The south-central United States serves as an important biogeographical link and dispersal corridor between Nearctic and Neotropical elements of western hemisphere odonate faunas. Its species are reasonably well known because of substantial collections, but there has been no concerted effort to document the extent of biodiversity and possible geographic affinities of dragonflies and damselflies of this region. The recent discoveries of Argia leonorae Garrison, Gomphus gonzalezi Dunkle and Erpetogomphus heterodon Garrison from southern and western Texas and northern Mexico suggest that Odonata species remain to be discovered in this area, particularly from far south Texas and northern Mexico. I have documented a total of 12,515 records of Odonata found in 408 counties within the south-central U.S. A total of 73 species of damselflies and 160 species of dragonflies was revealed in the region. The 233 (197 in Texas) Odonata species are distributed among 10 families and 66 genera. Illustrated family, generic, and species-level keys are provided. Since the beginning of this work in the Fall of 1993, one species has been added each to the Louisiana and Oklahoma faunas, and 12 species have been added, previously unreported from Texas, including four new to the U.S. The area of highest Odonata biodiversity overall (161 spp.) is in the Austroriparian biotic province. The greatest degree of faunal similarity between the south-central U.S. and other intra-continental regions was observed for the eastern (64%) United States. Diversity is a function of area, and as expected, the numbers of breeding birds and Odonata, in each contiguous U.S. state are positively correlated (r=0.376, n=33, p=0.031). There is, however, no strong correlation between land area and species diversity within the region, but those natural biotic provinces (Austroriparian, Texan, Balconian) where aquatic systems and topographic heterogeneity are the greatest provide a broader spectrum of potential Odonata habitats and thus support a greater number of Odonata species.


Hundreds of changes and additions to state symbols since the 1987 volume, four new chapters, and expanded coverage beyond the 50 states--including the District of Columbia and the five U.S. territories--make this revised edition essential for students and library reference collections. The only single documented source for historical information and color illustrations of all state and territory symbols includes new chapters on state and territory legal holidays and observances, automobile license plates, festivals and fairs, and selected U.S. postage stamps issued in honor of the states and territories. Color illustrations of official state and territory seals, flags, flowers, trees, birds, license plates, and postage stamps complement the text. This revised edition of the only single reference source for information about state symbols updates and doubles the coverage of the original 1987 volume. New chapters on state and territory fairs and festivals and legal holidays and observances offer not only essential information, but also fascinating sidelights and unusual facts about the states and territories that are a treasure trove of information for students. The work features chapters on official state and territory names and nicknames, mottoes, seals, flags, capitols, flowers, trees, birds, songs, legal holidays and observances, license plates, miscellaneous designations, and fairs and festivals. A bibliography and subject index complete the work.


Women's use of water differs from men in essentially one aspect: in cleansing the body of menstrual blood. The pledge of the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector to place 'women at the centre' of development has in recent years, therefore, come to focus on menstruation. International development agencies have begun to push the agenda of menstrual hygiene management (MHM), but their use of a medical approach requires critical rethinking. This article argues that through MHM lessons, menstruation is medicalised to construct new and repressive expectations of normality for the female body. A medical construction also poorly accommodates the natural biological process of menstruation within the gamut of existing sociocultural practices. Consequently, menstruation becomes associated with the perceived need for not only sanitisation of the female body of the rural poor, but also to turn it into a working body that is able to ceaselessly and 'normally' perform its productive and reproductive chores. I note that the success of medicalisation relies upon the separation of the body from its purported waste, the menstrual blood. Once menstruation is confined to a pathological condition, treatable only by public agents such as doctors and commercially produced goods such as sanitary napkins, a defining essence of womanhood is thereby dissociated from the female body.


This new magazine, published yearly, is created with a clear perspective: improving the MUNDUSFOR and DEPROFOR consortia, giving it an international renown and granting it a perspective of research, beyond the educational perspective of today. Our intention is also to develop an electronic magazine for the field of the educational professionals.   The objectives of Journal for Educators, Teachers and Trainers (M&DJETT) are therefore centered in different aspects of academic and research diffusion related to the teaching professionals. In one hand, M&DJETT pretends to become an educational research database. In the other hand, a second objective of the publication is to facilitate for young researchers the diffusion of their work, masters and doctorates students above all, and to serve as an advertisement vehicle for works which have not reached the article format yet. Besides, another function for M&DJETT will be the diffusion of publications through reviews.


This thesis describes the development and characterization of a novel NDE methodthe
Capacitive Imaging (CI) technique. The CI technique employs a pair of (or
multiple) electrodes to form a co-planar capacitor, and uses the fringing quasi-static
electric field established across the electrodes to investigate specimens of interest. In
general, the CI probe is sensitive to surface and hidden defects in insulating materials,
and surface features on conducting materials. The CI technique is advantageous for its
non-contact and non-invasive nature, and the capacitive coupling allows the CI
technique to work on a wide variety of material properties.
The theoretical background to the CI technique has been developed. It is shown that in
the frequency range of operation (10 kHz to 1 MHz), the quasi-static approximation is
valid and the Maxwell's Equations describing the general electromagnetic phenomena
can be simplified. The practical implementation of the CI system is based on this
analysis, and it is shown that the CI technique has features that can complement
techniques such as eddy current methods that are already established in NDE.
The design principles of the CI probes that are required for an optimum imaging
performance have been determined, by considering the key measures of the
performance including the depth of penetration, the measurement sensitivity, the
imaging resolution and the signal to noise ratio (SNR). It has been shown that the
operation frequency is not an influential factor - the performance of the CI probe is
determined primarily by the geometry of the probe (e.g. size/shape of the electrodes,
separation between electrodes, guard electrodes etc.). Symmetric CI probes with
triangular-shaped electrodes were identified as a good general purpose design. Finite
Element (FE) models were constructed both in 2D and 3D in COMSOLTM to predict
the electric field distributions from CI probes. Effects of thickness of specimen, liftoff
distance and relative permittivity value etc were examined using the 2D models.
The sensitivity distributions of different CI probes were obtained from the 3D models
and were used to characterize the imaging ability of the given CI probes.
The fundamental concepts of the CI technique have been experimentally validated in
a series of scans where the defects were successfully imaged in insulating (Perspex)
and conducting (e.g. Aluminium, Steel and carbon fibre composite) specimens. The
detection of corrosion under insulation (CUI) has also been demonstrated. The
imaging abilities were assessed by investigating various standard specimens under
different situations. The CI technique was then successfully applied to various
practical specimens, including glass fibre laminated composites and sandwich
structures, laminated carbon fibre composites, corroded steel plate and pipe, and
concrete specimens. Further measurements were also conducted using modified CI
probes, to demonstrate the wide range of applications of the CI technique.


In the face of the prevailing credit crunch in the Nigerian economy, the typical Nigerian budding entrepreneur is guided by such institutional credit markets as the Bank of Industry, Microfinance banks and cooperative societies as avenues for improving the wealth creating potentials of such entrepreneurs. Against a background of serious unemployment and dwindling fortunes of small and medium scale businesses all over Nigeria, the study has a main objective of evaluating the business support activities of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in her bid to ensure the survival of cooperative financed small and medium scale enterprises in Ogun State, Nigeria. The study, designed as a survey, utilized a two pronged approach in sourcing primary data through the use of questionnaires. Out of the 140 questionnaires administered, 135 were returned representing 96.4% response rate. 27 respondents were officials of Ogun State Cooperative Federation Limited (OGSCOFED), while the remaining 108 were cooperative members who are owners of small businesses in the State. With a Cronbach α coefficient of 0.902, the internal consistency and reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed while the data were analyzed using inferential and descriptive statistics such as simple percentages, rating indices and the Students distribution. The study revealed that the establishment of Business Support Centres, though important, was not significantly crucial to the survival of some selected businesses (especially cooperative financed small businesses) in Ogun State, Nigeria, within the study period of 2005–2010. Among the study's recommendations are that the Federal Government of Nigeria should put in place necessary infrastructure like regular power,good roads, water and enhanced security across the states in order to enhance the survival of small businesses in Nigeria. Inasmuch as the small and medium enterprise sector is the nerve centre of most nations' industrial sector, implementing the study's recommendations would serve to encourage and engage the army of the nation's fresh university graduates and subsequently reduce unemployment.


By solving the scalar wave equation for modes of a circularly bent homogeneous single-mode fiber, using the conformal mapping and variational methods, for which various Gaussian-based trial fields are used to represent the fundamental HE/sub 11/ mode, and through quantitative and qualitative analysis, the transverse field profile of the fundamental mode on such waveguiding structures is investigated. The results obtained are compared to those obtained numerically and in the existing literature. The combined methods used here present certain advantages over a number of existing methods insofar as it provides more accurate results than those obtained previously, especially those obtained using the simple Gaussian approximation.


