stage. They think that non-financial information, including intellectual assets, has a great role in preventing the discounting of future prospective firms in judgments based only on financial information in the ranking self-assessment. Fourthly, we report the real effect of non-financial information to financing decisions, that is, influence to (1) the interest rate, (2) the amount of financing, (3) the financing period, and (4) the amount of mortgage. Over half of financial institutions regard non-financial information as an influence in the amount of financing (55.1%) and interest rate (52.2%). It is a lesser influence in financing period (29.6%) and the amount of mortgage (27.4%). We also find that intellectual assets information items have a great importance when they make a financing decision. For example, brand, leadership, and skilled employees influence decisions on interest rates, and employee evaluation system, intellectual property, and succession of top management influence decisions regarding the amount of financing. Lastly, we find that financial institutions use non-financial information as a positive check as well as a negative check. It used to be that non-financial information was used as a tool of negative check, which reflect risk aversion and stability intention attitudes of financial institutions. However we find that, in the past 5 years, typically intellectual assets information has become more important as a tool of positive check.


As society changes, new ways of understanding and using existing semiotic resources are needed. This study looks at artefacts from a social semiotic perspective in order to explore the concepts of 'recycling' and 'upcycling' and their relevance for pedagogy in Higher Education. We look at recycling in terms of 'texts' and employ methodological tools from multimodal discourse analysis. 'Recycling' involves converting materials from one product to create a different product with a different function, without necessarily adding any type of value. In 'upcycling', economic, aesthetic or functional value is always added. 'Upcycling' can thus be understood as a process of recontextualization of semiotic resources, in both spatio-linguistic and sensory terms. This paper looks at how resources are recontextualized as part of global ecologies of production and consumption. Then, we explore these insights in the pedagogical domain, looking at possible implications of the principles of 'upcycling' and value adding through design as a means for educating global critical citizens.


DIMITROV, D. S. and V. M. VUTOV, 2016. Flora of the Belassitsa Mountain. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 22: 30–39 As a result of the floristic investigations of Belassitsa Mt carried out between 2011 and 2012, 1515 species belonging to 517 genera and 106 plant families were recorded. The most numerous representatives were from the families Asteraceae (183), Poaceae (121), Fabaceae (113), Lamiaceae (83), Caryophyllaceae (80), Scrophulariaceae (79), Brassicaceae (77). There are 41 Balkan endemic species and 4 Bulgarian endemic species in the flora of investigated area.


Background In cooperative breeders, subordinates generally help a dominant breeding pair to raise offspring. Parentage studies have shown that in several species subordinates can participate in reproduction. This suggests an important role of direct fitness benefits for cooperation, particularly where groups contain unrelated subordinates. In this situation parentage should influence levels of cooperation. Here we combine parentage analyses and detailed behavioural observations in the field to study whether in the highly social cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher subordinates participate in reproduction and if so, whether and how this affects their cooperative care, controlling for the effect of kinship. Methodology/Principal Findings We show that: (i) male subordinates gained paternity in 27.8% of all clutches and (ii) if they participated in reproduction, they sired on average 11.8% of young. Subordinate males sharing in reproduction showed more defence against experimentally presented egg predators compared to subordinates not participating in reproduction, and they tended to stay closer to the breeding shelter. No effects of relatedness between subordinates and dominants (to mid-parent, dominant female or dominant male) were detected on parentage and on helping behaviour. Conclusions/Significance This is the first evidence in a cooperatively breeding fish species that the helping effort of male subordinates may depend on obtained paternity, which stresses the need to consider direct fitness benefits in evolutionary studies of helping behaviour.


Historically, option market makers were exempt from borrowing shares when short selling which allowed them to hedge their exposure in hard-to-borrow stocks. As a result, options were not redundant securities -- they allowed traders to circumvent short-sale constraints. Regulators removed this exemption in 2008 and in 2013 they prohibited a workaround using 'reverse conversions'. These regulatory changes eliminated the shadow supply of hard-to-borrow shares provided by options; we find that these changes increased the redundancy of option securities and caused a significant increase in equity loan fees. Consequently, market quality has deteriorated: price efficiency is lower and stocks are more overpriced.


The cartilage is a flexible tissue, which supports the adjacent soft tissues. The damages that cause degenerative articular diseases are marked by the increase of cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), IL-1β, IL-6, IL-18, and IL-17, which cause intense inflammatory process and release of metalloproteinases and disintegrin enzymes that lead to cartilage degradation. TheCurcuma longapossesses bioactive compoundsdesignated as curcuminoids that display therapeutic potential in several pathologies. Curcumin is one of these compounds that may exhibit anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiviral, antibacterial, and antitumor effects. It may promote decrease of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, COX-2, and reactive oxygen species. Furthermore, curcumin inhibits the activity of several kinases related to the degradation of the cartilage, including tyrosine kinase, p21-activated kinase, mitogenactivated protein kinase, protein kinase C, the activator protein 1 pathway, and NF-κB leading to the suppression of the production of metalloproteinases and inflammatory cytokines. Curcumin has also been related to the stimulation of the production of type II collagen and glycosaminoglycan by chondrocytes. Studies have shown that this compound may alleviate joint pain and crepitation, reduce the use of other drugs for pain relief, stimulate the production of type II collagen and glycosaminoglycan resulting in a protective and antiinflammatory action of cartilage and bones, and improve the quality of life of the patients.


