Depth soundings are more than a 'ping' and digital data provide information about digital elevation model derivatives and hence additional input parameters for ocean models. Significance of the sea floor topography is reflected by the full spectrum of applications in the fields of Geosciences, Physical Sciences, and Life Sciences. The Southern Ocean bathymetry is of great importance for the geotectonic modeling of ocean gateways with regards to thermohaline circulation and Antarctic bottom water formation. The sea floor topography controls ocean circulation and ocean mixing and has strong influence on global climate. Multi-scale terrain analysis for the description and conservation of unique Antarctic ecosystems is improved by accurate bathymetry. Therefore the SCAR Expert Group on the International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO) collects existing bathymetric data from hydrographic offices, data centers and scientific institutions. IBCSO will deliver services to the scientific community and Southern Ocean efforts. The range of services comprises maps, gridded data, metadata, and data inventories. The IBCSO may give impetus on planned observing systems like the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) in consideration of important ocean model input parameters (depth, slope, orientation) and interactions of system domains defined by the lithosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere and biosphere.


Soil salinity has emerged as a global threat to sustainability of farming systems by deteriorating the quality and productivity of crops particularly in the coastal regions of the world. Although, as a C4 plant, maize (Zea mays L.) has ability to tolerate a medium level of salinity; but initial growth stages of maize are sensitive to salinity stress. Therefore, it is crucial to expand our understanding pertaining to maize response to salt stress and tolerance mechanisms for devising approaches to enhance maize adaptability in saline environments. Moreover, maize crop undergoes several physiological changes and adapts some mechanism to overcome the salinity stress. Different mitigation strategies like application of chemicals, plant growth-promoting hormones, and use of genetic and molecular techniques are used to manage salinity and may ensure crop productivity under changing climate. This chapter aimed to assess the recent advancement pertaining to salinity stress influence on the physio-biochemical processes in maize and to draw the relationship between yield components and salinity stress. In addition, current study also highlights research gaps by focusing the seed enhancement techniques, phytohormones exogenous application and genetic improvement of maize under soil salinity.


Applied developmental scientists face the challenge of identifying research methods that enable the efficient collection of data from youth of diverse social backgrounds (e.g., ethnic. racial, religious, economic) and varying levels cognitive-linguistic and attentional skills. In addition, because access to youth during school time is often limited by educators' desire to preserve instructional time, finding methodologies to collect data from youth that are highly efficient, and also those that are feasible in less structured settings, are needed. This article outlines some of the benefits and limitations of using a voice-enhanced survey delivered on a personal digital assistants (PDA) as a method of gathering data from diverse youth in both, in and out-of-school contexts.


Forecasting the responses of populations and ecosystems to climate change requires that we understand both the direct effects of temperature on organism physiology and the indirect effects of temperature change on interactions such as predation and competition. The sea star Pisas- ter ochraceus is a keystone predator in the rocky intertidal zone with a broad geographic distribution along the west coast of North America. We developed a mechanistic heat budget model that uses environmental data to predict the body temperatures of P. ochraceus. Model accuracy was verified by comparing model output temperatures, generated using measured microclimatic data as input, to the temperatures of live P. ochraceus in the field. The average absolute errors between predicted and measured body temperatures were ~1°C. To continuously monitor sea star body temperatures in the field, we developed data loggers that thermally mimic P. ochraceus. Accuracy of these biomimetic loggers was tested by comparing logger temperatures to P. ochraceus body temperatures, and they were found to mimic body temperatures within ~1°C. Loggers were deployed at different tidal heights at a site in Bamfield, British Columbia, Canada, to investigate within-site body temperature variation. We also explored the relationship between body temperature and vertical distribution of P. ochraceus. A negative correlation was found between maximum body temperatures on Day n and the number of sea stars found in the intertidal on Day n + 1. These results suggest that temperatures reached during aerial exposure at low tide, at least in part, may determine where in the intertidal zone these sea stars are located, which could affect their foraging limits.


Drilling in deep water is requiring more advanced technology as fields at greater depths are being discovered. Managed Pressure Drilling and Dual Gradient Drilling are both offering different techniques for navigating through the narrow pore pressure and fracture gradient window during an operation. Along with different drilling and development systems they are introduced as possible solutions to many of the challenges associated with deepwater drilling. The industry is looking into the possibility of doing highly deviated extended reach wells in deep water environments. Before doing so different simulations are done to investigate which factors will limit the maximum well trajectory and to figure out of far it is theoretically possible to drill in horizontal and vertical direction. With the help of the WELLPLANTM software a reservoir located in the Gulf of Mexico is chosen as a well candidate to run simulations on. Case study shows that for both directional extensions buckling of the drillpipe is what keeps us from drilling further. In terms of torque and pump capacity both rig candidates used for the study are well within their maximum capacities. Equivalent circulating density (ECD) would have been the main problem for the case study, but can easily be compensated for assuming we have the potential to control the pressure profile. With conventional drilling we would not be able to handle problems associated with ECD, meaning that DGD or other methods are required. From the sensitivity study we learn the importance of having access to accurate wellbore data, as a reduction in friction factor has the potential to extend the well trajectory even further and a potential dogleg severity would make us unable to reach target depth.


