Synthesis of new medicinally important phenylsulphonyl aminoalkanamides and N-aryl p-toluene sulphonamides is reported. The reaction between benzenesulphonylchloride 7 with valine gave 3-methyl-2-[phenylsulphonyl)amino]butanoic acid 9 which is converted into 2-[acetyl (phenylsulphonyl) amino]-3-methyl butanoic acid 10 by reaction with acetic anhydride in acetic acid. The reaction of the later with SOCl2 and subsequently with NH3 afforded 2-[N-acetyl (phenylsulphonyl) amino]-3-methyl butanamide intermediate 11. The palladium catalysed reaction of the intermediate with readily available aryl chlorides and bromides afforded a variety of phenyl sulphonylaminoalkanamides 13a-c. In another synthesis, p-toluenesulphonylchloride (14) reacted with aqueous ammonia to give 4-methyl benzenesulphonamide 15 which is converted into N-(4-hydroxylphenyl)-4-methylbenzene sulphonamide 17a, N-(4-formyl phenyl)-4-methyl benzene sulphonamide 17b, N-(4-aminophenyl)-4-methyl benzenesulphonamide 17c, 4-methyl-N-(2-methylphenyl) benzene sulphonamide 17d, N-(4-Methoxyphenyl)-4-methyl benzenesulphonamide 17e in good yields, by reaction with 4-chlorophenol, 4-bromobenzaldehyde , 4-bromoaniline, 2-chlorotoluene and 1-bromo-2-methoxybenzene, respectively. Structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed by spectroscopic and elemental analytical data


Indigenous knowledge on edible fungi in Ghana has mostly been limited to rural people. Edible mushrooms are collected from forest reserves, secondary forests and fields under fallow. However, with the current rate of bush burning and deforestation, collection of edible mushrooms from the wild is threatened. A survey was carried out in Southern Ghana to gather information on local knowledge and utilization of edible mushrooms. Mushroom collectors, consumers and traders were interviewed using structured questionnaires in local markets, homes and along roadsides. Thirty different mushrooms with their vernacular names were listed by correspondents. The commonest species collected for consumption are Volvariella volvacea (Bull.: Fr) Singer (Straw/Oil palm mushroom), Termitomyces globulus (Pat.) Heim, T. microcarpus (Berk. & Br.) Heim, T. schimperi (Pat.) Heim, T. robustus (Pat.) Heim and Coprinus disseminatus (Pers.: Fr.) S. F. Gray. Among the local people, names of edible mushrooms are based on the substrates on which they grow, their association with insects, and unrelated taxa are given collective names. Rural people believe mushrooms have medicinal values and can serve as blood tonic, reduce obesity and lower blood pressure in hypertensive patients among others. Mushroom consumption is however, low since mushrooms collected are rather exchanged for money to buy fish or meat which is often less expensive. Women are especially involved in mushroom collection and have extensive knowledge regarding mushrooms as well as deriving incomes from them. Keywords : Rural people, edible mushrooms, vernacular names, medicinal purposes Ghana Journal of Forestry Vol. 19 & 20 2006: pp. 20-34


The application of nanotechnology in vaccinology has fuelled rapid advancement towards the design and development of nanovaccines. Nanoparticles have been found to enhance vaccine efficacy through the spatiotemporal orchestration of antigen delivery to secondary lymphoid organs and antigen-presentation by Antigen Presenting Cells (APCs) synchronized with stimulation of innate and adaptive immune responses. Metal based nanoparticles (MNPs) have been extensively engineered for the generation of nanovaccines owing to their intrinsic adjuvant-like properties and immunomodulatory functions. Furthermore, mesoporous nanocapsules of late have attracted researchers due to their precise size and exclusive capacity to encapsulate a wide range of biomolecules and their sustained release at the targeted sites. Herein, we have designed a novel mesoporous ZnO nanocapsule (mZnO) having a size of ∼12 nm with an average pore diameter of 2.5 nm, using a surfactant-free sonochemical method and investigated its immunomodulatory properties by using Ova loaded mZnO nanocapsules [mZnO(Ova)] in a mice model. Our findings show that mZnO(Ova) administration steered the enhanced expansion of antigen-specific T-cells and induction of IFN-γ producing effector CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells. Also, antigen-specific IgG levels were enriched in both the serum and lymph nodes of mZnO(Ova) immunized mice. Further, we noticed a substantial increase in serum IgG2a or IgG2b levels and IFN-γ secretion in Ova restimulated splenocytes from mZnO(Ova) immunized mice, indicating that mZnO(Ova) skew Th1 type immune response. Overall, the uniqueness of mZnO nanocapsules in terms of the defined particle to pore numbers ratio (maximum of three cavities per particle) allows loading antigens efficiently. Given these features in combination with its immunomodulatory characteristics reinforces the idea that mZnO could be used as an effective antigen-adjuvant platform for the development of novel nano-based vaccines against multiple diseases.


Readers who want an up-to-date overview of database development and management. Focusing on the topics that leading database practitioners say are most important, Essentials of Database Management presents a concise overview designed to ensure practical success for database professionals. Built upon the strong foundation of Modern Database Management, currently in its eleventh edition, the new Essentials of Database Management is ideal for a less-detailed approach. Like its comprehensive counterpart, it guides readers into the future by presenting research that could reveal the next big thing in database management. And it features up-to-date coverage in the areas undergoing rapid change due to improved managerial practices, database design tools and methodologies, and database technology.


In bounded domain, we consider a Bresse system with delay terms in the internal feedbacks acting in the first, third equations and distributed delay term in the second equation. We prove the global existence of its solution in Sobolev spaces by means of semigroup theory. Furthermore, we study the stability of solutions using the well known multiplier method.


An approximate method for conducting resampling in Lasso, the $\ell_1$ penalized linear regression, in a semi-analytic manner is developed, whereby the average over the resampled datasets is directly computed without repeated numerical sampling, thus enabling an inference free of the statistical fluctuations due to sampling finiteness, as well as a significant reduction of computational time. The proposed method is based on a message passing type algorithm, and its fast convergence is guaranteed by the state evolution analysis, when covariates are provided as zero-mean independently and identically distributed Gaussian random variables. It is employed to implement bootstrapped Lasso (Bolasso) and stability selection, both of which are variable selection methods using resampling in conjunction with Lasso, and resolves their disadvantage regarding computational cost. To examine approximation accuracy and efficiency, numerical experiments were carried out using simulated datasets. Moreover, an application to a real-world dataset, the wine quality dataset, is presented. To process such real-world datasets, an objective criterion for determining the relevance of selected variables is also introduced by the addition of noise variables and resampling.


The problem faced by the Annuqayah Vocational School curriculum is the same schedule and is taught by the same teacher. Such problems are quite complex problems because they relate to the number of teachers available. The lesson schedule is presented in the form of day and class hours tables. The subject can be seen that every day schedule divided into time slots. Each time slot has a list of subjects taught by the teacher in a particular room. To optimize the lesson schedule in Annuqayah Vocational School, Genetic Algorithm is used. This algorithm is a computational approach to the principle of natural selection, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and the theory of Mendel's inheritance [1]. The optimization process in Genetic Algorithms includes individual generation, evaluation of fitness values, determination of probability values, Roulette Wheel selection, crossover, mutations, and new individual generation. Scheduling optimization using the Genetic Algorithm approach was declared successful because it was able to find the right combination of scheduling with optimal fitness values in 10 attempts, and no violations of the established rules from the curriculum were found so that it could assist in the preparation of subject schedules in Annuqayah Vocational High School. Keywords : curriculum, Vocational High School, scheduling, Genetic Algorithm, optimization.


The paper describes the design and features of the novel semi-autonomous floor scrubber add-on module, used for cleaning large indoor spaces. Module is designed in such a manner that it can be easily attached and detached from scrubber machine and that additional sensors can be introduced if needed. The paper focuses on the localization capabilities of the machine in several sensor setups with emphasis on the use of ultra wideband (UWB) real-time localization system (RTLS). It also proposes fusion of sensor data from several sources including novel use of wheel encoder's data in UWB setup. Analysis is performed in terms of localization accuracy and reliability as well as associated advantages and disadvantages. Obtained results demonstrated that inclusion of UWB subsystem, despite its price and accuracy (20 cm in ideal, line of sight, conditions), based on behavior switching yields more reliable and accurate results in open spaces (up to 25 times in position and 2 times in orientation) and that its accuracy can be further improved with inclusion of wheel encoder data.


In the animal laboratory, stressors can produce the relapse of drug-seeking behaviors after the behavior has been inhibited by extinction. This type of relapse has been called stress-induced reinstatement, and it models the relapse that is commonly reported in human populations. Interestingly, in the laboratory, stress does not typically reinstate extinguished behaviors that have been reinforced by food. One account of the discrepancy is that drugs of abuse may induce stress; therefore, when organisms learn to respond for drugs, they might learn to make the response in the "context" of stress. If so, then stress-induced reinstatement may be better described as renewal in a stress context. Renewal is the type of relapse that occurs when a behavior is returned to the original training context (or is shifted to a new context) after it has been inhibited or suppressed by extinction. Although renewal has usually been studied with contexts that differ in their exteroceptive cues, interoceptive cues (e.g., mood, food deprivation, and drug states) may also provide contexts. Accordingly, if an interoceptive stress state is present when foodseeking behavior is learned, then extinguished food seeking, like drug seeking, should also renew when the organism is stressed after extinction. In this dissertation, I discuss six experiments that investigated this hypothesis. Experiment 1 found that stressors renew extinguished food-seeking if they are also present during instrumental training. Experiments 2 and 3 then provided preliminary evidence that this effect is not exclusively due to incentive learning. Experiment 4 then suggested that interoceptive stress, and not the particular stressor that produces it, may indeed serve as a general interoceptive context that controls the effect. Experiment 5 found that stressors present for acquisition but not extinction training render behavior susceptible to stress induced relapse. The final experiment found that food-reinforced behavior learned in a context created by a cocaine injection renews after cocaine administration but not after footshock stress. Overall, the results indicate that the presence of interoceptive stress stimuli may play the role of context in a renewal paradigm and promote behavioral relapse when re-encountered after extinction. The implications for relapse that often occur following successful suppression of drug use and overeating behaviors are both discussed.