The inability to create an adequate tidal regime in embanked areas is a major problem for restoring estuarine habitats. The Controlled Reduced Tide system (CRT) was previously hypothesized to overcome this constraint. As part of an estuarine management plan which combines flood protection and tidal habitat restoration, the first CRT system was implemented in the freshwater zone of the Schelde estuary (Belgium). Based on four years of high-frequency monitoring on the first CRT and the adjacent estuary, this study demonstrates the hydrological functionality of CRT. The tidal characteristics generated by this technique were suitable on the short and on the long term, with a reproduction of the spring-neap tidal cycle. In both CRT and estuary, the spatial and temporal variability of several hydrological descriptors were comparatively analysed. In spite of some hydrological deviations from the estuarine pattern, nothing precluded a suitable ecosystem features in CRT. The potential influences of CRT-specific hydrology on ecology and estuarine restoration are discussed. The restoration potential of the CRT system is shown to be particularly relevant for tidal marshes in early succession stage, habitats which are often lacking in embanked estuaries. Additionally, it offers a more robust and adaptable alternative to other systems. Conclusively, the CRT system should be more advocated in estuarine restoration.


Energy-based Models (EBMs) offer a powerful approach for modeling discrete structure, but both inference and learning of EBM are hard as it involves sampling from discrete distributions. Recent work shows Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) with the informed proposal is a powerful tool for such sampling. How-ever, an informed proposal only allows local updates as it requires evaluating all energy changes in the neighborhood. In this work, we present a path auxiliary algorithm that uses a composition of local moves to efficiently explore large neigh-borhoods. We also give a fast version of our algorithm that only queries the evaluation of energy function twice for each proposal via linearization of the energy function. Empirically, we show that our path auxiliary algorithms considerably outperform other generic samplers on various discrete models for sampling, inference, and learning. Our method can also be used to train deep EBMs for high dimensional discrete data.


Abstract. Water resources are not only basic natural resources, but also strategic economic resources and ecological control factors. Water resources carrying capacity constrains the sustainable development of regional economy and society. Studies of water resources carrying capacity can provide helpful information about how the socioeconomic system is both supported and restrained by the water resources system. Based on the research of different scholars, major problems in the study of water resources carrying capacity were summarized as follows: the definition of water resources carrying capacity is not yet unified; the methods of carrying capacity quantification based on the definition of inconsistency are poor in operability; the current quantitative research methods of water resources carrying capacity did not fully reflect the principles of sustainable development; it is difficult to quantify the relationship among the water resources, economic society and ecological environment. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a better quantitative evaluation method to determine the regional water resources carrying capacity. This paper proposes a new approach to quantifying water resources carrying capacity (that is, through the compilation of the water resources balance sheet) to get a grasp of the regional water resources depletion and water environmental degradation (as well as regional water resources stock assets and liabilities), figure out the squeeze of socioeconomic activities on the environment, and discuss the quantitative calculation methods and technical route of water resources carrying capacity which are able to embody the substance of sustainable development.


When confronted with the task of choosing texts for an undergraduate four-field course in a joint sociology/anthropology department, I elected to teach with Franz Boas' 1928 text, Anthropology and modern life. Six years in, I have become enamored of the text for teaching undergraduates. This essay examines the question of how an early twentieth-century textbook applies to the questions of the twenty-first century and how Boas continues to play an active role in how anthropological work is presented to the public in sites like the Field Museum of Chicago. Considering Boas' work on race, nationalism, eugenics, and education enables students and others to see themselves in dialogue with a long four-field tradition in anthropology, and revisiting his legacy as professional anthropologists offers us space to be joyful in our own often-troubled history.


This study investigated the mechanical behavior of a wet granular soil at low moisture content in which isolated pendular water bridges (menisci) at the interface of the solid particles give rise to capillary forces in addition to existing interparticle contact forces. We derived a single effective stress tensor encapsulating evolving liquid bridges, packing, interfaces, and water saturation. Apart from the fact that the stress due to contact forces is dependent on the fabric, we found that the so‐called suction (capillary) stress arising from liquid bridges is inevitably direction dependent, i.e., anisotropic. The latter is at odds with the common belief that capillary stress is isotropic. We demonstrate that capillary stress is a function of the distribution of liquid bridges, degree of saturation, as well as particle packing, and thus provide an adequate effective stress definition to describe both the constitutive behavior and strength of unsaturated media. We conducted discrete element modeling simulations of triaxial compression tests of pendular‐state granular samples at different matric suctions to verify the anisotropic nature of the capillary stress and resulting strength contributions to validate the proposed effective stress equation.