The need for syntactically annotated data for use in natural language processing has increased dramatically in recent years. This is true especially for parallel treebanks, of which very few exist. The ones that exist are
mainly hand-crafted and too small for reliable use in data-oriented applications. In this work I introduce a novel open-source platform for the fast and robust automatic generation of parallel treebanks through sub-tree alignment, using a limited amount of external resources. The intrinsic and extrinsic evaluations that I undertook demonstrate that my system is a feasible alternative to the manual annotation of parallel treebanks. Therefore, I expect
the presented platform to help boost research in the field of syntaxaugmented machine translation and lead to advancements in other fields where parallel treebanks can be employed.


Return of samples from the surface of Mars has been a goal of the international Mars science community for many years. Affirmation by NASA and ESA of the importance of Mars exploration led the agencies to establish the international MSR Objectives and Samples Team (iMOST). The purpose of the iMOST team is to re-evaluate and update the sample-related science and engineering objectives of a Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign. Here we will present a subset of these goals focusing on the importance of MSR to understanding the Martian interior.

The chemistry and mineralogy of the Martian interior is largely constrained by the type of samples we have of Mars – martian meteorites – with inputs from geophysics, surface rover analyses of igneous rocks, and orbital analyses of the crust. However, comparisons of martian meteorites and igneous rocks analyzed on the surface of Mars show that martian meteorites do not represent average martian crust or magmas. Young Martian meteorites and ancient igneous rocks analyzed in situ by rovers have different elemental compositions, suggesting different source regions – this could be confirmed by radiogenic isotope data and chronology on returned samples; these differences are attributable to a sampling bias inherent the process that delivered the meteorites to Earth. Therefore, a proposed iMOST objective would be to use samples of igneous rocks - either in place or transported - with a range of compositions and an emphasis on older (>3.5 Ga) ages, to help reconstruct the processes that have affected the origin and modification of the interior. Understanding the petrogenesis of igneous rocks sampled from well-documented locations from a well-constrained igneous unit would provide novel insights into the physical properties of martian magmas; the composition(s) of their mantle sources including major, trace, and volatile elements, noble gases, and isotopic characteristics; the conditions of magma genesis; the timing and duration of igneous activity; and subsequent modification by secondary processes.


OBJECTIVES
Owing to the overwhelming popularity of oral piercing, general practitioners should be prepared to address complications arising as a result of oral piercing and to provide patients with accurate information. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to assess the prevalence of early and late complications associated with lip and tongue piercing in a population obtained from a nondental setting. Possible cofactors were evaluated.

METHOD AND MATERIALS
The study cohort included 130 lip and 80 tongue piercings. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire to determine demographic data, smoking habits, characteristics of the piercing worn (time since piercing, material-plastic or metal), postpiercing complications, and possible cofactors.

RESULTS
Prevalence of early piercing complications was 87.83%. Although there was no statistically significant difference in the overall prevalence of early postpiercing complications after lip or tongue piercing, the type of complication differed significantly according to the piercing location. Significant cofactors for early complications were oral hygiene behavior, gender, and the person who performed the piercing. The highest prevalence of late complications was found to be recurrent infections and gingival recessions. As cofactors, time since piercing and oral hygiene behavior had a significant impact on late complications.

CONCLUSION
Early complications after oral piercing are frequent. Oral health care might be an important tool to minimize early and late postpiercing complications. Owing to the high prevalence of late complications-especially after median lip piercing-persons with oral piercing should attend regular dental checks and receive professional advice on tooth cleaning and oral hygiene.


ABSTRACT This study was aimed to evaluate the position of lightweight panels and their application in furniture production in Iran by investigating consumers' behavior and preferences. Here, consumers' preferences toward effective criteria to choose furniture made of wood-based panels (WBPs) were evaluated on the basis of analytical network process method. Furthermore, respondents were asked about their attitudes and preferences regarding lightweight furniture. The results revealed that the main sub-criteria for buying furniture were product quality, design, price, environmentally-friendly, and guarantee features. Furthermore, the technological feature was the most important criterion affecting consumers buying decisions more than the visual/appearance and economical features of the furniture. Consumers believed that conventional WBPs were heavy for some applications in the furniture. Respondents emphasized that they would buy lightweight furniture, even with a bit more price (5–9%) in comparison to conventional furniture (furniture made of WBPs) if there would be a product guarantee, more varieties of the products available in the market, and environmentally-friendly certification. In general, the consumers showed a willingness to buy furniture made by panels with mid-range density (480 kg/m3 density), but they should have to be sure of the panels' quality and the furniture made thereof before buying this product.


