Interest in oxide thermoelectrics has been building due to their high thermal stability and earth-abundant constituent elements. However, the thermoelectric efficiency of flagship oxide materials remains comparatively low, and most materials only reach the maximum figure of merit, ZT, at very high temperatures, above those where the majority of low-grade industrial heat is emitted. It is important to identify thermoelectrics with high conversion efficiency closer to room temperature, particularly for lower-temperature applications such as in domestic heating, consumer electronics and electric vehicles. One of the main factors limiting the efficiency of oxide thermoelectrics is their large lattice thermal conductivities, which has inspired research into more structurally complex materials. In this study, we apply first-principles modelling to assess the low-temperature polymorph of Bi2Sn2O7 (a-Bi2Sn2O7) as a potential thermoelectric material, due to its complex crystal structure, which should suppress phonon transport, and the presence of Bi p and Sn s states in the conduction band, which should yield high electrical conductivity when donor (n) doped. Lattice-dynamics calculations using third-order perturbation theory predict an ultralow room-temperature lattice thermal conductivity of 0.4 W m 1 K , the lowest ever predicted for an oxide material, and suggest that nanostructuring to a grain size of 5 nm could further decrease this to 0.28 W m 1 K . The ultralow lattice thermal conductivity gives a-Bi2Sn2O7 a maximum ZT of 0.36 at 385 K (0.46 with nanostructuring), which is the highest low-temperature value predicted for an oxide thermoelectric. Most importantly, our analysis highlights the relationship between the structural complexity, the chemical nature of the cation, and the short phonon lifetimes, and thus provides guidelines for identifying other novel high-performance oxide thermoelectrics.


Since the end of the cold war, military forces have increasingly been required to manage crowds of people, some of which may quickly turn violent. Frequently, crowd researchers identify "flashpoint" variables: environmental or social triggers that cause a crowd to become hostile. The goal of this research was to identify potential flashpoints, to assist the simulation and training communities in crowd representation. Researchers exhaustively reviewed crowd literature, surveyed subject matter experts in crowd control, and analyzed anecdotal crowd events. Survey results indicated that crowd weapons, alcohol and drugs, crowd commitment, and crowd desperation may be flashpoints for violence. However, none of these variables strongly varied with culture. Anecdotal results revealed additional flashpoint variables, such as aggression and the use of auditory stimuli by control force members, instigators within the crowd, and general masculine culture. These findings agree in part with results from existing literature, and have implications for peacekeeper training.


BACKGROUND: High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a non-invasive method of solid tissue ablation therapy. However, only a few studies have reported the effect of HIFU for unresectable pancreatic cancer. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical benefits, survival time and complications associated with the use of HIFU ablation in patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer. METHODS: Twenty-five patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer were enrolled in our study. All patients received HIFU therapy for tumors at least once. The therapeutic effects of HIFU was evaluated in terms of Karnofsky performance status (KPS) scores, pain relief, serum CA19-9, and imaging by B-US and CT before and after the therapy. We also recorded median overall survival time and complications caused by the treatment. RESULTS: In the 25 patients, KPS scores were above 60, and increased KPS was observed in 23 patients after treatment. Pain relief occurred in 23 patients. Serum CA19-9 levels were significantly reduced one month after HIFU treatment and became negative in 5 patients. B-US revealed enhanced tumor echogenicity in 13 patients and decreased tumor blood supply in 9. Tumor necrosis was confirmed by CT in 8 patients one month after HIFU treatment. The median overall survival time was 10 months, and the 1-year survival rate was 42%. No severe complications were observed after HIFU treatment. CONCLUSION: HIFU can effectively relieve pain, increase KPS, decrease tumor growth and prolong the survival time of patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer.


This article seeks to emphasize the fact that technology, like science, can also offer us explanations about the world. The article begins by adopting a definition of technology as knowledge, thus establishing a continuity between science and technology that allows us to extend the work done on the issue of scientific explanation. Three proposals are analyzed for defining the concept of scientific explanation, with emphasis on Wesley Salmon's causal mechanical model. Next, the case of the pressure and volume indicator diagram in the steam engine is analyzed, in which, despite the lack of a competent scientific theory to interpret the data obtained through a new instrument, our technological knowledge allowed for the generation of the explanations that the scientific theory of the time was unable to provide. The example meets the demands stipulated by the causal mechanical model of explanation but differs in that here the explanation was not the result of scientific knowledge. Rather, it was the technological knowledge provided by the indicator what generated a new explanation of the steam engine's efficiency and functioning.


The toxicity of combinations of AZT (200 or 400 mg/kg), TMP/SMX (1,000, 2,000, or 3,000 mg/kg), and folinic acid (10 mg/kg) was evaluated in Swiss (CD-1®) mice treated by oral gavage. The doses of AZT are equivalent to two and four times the therapeutic dose in humans (based on body surface area); doses of TMP/SMX are one, two, and three times the therapeutic dose for toxoplasmosis in mice. The dose of folinic acid is 100 times the nutritional requirement in mice. Male mice (10 per group) were dosed from day 5 until the day prior to sacrifice on day 25 or 26. Females were divided into two groups designated female-A mice and female-B mice. The female-A mice (20 per group) were dosed from day 0 to sacrifice. They were cohabited with treated males on days 9 to 13 to test for effects on mating behavior, fertilization, and implantation, and caesarean sections were performed on days 28 to 32. The females designated as female-B mice (20 per group) were cohabited with untreated males on days 0 to 4. Sperm-positive female-B mice were dosed during organogenesis on days 6 to 15 of presumed gestation and sacrificed on day 4 of lactation.Summarized in Table 1 are the significant effects of treatment with AZT, TMP/SMX, and/or folinic acid. The most significant effect of AZT alone in adult mice was a mild dose-related anemia in males and females. Combination therapy with AZT and TMP/SMX resulted in hematopoietic toxicity of far greater severity than that following treatment with either test compound alone. Male and female-A mice that received combination therapy developed severe anemia, reticulocytopenia, and thrombocytosis accompanied by cellular depletion of bone marrow and diminished splenic hematopoiesis. Mortality occurred in female-A mice that were treated with AZT and TMP/SMX combinations. Female-B mice that received combination therapy had a mild regenerative anemia with reticulocytosis. Female-A and female-B mice that received AZT and TMP/SMX with or without folinic acid showed marked declines in mean body weight. In general, other manifestations of toxicity included pallor, piloerection, labored breathing, diminished motor activity, and emaciation. Thyroid gland hyperplasia was observed in all groups treated with TMP/SMX alone or in combination with AZT. Combination therapy as well as therapy with TMP/SMX alone also resulted in hepatocyte hypertrophy.The most striking effect on reproductive and developmental parameters was the presence of cleft palate in 100% of the litters of female-B mice treated with greater than 2,000 mg TMP/SMX per kg body weight either alone or in combination with AZT. In female-A and female-B mice, AZT alone produced decreases in uterine weights, live litter sizes, pup weights, and fetal weights and increased pup deaths and resorptions. TMP/SMX produced mortality in female-A and female-B litters; reduced the number of litters, litter size, and pup weight; and increased the number of pups dying on days 1 to 4. In males, TMP/SMX decreased testicular weight, spermatid heads per testis, and average spermatid count; treatment with either AZT or TMP/SMX reduced sperm motility.With the exception of thyroid gland hyperplasia and the development of cleft palates, the combination of AZT and TMP/SMX resulted in toxicity of greater severity than that subsequent to the administration of either compound alone. Supplementation with folinic acid failed to significantly ameliorate any toxic effect of AZT and/or TMP/SMX.


Research in entrepreneurship has debated the differences between entrepreneurial and small business ventures for quite some time, arguing that entrepreneurial ventures are small growth-oriented, strategically-innovative firms, while small business ventures are neither growth oriented nor strategically innovative. However, scholars often treat both types of ventures analogously in terms of both construct and theory, which poses clear problems given their differences. As a result, we may have missed opportunities to advance both our understanding of new firm survival and growth and our understanding of how theoretical perspectives in strategic management apply to entrepreneurial and small business ventures. Since we understand far less about the strategies of small firms than the strategies of large firms, these problems present a substantial opportunity to refine strategic management theory for the entrepreneurial and small business contexts. Thus, in this study we examine the extent to which small firms may engage in strategic pursuits of competitive advantage to determine the applicability of strategic management theories to the contexts. We do so by empirically examining the types of strategies employed by entrepreneurial and small business ventures. Contrary to common assumptions, we find the essence of small firm strategy is to stay small. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research and practice.


The impact of particle composition on metal oxidation state, and on changes in oxidation state with simulated atmospheric aging, are investigated experimentally in flame-generated nanoparticles containing Mn, Cr, and Fe. The results demonstrate that the initial fraction of Cr(VI) within the particles decreases with increasing total metal concentration in the flame. In contrast, the initial Mn oxidation state was only partly controlled by metal loading, suggesting the importance of other factors. Two reaction pathways, one reductive and one oxidative, were found to be operating simultaneously during simulated atmospheric aging. The oxidative pathway depended upon the presence of simulated sunlight and O3, whereas the reductive pathway occurred in the presence of simulated sunlight alone. The reductive pathway appears to be rapid but transient, allowing the oxidative pathway to dominate with longer aging times, i.e., greater than ∼8 hours. The presence of Mn within the particles enhanced the importance of the oxidative pathway, leading to more net Cr oxidation during aging, implying that Mn can mediate oxidation by removal of electrons from other particulate metals.