"The Transatlantic Collapse of Urban Renewal" examines how postwar thinkers from both sides of the Atlantic considered urban landscapes radically changed by the political and physical realities of sprawl, urban decay, and urban renewal. With a sweep that encompasses New York, London, Berlin, Philadelphia, and Toronto, among others, Christopher Klemek traces changing responses to the challenging issues that most affected the lives of the world's cities. In the postwar decades, the principles of modernist planning came to be challenged - in the grassroots revolts against the building of freeways through urban neighborhoods, for instance, or by academic critiques of slum clearance policy agendas - and then began to collapse entirely. Over the 1960s, several alternative views of city life emerged among neighborhood activists, New Left social scientists, and neoconservative critics. Ultimately, while a pessimistic view of urban crisis may have won out in the United States and Great Britain, Klemek demonstrates that other countries more successfully harmonized urban renewal and its alternatives. This much anticipated book provides one of the first truly international perspectives on issues central to historians and planners alike, making it essential reading for anyone engaged with either field.


Information access in meeting recordings can be assisted by meeting browsers, or can be fully automated following a question-answering (QA) approach. An information access task is defined, aiming at discriminating true vs. false parallel statements about facts in meetings. An automatic QA algorithm is applied to this task, using passage retrieval over a meeting transcript. The algorithm scores 59% accuracy for passage retrieval, while random guessing is below 1%, but only scores 60% on combined retrieval and question discrimination, for which humans reach 70%-80% and the baseline is 50%. The algorithm clearly outperforms humans for speed, at less than 1 second per question, vs. 1.5-2 minutes per question for humans. The degradation on ASR compared to manual transcripts still yields lower but acceptable scores, especially for passage identification. Automatic QA thus appears to be a promising enhancement to meeting browsers used by humans, as an assistant for relevant passage identification.


In this paper, which is based on a real-life motivation, we present an algebraic theory of automata and multi-automata. We combine these (multi-)automata using the products introduced by W. Dörfler, where we work with the cartesian composition and we define the internal links among multiautomata by means of the internal links' matrix. We used the obtained product of n-ary multi-automata as a system that models and controls certain traffic situations (lane shifting) for autonomous vehicles.


Quality of Experience (QoE) in multimedia applications is closely linked to the end users' perception and therefore its assessment requires subjective user studies in order to evaluate the degree of delight or annoyance as experienced by the users. QoE crowdtesting refers to QoE assessment using crowdsourcing, where anonymous test subjects conduct subjective tests remotely in their preferred environment. The advantages of QoE crowdtesting lie not only in the reduced time and costs for the tests, but also in a large and diverse panel of international, geographically distributed users in realistic user settings. However, conceptual and technical challenges emerge due to the remote test settings. Key issues arising from QoE crowdtesting include the reliability of user ratings, the influence of incentives, payment schemes and the unknown environmental context of the tests on the results. In order to counter these issues, strategies and methods need to be developed, included in the test design, and also implemented in the actual test campaign, while statistical methods are required to identify reliable user ratings and to ensure high data quality. This contribution therefore provides a collection of best practices addressing these issues based on our experience gained in a large set of conducted QoE crowdtesting studies. The focus of this article is in particular on the issue of reliability and we use video quality assessment as an example for the proposed best practices, showing that our recommended two-stage QoE crowdtesting design leads to more reliable results.


Understanding the factors that influence territorial behaviour is essential for determining whether fragmented habitats are able to support the spatial ecological conditions that maintain cooperative breeding systems of threatened bird species. Here, we examine territorial behaviour of the cooperative breeding Buff-throated Partridge Tetraophasis szechenyii in patchy tree-line habitats of the Pamuling Mountains in western China. This population has been habituated to humans through supplementary feeding by Tibetan Monks. We studied 18 groups during three consecutive breeding seasons and two non-breeding seasons from March 2007 through July 2009, using direct tracking of colourmarked individuals. Territories were occupied by stable family groups, and were centred on the interface of two or more different tree-line habitats. Groups occupied the same close area near the nest from one year to the next. However, territory sizes, estimated using radio-telemetry, were smaller compared to those of other non-cooperative breeding montane Galliformes. Both territory size and overlap were greater during the non-breeding season. Group size did not influence territory size, in either the breeding or non-breeding season. Territorial behaviour was influenced by supplementary food given at two offering sites during both seasons, in proximity to both nesting and roost sites. Further research should focus on examining the interactions between supplementary feeding and family group composition, with direct comparisons of data from non-supplementary fed partridge populations outside of Buddhist Sacred Sites.


Binary pulsars are ideal to test the foundations of General Relativity, such as Lorentz symmetry, which requires that experiments produce the same results in all free-falling (i.e.inertial) frames. We here break this symmetry in the gravitational sector by specifying a preferred time direction, and thus a preferred frame, at each spacetime point. We then examine the consequences of this gravitational Lorentz symmetry breaking in the orbital evolution of binary pulsars, focusing on the dissipative effects. We find that Lorentz symmetry breaking modifies these effects, and thus the orbital dynamics, in two different ways. First, it generically causes the emission of dipolar radiation, which makes the orbital separation decrease faster than in General Relativity. Second, the quadrupole component of the emission is also modified. The orbital evolution depends critically on the sensitivities of the stars, which measure how their binding energies depend on the motion relative to the preferred frame. We calculate the sensitivities numerically and compute the predicted orbital decay rate of binary pulsars in Lorentz-violating gravity. By testing these predictions against observations, we place very stringent constraints on gravitational Lorentz violation.


