This paper proposes a new approach in dealing with volumetric surface defects (VSD) in pipelines. Using three-dimensional (3D) scanning and reverse engineering techniques, along with finite element analysis, we studied and evaluated comparatively the stress distributions in the defect area for different shapes and positions of the machined VSD, in order to find the best solution for the repairing process using composite materials. Our main conclusion is that instead of machining the VSD such as to generate a rectangular shaped machined defect, with edges parallel/perpendicular to the pipe axis, it is better to mold the VSD. Another possible solution would be to machine the real VSD such as to generate an inclined rectangle that circumscribes the defect. This paper also studies the influence of the machined defect filet radius to the bottom of the VSD.


Abstract:Black women, while equally subject to regimes of violence against Black men, find differing articulations within these schemas. I contend that the mourning we refuse for Black women, cis and trans, rests upon differentially affected responses to anti-black violence, not upon a gender differential in its structure and practice. Analyzing the psychoanalytic work of Hortense Spillers and David Marriott, I argue that a bifurcation between these two theorists reflects both a political and ontological impasse: a political disagreement about the promise of Black life and the aporetics of Black psychoanalytic discourse on the psychic purchase of Black absence and loss.


Abstract. In this work we announce the Maple package conley to compute connection and C-connection matrices. conley is based on our abstract homological algebra package homalg. We emphasize that the notion of braids is irrelevant for the definition and for the computation of such matrices. We introduce the notion of triangles that suffices to state the definition of (C)-connection matrices. The notion of octahedra, which is equivalent to that of braids is also introduced.


As a participant/observer at several Catholic Worker houses, Harry Murray witnessed firsthand the response of Workers to the needs of the homeless. In this book, he examines the significance of the Catholic Worker movement's practice of hospitality to the homeless and contrasts it with professional rehabilitation as an approach to aiding the poor. Defining hospitality as a voluntary, noncommercial relationship between host and guest, Murray traces the notion in various societies throughout history, in myth, and especially in Christian tradition. He recounts the origins of the Catholic Worker and portrays the practice of hospitality at three Worker houses: St. Joseph's House in New York City, St. Joseph's House in Rochester, New York, and the Mustard Seed in Worcester, Massachusetts. Weaving together personal experiences with sociological analysis, Murray describes the practical difficulties of providing hospitality to anyone who needs it. He characterizes each organization's institutionalized anarchy, the decision-making processes, the philosophy of personalism in action, as well as the daily challenge to recognize the importance, the divinity, within each guest. While acknowledging some of the realities of voluntary poverty-vermin, filth, crowded quarters, and the potential for danger Murray compares the project of 'doing the Works of Mercy' to the rehabilitation model set up by the state. The trained professional aims to change the individual for the benefit of society and effectively allows society to remain unexamined and unchanged. Murray argues that hospitality is a model for empowering ourselves in the face of trends toward bureaucratization and professionalization of human relationships. Harry Murray is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Nazareth College of Rochester.


The article presents selected aspects of organizing order picking process with dynamic assignment of material to locations in distributional warehouses. Picking process was identified as an element of warehousing process affecting quality of warehouse services. The problem of order picking with dynamic material assignment was described and parameters of picking areas of this kind were identified. The principles of configuring and organizing dynamic picking were presented. Basic rules of process were formally denoted and depicted on the block diagrams of an application that simulates discussed process. Results of simulations were gathered and discussed.


Adequate sexual expression is essential to many human relationships and provides a sense of physical, psychological and social well-being. Epidemiological and clinical studies show that depression and schizophrenia are associated with impairment of sexual function and satisfaction, even in untreated patients. Most antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs have adverse sexual effects but it is difficult accurately to identify the incidence of treatment-emergent dysfunction, as disturbances can be reliably detected only from systematic enquiries made at baseline and during treatment. Growing awareness of the adverse effects of psychotropic drugs has led to attempts to use adjuvants or substitute treatments to resolve sexual dysfunction. More studies of the effects of antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs on sexual function are needed.


We show that metrological resolution in the detection of small phase shifts provides a suitable generalization of the degrees of coherence and polarization. Resolution is estimated via Fisher information. Besides the standard two-beam Gaussian case, this approach provides also good results for multiple field components and nonGaussian statistics. This works equally well in quantum and classical optics.


Managed languages such as Java and C# are increasingly being considered for hard real-time applications because of their productivity and software engineering advantages. Automatic memory management, or garbage collection, is a key enabler for robust, reusable libraries, yet remains a challenge for analysis and implementation of real-time execution environments. This paper comprehensively compares the two leading approaches to hard real-time garbage collection. While there are many design decisions involved in selecting a real-time garbage collection algorithm, for time-based garbage collectors researchers and practitioners remain undecided as to whether to choose periodic scheduling or slack-based scheduling. A significant impediment to valid experimental comparison is that the commercial implementations use completely different proprietary infrastructures. Here, we present Minuteman, a framework for experimenting with real-time collection algorithms in the context of a high-performance execution environment for real-time Java. We provide the first comparison of the two approaches, both experimentally using realistic workloads, and analytically in terms of schedulability.


The abundance of brown dwarfs (BDs) in young clusters is a diagnostic of star formation theory. Here we revisit the issue of determining the substellar initial mass function (IMF) based on a comparison between NGC 1333 and IC348, two clusters in the Perseus star-forming region. We derive their mass distributions for a range of model isochrones, varying distances, extinction laws, and ages with comprehensive assessments of the uncertainties. We find that the choice of isochrone and other parameters have significant effects on the results, thus we caution against comparing IMFs obtained using different approaches. For NGC 1333, we find that the star/BD ratio R is between 1.9 and 2.4 for all plausible scenarios, consistent with our previous work. For IC348, R is found to be between 2.9 and 4.0, suggesting that previous studies have overestimated this value. Thus the star-forming process generates about 2.5–5 substellar objects per 10 stars. The derived star/BD ratios correspond to a slope of the power-law mass function of α = 0.7–1.0 for the 0.03–1.0 M☉ mass range. The median mass in these clusters—the typical stellar mass—is between 0.13 and 0.30 M☉. Assuming that NGC 1333 is at a shorter distance than IC348, we find a significant difference in the cumulative distribution of masses between the two clusters, resulting from an overabundance of very low mass objects in NGC 1333. Gaia astrometry will constrain the cluster distances better and will lead to a more definitive conclusion. Furthermore, the star/BD ratio is somewhat larger in IC348 compared with NGC 1333, although this difference is still within the margins of error. Our results indicate that environments with higher object density may produce a larger fraction of very low mass objects, in line with predictions for BD formation through gravitational fragmentation of filaments falling into a cluster potential.


Summary: It is inherently challenging to achieve successful surgical outcomes for ventral hernia repairs. For complex ventral hernias, attempts to reconstruct the abdomen in patients who are overweight, deconditioned, malnourished, chronically infected or inflamed, have previous hernia recurrence, or otherwise carry a number of serious comorbidities affecting their surgical fitness are a major undertaking requiring careful preparation and planning. As the rate of abdominal wall reconstructions rises, so does the complexity of these procedures. One could argue that the prehabilitation of these patients is equally, if not more, important than the surgical technique itself. To achieve desirable outcomes and avoid surgical-site occurrences (SSOs), the surgeon must familiarize him/herself with ways to optimize a patient preoperatively. Understanding and identifying the aforementioned modifiable risk factors for SSOs is crucial. It is also important to recognize the impact that acute changes in the microbiome perioperatively can have on the postoperative success. Familiarizing oneself with the available literature for these patients is imperative. This review presents discussion and guidance for understanding the challenges and best practices for providing hernia surgery and abdominal wall reconstruction and achieving durable outcomes, with minimal SSOs.


Specimens of a very interesting species of Diapriidae have recently been received for identification from South Africa. They were submitted by Mr D. P. Annecke, Pretoria, who stated that they had been obtained from the fungus comb of Odontotermes latericius (Haviland) at two different localities a few miles from Pretoria. In all probability the species develops as a parasite of the termitoxeniid, Syntermitoxenia pseudonanna (Schmitz) (det. E. M. Beyer) which was present in both nests. I have been unable to place the diapriid as a descriptionbed species and have accordingly prepared the following descriptionption of it. A new generic name seems also to be required.


Abstract This study identifies attributes that are perceived by online communicators as contributing to the effectiveness of corporate online communication. A marketing public relations (MPR) perspective is applied to assess the contribution of credibility, trust and long-term relationships to effective corporate online communication. Q methodology is used as the research method and Q sorting as the means of data collection. Credibility, trust, long-term relationships and their composite factors are tested among 20 communicators and 20 receivers of corporate online communication. The participants' sortings of statements are first compared by means of Q factor analysis and then analysed. Four factors are ultimately identified that are perceived to contribute to effective corporate online communication by communicators and receivers: trust, responsibility, efficiency and meaningful relationships.


