Research is vital and necessary part of modern university education; universities are producers of new knowledge. Role of universities is different from the 19th century; demands of the 21st century are enormously higher. The purpose of study was to find out the causes of low research productivity at university level. Population of the study was faculty members working at University. Sample consisting of 232 male and female faculty members was selected through the stratified sampling technique. Quantitative research methodology was adopted; data were collected through questionnaire. Data collected through the questionnaire was analyzed by using the statistical methods. To describe the data at the initial stage percentages were calculated. At the second stage Mean score, SD and Chi-Square, the test of significance was applied. The level of significance selected for the study was 0.05. On the basis of findings, the conclusions were drawn that extra teaching load, performance of administrative duties along with academic duties, lack of funds, nonexistence of research leave, negative attitude of the faculty towards research, lack of research skills, non availability of latest books, absence of professional journals, less number of university own journals, are the major causes of low productivity and reduced the research productivity of the university faculty members.


Once again: Exegetical methods This article is the result of conversations with leading Old Testament scholars in The Netherlands and in Germany. These conversations once again emphasise that there is not one single prevailing exegetical method which is followed in general. Although certain "schools", in which a specific exegetical model dominates, can be identified, enough scope for the practise of other methods is offered. Most exegetes are of the opinion that both synchronic and diachronic aspects can be combined in one exegetical model.


Bag-of-words document representations are often used in text, image and video processing. While it is relatively easy to determine a suitable word dictionary for text documents, there is no simple mapping from raw images or videos to dictionary terms. The classical approach builds a dictionary using vector quantization over a large set of useful visual descriptors extracted from a training set, and uses a nearest-neighbor algorithm to count the number of occurrences of each dictionary word in documents to be encoded. More robust approaches have been proposed recently that represent each visual descriptor as a sparse weighted combination of dictionary words. While favoring a sparse representation at the level of visual descriptors, those methods however do not ensure that images have sparse representation. In this work, we use mixed-norm regularization to achieve sparsity at the image level as well as a small overall dictionary. This approach can also be used to encourage using the same dictionary words for all the images in a class, providing a discriminative signal in the construction of image representations. Experimental results on a benchmark image classification dataset show that when compact image or dictionary representations are needed for computational efficiency, the proposed approach yields better mean average precision in classification.


Freshwater ecosystems are a foundation of our social, cultural, spiritual and economic well being. The degraded condition of many of Australia's river ecosystems is testament to our failure to manage these resources wisely. Ecosystem science involves the holistic study of complex biophysical systems to understand the drivers that influence ecological pattern and process. Ecosystem science should underpin both water management and policy. Our understanding of aquatic ecosystems lags behind the increasing problems caused by past land and water management. Current post-graduate training programmes will not provide the aquatic ecosystem scientists needed by government and management agencies to prevent further degradation. We advocate new initiatives to capture the skills, knowledge and innovation of our research community by engaging scientists and managers in large-scale, long-term ecosystem science programmes across Australia and to integrate these programmes with community aspirations, policy, planning and management. We call on management agencies to increase their support for and uptake and use of ecosystem science. We also advocate establishment of national archives for long-term ecologically-relevant data and samples, and clear custodial arrangements to protect, update and facilitate knowledge-transfer. These initiatives need to be supported by more extensive, better-funded post-graduate and post-doctoral programmes in ecosystem science and management.


The Pelton turbine is widely considered a mature technology, existing for more than a century. However, manufacturers concerns over operating efficiency are a key driver in the continued design development. In recent decades, the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has become well established in the field of hydro turbine design, analysis and optimisation. However, the complex flow phenomena within impulse turbines have meant that only recently the simulation of the operation of Pelton turbine injectors and runners has been possible. Modern advances in computer hardware enables larger models to be studied in shorter timescales, despite this the application of CFD to the full Pelton turbine including the casing is still very demanding and as far as the author is aware there are no available studies in the public domain, documenting how Eulerian mesh based CFD solvers can be used for this task. The main objective of the present thesis is to understand the impact of the casing geometry on the performance of a twin jet Pelton turbine. This objective has been met by employing advanced CFD models, which has been complemented by experimental testing. In parallel these allowed the description and detailed understanding of the flow features within a horizontal axis Pelton turbine casing and the effects the geometry has on this flow and subsequently turbine performance. The CFD analysis was carried out using the commercial code ANSYS® FLUENT® and included a number of numerical and physical assumptions to simplify the problems, including the usage of symmetry plane and modelling of only six (out of eighteen) consecutive buckets to reduce the size of the computational domain. The investigations can be split into two phases. In the first phase the CFD model was applied to a 'naked – case' and examined the impact of the addition of casing inserts such as a jet shroud and bolt on baffle and side shroud which direct the flow away from the injectors and runner, respectively. The second phase examined the variations of the casing width. The CFD models at this stage are only a visual indicative tool and cannot quantitatively predict efficiency as a result of variations in casing geometry, therefore experimental testing has been carried out to complement this work. Experiments were carried out at the Laboratory of Hydraulic Machines within the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). The first phase experimental testing has found that the addition of the inserts have an overall effect on efficiency of no more than 0.5%, for single and twin jet operation. Furthermore, some inserts and baffles have a positive impact and some are detrimental. The experimental testing of the second phase revealed that a more considerable reduction of as much as 3% in efficiency is experienced when reducing the casing width by 50% and efficiency reduces linearly with width. The CFD results of the casing provide a visual assessment of the flow in the casing and a key outcome of the PhD has been learning how to interpret these patterns and then to make decisions on what experiments to carry out. As a second case study, further CFD analysis was applied to an in-house test rig at Lancaster University designed by the author, and based on this work further experimental testing was then carried out.  A second objective of the present thesis was to examine the influence of the injector spear and nozzle angle on the flow behaviour and hydraulic efficiency. The 3D CFD study has shown that injectors with noticeably steeper angles of 110° & 70° and 150° & 90°, respectively, attain a higher efficiency than the industry standard of 80° & 55°. Moreover, experimental testing of the upper jet at NTUA showed gains of ≈1% in efficiency at the best efficiency point of the turbine can be achieved, however there appears to be an upper limit beyond which steeper designs are no longer optimal. Further insight was provided by carrying out additional simulations whereby the 3D velocity profiles obtained from the injector simulations are applied as an inlet boundary condition to a runner simulation and then examining the impact the jet shape has on the runner torque profile during the bucket cycle and the influence this had on turbine efficiency. It can be concluded that the secondary velocities, which contribute to the development of more significant free-surface degradations as the spear and nozzle angles are increased, result in a non-optimal jet runner interaction. Further investigations were carried out in order to compare the absolute difference between the numerical runner efficiency and the experimental efficiency. In doing so, the various losses that occur during operation of the turbine can be appraised and a prediction of casing losses can be made. Firstly, the mechanical losses of the test rig are estimated to determine the experimental hydraulic efficiency. Following this the numerical efficiency of the runner can then be ascertained by considering the upstream pipework losses and the aforementioned runner simulations, which are combined with the 3D velocity profiles from the injectors. The results indicate that out of all of the experimental cases tested, in the best case scenario the casing losses can be approximated to be negligible and in the worst case scenario ≈3%.


In fungal cells cytokinesis requires coordinated closure of a contractile actomyosin ring (CAR) and synthesis of a special cell wall structure known as the division septum. Many CAR proteins have been identified and characterized, but how these molecules interact with the septum synthesis enzymes to form the septum remains unclear. Our genetic study using fission yeast shows that cooperation between the paxillin homolog Pxl1, required for ring integrity, and Bgs1, the enzyme responsible for linear β(1,3)glucan synthesis and primary septum formation, is required for stable anchorage of the CAR to the plasma membrane before septation onset, and for cleavage furrow formation. Thus, lack of Pxl1 in combination with Bgs1 depletion, causes failure of ring contraction and lateral cell wall overgrowth towards the cell lumen without septum formation. We also describe here that Pxl1 concentration at the CAR increases during cytokinesis and that this increase depends on the SH3 domain of the F-BAR protein Cdc15. In consequence, Bgs1 depletion in cells carrying a cdc15ΔSH3 allele causes ring disassembly and septation blockage, as it does in cells lacking Pxl1. On the other hand, the absence of Pxl1 is lethal when Cdc15 function is affected, generating a large sliding of the CAR with deposition of septum wall material along the cell cortex, and suggesting additional functions for both Pxl1 and Cdc15 proteins. In conclusion, our findings indicate that CAR anchorage to the plasma membrane through Cdc15 and Pxl1, and concomitant Bgs1 activity, are necessary for CAR maintenance and septum formation in fission yeast.


In Maithili there exists a rule which is analogous to the Subject-to-Subject Raising rule in English. This rule is interesting because it raises the subject of a tensed embedded clause, whereas the Subject-to-Subject Raising rule raises to the matrix subject position the subject of a tenseless embedded clause. The DPtrace in the former case apparently violates one of the principles of Universal Grammar, namely, the binding principle for anaphors, proposed in Chomsky (1981,1995), since it is not bound in its governing category. We demonstrate, however, that the DP-trace does obey the binding principle. What is required here is to investigate this phenomenon from the perspective of the parametric variation that distinguishes Maithili-type languages from English-type languages. This article consists of four main Sections. In Section 1, we analyze the raising construction in Maithili. We also look into the rule of i -insertion, which optionally applies to fill the empty subject position of the matrix IP, in case Subject-to-Subject Raising does not apply. In Section 2, we present evidence in support of the rule of Subject-to-Subject Raising in Maithili. Section 3 shows how the stipulation of this rule complies with the theta-criterion, proposed in Chomsky (1981). Section 4 is addressed to the detailed analysis of the binding relation that holds between a DP-trace and its antecedent. In this part, we argue that INFL in Maithili, unlike in English-type languages, is generated inside V and does not govern the subject DP. The subject DP is rather governed and Case-marked by the preceding COMP, though it does not happen in raising constructions, since we assume that a raising verb may optionally trigger CPdeletion. We also show that in Maithili-type languages the notion of 'governing category' must dispense with "accessible SUBJECT", since AGR in these languages cannot be treated as accessible SUBJECT. Finally, we show how binding principle (A) holds for the antecedent/DP-trace relation in Maithili.


