This paper examined the challenges associated with the management of the dual EQC-private insurance model offered in New Zealand after the Canterbury earthquake disasters. A mixed-methods approach comprising survey and semi-structured interviews were adopted in the study. The research findings highlighted key challenges associated with the dual insurance model that impeded post-disaster residential reconstruction. These challenges include policy holder's lack of knowledge of insurance policy underwritings and entitlements, high cost of insurance premiums and deductibles, and a complicated claim management process. Main recommendations proposed from this study to improve the post-disaster claims management processes, should another earthquake occur include ensuring property owners' due diligence, adopting a simplified and streamlined insurance claim management approach, good communication approach and providing clarity and consistency in policy underwritings and legislative provisions governing the dual insurance scheme. The findings highlight the significance of a streamlined approach to insurance claims evaluation and management in pre-disaster planning and postdisaster reconstruction.


Agro-wastes are abundant in both rural and urban areas and when carelessly disposed off to the environment by dumping or burning, they lead to environmental pollution, and consequently to health hazards. Growing of edible mushroom on these wastes can contribute to decrease in environment pollution. This work investigated the growth and yield of Pleurotus ostreatus on different agro-wastes: plantain midrib (PM), corn straw (CS), sugarcane bagasse (SB) and their combinations (PM+CS, PM+SB, CS+SB, CS+PM+SB) with a view to finding the best substrate for the growth of P. ostreatus. The experiment was carried out using completely randomized design with seven treatments and three replications. Results revealed that mycelia growth period and days to pinhead formation were faster in corn straw (7 and 11 days, respectively from the day of inoculation), this was followed by CS+SB (8 and 12 days, respectively) while CS+PM+SB recorded the longest days (13 and 17, respectively). Stipe length ranged from 2.6 cm in PM to 3.3 cm in CS+PM while the pileus diameter was between 3.3 cm in CS and PM and 4.3 cm in PM+SB. Number of fruiting bodies, fresh and dry weights of the mushroom were significantly higher in CS than in the other substrates. The least number of fruiting bodies, fresh and dry weights were recorded in CS+PM+SB.


The goal of this project was to create an inquiry activity to teach symmetry elements and symmetry operations in an inorganic chemistry course. Many students experience difficulty when building and mentally manipulating three-dimensional mental models from two-dimensional images, causing difficulty when learning symmetry. Process-oriented, guided-inquiry learning (POGIL) was used to structure the activity using a learning cycle paradigm consistent with research on how students learn as described by Novak's human constructivism theory. The activity familiarized students with symmetry terms as students actively engaged in finding symmetry operations in a variety of molecules. The symmetry activity was classroom tested and student and POGIL expert feedback were used to improve the activity.


: Purpose: The article uses the new AI geopolitics paradigm to analyze the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) initiative implemented by the PRC. The 3SI area is facing rising pressure resulting from the systemic rivalry between the PRC and the US and the field of the most advanced technologies. Design/Methodology/Approach: The authors adopt the neorealist approach, which focuses on the analysis of structural shifts in the distribution of material power among China and the US and their influence on states' behaviors. The article focuses on the consequences of changing the classical geopolitical paradigm to the artificial intelligence geopolitics paradigm because it is believed that it will play a vital role in the process of changing the international system, including transformations in the 3SI area. Findings: the US-China systemic rivalry increasingly focuses on the area of Artificial Intelligence and related technologies. As part of the security paradox, it implies structural tensions in the international system and a dynamic transformation of its space towards shaping a new geopolitical spatial paradigm that permanently integrates it with artificial intelligence technology. Practical implications: Given the dynamics of the processes that redefine the nature of the international rivalry and state sovereignty, it becomes imperative that 3SI countries develop a new, accurate strategic response to the danger of transforming the 3SI area as chronically unstable by transforming it into an area of tough competition between the US and the PRC. Originality/Value: The analysis provides a concise assessment of the dynamics of changing the nature of the geopolitical and technological rivalry between the US and China, as seen from the perspective of 3SI, and giving it a new character as a result of the emergence of a new artificial intelligence paradigm, and an insight into how this process may affect regional initiatives and frameworks.


In the second book of Samuel, the prophet Nathan tells King David that God will give to him and his descendants a great and everlasting kingdom. In this study William Schniedewind looks at how this dynastic Promise has been understood and transmitted from the time of its first appearance at the inception of the Hebrew monarchy until the dawn of Christianity. He shows in detail how, over the centuries, the Promise grew in importance and prestige.


Energy and Environmental Analysis is a method to evaluate utility of any energy system by finding the requirement of energy and resulting emissions through all the materials and processes used to build and use any system over its entire life and also to demolish it at the end of life. Relationship between the cumulative energy demand and cumulative emissions with energy output from the system establishes indicators for its utility in terms "Energy Yield Ratio" and "Emission Coefficient".
Energy and Environmental Planning is a macroscopic exercise used for conducting futuristic studies through dynamic assessment of the defined reference energy system comprising of many alternatives and constraints. It is done to find the optimum solution for certain objective function often system cost minimization through meeting system requirements such as the energy demand.
To establish link between these two approaches, a new methodology has been formulated in this work. It has been done through linking the Cumulative Energy Demand (a system specific, energy analysis parameter of static nature), and the overall energy demand which is a dynamic parameter governed by its rate of growth. With the help of this new method, Cumulative Energy Demand of any system acts as a barrier for growth as it takes away energy from the overall energy pool. The value of maximum growth obtained through equilibrium equations has been exogenously supplied to the energy planning tool and thus the link between the two different approaches has been established. This work demonstrates the method for each of the above approaches separately and then jointly, involving various technologies for power generation. A much widely used energy planning software MARKAL (MARket ALlocation), has been used for carrying out planning related analysis which treats the defined Reference Energy System as a dynamic bottom-up problem and finds the objective function through obtaining a partial equilibrium at all intermediate stages. The above mentioned methodology has been validated through the analysis of Indian power sector. There has been an unsatisfactory growth in this sector during past few years which has resulted into increase in the shortage of power supply. Besides, pressure for controlling the emission of greenhouse gases is increasing day by day. Therefore, model of the Indian power sector has been developed and several scenarios have been made to cover various major possibilities for the future. Effects of introduction of CO2 taxes at different rates have also been modeled through the developed approach to find the consequential change in the
structure of power sector and to assess the potential for reduction in emissions.
Results obtained indicate that during the period up to the year 2025, there exists a possibility of reducing carbon dioxide emissions up to about 25%. The system will incur about 100 to 140 rupees (approximately 2.5 to 3.5 Euro) for reduction of each ton of carbon dioxide depending upon the target and hence decided emission tax rates. These costs are much less as compared to the rates found for other countries like Germany, as the renewable energy based power generation is relatively much cheaper in India. It has also been found that it would be better to pay more attention towards large hydro and wind power as they tend to be more economic in almost all scenarios. There also exists a possibility for natural gas based power plants to replace coal based plants but at present Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustion based coal power plants would be better. As one of the results it is also inferred that advanced technologies like Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle based coal power plants, oil based power plants and photovoltaic power plants are not competitive enough with their present cost and performance criteria, in any of the considered scenarios.


The anxieties to produce good research work is inherent in academia. Particularly, in the social sciences, research work that requires fieldwork and demands an encounter with the larger society that is outside one's respective departments and the university produces various kinds of experiences and feelings. Among anthropologists, one can be lost in the field, fall in love, get frustrated, or go native. Yet, the tension between capturing what one witnesses during fieldwork and the producing a piece of work that contains a sharp theoretical analysis and an introspective narrative is often challenging. This essay is not a prescriptive note about methodology, but it is rather my attempt to reflect about doing fieldwork and the circumstances under which we carry out research work in Northeast India.


How well do corruption perception measures reflect actual levels of public sector corruption? Leading cross-national corruption perception measures have come under much theoretical and empirical scrutiny in recent years, with serious implications for the validity and reliability of the data in this ever growing sub-field. Critics argue that perceptions – in particular those of outside experts – do not reflect actual corruption in that they are far too 'noisy' or simply biased by external factors such as economic performance. Moreover, a number of recent empirical studies, focused on developing areas, have put forth evidence that outside expert assessments of corruption correspond little, if at all, with the experiences and views of actual citizens, and that such a lack of correspondence demonstrates pessimism for existing perception measures. This study offers a systematic analysis of the empirical strength of corruption perception measures in a previously unexplored area in this debate – Europe. Using new survey data collected by the author based on 85,000 European respondents in 24 countries, this issue is analyzed directly, addressing several contemporary critiques of the data. First, perceptions of citizens with, and without, personal corruption experience are compared at both the national and sub-national level in Europe. Second, external factors are checked, which might bias the extent to which citizens perceive corruption relative to how much actual corruption exists in countries and regions. Finally, expert perception indicators and citizen perceptions and experiences are compared. In summary, strong counter-evidence is found to the prevailing pessimistic claims in the literature – the consistency between actual reported corruption, as well as citizen and expert perceptions of corruption, is remarkably high and such perceptions are swayed little by 'outside noise'. I conclude that, although existing corruption measures certainly have their share of problems, concerns regarding the validity and bias of perceptions have, perhaps, been overstated.