For active magnetic bearings (AMBs) to be used with confidence in industrial applications, the safe failure of the AMB system should be guaranteed. The exact behaviour of the rotor on the backup bearings (BBs) is relatively uncertain [1,2,3]. Uncertainty in a failure situation means that the safe failure of the AMB system cannot be guaranteed. The purpose of the presented rotor delevitation simulation model (RDSim model) is to eliminate some of the uncertainties associated with a rotor delevitation event. The simulation model includes a flexible rotor model [4], a non-linear AMB model [5], a non-linear BB model, stator effects, active rotor braking, rotor free running, inner race speed up, AMB/BB load sharing and sudden unbalance (blade-loss simulation). The RDSim model can be used to simulate any AMB failure on one or more locations. The failure modes include power amplifier (PA) malfunction, AMB coil short-circuit, total power failure and controller failure. This paper will discuss the BBSim model; a brief explanation of each of the sub-models of the BBSim model is also given.


INEQUALITY IN THE GEORGIA PUBLIC HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM by CHRISTOPHER ROBERT FERLAND (Under the Direction of Scott L. Thomas) ABSTRACT The study examined college going in the University System of Georgia (USG) public higher education system longitudinally. The framework centers on a sociological stratification theory called Maximally Maintained Inequality (MMI), which states stratification will exist, even in times of expansion, until a saturation point is met by the controlling group. Investigating college going patterns using MMI over a 15 year period using a mixed linear model with variables related to academic preparation, demographics, and affordability, as identified from the literature, allowed for an analysis of patterns across time. Results revealed that, during the increased pressure from policymakers to improve access to higher education, the USG became more stratified in terms of demographic and academic preparation.


The aim of this dissertation is to investigate a number of U.S. avant-garde films using Deleuzian film-philosophy in order to describe their thought. I develop the taxonomy of cinematic images created by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze by introducing a new type of image. The notion of the sobjective image I conceptualize points to the immanent semiosis that characterizes certain films. The sobjective image describes the individual images and the entire films that objectify subjectivity and create idiosyncratic mental film-worlds. These films shape individual realities according to a single subjective mode. I also introduce the conceptual cartography of film-worlds, an analytical tool intended to help define the ontology of various filmic wholes (film-worlds) in order to highlight their distinctness. The cartography aids in explaining how films dominated by different Deleuzian and post-Deleuzian image types differ in their film-worlds, ontology, and metaphysics. Furthermore, I coin the concept of the metaphysics of technique and subsequently argue that various cinematic techniques (montage, mise-en-scene, framing, costuming, lighting, superimposing, sound editing, etc.) do not only serve to create the physics of a given film-world (the extended phenomena), but define the metaphysics (the nature) of that reality. I then proceed to close-read fourteen avant-garde films by describing their sobjective principles and by bringing out their bearings on a number of important philosophical problems. These films cluster around four philosophical themes, which are shaped into four chapters focusing on childhood, selfhood, sexuality, and ritual and art. (Less)


This thesis investigates how "Interventionist", "general education" (GEN) teachers, (or "core" teachers, as opposed to special educators) in the elementary stream, in Ontario, have learned inclusive beliefs and practices that have been considered effective for teaching and including children with exceptionalities in their classrooms. 10 GEN elementary teachers, consisting of 3 men and 7 women, from 2 local school boards, were interviewed to determine if they were "Interventionist" (Stanovich & Jordan, 1998). From this sample, 6 GEN teachers; 2 men and 4 women, were found to be "Interventionist". Classroom observations and follow-up interviews were used to gain insight into the development of their beliefs and teaching practices. Effective teacher perceptions in the form of qualitative data were coded, themed, and analyzed based on the "constant comparative" method (Miles & Huberman, 1994), which gave rise to single case, and cross case analyses. Teachers' perceptions are organized in results according to a framework based on 3 main questions: (a) what are teachers' current practices for inclusion?; (b) how did teachers develop inclusive practices?; and (c) how did the Community of Practice (e.g. teachers, principals) influence and support teachers' inclusive practices? Discussion centers on teachers' perceptions of the development of their positive beliefs and practices, ongoing professional development, and the importance of the community of practice.


Courts and prosecutorial offices around the nation have started using service dogs to support emotionally frail child witnesses who are unwilling to testify but for the calming presence of a dog. Proponents claim that this new type of therapeutic jurisprudence helps bring criminal defendants to justice in cases where the testimony of the complaining witness is crucial to the prosecution's case. Opponents fear the infringement of the defendants' rights to a fair trial because of the dogs' potential to prejudice a jury to come out in favor of the witnesses. This article analyzes the legal foundations supporting the use of service dogs for emotional support of complaining witnesses in open court. Currently, the Federal Rules of Evidence give trial judges wide discretion to allow evidence presentation methods deemed effective for the ascertainment of the truth. Other federal law allows child witnesses to give testimony with the emotional support of an adult attendant or through alternative methods such as closed-circuit television or recorded statements. However, a defendant's Sixth Amendment confrontation rights may be held violated by such alternative methods, especially after the recent landmark case Crawford v. Washington. In contrast, this is less likely to be the case if a witness gives live testimony, even with the potentially prejudicial presence of a service dog. Case precedent demonstrates that defendants' right to a fair trial and the protection of the confrontation right have been upheld in similar cases where minor witnesses used comfort objects for support. The article concludes that legally sound reasons exist for allowing the use of service dogs in court, but only in cases where the witness can demonstrate a truly compelling need for the emotional support and only where the proper balancing with defendant's rights is performed.