Well-operating resource-management algorithms are crucial in wireless networks for ensuring the quality of service and, perhaps more importantly, for securing stability when operating at high load. These algorithms benefit from accurate feedback of the current network load. In the uplink of a code-division-multiple-access cellular network, the load is strongly related to the uplink noise rise, i.e., the ratio between total received power and background-noise power. This paper is primarily concerned with characterizing and approximating the uplink load. Two different load definitions are made. These relate to the received and transmitted carrier powers, respectively. Bounds that can be established in practice, e.g., before a resource decision is made, are used to develop a procedure for approximating the uplink load in practice. Furthermore, a stochastic approach to link budgets is used to establish the uplink load's role in the tradeoff between coverage and individual user satisfaction. Simulations indicate that the average error of the proposed load approximations is small for all load levels expected to appear in practice


The economies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have always been characterized by economic volatility and social disparities. The recent 'Arab Spring' wave of protests has increased political uncertainty and instability in the region, and this timely book provides an in-depth analysis of the subsequent changes from economic, political and environmental perspectives. The international contributors provide a comprehensive overview of the situation in the Mediterranean Basin, addressing a wide range of contributing factors including: • productivity and innovation • trade and foreign investment • changing geo-political equilibria • labour markets and the role of women • the environment, climate change and energy sourcing.


Aquaculture contributes to global food security but sustainable aquaculture development in terms of biodiversity impacts requires the establishment of viable solutions in replacement of the fisheries-based components in aquafeeds. In the current work, pit-tagged Atlantic salmon individuals were grown, from fresh water (18 g body weight) to salt water in tanks (up to 800 g body weight), on diets with low fish meal (FM) (10%) and 1–1.25% total n-3 LC-PUFA levels balanced across the experimental diets. Dietary n-3 LC-PUFAs were supplemented by (1) fish oil (FO), (2) Schizochytrium limacinum biomass (ScB), or (3) a mix of the two (FO/ScB). Further, the fish from all treatments were mixed and redistributed in sea cages reared to slaughter (ca. 3 kg body weight) on either FO or ScB. As FO was rich in both EPA and DHA and ScB was rich in DHA and nearly devoid of EPA, the experimental diets differed significantly in DHA/EPA ratio (0.8 vs. 10.5 in average for FO and ScB, respectively). ScB treatment fish grew to significantly higher body weight in the end of the experiment (2.8 kg vs. 3.3 kg, for FO and ScB, respectively) but similar FCR, survival rate, and biometric indexes compared to the FO groups. ScB fish contained higher levels of EPA + DHA in the filet but lower in the liver, and better filet pigmentation already from the tank phase of the experiment as determined chemically, by salmonfan and a trained sensory panel, and lower prevalence of melanin spots at slaughter. The trained sensory panel found no differences in flavor or odor in the filets from the different dietary groups; however, filets in the FO group were perceived as softer and juicier compared to ScB. The pre-diets up to 800 g body weight had minor effects on fish performance. Global transcriptomics in liver and intestinal tissues revealed significant dietary effects on the expression of immune modulating, as well as ion, lipid, protein, and xenobiotic metabolism genes.


Background/Purpose: This aspect of this study examined physical education teacher education (PETE) program coordinators' perspectives on their role in student recruitment, including common recruitment strategies and their effectiveness, perceived barriers to engaging in program recruitment, and commonly used marketing strategies. Method: Data were collected from 175 PETE program coordinators through the online survey described fully in Chapter 4 of this monograph. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and one-way analyses of variance. Results: Strategies perceived as effective in recruiting high school students were moderately associated with those most often implemented (r = .46–.50). Some limited differences by Carnegie level were found related to reported barriers to participation in recruitment activities. Discussion/Conclusion: This study reveals general consistency between PETE coordinators' perceptions of the most effective and frequently used recruitm...


How does the introduction of modern media influence a community? How does technology coexist with tradition? How do reality and imagination converge in the creation of documentary? Jennifer Deger addresses these questions in her compelling study of one aboriginal community's relationship with media.

Deger spent several years working with the Yolngu community in Gapuwiyak, a remote Aboriginal community in Australia, both as an ethnographic researcher and as a collaborator in the production of media. Shimmering Screens explores the place of technology in Gapuwiyak through discussions about the influence of mainstream television, the changing role of photography in mortuary ceremonies, and the making of local radio and video. A rich ethnographic study, this book examines the productive, and sometimes problematic, conjunctions of technology, culture, and imagination in contemporary Yolngu life.

Deger offers a new perspective to ongoing debates regarding "media imperialism." Reconsidering established assumptions about the links between representation, power, and "the gaze," she proposes the possibility of a more culturally specific and, ultimately, a more mutual relationship between subject, image, and viewer.


This paper presents a novel algorithm for nighttime detection of the lane markers painted on a road at night. First of all, the proposed algorithm uses neighborhood average filtering, 8-directional Sobel operator and thresholding segmentation based on OTSU's to handle raw lane images taken from a digital CCD camera. Secondly, combining intensity map and gradient map, we analyze the distribution features of pixels on boundaries of lanes in the nighttime and construct 4 feature sets for these points, which are helpful to supply with sufficient data related to lane boundaries to detect lane markers much more robustly. Then, the searching method in multiple directions- horizontal, vertical and diagonal directions, is conducted to eliminate the noise points on lane boundaries. Adapted Hough transformation is utilized to obtain the feature parameters related to the lane edge. The proposed algorithm can not only significantly improve detection performance for the lane marker, but it requires less computational power. Finally, the algorithm is proved to be reliable and robust in lane detection in a nighttime scenario.


Economic growth, public debt, and the government's fiscal balance are strongly intertwined. In Barbados, low growth and recurring fiscal deficits have led to rapid accumulation of debt, which at over 155 percent of GDP in 2017 and the first half of 2018, has been the highest in the Latin American and Caribbean region. In response, the Government of Barbados is carrying out a set of ambitious reforms, including a fiscal consolidation program and debt restructuring. Yet, given the important role of economic growth on the required fiscal adjustment and on the debt-to-GDP ratio, it will be key to ensure that the design and scope of the adjustment support a balanced approach, reducing debt without undermining growth. This paper reviews and explains the recent debt trajectory in Barbados. It then discusses the potential effects of real GDP growth on the debtto-GDP ratio and the required fiscal adjustment going forward. In so doing, it highlights the importance of a balanced approach between fiscal adjustment and growth stimulus for a sustainable debt path. JEL Codes: E62, F43, H63, H68


As unions face an ongoing crisis all over the industrialized world, they have often been portrayed as outmoded remnants of an old economic structure. This book argues that despite structural shifts in the economy and in politics, unions retain important functions for capitalist economies as well as for political democracy. Union revitalization in the face of their current difficulties is therefore of fundamental importance. The book charts the strategies unions are using to respond to global union decline and to revive their fortunes in five countries - US, UK, Germany, Italy and Spain - providing a wide range of institutional settings, union structures, identities and union responses. It provides a rich source of documentation about union activity, but more importantly it goes beyond description to address two of the big questions in comparative research: How can we explain cross-country differences of union responses to global decline? And how effective are these actions in helping to revitalize the labour movements? Union strategies and union revitalization outcomes varied strongly across countries and were shaped by national industrial relations institutions, as well as by the interactions between union, employer and state strategies. These findings support the argument for national divergence of the varieties of capitalism literature and challenge the globalization thesis which predicts a degree of convergence in the fate of union movements across the advanced capitalist world. There is no single revitalization strategy that works well for all union movements; the same strategy is likely to produce different results in different countries. Moreover, evidence for variation in revitalization outcomes emerges most clearly when we adopt a multi-dimensional conceptualization of revitalization, moving beyond union membership and density to embrace economic and political power as well as the institutional dimension of union reform. Despite serious revitalization attempts in all countries the scale of revitalization is extremely modest when compared to the great upsurges of unionism in history. Varieties of Unionism presents important research and analysis of union strategy for academics and graduate students of Industrial Relations, Management, Politics, Political Economy, and Sociology.


This research paper presents qualitative study using exploratory research as the framework. The aim of this research was to describe the music therapy interaction between children with cochlear implants and a music therapy student working in an early intervention program, and to open avenues for future research. The families/parents of three secondary participants gave informed consent for the use of their children's clinical data, including video footage of sessions, for research purposes. The findings highlight the complexities and the potential strengths and difficulties associated with the use of group music therapy to promote audition and language development in young children who have cochlear implants, in an early intervention program. However, the findings suggest that music therapy in this context can be used to support family relationships, participation, vocalisation, singing and self-confidence.