We demonstrate the capability of differential-phase optical coherence tomography (DP-OCT) to detect superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles taken up by liver parenchymeal macrophages (Kupffer cells). We apply an external time-varying high-intensity focused magnetic field. Our experiments demonstrate a novel diagnostic modality to detect macrophages that have taken up SPIO nanoparticles. Magnetic force acting on the nanoparticles was varied by applying a sinusoidal current to a solenoid containing a conical iron core that substantially increased and focused the magnetic field strength ( $B_{max}$ = 2 Tesla). $ApoE^{-/-}$ mice were sacrificed 2 days post intravenous injections of different SPIO doses (1.0, and 0.1 mmol Fe/kg body weight). Livers of $ApoE^{-/-}$ mice with and without injection of SPIO nanoparticles were investigated using DP-OCT, which detects tissue movement with nanometer resolution. Frequency response of iron-laden liver movement was twice the stimulus frequency. Movement was not observed in livers of control mice. Results of our experiments indicate DP-OCT is a candidate methodology to detect tissue based macrophages containing SPIO nanoparticles excited by an external focused magnetic field.


The aim of this article is to review the theoretical aspects of the community and sociality, as well as the experience of Lithuania when creating legal preconditions for sociality at the level of seniūnija, to present proposals on increasing sociality in Lithuania at the present moment at the level of seniūnaitija and seniūnija based on the experience of Lithuania and new theoretical statements formulated by the author himself. The article presents the statements of scholars F. Tonnies and J. Girnius about the community and its differences in comparison with another social belonging - the organization of people, as well as the provisions of the Annex Organization of Eldership to the Law on Municipalities (1919.10.10) that formed legal preconditions for sociality at the level of seniūnija during that historic period. In order to describe the current situation, the article reveals how sociality existed on the territorial level (seniūnaitija and seniūnija) in Lithuania during the period from 1990 to the present day. The added value of this article is in the statements formulated by the author of the article on what sociality is (in the author's opinion) and its relationship with the territorial social community, as well as suggestions for increasing (strengthening) the sociality in Lithuania in the current period, in particular at the level of seniūnaitija, as well as seniūnija. The methods of analysing and interpreting scientific literature and legal acts were used to achieve the purpose and fulfil the tasks of this article.


Orienting employees to their workplace and their jobs is one of the most neglected functions in many organizations. An employee handbook and piles of paperwork are not sufficient anymore when it comes to welcoming a new employee to your organization. The most frequent complaints about new employee orientation are that it is overwhelming, boring or that the new employee is left to sink or swim. The result is often confused new employee who is not productive and is more likely to leave the organization within a year. Supervisors sometimes find themselves too busy to devote the necessary time to orienting the new employee properly. Yet neglecting the details of orientation can have dire consequences in the long run. Employees who are inadequately oriented are more likely to be less productive than expected. For example, there are many cases of employees failing to obey work rules, claiming the rules were never explained to them in the first place (Crane 1982) . A poor orientation program can quickly sour a new employee's attitude towards the job and the organization. Most people come to a new job with a positive attitude. However, if a new employee is made to feel unimportant by the lack of an orientation program, this attitude can quickly change. Good well-planned orientation programs reduce job learning time, improve attendance, and lead to better performance (Rue, 1993). The new employee naturally has personal anxieties about the new or changed work setting. Hence, the need to reduce unknowns by helping the new employee learn about his/her job, supervisors, and co-workers (Crane, 1982). According to David (2004), it is indeed strange that some organizations fail to see the value of proper orientation procedures. Poor orientation can lead to people leaving quickly, extra recruitment costs, constant misunderstandings and unnecessary queries and grievances as well as a decrease in productivity generally. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of orientation programs on employee's performance. The study was guided by four specific objectives that sought: to investigate how introduction of new employees to co-workers affect employee's performance, to examine the effect of assigning a mentor to new employees on employee's performance, to investigate how employee tour of the workplace affects employee's performance and to examine how use of employee handbook affect employee's performance. This research covered Kenol/Kobil petrol stations in Nairobi county. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population of this study was 420 employees of Kenol/Kobil petrol stations in Nairobi county. The study drew a sample of 201 employees from the target population. The sample was proportionately stratified. Data was collected using interview schedules and Semi-structured questionnaire served on respondents through drop and pick methods. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis and quantitative data was analyzed using ANOVA test with the help of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The results were presented using charts and statistical test tables. The report concludes that provision of at least one or more orientation programmes namely introduction of new employees to co-workers, offering tour facilities for new employees, provision of employee handbook and assigning of mentors to new employees contributes to significant increases in employee performance. It recommends design of orientation programmes as a whole package that contains tour of work place, introduction of new employees to co-workers, provision of employee handbook, assigning of mentors and any other not looked at in this study. This is against the backdrop that any single but important orientation program left out may undermine the gains made in offering other orientation programs considered to be important.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the contribution of stereopsis to the processing of observed manipulative actions. To this end, we first combined the factors "stimulus type" (action, static control, and dynamic control), "stereopsis" (present, absent) and "viewpoint" (frontal, lateral) into a single design. Four sites in premotor, retro-insular (2) and parietal cortex operated specifically when actions were viewed stereoscopically and frontally. A second experiment clarified that the stereo-action-specific regions were driven by actions moving out of the frontoparallel plane, an effect amplified by frontal viewing in premotor cortex. Analysis of single voxels and their discriminatory power showed that the representation of action in the stereo-action-specific areas was more accurate when stereopsis was active. Further analyses showed that the 4 stereo-action-specific sites form a closed network converging onto the premotor node, which connects to parietal and occipitotemporal regions outside the network. Several of the specific sites are known to process vestibular signals, suggesting that the network combines observed actions in peripersonal space with gravitational signals. These findings have wider implications for the function of premotor cortex and the role of stereopsis in human behavior.


Following the yellow brick road The adrenal glands affect a variety of processes such as stress responses and metabolism. The mature adrenal gland is formed from multiple tissue sources, including cells of neural origin. Furlan et al. traced the origins of these cells. The cells first become Schwann cell precursors and follow along nerves to travel from the dorsal root ganglia of the spine to the adrenal gland. Once there, the cells differentiate into chromaffin cells. The authors used singlecell transcriptomics to reveal the shifts in functional programs during migration, development, and differentiation. Science, this issue p. eaal3753 The adrenal gland is built from cells that travel along highways of nerves. INTRODUCTION Circulating adrenaline can have profound effects on the body's "inner world," adjusting levels depending on demand to maintain organ and bodily homeostasis during daily living. In the more extreme fight-or-flight response, the surge of adrenaline is "energizing" through effects on organs and tissues, including increased heart rate and blood glucose levels, and redirecting oxygen and glucose to limb muscles. Chromaffin cells located in the adrenal medulla constitute the main hormonal component of the autonomic nervous system and are the principal source for release of catecholamines, including adrenaline, in the systemic circulation. Understanding the cellular origin and biological processes by which the adrenal medulla is formed during development is needed for mechanistic insights into how the hormonal component of the autonomic nervous system is formed and its relation to the rest of the autonomic nervous system. RATIONALE Adrenergic chromaffin cells in the adrenal medulla are thought to originate from a common sympathoadrenal lineage close to the dorsal aorta, where these cells split in a dorsoventral direction, forming the sympathetic chain and adrenal medulla, respectively. Revisiting this dogma, we examined the cell type origin of chromaffin cells, lineage segregation of sympathoblasts and chromaffin cells, the gene programs driving specification of chromaffin cells from progenitors, and the proliferative dynamics by which the adrenal medulla is formed. RESULTS We found that chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla are formed from peripheral glia stem cells, termed Schwann cell precursors. Genetic cell lineage tracing revealed that most chromaffin cells arise from Schwann cell precursors, and consistently, genetic ablation of Schwann cell precursors results in marked depletion of chromaffin cells. Genetic ablation of the preganglionic nerve, on which Schwann cell precursors migrate, similarly leads to marked deficiencies of chromaffin cells, and fate-tracing cells unable to differentiate into chromaffin cells reveal an accumulation of glia cells in the region of the adrenal medulla. Experiments reveal that sympathetic and adrenergic lineages diverge at an unexpectedly early stage during embryonic development. Embryonic development of the adrenal medulla relies on recruitment of numerous Schwann cell precursors with limited cell expansion. Thus, the large majority of chromaffin cells arise from Schwann cell precursors migrating on preganglionic nerves innervating the adrenal medulla. Unexpectedly, single-cell RNA sequencing revealed a complex gene-regulatory mechanism during differentiation of Schwann cell precursors to chromaffin cells, whereby Schwann cell precursors enter into a gene expression program unique for a transient cellular state. Subsequently, this gene program and chromaffin cell gene networks suppress glial gene programs, advancing cells into the chromaffin cell identity. CONCLUSION By revisiting development of the adrenergic sympathetic system, we discovered a new cellular origin of this nervous system component. The adrenergic medulla is built from both neural crest cells and Schwann cell precursors, with a major contribution from Schwann cell precursors in rodents. A cellular origin from Schwann cell precursors highlights the importance of peripheral nerves as a stem cell niche and transportation routes for progenitors essential for neuroendocrine development. These results and mechanisms of differentiation through a transient intermediate cell type may also be helpful in advancing our knowledge on neuroblastoma and pheochromocytoma, because these most often arise from the adrenal gland region. Adrenal medulla largely originates from Schwann cell precursors. Overview of adrenal medulla development resulting from lineage tracing and nerve ablation experiments. SCP, Schwann cell precursor; AG, adrenal gland; NT, neural tube; n, notochord; DRG, dorsal root ganglion; IML, intermediolateral column; NCC, neural crest cells; NC, neural crest; DA, dorsal aorta; SRG, suprarenal sympathetic ganglion. Red encodes early NCCs and their derivatives. Blue encodes late neural crest and SCP-derived cell types. Adrenaline is a fundamental circulating hormone for bodily responses to internal and external stressors. Chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla (AM) represent the main neuroendocrine adrenergic component and are believed to differentiate from neural crest cells. We demonstrate that large numbers of chromaffin cells arise from peripheral glial stem cells, termed Schwann cell precursors (SCPs). SCPs migrate along the visceral motor nerve to the vicinity of the forming adrenal gland, where they detach from the nerve and form postsynaptic neuroendocrine chromaffin cells. An intricate molecular logic drives two sequential phases of gene expression, one unique for a distinct transient cellular state and another for cell type specification. Subsequently, these programs down-regulate SCP-gene and up-regulate chromaffin cell–gene networks. The AM forms through limited cell expansion and requires the recruitment of numerous SCPs. Thus, peripheral nerves serve as a stem cell niche for neuroendocrine system development.