To illustrate nonlinear-optical applications of germanium dioxide (GeO2) glass optical fibers, we have demonstrated efficient single-pass Raman generation in a GeO2 fiber. We also measured the chromatic dispersion of high-silica glass (SiO2) single-mode optical fibers by using a GeO2 fiber Raman laser.


We are surrounded by many textures with fine dense structures, such as human hair and fabrics, whose individual elements are often finer than the spatial resolution limit of the visual system or that of a digitized image. Here we show that human observers have an ability to visually estimate subresolution fineness of those textures. We carried out a psychophysical experiment to show that observers could correctly discriminate differences in the fineness of hair-like dense line textures even when the thinnest line element was much finer than the resolution limit of the eye or that of the display. The physical image analysis of the textures, along with a theoretical analysis based on the central limit theorem, indicates that as the fineness of texture increases and the number of texture elements per resolvable unit increases, the intensity contrast of the texture decreases and the intensity histogram approaches a Gaussian shape. Subsequent psychophysical experiments showed that these image features indeed play critical roles in fineness perception; i.e., lowering the contrast made artificial and natural textures look finer, and this effect was most evident for textures with unimodal Gaussian-like intensity distributions. These findings indicate that the human visual system is able to estimate subresolution texture fineness on the basis of diagnostic image features correlated with subresolution fineness, such as the intensity contrast and the shape of the intensity histogram.


OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the antibacterial potential of aqueous and acetone extracts of galls of Quercus infectoria by determination of Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) values.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The extracts from the galls of Q. infectoria at 10 mg/ml were screened against three Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Bacillus subtilis) and three Gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli NCTC 12079 serotype O157:H7, Salmonella typhimurium NCTC 74 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853). The MIC of the extracts were then determined using the twofold serial microdilution technique at a concentration ranging from 5 mg/ml to 0.0024 mg/ml. The MBC values were finally obtained from the MIC microtiter wells which showed no turbidity after 24 hrs of incubation by subculturing method.
RESULTS: Out of the six bacterial species tested, S. aureus was the most susceptible. On the other hand, the extracts showed weak inhibitory effect against S. epidermidis, B. subtilis, S. typhimurium and P. aeruginosa while there was no inhibition zone observed for E. coli O157. The MIC values of the extracts ranged from 0.0781 mg/ml to 1.25 mg/ml whereas the MBC values ranged from 0.3125 mg/ml to 2.50 mg/ml. The MBC values of aqueous extract against S. aureus and S. typhimurium were higher than their MIC values. The MBC value of acetone extract against S. aureus was also higher than its MIC value. Interestingly, however, the MIC and MBC values of acetone extract against S. typhimurium were the same (1.25 mg/ml).
CONCLUSION: The aqueous and acetone extracts displayed similarities in their antimicrobial activity on the bacterial species and as such, the galls of Quercus infectoria are potentially good source of antimicrobial agents.


This article originally appeared in the September 2013 Technology Committee newsletter. NEARLY 150 years ago, in Bridge Proprietors v. Hoboken Co., the U.S. Supreme Court lamented the fact that "the most remarkable invention of modern times"--the steam engine--had caused the legal system to "be met by difficulties of the greatest character." (1) The truism that law will always be outpaced by the speed of technological innovation, and the uncertainty that has always existed at the intersection of technology and the law, has been illustrated time and time again, from the age of railroads to the digital age of today. And while virtually every area of the law can provide its own examples of time-honored doctrines struggling to adapt to a world of Google, Facebook, and Twitter, the area of automotive litigation provides perhaps the best demonstration of the uneasy relationship between new technology and traditional legal concepts of duty. From ride-sharing apps and services like Uber, to the "driverless car" of the future, to black box technology and its ability to shed light on an accident, to whether the sender of a text should be held liable to third party victims struck by the recipient of that text, technology issues promise to change the legal landscape in a big way. I. Whose Ride Is It Anyway? One of the newest transportation alternatives is "ride-sharing" or "car-sharing" services, facilitated through mobile apps. Companies like Uber, RelayRides, Lyft, and Sidecar own no vehicles at all, but purport to function instead primarily as technology platforms that connect clients with drivers through a smartphone app. Riders are connected with drivers using their phones' GPS, much like a taxi company's dispatch system would send the nearest available cab. The drivers could be existing car services or even individuals. Uber, for example, stresses that it "does not provide transportation services," "is not a transportation carrier," and that the independent contractors or businesses that sign up with it are the true "transportation companies." Uber got its start connecting people to town cars provided by taxi and limo services, while others have a broader approach. RelayRides permits car owners to rent their personal vehicles to others when they're not using them, while Lyft and Sidecar both allow drivers to provide rides in their own cars to strangers. Ride-sharing has been controversial for a number of reasons. Virtually all states and major cities have different regulations for taxi services. In cities like Dallas, for example, where the taxi industry has powerful political connections, the city council mulling a strict new limousine ordinance (that was coincidentally drafted in part by a cab company attorney) and promises to crack down on ride-sharing services. (2) Cities claim that services like Uber circumvent the regulations and licensing fees that taxicab companies have to contend with. In cities like Houston and Denver, for example, Uber and other ride-sharing services have been essentially shut out by rules governing limousine services that restrict charging based on time elapsed or distance traveled; in Houston, limos must be called at least 30 minutes before they arrive and charge a minimum of $75. In California, the Public Utilities Commission reached an interim agreement to allow ride-sharing companies to operate while it weighs proposals that would make them full-fledged, legally operating "transportation network companies." This would likely involve state licensing, required criminal background checks on drivers, and mandatory insurance coverage even more stringent than that required of limo companies. Meanwhile, states like Oregon and Washington have laws that are "ride-sharing friendly." Individuals have an explicit right to legally rent out their private vehicles, and auto insurers aren't permitted to drop a policy holder just because he or she is renting out a personal vehicle (however, the ridesharing company does have to take out commercial policies covering the personal vehicles while they're in commercial use). …