In this paper I explore the changing form of pornography and put forward tentative suggestions as to how the phenomenon of cyberpornography might influence orthodox understandings of pornography. Feminist interventions have long been critical in altering the frame through which pornography is understood, but how does the emergence of cyberpornography complicate these visions? The title of the paper comes from a comment supermodel Kate Moss made after her Calvin Klein adverts were accused of being pornographic. She said `the more visible they make me, the more invisible I become'. The issues implicit here are identity and the relationship between subject and object, issue that have been central to the orthodox view of pornography. If these are disturbed, what then? In Surrealist paintings, precisely that quality of subtle disturbance is central. Magritte's `This is not a pipe' is the classic example. And of course it is not a pipe, but a picture of one, just as it is a picture of Kate Moss to which we react. Informed by Surrealist theories of art and film, I examine how understandings of pornography might be affected. Taking this a stage further, I turn to the cyberpunk novel Neuromancer by William Gibson and the work of various cybertheorists. Using their visions of cyberculture, I try to imagine how cyberpornography might work and how we might understand pornography beyond the simplistic subject/object, stimulus/response debates within which it is commonly cast. If, as the postmodernist, postfeminist, gender and queer theorists argue, identity, gender, subjectivity and sex are destabilising, how will new pornographies fit in? It is my contention that the emergence of cyberpornography and postmodern debates on the fragmentation of the subject must irrevocably complicate our understanding of pornography. In turn, these new understandings may perhaps provide a way out of the anti-censorship/pro-censorship impasse.


In vivo brain microdialysis was used to monitor extracellular levels of dopamine (DA) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of rats during exposure to startling acoustic stimuli. Ten rats were prepared with guide cannulae into which dialysis probes were inserted 1 d before testing. Two to three hours after the start of perfusion, rats were placed into the startle chamber and exposed to a continuous 70 dB(A) background noise. Dialysis samples (2.0 microliter/min) were collected at 6 min intervals. Startle pulses (120 dB[A] noise) were presented in 20-trial blocks lasting 5 min. In some blocks, an 86 dB[A] prepulse preceded each of the 20 pulses by 100 msec, with the order of presentation of pulse-alone or prepulse + pulse blocks being counterbalanced between animals. Three to six sample periods intervened between stimulus- containing blocks. Monoamine and metabolite levels were measured using HPLC with electro-chemical detection. During the presentations of startling stimuli, DA levels in the NAc decreased relative to the immediately preceding 12 min baseline. This decrease in DA was maintained for only one additional sample period. By contrast, the presentation of prepulse + pulse trials failed to affect dialysate levels of NAc DA during or immediately after the stimulation. Thus, startling acoustic stimuli produce significant and transient decreases in dialysate levels of DA in the NAc. Furthermore, prepulse stimuli effectively inhibit these neurochemical effects of starting stimuli, in parallel with their establish ability to inhibit the amplitude the behavioral startle response.


The study "Psychoanalysis—its image and its public" intimates that common sense is increasingly informed by science. But common sense asserts its autonomy and, in turn, may affect the trajectory of science. This is a process that leads to many differentiations—in common sense, in scientific innovation and in political and regulatory structures. Bauer and Gaskell's toblerone model of triangles of mediation provided a distillation of their reading of "La Psychanalyse." Here it was argued that representations are multi-modal phenomena necessitating the use of multiple methodologies (comparative and longitudinal; qualitative and quantitative). In this paper we briefly summarise these arguments and elaborate ways in which social representation theory can be considered a progressive research programme. "Progressive" because as the theory has developed it has extended the range and depth of its conceptual basis; it provides a new synthesis for the social scientific understanding of the phenomena of common sense and of representation; it acts as an antidote to the reductionism of public opinion and, finally, it is a stimulus to depart from disciplinary silos. However, there remain unresolved issues: how to segment the relevant social milieus and how to close the feedback loop from common sense to science?


Abstract Lead-bearing phyllotungstite from the Clara mine in the central Black Forest, Germany has a formula (Cs0.41)Na0.14K0.05Pb2.012+Ca0.26[W10.876+Fe3.133+O35.75(OH)6.25](O(H2O)3). X-ray diffraction patterns exhibit pseudohexagonal symmetry, but refinement of single-crystal synchrotron data has shown that the true symmetry is orthorhombic, Cmcm, with a = 7.298(1), b = 12.640(2), c = 19.582(4) Å , and that the pseudohexagonal character is due to submicrometre-scale cyclical twinning by rotation about the pseudohexagonal c axis. The structure can be described in terms of an ordered intergrowth, parallel to (001), of (111)py blocks with pyrochlore-type structures, which are ~6 Å in width, and two-layer wide regions with a hexagonal tungsten bronze (HTB) type structure. Caesium atoms occupy 18-coordinate cavities in the HTB regions, and H2O molecules occupy Φ sites in the A2B2O6Φ pyrochlore blocks. The lowering of symmetry from hexagonal to orthorhombic is due to partial ordering of W and Fe in the octahedral B sites and of Pb and vacancies in the A sites of the pyrochlore blocks. The ideal formula for the intergrowth structure (with no vacancies) is C2A10[B14(O,OH)42]Φ4, where C is the cavity site in the HTB slabs. The mineral has only 21% occupancy of the C site and 25% occupancy of the A site, but full occupancy of the Φ site. There may be some mixing of Cs and H2O between the C and Φ sites.


Abstract The paper addresses the heat transfer problems associated with a possible leakage of hot (>250°C) lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) from the MEGAPIE (Megawatt Pilot Target Experiment) spallation source target and whether the double-walled outer safety vessel would be able to contain the accident without serious damage occurring to the facility. Issues addressed are (a) determining the initial impact pressure of the LBE on the inner shell of the safety container, which could result in the gap between the shells being closed, interrupting the flow of D2O coolant; (b) the time taken for the LBE leak to be detected and, hence, activation of the beam trip control; and (c) heat transfer from the hot LBE to the D2O circulating between the safety container walls, which could induce bulk boiling and subsequent pressurization of the circuit. Steps in the model development are described, which include, in particular, numerical tracking of the LBE interface using a level-set method, and the construction of a computer program to calculate the thermal hydraulics of the circulating D2O, including the effects of nucleate boiling on the hot surface, the other side of which is in contact with the leaking LBE. Results of the simulation show that pressures generated by the impact of the jet of LBE on the safety window do not threaten its structural integrity; the time to trigger the leak detection equipment is ~10 ms; and bulk boiling within the D2O circuit is avoided, even if there is a delay of 1 s in actually tripping the beam. Estimates of the margins of safety to bulk boiling are given for the current MEGAPIE and possible future, upgraded liquid-metal targets of similar construction.


Abstract A growing body of research is making links between diversity and the economic performance of cities and regions. Most of the underlying mechanisms take place within firms, but only a handful of organization-level studies have been conducted. We contribute to this underexplored literature by using a unique sample of 7,600 firms to investigate links among cultural diversity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and sales strategies in London businesses between 2005 and 2007. London is one of the world's major cities, with a rich cultural diversity that is widely seen as a social and economic asset. Our data allowed us to distinguish owner/partner and wider workforce characteristics, identify migrant/minority-headed firms, and differentiate firms along multiple dimensions. The results, which are robust to most challenges, suggest a small but significant "diversity bonus" for all types of London firms. First, companies with diverse management are more likely to introduce new product innovations than are those with homogeneous "top teams." Second, diversity is particularly important for reaching international markets and serving London's cosmopolitan population. Third, migrant status has positive links to entrepreneurship. Overall, the results provide some support for claims that diversity is an economic asset, as well as a social benefit.


Different outdoor insulating materials were exposed to marine pollution conditions and their surface conductivities were measured using an insulator pollution monitoring apparatus (IPMA), originally designed to measure surface conductivity on ceramic insulators. The current and conductivity values were used as a criterion to evaluate the different materials. EPDM with different creepages had dissimilar performances while silicone rubber insulators compared to EPDM and glass proved to be superior in having a lower surface conductivity.


The huge increase of population living in cities calls for a sustainable urban development. Mobile crowdsensing (MCS) leverages participation of active citizens to improve performance of existing sensing infrastructures. In typical MCS systems, sensing tasks are allocated and reported on individual-basis. In this paper, we investigate on collaboration among users for data delivery as it brings a number of benefits for both users and sensing campaign organizers and leads to better coordination and use of resources. By taking advantage from proximity, users can employ device-to-device (D2D) communications like Wi-Fi Direct that are more energy efficient than 3G/4G technology. In such scenario, once a group is set, one of its member is elected to be the owner and perform data forwarding to the collector. The efficiency of forming groups and electing suitable owners defines the efficiency of the whole collaborative-based system. This paper proposes three policies optimized for MCS that are compliant with current Android implementation of Wi-Fi Direct. The evaluation results, obtained using CrowdSenSim simulator, demonstrate that collaborative-based approaches outperform significantly individual-based approaches.


Debate is open as to whether social media communities resemble real-life communities, and to what extent. We contribute to this discussion by testing whether established sociological theories of real-life networks hold in Twitter. In particular, for 228,359 Twitter profiles, we compute network metrics (e.g., reciprocity, structural holes, simmelian ties) that the sociological literature has found to be related to parts of one's social world (i.e., to topics, geography and emotions), and test whether these real-life associations still hold in Twitter. We find that, much like individuals in real-life communities, social brokers (those who span structural holes) are opinion leaders who tweet about diverse topics, have geographically wide networks, and express not only positive but also negative emotions. Furthermore, Twitter users who express positive (negative) emotions cluster together, to the extent of having a correlation coefficient between one's emotions and those of friends as high as 0.45. Understanding Twitter's social dynamics does not only have theoretical implications for studies of social networks but also has practical implications, including the design of self-reflecting user interfaces that make people aware of their emotions, spam detection tools, and effective marketing campaigns.


