Fiji National University has come a long way from its time of inception in terms of information and communication technological resources and capabilities. Achievement of its primary responsibility of human capital development depends largely upon its teaching and learning resources. Research has confirmed that ICT has significant potential to assist students who are currently disadvantaged by gender, disability, ethnic and socio economic background. Total student population of the FNU comprises of 75% students who are basically from lower income families of which the annual income is lower than FJD 15,000/=. Therefore, majority of the students do not have their own computers and as a result, libraries and computer labs in the university are very competitive and fully occupied even at nights. Thus, FNU is compelled to use a model which explain how that potential can be developed and used to benefit students currently seen to be excluded from, underachieving in, or disaffected by university. As it is evident to develop the skills needed for 21st century, provision of ICT and enhanced information literacy skills through SDL are exclusively needed. FNU has already introduced information literacy as a mandatory course to all students of the university through its COM 501: Information and Communication Literacy. Thus the only gray area of the mission is the provision of ICT facilities to develop HOT skills of students through SDL. This paper discusses the potential models which can be used for implementing 1:1 computer provision in a university library setting.


This article proposes a legal framework to analyze the "high crime area" concept in Fourth Amendment reasonable suspicion challenges. Under existing Supreme Court precedent, reviewing courts are allowed to consider that an area is a "high crime area" as a factor to evaluate the reasonableness of a Fourth Amendment stop. See Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119 (2000). However, the Supreme Court has never defined a "high crime area" and lower courts have not reached consensus on a definition. There is no agreement on what a "high-crime area" is, whether it has geographic boundaries, whether it changes over time, whether it is different in different parts of the country, whether there are different types of "high-crime areas," or who determines that an area is, in fact, a higher crime area. Yet, after Wardlow, the concept has taken on controlling significance in determining the constitutional protections of citizens located in certain neighborhoods. Because new crime-mapping technology exists to generate objective and verifiable data on crime rates in particular areas, this article proposes requiring the government to introduce this information in Fourth Amendment suppression hearings. The goal is to provide guidance on how to establish a meaningful "high crime area" definition for Fourth Amendment purposes. This article proposes a three-part framework to identify a high crime area based on objective and quantifiable evidence. First, the "high crime area" in question would have to be marked by a higher incidence of particularized criminal activity than other areas of the jurisdiction. Second, the area at issue would have to be tailored to a specific geographic location and limited to a recent temporal finding of criminal activity. Finally, there would have to be a demonstrated nexus between the police officer's knowledge about a defined area and the reasonableness of the officer's observations in that area. In this way there will a verifiable, particularized, and relevant definition of this important Fourth Amendment concept. The article concludes that this type of data driven analysis is the only way to make sure individual liberty is protected in all jurisdictions.


Governments around the world face the challenges of preventing corruption and collusion in the public procurement sector.

These concerns carry major implications for public welfare, economic growth and the credibility and efficacy of governments. First, a significant amount of public money is at stake. Governments around the world spend an estimated USD 9.5 trillion for goods and services each year. Second, public procurement has a qualitative significance that transcends its importance as proportion of GDP. Public procurement is an essential input to the delivery of broader public services and functions of government that are vital for growth, development and social welfare. Third, problems in public procurement, when they occur, can have a major impact on the credibility and efficacy of governments more generally. Corruption fuels public discontent. By contrast, increasing the integrity of the procurement system may help a government to build belief in its legitimacy and, more generally, create a civic sense that government institutions are dedicated to improving citizens' lives.

For all these reasons, honest and effective government procurement is widely recognized as being vital to broader efforts to promote development and prosperity in the 21st century.

The paper begins by examining some examples of bid rigging and bribery that have been uncovered in public procurement processes and the factors that facilitate such practices. Quantitative indicators of the harm caused by both sets of practices are noted. It then outlines two sets of tools conventionally used to deal with these problems. The first, focusing on corruption issues, broadly involves measures to increase the transparency of public procurement systems and to strengthen the accountability of responsible public officials for malfeasance. The second, aimed at preventing supplier collusion, focuses on the effective enforcement of national competition (antitrust) laws.

This paper sets out the view that these tools and approaches are necessary but proving to be insufficient on their own to address the related challenges. This paper consequently considers: (i) ways in which the effectiveness of these conventional tools can be strengthened; and additionally (ii) how a more comprehensive approach to address the twin scourges of supplier collusion and corruption in public procurement markets can be developed. Underlying all of the suggestions is the need for a political commitment to the strengthening of procurement, competition and related anti-corruption systems that recognizes their centrality to the welfare of citizens and to the effectiveness and credibility of states.


http://www.cis.rit.edu/research/thesis/bs/2001/burtner/Abstract.html 1 of 1 10/15/2007 11:51 AM Abstract This research project tested the quality of DIRSIG's texture characterization routines for a grass target and potential techniques to improve it. The objective of the DIRSIG is to produce output images that are analogous to real image outputs so the model can be applied to a wide range of problems. It is very important that both spectral and spatial properties of targets are modeled correctly to obtain realistic results. DIRSIG applies texture to each pixel spectrally. Current techniques examine only one bandpass region, using statistical means to compare a texture image in that bandpass with a spectral database in order to determine which curve will be used for a particular pixel. The research in this project examined the quality of this procedure, and several potential methods for improvement. DIRSIG images were generated to simulate two different scenes for which real images exist. ENVI's principle components analysis utility was than used to quantify the information in each image for comparison. Modifications were than made to the process to expand the spectral database, and incorporate a new algorithm into DIRSIG that examines multiple bandpass regions when determining which spectra to use for a pixel. The output for each of these new scenarios was than tested for comparison with DIRSIG's previous results, and the results obtained for the truth images. This research has quantitatively examined the ability of DIRSIG to replicate real world texture characteristics, specifically for a grass target. Research discovered a large gap between the amount of information that is contained in images of real world data and those simulated by DIRSIG. Expanding the spectral database did produce a slight increase in results, increasing the qualitative appearance of the image as well. The amount of data contained in the DIRSIG image remained significantly less than that contained in the real image. Increasing the number of bandpasses employed by DIRSIG in determining which spectra to map onto a particular pixel, results indicated two different concepts. Adding one band increased the ability of DIRSIG to map correctly choose the spectra. Additional bandpasses may increase the quality of an image, however, choosing too many bandpass regions for an image can cause the resulting quality of the image to decrease. The process is very complex, the output quality is dependent on the particular imaging system that is being modeled, the bandpasses that are chosen, and the amount of bandpasses that are used as references.


Handling interference is one of the major challenges in the design of multi-user distributed wireless systems. In current systems, interference is managed through carrier sensing mechanisms such as CSMA/CA and through MAC algorithms based on random back-off. However, the asymmetry in channel sensing inevitably causes degraded throughput and fairness issues, such as those caused by hidden terminal problems. We propose ContraFlow, a solution based on self-interference cancellation and innovative scheduling mechanisms that increases spatial reuse, eliminates hidden terminals, and rectifies decentralized coordination inefficiencies among nodes, thereby improving fairness. Self-interference cancellation is a technique allowing a node to cancel its own transmitted signal and hence to successfully receive data while transmitting on the same channel. We demonstrate the feasibility of such techniques in a low power WPAN setting, using Lyrtech software-defined radios. Self-interference cancellation repairs carrier sensing, making it possible to successfully eliminate hidden terminal problems, even when using current multi-user MAC protocols; but it also provides the opportunity to design new distributed MAC scheduling algorithms that increase the spatial reuse and solve most of the fairness problems associated with current algorithms. We use simulations to illustrate the performance gains achieved when ContraFlow is used and we obtain both a throughput increase over current systems, as well as a significant improvement in fairness.


Background: Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is generally characterized by episodes of reversible myocardial demand/supply mismatch, related to ischemia or hypoxia. P wave peak time (PWPT) is a newly introduced electrocardiographic parameter that has been shown to be associated with noreflow in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). This study aimed to evaluate whether there is any association between prolonged PWPT in ECG and the severity of CAD in diabetic patients. Patients and methods: This study included 134 diabetic patients with history of coronary artery disease and were admitted to cardiology department Zagazig University. Patients were divided into group (I) of 40 patients with no evidence of obstructive CADs and group (II) of 94 patients with evidence of obstructive CADs. Results: The difference between both groups was statistically significant regarding the PWPT in lead II and V1. There was a significant difference between both groups concerning the R-wave peak time as the mean value in group I was 21.4 ± 3.7 while in group II was 29.2 ± 7.1. Regarding QRS duration, there was statistically significant increase in group II than in group I. Group II had statistically significant increase in PWD max, PW dispersion and PWTF in the lead V1 than group I. Regarding PWD min, there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups. The cut off value of PWPT in the lead II was 56.5msec with sensitivity (62.8 %) specificity was (80.0 %) and accuracy was 68.6 % .The PWPT in the lead V1, had a cut off value 54.5msec with sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were (66.0 %, 75.0 % and 67.9 %) respectively. the mean value of left ventricular ejection fraction in group I was 63.1 ± 8.3 while it was 53.5 ± 11.6 in group II. There was statistically significant increase in LVEF % among group I than group II. Group II had statistically significant increase in left atrial diameter than in group I (33.4 ± 4.1mm in group I vs 38.2 ± 11.6mm in group II). Conclusion: Prolonged P-wave peak time (PWPT) is a beneficial parameter for detecting high-risk patients with stable coronary artery disease. There was statistically significant older age among patients with obstructive coronary artery disease than those with non-obstructive coronary artery disease. Obstructive CAD group had statistically significant increase in left atrial diameter, left ventricular dilatation. Also, there was statistically significant increase in LVEF % among non-obstructive coronary artery than obstructive coronary artery disease one.