Detailed working principle of jumping gene adaptation of differential evolution (DE-JGa) is presented. The performance of the DE-JGa algorithm is compared with the performance of differential evolution (DE) and modified DE (MDE) by applying these algorithms on industrial problems. In this study Reactor network design (RND) problem is solved using DE, MDE, and DE-JGa algorithms: These industrial processes are highly nonlinear and complex with reference to optimal operating conditions with many equality and inequality constraints. Extensive computational comparisons have been made for all the chemical engineering problems considered. The results obtained in the present study show that DE-JGa algorithm outperforms the other algorithms (DE and MDE). Several comparisons are made among the algorithms with regard to the number of function evaluations (NFE)/CPU- time required to find the global optimum. The standard deviation and the variance values obtained using DE-JGa, DE and MDE algorithms also show that the DE-JGa algorithm gives consistent set of results for the majority of the test problems and the industrial real world problems.


This study proves that underpricing is a robust factor on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. This research examines the pricing of IPO, the allocation of shares to groups of institutional investors, the underwriter reputation toward underpricing, price stabilization and excess returns in three regression models and some sub models. Regression results provide evidence that the IPO pricing and allocation of shares to groups of institutional investors affect the underpricing. This evidence supports book building models that developed by Benveniste and Spindt (1989). This study provides evidence that underpricing has a positive effect on price stabilization. Underpricing is also a positive effect on excess returns. Expected proceeds are strong support factor explains underpricing as a central factor. Age and expected proceeds are the support factors, together with underpricing explain price stabilization. Partial price adjustement is support factor together with underpricing explain excess returns.


In normal physics, nothing can move faster than the speed of light, because Einstein's theory of relativity forbids it. However, some physicists have proposed a model of faster-than-light (FTL) travel, formulated in the context of Lorentzian manifolds, which are used in general relativity to construct space-time models, called a wormhole and an Alcubierre's warp drive. Warp drive works by distorting the fabric of the spacetime, contracting spacetime in front of the spaceship and expanding it behind to create a warp continuum bubble between the two spacetime distortions in front of and behind the craft. However, it has been shown that the total integrated energy density needed to maintain the warp metric is physically unattainable. In this article, the author presents another possibility of a FTL travel method which applies the tunneling effect through the light barrier caused by the manipulation of ZPF field surrounding the spaceship.


Claims reserving for general insurance business has developed significantly over the recent past. There has always been a slight mystery in short-term insurance contracts of how to go about reserving for claims, which have not yet come in, and are still in some sense of figment of the future. Insurance claims variables are non-normally distributed and therefore a measure that will capture the dependence among the variables better than the usual correlation is employed. One such method is the use of copulas. The object of this paper, therefore, is to use the Archimedean copula, Clayton copula and Frank copula to estimate outstanding incurred but not reported (IBNR) claim reserves. A comparison of the estimates of outstanding claim reserves obtained from different Archimedean copulas is also presented.