We calculate band-to-band radiative transition rate spectra in pure Ge as functions of applied tensile strain, heavy doping, charge injection density, and temperature. Direct and indirect phonon-assisted transitions are considered. Deformation potential theory is adopted to describe the conduction and valence near-gap edges. Biaxial strain has required appropriate treatment of system anisotropy through the evaluation of the mass tensor components for the different bands involved in the studied transitions. Population distribution in the Gamma and L conduction valleys and in the valence states near Gamma have been evaluated accordingly considering the degeneracy condition of the sample, induced by high doping and high injection charge density. Also the effect of strain on the dipole matrix elements have been properly taken into account. The energy-resolved near-infrared spontaneous recombination spectra and the TE and TM polarized absorption/gain spectra have been obtained for a broad range of n-type doping, strain values, and excitation densities. We conclude that, despite the free carrier losses, net gain values as high as 6000 cm(-1), are achievable for doping density and strain values reported in the literature.


Newspaper editorials are shaped by the need to negotiate alignment and rapport with a diverse readership. This is achieved partly through the resources of engagement (Martin and White 2005), that is, through the argumentative moves of disclaim, proclaim, entertain and attribute, by which dialogic relations with the reader are carefully modulated. One aspect of argumentation in editorials that has sometimes been overlooked is that of the concede-counter structure, by which the writer signals concurrence with the reader on a particular issue, only to counter this with a new argument that may wholly or partially refute the first one. Typically, leader writers signal this manoeuvre textually from the outset, indicating that they are setting up an argument in order to demolish it by means of specific lexical choices or patterns. Thus items such as "of course" or "naturally" are used to build up the first argument, with which the reader is understood to concur. This is generally followed by a turning point marked by "but", "yet" or "though", after which the counter-argument is presented. Corpus linguists have pointed out that the presence of this type of lexical patterning makes it possible to research argumentation in large volumes of text using corpus tools. This study contains an analysis of concede-counter patterns in a corpus consisting of all the editorials published in the Guardian newspaper in 2011. The distinctive patterns that emerge are described, with particular attention paid to patterns of alignment and disalignment that emerge, as well as the related use of concurrence in asides to the reader. The role of such patterns in structuring discourse is analysed, with a particular focus on their ideological dimension as a means of subtly aligning readers with a particular set of opinions.


Commercialisation of biotechnology (BT) depends on manpower with specific skills and high science based knowledge. This is due to some of the inherent qualities of biotechnology, like high rates of obsolescence, R&D intensive nature, skill dependence, limited amenability to automation of procedures, need for constant monitoring of structures, etc., and it is further reinforced by the behaviour of companies commercialising BT in the developed world. To acquire this important resource for successful commercialisation and industrial competitiveness, various strategies have been adopted by different firms, States, or as a combined effort of both with academic institutions. The strategies could range from identification of areas of skills in which shortfalls either occur or could occur and efforts taken to generate these skills, adapt existing related skills by orienting to new demands or automating that part of the operation. In this paper, Indian experience has been elaborated after overviewing international experiences and areas of strengths and weaknesses identified, along with strategies to combat envisaged shortfalls in certain specialists by 2000 A.D., have been suggested.


This study examines the role of foreign banks in post-crisis Asia, focusing particularly on the four countries most affected by the Asian Crisis of 1997 - Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia and Thailand. First, using data on the presence of foreign banks via branching as well as subsidiaries, the study shows that the presence of foreign banks in the four crisis-hit countries is actually much larger than has been previously reported once the presence of foreign branches is accounted for in the data. However, the percentage of assets controlled by foreign banks in Asia is still lower than that of other emerging economies, despite great increases in the post-crisis period. The author reviews regulations on foreign bank entry that may have limited the presence of foreign banks or influenced the method of entry (branching versus subsidiary). Given recent regulatory changes and the need for bank recapitalization in the region, the presence of foreign banks is expected to increase in the near future, so this study next takes up the policy implications of this trend. To date, foreign banks in most Asian countries appear to perform relatively worse than their domestic counterparts as measured by return on equity, cost to income ratios, and the ratio of problem loans to total loans. This finding contradicts previous research in other emerging economies, and may be due to the fact that foreign bank entry in Asia is still a very recent phenomenon, and has occurred mostly through the takeover of troubled banks in the region. The second policy issue examined here is the stability of lending by foreign banks relative to domestic banks. Macroeconomic data suggests that foreign bank lending may in some cases be more stable than domestic bank lending, particularly during crisis, but that the stability of foreign bank lending varies greatly by method of entry. Cross border claims of foreign banks are the most volatile, followed by foreign bank branch lending. Lending by foreign bank subsidiaries capitalized in the host country appear to be more stable than domestic lending, perhaps providing much needed capital during times of crisis. Therefore, foreign banks play an important role in Asia, not only in the traditional ways by providing new services and stimulating competition and efficiency, but also by contributing to stability of the banking sector in the face of macroeconomic fluctuations. However, the mode of foreign entry seems to have important implications for the contributions of foreign banks. Since lending by off-shore banks and foreign bank branches seems to be more volatile than locally capitalized foreign subsidiaries, policy makers in Asia should encourage foreign players to enter via fully-owned subsidiaries or joint ventures and move away from the previous pattern of branch-based entry.


Abstract. The recent concerns for world-wide extreme events related to climate change have motivated the development of large scale models that simulate the global water cycle. In this context, analysis of hydrological extremes is important and requires the adaptation of identification methods used for river basin models. This paper presents two methodologies that extend the tools to analyze spatio-temporal drought development and characteristics using large scale gridded time series of hydrometeorological data. The methodologies are classified as non-contiguous and contiguous drought area analyses (i.e. NCDA and CDA). The NCDA presents time series of percentages of areas in drought at the global scale and for pre-defined regions of known hydroclimatology. The CDA is introduced as a complementary method that generates information on the spatial coherence of drought events at the global scale. Spatial drought events are found through CDA by clustering patterns (contiguous areas). In this study the global hydrological model WaterGAP was used to illustrate the methodology development. Global gridded time series of subsurface runoff (resolution 0.5°) simulated with the WaterGAP model from land points were used. The NCDA and CDA were developed to identify drought events in runoff. The percentages of area in drought calculated with both methods show complementary information on the spatial and temporal events for the last decades of the 20th century. The NCDA provides relevant information on the average number of droughts, duration and severity (deficit volume) for pre-defined regions (globe, 2 selected hydroclimatic regions). Additionally, the CDA provides information on the number of spatially linked areas in drought, maximum spatial event and their geographic location on the globe. Some results capture the overall spatio-temporal drought extremes over the last decades of the 20th century. Events like the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in South America and the pan-European drought in 1976 appeared clearly in both analyses. The methodologies introduced provide an important basis for the global characterization of droughts, model inter-comparison of drought identified from global hydrological models and spatial event analyses.


The objective of this study is to evaluate the robust regression method when detrending the crop yield data. Using a Monte Carlo simulation method, the performance of the proposed Time-Varying Beta method is compared with the previous study of OLS, M-estimator and MM-estimator in an application of crop yield modeling. We analyze the properties of these estimators for outlier-contaminated data in both symmetric and skewed distribution case. The application of these estimation methods is illustrated in an agricultural insurance analysis. The consequence of obtaining more accurate detrending method will offer the potential to improve the accuracy of models used in rating crop insurance contracts.


In the framework of seismic precursor electromagnetic investigations, we analyzed the very low frequency (VLF) amplitude signals recorded by the Instrument Champ Electrique (ICE) experiment on board the DEMETER micro-satellite. The sun-synchronous orbits of the micro-satellite allowed us to cover an invariant latitude of between -65° and +65° in a time interval of about 40 min. We considered four transmitter signals emitted by stations in Europe (France, FTU, 18.3 kHz; Germany, DFY, 16.58 kHz),Asia (Japan, JP, 17.8 kHz) and Australia (Australia, NWC, 19.8 kHz). We studied the variations of these VLF signals, taking into consideration: the signal-to-noise ratio, sunspots, and the geomagnetic activity. We show that the degree of correlation in periods of high geomagnetic and solar activities is, on average, about 40%. Such effects can be fully neglected in the period of weak activity. We also find that the solar activity can have a more important effect on the VLF transmitter signal than the geomagnetic activity. Our data are combined with models where the coupling between the lithosphere, atmosphere and ionosphere is essential to explain how ionospheric disturbances scatter the VLF transmitter signal.


Abstract. As the world is becoming increasingly urbanized there is a need for more sustainability-oriented planning of our cities. Policy and decision-makers are interested in the use of evidenced based approaches and tools that will support collaborative planning. There are a number of tools in the domain of spatial planning and decision support systems that have been built over the last few decades but the uptake and use of these tools is somewhat limited. In the context of Australia there is significant urban growth occurring across the major cities and a need to provision planners and developers with precinct planning tools to assist in managing infill and the densification of the existing urban fabric in a carbon constrained economy. In this paper we describe the development of a new precinct planning tool known as the Envision Scenario Planner (ESP), which is being applied initially in two cities, Melbourne and Perth to assist in the urban design and planning of Greyfield sites. To set the scene in this paper we firstly provide a brief review of the existing state of play of visualization and modelling tools available to urban planners in Australia. The focus on the paper will be to introduce an iterative co-design prototyping approach for developing a best practice precinct planning support tool (ESP) from an earlier tool known as ENVISION. The first step of the approach is an exposure workshop with experts to refine the proposed tool workflow and its functionality. Subsequent iterations of the prototype are then exposed to larger audiences for validation and testing. In this paper we will describe the process and the preliminary findings in implementing the first phase of this iterative co-design prototype approach.