Elevators in modern high-rise buildings face two main difficulties: physical limitation of the traction cable that actuates the elevator car because of stretch, and loss of floor-space because numerous elevator hoistways are required to keep passenger waiting time low. Ropeless elevators where the elevator car is propelled by a linear motor that spans the whole hoistway is one strong solution candidate. They eliminate the traction cable and enable several elevator cars to travel independently in one hoistway. For freedom of movement, however, no cables must be attached to the traveling elevator car. Although the traction can be designed to satisfy this requirement, measurement of the position of the elevator car for the purpose of motor drive using the conventional techniques requires a linear encoder, which must have an electrical connection. In this thesis we propose LinearMotor Active PositionMeasurement Method (LIMAP) which is based on the principle of linear variable differential transformer. It utilizes the coils of the motor just ahead of the elevator car that are not used for traction and a magnetic shunt fixed at a known distance from the elevator car, for position measurement. The position can be determined by exciting one of the coils under the shunt while measuring the mutual inductance with the neighboring coils. Our second contribution is a design method based on finite element methods that can be used to determine the best size magnetic shunt to meet the design criteria. The third important contribution is a position search algorithm that can work under the nonlinear characteristics of the sensor in real-time. Results based on the finite element simulations of an existing motor are given, followed by actual experiments on a real motor. The results agree well to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach.


Extensive archives of volcanic history are available from ice cores recovered from the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets that receive and preserve sulfuric acid fallout from explosive volcanic eruptions. The continuous, detailed (average 1.2 samples per year) sulfate measurements of a 200-m ice core from a remote East Antarctica site (Plateau Remote) provide a record of Southern Hemisphere volcanism over the last 4100 years. This extends the volcanic record beyond the last 1000 years covered by previous Antarctic ice cores. An average of 1.3 eruptions per century is recorded in East Antarctic snow during the last 4100 years. The record shows that on average eruptions have been more frequent and more explosive during the most recent 2000 years than in the previous 2100 years. Intervals up to 500 years are observed in which few explosive volcanic signals are detected. These periods include 2000–1500 B.C. (no eruptions), 500–1 B.C. (two eruptions), and 700–1200 A.D. (two eruptions). This new Plateau Remote volcanic record is compared with those from previous Antarctic ice cores covering the last 1000 years. In terms of dates for volcanic events, the new record is in excellent agreement with the earlier records. However, significant discrepancies are found between these records in relative signal magnitude (volcanic flux) of several well-known events. The discrepancies among the records may be explained by the differences in the glaciology at the ice core sites, analytical techniques used for sulfate and sulfuric acid measurement, and the selection of detection thresholds for volcanic signals. Comparison with Greenland ice core volcanic records indicates that during the last millennium, nine large, low-latitude eruptions contributed significant amounts of volcanic aerosols to the atmosphere of both hemispheres, potentially affecting global climate. In contrast, only one or possibly two such eruptions are found in the first millennium A.D.


Objectives: This thesis centres on the development of a technique for quantifying left ventricular (LV) trabeculation using fractal geometry. Fractals are natural phenomena or mathematical sets of infinitely complex patterns that are self-similar across different scales. In humans, my objectives were to use a fractal analysis to i) better diagnose LV noncompaction (LVNC); ii) describe population-based reference ranges; iii) appraise the role of trabeculae as a pre-phenotypic disease marker in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). In the mouse, my objectives were to use a fractal analysis to i) track the transformation ("compaction") in myocardial wall structure during embryogenesis; ii) describe the trabecular profile in LVNC models. Background: Quantification of trabeculation is important for the diagnosis of LVNC. Current criteria have limitations. The complexity of trabeculae led us to hypothesize that a fractal approach applied to imaging datasets of the heart (cardiovascular magnetic resonance [CMR] in humans; high-resolution episcopic microscopy [HREM] in mice) would be of value. Methods: We created a fractal tool for human application in MATLAB® and subsequently OsiriX, and then deployed it within the commercial software platform, cvi42 for distribution (see Chapter 6). Using the former I measured fractal dimensions (FD) in a number of key healthy and diseased cohorts including: 135 LVNC patients/controls, 176 HCM patients/matched controls (including subclinical HCM in a 13- centre study) and 2,547 participants from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). I adapted the methodology to analyse the trabecular development in 123 embryonic mouse hearts at stages, E14.5, E15.5, E16.5, E17.5 and E18.5. Results: Human CMR fractal analysis was reproducible at multicentre scale (Chapters 8 - 11). The FD varied in a characteristic pattern from LV base to apex. The maximal apical FD (FDMaxApical) was increased in LVNC (1.392 ± 0.010) and in overt HCM (1.370 ± 0.08), and in subclinical HCM it was predictive of sarcomere gene mutation carriage (β = 1.6, P < 0.001). In healthy hearts, it was higher in African-Americans, Hispanics, and hypertensives and lower in Chinese-Americans compared to Caucasians. In Chapter 12 I show how the mature embryo heart exhibits a base-to-apex trabecular pattern similar to that observed in humans, and how FD falls (especially basally) with development, but progressed abnormally in LVNC models. Conclusions: Fractal analysis represents a new method for objectively quantifying myocardial trabecular complexity. The tools I have created are simple to use and commercially/freeware available. They can demonstrate the difference between health and overt/preclinical disease, and between different ethnicities. New insights into cardiac development in humans and mouse, particularly in HCM are presented, as are insights into cardiac adaptation in health.


Background: Hemangiopericytoma (HPC) is a highly vascularized mesenchymal tumor known for its high rates of recurrence and metastasis. The extent of tumor removal is known to be the most trustful prognostic factor. Skull base HPCs are challenging to treat because of the difficulty of the surgical approach and proximity to vital vascular and neuronal structures. We successfully treated a case of HPC at the ventral foramen magnum through surgical gross tumor removal via a far-lateral transcondylar approach. Case Description: A 38-year-old male complained of neck pain and bilateral paresthesia of his shoulders for 2 months, for which he was referred to our hospital. A magnetic resonance image (MRI) showed a 20 mm diameter mass at the ventral foramen magnum, which compressed his medulla oblongata. The tumor was gross totally removed via a far-lateral transcondylar approach. During the surgery, marked bleeding disturbed the surgical field until the main feeding artery from the direction of the dura mater was coagulated and cut. A relatively wide surgical field and a transcondylar approach were helpful to control the bleeding. The pathological examination revealed the tumor to be a HPC. After an uneventful recovery period of 9 days, the patient was discharged without neurological sequelae. Conclusion: We successfully and completely removed an HPC near the foramen magnum, employing a wide surgical field and a transcondylar approach to help control bleeding. When the tumor is suspected preoperatively to be a hemangiocytoma or vascular-rich tumor, a surgical approach that can secure a wide surgical field should be selected.


This paper seeks to frame the activities around a series on-going auto- photographic projects that explored empowerment through creative expression using photography as a means for communication and building self-esteem. The specific focus of the paper is around the project 'This is Neighbourhood 29', it was designed and deployed in order to give a creative opportunity and voice to young people aged 7 to 17 living in the Fushe Kosove area of Pristina. The children were Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian, from the poorest community in one of the poorest countries in Europe (World Bank, 2013). The project was supported by the Kosovan NGO 'The Ideas Partnership' as a part of their Summer Programmes.

The project and its work seek to enable children to become part of a wider conversation about their place and belonging through the use of photography. The subsequent images produced in the work orientate the viewer towards a sense of the participant's self-identity and notions of home and community. As a body of images they contribute to a collective representation of community identity and memory. The curation of images into a daily selection of 29 as a means to represent the community will be explored in the context of authorship, editing and the role of activism within the project.


Optics scholars did not only discover optical phenomena and laws governing them. Some of them also invented impressive optical systems and instruments or offered us techniques to juggle with optical signals and rays. One typical example of the impressive optical systems is the camera obscura invented by Ibn Al-Haytham. For techniques enabling us to easily handle optical rays, one can mention Young's method to handle rays put into play by refraction. Nine centuries before him, Ibn Sahl proposed an elegant method to manipulate refraction related rays. These three examples will be handled in this paper, together with a historical overview inviting the reader to be in the context of this fascinating works.


Although increasing attention has been focused on gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as operational catalysts for chemical conversion and pollutant degradation due to their unique reactivity, it is a challenging task to prepare highly active hybrid materials and stabilize their reactivity by preventing serious aggregation of AuNPs along with effective separation. Herein, a two-dimensional nanostructured hybrid material (RGS@AuNPs, ∼1 μm) is developed, which consists of AuNPs (∼10 nm in diameter) immobilized on the surface of sandwich-like periodic mesoporous silica (PMS) coated reduced graphene oxide (RGO). Transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and N2 adsorption/desorption are employed to characterize the obtained hybrid. The hybrid material (RGS@AuNPs) shows superior catalytic activity in the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and methylene blue (MB) dye in the presence of sodium borohydride (NaBH4). In addition, excellent photocatalytic activity is also achieved by the hybrid, as demonstrated through the decomposition of MB dye under visible light irradiation. The rate constants are calculated by considering the pseudo-first-order reaction equation, which shows that the constants are quite impressive compared with that of previous reports. Thus, the present hybrid material is a promising catalyst for the synthesis of some organic chemicals and wastewater management.


It is well accepted that actions to enhance food security and nutrition outcomes in remote Indigenous Australian communities have limited success when focusing on single factors and could far better be addressed by working across the whole food system. The formation of multi-sector groups to collectively work towards improved food security could facilitate this approach. This study sought to elicit the perceptions of a range of stakeholders on the enablers, barriers and perceived benefits of a multi-sector participatory approach that was developed and trialled with four communities to improve food security. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 60 persons and transcripts were examined using thematic analysis. Findings revealed that there is support in engaging a diverse range of stakeholders in a process of community-led action to support incremental improvement. The employment and support of local community co-ordinators, the multi-sectoral and structured approach, the use of participatory tools, and the facilitation approach were identified as key enablers. Main barriers cited were competing demands and time restraints while a slowing in momentum and lack of timely communication of actions for follow-up were areas needing improvement. Perceived changes in the availability and accessibility of healthy food and improvements in retail practice were believed by participants to derive from (i) creating a supportive environment; (ii) bringing people together; and, (iii) increasing knowledge and capacity. This study offers insight into understanding where the opportunities are in supporting a multi-sectoral approach to improving food security in remote Indigenous Australia.