Resident memory T cells sound the alarm Immunological memory protects against reinfection. Resident memory T cells (TRM) are long-lived and remain in the tissues where they first encountered a pathogen (see the Perspective by Carbone and Gebhardt). Schenkel et al. and Ariotti et al. found that CD8+ TRM cells act like first responders in the female reproductive tissue or the skin of mice upon antigen reencounter. By secreting inflammatory proteins, TRM cells rapidly activated local immune cells to respond, so much so that they protected against infection with an unrelated pathogen. Iijima and Iwasaki found that CD4+ TRM cells protected mice against reinfection with intravaginal herpes simplex virus 2. Science, this issue p. 98, p. 101, p. 93; see also p. 40 Resident memory CD8+ T cells orchestrate a broad immune response in response to reinfection. [Also see Perspective by Carbone and Gebhardt] The pathogen recognition theory dictates that, upon viral infection, the innate immune system first detects microbial products and then responds by providing instructions to adaptive CD8 T cells. Here, we show in mice that tissue resident memory CD8 T cells (TRM cells), non-recirculating cells located at common sites of infection, can achieve near-sterilizing immunity against viral infections by reversing this flow of information. Upon antigen resensitization within the mouse female reproductive mucosae, CD8+ TRM cells secrete cytokines that trigger rapid adaptive and innate immune responses, including local humoral responses, maturation of local dendritic cells, and activation of natural killer cells. This provided near-sterilizing immunity against an antigenically unrelated viral infection. Thus, CD8+ TRM cells rapidly trigger an antiviral state by amplifying receptor-derived signals from previously encountered pathogens.


Evidence suggests that NK and NKT cells contribute to inflammation and mortality during septic shock caused by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). However, the specific contributions of these cell types to the pathogenesis of CLP-induced septic shock have not been fully defined. The goal of the present study was to determine the mechanisms by which NK and NKT cells mediate the host response to CLP. Control, NK cell-deficient, and NKT cell-deficient mice underwent CLP. Survival, cytokine production, and bacterial clearance were measured. NK cell trafficking and interaction with myeloid cells was also studied. Results show that mice treated with anti-asialoGM1 (NK cell deficient) or anti-NK1.1 (NK/NKT cell deficient) show less systemic inflammation and have improved survival compared with IgG-treated controls. CD1 knockout mice (NKT cell deficient) did not demonstrate decreased cytokine production or improved survival compared with wild type mice. Trafficking studies show migration of NK cells from blood and spleen into the inflamed peritoneal cavity where they appear to facilitate the activation of peritoneal macrophages (F4-80+GR-1−) and F4-80+Gr-1+ myeloid cells. These findings indicate that NK but not CD1-restricted NKT cells contribute to acute CLP-induced inflammation. NK cells appear to mediate their proinflammatory functions during septic shock, in part, by migration into the peritoneal cavity and amplification of the proinflammatory activities of specific myeloid cell populations. These findings provide new insights into the mechanisms used by NK cells to facilitate acute inflammation during septic shock.


Abstract:  Identifying relationships between landscape hydrogeological setting, riparian hydrological functioning and riparian zone sensitivity to climate and water quality changes is critical in order to best use riparian zones as best management practices in the future. In this study, we investigate water table dynamics, water flow path and the relative importance of precipitation, deep ground water (DG) and seep water as sources of water to a riparian zone in a deeply incised glacial till valley of the Midwest. Data indicate that water table fluctuations are strongly influenced by soil texture and to a lesser extent by upland sediment stratigraphy producing seeps near the slope bottom. The occurrence of till in the upland and at 1.7‐2 m in the riparian zone contributes to maintaining flow parallel to the ground surface at this site. Lateral ground‐water fluxes at this site with a steep topography in the upland (16%) and loam soil near the slope bottom are small (<10 l/d/m stream length) and intermittent. A shift in flow path from a lateral direction to a down valley direction is observed in the summer despite the steep concave topography and the occurrence of seeps at the slope bottom. Principal component and discriminant analysis indicate that riparian water is most similar to seep water throughout the year and that DG originating from imbedded sand and gravel layers in the lower till unit is not a major source of water to riparian zones in this setting. Water quality data and the dependence of the riparian zone for recharge on seep water suggest that sites in this setting may be highly sensitive to changes in precipitation and water quality in the upland in the future. A conceptual framework describing the hydrological functioning of riparian zones on this setting is presented to generalize the finding of this study.


Background: Arterial cannulation is a frequent and essential procedure for continuous blood pressure monitoring and arterial blood sampling. The radial artery is the most commonly used for arterial cannulation. Radial access for coronary angiogram & intervention is increasingly used worldwide. Patients undergoing repeated transradial cannulation in same arm, the rate of radial access site failure increased with successive procedure. Traditional placement of radial artery cannulation is performed by using anatomical knowledge and pulse palpation as a guide. Ultrasound can facilitate access to artery and is useful in patients with low perfusion, arrhythmias, obesity and previously unsuccessful attempts with palpation technique. Attempt is made to evaluate the better procedure among traditional direct palpation Radial artery cannulation and USG guided cannulation in this study.Methodology: A total of 86 patients undergoing cardiac surgery post transradial catheterization were selected and randomized into ultrasound group and palpation group. It is a prospective, randomized, interventional study. Both the techniques were compared in terms of Total number of attempts, Time taken to cannulate, Complication related to procedure, Failure rate, Number of cannula used. Statistical analysis was performed by the software SPSS 22.0 version. Normality was checked by Shapiro Wilk test. To find the significant difference in means of two groups we used independent t-test and to find the association between categorical variables we used chi-square test or Fishers Exact test. p value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.Results: Out of the 86 patients, the initial randomized method was successful in 81 patients (42/43 in USG and 39/43 in DPG group). USG group had a mean cannulation time of 57.1 seconds while in DPG group mean time was 81.51 seconds with a standard deviation of 24.923 and 50.83 respectively with p value was 0.009. The mean number of attempts in USG group is 1.24 with standard deviation of.484, in DPG group mean was 1.59 and standard deviation was 0.91 with a p value of 0.036 which is statistically significant. Even though, number of cannulas used in ultrasound group was fewer compared to palpation group, it was not statistically significant. Ultrasound showed less failure rate but statistically not significant with p value of 0.167.Conclusion: The use of ultrasound for radial artery cannulation in post transradial artery catheterized patients helps in faster insertion of cannula, requires less attempt for cannulation compared to traditional palpatory method. The complications were very low for both the methods, so ultrasound did not offer any advantage regarding reduction of complications following arterial cannulation.


In nature, there are many species who are tiny and simple as individuals, but are very organized and effective as a group, for foraging, defense, and other tasks. This phenomenon has inspired the development of swarm robotics, which has been applied from simulating nano-particle based medication administering to controlling hundreds of UAVs in formation for ceremonial display and/or surveillance. This dissertation aims to explore the idea of swarm intelligence, in a search and rescue simulation scenario, to establish a test-bed and to make the idea practical for the control of a swarm of robots. In order to do this efficiently, the robots will have some swarm intelligence method to govern their behavior. One such swarm intelligence method is Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), originally developed by Kennedy and Eberhart in 1995 as a way of modelling natural swarm behavior. However, canonical PSO presents a challenge in needing to be adapted to limitations of a physical robot swarm. There are several popular options of swarm robots from research groups and many are available for sale at K-team, Seeedstudios, etc. However, these robots are still too expensive to purchase in a large quantity. We chose Kilobot designed by Harvard Self-organizing system research group, the most cost efficient option, yet with a suite of functionality. The team at Western Carolina University has improved/updated the design while building a few dozen of these robots. Therefore, the experimenting agent is set to be Kilobot, and the practical constraints of Kilobots, such as communication range, movement mechanisms, are all taken into account when adapting the idea of PSO for swarm robotic control. To address the issues of limited communication range of Kilobot and measurement noises, we first proposed the Neighborhood PSO (NPSO) algorithm and examined it in the Matlab simulation environment. Three benchmark functions are used to simulate the measurements on the interest level at each location: when there is an emergency event like a fire, the fitness value at that location will be higher than that in its neighboring region (for calculation simplicity, though, the fitness is assumed to be the smaller the better, and the global minima is with a fitness value of 0.) Monte Carlo simulations are carried out given the random nature of the algorithms, and the results are reported in convergence speed, accuracy and consistency. Once NPSO was established as comparable to PSO in Matlab simulations, we adopted the NPSO idea into a more realistic Kilobot simulation environment, Kilombo, in Linux. Kilombo has incorporated many practical aspects of Kilobots, such as its physical size, its moving and turning speed, and its communication channel. The code developed in Kilombo should be portable to Kilobots. In Kilombo, the Kilobots' movements can be sped up saving simulation time. The Kilobots are given the tasks of locating the spot with the best fitness, simulating the search of an event of interest. The fitness values are provided by the call-back functions when Kilobots inquire such values, simulating their measurements. We then propose a new motion mechanism, called pseudo-vector motion (PVM), inspired by our NPSO algorithm to control the swarm. We have proposed another three PVM-based algorithms subsequently to address the issues that are observed in the Kilombo simulation experiments.