In view of the growing demand of ethanol the identification of resources and development of economical methods for its extraction are very essential. Fermented apple pomace has been identified as a rich source of ethanol especially for the Himalayan region where apple is grown at large scale. There are various methods of alcohol recovery from solid state fermented apple pomace (hot water extraction followed by distillation, vacuum distillation, hydraulic pressure and direct steam distillation) hence, present study was carried out to standardize an efficient and economical method. The physico-chemical characteristics of dried apple pomace residue after the recovery of ethanol by different methods were also evaluated for knowing loss of nutrients during extraction of ethanol. For present study two types of solid state fermented (SSF) apple pomace, obtained by two treatments (one by Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other by Candida utilis and Kloeckera spp. as sequential interactive co-cultures) were used. Out of different methods of alcohol recovery tried, steam distillation method gave the highest separation efficiency while hydraulic pressing gave the lowest separation efficiency. Evaluation of some of the physico-chemical characteristics of dried apple pomace after recovery of ethanol by different methods indicated that steam distillation resulted in minimum nutritional loss, viz. crude and soluble proteins, reducing and total sugars. The maximum nutritional loss took place in hydraulic pressing, wherein the base of distillate was not added back to the pomace, prior to drying. Steam distillation method of ethanol recovery from fermented apple pomace was the best since it gave the dried pomace with minimum loss of nutrients.


This paper presents an extreme value analysis on data of significant wave height based on time-series simulation. A method to simulate time series with given marginal distribution and preserving the autocorrelation structure in the data is applied to significant wave height data. Then, extreme value analysis is performed by simulating from the fitted time-series model that preserves both the marginal probability distribution and the autocorrelation. In this way, the effect of serial correlation on the extreme values can be taken into account, without subsampling and de-clustering of the data. The effect of serial correlation on estimating extreme wave conditions have previously been highlighted, and failure to account for this effect will typically lead to an overestimation of extreme conditions. This is demonstrated by this study, that compares extreme value estimates from the simulated times-series model with estimates obtained directly from the marginal distribution assuming that 3-hourly significant wave heights are independent and identically distributed. A dataset of significant wave height provided as part of a second benchmark exercise on environmental extremes that was presented at OMAE 2021, has been analysed.


Recent research indicates that larger countries, with multiple agro-climatic zones, have the capacity to adjust to marginal climate changes which could occur over the next century. However, in countries with fewer adaptation options and with increasing dependency on imports to meet growing domestic demands, climate change might have significant impacts. To date, little has been done on assessing integrated impacts of climate change in developing countries.

This motivates the need for improving and extending the research on the potential impacts of climate change on developing countries. An integrated assessment of climate change impacts on Egypt was performed; incorporating water resources, agronomics, land resources, socio-economics, and economic modeling into a consistent modeling framework. A monthly water balance model of the Nile basin was developed for determining water availability under climate change scenarios. A computable general equilibrium model of world agriculture was used and modified to address climate change issues in Egypt, with a focus on the water resources sector. Results indicated that continued structural transformation of the socio-economic system will be necessary to meet growing domestic demands for goods and services--caused by a growing population with a limited resource base. Three of four GCMs (Global Circulation Models) indicate increases in Nile flows which give rise to different development paths. This makes the issue of vulnerability and adaptation assessment difficult because there is a pressing need in Egypt to improve irrigation and agriculture efficiencies. Climate models forecasting increased Nile floods might serve only to delay the implementation of better management strategies through their bright outlook on available water resources.


Lowering the weight of concrete used in buildings and other structures has been one of the main priorities of the specialists. This will reduce the dead load and the forces involved in the structure during the earthquake. A wide range of research has been done around the world.In this work, a research on the construction of lightweight aggregates of Scoria has been used to increase the flexural strength of the beams tested in the glass fiber, as well as to reduce the use of cement, reduce the amount of pollutants in Iran, as well as increase the efficiency of concrete from zeolite and ash powder The wind has been used and the mechanical characteristics of these lightweight concrete structures, in particular the flexural behavior of lightweight structural beams, have been investigated in the laboratory environment, and the results indicate that light concrete was constructed and pressurized in Due to the presence of a network of fibers up to 3% by weight of cement and the resulting flexibility, the strain is very crisp And preventing it from breaking down and increasing the compressive strength by up to 20% and 10% of the flexural strength compared to the control sample. Addition of powdered zeolite along with ash to 15% by weight of cement has the same adhesion properties as cement to light concrete Data has increased the flexural strength by up to 15%.


Graph-structured data, which are receiving increased attention in the database community, are tightly connected to Description Logics (DLs), given that these two formalims share the underlying interpretation structures. In this talk, we consider the challenging setting of graph-structured data that evolve as a result of update operations adding and deleting facts in the style of action languages, under constraints capturing domain knowledge. We argue that expressive variants of DLs provide indeed quite powerful mechanisms for expressing forms of constraints over graph-structured data, and we draw interesting connections to path-constraints studied in databases. In this setting we discuss two fundamental reasoning tasks, considering both lightweight and expressive variants of DLs: verification, i.e., checking the consistency of a sequence of operations with respect to constraints; and plan existence, i.e., existence of a sequence of operations leading to a goal state.


The development of Graphics Hardware Technology is blazing fast, with new and more improved models, that out spec the previous generations with leaps and bounds, before one has the time to digest the potential of the previous generations computing power. With the progression of this technology the computer games industry has always been quick to adapt this new power and all the features that emerge as the graphic card industry learn what the customers need from their products. The current generations of games use extraordinary visual effects to heighten the immersion into the games, all of which is thanks to the constant progress of the graphics hardware, which would have been an impossibility just a couple of years ago. Ray tracing has been used for years in the movie industry for creation of stunning special effects and whole movies completely made in 3D. This technique for giving realistic imagery has always been for usage exclusively for non-interactive entertainment, since this way of rendering an image is extremely expensive when it comes to computations. To generate one single image with Ray Tracing you might need several hundred millions of calculations, which so far haven't been proven to work in real-time situations, such as for games. However, due to the continuous increase of processing power in Graphical Processing Units, GPUs, the limits of what can, and cannot, be done in real-time is constantly shifting further and further into the realm of possibility. So this thesis focuses upon finding out just how close we are to getting ray tracing into the realm of real-time games. Two tests were performed to find out the potential a current (2009) high-end computer system has when it comes to handling a raster - ray tracing hybrid implementation. The first test is to see how well a modern GPU handles rendering of a very simple scene with phong shading and ray traced shadows without any optimizations. And the second test is with the same scenario, but this time done with a basic optimization; this last test is to illustrate the impact that possible optimizations have on ray tracers. These tests were later compared to Intel's results with ray tracing Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.


This letter documents the conversations of a participatory action research team consisting of one doctoral student and eight New York City high school students. The letter documents the process of creating the instrument that was used to collect data from other lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and questioning students. The dissertation research seeks to understand the language, policies, and behavior about sexuality and gender expression in schools, and LGBTQ young people's interpretations of them. Using Foucault and Butler to explain how young people interact with norms of sexuality and gender in contingent and contextualized ways, the researchers began to think about the discourses around sexuality and gender with a more historicized and complex lens and to examine subjectivity within those discourses. The researchers elected to use a modified Q sort to understand the intersection of the school community's attitudes and beliefs with individual student attitudes and beliefs, ultimately to understand LGBTQ students' sense of belonging in their schools.


We report on room-temperature Raman scattering measurements in few–layer crystals of exfoliated molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe2) performed with the use of 632.8 nm (1.96 eV) laser light excitation. In agreement with a recent study reported by G. Froehlicher et al we observe a complex structure of the out-of-plane vibrational modes (A1g/A ′ 1), which can be explained in terms of interlayer interactions between single atomic planes of MoTe2. In the case of low-energy shear and breathing modes of rigid interlayer vibrations, it is shown that their energy evolution with the number of layers can be well reproduced within a linear chain model with only the nearest neighbor interaction taken into account. Based on this model the corresponding in-plane and out-of-plane force constants are determined. We also show that the Raman scattering in MoTe2 measured using 514.5 nm (2.41 eV) laser light excitation results in much simpler spectra. We argue that the rich structure of the out-of-plane vibrational modes observed in Raman scattering spectra excited with the use of 632.8 nm laser light results from its resonance with the electronic transition at the M point of the MoTe2 first Brillouin zone.


For the past thirty years scholars have debated the role of political parties in fiscal, monetary, and social welfare policies. Some argue that Social Democratic parties are more committed to advancing and maintaining welfare protection, while others claim that party ideology has ceased to explain parties' policy choices due to the constraining forces of economic globalization, deindustrialization, and electoral volatility. Indeed, the empirical findings in support of partisan arguments are mixed. Much of this rich literature treats political parties as uniform and cohesive entities when it comes to forming government policy. Ideologues, Partisans, and Loyalists challenges this assumption and advances the argument that ideology and partisan policy preferences play a major role in policy choices, yet they are not necessarily observable at the government or even at the party level. Instead, we often need to look at the individual level -- particularly at the cabinet minister who is in charge of the policy in question to predict policy outcomes. Ideologues, Partisans, and Loyalists innovatively argues that cabinet ministers can have very important policy role as policy agenda setters. Yet, not all ministers are equally effective policy-makers. Some make a difference, while others do not. Loyalists are loyal to their party leader and prioritize office over policy; partisans are party heavyweights and aspiring leaders; and ideologues have fixed policy ideas and are unwilling to compromise for the perks of holding office. Only ideologues and partisans can effectively change social welfare and labour market policy, above and beyond what their government mandates.