Using proprietary Australian Tax Office (ATO) data, we document the size, asset allocation and expenses for a sample of 209,420 Australian self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) for the three years to June 2010. Two recent Government reviews have highlighted a lack of basic knowledge of the costs associated with running an SMSF. Our study aims to address this paucity of research in relation to SMSF's and has two objectives. First, on a descriptive level we provide evidence on the size and asset allocation of SMSF's. Secondly, on an empirical level, we specify a model of SMSF costs. On a descriptive level we find heterogeneity amongst SMSFs in terms of both size and asset allocation. Further, our empirical analysis suggests cost advantages in running an SMSF. The analysis provides new insights into the fastest growing and largest segment of the Australian $1.83 trillion retirement savings industry and extends prior superannuation studies of both small and large APRA funds to SMSFs.


Millions of people travel daily by public transport in order to reach their destinations. Public transport is often an attractive alternative to traveling by other means such as cars. In daily operation, however, unfortunate delays frequently arise, disrupting the scheduled departure and arrival times of the trains. Even slight delays can result in connection breaks wherein passengers miss their connecting trains because they arrive too late for planned transfers. A considerable number of passengers are consequently faced by delays and their repercussions every day.

This work focuses on the computation of reliable journeys. First, we demonstrate an accurate method of assessing the reliability of train connections. For the assessment of a train connection, we compute the probability of passengers reaching their destinations when taking the train connection; in other words, the probability of the train connection not breaking because of delays. Our method considers the timetable, interdependencies between trains, current delays in the railway network, and stochastic prognoses for the travel times of the trains. Regarding the latter, we use probability distributions which are computed based on tangible historical delay data. The interdependencies between the trains are caused by delay managements; trains wait for the passengers of other delayed trains. Our computational study---which is based on real data---reveals that our reliability assessments are realistic and accurate.

We then address a fundamental problem in planning journeys: arrive in time by train at the destination with a high probability. In addition, to save time, passengers usually desire to commence a journey as late as possible. We present an efficient solution to the described problem. We compute highly reliable train journeys by which the destination can be reached with a high probability of being on time even in case of delays. Such a train journey includes a train connection along with alternative continuations to the destination. The latter are used in case of connection breaks caused by delays. Our optimal approach computes the best choice in enabling the continuance of the journey for each situation that may occur when traveling. Along all possible continuations, the best choice is the continuation with the highest probability of being on time at the destination. The evaluations presented illustrate that the train journeys computed are highly reliable and attractive to passengers even in terms of both travel time and convenience.

State-of-the-art routing systems provide the search for intermodal, door-to-door connections. Beside public transport, passengers use modes of transport such as taxis, car sharing, bike sharing, and individual cars. We extend our method of assessing the reliability of train connections to intermodal connections. Moreover, we discuss approaches to the computation of reliable intermodal connections.

Last, we address the problem of connection breaks late at night; such a situation is frustrating for passengers, particularly if the destination cannot be reached by public transport prior to the end of operations. In such situations, railway companies must offer compensation to ensure the rights of passengers are upheld. We propose a solution to the problem of finding connections to the destination by taking into account the options of taxi rides or overnight stays in hotels. The main objectives are the satisfaction of passengers and cost reductions for the railway company.

The methods and algorithms presented in this work are designed for real, large train networks such as in Germany with more than a million departure and arrival events per day. We use a fully realistic model that represents the timetable and relevant factors which influence train delays. Thus, we compute realistic train journeys which can be used by passengers in order to reach their destinations. Our computational studies are based on real data from the German railway company, Deutsche Bahn AG. The evaluations demonstrate that our approaches deliver promising results, are practicable, and can be integrated into timetable information systems in order to answer large amounts of passenger queries per day.


Shock waves are defined as types of acoustic pressure waves that develop during sudden releases of energy. The best-known natural phenomenon is thunder following lightning. Another example is the "bang" an aircraft produces when it breaks the sound barrier. Both focused shock waves and unfocused sound waves are produced in these examples. Additionally, almost all other forms of energy are released during these natural discharges, including electrical, heat, light, and electromagnetic energy. Since the first medical application of acoustic waves was the disintegration of kidney stones in the early 1980's, high energy, focused shock waves were the first to be studied and understood.


A fused heptacyclic electron acceptor, ITIC5, based on a benzodi(cyclopentadithiophene) core flanked by thiophene-fused termini, is designed, synthesized, and compared with its benzene-fused analogue, ITIC1. ITIC5 with thiophene-fused termini exhibits a narrower optical band gap, stronger and redshifted absorption, and higher electron mobility than ITIC1. The active layer consisting of a wide-bandgap polymer donor J71 and ITIC5 exhibits a smaller acceptor domain, stronger crystallinity, and higher and more balanced mobilities than its J71:ITIC1 counterpart, contributing to efficient exciton dissociation and charge transport. J71:ITIC5 based organic solar cells exhibit a high fill factor of 75.5% and a champion power conversion efficiency of 12.5%, a nearly 40% boost in efficiency with respect to the ITIC1-based control device, suggesting that the thiophene-fused end group has great potential for constructing high-performance fused-ring electron acceptors.


Yao's garbled circuit construction transforms a boolean circuit $C:\{0,1\}^n\to\{0,1\}^m$ into a ``garbled circuit'' $\hat{C}$ along with $n$ pairs of $k$-bit keys, one for each input bit, such that $\hat{C}$ together with the $n$ keys corresponding to an input $x$ reveal $C(x)$ and no additional information about $x$. The garbled circuit construction is a central tool for constant-round secure computation and has several other applications. Motivated by these applications, we suggest an efficient arithmetic variant of Yao's original construction. Our construction transforms an arithmetic circuit $C : \Z^n\to\Z^m$ over integers from a bounded (but possibly exponential)range into a garbled circuit $\hat{C}$ along with $n$ affine functions $L_i : \Z\to \Z^k$ such that $\hat{C}$ together with the $n$ integer vectors $L_i(x_i)$ reveal $C(x)$ and no additional information about $x$. The security of our construction relies on the intractability of the learning with errors (LWE) problem.


This paper is based on a qualitative textbook analysis aiming to investigate what image four selected textbooks, designed for religious education course 1 in Swedish upper secondary school, gives about the Swedish citizen in relation to religion and Christianity, focused on Protestant and Orthodox orientations. And further discuss if it is recognizable and associated with the social context Swedish students live in today. This by examining how the textbooks describe religion, the contemporary religiosity in Sweden and the construction of Christian Protestants in relation to Orthodox Christians . The material was analyzed in relation to previous research, and this papers theoretical basis based on new published literature distributing with contemporary perspectives on the religious landscape - private religiosity in a globalized society and young people's ability to create meaning, the postsecular Swedes and understanding of religion and Christianity in the postsecular classroom. The contemporary religious understanding and production of the religious human, and in this case exactly Christian Protestants and Orthodox, do not seem to be associated with the social context that Swedish students live in today. The lack of education of contemporary religiosity perspective, and the maintaining of social power structures demands for a critical discussion about the didactic challenges in Swedish religious education.


Luster is a metal glass nanocomposite layer first produced in the Middle East in early Islamic times (9th AD) made of metal copper or silver nanoparticles embedded in a silica-based glassy matrix. These nanoparticles are produced by ion exchange between Cu+ and Ag+ and alkaline ions from the glassy matrix and further growth in a reducing atmosphere. The most striking property of luster is its capability of reflecting light like a continuous metal layer and it was unexpectedly found to be linked to one single production parameter: the presence of lead in the glassy matrix composition. The purpose of this article is to describe the characteristics and differences of the nanoparticle layers developed on lead rich and lead free glasses. Copper luster layers obtained using the ancient recipes and methods are analyzed by means of elastic ion backscattering spectroscopy associated with other analytical techniques. The depth profile of the different elements is determined, showing that the luster layer formed in ...


The presented investigations are continuation of earlier researches performed in the Institute of Turbomachinery (Lodz University of Technology, Poland). The main aim of this paper is to investigate the acoustics properties of the chosen configuration of a flow set–up consisting of two coaxial counter–rotating rotors. Description and analysis of measurements are presented. As a consequence, conclusions about possibility of noise reduction of such a system are presented. According to the EU Directives, the main areas of application are multi–purpose helicopters with two coaxial counter–rotating rotors, drones and future passenger–aircrafts with next–generation aeroengines.