This thesis reports on five months anthropological fieldwork conducted in Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island, from August till the end of September, 1971. It is divided into two parts. The first four chapters are mainly descriptive with the exception of the theoretical orientation presented in Chapter I. The remaining chapters are analytical. -- Chronologically, the researcher's first impressions of Frobisher Bay, the field strategy and the theoretical perspective for the analysis of the data is presented in Chapter I. The professional, transient Euro-Canadians, and in particular the elementary school teachers, are the focus of the researcher's attention. Their view of their social reality, the ways in which they define their social and educational situation, and the manner in which they perceive the Eskimo community are presented as a case study of the broader phenomenon of civil servants in the Canadian Arctic. The data are presented within the framework of symbolic interactionist theory as developed by George Herbert Mead and other sociologists. Blumer's (1969) statement of the present position of this orientation on the study of human society and human conduct is outlined. -- In Chapters II and III the growth and development of Frobisher Bay from a small, American airbase in 1942 to the present major civilian, administrative center in the Eastern Arctic is described, as well as the history and present make-up of the Eskimo and Euro-Canadian population. This is set within the context of the historical process of culture-contact in the Baffin region from the time of the discovery of Frobisher Bay by Sir Martin Frobisher in 1576, The whaling and fur industries, the activities of the Church of England missionaries and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are described. Life styles of the present Frobisher Bay population of approximately twenty-three hundred people are compared. Data are given regarding the socio-cultural background, employment, housing, recreation, and social interaction of the two sectors of the population. -- In Chapter IV a short historical account of formal education in the Canadian Arctic and in Frobisher Bay specifically is presented. I outline the present educational structure and facilities and some of the findings of recent anthropological research on cross-cultural education. Focussing on the Baffin region and Frobisher Bay respectively, the Northwest Territories' Department of Education policies and programs are investigated. Data on the 1970/71 school year are given in Tables 4 to 18. They contain information on the staff and pupils of the elementary schools: national background, age, sex and marital status, training and teaching experience of the teachers; pupil enrollment in Frobisher Bay from 1955 to 1971, grade and age distribution during the 1970/71 school year, as well as school attendance figures. This material is analyzed in comparison with Hobart's (1970) data on elementary education in ten Western Arctic communities. -- Chapter V consists of a presentation of definitions of social situations, often perceived as "problems" by Euro-Canadian residents in Frobisher Bay. It appears that many of them are situational in nature, derived from or arising out of the ambiguous situation which the Canadian North presents to many of its Euro-Canadian residents, especially transient professionals. Much of this information is transmitted through gossip. Although some of this may seem trivial and superficial at first glance, my argument is that much of the gossip is an expression of peoples' feelings about living in the North. Many feel that they have to justify their reasons for being in Frobisher Bay and the role they are playing. They also frequently evaluate and conjecture about other peoples' reasons. These reasons are described in three main categories: financial, professional, and personal reasons. -- In this section of the thesis Euro-Canadians' perceptions of "Eskimo problems" are also discussed. These are often related to values and opinions regarding benefits or detrimental effects of the welfare system, including its influences on the Eskimo sense of identity, self-esteem, and responsibility. Such perceptions divide the Euro-Canadians into assimilationists and integrationists, with blatant racism and radical reformism at the extremes of the continuum. Distinctions are made between old-timers and newcomers. Local perceptions of "escapists" and "drifters," "idealists" or "Peace Corps types" are discussed. As an example of professional attitudes and affiliation with different service agencies, the minutes of the Coordinating Committee on Social Problems are considered. -- Chapter VI contains definitions of educational situations, also often perceived as "problems" by the teachers of the Sir Martin Frobisher elementary school. The heterogeneity of this group in terms of background, training, and experience in the North and elsewhere leads to conflicting opinions regarding definitions of the Frobisher Bay school situation. The physical spread of the school, the relative social isolation of some of the teachers, and the various types of classes taught by them (integrated, segregated, and token-integrated) adds to the overt and covert disagreement among the teachers about the appropriate philosophy and goals of education in the North and the desired daily classroom practices. Two professional occasions, the Teachers Orientation sessions, and the Curriculum Workshop brought out many of the teachers' feelings, particularly in relation to the New Northern Curriculum, which is being introduced by Yellowknife's Department of Education. -- There seemed to be consensus, however, among many of the teachers with regard to their general definition of the situation: a lack of relevant, useful information to help solve educational problems in the classroom. Many teachers relate this lack of information to a failure in communication: 1) little or no communication with and guidance from the regional education office; 2) a lack of informal help and interest from the Principal; 3) a lack of sharing of ideas among the teachers themselves; and 4) a complete lack of information regarding the community, especially the Eskimo residents. Since the teachers perceived official channels of communication on the local level as insufficiently open, and information received on the two professional occasions as ambiguous and contradictory to the social reality of Frobisher Bay as they perceived it, they were forced to rely on informal channels of communication: gossip with other Euro-Canadians in the settlement. I present the argument that most Euro-Canadians have only limited and professionally specialized knowledge of the Eskimo community and that therefore much of the information received by the teachers may well give them a distorted view of that community. -- In Chapter VII I analyze the material of the two preceding chapters in relation to the theoretical perspective on gossip provided by Allport and Postman (1947), Paine (1967) and Shibutani (1966; 1967). Giving specific examples, I present the thesis that gossip in Frobisher Bay is inherently different from that treated in most traditional anthropological literature. I note that Frobisher Bay gossip is a mechanism of informal communication used by small, local groups in crisis situations in an attempt to reduce perceived ambiguity. The situational necessity for gossip and its nature and function, arise out of the fluid character of the settlement's social structure. In such situations previously accepted norms of behavior become inadequate. Emergency action of some kind is required. Furthermore, the felt ambiguity in connection with the perceived lack of information requires special social mechanisms to provide incoming employees with the necessary information for the adequate fulfillment of their jobs and the arrangement of their social lives. At the same time, old-timers assert and protect their vested interests in occupational and social spheres. Gossip is one way of handling this type of situation. -- In Chapter VIII I attempt to pull together some of the main threads which run through the preceding discussion. The various observations and concepts presented are put in the context of the colonial situation existing in the Canadian North, which, as defined by Memmi (1967), is the most ambiguous situation possible for those confronted with its inherent contradictions. Local perceptions of insufficient and/or ambiguous information, isolation, stagnation, mediocrity and high turnover of personnel are treated with reference to this colonial situation. Memmi's distinction between colonials, colonizers, and colonialists draws attention to the ambiguity of the colonial situation and the kind of moral choices Euro-Canadians are forced to make when in the North. It is my view that many civil servants in the North, including teachers, because of their structural affiliation with the dominant social system, are unable to live in the North as colonials. Their ethical convictions as educated, middle-class professionals prevent them, on the whole, from becoming colonialists. As colonizers, then, they are required to cope with the frustrating, ambiguous situation as "reluctant imperialists" employed by institutions whose goals and practices often conflict and which they cannot fully support and condone.