PURPOSE
To review our experience with intracranial angioplasty, including the complications we encountered.

METHODS
During a 3-year period, from 1993 to 1996, 10 patients had intracranial percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). The stenosed vessels included three internal carotid arteries, one middle cerebral artery, one basilar artery, and five vertebral arteries. Stenosis in all patients was 75%, or greater. PTA was technically successful in eight patients; in two patients it could not be performed owing to inability to traverse the stenosed area.

RESULTS
Two patients had successful and uneventful PTA. Five patients had vasospasm, which resolved with local vasodilators in two and with repeat PTA in one. Vasospasm led to stroke in two patients. Compromise of perforating vessels and arterial dissection were associated with stroke in two patients.

CONCLUSION
Intracranial PTA is technically feasible but associated with risks related to vasospasm, arterial trauma, and compromise of perforating vessels.


The most important objective of this research was to analyze and discuss the current relationship between the level of stress perception and the consequences on cardiometabolic risk in population. The study was based on a literature review, including books, published articles and internet information, as well as on the author's own experience in this field, regarding the most important concepts about stress, the mediators and systems involved, methods of assessment and evidences about the influences of stress on cardiac, endocrine and metabolic system. Stress and coping with stress have been identified as important variables affecting health, now recognized to be involved in pathogenesis of many diseases: cardiometabolic, respiratory and digestive pathologies, cancer, neuroendocrine and psychiatric disorders. Glucocorticoids, catecholamines, pro- and antiinflammatory cytokines and the parasympathetic nervous system are involved in the adaptation to stressors. The overload of these allostatic systems is characterized by persistent high levels of stress mediators and damaging effects on human health. The stress assessment combine the rating scales for self-evaluation and the laboratory tests. From the medical point of view, the most important step forward in the stress research was made by using salivary stress markers. Measuring cortisol, alpha-amylase, or dehydroepiandrosterone in saliva became a reliable method of investigating stress in human because avoid venipuncture and offer the possibility of self-collection at home or at work, several times per day. Stress markers were significantly increased in metabolic syndrome, hypertension, stroke, ischemic heart disease and heart failure.


Emotionally focused therapy was created as a couples therapy approach and has become a frequently used therapeutic approach these days. This approach, theoretically based on the understanding that the attachment relationship observed between mother and child characterized by proximity seeking and separation anxiety resembles the relationship observed between couples, aims to turn unhealthy attachment relationships between couples into healthy ones. This process is realized by revealing the implicit and hidden emotions that cause problem situations to occur and gaining awareness about these emotions. Different studies have shown spirituality to be a major factor both in forming and solving problem situations in therapy for couples who care about spiritual values. In particular, the meanings couples who attach importance to religious values attribute to marriage and the quality of the relations developed within this meaning can be handled within the framework of emotionally focused couples therapy. The purpose of this article is to explain how the therapy process proceeds when emotionally focused couples therapy is combined with spiritual values and to show which methods and techniques are used in the light of sample cases. In addition, the article aims to raise awareness on how to use this therapy approach, as it can be combined with Islamic elements, and investigates how to set an example in this regard. This study, which briefly introduces emotionally focused couples therapy, provides short examples of how to perform interventions while working with couples who seek counseling using religious or spiritual matters.


IMPORTANCE
Studies have shown that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with transport accidents, but the magnitude of the association remains unclear. Most important, it is also unclear whether ADHD medication reduces this risk.

OBJECTIVES
To estimate the association between ADHD and the risk of serious transport accidents and to explore the extent to which ADHD medication influences this risk among patients with ADHD.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
In total, 17,408 patients with a diagnosis of ADHD were observed from January 1, 2006, through December 31, 2009, for serious transport accidents documented in Swedish national registers. The association between ADHD and accidents was estimated with Cox proportional hazards regression. To study the effect of ADHD medication, we used stratified Cox regression to compare the risk of accidents during the medication period with the risk during the nonmedication period within the same patients.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Serious transport accident, identified as an emergency hospital visit or death due to transport accident.

RESULTS
Compared with individuals without ADHD, male patients with ADHD (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.32-1.63) and female patients with ADHD (1.45; 1.24-1.71) had an increased risk of serious transport accidents. In male patients with ADHD, medication was associated with a 58% risk reduction (hazard ratio, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.23-0.75), but there was no statistically significant association in female patients. Estimates of the population-attributable fractions suggested that 41% to 49% of the accidents in male patients with ADHD could have been avoided if they had been receiving treatment during the entire follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is associated with an increased risk of serious transport accidents, and this risk seems to be possibly reduced by ADHD medication, at least among male patients. This should lead to increased awareness among clinicians and patients of the association between serious transport accidents and ADHD medication.


Lapindo Brantas mud disaster in Sidoarjo East Java that spurts since May 29, 2006 has not been solved yet till today. Based on the data of infokom East Java 2007, there is 2.095 KK/8.388 residents should be evacuated in refuges, that is located in Pasar Baru Porong (PBP). Meanwhile, physical losses as the result of warm-mud is 12 villages, then it causes for about 10.426 houses and 77 religious places also 600 hectares lands are not functioned because of submerged in the mud. 18 units of school is sank under the mud and it makes teaching learning process be blocked, 4 government offices are threatened by unemployment officials and many other damaged environments. Beside, those areas are the main region in East Java; it is proved by 30 units of plant drawn and for about 1.873 employees is unemployed, and not far from the location, there is toll road for Surabaya-Gempol, highways for Surabaya-Malang and Surabaya-Pasuruan-Banyuwangi (East Pantura Line). Because of that condition, the purposes of this study are to know the Lapindo mud disaster effects toward social-economic factor of society in Renokenongo village in order to increase the writer knowledge in correlation with the mud disaster that has not been solved yet till today and as the suggestion toward Lapindo party to be solve it immediately and give appropriate contribution toward residents who are in this condition. From the result of discussion, there is any drastic decrement in average income of society that is Rp. 750.000 ? Rp. 100.000 for about 53,33% to be < Rp. 500.000 for about 83,33%, so that with their operations. For them who cannot maintain their works, they get find the new one as motorcycle driver for public transportation for about 33,33%, official in other city, tailor in a convection, each of them is for about 3,33% and for them are not able to get other profession has no choice to be unemployment for about 33,33%. Yet, this disaster does not give such effects on their children education, it is proved by there is none of them is drop out from their education. Finally, this mud disaster is not only the problem of victims by Lapindo, but also to be our problem in order to make us care of them so that government, society, and Lapindo supports are much needed. I hope that this paper can give advantages toward all, and it is expected that this problem can be solved in a good way. Keyword : Bencana Lumpur Lapindo dan Sosial Ekonomi link terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/263/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2008-nugrahaini-13116-1.+PENDA-N.pdf


A catalytic kinetic determination of Iron (11) and spectrophotometric determination of Mercury (11) were performed by exploiting the reactions of Neutral Red (NR). The iron catalyzed oxidation of NR with potassium bromate was studied kinetically by using fixed time method. The reaction was followed by measuring the decrease in absorbance at 535 nm. The effect of surfactants, salt effect, pH, and reagent concentration were investigated to achieve the selectivity and sensitivity of the analytical procedure. Under optimized conditions ( 4.2 x 10-5 mol.L-1 NR, 1.4 x 10-3 mol.L-1 KBrO3, 1.5 x 10-2 mol.L-1 cationic surfactant, 0.5 mol.L-1 LiCl and pH 2.60 at 30°C), iron (11) was determined in the range 0.1 to 0.5 µg mL-1 with a detection limit of 0.019 µg mL-1 and a relative standard deviation (n=6) 1.02 % for 0.2 µg mL-1 Fe(II). The influence of foreign ions on the accuracy of the results was investigated. The developed method is extremely sensitive, selective and simple. The method was applied successfully to the determination of iron in the pharmaceutical and synthetic samples. The results showed good agreement with those obtained by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). To elucidate the reaction mechanism involved in the selected reaction, detailed kinetic studies were performed under pseudo-order conditions and thermodynamic parameters were obtained.

The reaction between NR and Hg (11) was investigated for the direct spectrophotometric determination of trace Hg (11). The use of the anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) was useful to increase the sensitivity of the analysis. The effects of the other parameters to optimize the analytical conditions were also found. The calibration plot was linear up to 1.0 µg mL-1 and the average molar absorption coefficient was found to be 2.2 x 104 L morl-1 cm-1 with regression equation of I"A = 0.2116C (µg mL-1) + 0.0023 and R2 = 0.9959 at 272 nm The detection limit obtained was 0.013 µg mL-1 and the relative standard deviation was 1.13 % for 0.30 µg mL-1 Hg (11) (n=6). The proposed reaction has been employed in the determination of mercury in plant, soil and synthetic samples. Results were also verified by AAS method using hydride generation technique (MHS-10) system.University of Karachi


The Wireless ad-hoc network has dissimilar civilian and defense applications and that's why it has gained substantial attention in recent days. The major consideration in inventing such a network is to diminish power utilization because of the truth that wireless nodes are usually charged by batteries barely. Topology control is one of the chief energy preserving practices which has been mostly considered and utilized in ad-hoc wireless network. Topology control method permits each and every wireless node to choose certain subset of neighbors and extend network connectivity by consuming the lowest amount of transmission power. In this paper we review the different techniques used to improve the network capacity of MANETs with supportive communications.