This thesis argues that we reconsider the philosophical premises which prefigure our encounter with art today. The thematic of 'simultaneity' is proposed as one means which might enable this to be achieved. Mapping the notion of simultaneity's constant presence in art and philosophy associated with Conceptual art after 1960, I look at how this un-examined modality lies at the core of some of our understandings of the subject, its object and the relationship between the two. I also consider how this theme leads us back towards a territory of possibility that re-invigors the claims and concerns of materialism. This is done systematically, though idiomatically, through the careful analysis of the art work itself, in equal and non-hierarchical tandem with theoretical models. The thesis began as a speculative enquiry into what it could possibly mean that simultaneity seemed so central and embedded within aesthetic practices. It became a series of re-approaches to art whose most significant readings seem to over enthusiastically deny the possibility of the spectator's encounter with the real, or a relatable contact with matter, in favour of a post-structuralist model of analysis. The arrangement of the thesis is not entirely chronological, though historical contextualisation is important, it, rather, adheres to a narrative drive which begins with the systems and language-based aesthetics of the late sixties, and moves further in the direction of material possibility; of an unpredetermined and contingent space in which to encounter the work of art.


Diversity in research teams ties alternative perspectives into research projects, and this can fast‐forward scientific progress. Concerted efforts have been aimed at encouraging and supporting women to pursue a career in science, yet a gender disparity can still be observed at senior positions, with fewer women in leadership roles. To get insight into how the current landscape for women in science is perceived by different career stages, we interviewed female authors of Molecular Oncology from diverse career stages and disciplines about their inspiration, challenges they have faced as scientists as well as their thoughts on how gender diversity can be further enhanced.


The purpose of this research of this paper was to find the bank deposit on the performance of the listed banks on the Ghana Stock Exchange for a five year period from 2005 – 2009. Using a multiple regression analysis, a correlation analysis was first estimated to test for the presence of multi collinearity among the independent variables. The study found debt, size, deposits, equity and the type of bank ownership as significant indicators that contribute to the performance of the listed banks measured as the returns on equity and returns on assets of listed banks on the Ghana Stock Exchange


The growing pervasiveness of the internet has created a new class of algorithmic problems: those in which the strategic interaction of autonomous, self-interested entities must be accounted for. So motivated, we seek to (1) use game theoretic models and techniques to study practical problems in load balancing, data streams and internet traffic congestion, and (2) demonstrate the usefulness of evolutionary game theory's adaptive learning model as an analytical and evaluative tool.
First we consider the evolutionary game theory concept of stochastic stability, and propose the price of stochastic anarchy as an alternative to the price of anarchy for quantifying the cost of having no central authority. Unlike Nash equilibria, stochastically stable states are the result of natural dynamics of large populations of computationally bounded agents, and are resilient to small perturbations from ideal play. To illustrate the utility of stochastic stability, we study the load balancing game on related machines, which has an unbounded price of anarchy, even in the case of two jobs and two machines. We show that in contrast, even in the general case, the price of stochastic anarchy is bounded.
Next, we propose auction-based mechanisms for admission control of continuous queries to a Data Stream Management System. When submitting a query, each user also submits a bid: how much she is willing to pay for her query to run. Our mechanisms must admit queries and set payments in a way that maximizes system revenue while incentivizing customers to use the system honestly. We propose several manipulation-resistant payment mechanisms and prove that one guarantees a profit close to a standard profit benchmark, and the others perform well experimentally.
Finally, we study the long standing problem of congestion control at bottleneck routers on the internet. We examine the effectiveness of commonly-used queuing policies when each network endpoint is self-interested and has no information about the other endpoints' actions or preferences. By employing evolutionary game theory, we find that while bottleneck routers face heavy congestion at stochastically stable states under policies being currently deployed, a practical policy that was recently proposed yields fair and efficient conditions with no congestion.


Sub-bottom profiler (SBP) is an acoustic instrument commonly used to survey underwater shallow geological structure and embedded objects whose most important performance parameter is the actual vertical resolution. This paper presented a methodology to measure and evaluate the actual vertical resolution of SBP based on an experiment in an anechoic tank, which was divided into three components: building of artificial geological model, measurement of acoustic parameters, and determination of actual vertical resolution of the acoustic profiles. First, the wedge-shaped geological model, whose thickness could be accurately controlled, was designed and built in an anechoic tank to try to directly measure the vertical resolution of SBP. Then, the acoustic pulse width of SBP was measured to calculate the theoretical general vertical resolution and extreme vertical resolution. Finally, based on the acoustic profiles obtained in the experiment, the method which was used to evaluate the actual vertical resolution by measuring the duration of reflection event was put forward. Due to comparing measurement data of different parameter settings of the SBP, the study has revealed that the SBP had the lowest resolution in the 4 kHz-500 μs setting, which was 226.5 μs, or 36.2 cm, and the highest resolution in the 15 kHz-67 μs setting, which was 72.7 μs, or 11.6 cm. The vertical resolution decreased with the increase of the pulse width. The results also showed that the actual resolution was close to the theoretical general resolution and far from the extreme resolution.


The Nazi regime elevated anti-Semitism to a scientific discipline, "Jew research" (Judenforschung), which underpinned regime propaganda. At the intersection between the academic rationalization of Jew hatred and propagandistic agitation was the magazine Welt-Dienst (World-Service, Service Mondiale). It was published from the end of 1933 to the beginning of 1945, at the end in more than twenty languages, Welt-Dienst was founded privately to create a central organization of an "Internationale of Anti-Semites." It was quickly incorporated by Alfred Rosenberg, who thereby acquired a means of anonymously disseminating anti-Semitic propaganda worldwide. The Welt-Dienst worked closely with the Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question, even sharing a space with it in Frankfurt am Main. Both profited from the Aryanization of Jewish libraries and the raids of the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce which plundered Jewish property for "Jew research" in wake of the Wehrmacht. The Welt-Dienst articles compiled based on the possessions of the murdered European Jews served the needs of the regime and helped bolster the war unleashed by the Third Reich against the Jews. While other Nazi propaganda institutions have recently received researchers' attention, the Welt-Dienst has been neglected, its founder Ulrich Fleischhauer being considered an eccentric outsider. This article is supposed to outline and highlight the relevance and history of the Welt-Dienst and show that its role as a mediator between propaganda and science was more significant than previously assumed.


Onchocerciasis disease is a debilitating disease that hampers the well-being and productive capacity of an infected person. This paper looked at the use of Adomian Decomposition Method (ADM) for solving and understanding the dynamic of the disease in a wholly susceptible population. The saturated incidence rate is introduced to the 'existing' mathematical model of the problem, and this result in a usual non-linear ODE. The mathematics of the model shows in the detail of the process of the spread of the disease and the transmission pathways. In the absence of vaccination or any form of treatment, the disease takes over the population in the course of time. The computation is carried out and graphical results showing healthy class and infected class are presented and discussed.


Atmospheric concentrations of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) have been measured for the first time at Station Nord, North-East Greenland, from 2008 to 2010. The data obtained are reported here. Hexachlorobenzene (HCB), endosulfan I and hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) were the predominant compounds detected in the atmosphere, followed by p,p'-DDE and dieldrin. Chlordane isomers and related compounds (trans- and cis-chlordanes, heptachlor and heptachlor epoxide, trans- and cis-nonachlor) were also detected. Atmospheric concentrations of the investigated compounds were correlated with temperature using the Clausius-Clapeyron equation in order to obtain information about their transport properties. The correlation between atmospheric concentrations and temperature was not significant for endosulfan I, γ-HCH and p,p'-DDT, which indicates that direct transport from direct sources is the dominating transport mechanism for these compounds. A significant correlation with temperature was found for all the other studied pesticides and pesticide degradation products, which indicates that re-emission of these compounds from previously contaminated surfaces is an important factor for the observed variation in concentrations. Pesticide concentrations were also correlated with sea ice cover. Concentrations of the compounds that have not been in use for decades correlated with temperature and ice cover, while concentrations of compounds still in use did not correlate with either of these parameters. These observations indicate that processes such as revolatilization from the open sea surface are important mediating factors in the dynamics of anthropogenic persistent pollutants in the Arctic environment under the expected influence of climate change processes.