Wood fiber substrates perform well for lettuce seedlings production in speedling trays compared to standard commercially used press pots as well as growing media on peat base. Wood fibers contain a high air volume to allow higher levels of water tension without danger of water saturation in the substrate. For optimum growth they require a ,,high matric potential. For cultivation of lettuce seedlings irrigation pulses at (p = -30 to -50 hPa are recommended in ebb and flood cultivation systems. This will provide good rooting and the least amount of proline, an indicator for plant stress. Accumulation of proline in lettuce seedlings could only be proved under conditions of visible stress symptoms. Not only water tension, but also the substrates in raising systems influence the free content of proline. At φ = -200 hPa proline in lettuce seedlings cultivated in a peat based press pots were ca. 40 % lower compare to seedlings in a wood fiber substrate in speedling trays. The difference in proline content between well-watered and stressed seedlings was smaller than with tomato transplants. Also, the correlation between proline content of lettuce seedlings and critical water tension for irrigation pulses was lower than with tomato transplant. The lettuce plants performed well after transplanting and no differences derived from seedling-treatments were recorded.


The solar industry in the United States is at a turning point; the cost of PV hardware has declined substantially in recent years, placing new attention on reducing the balance of system (BOS) costs of solar that now contribute to a growing percentage of installation expenses. How states address these costs through the creation of a favorable policy and regulatory environment is proving to be a critical determinant of a thriving statewide solar market. This report addresses the permitting and tax issues that may stimulate the solar market growth in Michigan. By making PV installations easier to complete through reduced BOS costs, Michigan would become a more attractive location for manufacturers and installers. As PV module costs decline and BOS costs make up a greater share of the cost of solar, action taken today on these issues will prove beneficial in the long term, providing Michigan an opportunity to establish a leadership position in the solar industry.


This book is about markets for intermediate skills. It is also about the coordination within and between the (vocational) education system and the (sub-baccalaureate) labor market, and the institutions that govern them. Our goal was to improve our understanding of how particular governance regimes influence the operation of vocational education and training (VET) markets. We conducted an international comparison of three different governance regimes of VET markets in Germany, the Netherlands and the American state of Wisconsin. The central question underlying the national analyses and comparisons is: How do markets for intermediate skills operate in Germany, the Netherlands, and the American state of Wisconsin?


In visual analytics, sensemaking is facilitated through interactive visual exploration of data. Throughout this dynamic process, users combine their domain knowledge with the dataset to create insight. Therefore, visual analytic tools exist that aid sensemaking by providing various interaction techniques that focus on allowing users to change the visual representation through adjusting parameters of the underlying statistical model. However, we postulate that the process of sensemaking is not focused on a series of parameter adjustments, but instead, a series of perceived connections and patterns within the data. Thus, how can models for visual analytic tools be designed, so that users can express their reasoning on observations (the data), instead of directly on the model or tunable parameters? Observation level (and thus "observation") in this paper refers to the data points within a visualization. In this paper, we explore two possible observation-level interactions, namely exploratory and expressive, within the context of three statistical methods, Probabilistic Principal Component Analysis (PPCA), Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), and Generative Topographic Mapping (GTM). We discuss the importance of these two types of observation level interactions, in terms of how they occur within the sensemaking process. Further, we present use cases for GTM, MDS, and PPCA, illustrating how observation level interaction can be incorporated into visual analytic tools.


Implied easements were initially created and then developed in eras when a Torrens or title-by-registration system did not operate. Like all traditional easements, implied easements were legal proprietary interests in favour of the dominant land which bound the successors in title of the servient land. Implied easements worked particularly well to accommodate the presumed intentions of parties, fill contractual gaps and provide a means of access to landlocked land. However, they operated and still operate outside title-by-registration.


This dissertation is a study of the way in which ethnicity shapes various
aspects of the life of a Lebowa vi11age. Differing histories as labour
tenants on the white farms of the south-eastern Transvaal have determined
differing access to agricultural resources for Pedi and Ndebele when they
left the farms for their present home in the village of Morotse. In the
contemporary setting, these rural assets are combined with the migrant
remittances which have become indispensable to the survival of any
household in the southern African reserve areas. Again, the resulting
combined packages of resources are distributed unequally between the two
ethnic groups. Corresponding to this relative poverty or prosperity, a
range, of household types has evolved, with a broad contrast between a
Pedi and an Ndebele type. The practice of inheritance also manifests a
contrast between the two ethnic groups.

At times, ethnicity is manifest not simply in different aspects of social
structure, but in more overt conflict. I describe an occasion on which
ethnic hostility was expressed - relating to the use of agricultural land
- and in conclusion attempt to explain the existence of ethnicity in the
village in the light of some recent literature on the topic. I argue
that, in general, ethnicity must be understood in the light of competition
over scarce resources in the contemporary ttHomelandtt context. In addition,
the particularly strong ethnicity apparent in the Ndebele village
section I explain by reference to the history of chiefly authority in
the community, and to the observance of particular marriage rules. My
final explanation thus invokes the events of recent history and the
circumstances of the present.


Southeast Asia has 11 countries: Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Southeast Asia is considered one of the most active economic development regions in the world, with high demand for energy development, cultural diversity, and language. These countries and Vietnam have good relationships in diplomacy and cooperation and in other fields; therefore, it is very convenient for Vietnam to invest in oil and gas exploration and exploitation in the region. On the basis of evaluating the criteria of natural conditions, geological features, sedimentary basins, exploration and exploitation status as well as investment environment of each country in Southeast Asia, this article will introduce the most comprehensive information about the potential and the overall picture of the oil and gas industry in Southeast Asia and in individual countries, thereby providing information and orientation for investment opportunities of each country in the region.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31276/VJSTE.59(3).65


Abstract Historically, the term amyloid was used strictly with reference to human neurodegenerative diseases. Nowadays, it is known that many proteins have the potential to conformational changes into β-sheet structures with tendency to form insoluble amyloid fibrils. Moreover, amyloid proteins are widespread among microorganisms. Bacteria and fungi produce functional amyloids which exhibit all characteristics of amyloid proteins, but in contrast to a numerous group of human toxic amyloids, they play important physiological functions in microorganisms. There is growing evidence that functional amyloids are important in bacterial adhesion and invasion. Furthermore, amyloids make biofilms thicker, rougher, and more resistant to drying out. The increasing interest in better understanding of the nature of these unusual microbial proteins and their role in pathogenesis are likely to contribute to the effective treatment or prevention of infectious diseases in humans. 1. Introduction. 2. Bacterial amyloids. 2.1. Curli fibers. 2.1.1. Curli biogenesis. 2.1.2. Regulation of csg operon. 2.1.3. Participation of curli in bacterial virulence. 2.1.4. Role of curli in pathogenesis. 2.2. Other bacterial amyloids. 2.3. Fungal amyloids. 3. Recapitulation 1. Wprowadzenie. 2. Amyloidy bakteryjne. 2.1. Fimbrie spiralne. 2.1.1. Synteza fimbrii spiralnych. 2.1.2. Regulacja ekspresji operonu csg. 2.1.3. Udział fimbrii spiralnych w wirulencji bakterii. 2.1.4. Rola fimbrii spiralnych w patogenezie zakażeń człowieka. 2.2. Inne amyloidy bakteryjne. 2.3. Amyloidy grzybicze. 3. Podsumowanie


Background: Synthetic dyes are serious pollutants and wide ranges of methods have been employed for their removal from aquatic systems. We studied the adsorption of "Nile blue A" (NBA), an anionic dye, from aqueous solution by oxidized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Methods: Scanning electron microscope and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize function groups produced at MWCNTs surface. Kinetics and adsorption isotherms of NBA, the effect of temperature, pH, contact time and initial dosage of nanotubes on the adsorption capacity were also assessed. The experimental data were analyzed by Langmuir and Freundlich models. Results: Most of the dye was removed in the first 5 min and best adsorption percentage was at pH 7.0. The equilibrium reached at 45 min. The experimental data were analyzed by Langmuir and Freundlich models and the results fitted well with the Freundlich model. The adsorption kinetic data were analyzed using first-order and the pseudo-second order model and the adsorption kinetic data of NBA dye onto MWCNTs fitted the pseudo-second order model. The maximum adsorption capacity was obtained as 169.49 mg g-1. Conclusion: Freundlich model suggested that the adsorption process followed heterogeneous distribution onto MWCNTs and pseudo-second model of adsorption implied that chemical processes controlled the rate-controlling step. Oxidized MWCNTs could be used as an effective adsorbent for the removal of "Nile Blue A" dye. Oxidization of MWCNTs by nitric acid, improves the efficiency of NBA removal due to increases in functional groups and total number of adsorption sites.


This thesis investigates the performance of dreams and dreaming in a few early modern English and Spanish plays, namely William Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', Pedro Calderon de la Barca's 'Life Is a Dream' and 'Sometimes Dreams Come True' and Aphra Behn's 'The Young King'. Chapter 1 introduces the cultural milieus in which my case studies operate and validate my comparative approach by calling attention to the fact that both dramas attend to similar preoccupations regarding traditional rank and gender hierarchies. Furthermore, it provides an account of the dream theories in force at that time and underscores that dreams are seen as either negligible or very significant entities. Chapter 2 elucidates why I have chosen to study the dreams within the selected plays focusing on their phenomenal, generic and ideological attributes. Phenomenological analysis allows me to prove that the dreams I consider are deeply sensory occurrences that look and feel like reality and vividly expose disturbing (male) habits of power attainment and safeguarding. The plays at issue predictably terminate with the celebration of the (socio-political or religious) values of the patriarchy; nonetheless, I argue that the lifelike dreams have throughout cast doubt on the legitimacy of the beliefs that prevail on- and off-stage and, hence, cannot be simply set aside at the end of the performance. Chapter 3 considers 'The Taming of the Shrew' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in order to: 1) show that in these two comedies powerful male figures exploit dreams to shape the visual/ideological perceptions of socially inferior characters; and, 2) verify that the simultaneously illusory and tangible quality of dream (and performance) is not easily dismiss-able as 'airy nothing'. Chapter 4 and 5 respectively explore 'Life Is a Dream' and 'Sometimes Dreams Come True' and demonstrate that the dreams in question paradoxically endorse and query the philosophical and religious core of these two plays. In fact, life may be a dream, but in it the acquisition of political authority matters very much; Catholic dogma may be true, but it only comes to life via (supposedly insubstantial) dreams. By investigating 'The Young King', the last chapter of this thesis again proves the phenomenal and cultural weight dreams acquire on early modern stages: the dreams within this tragicomedy intensely reveal the artificiality of established gender positions and powerfully portray 'natural' male pre-eminence in an equivocal light.