Recognizing the applicability of tomographic imaging in the ionosphere, the reconstruction method has been applied to generate more realistic low latitude ionospheric background based on the Ionex TEC data and also direct measurement TEC data over West Bengal, India. Using these backgrounds, ray tracing of high frequency waves has been performed. Influence of Earth's magnetic field and also the existence of horizontal gradient of electron concentration in the ionosphere are considered separately for analyzing the ray tracing algorithm. Evaluation of ray tracing parameters and maximum usable frequency for different ground range ensures the possibility of application of ionospheric tomography technique for accurate ray tracing. The analysis shows accurate ray tracing for HF waves, thus defeating the restriction of choice of ionospheric model for analytical ray tracing methods. Performance analysis of the ray tracing technique presented in this paper ensures the consistency of speed with the other methods.


Sorption of commonly used herbicides by wetland sediment can provide important information for herbicide fate modeling. The influence of sediment properties on herbicide sorption as a result of different land uses in the wetland catchment is unclear. We examined the effects of land use on the physiochemical properties of wetland sediments and the associations between these sediment properties and herbicide sorption characteristics. Bottom sediments were sampled in 0- to 5- and 5- to 10-cm sections from 17 wetlands under five different land use classes: (i) ephemeral wetlands with no riparian vegetation in a cultivated catchment (ECNR), (ii) ephemeral wetlands with riparian vegetation in a cultivated catchment (ECR), (iii) ephemeral wetlands in a grassland catchment established 4 yr ago (E4G), (iv) ephemeral wetlands in a brome grass catchment established 20 yr ago (E20G), and (v) semi-permanent (SP) wetlands in a multiple-land-use catchment. Sediments were analyzed for total organic carbon (TOC), total inorganic carbon (TIC), pH, electrical conductivity, exchangeable cations (EXCAT), total cation exchangeable capacity (CEC), and percent clay (%clay). Sediment herbicide sorption partition coefficient (Kd) was measured for trifluralin, atrazine, 2,4-D, and glyphosate. The sorption of the herbicides in the sediment increased in the order of 2,4-D < atrazine < glyphosate < trifluralin. The sorption of 2,4-D, atrazine, and trifluralin was positively correlated to TOC, EXCAT, and CEC but negatively correlated to %clay. Glyphosate sorption was negatively correlated to pH, TIC, EXCAT, and %clay. Overall, wetland sediments that were recently cultivated (ECNR and E4G) had lower TOC, TIC, EC, EXCAT, CEC, and Kd values (2,4-D, trifluralin, and atrazine) than sediments that had not been recently cultivated (ECR, E20G, and SP). The ECR wetland sediments had the largest Kd for all four herbicides, suggesting that land use and riparian vegetation have a significant impact on herbicide sorption.


Three forms of mathematics education at school level are distinguished: direct expository teaching with an emphasis on procedures, with the expectation that learners will at some
 later stage make logical and functional sense of what they have learnt and practised (the prevalent form), mathematically rigorous teaching in terms of fundamental mathematical concepts, as in the so-called "modern
 mathematics" programmes of the sixties, teaching and learning in the context of engaging with meaningful problems and focused both on learning to become good problem solvers (teaching for problem solving) andutilising
 problems as vehicles for the development of mathematical knowledge andproficiency by learners (problem-centred learning), in conjunction with substantialteacher-led social interaction and mathematical discourse in
 classrooms. Direct expository teaching of mathematical procedures dominated in school systems after World War II, and was augmented by the "modern mathematics" movement in the period 1960-1970. The latter was
 experienced as a major failure, and was soon abandoned. Persistent poor outcomes of direct expository procedural teaching of mathematics for the majority of learners, as are still being experienced in South Africa, triggered a world-wide movement
 promoting teaching mathematics for and via problem solving in the seventies and eighties of the previous century. This movement took the form of a variety of curriculum experiments in which problem solving was the dominant classroom activity,
 mainly in the USA, Netherlands, France and South Africa. While initially focusing on basic arithmetic (computation with whole numbers) and elementary calculus, the problem-solving movement started to address other mathematical topics (for
 example, elementary statistics, algebra, differential equations) around the turn of the century. The movement also spread rapidly to other countries, including Japan, Singapore and Australia. Parallel with the problem-solving movement, over the
 last twenty years, mathematics educators around the world started increasingly to appreciate the role of social interaction and mathematical discourse in classrooms, and to take into consideration the infl uence of the social, socio-mathematical
 and mathematical norms established in classrooms. This shift away from an emphasis on individualised instruction towards classroom practices characterised by rich and focused social interaction orchestrated by the teacher, became the second
 element, next to problem-solving, of what is now known as the "reform agenda". Learning and teaching by means of problem-solving in a socially-interactive classroom, with a strong demand for conceptual understanding, is radically different from
 traditional expository teaching. However, contrary to commonly-held misunderstandings, it requires substantial teacher involvement. It also requires teachers to assume a much higher level of responsibility for the extent and quality of learning
 than that which teachers tended to assume traditionally. Over the last 10 years, teaching for and via problem solving has become entrenched in the national mathematics curriculum statements of many countries, and programs have been launched to
 induce and support teachers to implement it. Actual implementation of the "reform agenda" in classrooms is, however, still limited. The limited implementation is ascribed to a number of factors, including the failure of assessment practices to
 accommodate problem solving and higher levels of understanding that may be facilitated by teaching via problem solving, lack of clarity about what teaching for and via problem solving may actually mean in practice, and limited mathematical
 expertise of teachers. Some leading mathematics educators (for example, Schoenfeld, Stigler and Hiebert) believe that the reform agenda specifi es classroom practices that are fundamentally foreign to culturally embedded pedagogical traditions,
 and hence that adoption of the reform agenda will of necessity be slow and will require more substantial professional development and support programs than those currently provided to teachers in most countries.Notwithstanding the challenges
 posed by implementation, the movement towards infusing mathematics education with a pronounced emphasis on problem solving both as an outcome and as a vehicle for learning seems to be unabated. Substantial work on the development of more
 effective means for professional development and support of teachers is currently being done.


Abstract Migratory animals provide a multitude of services and disservices—with benefits or costs in the order of billions of dollars annually. Monitoring, quantifying, and forecasting migrations across continents could assist diverse stakeholders in utilizing migrant services, reducing disservices, or mitigating human–wildlife conflicts. Radars are powerful tools for such monitoring as they can assess directional intensities, such as migration traffic rates, and biomass transported. Currently, however, most radar applications are local or small scale and therefore substantially limited in their ability to address large-scale phenomena. As weather radars are organized into continent-wide networks and also detect "biological targets," they could routinely monitor aerial migrations over the relevant spatial scales and over the timescales required for detecting responses to environmental perturbations. To tap these unexploited resources, a concerted effort is needed among diverse fields of expertise and among stakeholders to recognize the value of the existing infrastructure and data beyond weather forecasting.


This study examined the ability to vegetatively propagate 1-year-old pecan (Carya illinoinensis) through the rooting of hardwood cuttings. Cuttings were treated with varying concentrations of different auxins and different combinations of media and ambient temperatures. Under different temperature conditions, all auxin treatments induced the rooting of cuttings but did not promote sprouting. The effectiveness of the induction of adventitious roots was as follows: 1-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) > indole 3-butyric acid > indole 3-acetic acid. The base of the parent shoot treated by NAA at a concentration of 0.09%, planted in substrate with bottom heat was the most effective, with 82% rooting, 8.3 roots/ cutting and root lengths of 7.3 cm. These findings suggested that auxin and substrate/air temperature differences are both indispensable in the process of adventitious roots formation in pecan. This study revealed that the propagation of hardwood cuttings derived from branches of 1-year-old pecan is possible.


The purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing corporate capital structure in private firms in Kenya. Although the capital structure issue has received substantial attention, it is noteworthy that most of the empirical work done focuses on data derived from developed economies that have many institutional similarities and their applicability in developing markets such as Kenya is not documented. Yet, the maintenance of an optimal capital structure is considered as one area where decision makers can influence the company's value and risk. Specifically, the objectives of the study were to establish whether growth opportunities, firm size, firm profitability, and asset tangibility influence corporate capital structure. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The study population comprised 121 Food and Beverage private manufacturing firms registered with the KAM that are located in Nairobi and surrounding area. A sample of 36 firms was selected for the survey using stratified random sampling technique from which 30 questionnaires were returned. Primary data was sourced through personally administered questionnaires to the CFOs. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the interplay between the independent variables and dependent variable. Based on the findings, the study concludes that growth opportunities positively influence capital structure; firm size negatively influences the capital structure, there is an insignificant negative relationship between firm profitability and the capital structure, and there is insignificant positive interaction between asset tangibility and the capital structure of private firms in Kenya.


Creoles of Color are rightfully among the first families of south-western Louisiana. Yet in both antebellum and postbellum periods they remained a people considered apart from the rest of the population. Historians, demographers, sociologists, and anthropologists have given them only scant attention. This probing book, focused on the mid-eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, is the first to scrutinize this multiracial group through a close study of primary resource materials. During the antebellum period they were excluded from the state's three-tiered society-white, free people of color, and slaves. Yet Creoles of Color were a dynamic component in the region's economy, for they were self-compelled in efforts to become and integral part of the community.