A geodesically convex space is a metric space in which each two points can be connected by a unique segment (a path of minimal length). An affine transformation between two geodesically convex spaces is a map which takes segments into segments. It is shown that, if the domain is complete, a pointwise-bounded family of continuous affine transformations is uniformly bounded. Under a mild additional hypothesis, the following stronger theorem holds: if


Spread Tow Fabrics could be a valuable solution to improve the surface smoothness of composites, reducing print-through and visual defects. These reinforcements could reduce the use of extra fillers, padding and thick gelcoats, leading to weight and labour savings. Here is a case study describing how the Finnish company Baltic Yachts successfully improved their composite hulls through the use of Spread Tow Fabrics.


The purpose of this article is to analyse and describe the extreme characteristics of the water levels and illustrate them as the topography of the sea surface along the whole Baltic Sea coast. The general pattern is to show the maxima and minima of Baltic Sea water levels and the extent of their variations in the period from 1960 to 2010. A probability analysis is carried out on the annual sea level maxima and minima for 31 water level gauges in order to define the probability of occurrence of theoretical sea levels once in a specific number of years. The spatial distribution of sea levels for hundred-year maximum and minimum water levels is illustrated. Then, the number of storm surges for the accepted criteria are presented: these numbers increased in the 50-year period analysed. The final part of the work analyses some extreme storm events and calculates the static value and dynamic deformation of the sea surface by mesoscale, deep low-pressure systems.


Apiculture in the Western Cape is a well-developed industry based on honey production and pollination services to agriculture. Apart from Eucalyptus trees, fynbos vegetation serves well as bee forage to managed honeybee colonies outside the agricultural pollination season. Eucalyptus trees are cleared as invasive plant species while fynbos are rigorously protected as one of the 34 Biodiversity Hotspots identified worldwide. Thus, bee forage is in short supply and is most probably the only limitation to the number of honeybee colonies that beekeepers can feasibly maintain. The impact of a collection of commercially managed honeybee colonies on other floral resource-dependent species in the Cape Floristic Region is unknown. This is one of the first studies on the topic in South Africa and specifically in the Western Cape. Managed hives were introduced to near pristine fynbos habitat in De Hoop Nature Reserve and Marine Protected Area during July. The aim was to induce stronger competition for floral resources through greater resource exploitation by managed honeybee colonies and record the change in foraging behaviour for several insect guilds on specific plant species. The results suggest that eight hives per site proved insufficient to increase honeybee density above the natural density of honeybees. Honeybee abundance did not increase during the presence of the managed hives, while honeybee visitation frequency was significantly greater during the presence of the managed hives. Neither the abundance nor the visitation frequency of non-Apis bees and wasps differed significantly between treatments. Honeybees were the most abundant foragers on the three focal plant species during all three treatments and also made the most visits to flowers. Honeybee abundance and visitation frequency increased with distance from the managed hives. The significant increase in honeybee visitation frequency during hive presence, coupled with a significant decrease in the time honeybees spent per flower extracting nectar, were an indication of a lower standing crop of nectar during that treatment. Nevertheless, no competition for floral resources was obvious, as the number of honeybees did not increase the abundance and visitation frequency of all other insect guilds (except for a significant decrease in Muscidae, which could be ascribed to changes in weather conditions). Cape honeybees are discussed as being an intricate part of the fynbos ecosystem while honeybee populations are in equilibrium with natural disturbances and available resources in


The storminess of the Azores region was investigated using newspaper records from AD 1836 onwards. The information obtained was rank-ordered for intensity and the time series of storm frequency analysed for interannual- to century-scale variability. The documentary data set was validated by comparison with objective cyclones intensity for the period AD 1958—2000. Results indicate that four periods of contrasting storm frequency are present (AD 1836—1870, 1870—1920, 1920—1940 and 1940—1998). The average storm lasts for 2.3 days and the average secular storm frequency is 3.1 storms/yr. Low intensity events occur four times every five years whereas an extreme storm occurs on average once every seven years. The documentary index of storminess is highly variable at different timescales, which is consistent with other studies of storminess in the North Atlantic. Nevertheless, an objective comparison between late nineteenth- and late twentieth-century storm frequency does not reveal a significant difference. Between AD 1865 and the late twentieth century the winter NAO and storminess indices show a statistically significant anti-correlation pattern at the monthly and seasonal scales. In the late nineteenth century and between AD 1950 and 1970 the NAO index was low and the storminess index high, whilst the opposite occurred from the early twentieth century until the middle 1950s; since AD 1970 both indexes reveal positive trends and are predominantly positive. The NAO mode of circulation is partially responsible for the storminess spatial pattern and temporal distribution over the Azores region since AD 1865 and for about a century, however this relation appears to have weakened since the 1960s.


Shock tube is an unique facility to create temperature gradients exceeding million degrees Kelvin per second. We have established two shock tubes for measuring the kinetic reaction rates at high temperatures with two different but complementary detection techniques. The first one is a single pulse shock tube, in which the reflected shock is used to heat the molecules. The equilibrated products are analyzed by gas chromatograph and infrared spectrometer. The second one uses laser-schlieren system for online monitoring of the chemical reactions behind primary shock wave. The details of the shock tubes and some typical results obtained are presented in this paper.


Purpose: The aim of this study was to present a brief overview of challenges faced by people living with HIV (PLHIV) as they age, to discuss the relevance of HIV to rehabilitation nurses, and to provide evidence-based recommendations for rehabilitation professionals working with PLHIV. Design: Current issues article. Methods: Literature review related to age-related comorbidities in PLHIV with implications for rehabilitation nurses. Findings: Rehabilitation nurses must be prepared to address issues specific to people living with HIV including sensitivity and privacy regarding HIV status and increased risk of delayed or complicated healing. Rehabilitation nurses should also promote self-management behavior to optimize health in people living with HIV. Conclusions: Understanding unique characteristics of PLHIV as well as applying focused assessment and tailored interventions in PLHIV will give rehabilitation nurses the tools to successfully guide PLHIV through the rehabilitation process and optimize clinical outcomes. Clinical Relevance: As people with HIV age and experience acute and chronic comorbidities, they will require the clinical expertise of rehabilitation nurses in the process to successfully transition through acute and subacute health care and regain function.


The oil and gas industry is facing difficult challenges as it tries to supply the increasing energy demands of a growing population. Conventional resources and exploration and production techniques might not be sufficient to attend to this demand. Nanotechnology can offer some solutions to these challenges. Nanotechnology has had an enormous impact in almost every industry, from consumer electronics to healthcare and telecommunications, but not in oil and gas exploration and production. Although nano-sized catalysts have been used in refining and petrochemical processes for many years, the use of nanomaterials and nanotechniques has only recently entered the upstream domain. The largest impact within the upstream business is expected in subsurface applications, for instance contrast agents for advanced exploration and surveillance, novel fluids for enhanced oil recovery, and better analytical techniques for the characterization of oil and rock interactions. This paper will showcase some of the applications of nanotechnology to the exploration and production business, with particular emphasis on the needs to scale up the technologies from bench-top to reservoir size.


Research shows that one can learn from self-explanations (Chi et al. 1989), but the influence of diagrams on this type of learning has not been assessed. This paper examines the role of spatial localization on the self-explanation effect. It is hypothesized that adjacency may blur feature discrimination, leading to inappropriate self-explanations. Ten subjects with naive conceptions about motion in a curved path were asked to think aloud while studying a chapter and a worked-out example. They were divided into Low-Benefit (LB) and High-Benefit (HB) learners, using post-hoe median split on post-test measures (explanation, isomorphic, and transfer tests). Analyses of verbal protocols and drawings show that the LB learners self-explained without learning. They used diagrammatic representations extensively, relying on their features to make sense of the example lines, whereas the HB learners processed the text conceptually. Contrary to previous emphasis on the benefits of localization of information in a diagram (e.g., Larkin and Simon 1987), spatial localization inhibited the selfexplanation effect because access to adjacent features propagated inaccurate comprehension via familiar diagrammatic knowledge. This research shows that learners in the process of acquiring new conceptual knowledge are not necessarily helped by local diagrammatic features because they can use them indiscriminately. It also suggests that the self-explanation effect may be tied to highly constrained learning situations.


The focus of research on representing and reasoning with knowledge traditionally has been on single specifications and appropriate inference paradigms to draw conclusions from such data. Accordingly, this is also an essential aspect of ontology research which has received much attention in recent years. But ontologies introduce another new challenge based on the distributed nature of most of their applications, which requires to relate heterogeneous ontological specifications and to integrate information from multiple sources. These problems have of course been recognized, but many current approaches still lack the deep formal backgrounds on which todays reasoning paradigms are already founded. Here we propose category theory as a well-explored and very extensive mathematical foundation for modelling distributed knowledge. A particular prospect is to derive conclusions from the structure of those distributed knowledge bases, as it is for example needed when merging ontologies.