Medical devices play an essential role in the care of patients around the world, and can have a life-saving effect. An emerging category of autonomous medical devices like implantable pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) diagnose conditions of the patient and autonomously deliver therapies. Without trained professionals in the loop, the software component of autonomous medical devices is responsible for making critical therapeutic decisions, which pose a new set of challenges to guarantee patient safety. As regulation effort to guarantee patient safety, device manufacturers are required to submit evidence for the safety and efficacy of the medical devices before they can be released to the market. Due to the closedloop interaction between the device and the patient, the safety and efficacy of autonomous medical devices must ultimately be evaluated within their physiological context. Currently the primary closed-loop validation of medical devices is in form of clinical trials, in which the devices are evaluated on real patients. Clinical trials are expensive and expose the patients to risks associated with untested devices. Clinical trials are also conducted after device development, therefore issues found during clinical trials are expensive to fix. There is urgent need for closed-loop validation of autonomous medical devices before the devices are used in clinical trials. In this thesis, I used implantable cardiac devices to demonstrate the applications of model-based approaches during and after device development to provide confidence towards the safety and efficacy of the devices. A heart model structure is developed to mimic the electrical behaviors of the heart in various heart conditions. The heart models created with the model structure are capable of interacting with implantable cardiac devices in closed-loop and can provide physiological interpretations for a large variety of heart conditions. With the heart models, I demonstrated that closed-loop model checking is capable of identifying known and unknown safety violations within the pacemaker design. More importantly, I developed a framework to choose the most appropriate heart models to cover physiological conditions that the pacemaker may encounter, and provide physiological context to counter-examples returned by the model checker. A model translation tool UPP2SF is then developed to translate the pacemaker design in UPPAAL to Stateflow, and automatically generated to C code. The automated and rigorous translation ensures that the properties verified during model checking still hold in the implementation, which justifies the model checking effort. Finally, the devices are evaluated with a virtual patient cohort consists of a large number of heart models before evaluated in clinical trials. These in-silico pre-clinical trials provide useful insights which can be used to increase the success rate of a clinical trial. The work in this dissertation demonstrated the importance and challenges to represent physiological behaviors during closed-loop validation of autonomous medical devices, and demonstrated the capability of model-based approaches to provide safety and efficacy evidence during and after device development. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Computer and Information Science This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1786 First Advisor Rahul Mangharam


This thesis describes and discusses a study conducted in a centralwest
Bangladesh village, between March 1981 and January 1982, with a view to
testing the hypothesis that intra-household allocation of food
discriminates against women and children and that the discrimination
puts the vulnerable members of the household at extra risks during
periods when food and financial resources of households are scarcest.
Intra-household allocation of food was studied by weighing the
individual food intakes of household members for three consecutive days,
at four different seasons covering periods of normal food availability,
relative shortage and abundance of food. Nutritional status was assessed
py consecutive measurement of weight (monthly) and height (quarterly).
Information was collected on socio-economic status of households,
people's perception of food needs (physiological) of individuals,
household decision making and strategies in coping with shortage by
structured and unstructured interviews and through personal observations.
The sample consisted of 320 individuals in 53 households.
Analysis of the study revealed lack of marked and consistent socioeconomic
differentials in intake and outcome, but that highly significant
seasonal differences did exist. The most important finding of the study
is that although the intake of women and girls over 5 years was lower than
that of men and boys over 5 years, the male-female differential did not
generally exceed the differential between the two sexes that might be
expected on the basis of body size and activity. Only in the 1-4 year age
group was there a significant difference between energy intakes of males
and females when corrected for body size. Furthermore, contrary to what
has been generally postulated in the literature, (often based on qualitative
information), women and children were not discriminated against during
periods of food shortage, but were rather generally given preferential treatment in the allocation of available food.
It is believed that the study adds to our understanding as to how
seasonal fluctuations affect the food intake of 'poor' people in
rural Bangladesh and how people cope with predictable cyclical
periods of food shortage.


AIM
The present study was conducted to determine the most accurate bite mark overlay fabrication technique by studying two physical characteristics, i.e., area and rotation of biting edges of anterior teeth of thirty volunteers. The objective of the study was to evaluate the reliability and efficacy of five commonly used methods of human bite mark overlays using two dimensional (2D) digital images of dental study casts as a gold standard, to rank different methods according to statistically based determination of relative accuracy of each method and to determine its feasibility in Forensic science.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Overlays were produced from the biting surfaces of six upper and six lower anterior teeth of 30 volunteers using the following five methods: a) hand tracing from study casts, b) hand tracing from wax impressions, c) xerographic method, d) radiopaque impression method and e) 2D computer-based method. Area of the biting edges of the anterior teeth and relative rotation of each anterior tooth were measured and compared.

RESULTS
The xerographic method was determined to be the more accurate method with respect to tooth area and rotation. Hand tracing methods, from either wax impressions of teeth or directly from study casts, were determined to be inaccurate and subjective.

CONCLUSIONS
It is recommended that forensic odontologists discontinue the use of hand tracing overlays in bite mark comparison cases as there is lot of scope for manipulation and observer bias.


This research project was aimed at investigating the true drivers of Employee Engagement; these were then tested in Company X within the Aviation Industry. The second aim of this project was to investigate the levels of engagement across different roles within Company X. This was measures across, Clerical, Operative and cabin Crew.

This literature review found there were seven main drivers to employee engagement. The researcher investigated these drivers through one to one interviews with 15 members of staff across the three roles stated previously. The study found that within the sample there were thirteen out of the fifteen were engaged. There were two disengaged employees both from the Operative job category.

The study also found that out of the seven main drivers there were three that were head strong facilitators for engagement levels at Company X. This study proved that it is possible for employees to be engaged at work even if the main facilitators coined by academics as important are not in fact present. The research puts forward the idea that there are certain components to employee engagement and that they do not all have to be present in order to have an engaged workforce.


Frequency control is an essential requirement of reliable electric power system operations. Determination of frequency control depends on frequency measurement and the practices based on these measurements that dictate acceptable frequency management. This report chronicles the evolution of these measurements and practices. As technology progresses from analog to digital for calculation, communication, and control, the technical basis for frequency control measurement and practices to determine acceptable performance continues to improve. Before the introduction of digital computing, practices were determined largely by prior experience. In anticipation of mandatory reliability rules, practices evolved from a focus primarily on commercial and equity issues to an increased focus on reliability. This evolution is expected to continue and place increased requirements for more precise measurements and a stronger scientific basis for future frequency management practices in support of reliability.


This study describes the antidiarrheal, antisecretory, and bronchodilatory activities of Hypericum perforatum Linn. (Hypericaceae), commonly known as St. John's wort, to justify its traditional use in the hyperactivity of the gastrointestinal and respiratory systems. The crude extract of Hypericum perforatum (Hp.Cr) at a dose of 500 mg/kg caused 20% protection against castor oil-induced diarrhea in mice and 60% at 1000 mg/kg (p < 0.05 vs. saline). Hp.Cr at 300 and 1000 mg/kg reduced the castor oil-induced fluid accumulation in mice to 107.0 ± 3.3 g (p < 0.01) and 84.0 ± 4.2 g (p < 0.001) respectively, whereas in the castor oil-treated group, it was 126.9 ± 3.9 g. When tested against carbachol (CCh)-mediated bronchoconstriction in rats under anesthesia, Hp.Cr dose-dependently (3– 30 mg/kg) suppressed the CCh (1 μmol/kg)-induced increase in the inspiratory pressure. Thus this study rationalizes the Hypericum perforatum usefulness in overactive gut and airways disorders, such as diarrhea and asthma.


This article analyses New Zealand's economic expansion from 1998 to 2007, the contraction that followed in 2008-09, and the gradual recovery thereafter. The expansion was long and large by the country's post-war standards, while the contraction was marginally longer but shallower than the norm. An important driver of the expansion was a long and sustained rise in the terms of trade, in part reflecting expansion in the Asian region, especially China. A sharp rise in net immigration early in the period, a marked increase in the use of credit funded from offshore, and rising government spending were also important influences. The strong New Zealand dollar was another important factor, eroding competitiveness in parts of the tradables-producing sector and helping fuel demand for non-tradable goods and services. Balance sheets of households, farms and businesses became increasingly stretched over the period, a factor that has dampened the speed of recovery over the past three years.