It's a cliche that the world is shrinking. As Gene Santoro sees it in his second collection of essays, music is one arena where that cliche takes on a real, but paradoxical, life: while music criss-crosses the globe with ever-greater speed, musicians seize what's useful, and expand their idioms more rapidly. More and more since the 1960s, musicians, both in America and abroad, have shown an uncanny but consistent ability to draw inspiration from quite unexpected sources. We think of Paul Simon in Graceland, blending Afropop rhythms and Everly Brothers harmonies into a remarkable new sound that captured imaginations worldwide. Or Jimi Hendrix, trying to wring from guitar the howling, Doppler-shifting winds he experienced as a paratrooper. Or Thelonius Monk, mingling Harlem stride piano, bebop, the impressionist harmonies of DeBussey, and a delight in "harmonic space" that eerily paralleled modern physics. From the startling experiments of such jazz giants as Charles Mingus, to the political bite of Bob Marley and Bruce Springsteen, we see musicians again and again taking musical tradition and making it new. The result is a profusion of new forms, media that are constantly being reinvented-in short, an art form capable of seemingly endless, and endlessly fascinating, permutations. Gene Santoro's Stir It Up is an ideal guide to this ever-changing soundscape. Santoro is the rare music critic equally at home writing about jazz (John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Tom Harrell), rock (Sting, Elvis Costello, P.J. Harvey), and the international scene (Jamaican, Brazilian, and African pop music). In Stir It Up, readers will find thoughtful but unpretentious discussions of such different musicians as David Byrne and Aretha Franklin, Gilberto Gil and Manu Dibango, Abbey Lincoln and Joe Lovano. And Santoro shows us not only the distinctive features of the diverse people who create so many dazzling sounds, but also the subtle and often surprising connections between them. With effortless authority and a rich sense of music history, he reveals, for instance, how Ornette Coleman was influenced by a mystical group in Morocco-the Major Musicians of Joujouka-whom he discovered via Rolling Stone Brian Jones; how John Coltrane's unpredictable, extended sax solos influenced The Byrds, The Grateful Dead, and most significantly, Jimi Hendrix; and how Bob Marley's reggae combined Rastafarian chants with American pop, African call-and-response, and Black Nationalist politics into a potent mix that still shapes musicians from America to Africa, Europe to Asia. A former musician himself, Santoro is equally illuminating about both the technical aspects of the music and the personal development of the artists themselves. He offers us telling glimpses into their often turbulent lives: Ornette Coleman being kicked out of his high school band for improvising, Charles Mingus checking himself into Bellevue because he'd heard it was a good place to rest, the teenaged Jimi Hendrix practicing air-guitar with a broom at the foot of his bed, Aretha Franklin's Oedipal struggle with her larger-than-life preacher-father. Throughout the volume, Santoro's love and knowledge shine through, as he maps the rewarding terrain of pop music's varied traditions, its eclectic, cross-cultural borrowings, and its astonishing innovations. What results is a fascinating tour through twentieth-century popular music: lively, thought-provoking, leavened with humor and unexpected twists. Stir It Up is sure to challenge readers even as it entertains them.


The structural buildup during reticulation of thermoset systems containing reactive modifiers can strongly influence the final properties of such blends. This was studied by considering the rheological behavior during cure of an epoxy/amine thermoset system blended with reactive dendritic hyperbranched polymers (HBPs). Depending on the chemical structure of the HBP used in the blend, a phase separation could be observed. The onset and offset of the phase separation process could be detected by observing the evolution of the viscoelastic properties. The phase separation onsets obtained by rheological measurements were compared with the values obtained by traditional cloud point observations. Good agreement between the two techniques was observed. Hyperbranched polymers that did not phase separate during the curing process were used to study gelation phenomena and its dependence on the reactivity and functionality of the HBP. The gelation of the homogeneous blend system using the Flory-Stockmayer theory was also modeled. This highlighted the influence of both functionality and reactivity of the components, and the appearance of co-operative polymerization mechanisms in homogeneous blends.


Local ingredients such as desiccated coconut, palm mid-fraction (PMF), and refined, bleached, deodorised palm kernel stearin (RBD PKS) has the potential to be used as filling in chocolates. However, softening and bloom formation on chocolate coating have been major problems. The objectives of this study were to develop desiccated coconut filled chocolate using PMF and RBD PKS as the filling fats, to study the mechanism of fat migration and to determine the effectiveness of chitosan in controlling fat migration. Three formulations of filling containing RBD PKS with different ratio of icing sugar and desiccated coconut (5:1, 2:1, and 1:1) were developed and sensory qualities were evaluated by 80 panelists on hardness, taste (sweetness, coconut flavour) and overall acceptability. The most preferred formulation, 5:1 ratio of icing sugar and desiccated coconut, was used in developing the product. It was latter compared against PMF-desiccated coconut filled chocolate in terms of organoleptic properties (hardness, flavour, melt away and overall acceptability), physical (texture analysis) and shelf life (visual inspection of fat bloom formation) prior to sensory quality assessment on hardness, sweetness, coconut flavour and overall acceptability by 30 panelists against imported similar products. Results showed that PMF-desiccated coconut filled chocolate with maximum penetration force (MPF) of 1516.166.8 g was more accepted in terms of hardness and overall acceptability compared to RBD PKS (MPF: 1860.350.4 g). Shelf life of dark chocolate filled with PMF-desiccated coconut filling was higher (7 weeks) than that with RBD PKS (5 weeks). These products were comparable in terms of sweetness, coconut flavour and overall acceptability with the imported similar products. In determining the mechanism and effect of chitosan on fat migration, untreated and treated sample with different concentrations of chitosan (0.0, 1.0, 3.0 and 5.0%) were stored at 30oC for 3 months. Physical properties (texture analysis, bloom test, solid fat content), chemical analysis (total fat content, fatty acid and triacylglycerol composition) and sensory evaluation (hardness, glossiness) were conducted at week 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11. Fat migration of all the PMF-filled samples showed a rapid increase from filling to coating from 0 to 7 weeks of storage and dropped after week-7. Similar profile was observed for all the RBD PKS-filled chocolates, which reached equilibrium stage after week-5. Both chitosan treated samples for PMF and RBD PKS showed no significant difference (p>0.05) with the control in terms of physicochemical and sensory properties.


A new method is proposed for the computation of CO2 Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) and its components in a forest ecosystem. Advective flux is estimated by taking into account the air mass conservation principle. For this purpose, wind and dry air density values on the surface of the control volume are first corrected and then the advective flux is estimated on the surface of the control volume. Turbulent flux is also computed along the surface of the control volume while storage flux is computed inside the volume. Additional characteristics of this method are that incompressibility of the mean flow is not assumed a priori, and that vertical and horizontal advective fluxes are not treated separately, but their sum is estimated directly. The methodology is applied to experimental data collected with a three-dimensional scheme at the alpine site of Renon during the Advex project (July 2005). The advection flux was found to be prevailing positive at night and negative during the day, as was found in previous studies on advection for the same site, but showed a lower scatter in half-hour calculated values. We tested the effect of its summation on turbulent and storage fluxes to produce half-hourly values of NEE. Nighttime NEE values were used in functional relations with soil temperature, daytime values with PPFD. The effect of addition of the advection component was an increase in the values of parameters indicating ecosystem respiration, quantum yield, and photosynthetic capacity. The coefficient of correlation between NEE and environmental drivers increased. (Less)


Impending and ongoing impacts of sea-level rise in developing countries is being recognized increasingly because a variety of national and international efforts are beginning to document the cultural and natural resources at risk in the low-lying coastal zone. Part of the outcome of these efforts is the increasing sensitivity to the issue of a rising sea-level and the variety of impacts that are related to this change. Other outcomes point to the broad-based impacts in the developing countries where considerable investment and infrastructure are at risk. Independent of the role the developing countries have had in contributing to the 'global change effects', these countries are being affected by the worldwide sea-level rise and are in the difficult position of attempting to protect the existing coastal land uses to produce food, generate tourist income, and to support trade. Reacting to the impacts of sea-level rise may involve costs which are too high for most of the developing countries to sustain.


Vocational and Technical Education (ABSTRACT) Extension professionals must have easy access to and knowledge of emerging technologies to deliver programs more efficiently and effectively. With the increasing use of computer technology comes an increasing number of individuals who have computer anxiety. This study examined selected variables as predictors of computer anxiety. Data were collected from 402 Virginia Cooperative Extension field personnel. The personnel included Agricultural and Natural Resources agents, Family and Consumer Sciences agents, 4-H agents, technicians, and secretaries. A modified version of Oetting's 1983 Computer Anxiety Scale (COMPAS) was used to determine the computer anxiety levels. For this instrument, an internal consistency reliability of Cronbach's alpha r = .95 resulted from this study. The survey results were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The overall mean score for the respondents to this study was 101.68, on a 200 point scale, which was interpreted using the COMPAS manual to iii indicate that only 20% of the Virginia Cooperative Extension personnel were " anxious " or " very anxious. " Regression analysis indicated that time per day using a computer, years with Extension, and age were the significant variables related to anxiety. Increased computer use reduced but did not entirely eliminate computer anxiety. A profile of a respondent who was relaxed about computer use included being age 20 to 29, a secretary, and using a computer more than two hours per day. A person anxious about computer use was middle aged (40 and over), a technician, and used the computer less than two hours per day. The results indicated that the more a respondent used the computer per day the less anxious they were. A large number of personnel used the computer to compile and produce educational material and to communicate with colleagues. The Virginia Cooperative Extension administration should direct their attention regarding computer training to respondents who are 40 years of age and older and are technicians. To reduce computer anxiety, personnel should be provided with in-service training emphasizing computer applications. Additional research could identify why technicians have higher levels of computer anxiety. Further study could identify other variables that may be related to computer anxiety. committee member, without whose support this project could not have been completed. First and foremost, I give thanks to my mother who supported me and endured so many hardships and sacrifices for this degree. Second, I want to remember the …


We introduce the Maximum Sustainable Yield problem for a multi-robot foraging and construction system, inspired by the relationship between the natural resource growth and harvesting behaviors in an ecosystem. The resources spawn according to the logistic model and are vulnerable to over-harvesting. The robots must maintain sustainability while maximizing productivity. The foraging robots harvest different types of resources, which enable a construction robot to build new foraging robots. We design algorithms to perform robot construction, assignment, and scheduling. We propose an adaptive algorithm to overcome the problem that resource growth model is often unknown. We demonstrate that our algorithms are robust to noises in the actuation and the environment. The case where the observation noise could harm sustainability is discussed.