The project-based methodology in this paper takes its examples and data from a case-study in the translation and technology module of a post-graduate degree course in Translation Studies at Durham University (UK). The paper argues that a project-based methodology with its student-centered and reflective approach not only leads to an enhanced awareness of learning, but also develops professional skills and competences. The students' selection, evaluation and problem-solving skills are developed in a framework of 'tasks' and interrelated comprehensive learning units. In addition, it is demonstrated how group work, action research, group discussions, and blogs encourage reflection, and thus move the learning process forward towards a critical mind that is essential in the professional translation world of today.


Abstract Reasoning from a naturalistic perspective, viewing the mind as an evolved biological organ with a particular structure and function, a number of influential philosophers and cognitive scientists claim that science is constrained by human nature. How exactly our genetic constitution constrains scientific representations of the world remains unclear. This is problematic for two reasons. Firstly, it often leads to the unwarranted conclusion that we are cognitively closed to certain aspects or properties of the world. Secondly, it stands in the way of a nuanced account of the relationship between our cognitive and perceptual wiring and scientific theory. In response, I propose a typology or classification of the different kinds of biological constraints and their sources on science. Using Boden's (1990) notion of a conceptual space, I distinguish between constraints relating to the ease with which we can reach representations within our conceptual space (which I call 'biases') and constraints causing possible representations to fall outside of our conceptual space. This last kind of constraints does not entail that some aspects or properties of the world cannot be represented by us – as argued by advocates of 'cognitive closure' – merely that some ways of representing the world are inaccessible to us. It relates to what Clark (1986) and Rescher (1990) have framed as 'the alien scientist hypothesis' (the possibility that alien scientists, endowed with radically different cognitive abilities, could produce representations of the world that are unintelligible to us). The purpose of this typology is to provide some much needed clarity and structure to the debate about biological constraints on science.


Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) entry into cells is mediated by
the functional envelope spike, which consists of trimers of gp120 bound to gp41.
Most variants of HIV-1 enter cells through attachment of the envelope spike to
the main cellular receptor CD4, allowing interaction with a co-receptor and
eventually fusion of viral and cellular membranes. Neutralising antibodies inhibit
HIV-1 entry by targeting epitopes on the functional spike. HIV-1 has, however,
evolved several ways to evade recognition by antibodies, including variable
regions, carbohydrates, and conformational masking. As a result, the neutralising
antibody response in HIV-1 infection and post-immunisation is generally narrow,
and only a handful of broadly neutralising monoclonal antibodies have been
reported. In this thesis, the isolation and characterisation of novel, broadly
neutralising antibody fragments derived from llamas is described. Llamas
produce antibodies devoid of light chains, which have their antigen-binding
properties confined to a single fragment, the VHH, and a preference for cleftrecognition.
VHH were isolated from llamas immunised with recombinant gp120
using phage display-based methods. In order increase the chances of isolating
neutralising VHH, a functional selection strategy was employed, involving a
competitive elution with soluble CD4. Three VHH able to neutralise HIV-1
primary isolates of subtype B and C were characterised. These VHH bound to
gp120 with high affinities and competed with soluble CD4 and antibodies to the
CD4-binding site for this binding, indicating that their mechanism of
neutralisation involves interacting with the functional envelope spike prior to
binding to CD4. These results indicate that llama VHH can be potent HIV-1
entry inhibitors. Since VHH are stable and can be produced at a relatively low
cost, they may be considered for HIV-1 microbicide development. Anti-gp120
VHH might also prove useful in defining neutralising and non-neutralising
epitopes on HIV-1 envelope proteins, with implications for HIV-1 vaccine
design.


This paper shows how basic micro-economics tools, and more specifically utility analysis, can be used to understand dissipating behavior in situations where prices alone cannot equate supply and demand. A few conclusions can be derived from our analysis: 1) the amount of dissipation depends on how clearly rights to buy are defined, 2) there is a crucial difference when analyzing non-price competition between average non-price costs and marginal non-price costs ; 3) When net suppliers do not have to compete on non-price margins, the cost of dissipation is fully borne by net demanders and net-demanders may sometimes gain by forcing net-suppliers to compete on non-priced margins ; 4) individuals have an incentive to minimize dissipation. If bargaining costs are zero, it will always be rational to establish institutions to get rid of wasteful non-price competition.


The article attempts to outline some characteristics of the selected Ukrainian-Russian-Polish-English anthropocentric phraseological units. The author strives to show a significant role of anthropocentric phraseological units in the representation of a cultural mentality, as well as in reflecting the national and cultural identity. The investigated examples are grouped into several paradigms, each reflecting a special human trait. It is the first attempt to draw parallels as well contrasts between phraseolo-gisms in a given semantic paradigm both in related Ukrainian, Russian, Polish and non-related English languages. The attempt has been done to learn and understand the national spirit of the certain ethnic group through anthropocentric phraseological units. This is one of the first attempts when these four languages – Polish, English, Russian and Ukrainian, have been compared in the certain paradigms of anthropocentric phraseologisms reflecting the national and cultural identity in order to capture the spirit of the target language. It is essential for effective cross-cultural communication because the national and cultural factors of a single speech environment significantly affect not only the elements of the communicative code, but they are also important in the communication process with all its components, i.e. principles, maxims, rules of communication, communication strategies and tactics. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.30.17724


The Jewels of Happiness is a treasure-chest of wisdom and joyousness - a compilation of succinct and insightful pieces of prose, practical exercises and uplifting aphorisms and verse. Addressing themes such as joy, peace, enthusiasm and love, the self-contained chapters combine to create a wonderful tapestry of inspiration. Sri Chinmoy writes with beautiful simplicity and concentrated wisdom that immediately soothes the aching heart and inspires the spirit. His easy-to-follow exercises, based on perennial ancient wisdom, are truly pertinent for the modern era and perfectly suited to our fast-paced lifestyles. Readers need only to turn to a chapter that seems to address them at that moment, and they will find themselves richly rewarded. Sri Chinmoy has an amazing ability to speak to each reader as if the words were written just for them and to offer positive help and insight. His writings transcend differences of religion, ethnicity and economic status, and convey a refreshing and reassuring sense of the essential oneness that unites us all. The Jewels of Happiness really work-they work to uplift and encourage people from all walks of life to find their own inner untapped resources.


Recent research indicates that pretraining cross-lingual language models on large-scale unlabeled texts yields significant performance improvements over various cross-lingual and low-resource tasks. Through training on one hundred languages and terabytes of texts, cross-lingual language models have proven to be effective in leveraging high-resource languages to enhance low-resource language processing and outperform monolingual models. In this paper, we further investigate the cross-lingual and cross-domain (CLCD) setting when a pretrained cross-lingual language model needs to adapt to new domains. Specifically, we propose a novel unsupervised feature decomposition method that can automatically extract domain-specific features and domain-invariant features from the entangled pretrained cross-lingual representations, given unlabeled raw texts in the source language. Our proposed model leverages mutual information estimation to decompose the representations computed by a cross-lingual model into domain-invariant and domain-specific parts. Experimental results show that our proposed method achieves significant performance improvements over the state-of-the-art pretrained cross-lingual language model in the CLCD setting.


This book demonstrates the originality and coherence of Jonathan Edwards' philosophical theology using his dynamic reconception of reality as the interpretive key. The author argues that what underlies Edwards' writings is a radical shift from the traditional Western metaphysics of substance and form to a new conception of the world as a network of dispositions: active and abiding principles that possess reality apart from their manifestations in actions and events. Edwards' dispositional ontology enables him to restate the Augustinian-Calvinist tradition in theology in a strikingly modern philosophical framework. A prime example of Edwards' innovative reconstruction in philosophical theology is his conception of God as both eternal actuality and a disposition to repeat that actuality within God and also through creation. This view is a compelling alternative to the traditional Western doctrine of God as changeless actuality, on the one hand, and the recent process theologians' excessive stress on God's involvement in change, on the other. Edwards' achievement was that he saw dynamic movement as essential to God's own life without compromising the traditional Christian tenets of God's prior actuality and transcendence. The author of this volume also explicates the way in which Edwards' dynamic reconception of reality informs his theories of imagination, aesthetic perception, the knowledge of God, and the meaning of history. This expanded edition includes a new preface and a new appendix titled "Jonathan Edwards on Nature."


The Kristianstad plain contains one of the most interesting and exciting groundwater of Sweden. It is also one of Northern Europe´s largest groundwater resources. The layers of gravel, limestone, sand, and sandstone is prime location. The amount of available water is veryhigh. The groundwater is consumed by four municipalities; Kristianstad, Eastern Goinge, Bromolla, and Hassleholm, including several industrial zones. Large quantities of groundwater have been used for agricultural irrigation. Groundwater resource carrying capacity refers to the maximum ability of groundwater system for supply industrial production, people's lives and protection of the eco-environment under certain technical level and social condition in different periods of the future. Groundwater is a part of this cycle, which eventually flows into rivers, different types of wetlands, lakes or directly into the Baltic Sea. Withdrawal of groundwater is also part of the cycle. A waterbed, also known as an aquifer, is a geological formation containing groundwater and it is so permeable that groundwater may be extracted in larger quantity. Aquifers are filled with water by infiltrating precipitation, leakage from other aquifers or through infiltration from rivers. The extraction of groundwater may not exceed the inflow for a long time. If this occurs it is a risk of progressive lowering of the water quality or its deterioration. Area of reservoir, groundwater Farlov– Vinno is I think a good limit of economic water.