This report compiles comparable tax revenue statistics over the period 1990-2019 for 27 Latin American and Caribbean economies. Based on the OECD Revenue Statistics database, it applies the OECD methodology to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to enable comparison of tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among the economies of the region and with other economies. This publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The 2021 edition is produced with the support of the EU Regional Facility for Development in Transition for Latin America and the Caribbean, which results from joint work led by the European Union, the OECD and its Development Centre, and ECLAC.


Background An ADME (absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion) – pharmacogenetics association study may identify functional variants relevant to the pharmacokinetics of lopinavir coformulated with ritonavir (LPV/r), a first-line anti-HIV agent. Methods An extensive search of literature and web resources helped select ADME genes and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, functional and HapMap tagging SNPs) with a proven or potentially relevant role in LPV/r pharmacokinetics. The study followed a two-stage design. Stage 1 (discovery) considered a Caucasian population (n=638) receiving LPV/r, where we selected 117 individuals with low LPV clearance (cases) and 90 individuals with high clearance (controls). Genotyping was performed by a 1536-SNP customized GoldenGate Illumina BeadArray. Stage 2 (confirmation) represented a replication study of candidate SNPs from the stage 1 in 148 individuals receiving LPV/r. The analysis led to formal population pharmacokinetic–pharmacogenetic modeling of demographic, environmental and candidate SNP effects. Results One thousand three hundred and eighty SNPs were successfully genotyped. Nine SNPs prioritized by the stage 1 analysis were brought to replication. Stage 2 confirmed the contribution of two functional SNPs in SLCO1B1, one functional SNP in ABCC2 and a tag SNP of the CYP3A locus in addition to body weight effect and ritonavir coadministration. According to the population pharmacokinetic–pharmacogenetic model, genetic variants explained 5% of LPV variability. Individuals homozygous rs11045819 (SLCO1B1*4) had a clearance of 12.6 l/h, compared with 5.4 l/h in the reference group, and 3.9 l/h in individuals with two or more variant alleles of rs4149056 (SLCO1B1*5), rs717620 (ABCC2) or rs6945984 (CYP3A). A subanalysis confirmed that although a significant part of the variance in LPV clearance was attributed to fluctuation in ritonavir levels, genetic variants had an additional effect on LPV clearance. Conclusion The two-stage strategy successfully identified genetic variants affecting LPV/r pharmacokinetics. Such a general approach of ADME pharmacogenetics should be generalized to other drugs.


Aloes are a large genus of plants, about 450 species, from sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, and parts of Arabia. Many species are widespread in warm or tropical semi-arid regions, yet the distribution of others is limited to a few living in desert or wet mountainous regions. While some species have been adopted as medicinal plants since ancient times and others are used locally in folk medicine, scientists have yet to discover the full biological activity of the many aloe compounds. In order to realize the vast potential of the genus, it is essential to gather the knowledge acquired over the last fifty years into one comprehensive compilation. A landmark publication, Aloes: The genus Aloes reviews all botanical, chemical, biochemical, and medical information as well as commercial applications of aloes. The first part of the book features information on the habitat and taxonomy of aloes, followed by a section on aloe constituents. Part 3 focuses on therapeutic activity and includes chapters on aloe's role in wound healing, skin cancer, and the immune system. The final section is devoted to aloe biology. Chapters are written by accomplished contributors who share their expertise and insight from all areas of academia and industry. Providing a solid foundation for future research, this volume brings together a wealth of information on aloes from a variety of sources, including seldom-recorded folk customs. It is a valuable guide for researchers and professionals in the areas of botany, natural product chemistry, pharmacology, dermatology, and immunology.


The primary objective of this review is to provide an overview of the issues involved in balancing privacy and access in the context of health research.  Appropriate collection, management, linkage and interrogation of health data can play a vital role in improving individuals' health and wellbeing.  However, the assembly and use of linked population, clinical and genetic health databases in the research and policy analysis environments raises privacy, confidentiality and ethical concerns. The topic of our review is of current interest in the context of the Australian Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) investment in the Population Health Research Network (PHRN), which aims to provide improved accessibility to health-related data for the research sector. This initiative is likely to attract new researchers to the field of population health, and the current review may assist them in taking account of privacy regulation and perceptions when designing study and consent processes. Although there is little evidence of privacy complaints or breaches in health research, it seems clear that privacy regulation and privacy perception are both key factors in the health research context, acting as potential restraints on some types of research that could deliver considerable public benefit.  In particular, significant concerns regarding consent and de-identification remain in the community. Recent Australian Law Reform Commission recommendations leave room for technical solutions to play an increased role in allowing personal information to be de-identified for research purposes.  Recent advances in the techniques for de-identifying personal information provide some hope that de-identification can occur without a negative impact on data quality.


International placements contribute to the development of skills which support employability of graduates in a global market place (Devane, 2017). From a nursing perspective the placements contribute to competent care of culturally diverse clients in the 'home' country (Repo et al., 2017). This research offers insight into the student nurse perspective; "What is the meaning of international placements for student nurses?"
A Narrative Inquiry methodological approach was taken and 9 student nurses told their 'story' of an international placement during a research conversation. One student participated in a second conversation; two further nurses told of their student nurse international placement from their perspective as qualified nurses.
Every student told a unique story but there were also 'Common Threads' of meaning. Findings supported reviewed literature that suggests an international placement offers opportunities for personal and professional development. However the narrative inquiry approach also provided rich data which highlighted aspects of meaning of international placements not frequently discussed in the reviewed literature.
Motivation, energy and organisational skills are required to prepare for an international placement. The development of cultural competence is possible but challenging for student nurses on international placements. There is a pervasiveness of emotion before, during and after an international placement; this is a challenge for some students but also a key aspect of learning from the experience. The international placement can be seen as integral to becoming a nurse and offers an opportunity for student nurses to reflect upon their usual field, highlighting the challenge of being caring and compassionate in the context of the NHS. The narrative analysis also drew attention to the 'missing stories' of those students who cannot undertake an international placement and other people involved in the international placement e.g. nurses in the host country.
Overall the meaning of an international placement related to the vast array of learning opportunities, which meant that the students developed 'knowledge capital'. However, learning from such an experience is complex, social in nature and at times challenging. This research contributes to understanding the social and relational nature of learning from experience and builds upon the theories of Dewey (1938), Bourdieu (1977) and Lave and Wenger (1991).
Recommendations are made to continue international placements at the North West University but to acknowledge student 'effort' and 'learning' by linking to an accredited module. Suggestions are made to support student nurse learning from the experience; also to share that learning with students who cannot undertake the placement. An aspirational recommendation is to establish a long term relationship with an overseas healthcare placement to facilitate project work that will be mutually beneficial to all involved.
This research contributes to understanding the relevance of international placements in a nursing curriculum. The impact such a placement may have on future nursing care offered by the students has been addressed in a limited way. The meaning of such a placement for people local to the host countries is an important area for future research.


This thesis makes a number of contributions to the theory of approximation algorithm design for multi-agent systems. In particular, we focus on two research directions. The first direction is to generalize the classical framework of combinatorial optimization to the submodular setting, where we assume that each agent has a submodular cost function. We show hardness results from both the information-theoretic and computational aspects for several fundamental optimization problems in the submodular setting, and provide matching approximation algorithms for most of them. The second direction is to introduce game-theoretic issues to approximation algorithm design. Towards this direction, we study the application of approximation algorithms in the theory of truthful mechanism design. We study both the standard objectives of revenue and social welfare, by designing efficient algorithms that satisfy the requirement of truthfulness and guarantee approximate optimality.


Background: Melioidosis is an emerging infectious disease in Southeast Asia. It is an under diagnosed and under reported disease in India mostly because of lack of awareness. Objective: We studied the clinical profile and outcome of melioidosis. Methods: A prospective observational study conducted at Kasturba Hospital, Manipal University from May 2007 to July 2009. Results: There were 31 diagnosed patients in all. Diabetes mellitus was the most common risk factor (68%). Eighty-one percent of cases were detected in the rainy season. Male to female ratio was 3:1. The median age was 48 years. Fifty-two percent of patients were in the age group 41 to 60 years. Thirty-two of patients were agriculturists. Respiratory symptoms were the predominant presentations. The majority (87%) of patients had fever. The bacteria were sensitive to ceftazidime, cotrimoxazole, carbapenems, piperacillin, doxycycline, and chloramphenicol, and resistant to aminoglycosides. Forty-eight percent of patients had bacteremia. Forty-five percent of cases were cured. Twenty-percent of patients had septicemia and septic shock. Sixteen percent of patients died because of septic shock. Conclusion: Melioidosis is very difficult disease to diagnose clinically and to treat; mostly because of varied presentations. Awareness of the existence of this disease in an endemic region with various underlying risk factors is essential for successful treatment. The early use of appropriate antibiotics and the efficient care of patients with sepsis improves outcomes dramatically. Patients with septicemia and septic shock still result in high mortality rates in spite of efficient critical care.