Contemporary sociosemiotics is a way to transcend borderlines between trends inside semiotics, and also other disciplines. Whereas semiotics has been considered as an interdisciplinary field of research par excellence, sociosemiotics can point directions at transdisciplinary research. The present article will try to conjoin the structural and the processual views on culture and society, binding them together with the notion of signification. The signification of space will illustrate the dynamic between both cultures and metacultures, and cultural mainstreams and subcultures. This paper pays attention to the practice of sociocultural semiotisation of space and territorialisation by diverse examples and different sociocultural levels that imply semiotic cooperation between several members of groups that can be characterised as socii. We analyse territorialisation by graffiti, by furnishing spatial environment through artistic manners, by shaping the semiotic essence of cities through naming, renaming and translating street names, by pinning and structuring territories with monuments, by landmarking and mapping cultural space through individualisation of cities. We will see how principles of semiotisation of space are valid on different levels (individual and social, formal and informal, democratic and hegemonic, cultural and subcultural) and how these principles form a transdisciplinary object of study as 'semiotisation of space', and how space can be regarded as a genuinely transdisciplinary research object. Individual, culture, and society are connected in such an object both as constituents and as a background of study.


Empirical studies have repeatedly pointed out that the readability of a privacy policy is a potential source of trust of online users. Nevertheless, many online companies still keep the readability of their privacy policies at a low level. This could possibly coincide with a low compliance of their privacy policies with the guidelines of fair information practices and thus with users' privacy expectations. Against this background, this study seeks to clarify the role of perceived and actual readability of user-friendly and -unfriendly privacy policies in shaping user's trust in a mobile service provider. Tested for two different mobile service scenarios that differ in the sensitivity of user data (educational entertainment app vs. health app), our hypotheses are verified based on the responses of 539 online users. Our findings reveal that in the case of a user-unfriendly data-handling policy, the effect of actual readability of a privacy policy outweighs the effect of its perceived readability in forming users' trust. At the same time, for a user-friendly privacy policy, only perceived readability plays a significant role in promoting users' trust in the provider of an educational entertainment app. In a sensitive healthcare context, however, perceived and actual readability of privacy policies are almost equally important.


We compared hypnotizability between two samples from different Universities in Sweden. One test was administered in Swedish (University of Skovde) using a translated Swedish version of the HGSHS:A (Bergman, Trenter, & Kallio, 2003). At Lund University, the original English version of the HGSHS:A (Shor & Orne 1962) was used and participants also completed the Inventory Scale of Hypnotic Depth (ISHD; Field, 1965). The results suggest that administering the HGSHS:A in English to Swedish University students may only slightly reduce hypnotizability scores. Because the HGSHS:A was designed to be used for the initial screening of hypnotic suggestibility, for most practical purposes the original version seems a valid choice among non-English groups fluent in English. The data also support some recent findings about females exhibiting higher objective and subjective hypnotizability scores than male volunteers. (Less)


Introduction The relationship between hospital procedure volume and surgical outcomes has been a topic of considerable interest. Pancreatic resections are complex and associated with a high risk of complications. Hospitals with a higher volume of pancreatic resections have been shown to have better post-operative outcomes than lower-volume hospitals. However, pancreatic resections previously reserved for severe complication has evolved into a common and safe procedure performed by many surgeons today. This study aimed to investigate outcome of pancreatic resections in low volume center through short term surgical results. Methods 59 patients with pancreatic resections were enrolled during a 3-year periods. Clinically relavent complications were defined as Clavien- Dindo grade III-V complications. Pancreatic fistula and post-pancreatectomy hemorrhage were scored and graded according to standard international consensus definitions. Clinically significant PF was defined grade B or C. The main outcome measures in this study were rates of CR-POPF, clinically significant complications, 90-day mortality, 90-day readmission and reoperation. Results There was 29 pancreaticoduodenectomy, 22 Left sided pancreatectomy, 6 total pancreatectomy, and 2 central pancreatectomy. There was one in hospital mortality (1.67%). Overall CR-POPF rate was 6.6% (n=4), PPH rate was 8.3% (n=5) and CR-complication rate was 13.3% (n=8). 8 patients (13.3%) were hospitalized again after index discharge and 2 patients (3.3%) had to get surgery again. There were no significant differences in CR-complication rates (20.7% vs. 4.5%, vs. 16.7% p=0.37), CR-POPF (10.3% vs. 4.5% vs. 0% p=0.68), or reoperation rates (6.9% vs. 0% vs. 0% p=0.54) among pancreaticoduodenectomy, left sided pancreatectomy and TP groups, respectively. CR-complication was associated with more CR-POPF (p=0.0001). Conclusion Pancreatic resections can be achieved at a low-volume hospital with good results, but longer and more observation will be needed for acceptable.


Previous research showed that treatment with conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) during the period of active mammary gland morphogenesis was sufficient to confer a lasting protection against subsequent mammary tumorigenesis induced by methylnitrosourea. The present study was designed to characterize certain morphological and biochemical changes of the mammary gland that might potentially render it less susceptible to cancer induction. Female Sprague Dawley rats were fed a 1% CLA diet from weaning until about 50 days of age. The mammary gland parameters under investigation included (a) the deposition of neutral lipid, (b) the identification and quantification of CLA and its metabolites, (c) the density of the epithelium, and (d) the proliferative activity of various structural components. Our results showed that CLA treatment did not affect total fat deposition in the mammary tissue nor the extent of epithelial invasion into the surrounding fat pad but was able to cause a 20% reduction in the density of the ductal-lobular tree as determined by digitized image analysis of the whole mounts. This was accompanied by a suppression of bromodeoxyuridine labeling in the terminal end buds and lobuloalveolar buds. The recovery of desaturation and elongation products of CLA in the mammary gland confirmed our prior suggestion that the metabolism of CLA might be critical to risk modulation. The significance of the above findings was investigated in a mammary carcinogenesis bioassay with the use of the dimethylbenz[a]anthracene model. When CLA was started at weaning and continued for 6 months until the end of the experiment, this schedule of supplementation produced essentially the same magnitude of mammary tumor inhibition in the dimethylbenz[a]anthracene model as that produced by 1 month of CLA feeding from weaning. The observation is consistent with the hypothesis that exposure to CLA during the time of mammary gland maturation may modify the developmental potential of a subset of target cells that are normally susceptible to carcinogen-induced transformation.


Whereas the surgical approach has long been the standard of care for ectopic pregnancy, a wider range of treatment options is now available--leading to a number of questions for the OB/GYN. Our expert panelists debate the relative merits and drawbacks of methotrexate and various invasive procedures, and also discuss their preferred diagnostic approaches, in managing the patient who presents with signs and symptoms of ectopic pregnancy.


ABSTRACT Background: Formation of struvite stones is associated with urinary tract infection by urease-producing bacteria. Biogenic crystal growth in natural and synthetic materials is regulated by the action of inhibitors, ranging from small ions, molecules to large macromolecules. Materials and Methods: We report the dynamics of in vitro crystallization of struvite in presence of vitamin C in synthetic urine using single diffusion gel growth technique. Sodium metasilicate gel of specific gravity 1.05 and the aqueous solution of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate were used as the medium for growing the struvite crystals. The crystallization process was induced by a urease positive struvite stone associated Pseudomonas aeruginosa to mimic the infection leading to stone formation. The grown crystals were characterized by ATR-FTIR and powder XRD. The surface morphology was analysed through FE-SEM for comparison between treatments. Results: We observed decrease in number, dimension, and growth rate of struvite crystals with the increasing concentrations of vitamin C. Crystals displayed well-defined faces and dendritic morphology of struvite in both control and biogenic systems. Conclusion: The results strongly suggest that, vitamin C can modulate the formation of struvite crystals in the presence of uropathogenic bacteria.


&NA; This article aims to identify how the health system in Tak province, Thailand has responded to migrants' barriers to tuberculosis (TB) treatment. Our qualitatively driven multi‐methods project utilized focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and a survey of community health volunteers to collect data in 2014 from multiple perspectives. Migrants identified legal status and transportation difficulties as the primary barriers to seeking TB treatment. Lack of financial resources and difficulties locating appropriate and affordable health services in other Thai provinces or across the border in Myanmar further contributed to migrants' challenges. TB care providers responded to barriers to treatment by bringing care out into the community, enhancing patient mobility, providing supportive services, and reaching out to potential patients. Interventions to improve migrant access and adherence to TB treatment necessarily extend outside of the health system and require significant resources to expand equitable access to treatment. Although this research is specific to the Thailand‐Myanmar border, we anticipate that the findings will contribute to broader conversations around the inputs that are necessary to address disparities and inequities. Our study suggests that migrants need to be provided with resources that help stabilize their financial situation and overcome difficulties associated with their legal status in order to access and continue TB treatment.