Abstract The border between the state of Israel and a future Palestinian state has not yet been settled, and has instead been postponed to final‐status negotiations. The question of the location of the border, however, is critical. Will it be alongside the separation wall and fence which Israel is constructing? Or will it fall along the Green Line defined by the ceasefire agreement of 1949, prior to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip? This paper shows, as a case study, how the Green Line, a temporary separation line determined by military considerations, changed over time into a de‐facto boundary, and later became regarded as an international border—thus highlighting that what may be intended to be 'temporary' in bordering processes can rapidly seem permanent. The paper also describes and analyses historical developments and narratives with respect to boundaries in Mandatory Palestine, and concludes with an analysis of the possible consequences of a failure to establish a new international border. It indicates that bordering processes are complicated matters that must take into account many factors, including narratives, changing ethno‐demographic realities and powerful interests, in contrast to ceasefire and separation lines, which usually relate solely to military matters.


The practice of planting winter cover crops has seen renewed interest as a solution to environmental issues with the modern maize- and soybean-dominated row crop production system of the US Midwest. We examine whether cover cropping patterns can be assessed at scale using publicly available satellite data, creating a classifier with 91.5% accuracy (.68 kappa). We then use this classifier to examine spatial and temporal trends in cover crop occurrence on maize and soybean fields in the Midwest since 2008, finding that despite increased talk about and funding for cover crops as well as a 94% increase in cover crop acres planted from 2008–2016, increases in winter vegetation have been more modest. Finally, we combine cover cropping with satellite-predicted yields, finding that cover crops are associated with low relative maize and soybean production and poor soil quality, consistent with farmers adopting the practice on fields most in need of purported cover crop benefits. When controlling for invariant soil quality using a panel regression model, we find modest benefits of cover cropping, with average yield increases of 0.65% for maize and 0.35% for soybean. Given these slight impacts on yields, greater incentives or reduced costs of implementation are needed to increase adoption of this practice for the majority of maize and soybean acres in the US.


Audio description is a recent technique that allows primarily blind and low-sighted people to gain adequate access to audiovisual products such as movies, theatre performances, sport matches, museums, archives, web resources and sculpture works.
An additional audio track
describes the visual elements that would otherwise remain inaccessible to the visually impaired, such as settings, costumes, atmospheres and written titles.
Though very recent, audio description has rapidly expanded worldwide and is widely used in English-speaking countries, where it is applied to most audiovisual fields and in particular to cinema, theatre and television.
At the same time, audio description has attracted more and more attention from an academic perspective, for its being a technique that 'translates' the visual into verbal and 'manipulates' the original product in such a way to carefully select only those elements that are pertinent to the comprehension and might be described in the relatively short pauses between dialogues.
From a linguistic perspective, so far most researchers have focused on more qualitative than quantitative investigations and have therefore analyzed case studies to apply, verify and discuss the existing guidelines.

This research work is therefore conceived as an original attempt to bridge the gap between the various disciplines and to suggest how they can contribute to the comprehension of the language of audio description through a corpus-oriented approach. Since audio description is very scarcely developed in Italy both from a practical and an academic perspective, this work also aims at raising awareness about the importance of AD as a tool for audiovisual accessibility and as a matter of academic interest.
In particular, this research works focuses on the use of the adjectival function from both a grammatical and a semantic perspective. The corpus-based analysis has been conducted on a corpus of 69 English AD film scripts by means of corpus analysis tools (AntConc and CQP in particular) and has
combined both quantitative and qualitative information, based on the convergence of different disciplines, from Narratology to Film Studies, from Linguistics to Visual Literacy Theories.


About the book:
This second edition provides students and practitioners with a broad introduction to the main theories and issues within the field of early childhood studies. The book adopts a multi-disciplinary approach and pulls together all the key themes involved in the study of young children and childhood, and successfully demonstrates how these can be translated into real-life practice.

Written by a team of leading academics and practitioners, illustrated throughout, with student-friendly features such as `real-life' case studies and guides for further reading. The chapters cover all key aspects of the curriculum, including: the sociololgy of childhood; child health; child development; and the realities of working with children. This thoroughly updated and revised new edition also includes completely new chapters on research with children and leadership in early year settings.

It is a core text for all those involved in the study of childhood, particularly undergraduates in the fields of child social care; social work; social policy and education and practitioners and policy makers working with children


In this paper, we study the tidal stripping process for satellite galaxies orbiting around a massive host galaxy, and focus on its dependence on the morphology of both satellite and host galaxy. For this purpose, we use three different morphologies for the satellites: pure disc, pure bulge and a mixture bulge+disc. Two morphologies are used for the host galaxies: bulge+disc and pure bulge. We find that while the spheroidal stellar component experiences a constant power law like mass removal, the disc is exposed to an exponential mass-loss when the tidal radius of the satellite is of the same order of the disc scalelength. This dramatic mass-loss is able to completely remove the stellar component on time-scale of 100 Myr. As a consequence two satellites with the same stellar and dark matter masses, on the same orbit could either retain considerable fraction of their stellar mass after 10 Gyr or being completely destroyed, depending on their initial stellar morphology. We find that there are two characteristic time-scales describing the beginning and the end of the disc removal, whose values are related to the size of the disc. This result can be easily incorporated in semi-analytical models. We also find that the host morphology and the orbital parameters also have an effect on determining the mass removal, but they are of secondary importance with respect to satellite morphology. We conclude that satellite morphology has a very strong effect on the efficiency of stellar stripping and should be taken into account in modelling galaxy formation and evolution.


LINGORSKI, VL. and T. KERTIKOV, 2010. Study of the possibility for twofold harvesting of annual winter cereal and legume crops and mixtures in the region of the central Balkan Mountains. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 16: 687-691 During the 2007-2009 periods in the Institute of Mountain Stockbreeding and Agriculture Troyan a study was conducted on the possibility for twofold harvesting of annual winter cereal and legume crops and mixtures for production of green forage. Three pure stands of one cereal and two legume crops and 2 mixtures between them were tested in the following variants: 1. Wintering pea; 2. Winter vetch (Control); 3. Winter barley; 4. Winter barley + Wintering pea; 5. Winter barley + Winter vetch. It was found that under initial harvesting at the stage of "early flowering" (1st stage) the mixture of winter barley + wintering pea was distinguished for the maximum productivity of dry mass, and among the pure stands winter barley. At seed formation in the lower pods of pea (2nd stage) the mixture of winter barley + winter vetch was the most productive, and among the pure stands wintering pea. Irrespective of the stage of initial harvesting and nature of the stands (pure or mixed), the sown cereal and legume forage crops occupied the greatest relative portion in the areas.


This paper is inspired by the everyday happenings of
cases read in the newspaper.Rape being most common of violence
against woman, is not just sex. Rape is not shown as an ugly
violent act in phonography, but the woman is depicted as
eventually enjoying it and behind her cries are supposedly
the moans of enjoyment and acceptance.
The reasons for rape are almost seen as due to the woman;
her attire, her courage to walk at night and other instances
including morality are used to prove consent on her part.
Further, in the eyes of society, if an unmarried woman is
raped and if it is found out that she is not a virgin at the
time of the alleged rape, there will be almost automatic
inclination to think that perhaps she consented.
It is due to this injustice( if the writer may say ),
that has led the writer to examine the state of the present
law and to make, if possible appropriate proposals and
suggestions .The writer feels that the state of the present
law is not balanced in that it does not confer sufficient
protection to the victim, leading normally, the woman holds
back the charges and refuses to report the case resulting
the offender usually get away scot-free.This therefore,
should be putt-off as history and not as a present happenning
in a civilised society today.


This study explores lab-based small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) as a novel quantitative stand-alone technique to monitor the size, shape, and arrangement of magnetosomes during different stages of particle biogenesis in the model organism Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense. The SAXS data sets contain volume-averaged, statistically accurate information on both the diameter of the inorganic nanocrystal and the enveloping protein-rich magnetosome membrane. As a robust and nondestructive in situ technique, SAXS can provide new insights into the physicochemical steps involved in the biosynthesis of magnetosome nanoparticles as well as their assembly into well-ordered chains. The proposed fit model can easily be adapted to account for different particle shapes and arrangements produced by other strains of magnetotactic bacteria, thus rendering SAXS a highly versatile method. ABSTRACT Magnetosomes are membrane-enveloped single-domain ferromagnetic nanoparticles enabling the navigation of magnetotactic bacteria along magnetic field lines. Strict control over each step of biomineralization generates particles of high crystallinity, strong magnetization, and remarkable uniformity in size and shape, which is particularly interesting for many biomedical and biotechnological applications. However, to understand the physicochemical processes involved in magnetite biomineralization, close and precise monitoring of particle production is required. Commonly used techniques, such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) or Fe measurements, allow only for semiquantitative assessment of the magnetosome formation without routinely revealing quantitative structural information. In this study, lab-based small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is explored as a means to monitor the different stages of magnetosome biogenesis in the model organism Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense. SAXS is evaluated as a quantitative stand-alone technique to analyze the size, shape, and arrangement of magnetosomes in cells cultivated under different growth conditions. By applying a simple and robust fitting procedure based on spheres aligned in linear chains, it is demonstrated that the SAXS data sets contain information on both the diameter of the inorganic crystal and the protein-rich magnetosome membrane. The analyses corroborate a narrow particle size distribution with an overall magnetosome radius of 19 nm in Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense. Furthermore, the averaged distance between individual magnetosomes is determined, revealing a chain-like particle arrangement with a center-to-center distance of 53 nm. Overall, these data demonstrate that SAXS can be used as a novel stand-alone technique allowing for the at-line monitoring of magnetosome biosynthesis, thereby providing accurate information on the particle nanostructure. IMPORTANCE This study explores lab-based small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) as a novel quantitative stand-alone technique to monitor the size, shape, and arrangement of magnetosomes during different stages of particle biogenesis in the model organism Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense. The SAXS data sets contain volume-averaged, statistically accurate information on both the diameter of the inorganic nanocrystal and the enveloping protein-rich magnetosome membrane. As a robust and nondestructive in situ technique, SAXS can provide new insights into the physicochemical steps involved in the biosynthesis of magnetosome nanoparticles as well as their assembly into well-ordered chains. The proposed fit model can easily be adapted to account for different particle shapes and arrangements produced by other strains of magnetotactic bacteria, thus rendering SAXS a highly versatile method.


