Medicinal herbs constitute an effective source of traditional (Ayurvedic, Unani and Homeopathy) and modern medicine. The plant is a biosynthetic laboratory, not only for chemical compounds, but also a multitude of compounds like glycosides, alkaloids etc. These exert physiological and therapeutic effect. The compounds that are responsible for medicinal property of the drug are usually secondary metabolites. Alkaloids, glycosides, neutral principles, resins, oleoresins, sesquiterpene lactones are some of the common active constituents of medicinal herbs. The article reviews distribution of steroid like compounds and their pharmacological importance. 1The practice of medicinal herbs for treating the diseases is very well known from ancient times. There are number of synthetic medicines which have been derived from medicinal herbs. Digioxin, Aspirin, Reserpine, Ephedrine, Quinine, Vincristine, Vinblastine, Taxol, Artemisinin, Hypericin, Silymarin are some noteworthy examples and their mechanism of action is beyond doubt as far as efficacy is concerned. Number of studies is available to show their effectiveness. These are regarded as active constituents of the herbs and are present in standardized form in the herbal extracts, if not isolated as single entity. In addition to the alkaloids, glycosides, resins, oleo-resins, aromatic & volatile oils, neutral principles etc, a number of other compounds are also known to exists in plant flora which are responsible for curative action of the herbs, although are relatively less known compounds. Recently some light has been thrown on steroid like compounds present in number of medicinal herbs. Chemically the compounds are known as sterols and are considered to be derivatives of the steroids. They resemble in structure with steroids and modern clinical studies have supported their role as anti inflammatory and analgesic agents. 2Beta -sitosterol is the most commonly studied sterol compound isolated from number of medicinal herbs and it has shown effectiveness in reducing serum cholesterol levels. 3Modern studies have indicated the usefulness of beta-sitosterol in benign prostate hypertrophy and the compound has been detected in Serenoa Repens commonly known as Saw Palmetto. 4The medicinal herb has been traditionally used in treating prostate symptoms the clinical trials have shown promise in stages 1 & 2 in reducing difficulties associated with BPH but it has nothing to do with enlarged size of the gland. In addition the medicinal herb is known to contain sterols including beta sitosterol-3-o-glycosides, beta-sitisterol-3-o-glycosides, beta-sitosterol-fatty acid esters and their glycosides. 5,6,7 Disogenin is another compound present in number of herbs like Hedichyum spicatum, Trigonella foenumgraecum, Pueraria tuberosa & Dioscorea villosa. Oral contraceptives & sex hormones are derived from Disogenin. It is extracted from medicinal herbs as well as prepared commercially. Due to wide the distribution of the compound in above herbs, they have been used in various types of sexual disorders like impotency. 8Ruscogenins are other compounds present in Yucca liliaceae that are used in treating pain and inflammation of arthritis and rheumatism. Yucca filamentosa is other known species, which contains Ruscogenin as active principle. 9,10Ruscogenins are also present in Ruscus aculeatus and in animal tests; there was increase in venous tone and an electrolyte-like reaction on the cell wall of the capillaries. Smilax officinalis is medicinal herb that is known to contain steroid like compounds-saponin glycosides and according to some researchers actually the herb contains male hormones. 11It also has been used in herbal medicine as an anti-inflammatory agent in curing arthritis and rheumatism. Rubus idaeus, commonly called as raspberry, is also known to contain such type of compounds. 12 Phyto-estrogens are group of pharmacologically active compounds present in Asparagus officinalis where they are known as Asparagosides A, B, D, F, G, H $I [16]. Although the herb finds application in female sexual disorders but effectiveness for the claimed application has not been sufficiently documented. 13In Asparagus adscendens, active compounds are called Shatavarins 1-4 and in clinical studies they shown estrogen like activity. According to Mitchell Deborah these phyto-estrogens inhibit the conversion of testosterone to dihyrotestosterone, thereby increasing the count of testosterone in the body. Coincidentally the role of the herb has been described in old texts of Ayurveda as sexual tonic. Coriander sativum [commonly known as fennel] also contains phytoestrogens and has shown promise in treating premenstrual syndrome. Some glycosides on hydrolysis produce aglycones like gitogenin and tigogenin, which also are being used in steroid synthesis. 14 Balsamdendron commiphora mukul commonly known as Guggul contains special group of compounds called Guggulsterones, which range from E to Z. 15,16,17They are known as active principle of the herb and accounts for the use of the herb in hyperlipidemia and arthritis. 18Withania sominifera commonly known as Ashwagandha contain pharmacologically active compounds called Withanolides, which are considered to be responsible for various applications of the herb as adaptogen and immunomodulator. 19Withaferin-A is the most important group of Withanolide and has shown promise as potent anti cancer agent. 20The Withanolides are basically steriod lactones and various types have been isolated. A special group of compounds called cardioactive steroids [better known as cardiac glycosides] deserves special mention. Digitalis purpurea, Stropanthus gratus and Urginea indica are reputed remedies as cardiac tonics. Clinically they find application in congestive cardiac failure. All of them contain steroid saponins as active constituents. 21Calotropis procera is known to contain cardioactive glycoside calotropine, which has shown an antitumor effect in vitro on human epidermiod carcinoma cells of the rhinopharynx. Besides it also acts as expectorant and diuretic. 22In Homeopathic system of medicine, Convallaria majalis is a reputed remedy in various heart diseases. It also contains cardioactive steroid glycosides, which vary in the herb according to geographical source, and main active constituents are convalloside, convallatoxin and convallatoxol. In clinical studies they have shown positive inotropic effect on the myocardium and it lowers the elevated left ventricular pressure as well pathologically raised venous pressure. From above it can be concluded that that sterol compounds are less known for their medicinal importance. Some of them have been isolated and researchers are studying hard to find their exact mode of action. In future a number of compounds can be expected from the sterols that can provide us with life saving drugs. The only need of the hour is to investigate the compounds with open mind so that maximum benefit can be withdrawn from them.


Functional oxide-based thin films
have attracted much attention owing to their broad applications in modern
society. The multifunction tuning in oxide thin films is critical for obtaining
enhanced properties. In this dissertation, four new nanocomposite thin film
systems with highly textured growth have been fabricated by pulsed laser
deposition technique. The functionalities including ferromagnetism,
ferroelectricity, multiferroism, magnetoelectric coupling, low-field
magnetoresistance, transmittance, optical bandgap and dielectric constants have
been demonstrated. Besides, the tunability of the functionalities have been
studied via different approaches.

First, varies deposition
frequencies have been used in vertically aligned nanocomposite BaTiO3:YMnO3
(BTO:YMO) and BaTiO3:La0.7Sr0.3Mn3
(BTO:LSMO) thin films. In both systems, the strain coupling effect
between the phases are affected by the density of grain boundaries. Increasing
deposition frequency generates thinner columns in BTO:YMO thin films, which
enhances the anisotropic ferromagnetic response in the thin films. In contrast,
the columns in BTO:LSMO thin films become discontinuous as the deposition
frequency increases, leading to the diminished anisotropic ferromagnetic
response. Coupling with the ferroelectricity in BTO, the room temperature
multiferroic properties have been obtained in these two systems.

 Second, the
impact of the film composition has been demonstrated in La0.7Ca0.3MnO3
(LCMO):CeO2 thin film system, which has an insulating CeO2 in
ferromagnetic conducting LCMO matrix structure. As the atomic percentage of the
CeO2 increases, enhanced low-field magnetoresistance and increased
metal-to-insulator transition temperature are observed. The thin films also
show enhanced anisotropic ferromagnetic response comparing with the pure LCMO
film.

 Third, the
transition metal element in Bi3MoMTO9 (MT,
transition metals of Mn, Fe, Co and Ni) thin films have been varied. The thin
films have a multilayered structure with MT-rich pillar-like domains
embedded in Mo-rich matrix structure. The anisotropic magnetic easy axis and
optical properties have been demonstrated. By the element variation, the
optical bandgaps, dielectric constants as well as anisotropic ferromagnetic
properties have been achieved. The studies
in this dissertation demonstrate several examples of tuning the
multifunctionalities in oxide-based nanocomposite thin films. These enhanced
properties can broaden the applications of functional oxides for advanced
nanoscale devices.


A new minimax network optimization algorithm not requiring derivatives has been developed. It is based on successive linear approximations to the nonlinear functions defining the problem. Adequate modeling of distributed parameter circuits for optimization purposes often involves parasitic, etc., which makes the gradient computation by the adjoint network method or related methods rather complicated, and often numerical errors are introduced in the gradients. Consequently, the algorithm is found to be of particular relevance in optimum design of practical microwave networks. The relative advantages of the proposed algorithm are established by comparison with known gradient and nongradient algorithms based on optimization of cascaded transmission-line transformers. The relevance to microwave filter design is demonstrated by an example which represents an improvement of analytical filter design results. Finally, optimum broad-band design of a practical coaxial transferred-electron reflection-type amplilier is carried out by means of the proposed method. The results are supported by experimental verification.


The MSCI-Ulster University collaboration detailing the performance of the Northern Ireland Commercial property market is now in its fifth year of production. The research has been used to promote the investment potential of Belfast/N. Ireland to an institutional investment audience with key dissemination events in hosted in London (January 2016) and in Cannes as part of the 2016 MIPIM festival (March 2016). Key highlights for the 12 months to the end of December 2015 include Commercial property in Northern Ireland posting a total return of 6.2%. The Northern Ireland market continued to exhibit strong levels of passing rent which resulted in an income return of 6.5% in 2015. This remains amongst the highest income return recorded by an MSCI-measured market and provides a competitive pricing advantage for assets in Northern Ireland. At city level, Belfast property recorded an average positive total return of 6.9% outperforming a number of key European cities including Rome, Milan and Frankfurt. The Belfast office market was amongst the top performing in Europe with a total return of 22% in 2015.