We present a new supervised architecture termed Mediated Mixture-of-Experts (MMoE) that allows us to improve classification accuracy of Deep Convolutional Networks (DCN). Our architecture achieves this with the help of expert networks: A network is trained on a disjoint subset of a given dataset and then run in parallel to other experts during deployment. A mediator is employed if experts contradict each other. This allows our framework to naturally support incremental learning, as adding new classes requires (re-)training of the new expert only. We also propose two measures to control computational complexity: An early-stopping mechanism halts experts that have low confidence in their prediction. The system allows to trade-off accuracy and complexity without further retraining. We also suggest to share low-level convo-lutional layers between experts in an effort to avoid computation of a near-duplicate feature set. We evaluate our system on a popular dataset and report improved accuracy compared to a single model of same configuration.


The issue of market e¢ ciency attracted the attention of academicians since the existence of financial markets. Over time, two schools of thoughts were established: the efficient markets school and the behavioral finance school. Proponents of the former believed in the Efficient Markets Hypothesis whereas the latter brought evidence from behavioral finance and psychology to demonstrate that financial markets are inefficient and this inefficiency is attributed to the irrational behavior of investors in making financial choices regarding asset allocation and portfolio construction. Recently, an adaptive reconciliation was suggested, which posits that investors'adaptability is what brings back inefficient markets to efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to test empirically the validity of the Adaptive Markets Hypothesis via a smooth transition regression model with exogenous threshold variable. The results support the reconciliation and show that markets are indeed efficient sometimes and inefficient most of the time.


A satellite-based climatology is presented of 9607 mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) that occurred over the central and southeastern United States from 1996 to 2017. This climatology is constructed with a fully automated algorithm based on their cold cloud shields, as observed from infrared images taken by GOES-East satellites. The geographical, seasonal, and diurnal patterns of MCS frequency are evaluated, as are the frequency distributions and seasonal variability of duration and maximum size. MCS duration and maximum size are found to be strongly correlated, with coefficients greater than 0.7. Although previous literature has subclassified MCSs based on size and duration, we find no obvious threshold that cleanly categorizes MCSs. The Plains and Deep South are identified as two regional modes of maximum MCS frequency, accounting for 21% and 18% of MCSs, respectively, and these are found to differ in the direction and speed of the MCSs (means of 16 and 13 m s−1), their distributions of duration and size (means of 12.2 h, 176 000 km2 and 9.6 h, 108 000 km2), their initial growth rates (means of 7.6 and 6.1 km2 s−1), and many aspects of the seasonal cycle. The lifetime patterns of MCS movement and growth are evaluated for the full domain and for the two regional modes. The growth patterns and strong correlation between size and duration allow for a parabolic function to represent the MCS life cycle quite well in summary statistics. We show that this satellite-based climatology supports previous studies identifying favorable environments for mesoscale convective systems.


This study focuses on how the German pair of concepts opposite in meaning "wissen" (to know) and "glauben" (to believe) was expressed in Japanese texts critical of religion and religious organizations before and after the onslaught of Western ideas in the second half of the 19th century. A comparison of the words used for the actions commonly associated with "believing" and "knowing" in a text on peasant life in rural Kyūshū in the 1810s with the terminology used by a leading member of the bureaucratic intelligentsia in Tokyo in the 1910s reveals that the basic conflict between "knowing" and "believing" before and after the mid-19th century period of transition differed fundamentally from the archetypal opposition of "belief in transcendence" versus "acquisition of knowledge by empirical methods" which characterised the Western Age of Enlightenment. In fact, religion was blamed above all for deflecting the allegiance of believers from the political authorities to religious organizations. Accordingly criticism in both periods focuses mainly on those religious organizations which on grounds of their popular appeal were seen to pose an immediate threat to the government's claim to "knowing", a term which in Japanese is semantically closely linked with "governing". Since faith was not regarded as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11.1) but as a form of allegiance ( kie ), criticism of religion in the texts surveyed should be understood as being rooted in political concerns, not in a radical denial of religion as such. Heinrich Reinfried: i. R., Abteilung Japanologie, Asien-Orient-Institut, Universität Zürich. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


Assistive devices such as passive or active orthoses are used in the cases of lower limb damage. For the design of an active orthosis, it is necessary to take into account the physical parameters of the patient and to calculate the characteristics of the actuator for joint articulation. It is important to decide which type of orthosis is most appropriate to use, as well as whether the use of orthosis improves or deteriorates human walking. In this paper the developed computer models for analysis of data obtained from an autonomous adaptive system for actuation, data acquisition and control of active ankle-foot orthosis are presented. The system can operate in three modes: data collection mode, assistive mode and data monitoring mode. Mathematical model of the orthosis together with the control unit and actuator for positioning of the foot orthotic segment and the dynamic system simulation is done in Matlab Simulink and SimMechanics. A graphical program written in MATLAB receives and visualizes the data during walking, giving us the representation of the signals obtained from the autonomous system. For visualization of the signals measured in real time along a treadmill in laboratory conditions, a LabView virtual instrument has developed.


Introduction: Parkinson's disease Is an Idiopathic disorder of the extrapyramidal system. It has a worldwide prevalence but data from developing countries Is scanty. We describe the clinical spectrum of the disease from Pakistan, a developing country. Methods: Patients with Parkinson's disease, over a period of II years, were identified by ICD-9 coding system of the hospital medical records. Demographical characteristics, clinical features, laboratory Investigations and radiological investigations were recorded and analysed. Results: A total of 80 patients were identified. 50 (63 percent) were males and 30 (37 percent) were females. Mean age of onset of the disease was 54 years. 47 (59 percent) patients had onset of Illness during the sixth or seventh decade of life. Mean duration of Illness at the time of presentation was five years. Rigidity, bradyklnesia, tremors, hypomlmla, primitive reflexes, difficulty In performing fine work and walking difficulty were the most common clinical features. 52 (65 percent) patients had stage I or II (Hoehn-Yahr staging) disease at the time of presentation. 56 (70 percent) patients had predominantly unilateral symptoms. 15 (19 percent) patients had cognitive Impairment Cognitive decline was more common in the elderly and In patients with disease duration of longer than ten years. Conclusion: Parkinson's disease is more common In males. Tremor, rigidity, walking difficulty, bradykinesia and difficulty in performing fine work are the commonest clinical features. Disease severity increases with duration of the disease. Cognitive Impairment Is not uncommon in these patients and Is associated with disease duration and age of onset of the Illness.


BACKGROUND
Predicting early respiratory failure in COVID-19 can help triage patients to higher levels of care, allocate scarce resources, and reduce morbidity and mortality by appropriately monitoring and treating patients at greatest risk for deterioration. Given the complexity of COVID-19 disease, machine learning (ML) approaches may support clinical decision making for patients with this disease.

OBJECTIVE
Our objective is to derive a machine learning model that predicts respiratory failure within 48 hours of admission based on data from the emergency department (ED).

METHODS
Data was collected from patients with COVID-19 who were admitted to Northwell Health acute care hospitals and discharged, died, or spent a minimum of 48 hours in the hospital between March 1, 2020 and May 11, 2020. Of 11,525 patients, 933 (8.1%) were placed on invasive mechanical ventilation within 48 hours of admission. Variables used by the models included clinical and laboratory data commonly collected in the ED. We trained and validated three predictive models (two based on XGBoost, one that utilized logistic regression) using cross hospitals validation. We compared model performance between all three models as well as an established early warning score (Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS)) using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, precision-recall (PR) curves, and other metrics.

RESULTS
The XGBoost model had the highest mean accuracy of 0.919 (AUC = 0.77), outperforming the other two models as well as MEWS. Important predictor variables included the type of oxygen delivery used in the ED, patient age, Emergency Severity Index (ESI), respiratory rate, serum lactate, and demographic characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS
XGBoost has high predictive accuracy, outperforming other early warning scores. The clinical plausibility and predictive ability of XGBoost suggest that the model could be used to predict 48-hour respiratory failure in admitted patients with COVID-19.

CLINICALTRIAL


Otolith nucleus chemistry resolved the population structure of Patagonian toothfish Dissostichus eleginoides, an exclusively marine species, along the Patagonian Shelf and North Scotia Ridge out to South Georgia in the Southern Ocean. Concentrations of 55 Mn, 88 Sr and 137 Ba, ratioed to 42 Ca, showed a sharp population boundary in the vicinity of the Polar Front, between South Georgia and the North Scotia·Ridge. These results validated otolith nucleus chemistry as a technique for examining population structure in Patagonian toothfish, demonstrating that otolith nucleus chemistry can discriminate between populations even in fully marine environments. Moreover, the nucleus chemistry indicated population heterogeneity not previously detected, suggesting the possibility of more than one South American population, and also suggested some South American-caught fish had moved from South Georgia.