Prior to the 1870s bloated corpses splintered masts and floating cargoes often littered the isolated beaches of the Eastern United States becoming a tragic but nearly ubiquitous sight. For those in peril upon the seas the icy grip of death often consumed sailors with little hope of rescue. For centuries the shifting sands of the North Carolina Outer Banks claimed hundreds of vessels earning its nickname "the Graveyard of the Atlantic." It was on these narrow strands of barrier islands that between 1874 and 1915 the United States Life Saving Service (USLSS) established twenty-nine stations along the North Carolina shoreline becoming a major component of the area's cultural landscape. This thesis examines the development of the USLSS on the North Carolina coast and will specifically focus on the role of risk management and the Service's overall effect on wrecking patterns.  This thesis utilizes two distinct theoretical approaches regarding the study of risk and its affect on society Anthony Giddens's Theory of Structuration and Stephen Crook's risk management strategies. Through the utilization of these two theoretical frameworks one can examine the element of risk as a measurable entity that commanded considerable importance in the development of the USLSS and the subsequent effects on local wrecking patterns. Through the use of statistical and geospatial analysis this thesis identifies quantifiable measures of risk in the operations of the USLSS and gauges the effects of risk on local wrecking patterns within a fifteen-mile radius of Oregon Inlet NC.


Novel 4-aryl-3-(hydroxyalkyl)quinoline-2-one derivatives were prepared and evaluated as openers of the cloned maxi-K channel hSlo expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes by utilizing electrophysiological methods. The effect of these maxi-K openers on corporal smooth muscle was studied in vitro using isolated rabbit corpus cavernosum. From this study, a potent maxi-K opener was identified as an effective relaxant of rabbit corporal smooth muscle and shown to be active in an in vivo animal model of male erectile function.


Intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrated by men is a serious and widespread problem in Aoteoroa/New Zealand and worldwide. Various strategies have been developed to address men's use of violence towards their partners. However understanding of the factors and processes that support men desisting from perpetrating IPV is underdeveloped and under researched. The present study breaks from the prevailing quantitative approach focused on recidivism and uses an interpretative phenomenological analysis to understand what helped and hindered men to desist from IPV perpetration, through hearing their experience of this process. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with six previously violent men, with at least 6 months of desistance. Their stories highlighted five superordinate themes involving external factors and internal processing relevant to the desistance process. An event with personal relevance to each man provided the sanction initiating change. For the change process to precede it was important for the men to experience acceptance and support from a significant person, so as to increase their belief in themselves and their sense of agency. Engaging in the desistance process involved gaining awareness of emotions and cognitions, developing the ability to regulate emotions and critically reflecting on beliefs and behaviours to transform these from affirming IPV to affirming safe and respectful behaviours. Progress from resisting the familiarity of perpetrating IPV, to implementing an IPV free identity required proactively engaging in safe and respectful behaviours and considerable time for integration. Desistance needs to be viewed, not as a final destination, but as an ongoing process involving advances and setbacks, with all the men acknowledging they were still in the process of change. Whilst the men who perpetrate IPV need to take responsibility for their actions, the task of eliminating IPV rests with our society as a whole and requires a change in society's attitude from blaming the individual to becoming involved as part of the solution. The implications of these results for individual and social intervention are discussed.


Abstract. Land degradation has been a persistent problem in Senegal for more than a century and by now has become a serious impediment to long-term development. In this paper, we quantify the impact of land degradation on crop yields using the results of a nationwide land degradation assessment. For this, the study needs to address two issues. First, the land degradation assessment comprises qualitative expert judgements that have to be converted into more objective, quantitative terms. We propose a land degradation index and assess its plausibility. Second, observational data on soils, land use, and rainfall do not provide sufficient information to isolate the impact of land degradation. We, therefore, design a pseudo-experiment that for sites with otherwise similar circumstances compares the yield of a site with and one without land degradation. This pairing exercise is conducted under a gradual refining of the classification of circumstances, until a more or less stable response to land degradation is obtained. In this way, we hope to have controlled sufficiently for confounding variables that will bias the estimation of the impact of land degradation on crop yields. A small number of shared characteristics reveal tendencies of "severe" land degradation levels being associated with declining yields as compared to similar sites with "low" degradation levels. However, as we zoom in at more detail some exceptions come to the fore, in particular in areas without fertilizer application. Yet, our overall conclusion is that yield reduction is associated with higher levels of land degradation, irrespective of whether fertilizer is being applied or not.


We propose a gaze-based indicator of students' attention in a MOOC video lecture. We report the results from an eye-tracking study during a MOOC lecture. We define the gaze- based indicator of students' attention as "with-me-ness". This answers a question from teachers' perspective "how much are the students with me?" With-me-ness is defined at two levels: perceptual, following teacher's deictic acts- and conceptual – following teacher discourse. We conducted an experiment with 40 participants and observed a significant and positive correlation between the two levels of with-me-ness and the posttest scores.


In this study, uniaxial and creep analyses were used to characterise stress relaxation and creep compliance behaviour of kashar cheese as a function of different compression (1.5, 3.0, 4.5, 6.0 and 7.5 mm) and stress (12.25, 24.50, 36.75, 49.00 and 61.25 kPa) levels. For this purpose, mechanical simulation models, namely generalised Maxwell, Nussinovitch, Peleg and Burger models were used to simulate the viscoelastic behaviour of kashar cheese as a function of different compression and stress levels. The results revealed that the compression levels could remarkably change internal structure and deformation properties of kashar cheese. Stress relaxation test demonstrated that kashar cheese showed more elastic behaviour, namely higher resistance to deformation at higher compression levels. Creep tests showed that rigidity of kashar cheese decreased as the stress level applied increased. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that compression resulted in a less homogeneous protein matrix, an interrupted casein/fat network, and destroyed fat globules by forcing them to exude from the cheese surface. These results should be useful for dairy industry.


Prior empirical research on the theoretically proposed interaction between the quantity and the quality of children builds on exogenous variation in family size due to twin births and focuses on human capital outcomes. The typical finding can be described as a statistically nonsignificant two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimate, with substantial standard errors. We regard these conclusions of no empirical support for the quantity-quality trade-off as premature and, therefore, extend the empirical approach in two ways. First, we add health as an additional outcome dimension. Second, we apply a semi-parametric Bayesian IV approach for econometric inference. Our estimation results substantiate the finding of a zero effect: we provide estimates with an increased precision by a factor of approximately twenty-three, for a broader set of outcomes. JEL Classification: J13, C26, C11, I20, J20, I10.


In this paper, we introduce a new form of amortized variational inference by using the forward KL divergence in a joint-contrastive variational loss. The resulting forward amortized variational inference is a likelihood-free method as its gradient can be sampled without bias and without requiring any evaluation of either the model joint distribution or its derivatives. We prove that our new variational loss is optimized by the exact posterior marginals in the fully factorized mean-field approximation, a property that is not shared with the more conventional reverse KL inference. Furthermore, we show that forward amortized inference can be easily marginalized over large families of latent variables in order to obtain a marginalized variational posterior. We consider two examples of variational marginalization. In our first example we train a Bayesian forecaster for predicting a simplified chaotic model of atmospheric convection. In the second example we train an amortized variational approximation of a Bayesian optimal classifier by marginalizing over the model space. The result is a powerful meta-classification network that can solve arbitrary classification problems without further training.


Amphibians, turtles, rodents, and birds collected from a tropical conservation area in northwestern Costa Rica where pesticides are not directly applied were analyzed for organochlorine (OC) pesticide contamination. Six of thirty-nine amphibians (three of eight species), three of six turtles (two species), one of eight rodents (one species), and nine of twenty-five insectiverous birds (four species) contained OC compounds ranging from 2.77 ng/g to 277.70 ng/g. The most frequently detected compound (found in thirteen organisms) was p,p'-DDE. Heptachlor, delta-BHC, dieldrin, endosulfan II, and p,p' -DDD were each found in four or more organisms, while eight additional OC compounds were detected in at least one organism. The average body mass of contaminated amphibians was 156.40 g, compared to 56.89 g for uncontaminated amphibians, which suggests that biomagnification of OC compounds may occur in this taxon. The presence of OCs in wildlife from this conservation area indicates that long distance transport of pesticides through the atmosphere is likely.


A Multi-sectoral Systems Analysis (MSA) model has been constructed for exploring and managing cross-sectoral impacts (both synergies and antagonisms) resulting from technology and policy interventions in the design and stewardship of city infrastructures. This MSA is based on Substance Flow Analysis. It accounts for the flows of water, nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, and energy into, around, and out of the water, energy, food, waste-handling, and forestry sectors of city-watershed systems. Applications of the MSA to two case studies of the Metropolitan Atlanta Area in Georgia, USA, and the Greater London Area, UK, are compared. The impacts and financial benefits are assessed for four candidate technological innovations in the water sector: urine-separating toilets; pyrolysis of sewage sludge; combined food-waste and wastewater conveyance/treatment; and production of algae-based biofuels from sewage. System-wide environmental sustainability is gauged on four accounts, of attaining progressively more ambitious targets of resource savings/recovery in respect of water, energy, and nutrients (both nitrogen- and phosphorus-based). The paper closes by demonstrating how the MSA can provide assistance in framing questions of a more financial and social nature, i.e., those of 'Who reaps the rewards?' and 'Who bears the costs?' of the various prospective technological changes and (possibly) breakthroughs.