When a unidimensionality assumption has been actually violated, interpretation of test scores might be jeopardized. It couldn't be overemphasized in case of high-stake exams such as PAPs UGM (academic potentiality test for UGM graduate student candidates) which was supposed to reflect a composite ability. This study aimed at revealing item characteristics of PAPs A-1 Series based on UIRT and MIRT and discovering dimensionality of the three subtests of the test. Scores of subject (n=2035) on the 3 subtests were analysed and the results showed that 27 items (10 of Verbal, 8 of Kuantitatif, and 9 of Penalaran) were flagged for having rbis of less than 0.25 and 6 other items for having abnormally high pseudo-guessing parameters. Dimensionality analyses found out that Penalaran subtest was local-dependent while Verbal and Kuantitatif subtests both were local-independent. In addition, MIRT analyses failed to fully describe item characteristics of the test due to effect of interaction among probabilities of correct response of the three subtests.

Keywords: dimensionality, PAPs UGM, MIRT, UIRT


One of the key challenges in the development of secure software is the tradeoff between usability and security. Often, many of the rigorous requirements of a strong cryptographic implementation appear to be at odds with consumer requirements and desires. Non-technical users typically desire a straightforward user interface which does not require them to learn any special skills to use the application, yet also expect the application to offer them adequate protection [30]. There is, however, very little that an average user can do to ensure the security of the underlying technical implementation of security software they run, presenting a major challenge for users left unable to conveniently verify that the software works as expected. The intersection of the technical requirements for cryptography, and consumers' desires for usability, introduces a number of opportunities for security weaknesses to emerge within the design of security software. A desire for convenience has been widely recognised as resulting in poor security practices, such as in the selection of passwords [31], of particular concern where user passwords are used for the generation of encryption keys for data.


Endochondral ossification is the process by which bone is deposited during development, growth and repair of the skeleton. The regulation of endochondral ossification is extremely important as developmental flaws can result in severe skeletal abnormalities. However, until recently the limitations of available methodologies have restricted our understanding of this fundamental physiological process. The analysis of chemical elements that are intimately associated with discrete biochemical stages of ossification within bone could provide new insight to such processes at the atomic level. In this study we present detailed characterisation of the elemental inventory within actively ossifying bone during development in mice using synchrotron microfocus X-ray techniques. X-ray fluorescence imaging showed differential distributions of Zn, Sr and Ca, which may be correlated with the processes of cartilage replacement (Zn), active ossification (Sr) and fully ossified tissues (Ca). Quantification of these trace elements confirmed their relative distributions. These results represent the first detailed visualisation of local endochondral ossification processes using trace elemental mapping. Such studies have far reaching applications not only in the medical field, but to our understanding of the evolution of the bony skeleton given that trace element inventories have been shown to be preserved through deep time (millions of years).


Background. Continuing professional development (CPD) was introduced as a method to ensure that healthcare professionals continuously update their knowledge and skills. In South Africa (SA), CPD has been adopted as a mandatory requirement by the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) for all registered healthcare professionals. However, despite CPD being mandatory, a number of healthcare professionals nationally are still non-compliant. Hence, research was conducted to determine the reasons for non-compliance. Objective. To identify the opinions and challenges related to CPD compliance by radiographers working in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province, SA. Methods. A positivist paradigm and cross-sectional research design were used. The methodology was quantitative and the measuring instrument was a survey questionnaire. The majority of questions were closed-ended and a few were open-ended. The latter questions allowed participants to make suggestions and give opinions freely. Radiographers from all four disciplines in radiography, working in KZN, were included in this study. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS version 23.0 (IBM Corp., USA). Open-ended questions were assessed qualitatively by means of coding and thematic analysis. Results. This study revealed that the two most common challenges experienced by KZN radiographers were lack of time and the inability to attend CPD activities owing to shift work. The majority of participants acknowledged the importance of CPD; however, most indicated engagement with CPD only because of mandatory requirements by the HPCSA. This could imply a need to review the effectiveness of the current CPD processes. Conclusion. In a profession such as radiography, which is constantly evolving and progressing, the need for CPD is indisputable. It is evident from the findings of this study that KZN radiographers acknowledge the importance and value of CPD in their profession. However, they experience a number of challenges that negatively affect their CPD participation. These challenges need to be addressed to ensure that the aim of CPD is achieved.


We report molecular dynamics simulations and their analysis for a mixed tilt and twist grain boundary vicinal to the $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}7$ symmetric tilt boundary of the type ${1\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}2\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}3}$ in aluminum. When minimized in energy at $0\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$, a grain boundary of this type exhibits nanofacets that contain kinks. We observe that at higher temperatures of migration simulations, given extended annealing times, it is energetically favorable for these nanofacets to coalesce into a large terrace-facet structure. Therefore, we initiate the simulations from such a structure and study as a function of applied driving force and temperature how the boundary migrates. We find the migration of a faceted boundary can be described in terms of the flow of steps. The migration is dominated at lower driving force by the collective motion of the steps incorporated in the facet, and at higher driving forces by the step detachment from the terrace-facet junction and propagation of steps across the terraces. The velocity of steps on terraces is faster than their velocity when incorporated in the facet, and very much faster than the velocity of the facet profile itself, which is almost stationary. A simple kinetic Monte Carlo model matches the broad kinematic features revealed by the molecular dynamics. Since the mechanisms seem likely to be very general on kinked grain-boundary planes, the step-flow description is a promising approach to more quantitative modeling of general grain boundaries.


Selling MP3s? You should have stuck with CDs By Anne Fitzgerald, Queensland University of Technology and Tim Seidenspinner, Queensland University of Technology What's the difference between selling a secondhand music CD and transferring ownership of the same songs bought from iTunes? Not much, you'd think – except one's illegal, according to a New York court. Earlier this month, ReDigi.com, which sells "used" digital music files, was found to violate copyright law after record label Capitol Records claimed the web-based service infringed reproduction rights. While many people are familiar with browsing and buying used vinyls or books, this recent decision hinders methods of virtually sourcing secondhand digital files, even if ownership of a song or track is completely transferred to a different person, and no lasting copies are made. To understand the decision in Capitol Records, LLC v ReDigi Inc. it is useful to review developments in music distribution over the past 30 years and consider how concepts of property and ownership apply to digital copyright works. Three decades of digital music formats Before the advent of digital storage, recorded music was distributed on vinyl records, 8-track, and cassette tapes. In 1982 the first Compact Disc (CD) players were released by electronics manufacturers Philips and Sony. As CD players and CDs became cheaper, CD sales boomed and largely replaced vinyl records and cassette tapes. The first recordable CD was produced by Japanese electronics firm Taiyo Yuden in 1988 and marketed in 1990, and CD burners, which became standard equipment in desktop and laptop computers, enabled consumers to make exact digital copies of CDs they had purchased. At the same time the MP3 file format (developed by the German Fraunhofer Institute in 1988), which enables digital music files to be compressed into very small files, was rapidly becoming popular. Using CD drives to copy files from (or "rip") commercial CDs, users could convert the digital music files into the MP3 format and either burn a new CD or share the file on the internet. With the appearance of the first portable MP3 player in 1999 and the first peer-to-peer client, Napster, popularity of both the MP3 format and CD burners increased greatly – as did the music industry's problems as music piracy started to rise. Lars Ulrich, Chuck D and Charlie Rose talk Napster Belatedly, the music industry embraced online distribution of digital music files, which has increasingly replaced CDs. Apple's iTunes Store, established in 2003, has been the biggest music vendor in the world since 2010; by February 2013 iTunes had sold a staggering 25 billion songs. Where does ReDigi fit in? ReDigi is a cloud service that acts as an intermediary between MP3 sellers and buyers. It was launched in late 2011 by American entrepreneur John Ossenmacher. Sellers upload their tracks, originally bought from iTunes, onto ReDigi's cloud, which are then advertised for less than the "new" price. Want some secondhand Meat Loaf? ReDigi.com Once a buyer purchases a secondhand track, the original is deleted from the seller's hard drive and the copy in the cloud is transferred to the buyer. While it may appear that copyright remains intact – the deletion of the original file after sale means only one person is possession of the track – the step of copying it to the cloud holds the key to the court's decision. Property and ownership in copyright law Whenever we talk about "property" and "ownership" in relation to copyright works, it is necessary to distinguish between the rights of the copyright owner the rights of someone who purchases an article that embodies the copyright work Once an article – such as a book – embodying copyright material has been put into circulation by, or with the authorisation of, the copyright owner, a person who obtains the article can do what they like with it, subject to restrictions. So if a person purchases a copy of a book that has been put on the market by the copyright owner, they can either give it to another person or sell it to a secondhand bookseller, who will in turn resell it. These two actions are permitted because the copyright owner's rights in the book, as an item of tangible property, ceased at the time it was first sold. This is known as the "first sale doctrine". But the copyright owner still retains all the exclusive rights of copyright and can restrain the purchaser of the book, or any other person who subsequently receives it, from acting within those exclusive rights, such as making a copy or adaptation of it. Lammy831 So, in the case of a music CD, we can distinguish between ownership of the physical item – the CD – and ownership of the copyright work embodied in it – the music tracks which are digitally "burned" onto the disc. When purchasing a CD, the consumer gains ownership of the physical item but not the copyright work. Rather, the consumer obtains a licence, or permission, to use the copyright work – by playing it on a CD player. But, since the consumer owns the CD upon which the copyright work is stored, they can legally dispose of the physical item by way of gift or sale. In that case, it is implied that permission to use the copyright work is transferred along with the physical item. Where the music recording only ever exists as a non-physical digital file – as is the case when digital music files are downloaded from the iTunes Store and others – there is no physical item that can be transferred to a purchaser. Where a copyright work exists only in the form of computer-readable code, the consumer does not obtain any rights of ownership but merely permission to use the copyright work for specified purposes – usually, to store and play it in a device. The standard terms of the licence expressly prohibit the copying of the work without the permission of the copyright owner. The decision in Capitol Records, LLC v ReDigi Inc. The facts considered in Capitol Records, LLC v ReDigi Inc. were summarised by District Judge Sullivan: ReDigi markets itself as "the world's first and only online marketplace for digital used music." To sell music on ReDigi's website, a user must first download ReDigi's "Media Manager" to his computer. Once installed, Media Manager analyses the user's computer to build a list of digital music files eligible for sale. A file is eligible only if it was purchased on iTunes or from another ReDigi user; music downloaded from a CD or other file-sharing website is ineligible for sale. After the list is built, a user may upload any of his eligible files to ReDigi's "Cloud Locker", an ethereal moniker for what is, in fact, merely a remote server in Arizona. If a user chooses to sell his digital music file, his access to the file is terminated and transferred to the new owner at the time of purchase. Thereafter, the new owner can store the file in the Cloud Locker, stream it, sell it, or download it to her computer and other devices. Capitol Records claimed ReDigi infringed its copyright in its digital music files by enabling and inducing users to make additional copies by uploading the files to the "Cloud Locker" and then downloading or streaming it to the new purchaser of the file. How ReDigi works. In its defence, ReDigi argued that the resale of MP3/digital music files is permitted under the fair use and first sale doctrines. But the court rejected ReDigi's arguments. On ReDigi's argument based on the first sale doctrine, the court held that the doctrine's application was limited to material items that the copyright owner put into the stream of commerce. The court accepted that the first sale doctrine would apply to resale of a computer hard drive, iPod or other memory device onto which the music file was originally downloaded. Rick Heath But this was not the case in this instance, where all that ReDigi was purporting to sell was the digital music file. Although these issues have not yet been considered by an Australian court, similar cases – involving software rather than digital music files – have already come before the courts in the United States and Europe. While ReDigi continues to claim its service is legal, the extent of copyright owners' rights in digital materials may be an issue for legislatures rather than the courts. In the meantime, we can expect more cases like this to be brought before domestic courts while the law, as ever, struggles to keep up with technological advances. The authors do not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article. They also have no relevant affiliations. This article was originally published at The Conversation. Read the original article.