In an article just published in the Yale Law Journal, Professor John Langbein argues for abolition of the "no-further-inquiry" rule. This rule has, for close to two hundred years, prohibited a trustee from engaging personally in transactions with the trust, unless the trustee obtains advance approval from a court or beneficiaries. Langbein contends that the rule deters trustee behavior that benefits trust beneficiaries, and urges substitution of a "best interest" defense that mirrors rules currently applied to corporate fiduciaries. Langbein's analysis, however, fails to recognize that trustees of private express trusts face fewer incentives to act in the financial interest of trust beneficiaries than do other parties who face conflicts of interest. Trust beneficiaries are typically poor monitors of trustee behavior; beneficiaries have few opportunities to exit from the trust relationship; and market forces play a much more limited role in disciplining trustee behavior than they do in the case of the corporate fiduciary. The no-further-inquiry rule, with its bright-line prohibition and its advance approval requirement, compensates for the unique vulnerability of trust beneficiaries. The rule responds to the significant prospect of underdeterrence. This problem is inadequately addressed by a "best interest" defense, and is far more significant than the overdeterrence problem on which Langbein focuses. Judicial and legislative recognition of limited exceptions to the no-further-inquiry rule provides no evidence that the rule has outlived its usefulness. Instead, some of the exceptions are entirely consistent with the rule's rationale, while more recent exceptions reflect the lobbying power of the banking industry, not the inefficiency of the long-established rule.


A broad bandwidth and high gain rectangular patch antenna was specifically designed in this paper using planar-patterned metamaterial concepts. Based on an ordinary patch antenna, the antenna has isolated triangle gaps and crossed strip-line gaps etched on the metal patch and ground plane, respectively. Demonstrated to have left-handed characteristics, the patterned metal patch and finite ground plane form a coupled capacitive-inductive circuit of negative index metamaterial. It is shown to have great impact on the antenna performance enhancement in terms of the bandwidth significantly broadened from a few hundred megahertz to a few gigahertz, and also in terms of high efficiency, low loss, and low voltage standing wave ratio. Experimental data show a reasonably good agreement between the simulation and measured results. This antenna has strong radiation in the horizontal direction for some specific applications within the entire band.

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/148587/files/APL2010 2-column by Joshua Li.pdf


Cattle poorly adapted to their environment result in lost revenue and jeopardize the stability of the food supply. Genomic data now allows us to rigorously analyze adaptations and avoid the generation of animals that will not thrive. We used selection scans for local adaptation, genotype-by-environment genome-wide association analyses, creation of hair shedding genomic predictions and environmental region-specific genomic predictions of growth traits to characterize and predict local adaptation in beef cattle. Analyzing ~40,000 cattle from three breed associations with ~850,000 high-accuracy imputed SNPs, we used novel selection mapping methods to identify genomic loci responsible for adaptation. We identify 19 different loci (harboring 24 annotated genes) as responding to selection to local adaptation. In cooperation with 74 producers across the United States, over 12,000 cattle were scored on a scale of 1–5 for the early-summer hair shedding phenotype in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Participating cattle were genotyped using the GGP-F250 SNP panel developed by the University of Missouri, which contains ~170,000 candidate functional variants and ~30,000 variants in common with beef cattle industry standard genotyping assays. Genomic breeding values were generated with a repeated records model using these phenotypes. Further, we identified loci with large allele substitution effects for hair shedding. When local adaptations exist, ranking animals using a regional genetic evaluation will be different from national cattle evaluations. We developed region-specific genomic predictions using a multivariate model in which phenotypes from different regions were fit as separate dependent variables. Genetic correlations between regions were moderate, indicating substantial re-ranking between environmental regions. These genomic predictions will allow rapid identification of cattle best suited to an environment.


ABSTRACT Burkholderia pseudomallei is a soil-dwelling saprophyte and the causative agent of melioidosis, a life-threatening human infection. Most cases are reported from northeast Thailand and northern Australia. Using multilocus sequence typing (MLST), we have compared (i) soil and invasive isolates from northeast Thailand and (ii) invasive isolates from Thailand and Australia. A total of 266 Thai B. pseudomallei isolates were characterized (83 soil and 183 invasive). These corresponded to 123 sequence types (STs), the most abundant being ST70 (n = 21), ST167 (n = 15), ST54 (n = 12), and ST58 (n = 11). Two clusters of related STs (clonal complexes) were identified; the larger clonal complex (CC48) did not conform to a simple pattern of radial expansion from an assumed ancestor, while a second (CC70) corresponded to a simple radial expansion from ST70. Despite the large number of STs, overall nucleotide diversity was low. Of the Thai isolates, those isolated from patients with melioidosis were overrepresented in the 10 largest clones (P < 0.0001). There was a significant difference in the classification index between environmental and disease isolates (P < 0.001), confirming that genotypes were not distributed randomly between the two samples. MLST profiles for 158 isolates from Australia (mainly disease associated) contained a number of STs (96) similar to that seen with the Thai invasive isolates, but no ST was found in both populations. There were also differences in diversity and allele frequency distribution between the two populations. This analysis reveals strong genetic differentiation on the basis of geographical isolation and a significant differentiation on the basis of virulence potential.


University as an institution has been always co-created by expectations and needs of social surrounding. The crisis of the contemporary university and the decay of academic culture is due, on one hand, to the changes of the basic institutions of late modernity, such as state, economic firms and mass media, and on the other, to changes of the very science that facilitate the transformation of scientists from scholars to experts. An answer to all those changes is the emergence of audit culture that replaces the traditional forms of social control in academic milieu but also give rise to some pathological behaviors. The longing for the past academic culture may hamper an effort to built a new one, based on adequate diagnosis and moral responsibility for the society.


Despite growing alarm over the nation's nonmarital birth rate (41%), particularly its links with economic disadvantages, child outcomes and class divisions, federal and state policies have changed little over the past several decades. But a new wave of qualitative and quantitative research on disadvantaged single mothers offers clues regarding what is driving their choices regarding sexual activity, reproduction, and nonmarital birth rates. This paper offers a review and analysis of the leading research in this area and concludes that policymakers have overlooked an important component of single-mothers' behavior: its "community-facing" aspect. It appears that disadvantaged younger women regularly base their decisions about sex and pregnancy in an important way upon their desires both to create community, and to attain a status in the wider community as a recognized "good citizen." The very few state-sponsored sex education or "youth development" programs with even moderately successful track records regarding nonmarital births tend to incorporate women's community-facing orientation into their messages. But most state programs – whether headlined "abstinence" or "comprehensive sex education" programs -- do not. They rather assume that the young woman is oriented almost exclusively toward maximizing her own self-interest. This paper will propose ways in which the state might respect single women's community-facing orientation and aspirations, and incorporate these more effectively into its speech and its programs treating nonmarital sex and pregnancy.


When first secreted the radula consists of chitin and protein. In the bases and cusps of the teeth the reactions for tyrosine, tryptophane, and chitin become negative, and are replaced by reactions for amino groups and argentaffin material. The bases of the teeth become impregnated with iron. Subsequently the reactions for amino groups and argentaffin material become negative in the cusps and they then become impregnated with iron and silica. Very few changes have been observed in the radular membrane. It is suggested that the occurrence of quinone tanning might account for these histochemical changes observed in the radula, but phenols derived from tryptophane would appear to be more important in the tanning of the radula than those derived from tyrosine.


Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is an attractive
modulation method for channels with a non-flat frequency response. as it saves the need
for complex equalizers. However. its main disadvantage is the high peak-to-average
power ratio (PAPR) of the output signal. which may take values within a range that is
proportional to the number of carriers in the system. As a result, a linear behavior of the
system over a large dynamic range is needed and therefore the efficiency of the output
amplifier is reduced. Many methods have been proposed to reduce the PAPR of the
OFDM signal. among them a clipping technique which has been focused and
investigated.OFDM signal, among them a clipping technique which has been focused and
investigated.
This thesis proposes a new scheme to reduce the PAPR. We name it Off technique.
Further the effects of clipping scheme as well as the new scheme on the OFDM system
performance in terms of Bit Error Rate (BER) and PAPR reduction is investigated. The
results obtained indicate that both parameters, i .e. the reduction in PAPR and BER of
this scheme were worse than those of the Clipping Scheme. In conclusion, results
indicate that Off Technique does not offer a better solution to PAPR reduction in the
OFDM system.


This is a guide on how to use the George T. Potter Library and its resources. It is intended to help Prof. Nicole Pacheco's students to find useful resources for their research.


In this article, European enlargement will be analyzed with specific reference to the Turkish case. Instead of goal-oriented and rationalcomprehensive approaches, incrementalism and process-driven approaches will be employed. Based on these analytical tools, it will be argued that delay is not a problem but an opportunity for any solution based on democratic negotiation. In addition to this basic assumption, in this study it will also be put forth that incremental policies may cause major policy changes and that technical issues can hardly be separated from politics.


Knowledge, Organizational Evolution, and Market Creation documents the emergence of the Indian multinational by looking at data from firms in the 'old' economy, such as those in manufacturing, steel-making, automotive components and heavy machinery and the 'new economy' such as software and biotechnology. The author provides insights on knowledge transfer, innovation and capability building processes through in-depth case studies in these industries and suggests that both entrepreneurship and distributed innovation are critical for the growth of firms globally.


Statistical arbitrage, or sometimes called pairs trading, is an investment strategy which exploits the historical price relationships between two or several assets and profits from relative mispricing. It has a long history in hedge fund industry and variates of this kind of strategies are still profitable nowadays. The idea is simple and the source of the profit has support from fundamentals in economics and pricing theories. However, there are still many difficulties in implementing and testing such strategies in real life, which include how to select pairs, how to estimate hedge ratio, when to enter, when to exit and etc. Due to its proprietary nature, there is very few literature on this subject. This thesis is an attempt to demystify statistical arbitrage in high-frequency settings, using freely available data of Chinese commodity futures. This thesis introduces and discusses the existing research done on this subject. Also, with the help of advanced statistical inference approaches for treating time series, this thesis proposed a new model which generalizes the entire process of creating a profitable statistical arbitrage trading strategy for a given market. Several different approaches are implemented and their simulated performances in the Chinese commodity future market are compared horizontally. Unlike much other existing literature, transaction costs and market frictions have been considered thoroughly in order to make the research result more meaningful. Empirical results show that our new model delivers very competitive performance in online hedge ratio estimation.