The author is the executive director of the American Psychological Society. E-mail: email@example.com The prospect of cutbacks in federal funding of research has provoked a strong and largely successful defense by the scientific community. However, our advocacy has laid bare our priorities, and advancing the next generation of scientists is not among them. Unless we take deliberate steps to make sure money and mechanisms are available for training and supporting new investigators—even if that means less money for today's investigators—we are in danger of mortgaging research's future for our own current spending. Maybe nobody sets out to overlook training, but it is almost invariably an afterthought. When federal agency officials and science advocates take to Capitol Hill, they describe the excitement of the Human Genome Project, they show pictures of the brain at work, they offer a peek through the Hubble Space Telescope. Of course these things should be promoted, but so must the research training that gave us the scientists who mapped those genes, traced those brain mechanisms, and discovered those stars. The scientists who grew up under the first federal training programs are now the leaders of the science establishment. More than anyone, they should be attuned to the need for a strong federal commitment to training. In their hearts, they know it. Federal agency heads have told me that there may not be enough researchers in the future to continue their agency's mission in historically high-quality ways. However, that is not what they tell Congress. Research training, they tell me, is not what Congress wants to hear about. By tailoring our message in this way, we put science on the same plane with every other special interest vying for a piece of the federal pie, and that's not good enough. We need to speak for the next generation, tell Congress what their needs are, and convince Congress of the importance of those priorities, even if they don't want to hear it. It's true, Congress does not want to fund more research training. "Now let me get this straight, Doctor," they say. "Five NIH [National Institutes of Health] directors were just here begging for more money because only 15% of their approved grants are going to be funded this year. And you want me to do what? Add more people to that competition?" Not exactly. This is not about more money for established competitors. We must invest in the next few generations of scientists. They are the ones who will build on current research to find the cure for AIDS or Alzheimer's, to prevent schizophrenia, or to create tomorrow's miracle metals. We should be as excited about bringing the best new minds to bear on these issues as we are about any current accomplishment. Blindly pumping money into existing training mechanisms is not the answer; money for training should not be used to augment current science with research assistants cast in our own image. To encourage talented people to work in areas of national importance and to move in promising directions, we need to rethink the nuts-and-bolts mechanisms in ways that recognize the needs of young investigators at different stages of their careers. To give one example, in my field, psychology, a new mechanism is allowing young Ph.D.'s to collect pilot data while learning how things work at NIH. Known as B/START (Behavioral Science Track Awards for Rapid Transition), these grants are designed to reverse the "graying" of the field and support new investigators in their transition to independent research, a difficult juncture in a scientist's career. We need to examine and reexamine such issues as mentoring; making training money portable so investigators can work in different settings; making multidisciplinary training deliberate; injecting new perspectives into training even where it is discipline specific; breaking down barriers between basic, clinical, and applied research; and many more. On a broader scale, we need to initiate with policy-makers a new national training strategy, one that articulates a strong federal role in producing and supporting young researchers—for their sakes, not ours. It will not be easy: Adopting a national training strategy may require something on the order of a culture change within science. However, if training continues to be a marginal consideration, we are virtually guaranteeing a future work force less qualified than what we have now. Both science and the nation deserve better.


Aerobic capacity is the capacity of large skeletal muscle groups to adapt to work by using energy obtained as a result of aerobic metabolism. VO2max is a good indicator of aerobic capacity and is considered to be an indicator of the physiological integration of pulmonary, cardiovascular and neuromuscular functions. Anaerobic capacity is the ability of the muscles to adapt to workouts in the form of very short duration, maximal and supramaximal physical activities. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of aerobic and anaerobic training methods on aerobic and anaerobic capacity. 8 female (age; 18.12 ± 0.35 years, weight 46.6 ± 7.39 kg; height 162.7 ± 6.75 cm; BMI; 17.72 ± 2.60 kg/m2, PBF; 16.01 ± 6.15%) and 8 male (age; 18.50 ± 1.19 years, weight 61.18 ± 5.43 kg; height 174.0 ± 4.00 cm; BMI; 20.16 ± 1.43 kg/m2; PBF; 12.20 ± 3.96%) participated in this study. The volunteers were randomly divided into aerobic (4 female, 4 male) and anaerobic (4 female, 4 male) groups. Volunteers participated in a total of 24 training seasons, 3 days per week over 8 weeks. The training programs Involved running on a treadmill in the range of 60-70% maxHR for 1 hour on each training day for the aerobic group. The anaerobic training program included running in the range of maxHR 80-90% on the treadmill (2*100, 2*200, 2*300, 1*400, 2*300, 2*200, 2*100 sprints) for 1 hour per season. In order to determine the aerobic performance of the volunteers, a bicycle ergometer (Monark LC6 novo, Varberg, Sweden) was used with a portable gas analyzer (Cosmed K5, Italy). In order to determine the anaerobic performance, a bicycle ergometer (Monark 874 E, Varberg, Sweden), which was connected to a computer modified for the Wingate Anerobic Power Test (WAnT) and compatible with an appropriate piece of software, was used. The study was planned in accordance with a pre-test and post-test model. For statistical evaluation of the data obtained, descriptive statistical methods such as frequency (f), arithmetic mean (X), and standard deviation (SD) were used. A paired-samples t-test was used for the evaluation of the data obtained from pretest and post-test measurements. Independent samples t-test was used for the determination of differences between the sexes. The results were evaluated at the 0.05 significance level. Based on the findings, anaerobic training was observed to cause an increase in all components of anaerobic capacity. Significant differences were found in the anaerobic capacity components. It was found that anaerobic training caused a high level of difference in terms of aerobic capacity values, and thus increased aerobic capacity. It was observed that aerobic training had a positive effect on anaerobic capacity, anaerobic power and the fatigue index. Although aerobic training results in an increase in aerobic capacity of approximately 4%, this increase was not significant.


Essentials of Urban Design explains the fundamental concepts of urban design, providing the understanding and tools needed to achieve better design outcomes. It is equally useful for designing places and evaluating designs.

Each chapter outlines the key steps in designing or assessing a different type of development. All common types of urban development are addressed, from infill buildings to whole urban growth areas, residential to employment uses, and centres to public transport interchanges. For each development type, widely accepted urban design principles are explained, and 'rules of thumb' provided.

This practical handbook is liberally illustrated with diagrams, photos of 'good' and 'bad' examples of urban design and handy checklists for common urban design tasks. It will be a valuable reference tool for architects, developers, urban planners, traffic engineers, landscape architects, councillors, planning lawyers, planning tribunal members and residents concerned about development.


An investigation has been conducted in the NACA Cleveland altitude wind tunnel to evaluate the performance and windmilling drag characteristics of an original and a modified turbojet engine of the same type. Data have been obtained at simulated altitudes from 5000 to 45,000 feet, simulated flight Mach numbers from 0.09 to 1.08, and engine speeds from 4000 to 12,500 rpm. Engine performance data are presented for both engines to show the effects of altitude at a flight Mach number of 0.25 and of flight Mach number at an altitude of 25,000 feet. Performance of the original and modified engines is compared for a range of simulated flight conditions. The performance data are generalized to show the applicability of methods used to estimate performance at any altitude from data obtained at a given altitude. Engine-windmilling-speed and windmilling-drag data are presented for a range of simulated flight conditions.


Abstract The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends weight‐for‐length/height (WFL/H), represented as a Z score for diagnosing acute malnutrition among children aged 0 to 60 months. Under controlled conditions, weight, height and length measurements have high degree of reliability. However, the reliability when combined into a WFL/H Z score, in all settings is unclear. We conducted a systematic review of published studies assessing the reliability of WFL/Hz on PubMed and Google scholar. Studies were included if they presented reliability scores for the derived index of WFL/Hz, for children under 5 years. Meta‐analysis was conducted for a pooled estimate of reliability overall, and for children above and below 24 months old. Twenty six studies on reliability of anthropometry were identified but only three, all community‐based studies, reported reliability scores for WFL/Hz. The overall pooled intra‐class correlation coefficient (ICC) estimate for WFL/Hz among children aged 0 to 60 months was 0.81 (95% CI 0.64 to 0.99). Among children aged less than 24 months the pooled ICC estimate from two studies was 0.72 (95% CI 0.67 to 0.77) while the estimate reported for children above 24 months from one study was 0.97 (95% CI 0.97 to 0.99). Although WFL/Hz is recommended for diagnosis of acute under nutrition among children below 5 years, information on its reliability in all settings is sparse. In community settings, reliability of WFL/Hz is considerably lower than for absolute measures of weight and length/height, especially in younger children. The reliability of WFL/Hz needs further evaluation.


Background: There is increasing interest in the evolution of protein-protein interactions because this should ultimately be informative of the patterns of evolution of new protein functions within the cell. One model proposes that the evolution of new protein-protein interactions and protein complexes proceeds through the duplication of self-interacting genes. This model is supported by data from yeast. We examined the relationship between gene duplication and self-interaction in the human genome. Results: We investigated the patterns of self-interaction and duplication among 34808 interactions encoded by 8881 human genes, and show that self-interacting proteins are encoded by genes with higher duplicability than genes whose proteins lack this type of interaction. We show that this result is robust against the system used to define duplicate genes. Finally we compared the presence of self-interactions amongst proteins whose genes have duplicated either through whole-genome duplication (WGD) or small-scale duplication (SSD), and show that the former tend to have more interactions in general. After controlling for age differences between the two sets of duplicates this result can be explained by the time since the gene duplication. Conclusions: Genes encoding self-interacting proteins tend to have higher duplicability than proteins lacking selfinteractions. Moreover these duplicate genes have more often arisen through whole-genome rather than small-scale duplication. Finally, self-interacting WGD genes tend to have more interaction partners in general in the PIN, which can be explained by their overall greater age. This work adds to our growing knowledge of the importance of contextual factors in gene duplicability.