BACKGROUND
Concerns regarding the safety of transfused blood have generated considerable enthusiasm for the use of technologies intended to reduce the use of allogeneic blood (blood from an unrelated donor). Platelet-rich plasmapheresis (PRP) offers an alternative approach to blood conservation.

OBJECTIVES
To examine the evidence for the efficacy of PRP in reducing peri-operative allogeneic red blood cell (RBC) transfusion, and the evidence for any effect on clinical outcomes such as mortality and re-operation rates.

SEARCH STRATEGY
Studies were identified by: computer searches of MEDLINE, EMBASE, Current Contents, and the Cochrane Library (to June 2001). These searches were supplemented by checking the reference lists of published articles, reports, and reviews.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Controlled parallel group trials in which adult patients, scheduled for non-urgent surgery, were randomised to PRP, or to a control group who did not receive the intervention.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Main outcomes measured were: the number of patients receiving an allogeneic RBC transfusion, and the amount of RBC transfused. Trial quality was assessed using criteria proposed by Schulz et al. (Schulz 1995) and Jadad et al. (Jadad 1996).

MAIN RESULTS
Nineteen trials of PRP were identified that reported data for the number of patients exposed to allogeneic RBC transfusion. These trials evaluated a total of 1452 patients. The pooled relative risk (RR) of exposure to allogeneic blood transfusion in those patients randomised to PRP was 0.71 (95%CI: 0.56, 0.90), equating to a relative risk reduction (RRR) of 29%; the average absolute risk reduction (ARR) was 19% (RD = -0.19: 95%CI: -0.29, -0.09). On average, PRP did not significantly reduce the total volume of RBC transfused (weighted mean difference [WMD] = -0.69: 95%CI: -1.93, 0.56 units). Substantial statistical heterogeneity was observed (p < 0.001). Trials provided inadequate data regarding the impact of PRP on morbidity, mortality, and hospital length of stay. The majority of trials were small and of poor methodological quality.

REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS
Although the results suggest that PRP is effective in reducing allogeneic RBC transfusion in adult patients undergoing elective surgery, there was considerable heterogeneity in treatment effects and the trials were of poor methodological quality. As the majority of trials were unblinded, transfusion practices may have been influenced by knowledge of the patient's allocation status, potentially exaggerating the true magnitude of the beneficial effect of PRP. The available studies provided inadequate data for firm conclusions to be drawn regarding the impact of PRP on clinically important endpoints.


This paper reports on the emerging findings of a small qualitative study investigating the role of school based support staff (hereafter referred to as SBSS) in supporting students to become independent virtual learners in the Virtual Learning Network Primary School (VLNP). The VLNP is a collaboration of schools throughout New Zealand providing virtual learning opportunities for their students in subjects that are not available in their own schools. The SBSS are staff members in the student's home school who support and mentor the student during their time in the VLNP. Students that learn through the VLNP have varying levels of academic, technical and independent skills. In some schools SBSS assist students, however the expectations and degree of support varies from school to school. Two schools within the VLNP were used in this study. An interpretive qualitative methodology was adopted using individual semi-structured online interviews with the teachers, eteachers, principals and students at each of the case study sites. Grounded Theory was used to analyse the data. Eight key themes emerged to highlight the multiple roles that the SBSS importantly play in the VLNP. These include developing critical thinking, providing a wrap around approach, removing barriers to learning, providing opportunities, tuakana/teina: learning from each other, allowing students to take responsibility for their own learning, monitoring teaching and learning, and having administrative/managerial processes in place. The key findings in this study are of distributed support by all stakeholders and the importance of the role of the SBSS in coordinating this support.


Students' wellbeing is an essential component of their ability to function well, not only at school but also in all life domains. Many studies have investigated student wellbeing. However, empirical studies about the wellbeing of students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are scarce. Furthermore, many studies have adopted a deficit view of wellbeing and mental [ill]-health. This study adopted a more positive perspective. We administered a questionnaire assessing social-emotional and psychological wellbeing, global self-concept, resilience, bullying, mental ill-health and school satisfaction to 1930 students, aged 13–15 years, who were attending seven mainstream schools in South Australia. Of those students, 172 self-identified as having SEND. Results showed significant differences, with students who self-identified with SEND not faring as well as other students on all measures. In particular, just over one third (39.9%) of students who self-identified as having SEND reported that they were flourishing, compared with just over half (57.6%) of the students who did not indicate that they had special needs. The findings indicate that more attention needs to be given to designing and implementing supports to improve the wellbeing and school satisfaction of students who self-identify as having SEND.


Commercial banks such as UBS and HSBC embroiled in scandals that in some cases exposed lawmakers themselves as tax evaders, multinationals such as Google and Apple using the Double Irish and other tax avoidance strategies, governments granting fiscal sweetheart deals behind closed doors as in Luxembourg - the stream of news items documenting the crisis of global tax governance is not about to dry up. Much work has been done in individual disciplines on the phenomenon of tax competition that lies at the heart of this crisis. Yet, the combination of issues of democratic legitimacy, social justice, economic efficiency, and national sovereignty that tax competition raises clearly requires an interdisciplinary analysis. This book offers a rare example of this kind of work, bringing together experts from political science, philosophy, law, and economics whose contributions combine empirical analysis with normative and institutional proposals. It makes an important contribution to reforming international taxation.


Now in full color! The quick way to learn Microsoft PowerPoint 2016! This is learning made easy. Get more done quickly with PowerPoint 2016. Jump in wherever you need answers--brisk lessons and colorful screenshots show you exactly what to do, step by step. Get easy-to-follow guidance from a certified Microsoft Office Specialist Master Learn and practice new skills while working with sample content, or look up specific procedures Create attractive electronic presentations and printed publications Incorporate professional design elements Use built-in tools to capture and edit graphics Include audio, video, and animated elements Supercharge your efficiency by creating custom slide masters and layouts Present data in tables, diagrams, and charts


Abstract Twenty-first century agricultural communication students are expected to have an increasingly diverse set of skills when they graduate.Expertise is expected in: writing, editing, design, marketing, media relations, event planning, interpersonal communication, digital development, e-publications, online video, mobile applications, podcasting, and social media.This expansion of needed skills is due in no small part to the proliferation of communication channels and convergence of media platforms today. In order to continue preparing students for professions in agricultural communication, it is imperative that the curricula reflect current industry needs and available technology. In this article, one approach for expanding curricula to incorporate these newer technologies by implementing backpack multimedia journalism kits for science communication is discussed. The kits were developed to address these criteria: 1) students needed opportunities to gain a variety of broad technological skills, 2) the technology had to be mobile and cost effective, and 3) the technology needed to be able to produce a variety of content across a variety of platforms. The mobile multimedia kits included iPad-minis and video accessories. Through an agricultural communication blended-learning, project-based undergraduate course, the authors tested the effectiveness of the kits, as well as researched students' perceptions and experiences with the course design and mobile communication technologies. The results of the study showed students valued the selected technology and gained targeted video production skills. Although students' liked the course design, they experienced challenges with course requirements, time management, and using the technological audio recording components.