In evaluating the success of teacher development programs, measures of teaching practice that are valid, reliable, and scalable are needed. We have developed, validated, and piloted the Science Lesson Plan Analysis Instrument (SLPAI) for quantitative evaluation of teacher-generated multi-day lesson plans. The SLPAI was developed to complement traditional evaluation tools, such as teacher surveys and direct observational protocols, to enable us to capture the extent to which a teacher development program successfully addressed its goals of increasing teacher content and pedagogical knowledge and impacting teaching practice. This paper presents the development and validation of the SLPAI, and demonstrates its use in a pilot study examining teacher change as a result of program instruction. The SLPAI was utilized as a formative assessment, providing baseline information about the teaching practices of incoming program cohorts in order to tailor both pedagogical and content instruction appropriately. The SLPAI was also used to track and describe changes in teaching practice and pedagogical knowledge of teacher participants over time, and thereby provide summative evidence of program effectiveness. We report on the responses of several program instructors to these results, including revisions made to instructional design of their courses.


The scientific calculation of logistics transportation costs can lay a solid foundation for the developing road of logistics enterprises, so as to enhance the brand competitiveness of logistics enterprises. In this study, first of all is the modeling of logistics transportation process with operations research theory, and then is the specific analysis of the model. In this process firstly give an effectively introduction of logistics enterprise transportation process to further clarify the specific transport process of logistics enterprise. Secondly give an effective introduction of the entities and attributes of logistics transportation system to further show the constituent elements of attributes between entities. Finally is the corresponding discussion of the main structure of logistics transportation process model construction, and to specifically study the construction elements by the establishment of the target model and the cost calculation of outsourcing and insourcing transportation process in the model. The next part is the effective establishment of the transportation costs calculation model, to have a scientific exploration of the outsourcing transportation cost calculation process and insourcing transportation costs calculation model for effective control of transportation cost. Finally, there is a concrete analysis of transportation cost optimization, but also a specific optimization program of transportation cost calculation for the traditional logistics enterprises. This is the main idea of this study, from which can clearly see that the main objectives and contents of the study.


The farmers within the Ogallala aquifer desire to extend the usable life of this aquifer despite experiencing diminishing well capacities, thus the quest for more efficient irrigation application technologies. Mobile drip irrigation (MDI), which integrates drip lines onto a mechanical irrigation system such as a center pivot, has attracted their attention lately. The concept is that by applying water along crop rows, it was hypothesized that MDI could eliminate water losses due to spray droplet evaporation, wind drift, and reduce soil evaporation due to limited surface wetting especially before canopy closure. A study was conducted with the following objectives: 1) compare soil water evaporation under MDI and incanopy spray nozzles (low elevation spray application (LESA)); 2) evaluate soil water redistribution under MDI at 60-inch drip line lateral spacing; and 3) compare corn grain yield, and water productivity under MDI and LESA at two well capacities (300 and 600 gpm). The experimental design was randomized complete block with four replications and two treatments (MDI and LESA). Nozzle performance was evaluated using the Spot-on flow measurement device. Soil water evaporation was measured using 4-inch minilysimeters placed between corn rows. The effect of a 60-inch lateral spacing on soil water redistribution was measured using neutron attenuation to a depth of 8 feet. Corn yield was determined from harvesting two 40-foot corn rows in the center of each plot. Measured and design nozzle flow rates were similar indicating the irrigation system was performing as designed. Results indicate that soil water evaporation was lower under MDI compared to LESA by an average of 35%. Soil water was greatest at the mid-point between two drip line laterals spaced 60 inches apart at a depth of approximately 20–24 inches. These results indicate drip line spacing of 60 inches is adequate for silt loam soils of southwest Kansas. The effect of irrigation application method (MDI versus spray nozzles [LESA]) on yield at high (600 gpm) and low (300 gpm) well capacities was not statistically significant at the 5% level (P > 0.05). The effect of application method on water productivity and irrigation water use efficiency was also not significant. The lack of significant differences in yield could be attributed to the above normal rainfall received during the 2015 growing season (18 inches from May to September). However, it is worth noting that the effect of application method on end-of-season soil water was statistically significant under low well capacity (300 gpm) with mobile drip irrigation having more soil water compared to spray nozzles.


The Algerian diaspora in London has grown exponentially in recent years, initially as a result of Algeria's civil conflict and subsequently for economic and educational reasons. The local Algerian population has found itself dispersed across the city and its surrounding areas, with no focal point around which to develop a sense community. This has produced feelings of individual and collective cultural disconnection, which are particularly pronounced given the strong discourse of nationalism that has shaped Algerian politics since the country's independence in 1962. At the same time, on a local level Algerians have been faced by both widespread public ignorance of their culture, and enduringly negative representations within the British media that associates Algerians with acts of terrorism.

In such circumstances, music has become important to Algerians in the city for a number of reasons. It offers, in a range of traditional and contemporary forms, a positive public display of Algerian culture for Algerian and non-Algerian audiences alike. Musical events also facilitate social interaction amongst the local diaspora, providing occasions in which Algerians from across the city can gather and collectively celebrate their culture. Whilst such moments of musicmaking provide entertainment and an expression of national pride, they also offer an opportunity for the negotiation of 'London Algerianness', a collective cultural identity that is shaped by, but uniquely different from, the Algerian cultures of France and the homeland.

This thesis focuses upon this notion of London Algerianness, examining the important role that music plays in constructing and mediating a shared, localised sense of collective cultural identity. Algerian music in London, it is argued, maintains connections with a transnational diaspora, but is also at the heart of a strong local identity, which is formed by the experiences of Algerians in early twenty-first century London.


The heat treatment of siliceous rocks is an intentional process that alters the mechanical properties of the material. It is now recognized that this process improves at least the knap-ping ability of siliceous rocks and the sharpness of artefacts. The use of this process during the Solutrean techno-complex is attested from the 1960-70s with the discovery of fragments of heat-treated laurel leaves in the collections of Laugerie Haute and Placard (Bordes 1969, Collins 1974, Inizan et al. 1976). Evidences of intentional heat treatment were later detected in the Solutrean of Iberian facies (Tiffagom 1998,2006). The Upper Solutrean (23.5-23 ky cal BP) is also characterized by the systematization of another technical process: the pressure retouch technique. These two technological innovations appeared in parallel with the development of a very specific hunting implements. In this context, a heat treatment phase is a significant process. It takes place in otherwise complex operating procedures which are already heavily invested economically and technically, and introduces an additional degree of risk. The management of heat treatment thus oscillates between a benefit of the mechanical properties of the material and a high risk of failure in case of poor process control. At this time our knowledge of heat treatment remains scattered concerning the heating environment and its place in the solutrean technical system. We want to restart the research work on this issue in order to improve our understanding of the socioeconomic organisation upper solutrean groups. It's also necessary to question the sociocultural conditions that allowed the adoption and generalization of these innovations. The abandonment of these technologies in Badegoulian is associated with a probable economic and social restructuring of the nomadic groups. My previous work has produced initial results and food for thought on lithics systems and heat treatment, as well as on the organisation and social composition of Solutrean groups. My thesis combines techno-economic analyses of lithic industries, macroscopic observations of heat treatment, experiments and physico-chemical analyses. One of the objectives is therefore to carry out a more global work on the heat treatment of siliceous rocks in south-western France at the dawn of the Last Glacial Maximum. We intend to present some of the data and results collected so far.


The aim of this work was to investigate if interesting patterns could be found in time series radar data that had been discretized by the algorithm ARAVQ into symbolic representations and if the ARAVQ thus might be suitable for use in the radar domain. An experimental study was performed where the ARAVQ was used to create symbolic representations of data sets with radar data. Two experiments were carried out that used a Markov model to calculate probabilities used for discovering potentially interesting patterns. Some of the most interesting patterns were then investigated further. Results have shown that the ARAVQ was able to create accurate representations for several time series and that it was possible to discover patterns that were interesting and represented higher level concepts. However, the results also showed that the ARAVQ was not able to create accurate representations for some of the time series.