The explosion of knowledge management systems (KMS) and the need for their wide accessibility and availability has created an urgent need for reassessing the security practices and policies in organizations. Security of these assets is a day-to-day job placing a tremendous cognitive load on information-technology (IT) professionals, which can make it almost impossible to manage the security aspects of KMS. Autonomic-computing systems are well suited to manage KMS, as they use high-level system objectives provided by administrators as the basis for managing the security of KMS. The authors model the self-protection and self-healing configuration attributes in autonomic systems through game-theoretic models. The proposed modeling approach progressively moves from a manual intervention-oriented security setup to an autonomic security setup. This allows the authors to compare and contrast the different approaches and provide insights on their applicability to different security environments. The authors find that moving to a partial autonomic system with self-healing mechanisms can provide a stable environment for securing enterprise knowledge assets and can reduce hacking. It is beneficial to implement an autonomic system when manual investigation costs are higher and/or when the volume of malicious traffic is very low. An autonomic approach is especially attractive when it is difficult to impose penalties on malicious users. Autonomic systems can be effective in securing organizational knowledge assets and in reducing the potential damage from malicious users


The main goal of the present study is the investigation of the sputtering of neutral particles from a metal surface under atomic and polyatomic ion bombardment using secondary neutral time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ToF SNMS). For postionization of neutral species, UV laser irradiation with wavelength 193 nm was utilized. For generation of polyatomic projectiles, a negative sputter cesium ion source suitable for ToF SNMS setup was developed and built. The ion source delivers negatively charged (m=1÷5) and polyatomic ions produced from a gold sputter target bombarded by positive Cs−mAu2AuCs+ ions. Mass separation of primary projectiles in the ion source is performed by a built-in compact Wien filter allowing to separate heavy ions in the energy range of several keV. In the experiment, an indium surface was bombarded by (m=1÷5) projectiles with total impact energy of 5 and 10 keV. The obtained mass distributions of sputtered indium species reveal that the partial yields of sputtered clusters increase under polyatomic ion bombardment. It is shown that the enhancement in total sputtering yield per constituent atom of the projectile ion is non-additively enhanced in the case of diatomic ion bombardment in comparison with monoatomic projectile ions impinging at the same velocity. The enhancement of partial yields observed for sputtered clusters is found to increase with increasing cluster size, reaching a factor of several ten for the largest detected cluster. −mAu Apart from sputtering yields, kinetic energy distributions (KED) of sputtered neutral indium atoms ejected under mono- and polyatomic projectile ion bombardment were measured. It is shown that In monomers sputtered by monoatomic projectiles with an impact energy of 5 keV are emitted mostly from linear collision cascades. At higher kinetic energy, or polyatomic projectile impact, it is revealed that in addition to the atoms sputtered from the linear cascade, a low energetic contribution of atoms sputtered from a collisional spike appears. This contribution in the KED increases with increasing impact energy and nuclearity of projectile. In the case of 10-keV projectiles, the sputtering process is shown to be dominated by the spike contribution. By subtracting the linear cascade contribution from the measured KED, the pure emission energy spectrum produced by the collisional spike is identified. It is found that the most probable emission energy of atoms emitted from the spike is more than one order of magnitude lower in comparison with the surface binding energy of indium. The obtained KED of indium monomers emitted from the spike were interpreted in terms of published theoretical models of the sputtering process from a spike. It is shown that the obtained data cannot be explained in terms of a thermal spike model. The obtained results are shown to agree more favorably with a thermodynamic gas flow model describing the particle emission process as a quasi-free expansion of a superheated near-surface volume. −1Au−3Au By comparing the partial sputtering yields of emitted secondary ions and their neutral counterparts, the ionization probabilities of indium atoms sputtered by atomic and polyatomic projectiles were measured. It is revealed that ionization probabilities of sputtered In monomers decrease when polyatomic projectiles are utilized. Data of this kind are of great interest both from a fundamental perspective and for practical applications of Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) in surface analysis. The measured data are interpreted in terms of published theories of secondary ion formation. Our results indicate that the electronic excitation of the solid induced by the projectile impact decrease with increasing projectile nuclearity, a finding which reveals an opposite trend to that observed for the sputter yields. This surprising result cannot be understood in terms of published theory and has therefore motivated an ongoing study in our group to model excitation and ionization processes in the frame of a molecular dynamics computer simulation of sputtering process.


However, one of the primary challenges in the microgrid is controlling power electronic devices when it is coordinated with the utility grid. The control system in the microgrid has the main objectives, to ensure supply power to the critical loads, to connect and disconnect the load in case of any fault occurring in the microgrid. This thesis investigates different types of strategies used to control and manage a microgrid; also, the report considers inverter control in islanded mode.

This thesis explores the ideas for controlling a microgrid in terms of voltage control in both centralized and decentralized configurations. In more detail, simulations were carried out on two control strategies; inverter control, and frequency control. The inverter control method having the ability to bring the stable and efficient electricity to microgrid system has attracted much consideration in recent years. The droop controller had the capability to autonomously perform equal power sharing and maintain stability in islanded mode of operation.

There are many existing dc microgrid around the world. Kythnos Island microgrid is one of those existing microgrid, which can supply 12 houses within the island by using the inverter controller, as the utility grid is located far away from the microgrid. However, this island is either ac or dc loads, so some inverters and converters will be involved in the network.

The investigation used MATLAB /SIMULINK to simulate the microgrid network. Which done by implementing the controller in the both ac and dc load. The performance measures such as power sharing accuracy between the microgrid and diesel generator will be obtained. The diesel generators used as a backup in the case of any fault occur in the microgrid. The network simulations at different dc and ac loads will be simulating by using Simulink. This then used to calculate the efficiency of the whole network through the Simulink. Then how efficiency is can be used to upgrade the network as future scope.

Active and reactive power in the droop control has been commonly reported on and has been shown to work over a series of the condition of the network. The PQ inverter improves the performance of microgrid in islanded mode; however, the result demonstrates that the inverter controller performed well in the simulation of the Kythnos microgrid network. The efficiency of the LVDC indicates that inverter controller with the ac load performance higher efficiency compared to the dc loads.


Print of a Bee County College in Beeville, Texas. The print depicts a quadrangle on the college campus surrounded by buildings and lined with trees. The original watercolor was created by Richard Lewis. In 1965 the voters of Bee County named the entire county as a college district and issued bonds in the amount of $1,500,000 for a junior college. One hundred acres of land was donated for the college campus by the widow of A.C. Jones, Mrs. W.M. Thompson, W.W. Jones II, and Mrs. H.B. Hause. In the fall of 1967 the first classes of Bee County College were held. Today the college is named Coastal Bend College and includes campuses in Beeville, Alice, Kingsville, and Pleasanton.


The Wu-Kabat variability coefficient is a well-established descriptor of the susceptibility of an amino acid position to evolutionary replacements. It conveniently highlights stretches of accentuated amino acid variation that, for example, in an antibody molecule account for most of the antigen contacts (complementarity-determining regions). Diverse opinion are held as to why the index yields unclear results when applied instead to the polypeptide sequences of the T-cell antigen receptor. We show that a simple modification enhances the resolving power of the index by increasing the weight on the frequency distribution of the amino acids in the formula. Application of the improved index to T-cell receptor beta chains highlights four unambiguous hypervariable regions, three of which are positioned similar to immunoglobulin complementarity-determining regions along the chain. In a Fab-like three-dimensional model of the T-cell receptor, the four hypervariable regions coincide with the four loops on the surface of the domain and form a contiguous area available for binding.


Background and Hypothesis: Vitamin deficiency has been described as a clinical complication of SIBO. However, it is unclear if the type of bacterial colonization is an important determinant in vitamin and nutritional complications. Our aim was to characterize the prevalence of specific vitamin and mineral deficiencies (vitamins A, D, E, K, B12, and iron) in patients with and without coliform SIBO. We hypothesized that results would show a significant increase in the incidence of vitamin and/or mineral deficiency in patients with coliform SIBO.
Methods: A prospective registry was formulated, consisting of patients presenting to our outpatient motility clinic with suspected SIBO. Serum levels of vitamins A, D, E, INR for K, B12 and iron studies were obtained. Upper enteroscopy-aspiration and quantitative aerobic-anaerobic cultures were performed. Primary study endpoints were prevalences of clinical vitamin/mineral deficiencies (A, D, E, K, B12, and iron) based on the final diagnosis: A) SIBO by coliform bacteria (>104 CFU/mL), B) SIBO by upper respiratory tract (URT) bacteria (>105 CFU/mL) and no SIBO. 2x3 chi square, univariate and multivariate analyses were utilized.
Expected Results: 128 subjects were enrolled, and 96 subjects underwent aspiration. Final diagnoses were the following: coliform SIBO in 32 (33%) and no SIBO or URT SIBO in 64 (67%). The presence of any vitamin deficiency appears to be more prevalent in patients with coliform SIBO (46.7%) than those without (28.1%), but it is currently unclear if these differences reach statistical significance.
Conclusions: 1) Fat-soluble vitamin deficiency may be more common in coliform SIBO, but its absence does not exclude the possibility of coliform SIBO being present. 2) Although a high folate and low B12 can be suggestive of SIBO, these derangements were not common in our heterogeneous group of patients.
*Will send update following data analysis*