I explore implementation of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence's clinical guidelines for schizophrenia at an individual practitioner level and at an organisational level. Integrating effective individual and team approaches into a systematic organisational approach with collaborative working between managers, clinicians and service users will be essential to successful implementation and is likely to require a strong lead from senior clinicians. Implementation is likely to be best achieved through a sense of ownership of the guidelines and a process that borrows from their spirit, which emphasises collaboration, building on the strengths and good practice already present. Although full implementation will require additional resources, current resources must be employed effectively. The task of implementation is immense, however, and in some areas resource deficiencies and other structural problems might present insurmountable obstacles.


Abstract Water storage and nocturnal increases in osmotic pressure affect the water relations of the desert succulent Ferocactus acanthodes, which was studied using an electrical circuit analog based on the anatomy and morphology of a representative individual. Transpiration rates and osmotic pressures over a 24-h period were used as input variables. The model predicted water potential, turgor pressure and water flow for various tissues. Plant capacitances, storage resistances and nocturnal increases in osmotic pressure were varied to determine their role in the water relations of this dicotyledonous succulent. Water coming from storage tissues contributed about one-third of the water transpired at night: the majority of this water came from the nonphotosynthetic, water storage parenchyma of the stem. Time lags of 4 h were predicted between maximum transpiration and maximum water uptake from the soil. Varying the capacitance of the plant caused proportional changes in osmotically driven water movement but changes in storage resistance had only minor effects. Turgor pressure in the chlorenchyma depended on osmotic pressure, but was fairly insensitive to doubling or halving of the capacitance or storage resistance of the plant. Water uptake from the soil was only slightly affected by osmotic pressure changes in the chlorenchyma. For this stem succulent, the movement of water from the chlorenchyma to the xylem and the internal redistribution of water among stem tissues were dominated by nocturnal changes in chlorenchyma osmotic pressure, not by transpiration.


We count ]B, C]-grained, k-factor integers which are simultaneously B-rough and C-smooth and have a fixed number k of prime factors. Our aim is to exploit explicit versions of the prime number theorem as much as possible to get good explicit bounds for the count of such integers. This analysis was inspired by certain inner procedures in the general number field sieve. The result should at least provide some insight in what happens there.
We estimate the given count in terms of some recursively defined functions. Since they are still difficult to handle, only another approximation step reveals their orders.
Finally, we use the obtained bounds to perform numerical experiments that show how good the desired count can be approximated for the parameters of the general number field sieve in the mentioned inspiring application.


Most existing XML stream processing systems adopt full structured query languages, such as XPath or XQuery, but they are difficult for ordinary users to learn and use. Keyword search is a user-friendly information discovery technique that has been extensively studied for text documents. This paper presents an XML stream filter system called XKFilter, which is the first system for supporting keyword search over XML stream. In XKFilter, the concepts of XLCA (eXclusive Lowest Common Ancestor) and XLCA Connecting Tree (XLCACT) are used to define the search semantic and results of keywords, and present an approach to filter XML stream according to keywords. The prototype XKFilter is implemented in the experiments.


The World Health Organization recommends a comprehensive approach of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV consisting of four prongs: prevention of primary infection among women in reproductive age; prevention of unintended pregnancies among women living with HIV; care and treatment of HIV positive pregnant women; family approach for HIV services. Mozambique, located in sub-Saharan Africa, has a high HIV burden with a national prevalence of 15.8% among pregnant women (2011). When the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) program initiated in 2002, a single dose nevirapine was used as prophylactic antiretroviral drug, while the current recommended regimen consists of lifelong antiretroviral treatment for all HIV positive diagnosed pregnant and breastfeeding women (Option B+).
In the thesis, a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used to evaluate factors influencing processes of Mozambique's PMTCT program both during the antenatal care period and the postpartum period. We investigated risk factors for HIV acquisition during pregnancy and breastfeeding period, and access to HIV prevention and care for HIV positive women and their HIV-exposed or infected infants. As described in articles 1 and 3 of this dissertation, the incidence of HIV remains high both during pregnancy and the postpartum period (3.2 and 4.3 per 100 women years, respectively), with a high burden on vertical transmission: one of eight infants infected with HIV is due to a postpartum maternal HIV infection. Risk factors for acquiring HIV during the postpartum period are young age, low parity, higher education of woman's partner and having sex with someone other than one's partner; during pregnancy, early sexual debut and living in Maputo province were also identified as risk factors. Strategies of primary prevention of HIV during pregnancy and the postpartum period should be tailored for them, with a special attention to young girls and women. A multi-sectoral approach including the Ministries of Health, Education and Youth is crucial, besides working with communities on awareness and education of the population.
Access to HIV care for HIV positive pregnant women is influenced by many factors. Having diagnostic tests for CD4+ T-cell count closer to care showed to lead to earlier initiation of treatment of HIV positive eligible pregnant women. This is important as suppression of viral load of HIV among pregnant women as soon as possible after diagnosis is crucial to decrease risk of transmission to the infant. However, having the necessary tests at the clinic does not always result in a higher uptake of ART initiation, indicating that other contextual factors play a role in uptake of treatment. Article 2 showed that having POC testing at the clinic did not increase uptake of testing. However, it decreased time to antiretroviral treatment initiation for HIV positive eligible women. Contextual factors play a role in uptake of testing and treatment, and need to be taken into consideration when plans for roll-out of rapid diagnostics are discussed.
Factors influencing retention in postpartum PMTCT services for HIV positive pregnant and postpartum women and their infants were investigated in article 4. Barriers are mainly individual-level barriers where stigma, preference of alternative care (outside the national health care services) and disbelief in the results are still important. What facilitates retention in services is having hope for a future for the child, presence of symptomatic illness and the belief that the health facility is the appropriate place for care. Male involvement in MCH and PMTCT care is important for prevention of infant HIV infection. This involvement starts with couple attendance at the first antenatal care visit and couple HIV testing. However, the study presented in article 1 showed that knowledge of male partner testing is low: 19% of the women reported that their partner had been tested for HIV. Factors hindering the uptake of male HIV testing are fear of stigma and discrimination, but also the preconception of clinics being places for women. Having men attend ANC may not be the best viable strategy and reaching couples outside of the clinic may be necessary.
There is a need for stronger linkages with the community, where decision makers are involved in health promotion activities. Continuous education and awareness are necessary. At institutional level, novel technologies embedded in existing services, new or re-organized health care services (such as male friendly health units, or family clinics) and task-shifting need to be tested to increase uptake and retention of MCH/PMTCT services, aiming at a decreased vertical transmission of HIV.


The aim of this paper is to explore the adequacy of contract law, common law and the Consumer Protection Act 1999 (CPA) as the tools of consumer protection in dealing with exclusion clauses. The underlying philosophy is that consumers are free to enter into contracts and therefore must take care of their own interests. This principle, which is based on the assumption of equal bargaining power between parties, though, is not appropriate when consumers are involved. This is because in most consumer transactions, the natural tendency is that the consumers have no option except to abide by the contractual terms determined by the suppliers. The content analysis is carried out in order to analyse Malaysian law which include the analysis on the Contract Act 1950, the common law as well as the Consumer Protection Act 1999. A survey using questionnaires was carried out among 400 consumers in Klang Valley to explore their awareness and practices towards exclusion clauses. The analysis of the laws demonstrates that the law of contract, common law and the CPA are inadequate in giving comprehensive protection to consumers on the issue of exclusion clauses. In addition, the results of the survey show that only 41.8% of the respondents aware of the existence of such clauses in their dealing with the suppliers and 50.8 % of the respondents responded that they did not understand the implication of such clause. In total, 54.3% of them stated that they would still sign the document even though they were already aware of the exclusion clauses or any other unfair contractual terms. Thus, it is submitted that there are two solutions to this problem. The first one is to educate the consumers so that they are more aware about exclusion clauses and the second one is for the Parliament to take steps to legislate specific legislation dealing with exclusion clauses especially in consumer transactions.


Professional legal education, like many aspects of our lives, is now under increased pressure to move into the virtual spaces afforded by digital technologies. The rising popularity of social media platforms such as Instagram, service-type apps such as Passport, dating and social networking apps such as Tinder and the growth in and ease of access to online education through platforms such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) all highlight the increasingly pervasive nature of the Internet in many aspects of our lives. The ascent of the Internet is also reflected in the changing characteristics and demographics of our student cohorts and the changing legal environment – for example the prevalence of offshore outsourcing, more sophisticated clients, increasingly egalitarian access to legal information and virtual law firms Such spaces, when used for teaching and professional development, have profound implications for the nature and character of that teaching and development. In this article we argue that specific factors in Australia, such as geography (which limits physical access to professional legal education), the history and cultures of legal education programmes, and recent changes in the regulatory frameworks for legal education, require law graduates to be equipped with more than the legal knowledge and skills that are currently required for admission to practice. With reference to digital educational theory, we analyse one instance of a program where transactional learning deepens and enhances students' professionalism. We then investigate the consequences of programs such as this for the design of regulatory regimes in legal education.