Despite significant reductions in the number of children killed in motor vehicle crashes over the past decade, these crashes continue to be the leading cause of death for children and adolescents older than three years in the United States.1 In 2010, more than 4,000 children and adolescents younger than 21 years died in motor vehicle crashes,2 and an additional 600,000 were injured.1 Promoting age-appropriate use of motor vehicle restraints for children of all ages, particularly those who would benefit from child safety seats and booster seats, is a cornerstone in making further progress in motor vehicle safety. For example, among children younger than five years, child safety seats saved an estimated 219 lives in 2008. If 100 percent of children younger than five years were using child safety seats in 2008, an estimated 323 lives could have been saved.3 Significant increases in the use of motor vehicle restraints in children, particularly booster seats among older children, have occurred over the past decade in response to public education programs, enhanced product availability, and improvements in child restraint laws in nearly every state.4-6 In addition, there has been a substantial increase in the scientific evidence on which to base recommendations for best practices in child passenger safety. Therefore, in 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published updated recommendations for optimal protection of children in motor vehicles.7,8 To facilitate their widespread implementation in practice, the AAP presented recommendations in the form of an algorithm. The AAP identified the following five evidence-based recommendations to optimize safety in passenger vehicles for all children, from birth through adolescence 7: • All infants and toddlers should ride in a rear-facing child safety seat until they are two years of age or until they reach the weight or height limit allowed by the seat's manufacturer. • All children two years or older (or those younger than two years who have reached their rear-facing seat's weight or height limit) should use a forward-facing child safety seat with a harness for as long as possible, until they reach the weight or height limit allowed by the seat's manufacturer. • All children who reach the weight or height limit of their forward-facing child safety seat should use a beltpositioning booster seat until the seat belt fits properly, typically when the child is 4 ft, 9 in tall and between eight and 12 years of age. • When children are old enough and large enough to use the seat belt without a safety seat or booster, they should always use the lap and shoulder belts. • All children younger than 13 years should ride in the rear seats of vehicles for optimal protection. Of note, the recommendation that all children younger than two years be restrained in a rear-facing, infant-only or convertible child safety seat is a significant change in wording from previous AAP policy, and was based on data from the United States,9 as well as extensive experience in Sweden.10,11 There are several developmental characteristics that put young children at risk of head and spinal cord injury in a motor vehicle crash, including incomplete vertebral ossification, more horizontally oriented spinal facet joints, and excessive ligamentous laxity. Facing the rear of the vehicle provides more support to a young child's torso, neck, and head. Children in forward-facing safety seats were more likely to be seriously injured in all crash types when compared with children in rear-facing safety seats (odds ratio = 1.76; 95% confidence interval, 1.40 to 2.20).9 When children 12 to 23 months of age were analyzed separately, those who were restrained in forward-facing child safety seats were more likely to be seriously injured (odds ratio = 5.32; 95% confidence interval, 3.43 to 8.24). It is important to note that most available rear-facing child safety seats have weight limits that can accommodate the new recommendations.12 Because motor vehicle safety for children is multifaceted and will continue to evolve, family physicians should familiarize themselves with additional resources to maintain their knowledge and to address unique situations that may not be covered by the child safety seat algorithm. In particular, many communities have child passenger safety technicians who have completed a standardized National Highway Traffic Safety Administration course and who can provide hands-on advice and guidance to families. You can search for safety seat inspection sites in your community at http://www.seatcheck.org, http://www.nhtsa. dot.gov/cps/cpsfitting/index.cfm, or http://www.safekids web.org/events/events.asp. Editorials


Nondestructive testing of superconducting blocks and thin films is a worth point in their development and their industrial production. The most intrinsic characteristic to be tested is the critical current, so is the maximum current can be carried in the superconducting state. The measurement of the current flowing through the samples could be done by direct transport experiments but this means using specific samples, and only the mean current may be found. Distribution of current density in the sample is more relevant because it yields the map of inhomogeneity of the samples, and its effect in the current density distribution. Magnetic measurements have been developed by Hall scanning and magneto-optical effect, allowing the mapping of the component of the magnetic field perpendicular to a surface of the sample created by the current distribution. By solving the inverse Biot-Savart problem a map of current densities can be obtained. We will present the status of the magnetic measurements obtained by exploring superconducting bulks and tapes magnetized by an external field and the magnetic map generated by the current carried through superconducting wires.


Purpose
City logistics is a challenge in many cities. Literature works focus on the analysis of large or local-scale solutions to increase the efficiency of freight transport. However, store deliveries from the perspective of practitioners, particularly retail stores, are still an issue. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to propose a decision framework to assist logistics managers in defining efficient re-shelving solutions for store deliveries, according to the emplacement characteristics, city administration constraints and social issues.

Design/methodology/approach
An iterative step-by-step decision framework is developed, which allows taking decisions in a clear and structured way, including the preferences of key stakeholders. Moreover, a "what if" procedure is proposed, aiming to modify some initial conditions of the target store to achieve more efficient solutions.

Findings
The proposed decision framework is applicable in practice and helps users (mainly logistics managers) to identify solutions for efficient re-shelving in urban settings.

Research limitations/implications
The decision framework is applied by the logistics manager of two Spanish food retail stores, but it could be used in different logistics sectors and cities/regions, although adapting the decisions taken at each phase.

Practical implications
Logistics managers have a support tool when addressing re-shelving solutions for store deliveries.

Social implications
A balance can be found between company interests (minimise costs) and citizens quality of life (less contamination, noise, traffic, etc.).

Originality/value
This study simultaneously deals with large- and local-scale decisions faced by logistics managers in their day-to-day activity, considering details about the store location, its surroundings and the company it belongs.


The use of a solid photocatalyst, titanium dioxide, as an amendment incorporated into pavement surfaces was investigated as a basis for controlling nonpoint hydrocarbon runoff. Titanium dioxide is an inexpensive and conservative material that, when activated by sunlight, generates oxygen radicals capable of degrading common hydrocarbon contaminants characteristic of nonpoint highway runoff. Six materials were evaluated for fixing the photocatalyst onto pavements; paint base and concrete sealant were most effective. A number of contaminants were effectively degraded using the photocatalytic process including hexadecane, anthracene, and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol. Standard procedures (e.g., chloride analysis, addition of scavengers) were used to assess the applicability of photocatalytic pavement borders to a range of waste compounds; the data showed that the process has potential to degrade most compounds present in nonpoint highway runoff. The results of this laboratory study indicated that photocatalytic pavement borders have significant potential for mitigating nonpoint highway runoff.


The objective of the present study was to understand how the visual and mental processes work in tandem to affect the overall information processing capability of the individual, especially the older population, in a dynamic visual task such as driving. More specifically, our aim was to understand how the different parameters related to display of visual information in an in-vehicle display system and the age of the subject affect the information processing performance. The effects of stimulus distance, target size, display time, bits of information and the age group of the subject (young versus old) on the reading performance (information processing ability) under photopic and scotopic viewing conditions were thoroughly investigated in this study. Fifty-six individuals (28 young, 28 elderly) from the Montgomery County region were tested in the study in a mixed factorial repeated measures design with age as between subjects and the other independent variables as within subjects. The dependent variable was the reading score, i.e., the number of letters correctly identified. Results obtained from this study revealed that all of the independent variables had significant effects on the reading performance of the participants, except ambient illumination. Specifically, age has an important influence on the specific values of the design parameters. Also, these parameters interact among themselves so that one can be used to compensate for the other. These results can be used for developing the most relevant and optimal in-vehicle visual displays for the older population.


OBJECTIVE: to study bone density as a concomitant factor for obesity in post-pubertal adolescents, controlling for other variables that may interfere in such a relation. METHODS: Study comprising 83 overweight and obese adolescents (BMI > P85) and 89 non obese ones (P5 < BMI < P85). Cases and controls were selected out of 1,420 students (aged 14-19) from a public school in the city of Sao Paulo. The bone mineral density of the lumbar spine (L2-L4 in g/cm2) was assessed by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (LUNAR™ DPX-L). The variable bone density was dichotomized using 1.194 g/cm2 as cutoff point. Bivariate analyses were conducted considering the prevalence of overweight and obesity followed by multivariate analysis (logistic regression) according to a hierarchical conceptual model. RESULTS: The prevalence of bone density above the median was twice more frequent among cases (69.3%) than among controls (32.1%). In the bivariate analysis such prevalence resulted in an odds ratio (OR) of 4.78. The logistic regression model showed that the association between obesity and mineral density is yet more intense with an OR of 6.65 after the control of variables related to sedentary lifestyle and intake of milk and dairy products. CONCLUSION: Obese and overweight adolescents in the final stages of sexual maturity presented higher bone mineral density in relation to their normal-weight counterparts; however, cohort studies will be necessary to evaluate the influence of such characteristic on bone resistance in adulthood and, consequently, on the incidence of osteopenia and osteoporosis at older ages.


Early detection of a growing crack is one of the concerns in structural integrity and can be used to predict the remaining useful life of a structure. Acoustic Emission (AE) is a nondestructive testing method with potential applications for locating and monitoring fatigue cracks. A novel AE signal analysis approach is proposed in this paper to detect crack initiation and assess small crack growth behavior. A probabilistic AE-based model for small fatigue cracks was developed and the uncertainties of the model were estimated. The outcome of this research can be used to evaluate the integrity of structures and assess structural health by estimating the probability density function of the length of detected cracks. This paper discusses the methodology used, experimental approach, results obtained and predictive models developed.