Coastal groundwater reserves often reflect a complex evolution of marine transgressions and regressions, and are only rarely in equilibrium with current boundary conditions. Understanding and managing the present-day distribution and future development of these reserves and their hydrochemical characteristics therefore requires insight into their complex evolution history. In this paper, we construct a paleo-hydrogeological model, together with groundwater age and origin calculations, to simulate, study and evaluate the evolution of groundwater salinity in the coastal area of the Netherlands throughout the last 8.5 kyr of the Holocene. While intended as a conceptual tool, confidence in our model results is warranted by a good correspondence with a hydrochemical characterization of groundwater origin. Throughout the modeled period, coastal groundwater distribution never reached equilibrium with contemporaneous boundary conditions. This result highlights the importance of historically changing boundary conditions in shaping the present-day distribution of groundwater and its chemical composition. As such, it acts as a warning against the common use of a steady-state situation given present-day boundary conditions to initialize groundwater transport modeling in complex coastal aquifers or, more general, against explaining existing groundwater composition patterns from the currently existing flow situation. The importance of historical boundary conditions not only holds true for the effects of the large-scale marine transgression around 5 kyr BC that thoroughly reworked groundwater composition, but also for the more local effects of a temporary gaining river system still recognizable today. Model results further attest to the impact of groundwater density differences on coastal groundwater flow on millennial timescales and highlight their importance in shaping today's groundwater salinity distribution. We found free convection to drive large-scale fingered infiltration of seawater to depths of 200 m within decades after a marine transgression, displacing the originally present groundwater upwards. Subsequent infiltration of fresh meteoric water was, in contrast, hampered by the existing density gradient. We observed discontinuous aquitards to exert a significant control on infiltration patterns and the resulting evolution of groundwater salinity. Finally, adding to a long-term scientific debate on the origins of groundwater salinity in Dutch coastal aquifers, our modeling results suggest a more significant role of pre-Holocene groundwater in the present-day groundwater salinity distribution in the Netherlands than previously recognized. Though conceptual, comprehensively modeling the Holocene evolution of groundwater salinity, age and origin offered a unique view on the complex processes shaping groundwater in coastal aquifers over millennial timescales.


The frequency of antigen-specific cells will vary during development and in response to the first and subsequent encounters with an antigen, either through infection or immunisation, and is an important indicator of adaptive immune function. Antigen-specific lymphocyte prevalence can be estimated indirectly and directly using several different techniques. Functional assays have been used for several decades to indirectly calculate the frequency of antigen-specific lymphocytes by measuring a proliferative response, cytokine production or cytolytic activity in response to antigenic stimulation. The functional activity of individual lymphocytes is also able to be measured directly, which allows phenotypic analyses of antigen-specific cells. More recently, labelled MHC (major histocompatibility complex)/peptide multimers have allowed researchers to directly enumerate and comprehensively phenotype lymphocytes using multiparameter flow cytometry.

Key Concepts

Antigen-specific precursors may be undetectable in naive individuals but are increased in frequency after immunisation.
Antigen-specific lymphocyte prevalence is dependent on immune status, the tissues from which cells are isolated and the immunogenicity of the antigen.
Indirect functional assays may detect less abundant precursors, but direct methods will detect cells rendered nonfunctional by anergy or exhaustion.
Indirect methods for determining lymphocyte precursor prevalence rely on the single hit Poisson model.
ELISPOT and flow cytometry are the principal techniques for direct characterisation of lymphocyte precursors.

Keywords:

precursor frequency;
lymphocyte;
antigen specific;
adaptive immunity;
flow cytometry


Like all the work of architects Liz Diller + Ric Scofidio, Flesh is a set of contradictions and complexities. Itis both a monograph of their workthe first ever on their art, architecture, and installationsbut also not a traditional monograph. It is a both/and, neither/nor book-as-project noted at the time of its publication, in 1994, for its groundbreaking typography and not-too-subtle critique of architecture from within. Since its publication, Diller + Scofidio (now Diller Scofidio + Renfro ) have gone on to become among the world's most famous architects, but the themes, concerns, and even forms that make them so celebrated today are all here in Flesh, along with its most radical proposition: that anything can be architecture, starting with this book, one of the most sought-after and valuable books in our library."


BACKGROUND: There remains a proportion of patients with unfavorable outcomes after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, of particular relevance in those who present with a good clinical grade. A forewarning of those at risk provides an opportunity towards more intensive monitoring, investigation, and prophylactic treatment prior to the clinical manifestation of advancing cerebral injury. OBJECTIVE: To assess whether biochemical markers sampled in the first days after the initial hemorrhage can predict poor outcome. METHODS: All patients recruited to the multicenter Simvastatin in Aneurysmal Hemorrhage Trial (STASH) were included. Baseline biochemical profiles were taken between time of ictus and day 4 post ictus. The t-test compared outcomes, and a backwards stepwise binary logistic regression was used to determine the factors providing independent prediction of an unfavorable outcome. RESULTS: Baseline biochemical data were obtained in approximately 91% of cases from 803 patients. On admission, 73% of patients were good grade (World Federation of Neurological Surgeons grades 1 or 2); however, 84% had a Fisher grade 3 or 4 on computed tomographic scan. For patients presenting with good grade on admission, higher levels of C-reactive protein, glucose, and white blood cells and lower levels of hematocrit, albumin, and hemoglobin were associated with poor outcome at discharge. C-reactive protein was found to be an independent predictor of outcome for patients presenting in good grade. CONCLUSION: Early recording of C-reactive protein may prove useful in detecting those good grade patients who are at greater risk of clinical deterioration and poor outcome. ABBREVIATIONS: ALP, alkaline phosphatase ALT, alanine aminotransferase CK, creatine kinase CRP, C-reactive protein EVD, external ventricular drainage ICH GCP, International Conference on Harmonisation guidelines for good clinical practice mRS, modified Rankin Scale SAH, subarachnoid hemorrhage STASH, Simvastatin in Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Trial WBC, white blood cells WFNS, World Federation of Neurological Surgeons


This article analyses the intentions and internal logic of a systematic quality work programme in Swedish schools as an example of institutionalization of an international super-standard in large public organizations. A programme theory analysis is used to illuminate the intentions, inner logic, involved actors, possible limitations and underlying assumptions of the evaluation system, which together constitute the systematic quality work. What is realistically achievable is also highlighted and analysed in relation to current research and the welfare liberal, and social democratic education policy perspectives expressed in the National curriculum. The programme analysis indicates an ambitious, all-embracing, and ever-present evaluation system and exposes inherent potential contradictions. The programme could foster improvement and mirrors the distribution of responsibilities that characterizes Swedish school governance, which implies that how the programme is enacted in schools will be decisive for its results. The potential of the programme in practice is discussed in relation to the varying local context's inherent risks and dilemmas, concerning governance, reductionism, constitutive effects, and working conditions.


Some months ago at a Holocaust conference in Scottsdale, I had the pleasure of hearing a provocative presentation by Kenneth Stern on the sources of antisemitism and how antisemitism might be related to hatred. This occurred shortly after I had talked at the same conference about my experiences in 1946-1947 as a U.S. Army motion picture photographer at the Nuremberg Medical Trials, where I had witnessed and made sound movies of the trial of the 23 defendants, mostly physicians, accused of experimenting on concentration camp victims and causing the deaths of untold numbers of them. So I thought I had some firsthand experience of hatred and the individuals who practiced it. Most of my subsequent career has been centered on performing research in the neurosciences: neurophysiology and neuroanatomy.


Abstract A previously healthy 14-year-old girl presented to the emergency department with a 3-day history of upper respiratory symptoms and 2 syncopal episodes. She was initially febrile, tachycardic, and tachypneic; the initial electrocardiogram showed diffuse T-wave inversions and right atrial enlargement. There was no pericardial effusion on bedside and formal echocardiography; the latter, however, revealed a hyperechogenic pericardium. A viral swab was positive for influenza B. Treatment with intravenous rehydration and ibuprofen was started with good response. The patient went home 24 hours later with the diagnosis of mild pericarditis and syncope likely secondary to dehydration impaired diastolic filling. The incidence of acute pericarditis in previously healthy children is unknown. There are no known case reports of influenza B–associated pericarditis in the pediatric population. There is little high quality evidence to guide the diagnosis and management of pericarditis in children. However, limited data suggest that the typically described presentation of chest pain, pericardial rub, pericardial effusion, and electrocardiogram changes occurs in children. The pediatric population seems to respond well to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.


for Doctor of Philosophy Micro-particles as Cellular Delivery Devices By Lois Meryl Alexander Narrowly dispersed amino-functionalised polystyrene microspheres, with a range of diameters, were successfully synthesised via emulsion and dispersion polymerisation. Fluorescent labelling allowed cellular translocation to be assessed in a variety of cell lines and was found to be very high, but controllable, whilst exhibiting no detrimental effect on cellular viability. In order to fully determine the mode of microsphere uptake, "beadfected" melanoma (B16F10) cells were studied using both chemical and microscopic methods. Uptake was found to be wholly unreliant upon energetic processes, with microspheres located cytoplasmically and not encapsulated within endosomes, an important characteristic for delivery devices. In order to demonstrate the effective delivery of exogenous cargo mediated by microspheres, short interfering (si)-RNAs were conjugated to beads and investigated for the gene silencing of enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) in cervical cancer (HeLa) and embryonic (E14) stem cells. EGFP knockdown was found to be highly efficient after 48 – 72 hours. Dual-functionalised microspheres displaying a fluorophore (Cy5) and siRNA allowed only those cells beadfected with the delivery vehicle (and thus containing siRNA) to be assessed for EGFP expression, yielding an accurate assessment of microsphere-mediated gene silencing. In addition, by manipulation of the microsphere preparation conditions, micro-doughnuts and paramagnetic microspheres were produced and their cellular uptake assessed. Paramagnetic microspheres were found to enter cells efficiently and were subsequently used to bias the movement of beadfected cells in response to an externally applied magnet, while micro-doughnuts were found to exhibit cell selective properties and were noted to traffic specifically to the liver in vivo.