Densities of layer 2 basalt recovered during the Deep Sea Drilling Project have been found to decrease steadily with age, a finding ascribed to progressive submarine weathering in the context of sea-floor spreading. The least-squares solution for 52 density measurements gives a rate of decrease in density of Δρ/Δ t = −0.46 × 10 −2 g per cm 3 m.y. = −16 percent per 100 m.y., which is in excellent agreement with earlier estimates based on observed chemical depletion rates of dredged oceanic basalt. Weathering of sea-floor basalt, should it penetrate to any considerable depth in layer 2, will decrease layer 2 seismic refraction velocities, act as a source of geothermal heat, and substantially influence the chemistry of sea water and the overlying column of sediment.


In this dissertation, we show how a relatively simple and extremely fast interprocedural optimization algorithm can be used to optimize many of the expensive features of statically typed, object-oriented languages--in particular, C++ and Java.
We present a new program analysis algorithm, Rapid Type Analysis, and show that it is fast both in theory and in practice, and significantly out-performs other "fast" algorithms for virtual function call resolution.
We present optimization algorithms for the resolution of virtual function calls, conversion of virtual inheritance to direct inheritance, elimination of dynamic casts and dynamic type checks, and removal of object synchronization. These algorithms are all presented within a common framework that allows them to be driven by the information collected by Rapid Type Analysis, or by some other type analysis algorithm.
Collectively, the optimizations in this dissertation free the programmer from having to sacrifice modularity and extensibility for performance. Instead, the programmer can freely make use of the most powerful features of object-oriented programming, since the optimizer will remove unnecessary extensibility from the program.


The brain is easily able to process and categorize complex time-varying signals. For example, the two sentences, "It is cold in London this time of year" and "It is hot in London this time of year," have different meanings, even though the words hot and cold appear several seconds before the ends of the two sentences. Any network that can tell these sentences apart must therefore have a long temporal memory. In other words, the current state of the network must depend on events that happened several seconds ago. This is a difficult task, as neurons are dominated by relatively short time constants—tens to hundreds of milliseconds. Nevertheless, it was recently proposed that randomly connected networks could exhibit the long memories necessary for complex temporal processing. This is an attractive idea, both for its simplicity and because little tuning of recurrent synaptic weights is required. However, we show that when connectivity is high, as it is in the mammalian brain, randomly connected networks cannot exhibit temporal memory much longer than the time constants of their constituent neurons.


With reference to the aricle on 'Association of B 12 deficiency and clinical neuropathy with metformin use in type 2 diabetes patients, we would like to put forth our views. [1] The article by itself has no new message. Several studies have examined this association and the mechanisms involved. In addition, the design used by the authors may not be sufficient to prove a cause-effect relationship. Exhaustion of vitamin B 12 stores usually occurs after 12 - 15 years of absolute vitamin B 12 deficiency. Hence, the duration of therapy with metformin is an important parameter to be considered. In addition, the authors have not compared the duration of diabetes among those taking metformin versus those not taking metformin, although they mention that data regarding the duration of diabetes had been collected. The duration of disease is thus a major confounding factor, as it increases the chances of peripheral neuropathy, which by itself is a complication of the disease. Hence, two groups must be comparable with regard to duration of disease too. Many diabetic patients are also likely to receive vitamin supplementation, which has not been addressed. Absorption of the vitamin B 12 -intrinsic factor complex is calcium-dependent and metformin interferes with this absorption. In support of this hypothesis, there is evidence that dietary calcium supplementation reverses metformin-induced vitaminB 12 malabsorption. [2] Hence, patients taking calcium supplementation also need to have been excluded. Similarly, there are many other medications that can cause vitamin B 12 deficiency. Also, the use of the Toronto Clinical Scoring system (TCSS) does not address bias adequately (Investigator blinded only to the laboratory results, but not to the group allocation). Another finding is that the number of patients having neuropathy was much more than the number of patients having vitamin B 12 deficiency (44 vs. 25 in the metformin-treated group). This discrepancy definitely points to other causes of peripheral neuropathy in these patients, as expected (diabetic neuropathy). [Figure 1] in the article has shown the correlation of cumulative doses of metformin with vitamin B 12 deficiency with out mention of the unit.


Economic life in the PRC today is marked by rapid privatization, marketization, and urbanization. This triad of forces effects a profound restructuring of China's urban spaces and is giving rise to new forms of private, voluntary associations of citizens such as neighborhood campaigns of resistance to urban redevelopment. Civil society theory ascribes to such organizations outside of state control, the potential to constrain government officials by enabling citizens to express their collective interests more effectively, and to resist government encroachment more powerfully than they otherwise could. Because resort to China's courts has produced little protection for citizens' formal legal rights in the event of forced demolition, relocation, and compensation, urban homeowners have resorted to extra-legal modes of resistance including protests, petitions, and confrontations - some of them deadly. This article assesses the potential to construct an 'accountable development' frame as a set of strategies to channel resentment and resistance into bargained-for development agreements - situations between the market and the state, neither anti-regimist nor stymied by the 'turn from law.'


This paper presents a structural debt valuation model that links default probabilities and recovery rates of corporate securities to asset market liquidity. This linking is advantageous for risk management and regulation of financial institutions in that it provides a method of calibrating the relationship between probability of default (PD) and loss given default (LGD). Two innovations in the paper are the placing of the default point in a model of debt valuation into general equilibrium and conditioning this point on market factors such as asset liquidity. These allow one to derive implications on the correlation between various components of the model. Specifically, it finds two relationships between the probability of default (PD) and loss given default (LGD) of a debt instrument; temporal correlations are positive and cross-sectional ones negative. Such findings confirm the intuition of existing reduced form approaches and provide the ability to inspect other properties of the relationship that derive from theory. For example, one can use the model to forecast LGD. Some empirical validation of the theoretical results is provided.


Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) is the major drawback in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) systems, which may result in signal distortion, loss of orthogonality in OFDM signals etc. Hence it is the most concerned problem in OFDM systems, which has to be reduced. Of all the available PAPR reduction techniques, Partial Transmit Sequence (PTS) scheme is the most efficient and attractive one. But, the original PTS scheme requires large computations in order to transmit the optimum signal with low PAPR from all available combinations of candidate signals. This paper proposes a new efficient PTS scheme which utilizes the correlation property among all available candidate signals to reduce the computational complexity.


Shape memory effects in shape memory polyurethane (SMPU) are due to a network architecture formed by phase separation. Here we study the phase domain architectures of a series of SMPUs by dissipative particle dynamics simulations with different hard segment contents (HSC, 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI) and 1,4-butanediol (BDO)). By simulation, an evolutionary 3D netpoint-switch-frame unit-cell model is established. With the increase of HSCs, from our simulated massive data, the MDI phase develops a framework with netpoints evolving from spheres, to linked-spheres, to linked-cylinders, and then to linked-bi-crossing-cylinders at the nanoscale, while the PCL as the switch evolves from a filling-matrix, to linked-layers, to tri-crossing-cylinders, and then to linked-bi-crossing cylinders. The BDO does not show regular shape, but acts as an inter-phase between PCL and MDI, which supports the formation of a more perfect framework. This work verifies existing data, integrates reported schematic models and extends openings for the structural and performance design of smart materials.


A proper method to assess contractor competitiveness is important both for assisting clients in the selection of proper contractors and for assisting contractors in the development of more competitive bidding strategies. Previous studies have identified various indicators for assessing contractor competitiveness, and several assessment methods have been introduced. Nevertheless, these studies are limited because they are unable to tell which indicators are more important in different market environments. This paper identifies the key competitiveness indicators (KCIs) for assessing contractor competitiveness in the Chinese construction market. An index value is used to indicate the relative significance of various competitiveness indicators based on which KCIs are identified. The data applied in this study are from a survey of the construction industry in mainland China. The research findings provide valuable information for both existing businesses and the construction professionals who plan to compete for construction works in the Chinese market. The study provides useful references for further studies that compare the KCIs used in the Chinese construction industry and those used in other construction industries.


We consider a network in which a set of vehicles is responsible for picking up and delivering messages that arrive according to Poisson process with pickup and delivery location distributed in certain region uniformly at random. The vehicles are required to pickup and deliver the messages so that the average delay is minimized. In our previous work, we examined the benefits of vehicle control on the message delay. Specifically, we obtained optimal delay scaling where each message was required to be picked up and delivered by the same vehicle. Motivated by application to wireless networks, in this paper we remove this restriction and allow the vehicles to relay message between them. Specifically, we consider two relay methods. The first requires vehicles to relay messages directly to each other using a synchronous rendezvous schedule while the other utilizes an infinite capacity depot to store relayed messages. Under both relay models, we characterize the minimal delay scaling which demonstrates that relaying helps in reducing delay further. Surprisingly, the optimal delay scaling is achieved with only one relay per message. We note that our results naturally apply to the classical vehicle routing setup as well as to a wireless communication network. Specifically, our results suggest that the delay reduction can be very significant in a controlled relay network


preventing it from spreading. The five-year survival rate of patients in whom oral cancer was detected before it metastasized stands at 80 per cent, while patients with distant metastases survive at a rate of 20 per cent over the same period of time. The goal of early detection is to identify oral cancer before it becomes malignant or before it spreads to other areas of the body. Because they are responsible for their patients' oral health, dentists retain an extremely important role in detecting oral cancer early on. By understanding the risk factors, indications, and examination procedures for oral cancer, dentists can recommend potentially life-saving diagnostic surgery. By realising where they fit into the process of detecting oral cancer, dentists can potentially save patients' lives.