It is proposed here that the delayed cytotoxicity of thioguanine involves the postreplicative DNA mismatch repair system. After incorporation into DNA, the thioguanine is chemically methylated by S-adenosylmethionine to form S6-methylthioguanine. During DNA replication, the S6-methylthioguanine directs incorporation of either thymine or cytosine into the growing DNA strand, and the resultant S6-methylthioguanine-thymine pairs are recognized by the postreplicative mismatch repair system. Azathioprine, an immunosuppressant used in organ transplantation, is partly converted to thioguanine. Because the carcinogenicity of N-nitrosamines depends on formation of O6-alkylguanine in DNA, the formation of the analog S6-methylthioguanine during azathioprine treatment may partly explain the high incidence of cancer after transplantation.


We report field, petrographic, mineralogical, and geochemical data for two P-rich rock types of the anorthosite suite—Fe-Ti oxide-apatite rock (or nelsonite) and Fe-Ti oxide-apatite gabbronorite (or oxide-apatite gabbronorite). These rocks are take from the Château-Richer, Labrieville, and St. Urbain massifs in Quebec; from the Roseland massif in Virginia; and from the Carthage massif in New York. Our data set includes X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and instrumental neutron activation (INA) analyses of whole-rock samples, as well as electron-microprobe (EMP) and INA analyses of separated apatites.

At St. Urbain and Labrieville, nelsonite forms a small capping on massive hemoilmenite deposits fully contained within anorthosite, whereas at Roseland, nelsonite occurs as dikelike bodies within country rock. All three nelsonite occurrences consist almost entirely of ilmenite + apatite (but do not have a 2:1 oxide/apatite ratio), with only trace amounts of other minerals. All oxide-apatite gabbronorites form sill-like layers within or near the margins of anorthosite massifs and contain ilmenite ± magnetite, apatite, orthopyroxene + clinopyroxene, and plagioclase.

All apatites are F rich and Cl poor, consistent with high-temperature magmatic crystallization. Concentrations of apatite rare earth elements (REE) are highly variable (e.g., LaN ≈ 700–2,000× chondrites), but patterns show a consistent fractionation (e.g., LaN/LuN ≈ 10–20) with small to moderate negative Eu anomalies. Interestingly, the Labrieville nelsonite and its apatite lack an Eu anomaly, consistent with crystallization in a highly oxidizing environment.

Apatites in both rock types are enriched in REE relative to whole-rock samples (by factors of 3 to 10), but REE patterns of apatites and whole rocks are parallel in each case. Mass-balance calculations indicate that for nelsonite, 100 percent of the REE is contained in apatite; for oxide-apatite gabbronorites, ~100 percent of the light REE, ~90 percent of the middle to heavy REE, and ~75 percent of Eu are in apatite. These results can be explained satisfactorily by assuming that the rocks are cumulate in origin. If, on the other hand, nelsonites and oxide-apatite gabbronorites represent liquids, apatite DREE values must vary by more than a factor of 3.

Our field, mineralogical, and geochemical observations indicate that most nelsonites and oxide-apatite gabbronorites are not related directly. Indeed, apatites from oxide-apatite gabbronorites contain lower Sr and MgO but higher REE than those in nelsonites, indicating that nelsonites are the more primitive rock type. Nelsonites probably formed as cumulates primarily within larger deposits of Fe-Ti oxide (locally mobilized as dikelike bodies). oxide-apatite gabbronorites also represent cumulates, but these are related spatially and genetically to associated jotunites and mangerites and appear to form at several stages in the evolution of a particular anorthosite complex.


Trace-norm regularization is a widely-used and successful approach for collaborative filtering and matrix completion. However, previous learning guarantees require strong assumptions, such as a uniform distribution over the matrix entries. In this paper, we bridge this gap by providing such guarantees, under much milder assumptions which correspond to matrix completion as performed in practice. In fact, we claim that previous difficulties partially stemmed from a mismatch between the standard learning-theoretic modeling of matrix completion, and its practical application. Our results also shed some light on the issue of matrix completion with bounded models, which enforce predictions to lie within a certain range. In particular, we provide experimental and theoretical evidence that such models lead to a modest yet significant improvement.


This study aims to explore the relationship between the organizational innovation climate of school on student's creative self-efficacy and innovative behavior. The results of this study provide more methods to all university of technology to create a climate for innovation and practices, and enhance students' innovative behavior. According to the research purposes, the questionnaire survey was conducted. The objects were college students in the University of Technology. 927 samples were selected by stratified proportion sampling method, and 803 were returned. 47 invalid questionnaires were deducted and the amount of valid questionnaires was 756. The return rate accounted for (81.55%). The research findings are: 1) As for the organizational-innovation climate of school, the best dimension is students' "organizational support"; 2) As for creational self-efficacy, the students' performs well; 3) As for Innovative-Behavior, the students perform best in "innovative idea generation" ; 4) The organizational-innovation climate of school had a significant positive influence on student's creative self-efficacy and innovative behavior; and 5) student's creative self-efficacy and innovative behavior had a significant positive influence.


The blog illustrates well the constant change that characterizes electronic media. With a rapidity equal to that of their initial adoption, blogs became not a single genre but a multiplicity. To explore the relationship between the centrifugal forces of change and the centripetal tendencies of recurrence and typification, we extend our earlier study of personal blogs with a contrasting study of the kairos, technological affordances, rhetorical features, and exigence for what we call public affairs blogs. At the same time, we explore the relationship between genre and medium, examining genre evolution in the context of changing technological affordances. We conclude that genre and medium must be distinguished and that the aesthetic satisfactions of genre help account for recurrence in an environment of change.


Abstract. When a disaster occurs, we must grasp and evaluate its damage as soon as possible. Then we try to estimate them from some kind of photographs, such as surveillance camera imagery, satellite imagery, photographs taken from a helicopter and so on. Especially in initial stage, estimation of decent damage situation for a short time is more important than investigation of damage situation for a long time. One of the source of damage situation is the image taken by surveillance camera, satellite sensor and helicopter. If we can measure any targets in these imagery, we can estimate a length of a lava flow, a reach of a cinder and a sediment volume in volcanic eruption or landslide. Therefore in order to measure various information for a short time, we developed a simplified measurement system which uses these photographs. This system requires DEM in addition to photographs, but it is possible to use previously acquired DEM. To measure an object, we require only two steps. One is the determination of the position and the posture in which the photograph is shot. We determine these parameters using DEM. The other step is the measurement of an object in photograph. In this paper, we describe this system and show the experimental results to evaluate this system. In this experiment we measured the top of Mt. Usu by using two measurement method of this system. Then we can measure it about one hour and the difference between the measurement results and the airborne LiDAR data are less than 10 meter.


In the digital age, the discussion about the public sphere has at the same time become increasingly relevant and increasingly problematic. The validity and relevance of post–modern critique to Habermas' concept of the public sphere cannot be denied, yet the concept of a public sphere and Habermas' notion of a critical publicity is still extremely valuable for media theory today.

The public sphere is subject to dramatic change; one might even argue that it is on the verge of extinction. Computer–mediated communication has taken the place of coffeehouse discourse, and issues such as media ownership and commodification pose serious threats to the free flow of information and freedom of speech on the Web. I don't believe the situation is quite that serious. I will give an introductory overview of Habermas' theoretical concept and point out that it is conceptual rather than physical.

I will describe why Habermas' key concept is valuable for media theory today. Further, I will give an overview of the main issues, debates and problems that arose around the concept of the public sphere in the decades that followed. I will conclude that the notion of the public sphere is not a static one, but subject to change, and show how the theoretical concept of the public sphere is being used to work out viable options for a digital future and models for positive change.


At the heart of any successful organisation lies a powerful conception of identity: the coherent way in which it presents itself to its stakeholders and employees, containing its purpose, goals and key characteristics. However, the traditional idea of identity as a stable, solid and reliable concept may not be the best way of approaching and managing your organisation. Rather, Majken Schultz and Steve Maguire argue that organisations would benefit from adopting a process-based view of identity, which integrates history, ongoing change and market instability into its definition.


Eight volumes comprising approximately 5000 pages provide a wide-ranging sequence of key historical documents, evidence of the origins and development of the modern city and Emirate of Dubai. This new document collection makes available for study authentic original documents - reproduced in facsimile - including political correspondence and reports, letters to and from the Shaikhs (in Arabic versions wherever available), and maps. The subject matter includes: Ruling Family affairs; rivalries and conflicts with Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and elsewhere; tribal affairs; history of trade, including pearl fisheries; oil development; city development and administration.


Semi- natural grasslands are species-rich and also one of the most threatened biotopes in Europe. The area of these grasslands has declined and grassland vegetation is threatened as a result of lack of management and land use change. Appropriate management is therefore required to maintain the conservation values and high species richness of semi- natural grasslands. Traditional management, that is, grazing or annual mowing is expensive, which motivates evaluation of alternative cheaper methods of management. Burning is less costly and therefore I evaluated burning along with the conventional methods. The study addressed the main question: is burning an option to mowing and grazing? I searched the literature for available studies suitable for metaanalysis, but located only detailed reports from a series of eleven Swedish long-term field trials. In addition, I collected data in the only one of these trials still running. To facilitate metaanalysis, l used different indicator systems of classification of grassland plants then calculating the odds for a random record being an indicator after one, eight, fourteen, twenty-eight and thirty-nine spring burns. The results show an increasing proportion of grassland indicators of good management in the mowed and grazed plots compared with the burnt plots, indicating a general negative effect of burning on grassland plants compared with mowing and grazing. Hence, burning is not an appropriate long-term management method if the aim is to maintain vegetation diversity in semi-natural grassland.