Resuscitation from critical illness or traumatic injury is no longer defined by massive crystalloid infusions, blood product transfusions without defined endpoints, or initiation of vasoactive medications at the physician's discretion. Clearly defined, data-driven guidelines now exist that target specific goal-directed therapies in trauma, sepsis, and emergency general surgery, and incorporate both therapeutic and bedside diagnostic adjuncts. Ongoing research and controversy regarding resuscitation strategies in patients after trauma, for emergency surgery, or with sepsis will undoubtedly change current management paradigms. There is a need to maintain up-to-date knowledge and clinical excellence in the science of resuscitation that may suggest the need for specialization and expertise in the field of anesthesiology. Anesthesiology has become more subspecialized, with recognized Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) fellowships offered in pediatrics, cardiac, critical care, pain management, and, most recently, obstetrics and regional anesthesia. There is currently a proposal to highlight the need for an additional American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA)/ACGME-approved fellowship—through the critical care track—targeted at trauma, acute care, and emergency care anesthesia practice: the acute care anesthesiologist. The question of whether this training should be unique to anesthesiologists, or should be combined with training in emergency medicine, has also been raised. Regardless of the structured curriculum that eventually develops, the management of resuscitation is rapidly maturing.


Background: Older studies have shown inconsistency between diagnosis and prescribed medication. There have been no recent published studies to check on improvement. Aim: To compare prescription with diagnosis. Method: Discharge letters of adult psychiatry in-patients gave information on diagnosis and prescribed medication. Appropriateness was based on the British National Formulary (BNF). Results: Seventy-four percent of prescriptions were broadly compatible with BNF guidance; 3% were above BNF limits and 23% were off-licence compared to recorded diagnosis. Conclusions: Greater attention should be paid to recording diagnosis/diagnoses; off-licence prescribing should be explained to patients and colleagues. Declaration of interest: None.


The goals of this research were: to develop a methodology for the study of landscape process and pattern; to determine the spatial pattern of land loss in coastal Louisiana and relate it to causal processes; and to assess the relative importance of natural versus human-induced processes in causing land loss. Land loss was analyzed for a 22 year period at three sites, using a Geographic Information System composed of digital habitat maps. The most significant finding of this research was that land loss is not a simple, spatially homogeneous phenomenon, that occurs uniformly. Instead, large clumps of high loss, or "hot spots," were observed. Hot spots comprised 9-18% of the orginal study area, but contained 50-73% of all loss. There is evidence that hot spots occur coastwide, and are not limited to these three study sites. The cause of the hot spots could not be determined from the current study. Simple models containing factors such as site, habitat type, salinity change, and proximity to canal and spoil or natural channel could not account for all the land loss in these areas, although higher order interactions were not included. Mechanisms with a short response time may be responsible, since those areas examined were not enlarging. Analyses were also performed to assess the impact of saltwater intrusion and canals and associated spoil banks on land loss. The conclusion of this study is that saltwater intrusion is not a major cause of loss at the three sites, although this could not be discounted for some of the loss at the Cameron site. Dredging of new canals accounts for a significant percentage of loss at the Terrebonne and Lafourche study sites (14 and 15%, respectively), but is not a major factor at Cameron (3%). More difficult to assess are indirect effects, due to possible


The text presents differences between the mechanism of seeing and recording images and potential sources of errors in color reproduction in recorded images. The measurements show that despite the relatively high values of indices (Ra, Rf i Rg) not all tested lamps are suitable for use on a photo set, as indicated by the value of TLCI index. The lighting requirements on a film set prioritize the quality of color reproduction, even at the expense of reducing the Luminous efficacy of a source (LES ) value. Full Text: PDF ReferencesL.T. Sharpe, A. Jagla, W. Jägle, "A luminous efficiency function, V*(λ), for daylight adaptation", J. Vision 5(11), 948 (2012) DirectLink K. Mangold, J.A. Shaw, M. Vollmer, The physics of near-infrared photography, Eur. J. Phys. 34 (2013), pp. 51-71 CrossRef Simunovic M. P., On Seeing Yellow The Case for, and Against, Short-Wavelength Light-Absorbing Intraocular Lenses, Archives of Ophthalmology, vol. 130, no. 7, pp. 919-926, 2012 CrossRef M. Gilewski, The ecological hazard of artificial lighting in greenhouses, Phot. Lett. Pol., vol. 11 Issue: 3, pp. 87-89, 2019. CrossRef M. Gilewski, The role of light in the plants world, Phot. Lett. Pol., vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 115-117, 2019 CrossRef I. Fryc and E. Czech Spectral correction of the measurement CCD array, Optical Engineering 41(10), pp.2402-2406 (2002). CrossRef L. Bellia, U. Blaszczak, F. Fragliasso, L. Gryko, Matching CIE illuminants to measured spectral power distributions: A method to evaluate non-visual potential of daylight in two European cities, Solar Energy, Volume 208, 2020, Pages 830-858 CrossRef J. Kusznier and W. Wojtkowski, Impact of climatic conditions on PV panels operation in a photovoltaic power plant, IEEE, 2019 15th Selected Issues of Electrical Engineering and Electronics (WZEE), Zakopane, Poland, pp. 1-6, 2019 CrossRef J. Kusznier and W. Wojtkowski, Impact of climatic conditions and solar exposure on the aging of PV panels, IEEE, 2019 15th Selected Issues of Electrical Engineering and Electronics (WZEE), Zakopane, Poland, pp. 1-6, 2019 CrossRef J. Fan, Y. Li, I. Fryc, C. Qian, X. Fan and G. Zhang, Machine-Learning Assisted Prediction of Spectral Power Distribution for Full-Spectrum White Light-Emitting Diode, in IEEE Photonics Journal, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 1-18, Feb. 2020, Art no. 8200218, CrossRef M. Gilewski, L. Gryko, A. Zajac, Digital controlling system to the set of high power LEDs, Proc. of SPIE, 8902, 89021D, 2013 CrossRef J. Kusznier, W. Wojtkowski, Spectral properties of smart LED lamps, Phot. Lett. Pol., vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 16-18, 2020. CrossRef J. Kusznier, Changes in the Spectral Power Distribution of Light Sources for Smart Lighting, IEEE, 14th WZEE, pp. 1-5, 2018 CrossRef H. F. Ivey, Color and Efficiency of Luminescent Light Sources, J. Opt. Soc. Am. 53, 1185-1198 (1963) CrossRef F. Zhang, H. Xu, Z. Wang, Optimizing spectral compositions of multichannel LED light sources by IES color fidelity index and luminous efficacy of radiation, Appl. Opt. 56, 1962-1971 (2017) CrossRef T. W. Murphy Jr., Maximum spectral luminous efficacy of white light, Journal of Applied Physics 111, 104909 (2012) CrossRef Po-Chieh Hung and Jeffrey Y. Tsao, Maximum White Luminous Efficacy of Radiation Versus Color Rendering Index and Color Temperature: Exact Results and a Useful Analytic Expression, J. Display Technol. 9, 405-412 (2013) CrossRef V. M. Lisitsyn, V. S. Lukash, S. A. Stepanov, and Ju Yangyang , White LEDs with limit luminous efficacy, AIP Conference Proc 1698, 060008 (2016) CrossRef J. Kowalska, I. Fryc, Colour rendition quality of typical fluorescent lamps determined by CIE Colour Fidelity Index and Colour Rendering Index, Przeglad Elektrotechniczny R. 95(7), pp. 94-97, 2019 CrossRef I. Fryc, J. Fryc, A. Wasowski, "Rozważania o jakości oddawania barw źródeł światła, wyrażanej wskaźnikiem Ra (CRI), uwzględniające fizjologię widzenia oraz zagadnienia techniczno-prawne", Przeglad Elektrotechniczny R. 92(2), 218 (2016) CrossRef TECH 3353, Development of a "standard" television camera model implemented in the TLCI-2012, Source: FTV-LED, EBU, Geneva November 2012 DirectLink TECH 3354, Comparison of CIE colour metrics for use in the television lighting consistency index (TLCI-2012), Source: FTV-LED, EBU, Geneva November 2012 DirectLink TECH 3355, Method for the assessment of the colorimetric properties of luminaires the television lighting consistency index (TLCI-2012) and the television luminaire matching factor (TLMF-2013), Source: FTV-LED Geneva March 2017 DirectLink J. Kusznier, Mixing colours inside the optical fibre elements, Przeglad Elektrotechniczny, R 84(8), pp 182-185, 2008 DirectLink


There is an economic non-hegemonic globalization made up of street markets and trading flows that are animated by actors of the lower classes and not by the elites. These activities are considered as illegal, as "smuggling." The commodities traded are often classified as piracy. In consequence, the trading networks are seen by the powerful as illegitimate and are confronted with repression in the name of legality. I thus debate what is legal/illegal, licit/illicit and make use of the notion of the (il)licit to tackle with the ambivalences and contradictions of this domain. I offer the notion of some non-hegemonic world system, analytically divided into two interconnected spheres: the "global organized crime" and the economic globalization from below. Lastly, I make some considerations on why economic globalization from below exists and how the price of its commodities is made up.