This article summarizes the contribution in fisheries economics by the Danish economist Jens Warming. Warming provides an early reference on the problem of open access, precedes Arthur Pigou in suggesting an optimal tax as a correction measure, which I refer to as a Warming landing tax in fisheries, and explains how property rights in fisheries will lead to maximized resource rent and prevent overfishing. What is missing in Warming's description of the problem is the dynamic aspect and that the economics of natural resources should be analyzed in a capital theoretic framework, which was later established in the 1950s by Anthony Scott.


This article questions the evidence base for some commonly accepted assumptions among bioethicists about the prevalence of neuroenhancement among college students and the degree to which putative neuroenhancers in fact enhance cognitive functioning. We argue that the evidence on the prevalence of stimulant drug use does not support bioethicists' claims that neuroenhancement use of these drugs is widespread; that the evidence that putatively enhancing pharmaceuticals are truly neuroenhancing is much weaker than often supposed; that bioethicists have underestimated the challenges in assessing the safety and efficacy of putative neuroenhancers; and that the assumption that neuroenhancement is a novel development has deflected attention from historical experiences with other putatively enhancing pharmaceutical drugs such as cocaine and the amphetamines.


We present an experimental and theoretical study of 3d photoionization and subsequent Auger decay of atomic gallium. The synchrotron radiation-induced electron spectra have been compared and analysed using multiconfiguration Dirac–Fock calculations. It has been shown that the theoretically predicted photoelectron spectrum is in rather good agreement with the experiment allowing us to identify the main spectral features. However, prediction of the Auger decay intensities fails due to calculational difficulties for the continuum wavefunctions of very low kinetic energy Auger electrons.


The multiple analysis of rate of dependency between innovative processes and structural labour market changes in the form of evolution in sector of employment was exposed in the article. It has been proved that the impact of innovations on the labour market can be considered, on the one hand, as a part of multi-factor socio-economic macro-, meso-, micro-level systems, which makes a direct or indirect impact on state of other elements of system and which is under its influence at this time; on the other hand, as an open, dynamic, flexible system, functioning of which leads to socioeconomic resources development. The definition of labour market has been suggested as a system of socio-economic relations between workers, employers and society (organizations and institutes) for realization of ability to work, supporting social guarantees, approximation of parties' interests of labour relations, state`s interests, legal control of terms of employment etc. The analysis of structural changes, which take place in the labour market of different levels administrative territorial state`s structure by means of innovations, covers the period 2012-2017. The impact of innovations on employment is associated with `creative destruction` where innovations, on the one hand, ruin current workplaces and, on the other hand, create new ones. Analysis has demonstrated that employment increasing and related structural improvements are determined by kind of incorporated innovations. Organizational innovations have more impact on size and structure of employment, than technological ones. The practical importance of the research involves developing of methodological and practical aspects of choosing multiple approach in relation to innovation analysis as a determinant of structural labour market changes. The originality of the research is reflected in the comprehensive creative analysis of innovations from the point of view of activation of the youth labour market in Ukraine. The key factors of the low level of involvement of young citizens in the country's economy and society are identified. The authors have suggested the prospects for the development of the youth labour market, the elimination of youth unemployment, which are conditioned by the peculiarities of the social condition and employment behaviour of young people. The need to study the experience of European countries is emphasized, where training in the working professions is well organized and the youth unemployment rate is the lowest in Europe. Distinctiveness. Conducted researches let to confirm attained results in relation to choosing implements for coping with current troubles and disproportions in society. Implementation of multiply approach of analysis and diagnostics of correlation of innovations and employment will make a direct impact on supporting living standards and progressive socio-economic state`s development. The monitoring of solidarity of actions of public communities, government agencies, enterprise structures will ensure attainment of active increasing of innovation technologies, high living standards level, that will offer some new opportunities for business environment in relation to labour productiveness maintaining method and equivalent income level from enterprise activity, will solve the unemployment and labour migration issues, create some new flexible forms of employment, increase the level of state`s competitiveness in global economy facilities.


Abstract. We have extended the coupled mesoscale atmosphere and chemistry model COSMO-ART to account for the transformation of aerosol particles into cloud condensation nuclei and to quantify their interaction with warm cloud microphysics on the regional scale. The new model system aims to fill the gap between cloud resolving models and global scale models. It represents the very complex microscale aerosol and cloud physics as detailed as possible, whereas the continental domain size and efficient codes will allow for both studying weather and regional climate. The model system is applied in a first extended case study for Europe for a cloudy five day period in August 2005. The model results show that the mean cloud droplet number concentration of clouds is correlated with the structure of the terrain, and we present a terrain slope parameter TS to classify this dependency. We propose to use this relationship to parameterize the probability density function, PDF, of subgrid-scale cloud updraft velocity in the activation parameterizations of climate models. The simulations show that the presence of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and clouds are closely related spatially. We find high aerosol and CCN number concentrations in the vicinity of clouds at high altitudes. The nucleation of secondary particles is enhanced above the clouds. This is caused by an efficient formation of gaseous aerosol precursors above the cloud due to more available radiation, transport of gases in clean air above the cloud, and humid conditions. Therefore the treatment of complex photochemistry is crucial in atmospheric models to simulate the distribution of CCN. The mean cloud droplet number concentration and droplet diameter showed a close link to the change in the aerosol. To quantify the net impact of an aerosol change on the precipitation we calculated the precipitation susceptibility β for the whole model domain over a period of two days with an hourly resolution. The distribution function of β is slightly skewed to positive values and has a mean of 0.23. Clouds with a liquid water path LWP of approximately 0.85 kg m−2 are on average most susceptible to aerosol changes in our simulations with an absolute value of β of 1. The average β for LWP between 0.5 kg m−2 and 1 kg m−2 is approximately 0.4.


Interspecific hybridization is useful in raspberry (Rubus idaeus L. ssp. idaeus) breeding to introgression of traits such as heat or cold tolerance, and excellent fruit qualities. Rubus L. wild species in Asia, including Rubus parvifolius L., have been attracting a great deal of attention as sources of new traits in breeding raspberry and blackberry (Rubus fruticosus Agg.). We previously developed and selected IPI-1 and IPI-3 first backcross (BC1) hybrids, ['Indian Summer' (R. idaeus ssp. idaeus) × R. parvifolius] × 'Indian Summer', as raspberry cultivars adapted to the warm climate in parts of Japan. In this study, we investigated the growth, morphological traits, and fruit qualities, such as sugar, organic acid, anthocyanins, and carotenoids, of each of these IPI lines over a 2-year period to discern their potential as commercial raspberry cultivars. IPI lines had the characteristic of primocane fruit with overflowing from side buds while the parent, IP-1 ('Indian Summer' × R. parvifolius), did not. IPI lines showed significantly lower values in anthocyanin content than red raspberry 'Skeena', while showing higher carotenoid contents. This study is the first research about fruit qualities such as anthocyanin and carotenoid content of BC1 hybrids using Japanese wild Rubus species.


A new human diploid fibroblast-like cell line has been established from lung tissue of a female fetus. This has been frozen away in large quantity and characterized for use in research and related purposes. This is the first of a planned series of human cell lines to be established, characterized, and banked in large quantity in support of the National Institute on Aging research and general cell biology.


This work follows up a previous paper presented at the 28th International Symposium of Ballistics about the fluidic control of a 155 mm spin-stabilized projectile using the Coanda effect. A continuous jet is used to blow tangentially over a convex surface at the projectile aft end. Due to the balance between centrifugal forces and the radial pressure gradient, the jet attaches to the circular wall and generates significant aerodynamic forces. A large-eddy simulation of a highly simplified configuration is performed in order to acquire a better understanding of the physical mechanisms induced by the use of the Coanda jet. First, comparisons are performed with a similar work on a circulation control wing in order to validate the simulation. Then, the main effort focuses on the identification of existing vortices over the convex surface. Their natural frequencies and characteristic lengths are investigated through a spectral analysis.


We compiled a global data set of copepod in situ weight‐specific fecundity and growth rates, together with measurements of their body weights, and the chlorophyll a and temperature of the natural water in which these animals were growing. Juveniles can achieve half‐saturation of their growth (Km) at chlorophyll a concentrations almost an order of magnitude lower than adult females can their weight‐specific fecundity. Adult weight‐specific fecundity rates in situ are correlated with temperature, but the Q10s of 1.59 and 1.43 in broadcast and sac spawners, respectively, are much lower than under food saturated laboratory conditions (Q10s of 2.75 and 3.98). By comparing the in situ and laboratory food saturated results we are able to assess food limitation in the environment. The degree of food limitation increases with increasing temperature for adults; in situ rates approximate food saturated rates at low temperatures (0–10°C), at 25°C they are on average only about one‐fifth of those at food saturation. By contrast, in situ juvenile rates are more strongly temperature‐dependent than their adults and close to food saturation even at high temperatures. Juveniles grow much more rapidly and closer to food saturation than do adults of a similar size. There are several possible reasons for this. Compounds needed for egg production may simply be more dilute than those used in somatic growth. However, it is also possible that food limitation acts very differently in adults than juveniles. Molting rates in juveniles are strongly temperature dictated, and if sufficient weight is not added between molts, these slower growing juveniles do not survive. Adults, by contrast, can survive for long periods without having sufficient food to produce eggs.