Soil hydraulic parameters at relatively large scales (e.g., remote sensing footprints) are important for land–atmosphere interaction and general circulation models as well as other applications. Within this context, we investigated two major issues involving soil hydraulic properties: (i) hydraulic parameter correspondence among some of the more commonly used soil hydraulic conductivity functions (i.e., the Gardner [G], Brooks–Corey [BC], and van Genuchten [VG] equations) and (ii) their application to upscaling of hydraulic properties for steady‐state flow in heterogeneous soils. We first establish parameter equivalence among the conductivity functions based on preserving macroscopic capillary lengths and predicting the same vertical water flux. Next we investigate the significance of parameter equivalence on averaging schemes for the hydraulic parameters to allow predictions of the ensemble characteristics for steady‐state flow. Results show that the hydraulic parameters correspond very well and that the same rules can be used for averaging the parameters of different hydraulic conductivity functions when predicting ensemble evaporation rates from heterogeneous soils having a relatively large suction at the soil surface (e.g., a dry surface condition and/or a shallow groundwater table). On the other hand, when the surface suction is finite (especially when the suction is relatively small and/or the groundwater table is deep), it is more difficult to obtain correspondence between the parameters of the different conductivity models. The hydraulic functions correspond especially poorly when infiltration is considered. Parameter equivalence between the hydraulic functions is always satisfied for the case of evaporation from a shallow water table, as long as the macroscopic capillary length is preserved.


We consider three sets of phenomena that feature prominently – and separately – in the financial economics literature: conditional mean dependence (or lack thereof) in asset returns, dependence (and hence forecastability) in asset return signs, and dependence (and hence forecastability) in asset return volatilities. We show that they are very much interrelated, and we explore the relationships in detail. Among other things, we show that: (a) Volatility dependence produces sign dependence, so long as expected returns are nonzero, so that one should expect sign dependence, given the overwhelming evidence of volatility dependence; (b) The standard finding of little or no conditional mean dependence is entirely consistent with a significant degree of sign dependence and volatility dependence; (c) Sign dependence is not likely to be found via analysis of sign autocorrelations, runs tests, or traditional market timing tests, because of the special nonlinear nature of sign dependence; (d) Sign dependence is not likely to be found in very high-frequency (e.g., daily) or very low-frequency (e.g., annual) returns; instead, it is more likely to be found at intermediate return horizons; (e) Sign dependence is very much present in actual U.S. equity returns, and its properties match closely our theoretical predictions; (f) The link between volatility forecastability and sign forecastability remains intact in conditionally non-Gaussian environments, as for example with time-varying conditional skewness and/or kurtosis.


The economics of short-rotation pulpwood plantations of Eucalyptus globulus as a coppice crop are influenced by stump survival and subsequent coppice growth rates. This study revealed significant genetic diversity in coppicing traits, both within and between subraces, following felling in a progeny trial after 9 years of growth. A total of 67% of trees coppiced after 14 months, but subraces varied from 43 to 73%. Heritabilities for coppice success (0.07) and subsequent growth (0.16–0.17) were low but statistically significant. Strong genetic correlation between presence/absence of coppice, the number of stems coppicing from the stump and modal coppice height, indicate that selection is possible by using the binary trait. The ability of a tree to coppice was genetically correlated with tree growth prior to felling (rg = 0.61) and with nursery-grown seedling traits, where large genetic differences were observed in the development of lignotubers. Coppicing was genetically correlated with the number of nodes with lignotubers (rg = 0.66) and seedling stem diameter at the cotyledonary node (rg = 0.91). These traits were uncorrelated with later age growth and with each other. The results suggest that coppicing is influenced by three independent mechanisms—lignotuber development, enlargement of the seedling stem at the cotyledonary node and vigorous growth—which enhance ability to survive catastrophic damage, and indicate that both lignotuber and coppice development can be altered by both natural and artificial selection.


Background:In pace with the increasingly aging population will the number of older people in nursing homes and with care in home grow. This means that the nurse will face related to the older more frequently and more widely. Nurses has overall responsibility over both the care of the elderly as a responsibility of maintaining good relationships with related parties. Related parties are of great importance for the older individual, it is therefore relevant for the nurse to be able to interact in a respectful and sensitive manner to involve the relatives in care.Aim:The aim with this study was to highlight nurse's experiences of interaction with related parties to elderly in community health care.Method:A literature review based on nine qualitative articles was conducted. Friberg design was used with the inspiration of Lundman and Hallgren Graneheim regarding the analysis of Articles.Results:The study resulted in four themes. They included information about nurse's experiences of interaction with related parties. These themes describes the importance of communication in the interaction, the attitudes various expressions, cooperation with related parties and experiences with related parties' participation in care.Conclusion:An important conclusion is that the nurse should take advantage of related parties skills and resources in health care around the elderly. The nurses sometimes has difficulties interacting with related parties. Nurses probably need to see the difficulties from different perspectives and seek help of colleagues.


Zeitoun for Voice was first performed by Anna Myatt of the ensemble Black Hair in York in March 2009. Zeitoun for Flute was first performed by Margret Schall in Ludwigsburg in November 2011. The melodic line is strongly influenced by aspects of Middle Eastern, particularly Arabic, vocal music. Meditatively repeating small motives with slight variations is common in both sacred and secular vocal music of the region; the opening rising perfect 5th is the main motive of the Adhan (although not with the augmented 4th used here). Bar 28's passionate outburst with microtonal inflexions is another feature of some vocal music of the eastern Mediterranean.

A semiotic analysis of the work would observe the dismemberment of the word 'Zeitoun' which only appears complete at the very end of the work, and the use of stones and their arid sound in a piece responding to the destruction of buildings and people. Even the three stone sounds become separated at the end. Bar 28's passionate outburst and subsequent descent can be seen as a stylised version of keening.

Zeitoun also exists in a version for solo flute or alto flute. The contrasting sonorities and techniques necessitated some radical changes. In the lowest register of the flute, microtones are very hard to obtain while fluttertonguing, and so here are avoided. It is impossible to keyclick while playing other notes, so more rests are needed to separate what were the stone sounds from what was the singing. The high register of the flute does not have the intensity of a human voice at that pitch; on the flute such intensity is gained by virtuosity. Tongue rams are also used in this section. Flute multiphonics vary considerably from instrument to instrument and from player to player, so here only general guidelines are given. Although the work uses many extended techniques, it is intended to be generally playable rather than the preserve of a few exceptional flautists.


A major planktic foraminiferal species turnover accompanied by a dramatic reduction in shell size, a fundamental change in shell architecture, and a precipitous drop in the abundance of planktic relative to benthic species occurs across the Aptian/Albian boundary interval (AABI) at globally distributed deep-sea sections. Extinction of the large and distinctive planktic foraminifer Paraticinella eube-jaouaensis , used to denote a level at or near the Aptian/ Albian boundary, coincides with the extinctions of relatively long-ranging Aptian species of Hedbergella and Globiger-inelloides . At Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Site 511 (southern South Atlantic), which is the most complete and best preserved of the studied AABI sections, the Aptian assemblage is of low diversity and species are replaced by initially one and then two very small, smooth-surfaced, thin-walled species of Microhedbergella n. gen. The oldest species of this genus, Mi. miniglobularis n. sp., probably descended from Hedbergella praelippa n. sp. and is the nominate taxon for a new lowermost Albian interval zone and is considered ancestral to several small, gradually evolving microperforate species, including Mi. praeplanispira n. sp., Mi. pseudopla-nispira n.sp., and Mi. pseudodelrioensis n. sp., which range into the middle and upper Albian. The small hedbergellids that characterize the Mi. miniglobularis Interval Zone at Site 511 have also been identified from samples taken just above the Kilian black shale level in the Vocontian Basin of southeast France. The Albian record at Site 511 reveals a gradual increase in planktic foraminifera shell size and assemblage dominance, as well as the gradual evolution during the middle Albian of species characterized by a finely perforate, pustulose test. Taxa with this shell infrastructure are included in Muricohedbergella n. gen. A new " Ticinella yezoana " Partial Range Zone is erected at Site 511 for correlation of the middle-upper Albian at high latitudes. At Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1049 (western North Atlantic), which also yields well-preserved foraminifera across the AABI, Aptian species of Hedbergella , Globiger-inelloides , and Pseudoguembelitria blakenosensis n. gen., n. sp. are replaced by lower Albian assemblages composed only of two minute species of Microhedbergella . However, this boundary section is considered incomplete because of the absence of the Mi. miniglobularis Zone. A new upper lower Albian Ti. madecassiana Zone is defined at Site 1049 for the interval between the lowest occurrence (LO) of the nominate taxon and the LO of Ti. primula , the nominate species of the middle Albian Ti. primula Zone. The AABI at DSDP Site 545 (eastern North Atlantic) has a major unconformity spanning the uppermost Aptian through the upper Albian. A black shale sequence previously placed in the lower Albian and designated as Oceanic Anoxic Event 1b is now determined to be latest Aptian in age. The AABI at ODP Site 763 (southeast Indian Ocean) is also marked by an unconformity between the upper Aptian Pa. eubejouaensis Zone and the lower Albian Mi. rischi Zone. This site needs further study to resolve whether overlap of species from both zones is the result of downslope reworking or an exception to the pattern of abrupt species turnover observed at the other deep-sea sites. The dramatic changes in planktic foraminiferal assemblages across the AABI suggest major changes in carbonate chemistry, vertical stratification, or productivity in the surface mixed layer occurred during the last 1 myr of the Aptian. Understanding the cause or causes for these changes will require much further investigation.