This study assessed how sexual media use by one or both members of a romantic dyad relates to relationship and sexual satisfaction. A total of 217 heterosexual couples completed an Internet survey that assessed sexual media use, relationship and sexual satisfaction, and demographic variables. Results revealed that a higher frequency of men's sexual media use related to negative satisfaction in men, while a higher frequency of women's sexual media use related to positive satisfaction in male partners. Reasons for sexual media use differed by gender: Men reported primarily using sexual media for masturbation, while women reported primarily using sexual media as part of lovemaking with their partners. Shared sexual media use was associated with higher relational satisfaction compared to solitary sexual media use.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate epithelial-mesenchymal interactions in morphological homeostasis through histologically orientated observations on the reduced enamel in epithelium.

STUDY DESIGN
Specimens were taken from impacted molar sites in 20 patients using the surgery. These were processed using standard histological, pathological and biochemical techniques. Slides were observed with a Nikon Eclipse E-600, Plan Apo piece, Microscopy, and photography was done using a Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera.

RESULTS
Radiolucent lesions displayed the supporting fibrous connective tissue wall with stratified squamous epithelium lining mostly. None of the specimens displayed prominent CAM 5.2, and anti-human K7 reacuvity, and PAS positive staining.

CONCLUSION
While the results of this study suggest that the reduced enamel epithelium showed a lower tendency in cell cycle, it does indicate that a histologically oriented study of reduced enamel epithelium is needed for the understanding of epithelial-mesenchymal interactions in morphogenesis.


Recent reviews of therapeutic photography have identified the technique's unique ability to transcend culture and language, both essential characteristics of international trauma therapy. This article describes a process, through which youth identified changes in self-perception after a photojournalism workshop, using an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach and conducted in a Shan migrant community centre in northern Thailand. The authors (a) provide a broad overview of a form of therapeutic photography utilised within a humanitarian aid context, (b) examine the concept of posttraumatic growth (PTG) within a traumatised adolescent population on the Thai/Burma border and, (c) suggest the potential for a new domain of growth as it relates to the application of Tedeshi & Calhoun's conceptual foundation of PTG (1995), within a Southeast Asian context. Results suggest that perceptions of self, and one's role in the community, did improve within the context of this project. A discussion of the limits and merits of this approach is also presented.


Background to Research - With the emergence of the knowledge based economy, universities have undertaken a new 'entrepreneurial' role whereby they can contribute directly to economic development through the commercialisation of knowledge residing within universities (Lu and Etzkowitz, 2008). Lord Drayson, Science and Innovation Minister, (2009) identifies that "universities are a key component in positioning the UK as a key knowledge economy at the forefront of the 21st Century innovation" hence, there has been increased interest in how knowledge can be leveraged within universities to attain sustainable competitive advantage. Technology commercialisation from universities, by means of licences, spin out firms and joint ventures is a highly dynamic, complex and risky process (McAdam et al., 2005; 2010). A multitude of knowledge flows and exchanges from multiple actors and entities are required to develop and commercialise embryonic technologies. Thus, to ensure technologies are successfully transferred from universities to industry, there is a need to understand these knowledge processes and how they can be managed (Khoja and Maranville, 2010; Lu and Etzkowitz, 2008; O'Shea et al., 2008). A tool which can help organisations to achieve this is absorptive capacity (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Zahra and George, 2002; Khoja and Maranville, 2010). Absorptive capacity has emerged as one of the most prominent themes in the literature on organisational knowledge transfer (Khoja and Maranville, 2010) as it can be used to explore how knowledge is acquired, assimilated, transformed and exploited from external sources. As such, it has emerged as a useful framework to explore knowledge exchanges and transfer within a wide range of organisational contexts (Rothaermel et al., 2007). In particular, absorptive capacity has emerged as an important construct in technology transfer research due to the complex knowledge exchanges that take place amongst various stakeholders and entities to aid commercialisation (Lane et al., 2006; McAdam et al., 2010). Thus, absorptive capacity was chosen as the lens from which to explore the knowledge processes within a university technology transfer context.The aim of this research is to investigate the determinants of university technology transfer from an absorptive capacity lens. The emphasis is on gaining an understanding as to how knowledge can be transferred from multiple university technology transfer stakeholders and entities to aid knowledge commercialisation. Looking at the knowledge processes within university technology transfer from an absorptive capacity lens is relatively new. Whilst links have been made within literature as to the inter-related nature of university technology transfer, knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity; to date, very few researchers have carried out an empirical study exploring these three fields collectively. This renders this study an exploratory one, focused on theory development within this area.Design/Methodology/Approach – The research was exploratory in nature with the aim of inductively building theory in an under researched area. A qualitative methodology within one intrinsic case study of a university was undertaken. Data was collected in four stages by means of pilot study interviews (stage one), in-depth interviews of multiple stakeholders, namely the technology transfer office staff, principal investigators, enterprise co-ordinators and government (stage two), observational analysis of technology transfer meetings over a period of 8 months (stage three) and repeat interviews of multiple stakeholders (stage four). Documents used within the university technology transfer process were also analysed. The multiple data collection stages allowed for triangulation to gain a rich overview of the phenomena under study (Yin, 2009). A method of open inductive coding (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) was followed. Coding was carried out both manually and with the use of NVivo 8. Open codes were then grouped into themes and sub themes. Findings – The findings resulted in six key themes, namely human factors, knowledge sources, stakeholder roles, power relationships, organisational factors and external influences. These themes and corresponding sub-themes were found to both positively and negatively affect knowledge transfer and sharing within the university technology transfer process. A conceptual absorptive capacity based framework was developed as a result of a critical analysis of the literature within the area and this was then revised in light of the findings. This conceptual framework depicts the knowledge processes existing within the university technology transfer process, thus aiding theoretical development. In addition propositions were developed as a result of the empirical findings. Originality/Value This research contributes to theory development due to the fact there is a paucity of research to date investigating multiple stakeholder knowledge transfer within the context of a university setting particularly from an absorptive capacity lens. By providing knowledge and understanding of the determinants of the knowledge transfer between multiple stakeholders this research also has implications for policy makers interested in triple helix interactions and knowledge transfer from universities as a key strategy for economic development.


This Article examines the contentious and recurring issue of how courts should handle confidential witnesses in securities litigation who recant the information attributed to them in complaints or deny that they ever provided such information to plaintiffs' counsel and/or investigators. The use by plaintiffs of confidential witnesses has become ubiquitous in recent years, as a primary unintended effect of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. That legislation raised the bar for pleading securities fraud and established an automatic stay of all discovery and other proceedings during the pendency of a motion to dismiss, absent application of one of two narrow exceptions. The viselike combination of these features forces plaintiffs to plead their cases with particularity while barring them from obtaining discovery to bolster their scienter and other allegations until all motions to dismiss have been resolved. In response, plaintiffs have turned to confidential witnesses, who typically are current or former employees of the defendant. These witnesses provide information anonymously for use in complaints, mainly because they are fearful of retaliation by defendants. In a recent series of high-profile cases, courts have been confronted with allegations that plaintiffs' confidential witnesses either have recanted the information attributed to them, or denied ever providing such information. This Article examines the contrasting approaches taken by courts to alleged recanting, and provides some specific recommendations for avoiding or resolving this problem in the future.


Steganography is the field of hiding messages in apparently innocuous media (e.g. images), and steganalysis is the field of detecting these covert messages. Almost all steganalysis consists of hand-crafted tests or human visual inspection to detect whether a file contains a message hidden by a specific steganography algorithm. These approaches are very fragile ‐ trivial changes in a steganography algorithm will often render a steganalysis approach useless, and human inspection does not scale. We propose a machine learning (ML) approach to steganalysis. First, a media file is represented as a canvas ‐ the available space within the file to hide a message. Those features that can distinguish clean from stegobearing files are then selected. We use ML algorithms to distinguish clean and stego-bearing files. The results reported here show that ML algorithms work in both content- and compression-based image formats, outperforming at least one current hand crafted steganalysis technique in the latter. Our current work can detect previously seen (trained on) steganography techniques, and we discuss extensions that we believe will be able to detect steganography using more sophisticated algorithms, as well as the use of previously unseen steganography algorithms.


Bruno, dying, obsessed with spiders and preoccupied with death and reconciliation, lies at the center of an intricate spider's web of relationships and passions: Bruno's estranged and grieving son Miles; Danby, Bruno's widowed son-in-law, consoling himself with the Adelaide the maid, one of Murdoch's finest comic creations; creepy Nigel the nurse and his besotted twin Will, fighter of duels. The flooding Thames brings about the climax, and all are left changed by love and forgiveness before the old man's death.


Hundreds of cankers caused by Ceratocystis smalleyi are associated with hickory bark beetle-attacked bitternut hickory exhibiting rapid crown decline in the north-central and northeastern United States. Discolored sapwood colonized by the fungus commonly underlies the cankers. Field studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that C. smalleyi infections cause vascular system dysfunction in infected trees. Fifty C. smalleyi inoculations made at 1.8 to 3.8 m in height on stems of healthy bitternut hickory trees (13 to 28 cm in diameter at 1.4 m in height) resulted in extensive canker formation and sapwood discoloration 12 to 14 months after treatment compared with water-inoculated and noninoculated controls. Sap flow velocity (midday) was significantly lower in the infected trees compared with that in the controls. Sap flow velocity also was inversely correlated with the proportion of bark area with cankered tissues and with tylose abundance in the youngest two growth rings. Tylose formation in current-year vessels associated with C. smalleyi infections is likely responsible for much of the water transport disruption. It is hypothesized that multiple stem infections of C. smalleyi and the resulting xylem dysfunction contribute to crown wilt development in bitternut hickory exhibiting rapid crown decline.