(14/03/2019)  A Full Hydroand Morphodynamic Description of Breaker Bar Development The present thesis considers a coupled modelling approach for hydroand morphodynamics in the surf zone, which is based on a solution to the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with a Volume of Fluid (VOF) closure for the surf tracking. The basis for the numerical approach is the surface tracking method in the open-source CFD toolbox OpenFoam\textregistered{}, which is released by OpenCFD\textregistered{}. This basic version has been extended with the ability for modelling surface water waves and sediment transport in the surf zone. The validation of these functionalities are described as part of the project. The inequilibrium in the sediment transport field leads to a morphological change in the bed level, which is incorporated through a movement of the computational mesh. This allows for a integrated coupling with the hydrodynamics. The morphological module is also developed as part of this work. The numerical model is applied onto several physical settings. Firstly, the morphological response is turned off, and the hydrodynamics and the sediment transport patterns in the surf zone are described. The description considers these processes as a function of several non-dimensional variables, namely the surf similarity parameter, $\zeta_0$, and Dean's parameter in various forms, $\Omega$ and $\Omega_{HK}$. This investigation has an emphasis on (i) the spatial and temporal lag-effects in the hydrodynamics, and between the hydrodynamics and the sediment transport and (ii) the integrated net cross shore suspended sediment transport flux as a function of either of the variables $\zeta_0$, $\Omega$, or $\Omega_{HK}$. Secondly, the bed is allowed to evolve under the influence of the sediment transport processes. The development of breaker bars in both laboratory scale settings and prototype scale settings is considered. The temporal development of the cross shore profile is simulated for several combinations of wave forcing and sediment grain diameters. The variation is described with emphasis on the development of the crest level of the breaker bar, the variation in the bed shear stress on the crest of the breaker bar, and its migration speed. Additionally, a net onshore current over a breaker bar is considered, where this current mimics the presence of a horizontal circulation cell. The development of the breaker bar is described for different values of the net onshore current speed. This description is undertaken with and without a coupling to the morphology.


This study examined how youth suicide attempts are associated with youth and familial substance use among two samples of runaway and homeless youth (RHY): (a) a nationally representative sample of RHY residing in shelters, and (b) a multicity, purposive sample of RHY found on the street. Data were collected using personal interviews from 640 shelter youth and 600 street youth in 1992. Logistic regression analyses revealed that, after controlling for key demographic characteristics, youth who had used substances (particularly sedatives, hallucinogens, and inhalants) were much more likely than those who had not used substances to have ever attempted suicide. In addition, after controlling for their own substance use, youth with family members who had used substances were twice as likely as those without such family members to have ever attempted suicide. This study suggests the importance of developing and focusing suicide prevention.


John Le Carre's first novel Call for the Dead (1961) and Sidney Lumet's movie based on the novel The Deadly Affair (1967), both use Marlowe's Edward II in climactic senes during which the master spy kills his accomplice in unison with Lightborn's murder of Edward onstage. However, the nature of their use of Marlowe differs markedly. The novel establishes the parallel between the onstage murder and the real one in the audience with little else specifically delineated. A reader would have to pursue further parallels between the novel and the play through a close understanding of the intricacies of Edward II. On the other hand, Lumet, by showing selected scenes with dialogue from the play and emphasizing spectatorial motifs, clearly establishes and elicits more obvious comparisons between the movie and the play than just the theater murders. (1) The novel concerns the death by supposed suicide of a Foreign Service official named Samuel Arthur Fennan. Someone wrote an anonymous letter accusing Fennan of being a communist sympathizer in his days as an Oxford undergraduate, and George Smiley has been sent to interview Fennan about the charge. As a result of the interview, Smiley clears Fennan of current suspicion, but he is shocked to be told later that evening, when he is awakened by a telephone call, that Fennan was so upset by the letter and the interview that he committed suicide, leaving a note to that effect. Smiley is then sent to interview Fennan's widow Elsa about her husband's suicide. She was at the theater on that fatal evening, and she is very bitter towards Smiley. During his interview with her, Smiley is interrupted by a phone call which he mistakenly believes is from his headquarters. But it turns out to be a wake up call for Fennan, placed the night before. Elsa claims that the call was for her because she is so forgetful and wanted a reminder to go shopping. But Smiley learns shortly after that she is lying; Fennan arranged for the wake up call two hours before he is supposed to have killed himself. Smiley concludes that Fennan's death was murder because it is highly unlikely that he would have scheduled awake up call and then committed suicide. Ironically, Fennan's posthumous wakeup call becomes a figurative wake up call for Smiley in his investigation of the matter. Like Edward II, the novel presents a series of deceptive, implicatory and, finally, "deadly" letters and communications. The original anonymous letter accusing Fennan was actually sent by Fennan himself as the means of initiating an investigation which he hoped would lead to the detection of his wife, whom he had come to suspect as a spy. In addition, there are the posthumous communications--his supposed suicide letter typed on the same Olivetti typewriter as the initial incriminatory letter, but by a different person; the wake up call, and a letter from Fennan written on the day of his death, asking for an appointment with Smiley for the next day. Finally, Smiley provides the most decisive false communication when he sends a postcard to Elsa ostensibly written by the master spy Dieter Frey, Smiley's former espionage accomplice during World War II. Through this ploy Smiley discovers the method by which the spies exchange information at the theatre and sets them up to be apprehended. The chapter in which this scene occurs is entitled "The Last Act." When Dieter realizes that he has been set up, he decides to eliminate Elsa, and he does so before the eyes of the onlooking British agents. Dieter plays into their hands by panicking and murdering Elsa. Up to this point, they had no real proof linking him to the murderous espionage activities which had already occurred. A more macabre irony, however, occurs when Dieter murders her with his patented "one-finger carotid touch" in synchronization with the onstage murder: The play dragged on, the shouts of soldiers and the screams of the demented king filled the theatre, until the dreadful climax of his foul death, when an audible sigh rose from the stalls beneath them. …


ABSTRACT
This thesis looks at the synthesis of hybrid polyoxometalates (POMs), a family of polyoxometalate compounds grafted to organic moieties. Focussing particularly on the Mn-Anderson hybrid, it looks at new ways of isolating and purifying them and at how the organic component can be used to alter their crystal structure or to link multiple Mn-Anderson cores together to form short oligomer chains.
In the first section, two Mn-Anderson hybrids are prepared with large aromatic organic moieties, as a continuation of earlier work looking at how aromatic organic components can influence the structure of Mn-Anderson compounds in the solid state. The two compounds, one based on an anthracene moiety (three fused aromatic rings) and another based on a tetraphenylphthalic moiety (five linked aromatic rings), were both synthesised and crystals were grown of their tetrabutylammonium (TBA) salts. These crystal structures were then analysed and their structure thoroughly described and compared to previous aromatic Mn-Anderson aromatic hybrids.
In the second section, a set of methods are presented for the preparation and isolation of asymmetric Mn-Anderson hybrids, where two different organic moieties are linked to the same POM core. These methods use high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and normal liquid chromatography (LC) techniques to separate the mixtures of symmetric and asymmetric products which inevitably result from the synthesis of the asymmetric compounds, formed via both pre- and post-functionalisation techniques, so long as the two organic moieties have sufficiently different hydrophobicity. In order to by-pass the hydrophobicity requirement, a "Universal" asymmetric Mn-Anderson was developed with a free amine and an FMOC-protected amine. This allows for good separation and also gives a product which can be used to form more complex asymmetric compounds via post-functionalisation reaction without further LC purification, and an asymmetric compound with two hydrophilic substituents was synthesised to prove this strategy. All compounds were then fully analysed to confirm the purity of the asymmetric products. Also included is a means to remedy unwanted protonation of TBA Mn-Anderson salts.
In the final section, the easy access to asymmetric Mn-Anderson hybrids provided by the previous project is exploited to produce a series of short-chain POM oligomers. A coupling strategy using alkyne and azide Mn-Anderson hybrids was developed, and a series of symmetric and asymmetric building blocks based on these functional groups were synthesised. These were then strategically combined to form a dimer and trimer of Mn-Anderson cores, which could then be further functionalised with alkyne groups and have an additional two Mn-Anderson units added, to give a tetramer and a pentamer. Methods were then developed to successfully purify these oligomers from the excess starting materials used to make them and the compounds analysed to confirm their identity. Size-exclusion HPLC and ion-mobility mass spectrometry (IM-MS) were then performed to gain more information about the structure of these compounds and how they arrange themselves in solution and in the gas-phase.


In this paper we deal with sensitivity analysis of combina- torial optimization problems and its fundamental term, the tolerance. For three classes of objective functions (,, MAX) we give some basic properties on upper and lower tolerances. We show that the upper toler- ance of an element is well defined, how to compute the upper tolerance of an element, and give equivalent formulations when the upper tolerance is +1 or > 0. Analogous results are given for the lower tolerance and some results on the relationship between lower and upper tolerances are given.


Metadata schemas relevant to online education and training have recently achieved the milestone of formal standardization. Efforts are currently underway to bring these abstract models and theoretical constructs to concrete realization in the context of communities of practice. One of the primary challenges faced by these efforts has been to balance or reconcile local requirements with those presented by domain-specific and cross-domain interoperability. This paper describes these and other issues associated with the development and implementation of metadata application profiles. In particular, it provides an overview of metadata implementations for managing and distributing Learning Objects and the practical issues that have emerged so far in this domain. The discussion is informed by examples from two national education and training communities -- Australia and Canada.