The consumption of wheat-based products is high in most Western countries (e.g. Europe, United States) and is increasing in Eastern countries as a consequence of a shift toward a Western lifestyle. Historically, Wheat-Related Disorders (WRD) referred only to wheat allergy and celiac disease. In recent years, a growing number of subjects worldwide have reported intestinal and extraintestinal symptoms, without the diagnostic features of celiac disease or wheat allergy. In these subjects, symptoms of a wheat-related disorder may originate from non-celiac gluten sensitivity, the non-gluten antibody target protein serpins, purinins, α-amylase/protease inhibitors, globulins, farinins, wheat exorphin sensitivity, wheat germ agglutinin sensitivity, wheat amylase-trypsin inhibitor sensitivity, and/or FODMAP (fermentable oligo-, di-, monosaccharides and polyols) sensitivity. This article reviews the pertinent literature and presents three pediatric cases of wheat-related disorders that present with varied clinical presentations: liver failure, type 1 diabetes mellitus and a conjunctival tumor believed to be Kaposi's sarcoma. All conditions responded rapidly to a wheat-free diet. A wheat-related disorder (with or without celiac disease) may affect any organ or system including cardiovascular disease, neurological diseases, connective tissue diseases, allergies, inflammatory bowel disease, nephritis and others. While there is increasing awareness that wheat-related disorders can manifest with extraintestinal symptoms, clinicians still rely too heavily on the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms to suspect a wheat-related disorder. These three cases showed wheat-related pathogenesis affecting diverse organs, such as the liver, pancreas, or eye, without marked gastrointestinal symptoms. Therefore, in patients with unexplained symptoms, who do not improve with standard therapies, it may be prudent to screen for serological indicators of a WRD. Clinical awareness of the diversity of presentations of a WRD may lead to earlier suspicion, investigation and a reduction in co-morbidities. Keyword: Adverse reactions to foods; Celiac disease; Conjunctival tumor; Kaposi's sarcoma; Liver failure; Non-celiac gluten sensitivity; Type 1 diabetes mellitus; Wheat-related disorders Citation: O'Bryan T (2018) Review of Three Pediatric Wheat-Related Disorder Cases with Disparate Clinical Manifestations. J Gastroenterol Hepatology Res 3: 020.


Dust storm has serious disastrous impacts on environment, human health, and assets. The developments and applications of dust storm models have contributed significantly to better understand and predict the distribution, intensity and structure of dust storms. However, dust storm simulation is a data and computing intensive process. To improve the computing performance, high performance computing has been widely adopted by dividing the entire study area into multiple subdomains and allocating each subdomain on different computing nodes in a parallel fashion. Inappropriate allocation may introduce imbalanced task loads and unnecessary communications among computing nodes. Therefore, allocation is a key factor that may impact the efficiency of parallel process. An allocation algorithm is expected to consider the computing cost and communication cost for each computing node to minimize total execution time and reduce overall communication cost for the entire simulation. This research introduces three algorithms to optimize the allocation by considering the spatial and communicational constraints: 1) an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) based algorithm from combinational optimization perspective; 2) a K-Means and Kernighan-Lin combined heuristic algorithm (K&K) integrating geometric and coordinate-free methods by merging local and global partitioning; 3) an automatic seeded region growing based geometric and local partitioning algorithm (ASRG). The performance and effectiveness of the three algorithms are compared based on different factors. Further, we adopt the K&K algorithm as the demonstrated algorithm for the experiment of dust model simulation with the non-hydrostatic mesoscale model (NMM-dust) and compared the performance with the MPI default sequential allocation. The results demonstrate that K&K method significantly improves the simulation performance with better subdomain allocation. This method can also be adopted for other relevant atmospheric and numerical modeling.


The use of nano-sized particles as reinforcing additives for bituminous binders has become, in recent times, increasingly popular, due to the positive effects that nanoparticles induce on a wide range of materials. A considerable literature has grown up around the theme, and the experimental work presented here will contribute to a deeper understanding of nano-additives effects on rheological and morphological properties, with the main purpose of improving the performance of bituminous materials. Much less is known about the connection between rheological parameters and microstructure morphology, therefore this research has thrown up many questions in need of further investigation. In our specific study-case, Nanoclays (Cloisite 15A) and Carbon nanotubes (CNT7000) were added into single base bitumen samples (AZALT 70/100), through several dosages, expressed in percentages by weight, assessed on the base of data derived from previous studies. Four different operating protocols were adopted in mixing phase, varying the shear mixing equipment and the disintegrating heads. A two-phase blends preparation was adopted: the shear-mixing procedure (performed at low and high speed) leads to a more homogeneous dispersion of the nanoparticles into the bituminous matrix; while the sonication-mixing procedure allows reducing particles' agglomeration, in order to reach dispersion as much uniform as possible and nanoparticles' fine separation. Several rheological tests were led, gathering data that let us perform a rheological characterization of the samples. Developing the δ-method provided in literature, the bitumen's molecular weight distribution (MWD) was determined, by mean of the phase angle of the complex modulus measured in the linear viscoelastic domain. In order to investigate the materials' morphology, ESEM technology was used, with the main intention to estimate the mixing procedure influence on nanoparticles dispersion degree and to examine the relationship between the microstructure and the rheological properties. Focusing on the approach and the methods we chose to adopt, we based our analysis on the following conceptual framework sequence. At first, Frequency Sweep Tests were carried out on the twenty blends prepared with the abovementioned protocols. Collected data were employed to draw Black Diagrams, which are particularly useful to identify inconsistencies in rheological data and to highlight and compare the revealing differences between the mixtures, and Master Curves, built according to Christensen-Anderson Model and Williams-Landel-Ferry equation for the shift factors determination. All the information about MWD can be found in the rubbery zone of the linear viscoelastic behaviour and a plot of MW and phase angle was pictured. After the simulation of short-term aging of asphalt binders with the Rolling Thin-Film Over Test (RTFOT), Linear Amplitude Tests were performed and Damage curves were drawn. The results showed that asphalts modified with carbon nanotubes have averagely a better behaviour in terms of fatigue resistance. Recent developments in microscope technology broaden research horizons to morphological investigation of both uncoated and "wet" specimens, with a non-destructive procedure. The ESEM study gave us pictures and videos as output, for that reason we weren't able to easily lead a quantitative analysis, since previous researches have not treated


In October 2002 a bomb blast in a Balinese nightclub killed more than two hundred people, many of them young Australian tourists. This event and subsequent attacks on foreign targets in Bali and Jakarta in 2003, 2004, and 2005 brought Indonesia into the global media spotlight as a site of Islamist terrorist violence. Yet the complexities of political and religious struggles in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, remain little known and poorly understood in the West. In Riots, Pogroms, Jihad, John T. Sidel situates these terrorist bombings and other "jihadist" activities in Indonesia against the backdrop of earlier episodes of religious violence in the country, including religious riots in provincial towns and cities in 1995-1997, the May 1998 riots in Jakarta, and interreligious pogroms in 1999-2001. Sidel's close account of these episodes of religious violence in Indonesia draws on a wide range of documentary, ethnographic, and journalistic materials. Sidel chronicles these episodes of violence and explains the overall pattern of change in religious violence over a ten-year period in terms of the broader discursive, political, and sociological contexts in which they unfolded. Successive shifts in the incidence of violence-its forms, locations, targets, perpetrators, mobilizational processes, and outcomes-correspond, Sidel suggests, to related shifts in the very structures of religious authority and identity in Indonesia during this period. He interprets the most recent "jihadist" violence as a reflection of the post-1998 decline of Islam as a banner for unifying and mobilizing Muslims in Indonesian politics and society. Sidel concludes this book by reflecting on the broader implications of the pattern observed in Indonesia both for understanding Islamic terrorism in particular and for analyzing religious violence in all its varieties.


A Gram-stain-negative, strictly aerobic, rod-shaped, non-flagellated, non-spore-forming and gliding marine bacterium, designated strain CC-AMZ-304(T), was isolated from coastal surface seawater near Taichung harbour, Taiwan. Strain CC-AMZ-304(T) predominantly synthesized zeaxanthin and thus formed yellow colonies on marine agar. The novel strain showed an unstable phylogenetic position, although sharing high pairwise 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of 95.9-94.9, 95.7 and 95.1-93.9 % with Gaetbulibacter species (n = 4), Aestuariibaculum suncheonense SC17(T) and Bizionia species (n = 7), respectively. The polar lipid profile of strain CC-AMZ-304(T) consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, five unidentified lipids, one unidentified phospholipid, two unidentified aminolipids and one unidentified glycolipid. The major (>5 % of the total) fatty acids were iso-C15 : 0, iso-C15 : 1 G, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH, iso-C15 : 0 3-OH and C15 : 1ω5c. The DNA G+C content was 36.0 mol%. Menaquinone-6 (MK-6) was the sole respiratory quinone and the major polyamine was triamine sym-homospermidine. Phylogenetic distinctiveness, unique polar lipid composition, presence of significant amounts of branched hydroxyl fatty acids (iso-C17 : 0 3-OH and iso-C15 : 0 3-OH) and a low amount of anteiso-C15 : 0, and several additional distinguishing biochemical features clearly discriminated strain CC-AMZ-304(T) from the type species of the genera Aestuariibaculum and Gaetbulibacter. Thus, based on data from the present polyphasic study, strain CC-AMZ-304(T) is considered to represent a novel species of a new genus within the family Flavobacteriaceae, for which the name Aquibacter zeaxanthinifaciens gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed; the type strain of Aquibacter zeaxanthinifaciens is CC-AMZ-304(T) ( = JCM 18557(T) = BCRC 80463(T)). Emended descriptions of the genera Aestuariibaculum and Gaetbulibacter are also proposed.