We present an efficient proof system for Multipoint Arithmetic Circuit Evaluation: for every arithmetic circuit $C(x_1,\ldots,x_n)$ of size $s$ and degree $d$ over a field ${\mathbb F}$, and any inputs $a_1,\ldots,a_K \in {\mathbb F}^n$,
$\bullet$ the Prover sends the Verifier the values $C(a_1), \ldots, C(a_K) \in {\mathbb F}$ and a proof of $\tilde{O}(K \cdot d)$ length, and
$\bullet$ the Verifier tosses $\textrm{poly}(\log(dK|{\mathbb F}|/\varepsilon))$ coins and can check the proof in about $\tilde{O}(K \cdot(n + d) + s)$ time, with probability of error less than $\varepsilon$.
For small degree $d$, this "Merlin-Arthur" proof system (a.k.a. MA-proof system) runs in nearly-linear time, and has many applications. For example, we obtain MA-proof systems that run in $c^{n}$ time (for various $c < 2$) for the Permanent, $\#$Circuit-SAT for all sublinear-depth circuits, counting Hamiltonian cycles, and infeasibility of $0$-$1$ linear programs. In general, the value of any polynomial in Valiant's class ${\sf VP}$ can be certified faster than "exhaustive summation" over all possible assignments. These results strongly refute a Merlin-Arthur Strong ETH and Arthur-Merlin Strong ETH posed by Russell Impagliazzo and others.
We also give a three-round (AMA) proof system for quantified Boolean formulas running in $2^{2n/3+o(n)}$ time, nearly-linear time MA-proof systems for counting orthogonal vectors in a collection and finding Closest Pairs in the Hamming metric, and a MA-proof system running in $n^{k/2+O(1)}$-time for counting $k$-cliques in graphs.
We point to some potential future directions for refuting the Nondeterministic Strong ETH.


OBJECTIVE
We examined whether an art-based occupation group using scrapbooking in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) would reduce parent stress, operationalized as anxiety. We also wanted to understand the parents' lived experience of the group.

METHOD
Forty parents from a Level 3 NICU in a large metropolitan hospital participated. We administered the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory preactivity and postactivity along with a brief interview.

RESULTS
The decline in parents' mean state anxiety (12.7 points, SD = 11.8; p < .0001) was clinically significant. The decline in mean trait anxiety (2.6 points, SD = 5.2; p = .0036) was statistically significant but not clinically meaningful. Parents said that participation offered distraction and engagement, pleasure, relaxation, a sense of hope, and an opportunity to share.

CONCLUSION
An art-based occupation group using scrapbooking was an effective brief intervention to reduce parent anxiety in the neonatal intensive care unit; parent interviews suggested that participation has broad clinical implications for parent well-being.


This paper is an evaluation of the income management program introduced as part of the Northern Territory Emergency Response that was announced in June 2007. The report is structured around key evaluation questions exploring how well the income management program was implemented and administered, and whether it was achieving its objectives. The evaluation used quantitative data from a client survey and qualitative data from focus groups of key stakeholders, as well as telephone surveys of community store operators, a survey of Government Business Managers and a qualitative report on community consultations.


The genetic factors influencing coronary artery disease (CAD) remain poorly defined. Wang et al. studied a large family with high incidence of a vascular condition resembling CAD, which in most of the cases led to myocardial infarction. A genome-wide linkage analysis identified an autosomal dominant locus that included MEF2A, an endothelial transcription factor that is thought to participate in vascular development. A deletion-mutation within MEF2A that conferred altered cellular distribution of the protein specifically segregated with genes of family members having the CAD-like vascular condition. It remains to be seen whether the MEF2A pathway plays a role in the common form of CAD resulting from atherosclerosis. L. Wang, C. Fan, S. E. Topol, E. J. Topol, Q. Wang, Mutation of MEF2A in an inherited disorder with features of coronary artery disease. Science 302, 1578-1581 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Human resources professionals are entrusted, perhaps more than any other corporate designates, with the well-being of their organization's population. They bridge the gaps between the individual and the collective, the person and the purpose. The most successful and effective HR professionals see their careers as a calling, and their work, though driven by corporate goals, is graced by a sense of purpose, a profound generosity, and a love for what they do and the constituencies they serve. HR from the Heart is a book for HR practitioners who love their jobs-or want to. Libby Sartain, one of the country's top human resources executives, reveals how HR professionals create a synergy between business objectives and the needs and wants of employees. This inspiring book is equal parts motivational message and how-to, confessional and career guide. Filled with stories from Sartain's considerable experience, HR from the Heart offers a first-hand perspective on forging relationships, selling HR to the company, taking diversity beyond "by the book," keeping policy in perspective, and more-all while making the right career moves, staying engaged, and forwarding the strategic goals of the company.


The present investigation was based on the assessment of serum protein profiles of type 1 and type 2 diabetics, by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). These were then compared with two groups of controls; the negative controls included the non diabetic subjects with negative clinical and family history of diabetes, whereas, the positive controls included the non diabetic subjects with positive family history of type 1 diabetes mellitus (positive controls type 10M) or the non diabetic subjects with positive family history of type 2' diabetes mellitus (positive controls type 2 DM). Moreover, the subjects included in the positive controls category showed either the normal glucose tolerance (NGT) or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). The study was further elaborated to the assessment of serum protein profiles of five different families extended over three generations including the diabetics, normal glucose tolerance and impaired glucose tolerance subjects. In these families, both type 1 and type 2 OM was prevalent.

Healthy volunteers were contacted at their residences, for blood sampling, whereas, the affected subjects were sampled at the diabetic clinic of Social Security Hospital, Lahore where they had been visiting for the treatment of diabetes. The management of the said hospital also kindly cooperated to approach the families whose any member/s had already been visiting the hospital for the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes. Five of these families agreed to cooperate for blood sampling of all of their members, whether diabetic or non diabetic, extending over three generations.

All of the subjects sampled for the study were, first of all, assessed for their random and fasting glycemia to categorize them as healthy with NGT, IGT subjects and the diabetics according to the criteria presented by American Diabetes Association in 1997.

Sera samples were then electrophoresed. by SDS-PAGE, to resolve the protein fractions of high and low molecular weights thus to locate the fraction/s expressing any relationship of their appearance or disappearance and of a significant alteration. particularly, to the type of DM.

Following electrophoresis, the resolved protein fractions were quantified by gel documentation system which provided the data of molecular weight and percent raw volume for each of the fractions. The- data was analyzed statistically and employed in finding the enhancement/reduction and appearance/disappearance of particular protein fraction/s, for comparison among the healthy and the diabetics.

The prominent high molecular weight fractions expressed in the sera were 190, 160, 120, 78, 66, 54 and 43 kDa and notable low molecular weight fractions resolved were 28, 23, 20, 17, 14.5 and 14.2 kDa. Out of these, the fractions showing noticeable variations were electro eluted and run on isoelectric focusing gels, in second dimension, to determine their isoelectric points. The data of molecular weights and isoelectric points was then employed in the identification of protein fractions.

A noticeable enhancement in 120 kDa (C-reactive protein) fraction's expression was observed in most of the subjects of positive controls type 1 (both NGT and IGT) category and in type 1 diabetics. Type 2 diabetics and their positive controls (both NGT and IGT) also exhibited a trend of elevation of C-reactive protein (CRP). The elevation of CRP in most of the non diabetic first degree relatives of diabetics may indicate a sign towards the progression of diabetes in these subjects.

Serum albumin, recognized as 66 kDa protein fraction, was found to be the dominant fraction of the profile. The fraction exhibited a noticeable decline in both type 1 and type 2 diabetics, however, it did not vary considerably in the first degree relatives, termed as positive controls, of both type 1 and type 2 diabetics.

The 23 kDa protein fraction, detected as apolipoprotein A-1 (apo A-1) demonstrated a pronounced reduction in fraction's expression in both type I and type 2 diabetics as well as their non diabetic first degree relatives (both NGT and IGT subjects) indicating the chances for the future development of diabetes in these subjects.

The protein fraction of 20 kDa, identified to be the retinol binding protein (RBP), was found to be totally vanished in most of the type I diabetics and their first degree relatives considered as positive controls type 1 where fraction failed to manifest in all of the IGT and most of the NGT subjects. Hence, RBP may be regarded as the marker protein of type 1 diabetes and its disappearance in first degree relatives of type 1 diabetics strongly suggests that this protein could be employed in early detection of type 1 diabetes. Type 2 diabetics and their positive controls, on the other hand, did not indicate any significant alteration in fraction's expression further stressing upon this protein to be a marker for the identification as well as early prediction of type 1 diabetes.

The fraction of 14.5 kDa, detected as transthyrein, indicated either a very low expression or was totally unexpressed in most of the type I diabetics and their positive controls. Type 2 diabetics and their positive control IGT subjects also exhibited a similar trend with the exception of NGT positive controls type 2 where the fraction demonstrated its normal appearance. The fraction of 14.2 kDa could not be identified, however, exhibited its normal appearance in type 1 diabetics and their positive controls. In case of positive controls of type 2 DM, the NGT subjects did not show any significant variation, whereas, IGT subjects demonstrated very low levels of the fraction suggesting gradual progression of these subjects towards the development of type 2 DM. A pronounced decline in fraction's intensity and its absence in longer duration type 2 diabetics specified further the association of fraction's behavior with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The present study investigates the correlation of symptomatic and also of asymptomatic diabetes mellitus and its various types to the resolved protein patterns by gel electrophoresis. in serum samples from the patients. The marker proteins detected with prove helpful in early diagnosis of the disease, in non affected relatives of the diabetics, and can allow timely remedial measures and better management in the affected subjects.