Low activation ferritic/martensitic steels are good candidates for the future fusion reactors, for, relative to austenitic steels, their lower damage accumulation and moderate swelling under irradiation by the 14 MeV neutrons produced by the fusion reaction. Irradiation of these steels, e.g. EUROFER97, is known to produce hardening, loss of ductility, shift in ductile to brittle transition temperature and a reduction of fracture toughness and creep resistance starting at the lowest doses. Helium, produced by transmutation by the 14 MeV neutrons, is known to impact mechanical properties, but its effect at the microstructure level is still unclear. The mechanisms underlying the degradation of mechanical properties are not well understood, despite numerous studies on the evolution of the microstructure under irradiation. This impedes our ability to predict materials' behaviour at higher doses for use in the future fusion reactors. Simulations of these effects are now essential. An overview is presented on molecular dynamics simulations of the primary state of damage in iron and of the mobility of a dislocation, vector of plasticity, in the presence of a defect.


The main issue of this paper is to find the theoretical foundations of the presence of Machine in the works of Russian Avant-garde artists, or to provide an explanation for the Machine aesthetics; this will be carried out by tracing those foundations in the ideas of Karl Marx. During the 1917 revolution, Marx's ideas were effective in opening Russian art's doors toward the Machine. According to the hypothesis of this study, the Avant-garde artists chose different ways to express their ideology to be in step with the revolution; thus the application of the Machine and displaying its features, was one of the most prominent characteristics of their works. It was in the same direction that certain artistic schools such as Russian Futurism, Constructivism, and Productivism Emerged, and the presence of Machine elements was their common feature. These elements that somehow represented the era of giant automatic systems highly attracted Marx's attention in writing his social philosophy. Thus, the Russian Avant-garde art's structure, has its origin in Marx's practical philosophy. The question is how these Russian Avant-garde artists, saw themselves along with the revolutionaries and in the same line with the workers. In this context, and considering the existing documents and evidences, it will be clear that one of the key components of the emergence of the Machine into the realm of art was the annihilation of the social contradictions intended by Marx, namely, the contrast between the progress of science and the human welfare that should have been brought by it, and the difficult conditions which the masses were actually struggling with. The artists believed that in this manner, the Machine was no longer in the hands of Capitalists exclusively; instead, by fitting in the comprehensive realm of art, it could have belonged to the individuals. Breaking with tradition, and what Marx had recommended for raising the level of the proletariat's consciousness are among other key components. According to Marx, this could accelerate criticizing the existing situation, by expanding creativity and the spirit of inquiry toward a dynamic critical culture. The last component is to display the nature and manner of production, after the revolution; it aims to create the construction flow, and to encourage the proletariat to strengthen their society and to progress it through industrial development


Lenin Reloaded is a rallying call by some of the world's leading Marxist intellectuals for renewed attention to the significance of Vladimir Lenin. The volume's editors explain that it was Lenin who made Karl Marx's thought explicitly political, who extended it beyond the confines of Europe, who put it into practice. They contend that a focus on Lenin is urgently needed now, when global capitalism appears to be the only game in town, the liberal-democratic system seems to have been settled on as the optimal political organization of society, and it has become easier to imagine the end of the world than a modest change in the mode of production. Lenin retooled Marx's thought for specific historical conditions in 1914, and Lenin Reloaded urges a reinvention of the revolutionary project for the present. Such a project would be Leninist in its commitment to action based on truth and its acceptance of the consequences that follow from action.

These essays, some of which are appearing in English for the first time, bring Lenin face-to-face with the problems of today, including war, imperialism, the imperative to build an intelligentsia of wage earners, the need to embrace the achievements of bourgeois society and modernity, and the widespread failure of social democracy. Lenin Reloaded demonstrates that truth and partisanship are not mutually exclusive as is often suggested. Quite the opposite—in the present, truth can be articulated only from a thoroughly partisan position.

Contributors . Kevin B. Anderson, Alain Badiou, Etienne Balibar, Daniel Bensaid, Sebastian Budgen, Alex Callinicos, Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson, Stathis Kouvelakis, Georges Labica, Sylvain Lazarus, Jean-Jacques Lecercle, Lars T. Lih, Domenico Losurdo, Savas Michael-Matsas, Antonio Negri, Alan Shandro, Slavoj Žižek


Large-scale screening for potential threats with limited resources and capacity for screening is a problem of interest at airports, seaports, and other ports of entry. Adversaries can observe screening procedures and arrive at a time when there will be gaps in screening due to limited resource capacities. To capture this game between ports and adversaries, this problem has been previously represented as a Stackelberg game, referred to as a Threat Screening Game (TSG). Given the significant complexity associated with solving TSGs and uncertainty in arrivals of customers, existing work has assumed that screenees arrive and are allocated security resources at the beginning of the time-window. In practice, screenees such as airport passengers arrive in bursts correlated with flight time and are not bound by fixed time-windows. To address this, we propose an online threat screening model in which the screening strategy is determined adaptively as a passenger arrives while satisfying a hard bound on acceptable risk of not screening a threat. To solve the online problem, we first reformulate it as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) in which the hard bound on risk translates to a constraint on the action space and then solve the resultant MDP using Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL). To this end, we provide a novel way to efficiently enforce linear inequality constraints on the action output in DRL. We show that our solution allows us to significantly reduce screenee wait time without compromising on the risk.


There were 21 patients with rapidly progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) treated on a phase 1/2 study of intense immune suppressive therapy and autologous hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) support with no 1-year mortality. Following transplantation, one patient had a confirmed acute attack of MS. Neurologic progression defined by the expanded disability status scale (EDSS) did not increase in disability by 1.0 or more steps in any of 9 patients with a pretransplantation EDSS of 6.0 or less. In 8 of 12 patients with high pretransplantation disability scores (EDSS > 6.0), progressive neurologic disability as defined by at least a 1-point increase in the EDSS has occurred and was manifested as gradual neurologic deterioration. There were 2 patients with a pretransplantation EDSS of 7.0 and 8.0 who died from complications of progressive disease at 13 and 18 months following treatment. Our experience suggests that intense immune suppression using a total body irradiation (TBI)-based regimen and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) are not effective for patients with progressive disease and high pretransplantation disability scores. Further studies are necessary to determine the role of intense immune suppressive therapy and HSC support in ambulatory patients with less accumulated disability and more inflammatory disease activity. Specifically, more patients and longer follow-up would be required in patients with an EDSS of 6.0 or less before drawing conclusions on this subgroup.


Relative Performance Evaluation "RPE" is a performance evaluation and reward scheme which have been receiving a growing attention from academic and professionals (Holmstrom 1982, Frederickson 1992, Conyon and Gregg 1994, and Defond & Park 1999). Under RPE rewards for managers and executives are set upon their performance compared to that of their peers. Holmstrom (1982) introduced the basic model of RPE founded on agent-principal assumptions. In that model, the peers' performance was seen to provide information about the agent's unobservable effort. Fredrickson (1992) suggested that RPE could satisfy economic and psychological needs of employee. In this study, an attempt is made to depart from the universal agency perspective and to adopt a contingent framework. The research arguments were developed from an identification of the discrepancies and gaps in the literature of RPE, overlooked complications and issues in the UK practice, relating the debate about RPE to the wider accounting literature of performance measurements and evaluation (Emmanuel et.al. 1990, Kaplan & Atkinson 1998). The aim of this research was to explore the content and context of RPE therefore, the arguments focused on: whether RPE is motivating, the impacts of difficulty of peer group, non financial measures, market measures and varying the form of the rewards on RPE. Case study approach was adopted to examine the research arguments. Data were collected from three companies in Egypt and one company in England. Access was partially accidental but turned to provide four different cases. Three cases were developed in Egypt including: Trade (a public company), Dairy (private company) and Steel (joint venture) and the English company was United Utilities (private company). Data were collected by questionnaire, interviews and other documentary sources of the companies. The research findings suggest associations between RPE and target's difficulty, using non financial but not varying rewards. Competition and type of ownership and the organisational culture were influential on RPE.


The Victorian Art School documents the history of the art school in the nineteenth century, from its origins in South Kensington to its proliferation through the major industrial centres of Britain. Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art, together with earlier examples in Manchester and Birmingham demonstrate an unprecedented concern for the provision of plentiful light and air amidst the pollution of the Victorian city. As theories of design education and local governance converged, they also reveal the struggle of the provincial city for cultural independence from the capital. Examining innovations in the use of new technologies and approaches in the design of these buildings, The Victorian Art School offers a unique and explicitly environmental reading of the Victorian city. It examines how art schools complemented civic 'Improvement' programmes, their contribution to the evolution of art pedagogy, the tensions that arose between the provincial schools and the capital, and the role they would play in reimagining the relationship between art and public life in a rapidly transforming society. The architects of these buildings synthesised the potential of art with the perfection of the internal environment, indelibly shaping the future cultural life of Britain.


BACKGROUND
Pulmonary complications remain a leading cause of morbidity after major abdominal operations.

OBJECTIVE
To compare pulmonary function and the frequency of pulmonary complications after laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) and open cholecystectomy (OC).

METHODS
Fifty-five patients with symptomatic gallstone disease undergoing elective cholecystectomy (LC 40, OC 15) under general anesthesia were evaluated using pulmonary function tests (forced vital capacity [FVC], forced expiratory volume at 1 second [FEV1], and forced expiratory flow at 25% to 75% [FEF25% -75%], chest X-ray and pulse oximetry before and after surgery.