This thesis is about French foreign policy and how it has been constrained or enabled by the European Union (EU). It applies "Europeanization" theory to French policy in East Asia, testing the extent to which three dimensions of the Europeanization process (policy convergence, national projection and identity reconstruction) are evident and mutually compatible. The extent to which EU membership and the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) make a difference to French policy and vice versa, is evaluated over the period covering the second term of President Francois Mitterrand (1988-95) and the first term of President Jacques Chirac (1995-2002). France is a core country in the European Union and has taken part in European foreign policy (EFP) projects since the founding of European Political Cooperation in 1973. At the same time, its foreign policy is distinguished by a tradition of national independence and power projection. This thesis studies the interaction of French national policy with collective European foreign policy (EFP), and French interaction with the preferences, statements and actions of the Commission, the Council, the Member States and the European Parliament concerning East Asia. Most studies argue that if there is any "Europeanization" taking place, it is limited only to the bottom-up national projection variant that seeks to amplify French policies as "European", ie. to "Gallicise" European foreign policy. This study examines the record of French and EU interactions with China, Japan and Vietnam in the areas of economic exchanges, political-security relations and human rights to establish if there has been a trend of converging "European" policies and collective European conceptions of interest and identity. It concludes that the utility and impact of EU institutions and the CFSP on French foreign policy behaviour is more significant than is commonly imagined or admitted, and that the foreign policies of EU member states tend over the long term towards convergence.


We present a novel method and instrument for in vivo imaging and measurement of the human corneal dynamics during an air puff. The instrument is based on high-speed swept source optical coherence tomography (ssOCT) combined with a custom adapted air puff chamber from a non-contact tonometer, which uses an air stream to deform the cornea in a non-invasive manner. During the short period of time that the deformation takes place, the ssOCT acquires multiple A-scans in time (M-scan) at the center of the air puff, allowing observation of the dynamics of the anterior and posterior corneal surfaces as well as the anterior lens surface. The dynamics of the measurement are driven by the biomechanical properties of the human eye as well as its intraocular pressure. Thus, the analysis of the M-scan may provide useful information about the biomechanical behavior of the anterior segment during the applanation caused by the air puff. An initial set of controlled clinical experiments are shown to comprehend the performance of the instrument and its potential applicability to further understand the eye biomechanics and intraocular pressure measurements. Limitations and possibilities of the new apparatus are discussed.


Set in contemporary India, Love and Longing in Bombay confirms Vikram Chandra as one of today's most exciting young writers. In five haunting tales he paints a remarkable picture of Bombay - its ghosts, its passions, its feuds, its mysteries - while exploring timeless questions of the human spirit. 'When Midnight's Children first arrived on the scene, it became necessary to revaluate stories from and about India. With Vikram Chandra's collection - his second book - it is time to take stock again ...Breathtaking.' Observer


An investigation of a new type of connection between precast concrete decks and steel girders, for composite steel‐concrete bridges, is being performed by the Steel Structures Laboratory, ICOM, of Ecole Polytechinque Fédéral de Lausanne, EPFL. The connection resists the loads by shear resistance between base materials. Hence, a fundamental part of the research focuses on the behaviour of the different confined interfaces of the connection, subjected to shear, static and fatigue loading. The confinement is a combined outcome of the kinematic law of the interfaces and the section geometry. Experimental investigation through a series of direct shear tests on confined interfaces has resulted in the development of failure criteria and constitutive and kinematic models describing the behaviour of the different interfaces. Those laws are used as an input for a model that simulates the connection behaviour. The model of the connection is validated by push‐out tests on large‐scale specimens. Finally, a composite beam has been tested under constant amplitude for five million cycles. A static test, following the fatigue sequence, has shown that the composite beam reaches its plastic moment capacity due to the sufficient ductility of the connection.


Mexican American autobiography is a relatively new and therefore unexplored field of autobiography within the American literary scene. While celebrity autobiographies receive increasing and immediate attention in the US, autobiographies by what we might consider "average" people, especially those of Mexican heritage, have sometimes been easily dismissed in a society where an increasing number of people are Mexicans or self-declared Chicanos. The careful study of Mexican American autobiography will not only elucidate contemporary struggles that American citizens, both Mexican and otherwise, are facing, such as immigration, racial/cultural prejudice, and social injustices at large, but it will also help to bridge the sometimes hostile gap between two cultures that live in such close proximity—indeed, sometimes in the same space—to each other. More specifically, the portrayal of females (especially mothers) in Jose Antonio Villareal's Pocho and Ernesto Galarza's Barrio Boy brings to the forefront the complex and often contradictory existences faced by Mexican Americans in what, to them, is an increasingly white American atmosphere. While there has been some research done on these particular two autobiographies, the literature tends to focus on the male experience only. Granted, the authors are male and that vein of research is important; however, it neglects the crucial back story of the female Mexican American experience buttressing the male one. We need to take a closer look not at how female Mexican Americans nor male Mexican Americans portray themselves, but how the latter portray the former. This is especially crucial if Pocho and Barrio Boy do stand as "great influence[s] in the staging of a canonical Chicana/o autobiographical discourse into the 1980s" (Velasco 314). To understand contemporary Chicana feminism and autobiography more thoroughly, we must closely examine what stimulates the "indignation" and "anger" they are frequently accused of embracing so zealously (Castillo 4). From this understanding, we might be able to create more thorough feminist theories applicable to the current scene of all American literature, not just that produced in a white, middle-class atmosphere.


This paper reports the development of a power-assisted suit system actuated by ultrasonic motors. The proposed assisted suit is designed to support a caretaker performing nursing care tasks. The structure of the assisted suit has been designed to cover the caretaker's motions as much as possible, and the suit is equipped with ultrasonic motors mounted in areas close to the joint rotation axis of the elbow, shoulder, waist, and knee. The suit frame is designed as an exoskeleton structure that can protect the wearer from bearing the suit's weight because the foot part contacts the ground. A Phi60 double sandwich-type motors are used for the upper body part of the assisted suit. The torque of the double sandwich-type motor is about 3.8 times compared to the torque of the single sandwich-type motor. From the above results, the double sandwich-type motor is less space-saving but has high torque efficiency, and is therefore suitable as the actuator for the upper part of the assisted suit.


The year 2008 marked the beginning of a global financial crisis that severely affected how social, political, and media spheres are perceived by citizens. Its impact reached longer than its negative economic cycle, posing vital questions about power elites and social movements for social sciences. This Special Section aims to provide a better understanding about how the civil society of 5 Southern European countries (Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain) channeled their discontent toward their political authorities and the austerity economic decisions taken to solve the crisis. A comparative approach is completed among 6 articles tackling these critical times from different perspectives and applying several research methods to observe how collective action was organized in the streets and in mediated environments. The final picture confronts us with several unsolved challenges for representative democracies, as the growing distance between political leadership and a civil society that has developed new ways to express their demands online. Some lessons are applicable to new critical scenarios where risk, uncertainty, and threats to democratic and media systems become increasingly likely to emerge.


The 1995 publication of Goleman's Emotional Intelligence triggered a revolution in mental health promotion. Goleman's examination of Gardner's work on multiple intelligences and current brain research, and review of successful programs that promoted emotional health, revealed a common objective among those working to prevent specific problem behaviors: producing knowledgeable, responsible, nonviolent, and caring individuals. Advances in research and field experiences confirm that school-based programs that promote social and emotional learning (SEL) in children can be powerful in accomplishing these goals. This article reviews the work of the Collaborative to Advance Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), its guidelines for promoting mental health in children and youth based on SEL, key principles, and examples of exemplary programs.


The accurate and efficient operation of many applications and protocols in wireless sensor networks require synchronized notion of time. To achieve network-wide time synchronization, a common strategy is to flood current time information of a reference node into the network, which is utilized by the de facto time-synchronization protocol Flooding Time-Synchronization Protocol (FTSP). In FTSP, the propagation speed of the flood is slow because each node waits for a given period of time to propagate its time information about the reference node. It has been shown that slow-flooding decreases the synchronization accuracy and scalability of FTSP drastically. Alternatively, rapid-flooding approach is proposed in the literature, which allows nodes to propagate time information as quickly as possible. However, rapid flooding is difficult and has several drawbacks in wireless sensor networks. In this paper, our aim is to reduce the undesired effect of slow-flooding on the synchronization accuracy without changing the propagation speed of the flood. Within this context, we realize that the smaller the difference between the speeds of the clocks, the smaller the undesired effect of waiting times on the synchronization accuracy. In the light of this realization, our main contribution is to show that the synchronization accuracy and scalability of slow-flooding can drastically be improved by employing a clock speed agreement algorithm among the sensor nodes. We present an evaluation of this strategy on a testbed setup including 20 MICAz sensor nodes. Our theoretical findings and experimental results show that employing a clock speed agreement algorithm among the sensor nodes drastically improves the synchronization accuracy and scalability of slow-flooding.