Bone defects resulting from oncological surgical resections, congenital facial anomalies, trauma or infection represent a significant and common clinical problem. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of a commercially-available medicinal plant extract product, Ankaferd BloodStopper (ABS), on bone healing. The present study was performed on 24 female ovariectomized (OVX) rats. A defect on each rat calvarium was created using a trephine burr prior to the rats being divided into two groups. Defects were grafted with a gelatin sponge soaked with normal saline (control group) or plant extract (experimental group). Half of the animals were sacrificed after 2 weeks and the others after 4 weeks. In the control group, the defects were not filled with regenerated bone. By contrast, in the experimental group, all defect areas had an increased amount of regenerated bone and connective tissue. Osteoblastic activity appeared to be greater in the experimental group however, osteoclastic activity was observed to be higher in the control group. At 2 and 4 weeks, there was a significant difference in the amount of newly regenerated bone observed in the experimental group compared with the control group (P<0.05). Therefore, the results of the present study indicated that local ABS application had a positive effect on bone healing in the OVX rat model.


We discuss the two-way link between culture and economic growth. We present a model of endogenous technical change where growth is driven by the innovative activity of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is risky and requires investments that affect the steepness of the lifetime consumption profile. As a consequence, the occupational choice of entrepreneurship hinges on risk tolerance and patience. Parents expecting their children to become entrepreneurs have an incentive to instill these two values in their children. Cultural transmission is Beckerian, i.e., parents are driven by the desire to maximize their children's happiness. We also consider, in an extension, a paternalistic motive for preference transmission. The growth rate of the economy depends on the fraction of the population choosing an entrepreneurial career. How many entrepreneurs there are in a society hinges, in turn, on parental investments in children's patience and risk tolerance. There can be multiple balanced-growth paths, where in faster-growing countries more people exhibit an "entrepreneurial spirit." We discuss applications of models of endogenous preferences to the analysis of socio-economic transformations, such as the British Industrial Revolution. We also discuss empirical studies documenting the importance of culture and preference heterogeneity for economic growth.


The Alborz Mountain range separates the northern part of Iran from the southern part. It also isolates a narrow coastal strip to the south of the Caspian Sea from the Central Iran plateau. Communication between the south and north until the 1950's was via two roads and one rail link. In 1963 work was completed on a major access road via the Haraz Valley (the most physically hostile area in the region). From the beginning the road was plagued by accidents resulting from unstable slopes on either side of the valley. Heavy casualties persuaded the government to undertake major engineering works to eliminate ''black spots" and make the road safe. However, despite substantial and prolonged expenditure the problems were not solved and casualties increased steadily due to the increase in traffic using the road. Another road was built to bypass the Haraz road and opened to traffic in 1983. But closure of the Haraz road was still impossible because of the growth of settlements along the route and the need for access to other installations such as the Lar Dam. The aim of this research was to explore the possibility of applying Landsat MSS imagery to locating black spots along the road and the instability problems. Landsat data had not previously been applied to highway engineering problems in the study area. Aerial photographs are better in general than satellite images for detailed mapping, but Landsat images are superior for reconnaissance and adequate for mapping at the 1 :250,000 scale. The broad overview and lack of distortion in the Landsat imagery make the images ideal for structural interpretation. The results of Landsat digital image analysis showed that certain rock types and structural features can be delineated and mapped. The most unstable areas comprising steep slopes, free of vegetation cover can be identified using image processing techniques. Structural lineaments revealed from the image analysis led to improved results (delineation of unstable features). Damavand Quaternary volcanics were found to be the dominant rock type along a 40 km stretch of the road. These rock types are inherently unstable and partly responsible for the difficulties along the road. For more detailed geological and morphological interpretation a sample of small subscenes was selected and analysed. A special developed image analysis package was designed at Aston for use on a non specialized computing system. Using this package a new and unique method for image classification was developed, allowing accurate delineation of the critical features of the study area.


One of the main factors limiting the wider adoption of ultrasound imaging for diagnosis and therapy is requiring highly skilled sonographers. In this paper we consider the challenge of making this technology easier to use for non-experts. Our approach follows some of the recently proposed frameworks that break the process into firstly data acquisition through a simple and task-specific scan protocol followed by using machine learning methodologies to assist non-experts in performing diagnostic tasks. We present an object classification pipeline to identify the fetal skull, heart and abdomen from all the other frames in an ultrasound video, using Fisher vector features. We describe the full proposed method and provide a comparison with a recently proposed approach based on Bag of Visual Words (BoVW) to demonstrate that the new approach is superior in terms of accuracy (98.9% versus 87.1%).


Images have played a key role in the communication of environmental ideas since the origins of environmental movements whether to prove environmental problems or to provoke personal and collective commitment. Researchers have mainly analyzed the visual representations of nature through pictures, photographs and films. Environmental issues that comics arise as well as their power to educate an environmental gaze have been hardly studied. We propose to analyze comics that put forward environmental issues in an Argentinean magazine (1996-2010) with the assumption that they can offer interesting elements to understand the relationship between visual culture and the social construction of nature. We ask which are the environmental topics introduced by comics and what sort of relations can be identified between the environmental agenda of the magazine and the environmental issues raised by the comics. Finally, we discuss what kind of power comics have to construct environmental education.


Abstract. Amount and quality of resources may be variable and generally poor in habitats of marginal avian populations living at the edge of species breeding range. We studied variation in egg traits (length, breadth, volume and shape) in three populations of the African Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus ultramarinus inhabiting degraded habitats in highlands of Algerian Saharan Atlas at mean altitudes 1328–1437 m a.s.l. We found high within-clutch repeatability of all the egg traits studied. As theoretically expected in peripheral parts of the species geographic range, there was considerable variation in egg-size traits among the study populations, with eggs being distinctly smaller and more elongated at a site characterised by most human-modified habitat composed of maquis scrubland with rare Pistacia trees. Egg length and shape tended to be affected by the altitude of nest site and by clutch size, but not laying date. We found some effects of egg traits on hatching and fledging success, suggesting that fitness advantage of egg sizes is dependent of egg shape. We conclude that the above patterns of variation in egg size and shape of the African Blue Tit populations have influence of fitness. Our finding of considerable variation in egg traits between separate peripheral populations confirms the theoretical expectation and seems to be a novel result.


The educational system in Nigeria today has been largely imported. This is because no one country is self-reliant without utilizing other countries' technologies and good educational ideals. A consideration of a stable and functional educational system should involve consistent re-training of teachers for efficient implementation of the curriculum for Nigerian schools. Consistent development and re-training of teachers in English language will improve capability of teachers for efficient use of the curriculum, being the implementers of the educational programmes. As such, there is the need for teachers' re-training programmes and adequate supply of human and material resources for educational productivity and consolidation of the Nigerian educational system. It is the concern of this paper to consider the concept of training and re-training of teachers in English language, efficient curriculum implementation by professionally trained teachers and curriculum innovation for qualitative teaching outcome.


In the seminal Indian water rights case, Winters v. United States (1908), the Court posed this question: "The Indians had command of the lands and the waters — command of all their beneficial use, whether kept for hunting, 'and grazing roving herds of stock,' or turned to agriculture and the arts of civilization. Did they give up all this?" The Court's answer was no, and since then a large body of law has developed around Indian water rights, although the primary focus has been on the amount of water reserved for various tribal purposes. While Indian nations use property rights theories to protect their water resources from loss to non-Indian use, they also deploy their inherent governmental authority through tribal water codes and the federal Clean Water Act to protect water quality. As competition for water resources grows and development pressures adversely affect water quality, Indian Nations and their neighbors face new challenges in defining Indian water rights for instream habitat protection and traditional consumptive uses.This article reviews the nature of Indian water rights — both on and off reservations — and the use of tribal sovereignty to protect those rights in terms of quantity and quality. The case law in this arena is sparse, and the ability to predict an all-or-nothing litigated outcome is correspondingly limited. Under these circumstances, parties would be best off to default to the usual presumptions recognizing inherent tribal authority over on-reservation water resources and state authority outside of Indian country. From this jurisdictional baseline, tribes, states and the United States should cooperate to ensure that a given regulatory regime protects water quality and access to water.


Identification of the t(X;18)(p11.2;q11.2) that is associated with a high proportion of synovial sarcoma can be a useful diagnostic aid. The translocation results in fusion of the SYT gene on chromosome 18 to either the SSX1 or the SSX2 gene, two homologous genes within Xp11.2. Two-color interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction were assessed as approaches to identify the rearrangement in well characterized cases. The presence of the translocation, and the specific chromosome X gene disrupted, were inferred from the configuration of signals from chromosome-specific centromere probes, paints, and markers flanking each gene in preparations of interphase nuclei. Rearrangement was found in two cell lines and eight of nine tumor samples, including analysis of five touch imprints. This was consistent with cytogenetic data in four cases and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis using primers known to amplify both SYT-SSX1 and SYT-SSX2 transcripts. The transcripts were distinguished by restriction with LspI and SmaI. Contrary to previous suggestions, there was no obvious correlation between histological subtype and involvement of the SSX1 or SSX2 gene. These approaches could also be applied to the identification of tumor-free margins and metastatic disease.