This thesis details the development of a computer system (labelled the SLARTI system) capable of recognising a subset of signs from Auslan (the sign language of the Australian Deaf community), based on the pattern classification paradigm of artificial neural networks.

The research discussed in this work has two main streams. The first is the creation of a practical sign classification system, suitable for use within a sign language training system or other applications based on hand gestures. The second is an exploration of the suitability of neural networks for the creation of a real-time classification system with the ability to process temporal patterns.

Sign languages such as Auslan are the primary form of communication between members of the Deaf community. However these languages are not widely known outside of these communities, and hence a communications barrier can exist between Deaf and hearing people. The techniques for recognising signs developed in this research allow the creation of systems which can help to eliminate this barrier, either by providing computer tools to assist in the learning of sign language, or potentially the creation of portable sign-language-to-speech translation systems.

Artificial neural networks have proved to be an extremely useful approach to pattern classification tasks, but much of the research in this field has concentrated on relatively simple problems. Attempting to apply these networks to a complex real-world problem such as sign language recognition exposed a range of issues affecting this classification technique. The development of the SLARTI system inspired the creation of several new techniques related to neural networks, which have general applicability beyond this particular application. This thesis includes discussion of techniques related to issues such as input encoding, improving network generalisation, training recurrent networks and developing modular, extensible neural systems.


Whether a system of imagery for olfaction exists is currently an unsettled issue. Moreover, the dimensions underlying odor perception have eluded researchers for many years. Two experiments bearing on these issues are presented. In one experiment, a group of 32 undergraduates rated the similarity of pairs of 16 commonplace odorants (e.g., chocolate and leather) they perceived using scratch and sniff stimuli; in another, a different group of 44 undergraduates was asked to imagine and then rate the similarity of the same pairs of odors. Multidimensional scaling of the data suggests that three-dimensional solutions with similar stimulus dimensions, such as fruitiness, strength, and familiarity, underlied the ratings of both perceived and imagined odors. By finding that similar dimensions define the psychological space of both the imagery and the perception tasks, this study suggests that imagery does indeed exist for olfaction.


This paper provides an embedded Ethernet system for controlling and monitoring the electrical device at home from anywhere by a specific web application share on the internet. Our solution works on a standard Local Area Network (LAN) using a specially designed hardware interfaced with an Embedded Ethernet System using Microcontroller. This system can access and detect the status of any electrical appliance through specially designed web site using any PC or phone with network access. Digital camera can be used for special monitoring purposes if expected event detected by the motion sensor.


There is little doubt that cities can provide many benefits, such as greater employment and business opportunities, which tend to result in higher income and wealth for urban households. In addition, there may be a number of non-pecuniary benefits, including greater access to education, infrastructure and services. But these benefits are accompanied by an urban premium on house prices, thus possibly affecting the composition of the asset portfolios of households living in different locations. Using a recent cross-section of wealth data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey we test whether urbanisation, when controlling for other factors, has a significant effect on the share of assets that households hold in housing. For owner-occupiers, the effect is found to be significant and positive, suggesting that housing is more expensive in larger cities even once we allow for the higher incomes and asset holdings of these households. In fact, the effect is quite large with a 100 person per square kilometre increase in urbanisation increasing the share of assets held in the home by 0.4 percentage points, on average. Further, we find that this effect is not linear but declines at higher levels of urbanisation. Hence, for example, for an average owner-occupier household moving from Cairns to Brisbane city – an increase in urbanisation of around 2 000 persons per square kilometre – the increase in their housing share of total assets is estimated to be 5.6 percentage points.


This is a graduate text introducing the fundamentals of measure theory and integration theory, which is the foundation of modern real analysis. The text focuses first on the concrete setting of Lebesgue measure and the Lebesgue integral (which in turn is motivated by the more classical concepts of Jordan measure and the Riemann integral), before moving on to abstract measure and integration theory, including the standard convergence theorems, Fubini's theorem, and the Caratheodory extension theorem. Classical differentiation theorems, such as the Lebesgue and Radamacher differentiation theorems, are also covered, as are connections with probability theory. The material is intended to cover a quarter or semester's worth of material for a first graduate course in real analysis. There is an emphasis in the text on tying together the abstract and the concrete sides of the subject, using the latter to illustrate and motivate the former. The central role of key principles (such as Littlewood's three principles) as providing guiding intuition to the subject is also emphasised. There are a large number of exercises throughout that develop key aspects of the theory, and are thus an integral component of the text. As a supplementary section, a discussion of general problem-solving strategies in analysis is also given. The last three sections discuss optional topics related to the main matter of the book.


Radar Expert, Esteemed Author Gregory L. Charvat on CNN and CBS Author Gregory L. Charvat appeared on CNN on March 17, 2014 to discuss whether Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 might have literally flown below the radar. He appeared again on CNN on March 20, 2014 to explain the basics of radar, and he explored the hope and limitations of the technology involved in the search for Flight 370 on CBS on March 22, 2014. Get His Book Now Coupling theory with reality, from derivation to implementation of actual radar systems, Small and Short-Range Radar Systems analyzes and then provides design procedures and working design examples of small and short-range radar systems. Discussing applications from automotive to through-wall imaging, autonomous vehicle, and beyond, the practical text supplies high-level descriptions, theoretical derrivations, back-of-envelope calculations, explanations of processing algorithms, and case studies for each type of small radar system covered, including continuous wave (CW), ultrawideband (UWB) impulse, linear frequency modulation (FM), linear rail synthetic aperture radar (SAR), and phased array. This essential reference: Explains how to design your own radar devices Demonstrates how to process data from small radar sensors Provides real-world, measured radar data to test algorithms before investing development time Complete with downloadable MATLAB scripts and actual radar measurements, Small and Short-Range Radar Systems empowers you to rapidly develop small radar technology for your application.


It is well known that, for a linear program (LP) with constraint matrix $\mathbf{A}\in\mathbb{R}^{m\times n}$, the Alternating Direction Method of Multiplier converges globally and linearly at a rate $O((\|\mathbf{A}\|_F^2+mn)\log(1/\epsilon))$. However, such a rate is related to the problem dimension and the algorithm exhibits a slow and fluctuating ``tail convergence'' in practice. In this paper, we propose a new variable splitting method of LP and prove that our method has a convergence rate of $O(\|\mathbf{A}\|^2\log(1/\epsilon))$. The proof is based on simultaneously estimating the distance from a pair of primal dual iterates to the optimal primal and dual solution set by certain residuals. In practice, we result in a new first-order LP solver that can exploit both the sparsity and the specific structure of matrix $\mathbf{A}$ and a significant speedup for important problems such as basis pursuit, inverse covariance matrix estimation, L1 SVM and nonnegative matrix factorization problem compared with current fastest LP solvers.


Dinosaurs and Dung Beetles is a story about my son, Jordan, who was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome just before his seventh birthday. It explores the distress he experienced in his first eighteen months of schooling and my initial attempt to 'fix' him so that he'd fit in. The story follows the blossoming of Jordan's uniqueness. It also examines the path I took towards understanding and accepting my son just as he is. This included challenging the hegemony of normalcy and assumptions I'd internalised about 'bad' mothers causing 'problematic' children. I can relax and enjoy Jordan's company so much more when this debris is removed from our relationship.


Visualize This isa guide on how to visualize and tell stories with data, providing practical design tips complemented with step-by-step tutorials. It begins with a description of the huge growth of data and visualization in industry, news, and gov't and opportunities for those who tell stories with data. Logically it moves on to actual stories in data-statistical ones with trends and human stories. the technical part comes up quickly with how to gather, parse and format data with Python, R, Excel, Google docs, etc and details tools to visualize data-native graphics for the Web like ActionScript, Flash libraries, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML. Every chapter provides an example as well. Patterns over time and kinds of data charts are followed by proportions, chart types and examples. Next, examples and descriptions of outliers and how to show them, different kinds of maps, how to guide your readers and explain the data "in the visualization". The book ends with a value-add appendix on graphical perception.Data Points focuses on the approach to visualization and data. Visualization is a medium that can be used as a tool, art, a way to tell stories, etc., Data Points guides readers through making data approachable through visualization techniques and best practices. The focus is on designing with a purpose in mind. Data Points discusses why recipes (from the rules) work and expands on how readers can make their own recipes. The book is example-driven, featuring work from people in areas of art, design, business, statistics, computer science, cartography, and online media, as well as many of the author's own illustrations. The major sections of the book cover:Visualization as Medium -- In the same way not all movies are documentaries, not all visualization is about optimal visual perception.Data Representation -- There are rules across all visualization applications, such as the use of appropriate shapes to accurately represent values.Design with Purpose -- Rules can be broken though. It all depends on who and what you're designing for.Data Points digs deep into the foundations of data visualization:Understanding Data and VisualizationRepresenting DataExploring Data VisuallyDesigning for an AudienceVisualizing with ClarityPutting Everything Into Practice with Tools and Resources