Build systems automate the process of compiling, testing, packaging, and deploying modern software systems. While building a simple program may only take a few seconds on most modern computers, it may take hours, if not days, to build large software systems. Since modern build tools do not provide estimates of how long a build job will take, development and release teams cannot plan human and computer resources optimally. To fill this gap, we propose BuildMétéo—a tool to forecast the duration of incremental build jobs. BuildMétéo analyzes a timing-annotated Build Dependency Graph (BDG) that we extract from the build system to forecast build job duration. We evaluate BuildMétéo by comparing forecasts to the timed execution of 2,163 incremental build jobs derived from replayed commits of the GLIB and VTK open source systems.We find that: (a) 87% of the studied commits do not change the BDG, suggesting that reasoning about build job duration using the BDG is a sensible starting point; (b) 94% of incremental build jobs that do not change the BDG have an estimation error of under ten seconds; and (c) build jobs with larger sets of modified files tend to yield more accurate duration forecasts. These results suggest that BuildMétéo can improve the transparency of build jobs, and thus, aid practitioners in build-related decision making.


Turtles frequently oviposit in soils associated with agriculture and, thus, may be exposed to pesticides or fertilizers. The toxicity of a pesticide regime that is used for potato production in Ontario on the survivorship of snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) eggs was evaluated. The following treatments were applied to clean soil: 1) a mixture of the pesticides chlorothalonil, S‐metolachlor, metribuzin, and chlorpyrifos, and 2) the soil fumigant metam sodium. Turtle eggs were incubated in soil in outdoor plots in which these mixtures were applied at typical and higher field application rates, where the eggs were subject to ambient temperature and weather conditions. The pesticide mixture consisting of chlorothalonil, S‐metolachlor, metribuzin, and chlorpyrifos did not affect survivorship, deformities, or body size at applications up to 10 times the typical field application rates. Hatching success ranged between 87% and 100% for these treatments. Metam sodium was applied at 0.1¯ times, 0.3¯ times, 1 times, and 3 times field application rates. Eggs exposed to any application of metam sodium had 100% mortality. At typical field application rates, the chemical regime associated with potato production does not appear to have any detrimental impacts on turtle egg development, except for the use of the soil fumigant metam sodium, which is highly toxic to turtle eggs at the lowest recommended application rate. Environ Toxicol Chem 2014;33:102–106. © 2013 SETAC


A number of commentaries and articles have been published in recent years reflecting on the nature, history and practice of rural geography. The introspective mood follows a period in which rural geography has been widely considered to have been resurgent, but indicates concerns about the unevenness of progress in rural geography, and about the readiness of the subdiscipline to address new challenges. This article, the first of three progress reports on rural geography, focuses on attempts within these interventions to rethink the boundaries of rural geography and its connections with other fields of study. First, it examines renewed debates on the definition and delimitation of the rural, including efforts to rematerialize the rural. Second, it considers the rejuvenation of work on rural—urban linkages, including concepts of city regions, exurbanization and rurbanity. Third, it discusses the interdisciplinary engagement of rural geographers, including collaboration with physical and natural scientists.


Th is article considers the activities of international, humanitarian NGOs in Syria focused on Iraqi migrants. Th e analysis questions how these INGOs were positioned towards modern state sovereignty, and sovereignty's particular constructions of territory, population, and government. Arguing that most INGOs operated fi rmly within the social relations stipulated by modern sovereignty, the article uses rich ethnographic data to demonstrate how INGO activities treated Iraqis according to sovereign exclusions and ideas about citizenship, even though Iraqi life in Syria visibly contradicted these ideas. Only smaller, amateur INGOs that stood outside of the professional humanitarian sector were found to work outside of sovereignty's norms.


Econometric model application in farms is a very complex process requiring knowledge not only the economy but also statistical and mathematical methods in agriculture workers themselves. The solution may be an application of econometric problems in analytical decision support systems for farms managers. For such a solution is necessary to design a multidimensional database for support online analytical data processing (OLAP). This paper proposes a new method (called TEM-CM) for formal transformation of econometric model to the conceptual data model for creating multidimensional schemes. This new method allows to formalize the process of transferring production function in agriculture to multidimensional data model and thus contribute to a more efficient design of data warehouses and OLAP databases for decision support in the agricultural analytics systems.


Hyperinsulinemia accompanies obesity in human patients and experimental rodent models and exacerbates insulin resistance, but the causes of increased insulin secretion remain obscure. This review examines progress in defining biochemical and molecular beta-cell defects that have elucidated in the past 5 years. Some defects, such as decreased glucose transport, decreased mitochondrial FAD-linked glycerophosphate dehydrogenase activity, and altered anomeric specificity for glucose, become evident only after onset of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Thus, these defects are unlikely to play a role in the pathogenesis of hyperinsulinemia in obesity. Other biochemical changes, including increased glucokinase and (or) hexokinase function, increased glucose cycling, and altered regulation of intracellular Ca2+ are present in obese nondiabetic animals and may therefore contribute to development of hyperinsulinemia. Few developmental studies have been performed to correlate onset of defects with environmentally and genetically mediated control mechanisms of beta-cell function. However, the availability of new molecular biology techniques should facilitate identification of factors causing hyperinsulinemia in obesity.


Digital media tend to combine text and images to express richer information, especially on image hosting and online shopping websites. This trend presents a challenge in understanding the contents from different forms of information. Features representing visual information are usually sparse in high dimensional space, which makes the learning process intractable. In order to understand text and its related visual information, we present a new graphical model-based approach to discover more meaningful information in rich media. We extend the standard Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) framework to learn in high dimensional feature spaces.


The ash cloud resulting from the A.D. 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland caused severe disruption to air travel across Europe, but as a geological event it is not unprecedented. Analysis of peats and lake sediments from northern Europe has revealed the presence of microscopic layers of Icelandic volcanic ash (tephra). These sedimentary records, together with historical records of Holocene ash falls, demonstrate that Icelandic volcanoes have generated substantial ash clouds that reached northern Europe many times. Here we present the first comprehensive compilation of sedimentary and historical records of ash-fall events in northern Europe, spanning the past 7000 yr. Ash-fall events appear to have been more frequent in the past 1500 yr. It is unclear whether this reflects a true increase in eruption frequency or dispersal, or is an artifact of the records or the way in which they have been generated. In the past 1000 yr, volcanic ash clouds reached northern Europe with a mean return interval of 56 ± 9 yr (the range of return intervals is between 6 and 115 yr). Probabilistic modeling using the ash records for the last millennium indicates that for any 10 yr period there is a 16% probability of a tephra fallout event in northern Europe. These values must be considered as conservative estimates due to the nature of tephra capture and preservation in the sedimentary record.


For any dynamical system, we show that higher variation-norms for the sequence of ergodic bilinear averages of two functions satisfy a large range of bilinear Lp estimates. It follows that, with probability one, the number of fluctuations along this sequence may grow at most polynomially with respect to (the growth of) the underlying scale. These results strengthen previous works of Lacey and Bourgain where almost surely convergence of the sequence was proved (which is equivalent to the qualitative statement that the number of fluctuations is finite at each scale). Via transference, the proof reduces to establishing new bilinear Lp bounds for variation-norms of truncated bilinear operators on R, and the main ingredient of the proof of these bounds is a variation-norm extension of maximal Bessel inequalities of Lacey and Demeter--Tao--Thiele.


Environmental Education in schools is one of the vital means through which learners can acquire environmental literacy, which is vital for the protection of the environment. The purpose of this study is to determine the level of environmental literacy among Grade 12 learners based on selected issues namely: Acid rain, soil erosion and global warming. There is a need to encourage active participation in resolving environmental issues. This will in turn ensure compliance with laws of the country. Environmental Education is the process of recognizing values and clarifying concepts in order to develop skills and attitude necessary to understand and appreciate the interrelatedness or interrelationships among people, their culture and their biophysical surroundings. Environmental education also entails practice in decision-making and self-formulation of a code of behaviour about issues concerning environmental quality (IUCN World Conservation Union 1971). This research was conducted in five schools located in Ga-Molepo area. The Grade 12 geography learners were tested to determine their level on environmental literacy. This knowledge was tested by means of a questionnaire, which contained questions that tested the learners' environmental literacy level. The level of literacy was compared between males and females. Their understandings of legal implications were also tested. Anderson & Arsenault (1990:170-179) states that questionnaires need no introduction. The advantage of questionnaire is that if properly designed, it provides a collection of reliable and reasonably valid data in a simple manner. Yet constracting a good questionnaire is a challenge and requires thorough thought, piloting, revision and reformatting. 85% of learners from all the schools indicated that they are aware of the causes and effects of soil erosion. 42% of learners understand what acid rain is and only 20% of them understand what global warming is. Learners must be educated on environmental issues in relation to environmental protection and improvement. Legal obligations and accountability under laws as well as the need to comply with law must be part of all environmental education. Hammond et al (1999:42) explains Coefficient of Variation (CV) as a normalized measure of dispersion of a probability distribution. The Coefficient of Variation was used where Tshebela high school got 33%, which indicated that the learners level of understanding did not indicate variability. In the other 3 schools (Mamokgari, Mamodikeleng and Mmapadi) their level of understanding did not indicate a high level of variation. The last school, Mokwatedi indicated that the learner's level of understanding indicated a high level of variation which shows that their level of understanding is not good. When coming to what the law requires of them it is clear that only 40% of them understand the legal implications but the rest may harm the environment as they use natural resources for their own benefit such as chopping trees while not considering environmental sustainability and the people around them. It is, therefore, concluded at the end of the research that environmental laws need to be integrated into the learner's knowledge as their opinions on environmental laws shows clearly that they do not have knowledge and understanding of the environmental legal implications.