This paper analyses the importance of financial dis-incentives for workers in Denmark. Based on a panel survey which is merged to a number of administrative registers it is possible to calculate precise measures of the economic incentives for labour force participants between employment in a full time job and being on unemployment insurance benefits and considering also the fixed costs of work. The results indicate large dis-incentives effects for some groups, especially low paid women. In 1996, 6 per cent of Danish men and 13 per cent of the women had a lower disposable net income if working in a full-time job compared to being on unemployment benefits. The effect of these financial dis-incentives is analysed in simple reduced form models of on-the-job search, unemployed search behaviour, unemployment risk, and transitions out of the labour force. We find that the net compensation rate in unemployment has a significant impact on women's propensity to leave the labour force, on measures of search intensity, on the risk of being hit by unemployment and on one of our flexibility measures, i.e. the maximum acceptable commuting time to a job. The net compensation rate has no impact on the willingness to move to another place to get a job. However, here we find a significant impact from job attitude related measures. We end the paper reporting the results from including attitude variables along with economic variables. We find a number of significant effects from attitude variables. However, the main conclusion is that economic incentives dominate the present analysis of unemployment traps.


Between 1907 and 1914, the ?Galveston Movement,? a philanthropic effort spearheaded by Jacob Schiff, fostered the immigration of approximately 10,000 Russian Jews through the Port of Galveston, Texas. Upon arrival, households were given train tickets to pre-selected locations west of the Mississippi River where a job awaited. Despite the program?s stated purpose to locate new Russian Jewish immigrants to the Western part of the U.S., we find that almost 90 percent of the prime age male participants ultimately moved east of the Mississippi, typically to large Northeastern and Midwestern cities. We use a standard framework for modeling location decisions to show destination assignments made cities more desirable, but this effect was overwhelmed by the attraction of religious and country of origin enclaves. By contrast, there is no economically or statistically significant effect of a place having a larger base of immigrants from other areas of the world and economic conditions appear to be of secondary importance, especially for participants near the bottom of the skill distribution. Our paper also introduces two novel adjustments for matching historical data ? using an objective measure of match quality to fine tune our match scores and a deferred acceptance algorithm to avoid multiple matching.


Objective To compare the negative predictive value (NPV) of multiparametric MRI for Gleason score (GS) ≥ 3+4 cancer and evaluate predictors of these tumors in men with suspected disease and under active surveillance (AS). Materials and Methods This retrospective study included 38 men with suspected prostate cancer and 38 under AS with scans assigned PI-RADS v2 scores 1 or 2 between May 2016 and September 2017. Biopsy results were no cancer, GS = 3+3, or GS ≥ 3+4. Pre-MRI PSA, gland volume, and PSA density were recorded. Chi-square, equality of proportions, and logistic regressions were used to analyze the data. Results Intermediate to high-grade cancer was found in 12.8% (95% CI = 2.3-23.3) and 35.9% (95% CI = 20.8-50.9) of men with suspected cancer, and under AS (p = 0.02), respectively. The NPV for GS ≥ 3+4 were 87.2% (suspected cancer; 76.7-97.7) and 64.1% (AS; 49.0-79.2). In neither group PSA significantly predicted cancer grade (p = 0.75 and 0.63). Although it did not reach conventional statistical significance, PSA density was a good predictor of cancer grade in men with suspected disease (p = 0.06), but not under AS (p = 0.62). Conclusion The NPV of multiparametric MRI for GS ≥ 3+4 is higher in men with suspected prostate cancer than in men under AS. PSA density ≤ 0.15 improved the prediction of intermediate to high-grade disease in patients without known cancer.


Abstract This study investigated several ecological parameters for populations of Obolaria virginica in southeast Missouri where it is listed as endangered. Investigations during the 2006 and 2007 growing seasons included population size estimates and dispersal patterns. A secondary investigation during the 2007 season quantitatively assessed the impact of leaf litter on O. virginica flower production. Obolaria virginica reflected the pattern of a spring ephemeral with emergence as early as mid-February and senescence by early June. Plants grew to an average of 9.2 cm in height and had 14 flowers per individual in each season. Population size estimates ranged from 833–7,820 individuals, with a distinctly clumped distribution pattern. Leaf litter depth appears to negatively affect emergence and flower production in this perennial forest herb.


8th April 2009 was just an ordinary day for 53 -year-old Richard Phillips, captain of the United States-registered cargo vessel, the Maersk Alabama, as it headed towards the port of Mombasa. Ordinary that is until, two hundred or so miles off the east coast of Africa, armed Somali pirates attacked and boarded the freighter. It was the first time an American cargo ship had been hijacked in over 200 years. What the pirates didn't expect was that the crew would fight back, nor did they expect Captain Phillips to offer himself as a hostage in exchange for the safety of his crew - a courageous gesture that resulted in his being held captive on a tiny life-boat off the anarchic, gun-plagued coast of Somalia. And so began a tense five-day stand-off, which ended in a daring high-seas rescue by U.S. Navy SEALs. In A Captain's Duty, Richard Phillips tells his own extraordinary story - that of an ordinary man who did what he saw as his duty and in so doing became a hero. It is a thrilling true tale of adventure and courage in the face of deprivation, death threats and mock executions and also a compulsively readable first-hand account of the terrors of high-seas hostage-taking.


Objective: We hypothesize that the major consciousness deficit observed in coma is due to the breakdown of long-range neuronal communication supported by precuneus and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and that prognosis depends on a specific connectivity pattern in these networks. Methods: We compared 27 prospectively recruited comatose patients who had severe brain injury (Glasgow Coma Scale score <8; 14 traumatic and 13 anoxic cases) with 14 age-matched healthy participants. Standardized clinical assessment and fMRI were performed on average 4 ± 2 days after withdrawal of sedation. Analysis of resting-state fMRI connectivity involved a hypothesis-driven, region of interest–based strategy. We assessed patient outcome after 3 months using the Coma Recovery Scale–Revised (CRS-R). Results: Patients who were comatose showed a significant disruption of functional connectivity of brain areas spontaneously synchronized with PCC, globally notwithstanding etiology. The functional connectivity strength between PCC and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was significantly different between comatose patients who went on to recover and those who eventually scored an unfavorable outcome 3 months after brain injury (Kruskal-Wallis test, p < 0.001; linear regression between CRS-R and PCC-mPFC activity coupling at rest, Spearman ρ = 0.93, p < 0.003). Conclusion: In both etiology groups (traumatic and anoxic), changes in the connectivity of PCC-centered, spontaneously synchronized, large-scale networks account for the loss of external and internal self-centered awareness observed during coma. Sparing of functional connectivity between PCC and mPFC may predict patient outcome, and further studies are needed to substantiate this potential prognosis biomarker.


Based on an actual dataset of college human resources, we analyzed the data warehouse technologies and combined them with the pracical work.  The snowflake structure has been described about a data warehouse of university human resource and the data warehouse has been constructed. This paper reduces and categorizes features by explorative data analysis. When the data warehouse had built and applied on human resources management in university, we studied mining technologies and processes based on association rule. Association rules show the relationship among teaching, research and social practices. The results of this study can be well explained and have some management suggestions on human resource management in university.


AIMS
Functional mitral regurgitation (MR) could be managed by both cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) and mitral-valve surgery. Clinical decision making regarding the appropriateness of mitral-valve surgery vs. CRT is a challenging task. This study assessed the prevalence and prognosis of various degrees of functional MR in CRT candidates. Additionally, we sought to identify functional MR patients who either can be adequately managed by CRT only or will need surgery.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Cardiac resynchronization therapy recipients (n= 794) were followed-up for 26 ± 18 months. Mitral regurgitation severity was quantified on scale 0-4. Cardiac resynchronization therapy responders were identified based on improvement in the New York Heart Association class and left-ventricular ejection fraction. Severity of MR and LV reverse remodelling were assessed at 3 and 12 months. Predictors of long-term MR change and CRT response were explored with multivariable models. Mitral regurgitation was present in 86%, with 35% prevalence of advanced MR (grade 3-4). Improvement of MR ≥ 1° after 12 months occurred in 46% of patients. It was relatively more frequent in patients with advanced MR at baseline (63%, P< 0.01). Baseline MR severity and change in MR at 3-month follow-up predicted response to CRT. Patients with ≥ 1° MR improvement at 12 months had more reverse remodelling compared with those with no change or worsening of MR.

CONCLUSIONS
Mitral regurgitation improvement at 3 months predicts CRT response and MR improvement at 12-month follow-up. This finding could have implications for subsequent MR surgical therapies.


The German-American artist Winold Reiss (1886-1953)—painter, designer, teacher—has been characterized as "a modern Cellini," defying instant categorization and labels. To this day, he remains something of an enigma to art critics. Winold Reiss stands at the beginning of a new American Modernism approach to depicting the vitality of African American culture. In 1920, while struggling through a creative and personal crisis, he went on a two-month-long trip through Mexico. His diary offers a unique glimpse into the artist's mind and heart. Reading it in conjunction with his drawings helps us better understand the function of Mexican art, folklore, religiosity and the history of mestizaje in the context of the stylizations of the cultural space which James Weldon Johnson called "Black Manhattan."

The Mexico Diary makes Reiss's text available in the original German as well as in English and Spanish translations and interlinks it with his sketches and paintings. The book also features an audio CD with key parts of the diary set to music and performed by Jens Barnieck and Frank Mehring.

"Winold Reiss's Mexico diary is a remarkable soliloquy of America's little known but hugely influential transnational visual artist. We see him traversing borders and breaking free of American materialism to a nature-based vision of New World spirituality. But we also learn that this premier multiculturalist was more successful embracing the New Negro and the New Mexico than the New Woman. In that, he reminds us of the breakthroughs and bugaboos of twentieth century modernism."