ABSTRACT This paper explores the impact of the adoption of a cooperative approach on retail food supply chains, whose performances are strongly affected by the daily planning of deliveries from vendors. This approach requires a horizontal communication among vendors, and might result in minimising the overall transport costs. Nevertheless, the proper trade-off between costs and return is hard to be foreseen. Building on existing studies, this paper investigates the benefits and the opportunities deriving from the vendors' collaboration on the delivery process. We provide a decision support tool using an integer linear programming model to explore in a what-if multi-scenario analysis the trade-off between competitive and cooperative delivery regimes. The distribution of order release and fleet availability couple with the geography of the network, allowing for the identification of thresholds of mutual convenience in shifting from a competitive to a cooperative regime. Our methodology, applied to a case study from a regional retailer supply chain, highlights evident benefits, which are sometimes up to 40% of the overall costs, for the retailer, the carriers, and the vendors. Furthermore, accounting for those costs, the tool identifies, for a given supply chain, who actually gains from the collaboration and what those gains are.


The advent of technologies such as cable television, computers, satellites and interactive video is forcing a change in education. No longer must teachers and students be in the same room at the same time for effective instruction to occur. Distance learning is reaching across borders and boundaries to deliver high-quality education to people who formerly had no access to traditional programs. The satellite is a potent instrument in the distance learning field. The College of Business at Colorado State University, in partnership with Mind Extension University: The Education Network, offers a Master's of Business Administration degree via satellite transmission. Any qualified person in North America can receive an MBA from Colorado State University without setting foot on campus. * Breaking New Ground The satellite-delivered MBA program is unique in the distance learning field; no other MBA courses are delivered by means of satellite transmission. As with every new technology, some questions have arisen for which there are no precedents. Of primary concern is the use of copyrighted audiovisual works. The MBA courses are videotaped during regular class meetings on campus. The videotapes are then broadcast via satellite on a delayed basis. Students nationwide receive the courses on television in their own home, either directly off a satellite dish or from their local cable company. The concerns arise when a professor shows a copyrighted audiovisual work in class. That action by itself is legal within certain guidelines. The questions occur when that particular course is then transmitted via satellite. Is it a copyright violation to have that copyrighted audiovisual work, originally shown in class, now broadcast via satellite and carried on local cable systems? Within the Copyright Act itself are clues that will help in examining the issue. However, there have been no court cases to date addressing this exact situation. * Copyright Law The primary purpose of copyright is to promote the public welfare through the advancement of knowledge. Granting creators rights to reproduce and distribute their works provides incentives for progress in the arts and sciences. The constitutional basis for federal copyright legislation is the legislative power of Congress, with subsequent interpretations by the courts. Facts and ideas are not copyrightable, but the manner in which that fact or idea is presented is copyrightable. A work must contain some element of originality or creativity of expression. Works of the federal government are generally not copyrightable. Works published more than 75 years ago are in the public domain and no longer protected by the Copyright Act. The first United States Copyright Act was enacted in 1790. Throughout the years, the document was amended and refined. The Copyright Act of 1976 was the fourth major revision, and with its amendments is the effective legislation concerning copyright issues today. In enacting the 1976 Act, Congress noted that "significant changes in technology have affected the operation of the copyright law ... The technical advances have generated new industries and new methods for the reproduction and dissemination of copyrighted works..." (H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476, page 47).[1] Copyright has traditionally been concerned with the works of the artist, author or composer. Substantial technological changes are putting a strain on the basic copyright scheme because technological changes alter the degree to which the creators can control their works.[2] Creators used to be solely responsible for making and disseminating their works to the public. Now it is common for other people to make copies with photocopiers or videotape recorders. The public can reproduce the works themselves. In certain situations such actions are not copyright violations because they fall under the realm of "fair use." * Fair Use Fair use can be defined as a public usage of a copyrighted work for which the copyright owner is not compensated because the usage is minimal and is in the public interest. …


This paper describes methods for estimating the parameters of continuous time linear stochastic rational expectations models from discrete time observations. The economic models that we study are continuous time, multiple variable, stochastic, linear-quadratic rational expectations models. The paper shows how such continuous time models can properly be used to place restrictions on discrete time data. Various heuristic procedures for deducing the implications for discrete time data of these models, such as replacing derivatives with first differences, can sometimes give rise to very misleading conclusions about parameters. The idea is to express the restrictions imposed by the rational expectations model on the continuous time process of the observable variables. Then the likelihood function of a discrete-time sample of observations from this process is obtained. Estimators are obtained by maximizing the likelihood function with respect to the free parameters of the continuous time model.


In their study of social practices deemed traditional, scholars tend to use the concept and idea of tradition as an element of meaning in the practices under investigation. But just whose meaning is it? Is it a meaning generated by those who study tradition or those whose traditions are being studied? In both cases, particular criteria for traditionality are employed, whether these are explicated or not. Individuals and groups will no doubt continue to uphold their traditional practices or refer to their practices as traditional. While they are in no way obliged to explicate in analytical terms their criteria for traditionality, the same cannot be said for those who make the study of traditions their profession. In scholarly analysis, traditions need to be explained instead of used as explanations for apparent repetitions and replications or symbolic linking in social practice, values, history, and heritage politics. This book takes a closer look at 'tradition' and 'folklore' in order to conceptualize them within discourses on modernity and modernism. The first section discusses 'modern' and 'traditional' as modern concepts and the study of folklore as a modern trajectory. The underlying tenet here is that non-modernity cannot be represented without modern mediation, which therefore makes the representations of non-modernity epistemologically modern. The second section focuses on the nation-state of Finland and the nationalistic use of folk traditions in the discursive production of Finnish modernity and its Others. The insights are applicable worldwide in discussions on cultural representation.


Firms frequently make operational and strategy decisions to gain political influence. They locate plants, expand workforces, or choose suppliers, with the aim of affecting the economy and the electoral success of politicians. This behavior constitutes a nontraditional form of influence, which I refer to as economic influence activities (EIA). In this paper, I show how such activities influence policymaking and why firms may prefer it to more traditional influence activities such as campaign contributions. What distinguishes EIA is that a firm's strategy choices affects the state of a local economy and, in turn, the evaluations that voters make of the performance of an officeholder. I show how firms can use this capability to extract subsidies and policy favors from incumbent officeholders.


Purpose. To document the changing clinical presentation of diabetic retinopathy (DR) over a decade, the current knowledge-attitude-practice (KAP) of known type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients, and the current vision related quality of life (VR-QOL) of patients with DR in a tertiary eye care center in Eastern India. Methods. Two hundred and forty patients with known type-2 DM were evaluated. The evaluation included status of DR (n = 240), KAP (n = 232), and VR-QOL (n = 75). International classification of DR was used in the study. The DR status was compared with another cohort (n = 472) examined a decade earlier, in year 2001. The KAP-25 questions were designed after literature review. The National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ; including optional items) was validated by Rasch analysis. Both KAP and VR-QOL were analyzed according to degree of DR, duration of known DM, and educational qualification. Results. Average age of the current cohort (n = 240) was 57.16 ± 9.03 years; there were 205 (85.4%) male patients and 143 (59.6%) patients had received less than graduate qualification. The mean duration of DM since diagnosis was 10 ± 7.8 months (range 8 months to 30 years); 118 (49.16%) patients had DR. In a decade time, 2001 to 2011, there was a change of retinopathy status at presentation (more often nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy, NPDR). One-third of NPDR patients had poor vision and half of them were hypertensive. KAP was better in patients with higher education and those having DR. VFQ score was higher in better seeing patients. Conclusion. Patients currently presenting at earlier stage of retinopathy are probably related to poor vision. Early detection and treatment of DR is likely to preserve and/or improve vision.