During the last century, climate has increasingly become variable and changeable, with significant deviations from the observed normal averages, which often leads to disruptive consequences to ecosystems and livelihoods. Climate change induced environmental challenges are viewed to be particularly severe to economically challenged tropical societies including the Zimbabwean rural communities. We sought to determine local level climate change trends and associated biophysical implications in the Makonde Communal Lands of Zimbabwe. Our findings suggest that there has been significant climate change in the Makonde Communal Lands since 1962. The climate change observed has induced the deterioration of ecosystem productivity, diversity and services, to the detriment of human livelihoods. We provide insights into how to better understand local level dynamics between climate change and local ecosystem goods and services as the basis of livelihood in marginalised rural communities. Among the key reasons for concern about impacts of anthropogenic activities on climate is the fact that changing climate has direct impacts on the biophysical world, which in turn is a vital asset for human livelihoods, economies and general well-being.


Abstract
Objective:Heroin dependence (HD) affects brain development and is known to be heritable. The NeuroD gene encodes a neuroge nic differentiation factor, and its expression is essential for the development of the central nervous system. In this genetic case-control study, we aimed to investigate whether NeuroD gene polymorphisms associate with the occurrence of HD and the specific personality traits of patients with HD.
Methods: 1107 unrelated participants (584 patients with HD and 523 controls) were recruited to the study The patients with HD were classified into six clinical subgroups based on their gender, duration, and age of onset to reduce heterogeneity. In total, 539 subjects completed the personality trait assessments.
Results: We found a weak association between the NeuroD 1 rs16867467 locus and HD (p=0.048); this weak association was found only in the male (p=0.039) and late onset (p=0.047) HD subgroups. These findings could not be confirmed after haplotype analysis and Bonferroni corrections for multiple comparisons. Patients with HD had higher novelty seeking (NS) and harm avoidance (HA) scores than healthy subjects. However, none of the polymorphisms in the NeuroD gene affected the NS and HA scores in both patients and healthy subjects (p>0.05). A negative correlation was found between age and novelty seeking scores in both groups, suggesting novelty seeking personality trait as a risk factor for early-onset HD.
Conclusion:This study suggests that the NeuroD gene may neither contribute to the risk of HD nor mediate the relationship between specific personality traits and HD.


The launch of a new journal is appropriately like a space mission. It is the result of a scientific need, the inspiration of a group of committed scientists and technologists, a series of draft proposals, an approved mission protocol, and a launch. Today is the launch day for a journal whose remit has only recently consolidated from diverse disciplines. Cambridge University Press has an international reputation for astronomy. To this we add extreme biology and its associated environmental research to integrate astrobiology as: 'the study of the origin, evolution, adaptation and distribution of past and present life in the Universe'. Astrobiology has three main themes: (1) Origin, evolution and limits of life on Earth; (2) Future of life, both on Earth and elsewhere; (3) Search for habitats, biomolecules and life in the Solar System and elsewhere. These fundamental concepts require the integration of various disciplines, including biology (especially microbiology), chemistry, geology, palaeontology, and the physics of atmospheres, planets and stars. We must also keep our minds wide open about the nature and limits of life. We can safely assume a carbon-based system within Solar Systems as we know them, but our concept of habitable zones expands yearly. We were taught that only the spores of certain bacilli could survive temperatures above the boiling point of water, and yet we now know that the deep-sea vent microbe Pyrolobus can survive an hour at 121 °C, which is the temperature used for sterilising medical instruments. We know of cyanobacteria which can not only live inside deep-frozen Antarctic rocks but also survive on roof-tops in Jerusalem at 80 °C. The bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans tolerates lethal doses of nuclear radiation, and cyanobacteria inside Antarctic desert sandstone receive so little moisture that their carbon turnover time (from its fixation by photosynthesis to its release as carbon dioxide during respiration) is 10,000 years. Life is tolerant, adaptable and tenacious.


This book examines the progress made in e-enabling the HR function and the relationship with outsourcing. The editors will review and analyse recent developments in the application of outsourcing and ICT to the HR function and its overall contribution to organizational aims. This text aims to fill the gap in current literature, by providing accessible guidance on how to tackle the e-enablement of the function and on the factors associated with successful outsourcing. There is no single text that adequately deals with this increasingly important problem and which has been recognised by the CIPD as a key area of research for their forward programme. The contributors all have leading-edge knowledge and practical experience and aim to provide practical guidance for organizations and HR professionals. * New Book within the Advanced HR Series* Practical case studies illustrating the developments in the application of outsourcing and ICT to the HR function.* Incorporates a new survey of thinking and practice on the future of the HR profession


The need for a maximum power point tracker in a photovoltaic system is explained. A variety of photovoltaic panel maximum power point tracking methods are then briefly compared. The optimal method from those compared, where the photovoltaic panel power-voltage curve is scanned periodically, and the maximum power point tracker is controlled by current, is discussed in detail. Problems with this implementation are highlighted, and the design of a voltage-controlled implementation using the same power-voltage curve scan is presented. Problems and advantages of this system are given.


For Northeast Arctic cod and haddock in the Barents Sea, long time series of year-class abundance are available at several stages before they recruit to the fishery, i. e. before they reach age 3. Several studies have already been made of the influence of various factors on the abundance and survival of these stocks during the first three years of life, in particular for cod. However, revision of existing data series as well as availability of longer data series makes a new analysis worthwhile. The analysis includes VPA estimates of recruitment, as well as estimates of total egg production and survey estimates from pelagic and bottom trawl surveys. The mortality between various life stages is found to vary considerably between cohorts for both stocks. Although and the mortality is highest during the first months of life, the year-class strength can also be affected considerably by processes taking place between the 0-group stage (ca. 6 months) and age 3. The mortality in this period of life seems to be strongly density –dependent for both stocks. The estimates of 0and 1-group abundance of cod and haddock from different sources (0-group pelagic trawl and acoustic, 1-group XSA and trawl) give numbers which are compatible with each other. The ratio between haddock and cod recruitment at age 3 is higher in the period after 1980 than before 1980, this may be due to higher temperature in the latter period. High haddock recruitment never occurs when cod recruitment is low.


The exploration of Armenia and its civilisation has a long history, but the foundations for systematic scholarship in the fi elds of Armenian archaeology, language, historiography, and culture were laid only in the nineteenth century. This happened in different parts of the world almost at the same time: in Armenia itself, in the Armenian monastic academies of Venice, Vienna, and Jerusalem, in Constantinople, in Germany, in France, and in Russia. Nevertheless, only during the twentieth century were the studies of Armenia and the Caucasus elevated to the status of an internationally recognised discipline, whilst the past forty years have seen a particular growth in these fi elds in the Caucasus, Russia, Europe, and the USA. We shall survey here several key developments that took place in the study of Armenian Christianity during the twentieth century, limiting ourselves to the formative period, i.e., from the establishment of the fi rst Christian centres on the territory of the Armenian kingdom in the third century to the stabilisation of the Armenian Church's doctrine and canonical practices at the beginning of the eighth century, i.e., in the aftermath of the Islamic conquest. The past century saw a number of radical changes in Armenian geography; many eminent scholars were born at the beginning of the twentieth century in Western Armenia, a country which disappeared after the First World War. Whilst before that war the architecture, archaeology, literature, and ethnology of Western Armenia had been widely studied, the relics of Armenian civilisation on this territory were almost inaccessible in the aftermath of the war, and they remained hardly attainable even until recent times. As for Eastern Armenia, the study of Christianity there was seriously hindered during the Soviet rule. The history of scholarship in this fi eld is therefore intrinsically linked to the biographies of Armenologists. In spite of these diffi culties, the early Christian tradition of Armenia was one of the most studied pages of Armenology during the twentieth century. Thanks to these studies, we are now able to speak of two phases in the process of the Christianisation of Armenia. In the course of the second and the third centuries AD, Christianity was introduced into the southern Armenian provinces, situated between the Upper Tigris and the Arsanias, by Aramaic-speaking missionaries from neighbouring Mesopotamia. In reference to this, mediaeval Armenian ecclesiastical writers defi ned their land as the "Northern country,"


This paper traces the evolution of IBM RISC architecture from its origins in the 1970s at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center to the present-day IBM RISC System/6000* computer. The acronym RISC, for Reduced Instruction-Set Computer, is used in this paper to describe the 801 and subsequent architectures. However, RISC in this context does not strictly imply a reduced number of instructions, but rather a set of primitives carefully chosen to exploit the fastest component of the storage hierarchy and provide instructions that can be generated easily by compilers. We describe how these goals were embodied in the 801 architecture and how they have since evolved on the basis of experience and new technologies. The effect of this evolution is illustrated with the results of several benchmark tests of CPU performance.


A common problem during pre-cracking of compact tension (CT) specimens is skewed crack fronts. It is also one of the most common reasons for which tests according to, for instance, ASTM E1820-11: Standard Test Method for Measurement of Fracture Toughness, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2012, do not give valid results. This problem is normally a result of the fact that specimens and fixtures are not perfectly aligned, even when the testing setup meets the requirements of ASTM standards. In the present investigation, aluminum bushings have been used to rearrange the loads transferred from the testing machine to the specimens. Geometrical errors were deliberately introduced to the testing setup so that the specimens were asymmetrically loaded. The introduced errors were, however, within the tolerances of ASTM standards. Steel specimens with two different notch types, Chevron and straight notches, were tested, both with and without aluminum bushings. The specimens were pre-fatigued and thereafter broken under monotonic loading. The specimen crack lengths were measured and validated according to ASTM E1820-11. The results related to pre-fatigued specimens with aluminum bushings were shown to be valid, whereas the results for specimens without bushings did not meet the ASTM standards requirements.