Jeffrey C. Stewart

Professor & Chair at the Department of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara

"Frank Mehring is at the forefront of scholars re-writing the history of American art by focusing on those artists who championed the racial diversity of the New World. In his Mexico Diary, Winold Reiss can be seen as a romantic and a realist: romantic in his rejection of European/American commercialism and realist in his understanding that native peoples have been profoundly influenced by values, religions, and markets that are both European and indigenous."

Patricia Hills

Professor Emerita, Boston University


We report the results of a study on the movement of the solar wind diamagnetic structure (DS), which is a sequence of smaller-scale microDS being part of the May 18, 2013 coronal mass ejection, from a source on the Sun to Earth's surface. DS determined from the high negative correlation coefficient (r=–0.9) between the IMF modulus (B) and the SW density (N) on the ACE and Wind satellites at the L1 point, on the THB and THC satellites (r=–0.9) in near-Earth orbit, and on the THA satellite inside the magnetosphere is carried by the solar wind from the Sun to Earth's orbit, while maintaining its fine internal structure. Having a large size in the radial direction (≈763 Rᴇ, where Rᴇ is the Earth radius), DS flows around the magnetosphere. At the same time, microDS of size ≤13 Rᴇ passes through the bow shock and magnetopause as a magnetized plasmoid in which the ion concentration increases from 10 cm⁻³ to 90 cm⁻³, and the velocity decreases as it moves toward the magnetotail. When a microDS passes through the magnetopause, a pulsed electric field of ~400 mV/m is generated with subsequent oscillations with a period of T~200 s and an amplitude of ~50 mV/m. The electric field accelerates charged particles of the radiation belt and produces modulated fluxes of protons in an energy range 95–575 keV on the day side and electrons in 40–475 keV and protons in 95–575 keV on the night side. In the duskside magnetosphere (19–23 MLT), the substorm activation is observed in geomagnetic pulsations and auroras, but without a magnetic negative bay. In the post-midnight sector (01–05 MLT), a sawtooth substorm occurs without the growth phase and breakup with deep modulation of the ionospheric current and auroral absorption. The duration of all phenomena in the magnetosphere and on Earth is determined by the period of interaction between DS and the magnetosphere (~4 hrs). To interpret the regularities of the magnetospheric response to the interaction with DS, we consider alternative models of the impulsive passage of DS from SW to the magnetosphere and the classical model of reconnection of IMF and the geomagnetic field.


Diastolic dysfunction is the alteration or the decline in the activity of of the ventricular function. It affects affects the organ's capacity to fill with an adequate amount of blood during diastole. These alterations involve active or passive relaxation. Acute hypertension, ischemia, Infarction, Aortic Stenosis, Idiopathic Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, Diabetes and Obesity are the common causes of diastolic dysfunction. Alterations in the myocardial diastolic properties lead to left ventricular diastolic dysfunction which finally leads to diastolic heart failure. In this review, several therapeutic appraches including pharmacologic, nonpharmacologic, and surgical approaches for the treatment of diastolic dysfunction and heart failure will be discussed.


357 Abstract—In knowledge based economy, organizations face critical issues of survival and competence. By implementation of competence based management system organizations can increase the capability of managing and utilizing the talent of the employees to achieve superior performance. Like any other organization, the educational institutions are also thinking seriously towards their competence management. As with the emerging knowledge, the teaching profession has become a very challenging. The role of the faculty member is no more demands knowledge transferring process but it has become a knowledge sharing process. Hence, there is need for the educational institution to improve their academic quality by incorporating the knowledge creation and knowledge service to the society. The paper explores the various competencies and their relevance to educational institution. The competencies represent the personality, ability, knowledge and the skills factors. It provides the guidelines for the various stake holders of educational institutions for assessment and gap identification.The paper presents the developed competence model for the faculty members. It presents the various behavioral indicators to assess the identified competencies and their importance. It analyses the future benefits of the competence model in succession planning and career graph growth.


Jennifer Deren, "Revolting Sympathies in Mary Shelley's The Last Man " (pp. 135–160) Building on recent scholarship that explores Mary Shelley's advocacy for sympathy in The Last Man (1826), this essay traces the complexity of interpersonal and reader-text relations as they play out in the novel and in the experience of reading it. I argue that moments of intimacy explicitly called "sympathy" in the novel are often idealizations that turn "revolting" as sympathy becomes something other than the beneficial exchange that participants expect of it. These scenes delineate a politics of sympathy that challenges the dominant model with a portrayal of human intimacy as uncontrollable, amoral, and infectious. Shelley encodes in the novel's infamous plague her concern that the experience of sympathy that underlies nineteenth-century politics of community- and nation-formation can and sometimes does generate violence, discord, and inequality alongside mutually beneficial relationships. Exploring readers' uncertain responses to the novel alongside the novel's representation of sympathy as revolting, I suggest that the novel's framing "Introduction" reveals an aesthetics of sympathy in which reader-text relations are constitutively unstable. Readers' resistance to Lionel's effusive narration is a revolting response written into the novel's sympathetic design. By making sympathetic reading a revolting experience, Shelley advances a revision of sympathy that forces us to rethink the possibilities and the consequences of human relationships and invites us to reimagine a communal future that makes room for those realities.


To achieve sustainable urban development and values from social justice; it is essential that all citizens enjoy resources, facilities and life opportunities equally. Due to lack of a stable or systematic approach of measuring urban problems, disparity in environmental conditions or access to social and physical infrastructures is more obvious, especially in the cities of developing countries. In this article, a hybrid method is presented using urban indicators and geographical information system (GIS), as reliable identification tools and a criterion, to produce information related to policies in complex and multidimensional aspects of spatial disparities. His information could be used by the policy makers in order to inform them about where the first target is and in what proportion they should invest. In case study of Tabriz, this method indicates how the combination of urban indicators and GIS is a valuable tool for access of better management in resources towards balancing and spatial order in population and activities. The results of this study can help to apply reforming policies through better understanding of intra-urban disparities and optimal trace of resources. It can also help to identify poor households based on redistribution credit with the geographical component attractive to planners and decision makers.


The following inferences may be made from the foregoing study:

1. The lesions resulting from fat starvation, at least in the case of pigs, do not resemble or even suggest those of rickets.

2. Prolonged fat starvation leads to the entire disappearance of fat from the adipose tissues. The form of fat atrophy observed as the result of experimental fat starvation corresponds to the serous fat atrophy described by Flemming, and is essentially the same type of fat atrophy as that found in the epicardial and perirenal fat in the human subject as the result of wasting disease.

3. The. lecithins of the brain and the fat of the liver are not materially reduced by fat starvation.

4. Fat starvation does not lead to advanced serous fat atrophy of the subcutaneous fat if the animal be given a large excess of carbohydrate food or a considerable excess of the carbohydrate and proteid constituents of milk.

5. Fat starvation causes a very imperfect absorption of the salts of P2O5 from the intestine.


Problem statement: The harvesting and pruning of horticultural crops is quite difficult due
to their tallness. There are small hand tools available for harvesting and pruning. But these tools of
harvesting and pruning are restricted due tree height, unavailability of trained labours for climbing and
cost of operation etc. The mechanized machines are available; these are heavy and costly and are not
suitable for low land holding, Indian marginal famers. Harvesting and pruning of horticultural crops
with the available hand tool is very difficult. The labor has to climb on the tree by carrying these hand
tools, which requires skill too. To overcome the above problems a Tractor Mounted Hydraulic
Elevator (TMHE) powered by tractor PTO, was tested for the mechanical harvesting and pruning of
mango orchards using digital load cell, digital Vibration meter and digital Techometer for elevator
stability study and pruner engine RPM measurements while in branch cutting respectively. The field
performance of the above machine was carried out on plane mango plot, at Dr. Balasaheb Sawant
Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli, Dist: -Ratnagiri (Maharashtra, India). The machine was tested for
the better stability at maximum reach position for harvesting and pruning of various mango varieties,
like Alphanso, Totapuri etc. Approach: To reduce the harvesting /pruning cost, increase the
harvesting/pruning efficiency and enhance the overall productivity of mango orchards. Also to use the
traditional mechanized/ manual pruning tools with the developed tractor mounted hydraulic elevator.
To develop and refine the power operated mechanism for marginal farmers. This stability study was
carried out, by using strain gauge load cell (S-beam), having capacity of 2000 kg. The load cell
guiding device was designed and fabricated for conducting the above experiments following standard
material specifications of American society of testing material. The reaction on rear wheel of tractor
was measured by using digital load cell, which converts the force acting on rear wheel of tractor into
electrical signals and get it displayed on the control panel. The speed of pruner engine is measured for
various mango trees branches at different heights, using digital tachometer. The vibrations of the
pruning platform are measured for the respective pruner engine speed and height of Pruning Platform.
The speed and vibration readings are taken for different branches of different diameter and height. The
time required for pruning the branches is also measured. Results: The tractor mounted hydraulic
elevator is most suitable for harvesting and pruning of mango orchards upto 12 m tree height without
affecting the stability of machine with available tools. The field capacity of elevator was 0.08 h−1 for
mango harvesting. The observed field capacity of the developed TMHE is 5,400 mango (1400 kg)
day−1 for Alphanso mango, research is underway to develop hydraulic man-positioned, which would
be easier to harvest, prune tree and spraying by hand or machine. Conclusion: The overturning of the
elevator is not observed, up to 12 meter height of tree from ground including 150 kg load in the lifting
platform for harvesting and pruning of mango orchards. The vibrations of the lifting platform noted are
in safe limit.