The pharmacopeia of Pedanius Dioscorides (20-70 ce), entitled Peri Ylis Ialikis (latinized as De Materia Medica, On Medical Matters)was written in Greek about the year 65. It was destined to be one of the most famous books on pharmacology and medicine but is also richin horticulture and plant ecology. An illustrated alphabetical version of Dioscorides' manuscript was completed in Constantinople about 512. This magnificent volume was prepared and presented to the imperial Princess Juliana Anicia (462-527), daughter of the Emperor Anicius Olybrius, Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. The bound manuscript stored in Ōsterreichische National bibliothek in Vienna is available in facsimile and is now referred to as the Juliana Anicia Codex (JAC) or the Codex Vindobonensis Dioscorides. The JAC contains 383 paintings of plants including many horticultural crops, many of which can still be recognized in modern day examples. Ananalys is of the illustrations indicates that they were made by numerous artists of varying skills and it is probable that some were derived from an earlier lost version. The Codex Neapolitanus (NAP) (late 6th or early 7th century) which now contains 406 plant images on 172folios resides in the Biblioteca Nazionale, Naples is closely related to JAC, and is also available in facsimile editions. A comparison ofthe 352 common illustrations contained in both NAP and JAC suggests that many of the illustrations derived from a common source,perhaps an illustrated collection owned by Theodosius II, but the possibility also exists that some of the NAP images are direct copies of JAC images. There are 31 images in JAC which do not appear in NAP, 1 is a 13th century addition, 4 are images that can be assigned to2 torn pages. and 26 can be assigned to 11 missing leaves of the NAP. Of the 54 images in NAP which do not appear in JAC, 2 are likely to have been Mandragora included in lost folios in JAC, but the other 52 may include other images that existed in the common source. While common images in NAP and JAC are often very similar, 11.6% show substantially differences including variants of the same plant in different stages. Additional images in the archetypic source including different stages of the same plant could have provided the copyists working on JAC and NAP the opportunity to select different images to fulfill their commissions.


Pneumonic pasteurellosis is an important respiratory disease of sheep and goats throughout the world. It is mainly caused by Pasteurella haemolytica even though
Pasteurella multocida has occasionally been associated with the same disease. In vitro challenge of lung tissues with Pasteurella haemolytica A2 revealed an early colonization of the bacteria onto the lung tissue as early as 1 hour post-challenge. The severity of colonization increased with time of challenge and reached a maximum rate at 6 hours post-challenge . Similar in vitro challenge on the lung tissues derived from goats that were exposed earlier to intranasal sprays of formalin-killed Pasteurella haemolytica A2, however, revealed a less severe colonization by 6 hours postchallenge. Following intratracheal challenge of goats with 108/ml colony forming units of Pasteurella haemolytica A2, 20% of the goats succumbed to peracute infection in which they died within 12 hours post-challenge. Examinations of the lungs revealed
classical toxaemic lesions consisted of severe pulmonary oedema, pulmonary congestion and haemorrhage, and thrombosis with a few neutrophils in the alveoli. The lesions were remarkably similar to those peracute infections caused by Pasteurella multocida types A and D. The only difference was the absence of Pasteurella haemolytica A2 organisms in the heart blood samples compared to the infections by Pasteurella multocida types A and D. Goats that survived the peracute episode developed pneumonic lesion. Phagocytic activity by the bronchoalveolar macrophages was obvious by 4 days postchallenge and by day 7 post-challenge, the goats which were unable to phagocytose most of the bacterial cells succumbed to severe pneumonia in which the bacteria proliferated and overloaded the lungs leading to the invasion of the bacteria into the pneumocytes and spreading the infection further. Goats with efficient phagocytosis
were able to reduce the number of bacterial cells in the lungs leading to failure of bacterial establishment in the lungs. Infections by Pasteurella haemolytica A2 isolated from nasal mucosa produced an insignificantly (p>0.05) less extensive lung lesions compared to infections by Pasteurella haemolytica A2 isolated from pneumonic lungs. The pulmonary responses and pattern of lesion developrrient, however, remained similar for both isolates.


Background: Most of the current research has highlighted the need for establishing a surgical procedure for the treatment of extracapsular condylar fractures of the mandible, in case with large deviations or when the fractures are associated with other mandibular and/or fractures of the middle third of the face. Here, we aimed to describe the surgical details and postoperative outcomes of the mini-retromandibular transparotid approach for the treatment of extracapsular condylar fractures of the mandible. Method: An analysis was conducted among 14 patients with extracapsular condylar fractures of the mandible who presented indications for surgical treatment and underwent the surgery between March 2011 and March 2012. Results: In this case series, the anatomical and functional outcomes achieved were satisfactory and the rate of complications was low. Conclusions: The mini-retromandibular transparotid approach offers advantages and should be included as an option for the surgical treatment of extracapsular condylar fractures of the mandible.


This thesis presents a combined numerical and experimental study of the heat transfer modes that take place in cavities embedded within solid bodies. The motivation is to develop a practical numerical approach to quantify the role of various regions in the global heat dissipation around underground electrical cable installations, used in electricity transmission and distribution. A detailed numerical solution of the complex heat transfer present; conduction, free convection and radiation, with unknown boundary values at the air-solid interfaces, is first developed. For the convective flows in the cavities, the Navier-Stokes equations are solved, in stream-function vorticity form, using a Newton-Galerkin finite element approach. For the radiation part in these cavities, the shape factors of surface elements of cables and ducts are calculated by a crossed-string technique. A series of simplifications are then made to avoid the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations. First, the cables and their surrounding backfills are discretized in one common mesh, together with the intermediate air gaps, in such a way that only the Fourier partial differential equation is solved. To be able to do so, the air gaps are considered as fictitious solid materials with a specific thermal conductivity and a negligible thermal capacity. The individual thermal conductivity of each air gap is calculated by assuming the convection and radiation heat exchanges as separate thermal resistances acting in parallel between cables and ducts. The convection component is calculated by solving a concentric annuli problem. Results in the form of equivalent conductivity at various Rayleigh number and diameter ratios are then derived to cover the range of interest encountered in underground installations. The same approach is used to analyze the heat transfer in empty ducts by considering such ducts as populated by small fictitious unloaded cables. The demanding resources of cable ampacity finite element conduction code are further alleviated through a new technique dubbed EFECAC (Economic Finite Element for Cable Ampacity Calculation). This technique takes advantage of the fact that the heat dissipation in cables is nearly axisymmetric and hence couples the 2D solution in the surroundings to a 1D axisymmetric grid inside the cable. The Finite Element suite of codes thus developed are used to analyze conventional and non-conventional cable installations. These codes, equipped with an automatic mesh generator, currently enable industrial users to rapidly analyze a variety of complex underground installations.


Did you know?
What does RNA stand for? Ribonucleic Acid, and it is similar to DNA.
Ribo - This is short for ribose and it is apentose sugar. The sugar group in DNA is dexoyribose.
Nucleic - Refers to the fact that it originates in the nucleus.
Acid - It is an acidic compound. RNA is an intermediary between DNA, which houses the instructions to make a protein, and the ribosomes, which are a cell's protein making factory. It carries out its role by transcribing the genetic instructions inside the nucleus by producing a complementary strand of RNA. It is a copy of a segment of DNA.


Given South Africa's weak performance in international testing programmes, there is a strong interest in gauging improvements within these programmes. The finding that South Africa saw no progress between 2011 and 2016 in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) programme, which tests Grade 4 reading competencies, was inconsistent with considerable progress seen in a couple of other testing programmes. Moreover, an earlier PIRLS average score for Grade 4 from 2006 suggested that the 2011 mean score used to determine the flat 2011 to 2016 flat trend was problematic. The current paper uses the underlying microdata for PIRLS 2011 and 2016, which are publicly available, to examine the trend. It is clear that the 2011 mean score used by the international PIRLS analysts to arrive at the flat trend cannot be correct. It should be considerably lower. It should be noted that the 2011 mean for South Africa involved an unusual process. South Africa was the only country for which an original mean on an easier scale, prePIRLS, had to be recalibrated to the main PIRLS scale. This was because South Africa was the only country participating in the easier prePIRLS in 2011 and in some form of PIRLS in 2016. There was clearly something wrong with the 2011 recalibration. In correspondence, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), the body that conducts PIRLS globally, acknowledged, in part on the basis of a preliminary version of the current paper, that the originally published 2011 to 2016 South Africa trend should now not be considered reliable. They also confirmed that the classical score gains for South Africa reflected in the paper are correct. The method used in the paper is essentially to examine classical score gains between 2011 and 2016 with respect to common items, and then to recalibrate that to the main PIRLS scale. As an additional verification, the paper checks that gains remain after one controls for socio-economic status. The paper concludes that South Africa in fact saw a large gain between 2011 and 2016, equal to around 0.05 standard deviations a year. This is a fast rate of improvement by international standards. Of the 43 countries with 2011 to 2016 trends in PIRLS, South Africa displayed the third-steepest improvement, after Morocco and Oman.


This article examines policy mediation and adaptation in a context where religious, ethnic and other cultural identities are not officially recognised in the public sphere but considered part of the private sphere. French educational policy is firmly rooted within a secular Republican framework which relies on a colour-blind approach to promote equality. The article draws on 53 interviews with parents in Greater Paris, which were undertaken as part of a comparative study of urban parents' values and attitudes regarding education and school choice, conducted in collaboration with the London Institute of Education in 2004–05. The focus is on parents' perceptions of religious and ethnic diversity at school, and the interview data is contrasted to the Republican ideology dominant in official rhetoric. What is seen playing across and through these interviews is how the range of discourse available to parents is embedded in and constrained by cultural, political and educational traditions and values. However, far from endorsing official rhetoric wholesale, many parents question, adapt and mediate secular Republican ideals, raising the issue of the relevance and durability of the French model of integration.