The physico-chemical parameters and the fish parasites of the River Neelum were studied at three sampling sites, i.e., Pattika, Tali Mandi, and Domail. Water temperature and rate of flow of water were significantly higher at Domail than Pattika and Tali Mandi. ANOVA showed that dissolved oxygen, total suspended solids, inorganic suspended solids, and organic matter of the bottom mud kept on fluctuating and showed a significant difference between three selected sites. Although, these variables showed variations, they remained within tolerable limits set by WHO. Three species of potentially harmful parasites, i.e., Dactylogyrus vastator, Procamallanus laevionchus, and Argulus foliaceus were isolated from fish population of the River Neelum, however, these parasites do not pose any severe threats to general fish life.


After a decade of genome-wide association studies (GWASs), fundamental questions in human genetics are still unanswered, such as the extent of pleiotropy across the genome, the nature of trait-associated genetic variants and the disparate genetic architecture across human traits. The current availability of hundreds of GWAS results provide the unique opportunity to gain insight into these questions. In this study, we harmonized and systematically analysed 4,155 publicly available GWASs. For a subset of well-powered GWAS on 558 unique traits, we provide an extensive overview of pleiotropy and genetic architecture. We show that trait associated loci cover more than half of the genome, and 90% of those loci are associated with multiple trait domains. We further show that potential causal genetic variants are enriched in coding and flanking regions, as well as in regulatory elements, and how trait-polygenicity is related to an estimate of the required sample size to detect 90% of causal genetic variants. Our results provide novel insights into how genetic variation contributes to trait variation. All GWAS results can be queried and visualized at the GWAS ATLAS resource (http://atlas.ctglab.nl).


Introduction: The role of a dentist is not only to examine and treat the oral diseases but also to assist the legal authorities by means of its branch—forensic odontology. Through forensic odontology, a dentist plays a very important role in crime investigation of any type. Objective: To analyze the knowledge, awareness, and interest of forensic odontology among the dental teaching staff who are working in the dental colleges within the Delhi NCR. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire of 12 questions (both open-ended and close-ended) was prepared and the survey was conducted with 200 dental teaching staff. Results: A sufficient knowledge but poor awareness and interest among the dental teaching staff was observed. Conclusion: The study highlighted that although dental teaching staff themselves have sound knowledge regarding forensic odontology, their awareness and interest need to be upgraded on a regular basis. The success of acquiring such extensive knowledge would be valid if better job opportunities in these fields would be increased.


This paper proposes Quaternion Collaborative Filtering (QCF), a novel representation learning method for recommendation. Our proposed QCF relies on and exploits computation with Quaternion algebra, benefiting from the expressiveness and rich representation learning capability of Hamilton products. Quaternion representations, based on hypercomplex numbers, enable rich inter-latent dependencies between imaginary components. This encourages intricate relations to be captured when learning user-item interactions, serving as a strong inductive bias  as compared with the real-space inner product. All in all, we conduct extensive experiments on six real-world datasets, demonstrating the effectiveness of Quaternion algebra in recommender systems. The results exhibit that QCF outperforms a wide spectrum of strong neural baselines on all datasets. Ablative experiments confirm the effectiveness of Hamilton-based composition over multi-embedding composition in real space.


Originally published in French in 1967, "Semiology of Graphics" holds a significant place in the theory of information design. Founded on Jacques Bertin's practical experience as a cartographer, Part One of this work is an unprecedented attempt to synthesize principles of graphic communication with the logic of standard rules applied to writing and topography. Part Two brings Bertin's theory to life, presenting a close study of graphic techniques including shape, orientation, color, texture, volume, and size in an array of more than 1,000 maps and diagrams.


A directly coupled boundary element and finite element model has been applied to the dynamics of acoustic silencers exhibiting flexible surfaces. In this coupled BEM–FEM formulation, the BEM model used a three‐node isoparametric triangular linear continuous element to discretize the acoustic cavity. The BEM model was coupled to a flat shell FEM model. The formulated model was then used to predict the performance of various silencer configurations. In a parallel study, the BEM model was used to study the various parameters affecting the performance of vented earmolds coupled to a headset driver and the ear canal. The preliminary findings from this effort will be presented. [See NOISE‐CON Proceedings for full paper.]


Background and objectives Multipotential stromal cells (MSCs) have considerable regenerative capabilities and their premature senescence in vivo may be responsible for altered bone phenotypes in age-related skeletal diseases including osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. Following minimal culture expansion, MSCs lose their native molecular phenotype (Churchman, Arthritis Rheum, 2012). However it is not known whether this continues to change as MSC reach senescence and whether any molecular markers could be predictive of senescence-related loss of MSC osteogenic capacity. Materials and methods Bone marrow (BM, n = 7) was obtained from a deliberately diverse age range (2–72 years) of healthy donors. MSCs were selected for by plastic adherence and culture expanded up to senescence. Throughout the expansion period samples were taken for RNA and gDNA extraction as well as osteogenic differentiation. Gene expression profiles were studied by 96-gene Taqman low density array, whilst epigenetic senescence signature analysis was performed on the gDNA. Results Cultures from older donors reached senescence considerably earlier compared to younger donors (r = -0.703). For all donors combined, MSC osteogenic capacity correlated better with population doublings (PDs) before senescence than with accrued PDs. Regardless of the donor age, the majority (59/78) of the genes were unchanged throughout the expansion period, with exceptions including TNFRSF11B/osteoprotegrin, CDH11/osteogenic cadherin, COL1A1/collagen type I and SPARC/osteonectin (all higher by senescence compared to early passage), and NANOG (lower in senescent cultures). The methylation status of cells correlated equally well with both PD and PD before senescence. Following osteogenic differentiation many genes were upregulated up to 200-fold and TNFRSF11B was less upregulated closer to senescence. Conclusion Compared to methylation markers, the expression of TNFRSF11B/osteoprotegrin may be a better predictor of BM MSC senescence and related loss of osteogenic capability independent of donor age.


In the milling of large monolithic structural components for aircraft, 70–80% of the total cut volume is removed using high-speed roughing operations. In order to achieve the economic objective (i.e. optimal part quality in minimal machining time) of this process, it is necessary to determine the optimal cutting conditions while respecting the multiple constraints (functional and technological) imposed by the machine, the tool and the part geometry. This work presents a physical model called GA-MPO (genetic algorithm based milling parameter optimisation system) for the prediction of the optimal cutting parameters (namely, axial depth of cut (a p), radial immersion (a e), feed rate (f t) and spindle speed (n)) in the multi-tool milling of prismatic parts. By submitting a preliminary milling process plan (i.e. CL data file) generated by CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) software, the developed system provides an optimal combination of process parameters (for each machining feature), respecting the machine–tool–part functional/technological constraints. The obtained prediction accuracy and enhanced functional capabilities of the developed system demonstrate its improved performance over other models available in the literature.


BACKGROUND
High-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) types play a major role in the development of cervical cancer in vivo and can induce immortalization of primary human keratinocytes in vitro. Activation of the telomere-lengthening enzyme telomerase constitutes a key event in both processes. Because losses of alleles from chromosome 6 and increased telomerase activity have been observed in high-grade premalignant cervical lesions, we analyzed whether human chromosome 6 harbors a putative telomerase repressor locus that may be involved in HPV-mediated immortalization.

METHODS
Microcell-mediated chromosome transfer was used to introduce chromosomes 6 and 11 to the in vitro generated HPV type 16 (HPV16)-immortalized keratinocyte cell line FK16A and to the in vivo derived HPV16-containing cervical cancer cell line SIHA: Hybrid clones were analyzed for growth characteristics, telomerase activity, human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) and HPV16 E6 expression, and telomere length. FK16A hybrid clones were also transduced with an hTERT-containing retrovirus to examine the effect of ectopic hTERT expression on growth. Statistical tests were two-sided.

RESULTS
Introduction of human chromosome 6 but not of chromosome 11 to both cell lines yielded hybrid cells that demonstrated crisis-like features (i.e., enlarged and flattened morphology, vacuolation, and multinucleation) and underwent growth arrest after a marked lag period. In the chromosome 6 hybrid clones analyzed, telomerase activity and hTERT messenger RNA (mRNA) expression were statistically significantly reduced compared with those in the chromosome 11 hybrid clones (for telomerase activity, P =.004 for the FK16A hybrids and P =.039 for the SiHa hybrids; for hTERT mRNA expression, P =.003 for the FK16A hybrids). The observed growth arrest was associated with telomeric shortening. Ectopic expression of hTERT in FK16A cells could prevent the telomeric shortening-based growth arrest induced by chromosome 6.

CONCLUSIONS
Chromosome 6 may harbor a repressor of hTERT transcription, the loss of which may be involved in HPV-mediated immortalization.