Gertie Milk—or at least that's who she assumes she is from the tag inside her sodden gown—awakes on a beach on an apparently deserted island, but her presence is quickly noted by a threatening worm, a flock of flightless birds, and eventually, a man named Kolt, who is not as surprised to see her as she might expect. She is another of his kind, destined to be a Keeper of Lost Things, whose job it is to take the commands of the Big Dusty Book Upstairs and return disappeared items to their owners in various time periods. The store rooms of are overflowing, and as lost limbs and misplaced sporting equipment escape their designated areas and create havoc, the lack of KOLT personnel is getting critical. Gertie's still a little unclear her own vanished identity, but she soon musters enthusiasm for her new job and travels with her mentor through time, name-checking important people and events as they go. The story can be an immersive one at times, but Van Booy places few controls on the magic/sci fi and the plot takes on a make-it-up-as-you-go air that is less than satisfying. There are bad guys to encounter, and it's hinted that one in particular will make Gertie's life even harder in a subsequent volume. One hopes Van Booy will fine-tune his promising premise in future outings. EB


In writing the first book-length study of ancient Egyptian mathematics, Richard Gillings presents evidence that Egyptian achievements in this area are much more substantial than has been previously thought. He does so in a way that will interest not only historians of Egypt and of mathematics, but also people who simply like to manipulate numbers in novel ways. He examines all the extant sources, with particular attention to the most extensive of these--the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, a collection of training exercises for scribes. This papyrus, besides dealing with the practical, commercial computations for which the Egyptians developed their mathematics, also includes a series of abstract numerical problems stated in a more general fashion.The mathematical operations used were extremely limited in number but were adaptable to a great many applications. The Egyptian number system was decimal, with digits sequentially arranged (much like our own, but reading right to left), allowing them to add and subtract with ease. They could multiply any number by two, and to accomplish more extended multiplications made use of a binary process, successively multiplying results by two and adding those partial products that led to the correct result. Division was done in a similar way. They could fully manipulate fractions, even though all of them (with one exception) were expressed in the unwieldy form of sumes of unit fractions--those having "1" as their numerator. (The exception was 2/3. The scribes recognized this as a very special quantity and took 2/3 of integral or fractional numbers whenever the change presented itself in the course of computation.) In expressing a rational quantity as a series of unit fractions, the scribes were generally able to choose a simple and direct solution from among the many--sometimes thousands--that are possible. Doing this without modern computers would seem quite as remarkable as building pyramids without modern machinery.The range of mathematical problems that were solved using these limited operational means is far wider than many historians of mathematics acknowledge. Gillings gives examples showing that the Egyptians were able, for example, to solve problems in direct and inverse proportion; to evaluate certain square roots; to introduce the concept of a "harmonic mean" between two numbers; to solve linear equations of the first degree, and two simultaneous equations, one of the second degree; to find the sum of terms of arithmetic and geometric progressions; to calculate the area of a circle and of cylindrical (possibly even spherical) surfaces; to calculate the volumes of truncated pyramids and cylindrical granaries; and to make use of rudimentary trigonometric functions in describing the slopes of pyramids. The Egyptian accomplishment that historians have tended to repeat uncritically, one after another, is one that Gillings can find no evidence to support: that the Egyptians knew the Pythagorean theorem, at least in the special case of the 3-4-5 right triangle.


Contrary to the long-standing view in the finance literature that firms should maximise payment delays, research in operations management suggests that long payment delays can be suboptimal. In this study, we reconcile these two views by applying a secondary data approach to established operations management theory. Based on a sample of 3383 groups of public US firms from a novel database, we find that our data are consistent with the causal relations and theoretical predictions of the operations management literature. Firm profitability is positively associated with payment delay. Payment delay, in turn, is positively associated with the capital cost difference between buyer and supplier and negatively associated with the price elasticity of demand and the deterioration rate of inventory. However, we do not observe any significant interaction effects between these factors, which raise a number of questions for future research.


This study is concerned to the billboards advertising and their impact over the consumer attention. The main aim of this study is to understand the consumer attention towards billboards, whether the target audience gives importance to the billboards or not. Final results indicate number of factors in the billboards advertising, which attracts the customer. A customer gives proper attention to billboards advertising due to billboards advertising Size, Color, Location, Celebrity and Images. All these variables have positive impact on the customer attention.