This experimental design study examined the effects of viewing captioned instructional videos on EFL learners' content comprehension, vocabulary acquisition and language proficiency. It also examined the participants' perception of viewing the captioned instructional videos. The 92 EFL students in two classes, who were undertaking the Tape and Video Interpretation course, participated in this study. The randomly assigned experimental class viewed 30 episodes of captioned Connect with English and the control class viewed the same episodes without captions. Adopting the quantitative approach, a Michigan English Test, Content-Specific Tests and a questionnaire were administered to examine the participants' content comprehension, vocabulary acquisition and language proficiency development as well as the experimental group's perception towards viewing captioned instructional videos. Although, both groups recorded gains, the findings were in favor of the use of captioned instructional videos. The results showed that the effects of viewing captioned instructional videos are greater on vocabulary acquisition and language proficiency development than on content comprehension. The participants' perceptions of the use of captioned instructional video were consistent with the results. They felt that it enhanced their language learning, but did not affect their comprehension of the movie and that captions were not a form of distraction. Pedagogical implications for EFL instructions, especially where multimedia technology tools may be limited is that, captioned instructional videos can be deemed as a promising media to enhance language learning.


In recent decades, the diversity of Americans' news choices has expanded substantially. This paper examines whether access to an ideologically distinctive news source — the Fox News cable channel — influences vote intentions and whether any such effect is concentrated among those likely to agree with Fox's partisan viewpoint. To test these possibilities with individual-level data, we identify local Fox News availability for 22,595 respondents to the 2000 National Annenberg Election Survey. Overall, we find a pro-Republican average treatment effect that is statistically indistinguishable from zero. Yet, when separating respondents by party, we find a sizable effect of Fox access only on the vote intentions of Republicans and pure independents, a result that is bolstered by placebo tests. Contrary to fears about pervasive media influence, access to an ideologically distinctive media source reinforces the loyalties of co-partisans and possibly persuades independents without influencing out-partisans.


Associations of socioeconomic position and self-rated physical fitness in Finnish population Kaisa Pulkkinen University of Jyvaskyla Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences Department of Health Sciences 2012 55 pages, 2 appendices Several health indicators establish that those in higher socioeconomic position (SEP) have longer and healthier lives. Health behaviour, such as physical activity (PA), is an important explaining factor for health inequalities. Physical fitness as predictor of morbidity and mortality emphasizes the health-enhancing character of PA, while taking into account also other health-influencing factors such as obesity, smoking, chronic diseases and genetic variability. However, physical fitness is a rarely used measure in population level studies. The association of SEP and physical fitness is hardly studied at all. The aim of this thesis is to study the socioeconomic differences in self-rated physical fitness (SRPF) in Finnish population. The data were received from The National Institute for Health and Welfare, that collected the data in spring 2007 for a cross-sectional population based National FINRISK Study. The participants were from 25 to 74 years old. The total sample size was 10 000 and 6258 persons filled out the questionnaire and participated in the health examination. The final analyses included 5830 persons, 2722 men and 3108 women. The statistical method was ordinal logistic regression analysis. Longer educational career was associated with better SRPF, but the differences were largely mediated by health behaviour related factors. The mediating factors were different among men and women. Leisure-time PA mediated fully and body mass index (BMI) partly the fitness-related educational differences among men. The combination of BMI, history of chronic diseases and smoking mediated the SRPF differences between education thirds fully among men and partly among women. The full model with adjustments for age, employment status, commuting PA, leisure-time PA, occupational PA, BMI, history of chronic diseases and smoking mediated all educational differences in SRPF in both genders. In health promotion, special attention should be paid to those with low levels of leisure-time PA. Including measures of SRPF to epidemiological research is likely to produce more accurate information especially from the participants' physical health level. This thesis provided preliminary information for decision makers in social and health welfare and future studies. More research is needed to specify the character of SRPF and its relation to objectively measured physical fitness and other health indicators.


The aim of this study was to investigate bone tissue and plasma levels of RANKL and OPG in rats with prednisolone-induced osteoporosis and to evaluate the outcomes of physical activity on the skeletal system by treadmill and vibration platform training. Osteoporosis is a disease characterised by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue leading to bone fragility. Vibration exercise is a new and effective measure to prevent muscular atrophy and osteoporosis. The animals were divided into 5 groups. 1: control rats; 2: rats with osteoporosis receiving prednisolone; 3: rats receiving prednisolone and treadmill training; 4: rats receiving prednisolone and vibration stimulation training; 5: rats receiving prednisolone, treadmill training and vibration stimulation training. Bone evaluations used whole-body scans, histology and histomorphometric analysis. RANKL and OPG expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry and biochemical analysis. After treatment, our data demonstrated that RANKL expression was significantly increased in groups 2 and 3 and decreased in groups 4 and 5. Conversely, OPG expression was significantly decreased in groups 2 and 3 and increased in groups 4 and 5. In conclusion, our findings suggest that mechanical stimulation inhibits the activity of RANKL. This finding provides new insights into the occurrence and progression of osteoporosis.


ABSTRACTA gas cyclone–liquid jet absorption separator integrates the functions of cyclone separation, liquid jet atomization, and absorption separation. This study employed this device to conduct a wet flue-gas desulfurization experiment on a gas mixture consisting of air in room temperature and sulfur dioxide (SO2) to explore this device's prospect of tail gas purification. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) solutions at various concentrations were used as absorbents under room temperature. The changes in the SO2 removal efficiency and air pressure drop were investigated with parameters including total gas flow, SO2 concentration in the flue gas, and absorbent flow. The SO2 removal efficiency increased to a certain extent as the absorbent concentration, total gas flow, and absorbent flow increased. The maximum SO2 removal efficiencies of NaOH and Na2CO3 were 85% and 77%, respectively. Under identical experimental conditions, the changes in SO2 removal efficiencies of NaOH and Na2CO3 exhibited essentially identical trends, in which NaOH exhibited a 5%–8% greater SO2 removal efficiency than Na2CO3.


This article examines post-Soviet Muslim revival among the Volga Tatars, historically Sunni (Hanafi) Muslims, in the central Russian Republic of Tatarstan. Drawing on ethnographic research among practicing Muslim Tatar women and discourse analysis of their piety stories, I argue that at the heart of the revival is the Tatars' debate over the extent and nature of Islam that should be part of Tatar identity. In this debate, sources of Islamic knowledge and physical manifestations of Muslim piety function as the primary, if inaccurate, indicators of one's Muslim identity. I conclude that practicing Muslim Tatars are aware of the role their religious education and physical practices play in others' (often stereotypical) perceptions of them, and they deal with such perceptions by (re)negotiating their religious identities in personal narratives.


Infrared transmission characteristics of magnetic fluids were measured in the 4–10 μm wavelength range by using suspensions of kerosene and magnetite nanoparticles. The optical density of the magnetic fluid increased gradually toward short wavelengths, which indicated that scattering was a principal origin of the optical loss. When a magnetic field of 900 G was applied in the direction perpendicular to the optical path, the optical density increased or decreased depending on whether the polarization direction of the probe beam was parallel or perpendicular to the magnetic field. By contrast, an axial magnetic field reduced the optical density for both polarizations.


1-D nanorod bundles as well as sea urchin and starfish like hierarchical morphological nanoarchitectures of CdS have been synthesised using a facile microwave assisted hydrothermal/semi-solvothermal technique. Observation of interesting regular/irregular pine-tree like secondary growth over these hierarchical nanoarchitectures is an important aspect of this work. Cadmium acetate and thiourea were used as precursor materials and were dissolved in solution containing mixture of diethylene triamine (DETA) and deionised water (DIW) in different volume ratios prior to subjecting the resultant solution to microwave radiation of 300 W at a reaction time of 10 min and temperature of 140°C. XRD revealed formation of hexagonal CdS with strong (002) preferred orientation (c-axis orientation). Morphology dependent optical properties are studied using room temperature photoluminescence spectroscopy. We feel such secondary growth will be highly favourable in determining the non-linear properties of optoelectronic devices fabricated using such novel hierarchical nanoarchitectures.


Intact soil profiles including litter layer and ground vegetation were taken at five distances (0.5, 2, 4, 8 and 60 km) from a Cu–Ni smelter in Harjavalta, SW Finland. The soil cores were placed in 10 l pots and a 4 year-old, bare-rooted pine seedling (Pinus sylvestris L.) was planted in each. The containers were incubated for17 months in controlled greenhouse conditions. At the end of the experiment the seedlings were harvested and soil samples were taken from each pot and analysed for Cu, Ni and Zn. The absence of atmospheric metal deposition had no reducing effect on the exchangeable heavy-metal contents of the soil pots. Metal uptake by the plant seedlings during the experiment had a negligible effect on the exchangeable heavy-metal content of the soil cores from the most polluted sites. The increase in both the exchangeable and the total humus Cu, Ni and Zn concentrations in the 0.5 km soil cores during the experiment suggested that there were pools of accumulated metals in the thick litter layer on top of the humus.


The basic premise of the recent Exxon cycle chart, that there exists a globally correlatable suite of third-order eustatic cycles, remains unproven. Many of the tests of this premise are based on circular reasoning. The implied precision of the Exxon global cycle chart is not supportable, because it is greater than that of the best available chronostratigraphic techniques, such as those used to construct the global standard time scale. Correlations of new stratigraphic sections with the Exxon chart will almost always succeed, because there are so many Exxon sequence-boundary events from which to choose. This is demonstrated by the use of four synthetic sections constructed from tables of random numbers. A minimum of 77% successful correlations of random events with the Exxon chart was achieved. The existing cycle chart represents an amalgam of regional and local tectonic events and probably also includes unrecognized miscorrelations. It is of questionable value as an independent standard of geologic time.