RESULTS
FVC, FEV1 and FEF25% -75% decreased by 21.5%, 21.2% and 30.3%, respectively, on postoperative day 1 following LC, and by 44.3%, 46.2% and 58.3%, respectively, after OC. Chest X-ray showed atelectasis in 15% of patients undergoing LC and 45% of those with OC.

CONCLUSION
Impairment in pulmonary function after LC was less marked than after OC.


Abstract:In his 1846 history-from-below, Le Peuple, Michelet presents himself as the embodiment of the history of France in order to reach beyond the discursive and effect social change. Unlike many of his other histories, in which an allegory of the body is used in the service of an overarching national or political narrative, the body in Le Peuple is quite literally the historian's own body. I argue that Michelet is not "sourd à son temps" as Barthes claimed in 1954, but rather deeply engaged in the development of a pre-Marxian working-class identity. In this paper, I demonstrate that the popular history, Le Peuple, posits the historian's organic body as a place where physical and intellectual labor can be united, and that this embodiment, far from being a mere rhetorical technique, was intended to solve the complicated "social problem" of the 1840s.


Abstract This article compares the original dialogue, the German dubbing and two different Swedish subtitle versions (TV and DVD) of the American feature film The Nutty Professor. It first discusses the four versions and the quantitative differences between them in terms of the number of words, characters, conversational turns, and subtitles. The focus then shifts to qualitative aspects of the three translations, including content‐related changes and clashes with target‐language norms. This leads to hypotheses concerning the mode and the medium of a translation and its qualitative profile.


This research is focused on the interrelationship between three themes: the identity of contemporary jazz, the relation between contemporary jazz and popular music, and thirdly, jazz and national identity. Using this triangulation, I examine the constructed nature of musical practice, interrogating the notion that the distinctions between music, whether it is genre specific or geographically determined, are natural and innate. Linking theory to practice, I examine how the areas of my research described above, feed into my role as a professional, contemporary jazz drummer.

The restricting effect of defining the role of the contemporary jazz musician in rigid, genre-centred definitions is questioned through examining jazz's relationship with popular music and the music's' standing in the hi-art vs. popular culture debate. This area is practically explored in the performance projects through the juxtaposition of both popular repertoire and technical approaches to popular styles with contemporary jazz performance conventions. The notion of jazz and national identity is examined through reflecting on the personal experiences of my role as an arranger and performer operating in Norway and the UK. Specifically, this research will seek to enhance our understanding of the roles the drummer has to play in negotiating the codes and rules used in this area of creative music making.

My research is based on a practice-led methodology pursued through two sets of comparative performance projects that have evolved over the last three and a half years. This work utilizes the process of creating the music, live performances and recordings as case studies for comparison and analysis. The content of each performance project provides a platform for me to engage with the specific areas outlined in the thesis and I use practice as a means of raising and exploring questions and explaining codes and conventions.


The rapid introduction of technology into acute healthcare settings, specifically the presence of point-of-care health information technology at patients' bedsides, is expected to impact patients' healthcare experience by altering nurse-patient interactions. This research was a multi-method naturalistic pilot study designed to explore patients' perception of their interactions with nurses using bedside point-of-care health information technology in acute care. Data were collected using observation, interviews and surveys. Twenty-four participants were purposefully recruited from medical and surgical wards, to capture variability in their self-reported confidence with information technology; 29% were not confident, 38% were somewhat confident and 33% were completely confident with information technology. Participants' mean age was 68.6 years (SD 11.1) and 63% were male. Qualitative observation, interview and survey data showed some nurses directly involved patients and explained or demonstrated how the point-of-care health information technology was being used to complement and enhance their care; while others used the point-of-care health information technology as an electronic documentation tool without engaging their patients. Patients' experiences of point-of-care health information technology differed with their self-reported confidence with information technology; those with complete information technology confidence were better at recognising the potential and opportunities for point-of-care health information technology to support self-directed care than those with less confidence using information technology. Some participants reported that the use of point-of-care health information technology impeded interpersonal communication with nurses. Participants recognised the benefits of point-of-care health information technology to support clinical practice but generally desired greater engagement with the nurses when they used the system.


Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is now routinely performed in clinical microbiology laboratories to assess isolate relatedness. With appropriately developed analytics, the same data can be used for prediction of antimicrobial susceptibility. We assessed WGS data for identification using open-source tools and antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) prediction using ARESdb compared to matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) identification and broth microdilution phenotypic susceptibility testing on clinical isolates from a multicenter clinical trial of the FDA-cleared Unyvero lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) application (Curetis). ABSTRACT Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is now routinely performed in clinical microbiology laboratories to assess isolate relatedness. With appropriately developed analytics, the same data can be used for prediction of antimicrobial susceptibility. We assessed WGS data for identification using open-source tools and antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) prediction using ARESdb compared to matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) identification and broth microdilution phenotypic susceptibility testing on clinical isolates from a multicenter clinical trial of the FDA-cleared Unyvero lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) application (Curetis). For the trial, more than 2,000 patient samples were collected from intensive care units across nine hospitals and tested for LRTI. The isolate subset used in this study included 620 clinical isolates originating from 455 LRTI culture-positive patient samples. Isolates were sequenced using the Illumina Nextera XT protocol and FASTQ files with raw reads uploaded to the ARESdb cloud platform (ares-genetics.cloud; released for research use in 2020). The platform combines Ares Genetics' proprietary database ARESdb with state-of-the-art bioinformatics tools and curated public data. For identification, WGS showed 99 and 93% concordance with MALDI-TOF MS at the genus and species levels, respectively. WGS-predicted susceptibility showed 89% categorical agreement with phenotypic susceptibility across a total of 129 species-compound pairs analyzed, with categorical agreement exceeding 90% in 78 species-compound pairs and reaching 100% in 32. Results of this study add to the growing body of literature showing that, with improvement of analytics, WGS data could be used to predict antimicrobial susceptibility.


Background: There is growing awareness in the hospital setting toward pain management to decrease patients' suffering, improve postsurgical outcomes and to decrease cost. Objective: The aim of this study was to get an overview of the knowledge and attitude among health-care professionals toward pain management in the King Fahd Hospital of the University, and the need for an educational plan to improve pain service in hospitals. Materials and Methods: We conducted a survey over a 3-month period based on a 30-question questionnaire to test pain knowledge and attitude among nurses and physicians of different specialties, the level of education and years of experience. Results: The results of the data showed that knowledge and attitude of pain were deficient and unsatisfactory. Conclusion: We concluded that efforts to spread knowledge and education of proper pain management among health-care professionals are required. Further surveys involving more hospitals are warranted.


The objective of this thesis is bipartite. Firstly, we examine the effect of working capital management on return on invested capital for Norwegian companies. Secondly, we attempt to explain the differences in working capital management between publicly listed and privately owned companies from the perspective of agency theory. More concisely, we want to investigate whether the distinctive characteristics of these two ownership structures cause different exposure to agency costs, and subsequently different cash conversion cycles. In our analysis, based on a panel of 1,129 Norwegian companies in the period from 2014 to 2018, we have found that there is a negative relationship between the cash conversion cycle and return on invested capital. These results were highly expected, considering the findings of the existing literature on this topic in other geographical markets. Moreover, we see that the drivers for this effect are mainly the management of receivables and inventory. Furthermore, we have identified significant differences in working capital practice between publicly listed and privately owned companies in Norway. In the last part of the analysis, we attempt to explain this discrepancy from an agency theory perspective. Based on our findings, there are some indications of an unexpected negative relationship between agency costs and the cash conversion cycle, but we cannot say anything conclusive the on extent to which this causes the inconsistencies in working capital policies. However, we are of the persuasion that there should be a theoretical link. Hence, we believe that this is an interesting path to follow for future research on working capital management.


To investigate the greenhouse gas emissions from paddy fields, methane and nitrous oxide emissions were estimated with the local measurement and the IPCC method during 1990 to 2010 in Taiwan. Annual methane emissions ranged from 7,459 to 14,980 ton in the first crop season for 134,038 to 242,298 ha of paddy fields, and they were between 10,709 and 35,208 ton for 92,341 to 211,968 ha in the second crop season with the local measurement for intermittent irrigation. The values ranged from 27,067 to 55,729 ton of methane emissions in the first crop season, and they were between 18,966 and 61,471 ton in the second crop season with the IPCC guideline for continuous flooding. Annual nitrous oxide emissions from paddy fields were between 371 and 728 ton in the first crop season, and the values ranged from 147 to 365 ton in the second crop season with the local measurement. Methane emissions from paddy fields in Taiwan for intermittent irrigation were only 26.72-28.92%, 55.65-57.32% and 41.19-43.10% with the IPCC guidelines for continuous flooding and means temperature of transplanting stage in the first crop, the second crop and total paddy fields, respectively. The values were 53.44-57.84%, 111.29-114.55% and 82.38-86.20% with the IPCC guidelines for single aeration and mean temperature of transplanting stage, respectively; and the values were 133.60-144.61%, 282.56-286.62% and 205.96-215.49% with the IPCC guidelines for multiple aerations and mean temperature of transplanting stage, respectively. Intermittent irrigation in paddy fields reduces methane emission significantly; appropriate application of nitrogen fertilizer and irrigation in paddy fields also decreases nitrous oxide emission.