Many species have strong habitat preferences that directly influence population viability. For successful reintroduction of threatened populations that rely on habitat structures, the correct placement of artificial structures is also important to population persistence. In this paper, we present a hierarchical approach to the problem of translocating animals that rely on permanent habitat structures, in which we first use population dynamics data to identify areas of suitable habitat, and then identify optimal configuration for habitat structures. We use data collected from a non‐endangered, conspecific population of the endangered riparian woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes riparia) to examine the degree to which the distribution of dens in translocation sites might influence the likelihood that animals persist in their new environment. We characterize the habitats in which dens occur, analyze their spatial clustering, and compare them to temporal changes in population status for sex and age classes. We compare the potential efficacy of translocation efforts using spatial analysis versus solely habitat‐based approaches and identify the optimal spatial configuration of dens that should be considered in this translocation effort. We found that patterns of habitat use were positively correlated with overstorey cover, and animal weight was positively correlated with understorey cover. Woodrats appear to select den locations on the basis of understorey cover, but also benefit from dense overstorey cover and distance to nearest tree. Our results suggest that in translocation efforts, artificial dens should be placed in clusters within a radius of 15 m, as values above and below this value showed negative correlations with body mass. Translocations should occur after reproductive events, which occur in April and August for woodrats in southern California. Our analyses provide practical guidelines in determining appropriate timing and spacing for translocation events in the context of animal condition, minimizing disease transmission, and reproduction.


ABSTRACT This article aims to unravel underlying reasons for the enigmatic outburst of farmers' fury that swept large parts of Europe in the autumn of 2019. It does so by focussing on the Netherlands where the upheaval was particularly striking. Farmers' resentment against 'agribashing' was a common theme in the many protests. This refers to, and simultaneously delegitimizes, all critiques of the current organization of farming and the unequal international patterns in which it is embedded. The article argues that the currently emerging farmers' movement basically represents a regressive populism. It ignores the many-sided crisis of agriculture (related to ever increasing use of nitrogen, pesticides and energy that contribute to the climate crisis and loss of biodiversity) and the politico-economic processes and unequal power relations underlying this. Although this movement creates many smoke screens, it is essentially fighting for the reproduction of the same order that makes a substantial contribution to these multiple crises. As international comparison shows, this new form of right-wing, rural populism reflects the degree to which entrepreneurial agriculture has internalized the logic of capital: it needs ongoing expansion, both for material and symbolic reasons. Peasant agriculture could provide a much needed counter-image to this. In practice, though, it is highly segmented and dispersed and is in urgent need of a new unifying device.


The menopausal state is itself noted to be an independent risk factor for the occurrence of metabolic syndrome. This study was conducted to find the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in postmenopausal women. It was an Observational study. Total 100 females were enrolled, 50 premenopausal(Group I) and 50 menopausal (Group II) were included in the study. There was a statistic significant increase in serum glucose, serum total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), LDL-cholesterol, VLDL-cholesterol levels, insulin, insulin resistance in post-menopausal women. HDL-cholesterol level and estradiol concentration was significantly lower in postmenopausal women. Menopause leads to changes in blood glucose, serum insulin, lipid profile by reducing HDL, and elevating total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), LDL-cholesterol and VLDL-cholesterol, thus increasing the risk for cardiovascular disease. These changes are caused by reduced estrogen concentrations which are seen in menopause.


The role of the Torah is the subject of a full scale discussion in the first Gospel. This article investigates the socio-historical setting that produced this text with such an emphasis on Torah observance. To address these issues, the Matthean text is read to discover issues that were prevalent in the community where the text was produced and read. This is followed by an investigation into developments in the broader Jewish society in the second half of the first century C.E. It becomes clear that the Jewish society was fragmented, and this led to an urge to consolidate. During these developments the Torah was used by newly formed communities to define their norms of existence. In the first Gospel the author defines their position terms of specific Torah observance. While countering some form of Christian libertinism and allegations against the Torah observance of his community, he assures his community of their convictions.


Four hundred and fifty-four students enrolled in introductory psychology at different institutions across the nation participated in a study of factors related to learning. Key measures included an instructor rating, ratings of textbook quality and helpfulness, study time, student self-evaluations of study behaviors, approach to learning, self-report of learning, and a measure of quiz performance using biopsychology and learning chapter questions from a College Board Advanced Placement exam. The authors found significant predictors of both self-reported learning (deep approach, less surface approach, instructor ratings, student self-evaluations, and study behaviors) and quiz performance (grade point average, study time, metacognitive activity, and less use of a surface approach to learning). These results are discussed in the context of optimizing student learning and providing a foundation for future research.


_"The first chapter is on history, written by Ronald Kroeze and Sjoerd Keulen. They argue that the history of privacy shows that privacy is an ever-changing and context-dependent phenomenon. As such, opportunities for and threats to privacy are highly related to broader societal developments. Several of these broader developments are been distinguished and discussed and we briefly sum them up here. First, changing morals, cultural and religious ideas about the individual, family, household, and 'natural' relationships have had an effect on individual privacy. Second, privacy has been influenced throughout history by political changes, especially the rise of the idea of private individual rights and the acceptance of an individual sphere that the state, society, and legal system should respect and protect. Furthermore, the development of liberal-democracies – with individual freedom and the non-interference principle as its core values – and the internationalization of human rights in the past decades, have had a big impact on the politics and history of privacy. Finally, as the first but certainly not the only chapter to address the fact that technological changes, especially in the field of infrastructure, media, and communication, have had and will have great impact on privacy matters. For those that started the book (and the chapter) expecting a definite overview of the history of privacy, the chapter may serve as a 'training phase': rather than provide accounts and definitions, the chapters of this book afford insight into the disciplinary lives of privacy, and how each discipline takes care of the subject."_


In today's 'publish or perish' academic setting, the institutional prizing of quantity over quality has given rise to and perpetuated the dilemma of predatory publishing. Upon a close examination, however, the definition of 'predatory' itself becomes slippery, evading neat boxes or lists which might seek to easily define and guard against it. This volume serves to foreground a nuanced representation of this multifaceted issue. In such a rapidly evolving landscape, this book becomes a field guide to its historical, political, and economic aspects, presenting thoughtful interviews, legal analysis and original research. Case studies from both European-American and non-European-American stakeholders emphasize the worldwide nature of the challenge faced by researchers of all levels.
 This coauthored book is structured into both textual and supplemental materials. Key takeaways, discussion questions, and complete classroom activities accompanying each chapter provide opportunities for engagement and real-world applications of these concepts.
 Crucially relevant to early career researchers and the senior faculty, library scholars, and administrators who mentor and support them, 'The Predatory Paradox: Ethics, Politics, and Practices in Contemporary Scholarly Publishing' offers practical recommendations for navigating the complex and often contradictory advice currently available. University instructors and teaching faculty will also find the reading essential in order to properly prepare both graduate and undergraduate students for the potential pitfalls endemic to scholarly publishing.


William Tutte, born in Newmarket, completed a master's degree in chemistry at Cambridge at the end of 1940, whereupon he was recruited to work at Bletchley Park as a cryptographer. He became the primary person responsible for breaking the Fish code used for high-level Army communication. After the war he returned to Cambridge as a Fellow of Trinity College, for three years of study for a PhD in mathematics. On completing his degree in 1948, he joined the Faculty of the University of Toronto, where he rose to pre-eminence in combinatorics. In 1962 he moved to the University of Waterloo, where he had a significant role in the development of the university and its Faculty of Mathematics.


This thesis objective is to discover "How are informal decisions reached by screeners when filtering out undesirable job applications?" Grounded theory techniques were employed in the field to observe and analyse informal decisions at the source by screeners in three distinct empirical studies. Whilst grounded theory provided the method for case and cross-case analysis, literature from academic and non-academic sources was evaluated and integrated to strengthen this research and create a foundation for understanding informal decisions. As informal decisions in early hiring processes have been under researched, this thesis contributes to current knowledge in several ways. First, it locates the Cycle of Employment which enhances Robertson and Smith's (1993) Selection Paradigm through the integration of stages that individuals occupy whilst seeking employment. Secondly, a general depiction of the Workflow of General Hiring Processes provides a template for practitioners to map and further develop their organisational processes. Finally, it highlights the emergence of the Locality Effect, which is a geographically driven heuristic and bias that can significantly impact recruitment and informal decisions. Although screeners make informal decisions using multiple variables, informal decisions are made in stages as evidence in the Cycle of Employment. Moreover, informal decisions can be erroneous as a result of a majority and minority influence, the weighting of information, the injection of inappropriate information and criteria, and the influence of an assessor. This thesis considers these faults and develops a basic framework of understanding informal decisions to which future research can be launched.