Background & objective: Mercury is a toxic and bio-accumulative pollutant that has adverse effects on environmental and human health. There have been a number of attempts to regulate mercury emissions tothe atmosphere. Silver nanoparticles are a number of materials that have highly potential to absorb mercury and formation of mercury amalgam.The aim of this study is removal of mercury vapors in the dental clinic using anair cleaningsystem based on silver nanoparticles. Methods: In this study, silver nanoparticles coated on the bed of foam and chemical and structural properties were determined using a number of methods such as UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) connected the X-ray Emission Spectroscopy Energy (EDS). The air cleaningsystem efficiency to remove of the mercury vapor in simulated conditions in the laboratory and real conditions in the dental clinicwere measured by Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (CVAAS). Results: The images of SEM, showed that average sizeof silver nanoparticles in colloidal solution was ∼ 30nm and distribution of silver nanoparticles coated on foam was good. EDS spectrum confirmed associated the presence of silver nanoparticles coated on foam. The significantly difference observed between the concentration of mercury vapor in the off state (9.43 ± 0.342 μg.m -3 ) and on state (0.51 ± 0.031μg.m -3 ) of the air cleaning system. The mercury vapor removal efficiencyof the air cleaningsystem was calculated 95%. Conclusion : The air cleaning system based on foam coated by silver nanoparticles, undertaken to provide the advantages such as use facilitating, highly efficient operational capacity and cost effective, have highly sufficiency to remove mercury vapor from dental clinics.


Much or our understanding of the signaling events initiated in T cells responding to antigen comes from studies of transformed T cell lines in culture. But now several lines of evidence indicate that freshly isolated T cells from mice may respond rather differently. Zell et al. therefore developed methods to analyze responses of CD4+ T cells collected from lymph nodes or spleens. They used flow cytometry and antibodies that specifically recognized the phosphorylated, active form of the c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) to measure responses of single cells exposed to antigen in the whole animal. Responses differed from those in cultured cells in that the untransformed T cells responded more rapidly and more efficiently, phosphorylation of c-Jun or the p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase did not require activation of the costimulatory receptor CD28, and the immunosuppressive drug cyclosporin A did not inhibit phosphorylation of the MAP kinases. The authors caution that the microenvironment to which the T cells are exposed in the animal appears to modulate the characteristics of signaling substantially from those observed in cultured cell lines. T. Zell, A. Khoruts, E. Ingulli, J. L. Bonnevier, D. L. Mueller, M. K. Jenkins, Single-cell analysis of signal transduction in CD4 T cells stimulated by antigen in vivo. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 98, 10805-10810 (2001). [Abstract] [Full Text]


After the Civil War and Recontruction, the South was in chaos. The economy was in a shambles and many social institutions had been destroyed. The task of rebuilding society frequently fell to the churches. Many Protestant denominations sent mission workers, money, and supplies to help "uplift" impoverished communities. Between 1885 and 1895 the Presbyterians organized thirty-one schools in the Appalachian Mountains. In 1885 the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., home missions board mentioned the mountaineers specifically in its annual report to the General Assembly: Among Presbyterians, religion and knowledge go hand in hand; churches and schools supplement and assist each other .... The Presbyterian Church does not prosper in ignorance or illiteracy. In pushing our missionary work into the South, we have struck another great mass of illiteracy, this time among the whites .... The census tells the story .... These hardy mountaineers are eager for schools .... The first expressed want is an academy-and perhaps they are quite right, for if universal education is to be introduced in their States, as the common school system is in some other states, the first want is the education of their sons and daughters that they may become teachers. Nestled in a picturesque valley in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina lies the small town of Banner Elk. This once remote Appalachian community is the home of major and ongoing missions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Three church related institutions - Lees-McRae College, Grandfather Home and Orphanage, and Grace (now Cannon) Hospital-were established around the turn of the century, primarily through the efforts of the Presbyterian Church, U.S., and the Reverend Edgar Tufts.


This paper investigates the effect of advances in information technology on the private institutions that businesses use to resolve information asymmetries in financing transactions. It discusses four separate effects. First, in some cases information technology will permit direct verification of the information, obviating the problem entirely; the paper discusses the example of the substitution of the debit card for the check, which provides an immediate payment that obviates the need for the merchant to consider whether payment will be forthcoming when the check is presented to the bank on which it is drawn. Second, the paper discusses how advances in information technology improve the functioning of reputational verification systems, with a special emphasis on the dis-intermediation of securities issuance. Third, the paper discusses the rise of intermediation by pooling in the area of securitization. The paper closes by discussing the information merchant, which can sell information directly to those who need it for their transactions.


Services for people with communication disability (PWCD), including speech and language therapists (SLTs), are scarce in countries of the global South. A SLT degree programme was established at Makerere University, Uganda, in 2008. In 2011, an innovative project was set up to provide in-service training and mentoring for graduates and staff of the programme. This paper describes the project and its evaluation over three years. Three types of input: direct training, face-to-face individual and group meetings, and remote mentoring, were provided to 26 participants and evaluated using written and verbal methods. The first two types of input were evaluated mainly positively, while remote mentoring received more mixed evaluations. Less positive evaluations were linked to factors including resourcing, cultural perceptions about professional roles and services, work patterns, power/status, engagement, perceptions of help-seeking, community recognition of the needs for services for PWCD. Findings suggest that participatory approaches, flexibility, reflexivity and open discussion with participants around support and work challenges, are important. Power gradients between white Northern 'experts' and relatively inexperienced East African SLTs, contributed to some challenges. Structural issues about degree programme structures and statutory bodies, provide lessons about the development of new services and professions in low-income settings.


Sugars function as signal molecules that regulate gene expression, growth, and development in plants, animals, and yeasts. As a contribution to understanding the molecular mechanisms of sugar responses, we identified and characterized an Arabidopsis thaliana BTB domain-containing protein of the H subfamily 1 (designated AtBTH1). The relative expression level of AtBTH1 was enhanced by exogenous sugar treatment. To determine the function of AtBTH1 in sugar response, we identified two T-DNA insertion mutants, atbth1-1 and atbth1-2, which displayed an insensitive response to sugar-mediated inhibition of seed germination. The relatively early seedling growth of the atbth1-1 and atbth1-2 mutants was promoted by exogenous sugar treatment. Light-grown seedlings of the atbth1-1 and atbth1-2 mutants developed long roots when grown on medium containing a high sugar concentration. Dark-grown atbth1-1 and atbth1-2 seedlings showed sugar-insensitive hypocotyl elongation and development. These findings revealed that expression changes caused by mutation of AtBTH1 altered sugar-responsive seed germination and seedling growth. Taken together, the results suggest that AtBTH1 plays an important role in sugar responses in Arabidopsis.


Vegetable
consumption is one major exposure route of heavy metal to humans, but few data
exist for Imo State. We assessed the contamination levels and associated health
risk of cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and zinc
(Zn) in vegetables (Telfairia
occidentalis, Pterocarpus mildbraedii,
Gongronenina latifolium and Vernonia amygdalina) that are consumed frequently
from markets (n=16) in three zones of Imo State, Nigeria. After wet-digestion
of samples, the supernatant were analyzed by using atomic absorption
spectrophotometry. The mean concentrations in the four vegetables ranged from 0.006±0.003 mg/kg to 0.011±0.007 mg/kg
for Cd, 0.064±0.012 mg/kg to 1.225±0.226 mg/kg for Co, 10.711±1.968 mg/kg to
25.088±13.975 mg/kg for Cu, 0.062±0.013 mg/kg to 0.307±0.210 mg/kg for Ni,
0.006±0.005 mg/kg to 0.012±0.002 mg/kg for Pb and 63.55±4.055 mg/kg to
104.126±24.080 mg/kg for Zn. Except for Zn, all heavy metals in the various
vegetables were below the joint standard of Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) and World Health Organisation (WHO). Although, overall heavy metal load
was very low, Zn had the highest contamination factor in vegetables. Heavy
metals concentrations in vegetables generally showed low to high variations and
statistically different (p < 0.05). Average daily intake was below the
provisional tolerance limit except for Zn. The individual hazard index of
vegetables for both children and adults were below 1, indicating no potential
risk to the public. Overall, heavy metals hazard index were below 1, indicating
acceptable level of non-carcinogenic adverse health effect. However, potential
multi-element contamination from ingestion is possible as revealed by the
correlation profiling of heavy metals.


In this work, the spatial correlation of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) for underwater acoustic (UWA) channel is modelled. To obtain the spatial correlation for such a channel, a mathematical method to model the effect of the surface on the acoustic propagation is studied. The sea surface has a significant impact on the underwater acoustic propagation (UWA) channel since the sound field is scattered, particularly in rough sea conditions. In a situation where the sea surface is calm, the reflection is specular. In contrast, a sea surface subject to high sea states generates scattered waves. In these conditions, more complex mathematical equations are required to model the propagation. Current analytical models have limitations in terms of complexity and are not practical. Therefore, this study aims to consider a specular reflection to model the time-varying sea surface on the UWA channel. It is a simple model with low computationally complexity and can be used to assess the performance of UWA communications. Specifically, the specular reflection and transmission of an acoustic wave at a calm sea surface is studied, using the Huygens-Fresnel principle and the superposition theorem. The analytical model is developed using physical oceanic parameters representing the sea conditions. The results show a good agreement with the experimental analysis.


Extracted from text ... The research presented here could not have been carried out without the
commitment
and assistance of a significant number of dedicated individuals. In particular
I would like to sincerely thank personnel in the
Gender Affairs Office in
MONUC, together with the
large number of people who co-operated with openness
and honesty during interview and more informal discussion in both Peace
Support Operations (PSOs)These spanned the
range of military, and civilian personnel
together with members of civil society. I would like to thank the
Libre Action
de Defense de Droit de l'Homme, Commission Femme et Enfant, in particular
Reverende Sr. ..