Polymer gel dosimeters in conjunction with the nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are potentially used for verification of complex dose distributions in three dimensions (3D) for radiotherapy treatment planning. The radiation-induced polymerization of hydroxyethylacrylate (HEA) and hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) polymer gel dosimeters has been studied using Raman spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and MRI scanner. The HEA polymer gels were synthesized from 2-hydroxyethylacrylate (HEA) monomer (2 to 5% w/w), N,N'-methylene-bis-acrylamide (BIS) cross-linker (2 to 5% w/w), gelatin (3 and 5%) and de-ionized water in oxygen free environment. The HEMA polymer gels were synthesized from 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) monomer (2 to 5% w/w), BIS (2 to 5% w/w), 5% gelatin and de-ionized water. The dosimeters were irradiated with 60Co teletherapy γ-ray source at a constant dose rate of 0.43 Gy/min, receiving doses up to 20 Gy for a single point dose measurement and up to 30 Gy for 3D dose distributions scanning.
Raman spectroscopy was used to investigate directly the degree of radiation-induced polymerization and the rate of elapsed polymerization, targeting the COO stretching Raman shift at vibrational band of 1415 cm-1 assigned for HEA polymer gels and the OH stretching Raman shift at vibrational band of 3358 cm-1 assigned for HEMA polymer gels. The Raman intensity y corresponding to the amount of polymerization in both HEA and HEMA polymer gels increases with absorbed dose D in the dose range between 0 and 20 Gy and follows mono-exponential equation given as . The rate of elapsed polymerization in HEA and HEMA polymer gels decreases with absorbed dose in the dose range between 0 and 20 Gy and follows exponential equation given as )1(0/0DDeAyy−−+=0/0DDeDAdtdy−κ=. The dose sensitivity, D0 of polymerization and the half dose, D1/2 of the rate of elapsed polymerization in HEA and HEMA polymer gels increase strongly with increasing the cross-linker concentration than that of the monomer concentration where the dose correlation factor for the cross-linker is always greater than the dose correlation factor for the monomer. At 3% gelatin the D0 and D1/2 values of the HEA polymer gels always greater than at 5% gelatin, indicating that the polymerization and the rate of elapsed polymerization of HEA polymer gels increases with decreasing the amount of gelatin. The consumption of co-monomer in HEA and HEMA polymer gels decreases mono-exponentially with absorbed dose in the dose ranges between 0 and 20 Gy and it follows mono-exponential equation of the form()0/01DDeAyy−−−=. The result shows that the cross-linker consumption increases more significantly with absorbed dose than the monomer consumption.
The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spin–spin relaxation rate, R2 for water proton surrounding the polymer formation has been used to investigate indirectly the degree of polymerization and the rate of elapsed polymerization of HEA and HEMA polymer gels. The dose response of the change in relaxation rate, ΔR2 is also mono-exponential function and for the rate of elapsed polymerization it is normal exponential function. The dose sensitivity, D0 for the change in relaxation rate ΔR2 and the half dose, D1/2 for the rate of elapsed polymerization of HEA and HEMA polymer gels have produced results of similar trend to that of Raman spectroscopy method.
The radiological film obtained from the clinical MRI scans of polymer gel phantom to simulate radiotherapy treatment planning was analyzed using a densitometer. The optical density of the polymer gels was found to increase with the increase of absorbed dose and decreases with the increase of depth inside the phantom. The dose-depth map for HEA polymer gels was derived for different concentrations of HEA and BIS co-monomers. The results suggest that for a clinical radiotherapy treatment planning the dose correction for tumour deep within the body should be implemented with knowledge of the amount of applied dose, tumour volume, skin to tumour distance, and tissue equivalent nature of the body. The percentage of depth dose was also evaluated which leads to a good agreement with the ionization chamber measurements. The indirect measurements of HEA and HEMA polymer gels using NMR have shown more dose sensitivity than that for direct measurements using Raman spectroscopy. In general the dose sensitivity and half dose of HEA polymer gels are grater than that for HEMA, indicating that the HEA polymer gels are more radiosensitive than that of HEMA polymer gels at a given dose. The dose-depth map has been achieved using HEA polymer gels in conjunction with MRI scanning which led to introduce a fit equation between dose and depth inside HEA polymer gels.


We discuss the phase and group modal birefringence in photonic crystal fibres (PCFs) with an elongated core. Owing to large form birefringence, these two types of birefringence in such PCFs may not only have opposite signs, but their absolute value can also differ by several orders of magnitude. We also show that PCFs offer the unique possibility of having a large phase birefringence and a negligible polarization mode dispersion at the same time. Using a fully vectorial mode solver, we show how these parameters can be tailored by a proper choice of the geometry of the PCF. We demonstrate both numerically and experimentally the strong wavelength dependence of phase and group modal birefringence in triple-defect photonic crystal fibres (PCFs).


In the developing and adult brain, neurotrophic growth factors support the growth and protec tion of dopaminergic neuronal systems. Recently, links between impaired neurotrophin support of dopamine (DA) neurons has been described in Parkinson's Disease (PD). Fibro- blast growth factor (FGF) has a unique association with DA neurons in that FGF signaling is vitally important for the development and protection of adult DA neurons. We assessed the role of substantia nigra (SN)-expressed FGFs in the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system using a transgenic mouse, th-fgfr1(tk-). In these mice, generated by expression of dominant negative FGFR1(TK-) from the tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) gene promoter, reduced FGF signaling results in smaller and less dense adult nigrostriatal DA neurons, similar to what is observed in PD. With unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesions, th-fgfr1(tk-) mice exhibited extensive unilateral nigrostriatal damage with robust spontaneous (non-drug induced) asymmetrical turning and a decreased latency to remain on the accelerating rotarod. L-DOPA remains the gold standard for PD therapy despite debilitating hyperkinetic and dyskinetic side effects. The nicotinic acetylcholine system has recently been targeted as an alternative system to combat PD motor symptoms. Nicotine effectively stimulates dopaminergic transmission in the nigrostriatal pathway and mediates movement. Using unilaterally lesioned th-fgfr1(tk-) mice, long term (11 day) oral
administration of nicotine increased spontaneous bidirectional turning and increased the latency before falling from the accelerating rotarod. In a separate analysis, L-DOPA treatment reversed directionality of rotation and further deepened motor discoordination, suggesting activation of hypersensitive postsynaptic DA receptors in the denervated striata. These results in a transgenic model of PD provide insights into the cellular mechanisms underlying L-DOPA and nicotinic therapies and offer further evidence of nicotine's capacity to facilitate movement and enhance motor coordination in PD.


Abstract A rudist fauna composed of the radiolitids Potosites tristantorresi new genus, new species and Radiolites acutocostata (Adkins), the hippuritids Barrettia cf. ruseae Chubb, Torreites sanchezi (Douvillé), and Vaccinites vermunti Mac Gillavry, plagioptychids, and antillocaprinids is described from a rudist limestone succession in the central Mexican State of San Luis Potosí. The previously known species, one radiolitid from Texas and three hippuritids from the Caribbean Biogeographic Province, indicate the early Campanian. The new genus is a large radiolitid with a coiled and canaliculated left valve. New observations on R. acutocostata and V. vermunti shell morphology and variability are provided. Observations made on well preserved specimens of the latter species clarify the outer shell layer structure of the hippuritids right valve and has taxonomic implications. This is the first report of genus Torreites in Mexico and one of the northernmost records of genus Barrettia, already reported in southern Mexico from Chiapas State. This rudist limestone succession (informally 'Temazcal limestones' herein) is an easy-to-recognize cartographical unit; up to now it and Santonian and Turonian units have been mapped as the El Abra Formation in most available geological maps. Recognition of the successive carbonate platform intervals, between El Abra and Cardenas formations, improves the geological mapping and the understanding of the Mexican Gulf western margin evolution during the Late Cretaceous.


Extracted from text ... REVIEW
405
As the causes and mechanisms of male
erectile dysfunction (ED) were unravelled,
it became more and more obvious that
ED is an important marker of underlying
physical or psychological pathology. The
importance of sexual function as part of
quality of life is reflected in the World
Health Organisation's definition of health
as not merely the absence of disease, but
total physical, emotional and social wellbeing.
1
Research during the past two decades has
uncovered much concerning sexual function.
The impact of sexuality on any
society is illustrated by the multitude of
references to sexuality observed in ..


Cultural anthropology in France continues to bear the influence of a colonial-era distinction between "modern" societies with a high degree of social differentiation (and marked by rapid social change) and ostensibly socially homogeneous and change-resistant "traditional" ones. The history of key institutions (museums and research institutes) bears witness to this, as does recent scholarship centered on "the contemporary" that reworks earlier models and concepts and applies them to a world increasingly marked by transnational circulation and globalization. Anthropology at the Crossroads describes the evolution of a national tradition of scholarship, changes to its institutional status, and the models, concepts, and critical perspectives of anthropologists currently revisiting and reworking the foundations of the discipline in France.


Background In cardiac rehabilitation, 40-60-min exercise training sessions are advised. However, because of the increasing coronary artery disease (CAD) prevalence and higher workload for cardiac rehabilitation centres, it remains unclear whether 40-min exercise training sessions are equally effective as 60-min exercise training sessions. Design Prospective randomized clinical trial. Methods One hundred and thirty-four CAD patients were included in a 7-week rehabilitation programme. All patients exercised 3 days per week, at a heart rate corresponding to 65% of baseline peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak). Patients were randomized in two groups: 40 versus 60-min exercise training sessions. Changes of body anthropometrics, resting haemodynamics, exercise capacity and ventilatory threshold, blood plasma lipid profile and C-reactive protein level were assessed. Results As a result of rehabilitation, exercise capacity, ventilatory threshold, and blood plasma lipid profile improved significantly in the total population (P < 0.05), without differences between subgroups (P > 0.05). Body weight and waist circumference decreased significantly in total population (P < 0.01), but with a greater magnitude in the 40 versus 60-min exercise session group (P < 0.05). Conclusions In the early rehabilitation of CAD patients, 40-min exercise training sessions seem to be at least as effective for improving body anthropometrics, blood plasma lipid profile and exercise capacity, as compared with 60-min exercise training sessions. Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil 15:453-459 © 2008 The European Society of Cardiology.


The overpass is a special over-road structure for vehicular travel, constituting one type of roadway intersection. Real-time communications between on- and under-overpass vehicles can contribute to effective vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications, including, for example, optimal route selection and overpass accident warning messaging. Ensuring effective communication requires a quantitative characterization of the overpass propagation channel. In this paper, we provide measurement and analytical results for V2V propagation path loss and root-mean-square delay spread, and from these results, we develop tapped-delay line channel models that are applicable to the 5-GHz band for two example overpasses. These two example overpasses are termed i) one-lane metal-bottom overpass and ii) two-lane metal-bottom overpass. Due to the unique structure of the overpasses, we divide the radio propagation space around the overpass into four different areas: a two-ray area, a short-term partial-shadowing area, a (full) shadowing area, and a long-term partial-shadowing area. In the two-ray area, a line-of-sight (LOS) path and a ground-reflected path are the dominant propagation mechanisms, whereas in the other areas, the overpass body (floor, walls, and columns) attenuates the LOS signal. The accuracy of our measurement results and the developed channel model are verified by a geometry-based stochastic channel modeling approach, in which the height dimension is first introduced to characterize the diffraction phenomenon in V2V communication. The actual measurement and simulation results show good consistency.