In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of two mechanisms for fault-tolerance and recovery for complex scientific workflows on computational grids. We present our algorithms for over-provisioning and migration, which are our primary strategies for fault-tolerance. We consider application performance models, resource reliability models, network latency and bandwidth and queue wait times for batch-queues on compute resources for determining the correct fault-tolerance strategy. Our goal is to balance reliability and performance in the presence of soft real-time constraints like deadlines and expected success probabilities, and to do it in a way that is transparent to scientists. We have evaluated our strategies by developing a Fault-Tolerance and Recovery (FTR) service and deploying it as a part of the Linked Environments for Atmospheric Discovery (LEAD) production infrastructure. Results from real usage scenarios in LEAD show that the failure rate of individual steps in workflows decreases from about 30% to 5% by using our fault-tolerance strategies.


Parenting practices have different effects on children. It is not easy to decide which practices are associated with positive outcomes and which of them with negative ones. The aim of this review was to handle effective parenting within the frame of the parental goals and domain-specific socialization approach. According to the domain-specific socialization approach, parent-child interactions occur in different domains in accordance with parenting goals and children's needs. Each domain corresponds to a different need of the child (protection, kontrol, play, guidance, group participation), and the parenting practices meeting these needs are stated in this approach as well. The emergence of an effective parenting depends on the match between parents' goals and children's needs. Further, children are not passive receivers. Same parenting practices may lead to different outcomes for different children. Therefore, while choosing parental practices, parents should take their children' gender, temperament, and age into account. Finally, the more parents know their children and the more knowledge they have about them, the more their practices would meet their children' needs.


In this study we examine the conditions in a current cellular network by examining data passively collected in the core of a cellular operator during a 24-hour period. More than 2 billion traffic measurement data points from over 500,000 cellular users are analyzed. The analysis characterizes the Time-of-Day (ToD) variations for traffic intensity and session length and serves as a complement to the active measurements also performed. A comprehensive active measurement campaign was completed in the HSDPA+ and LTE networks of the four major Swedish operators. We collect around 50,000 data points from stationary cellular modems and analyze the ToD variation pattern for underlying network layer metrics such as delay and throughput. In conjunction with the time-varying session size distribution obtained from the passive measurements, we then analyze the ToD impact on TCP flows of varying sizes. The ToD effects are examined using time series analysis with Lomb-Scargle periodograms and differential Bayesian Information Criterion to allow comparison of the relative impact of the network ToD effects. The results show that ToD effects are predominantly impacting longer-running flows, and although short flows are also impacted they are mostly constrained by other issues such as protocol efficiency.


ABSTRACT Students represent the majority of the people in a school organisation, but are rarely considered as participants in literature on professional learning communities (PLC). This article explored a PLC with the legitimate participation of students in the classroom. Data was based on interviews with 11 teachers. Community of practice theory provides 3 dimensions that were used as analytical tools: shared repertoire, mutual engagement, and joint enterprise. Shared repertoire refers to how teachers introduce and develop tools for learning; mutual engagement to how to establish relationships and atmosphere with a respect for learning; and joint enterprise to how students' associations and experiences are used to shape content knowledge in planning for learning. We conclude that the theory of community of practice is useful to describe and understand the formation of a PLC.


One of the world's science superstars presents a brilliantly illuminating, entertaining and cutting-edge account of how language actually works. How does language work? How do children learn their mother tongue? Why do languages change over time, making Chaucer's English almost incomprehensible? Steven Pinker explains the profound mysteries of language by picking a deceptively simple single phenomenon and examining it from every angle. That phenomenon - the existence of regular and irregular verbs - connects an astonishing array of topics in the sciences and humanities: the history of languages; the illuminating errors of children as they begin to speak; the sources of the major themes in the history of Western philosophy; the latest techniques in identifying genes and imaging the living brain. Pinker makes sense of all of this with the help of a single, powerful idea: that language comprises a mental dictionary of memorized words and a mental grammar of creative rules.


This paper is for people interested in researching women's ICT-based enterprises in developing countries. It will also be of value to those researching women and ICTs or ICT enterprises and development more generally. The paper reports on, and draws lessons from, one project's experiences in researching a group of ICT-based enterprises (mainly doing data entry, IT training, and hardware assembly work) run by cooperatives of poor women in Kerala state, India. No study findings are presented here; just reflections on the research and fieldwork process. The paper describes the holistic – multi-disciplinary, multi-method – approach to research used to develop the fieldwork instruments for this project. As well as providing copies of these instruments, this paper also describes issues and lessons emerging from their application. These include practical issues, conceptual issues, as well as issues that arise from the holistic nature of the research approach. A bullet-point list of nine lessons is provided at the end of the main paper.


Many problems of practical interest rely on Continuous-time Markov chains (CTMCs) defined over combinatorial state spaces, rendering the computation of transition probabilities, and hence probabilistic inference, difficult or impossible with existing methods. For problems with countably infinite states, where classical methods such as matrix exponentiation are not applicable, the main alternative has been particle Markov chain Monte Carlo methods imputing both the holding times and sequences of visited states. We propose a particle-based Monte Carlo approach where the holding times are marginalized analytically. We demonstrate that in a range of realistic inferential setups, our scheme dramatically reduces the variance of the Monte Carlo approximation and yields more accurate parameter posterior approximations given a fixed computational budget. These experiments are performed on both synthetic and real datasets, drawing from two important examples of CTMCs having combinatorial state spaces: string-valued mutation models in phylogenetics and nucleic acid folding pathways.


Community engagement in regeneration is an important way to ensure that residents in deprived neighbourhoods have a say in decisions that affect them. The aim of this research is to provide a critical examination of community engagement through the development of practice and strategy of a UK housing association to deliver neighbourhood regeneration in a deprived neighbourhood in North West England. An action research approach using interlinked inquiry streams was undertaken with residents, senior managers and practitioners. The findings were used to develop community engagement strategy, articulate a model of engagement practice and enable the residents' lived experience and views on service providers to be heard.
Most literature about community engagement in regeneration is critical about the limited involvement of residents in partnerships, meetings and consultations. However, little attention has been paid to the exploration of transformative engagement where the process and outcome of engagement seeks to empower and enable self-determination of residents. This research addresses this gap and also further explores informal and creative engagement methods, the skills required for engagement practice, the role of housing associations in neighbourhood management and considerations for housing associations undertaking community engagement to achieve a lasting impact for people and place.

This thesis has contributed to knowledge in two ways. The first contribution is the adaptation of Andrews and Turner's (2006) Consumerist and Participatory Framework for the analysis of community engagement in a housing association context. The adapted framework is valuable in identifying different types of engagement approach within organisations. This framework addresses the gap in knowledge about the development of community engagement strategy. The second contribution to knowledge is the creation of a model of transformative community engagement practice, based on an extended definition of neighbourhood sustainability, the literature review and research findings.
The research discusses the implications for housing associations undertaking community engagement in the current context, which is of particular relevance given the impact of UK public sector cuts and welfare benefit changes to poorer communities. Findings can be transferred to other housing providers or agencies looking to engage residents to achieve sustainable outcomes that will improve their lives and local neighbourhoods.


A $*$-polynomial is a function on a complex Banach space $X,$ which is a sum of so-called $(p,q)$-polynomials. In turn, for non-negative integers $p$ and $q,$ a $(p,q)$-polynomial is a function on $X,$ which is the restriction to the diagonal of some mapping, defined on the Cartesian power $X^{p+q},$ which is linear with respect to every of its first $p$ arguments and antilinear with respect to every of its other $q$ arguments. The set of all continuous $*$-polynomials on $X$ form an algebra, which contains the algebra of all continuous polynomials on $X$ as a proper subalgebra. So, completions of this algebra with respect to some natural norms are wider classes of functions than algebras of holomorphic functions. On the other hand, due to the similarity of structures of $*$-polynomials and polynomials, for the investigation of such completions one can use the technique, developed for the investigation of holomorphic functions on Banach spaces.
We investigate the Frechet algebra of functions on a complex Banach space, which is the completion of the algebra of all continuous $*$-polynomials with respect to the countable system of norms, equivalent to norms of the uniform convergence on closed balls of the space. We establish some properties of shift operators (which act as the addition of some fixed element of the underlying space to the argument of a function) on this algebra. In particular, we show that shift operators are well-defined continuous linear operators. Also we prove some estimates for norms of values of shift operators. Using these results, we investigate one special class of functions from the algebra, which is important in the description of the spectrum (the set of all maximal ideals) of the algebra.


This article seeks to unpack the implications of technocracy for contemporary peace-building. It aims to illustrate how the bureaucratic imperative explains much about the ascendancy of certain actors to positions of prominence on the peace-building landscape, and the types of activities that these actors engage in. In line with world polity theory, it is interested in the construction and institutionalization of discourses, understandings, expectations and practices of peace-building. It argues that there has been a 'technocratic turn' in relation to peace-building, whereby there has been a gradual but persistent trend towards the application of technocracy in the framing of conflict and approaches to it. Two key claims advanced on behalf of technocracy – neutrality and efficiency – are discussed. The article then argues that a complex mix of structural and proximate factors have reinforced the technocratic turn in peace-building. It concludes by considering the extent to which the discursive framing of conflict by key actors predetermines their conflict response. The article is primarily an exercise in conceptual scoping, though it can also be read as a contribution to the critique of the liberal peace and considerations of resistance and agency in peace-building contexts.