Shiing-Shen Chern was a towering figure in mathematics, both for his contributions to differential geometry and as a source of inspiration and encouragement for all mathematicians, and particularly those in China. Born in the final year of the Qing dynasty, and educated at a time when China was only beginning to set up Western-style universities, he lived to preside over the 2002 International Congress of Mathematicians in Beijing. He was a co-founder of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley and its first Director in 1981; he also set up the Nankai Institute for Mathematics in 1985. His contributions to differential geometry were of foundational importance for the global viewpoint that developed in the postwar years, and the mathematical tools he introduced are now the common currency in geometry, topology and even aspects of theoretical physics.


East Timor is a tragedy. It is a small country with no strategic military value. In the eyes of the world's power brokers, East Timor is nothing. More importantly, it is a tragedy because what Indonesia did and is still doing in East Timor is a gross violation of basic human rights—the basic right of a people to live in peace and self-determination. This paper examines the many difficulties East Timor is facing amidst the presence of key actors such as the UN, ASEAN and the European Economic Community. It argues that for the East Timor case, only a political solution, and not a military one, is viable. The international support for Indonesia by governments motivated by economic and practical considerations is detrimental to the cause of the East Timorese people. As the paper concludes, East Timor is a case where people matter the least.


Notwithstanding the intensified trade liberalisation that catalyses economic globalisation, the materialistic foundation of free trade is being changed by issues such as environmental degradation and global climate change. While many believe it is agreeable to seek a balance between trade and the environment, the GATT/WTO as an international law regime governing the multilateral trading system should further ensure the smooth execution of the law to facilitate environmental protection efforts by governments worldwide. In the context of promoting free trade, justifying the unilateral trade measures relating to environmental purposes, including import restrictions/prohibitions, licensing systems and environmental levies, it is one of the instruments which the WTO could employ to achieve the objective of sustainable development as stated in its preamble. Focusing on the evolving constructions of relevant provisions, this paper is to study the recent dispute cases of the legality of these trade-related measures aimed at protecting the environment in GATT/WTO jurisprudence and hence, arriving at the conclusion that the concept of sustainable development is only to some extent implemented by international trade law.


ABSTRACT The penetration of two antibiotics, ampicillin and ciprofloxacin, through biofilms developed in an in vitro model system was investigated. The susceptibilities of biofilms and corresponding freely suspended bacteria to killing by the antibiotics were also measured. Biofilms of Klebsiella pneumoniae were developed on microporous membranes resting on agar nutrient medium. The susceptibilities of planktonic cultures and biofilms to 10 times the MIC were determined. Antibiotic penetration through biofilms was measured by assaying the concentration of antibiotic that diffused through the biofilm to an overlying filter disk. Parallel experiments were performed with a mutant K. pneumoniae strain in which β-lactamase activity was eliminated. For wild-type K. pneumoniae grown in suspension culture, ampicillin and ciprofloxacin MICs were 500 and 0.18 μg/ml, respectively. The log reductions in the number of CFU of planktonic wild-type bacteria after 4 h of treatment at 10 times the MIC were 4.43 ± 0.33 and 4.14 ± 0.33 for ampicillin and ciprofloxacin, respectively. Biofilms of the same strain were much less susceptible, yielding log reductions in the number of CFU of −0.06 ± 0.06 and 1.02 ± 0.04 for ampicillin and ciprofloxacin, respectively, for the same treatment. The number of CFU in the biofilms after 24 h of antibiotic exposure was not statistically different from the number after 4 h of treatment. Ampicillin did not penetrate wild-typeK. pneumoniae biofilms, whereas ciprofloxacin and a nonreactive tracer (chloride ion) penetrated the biofilms quickly. The concentration of ciprofloxacin reached the MIC throughout the biofilm within 20 min. Ampicillin penetrated biofilms formed by a β-lactamase-deficient mutant. However, the biofilms formed by this mutant were resistant to ampicillin treatment, exhibiting a 0.18 ± 0.07 log reduction in the number of CFU after 4 h of exposure and a 1.64 ± 0.33 log reduction in the number of CFU after 24 h of exposure. Poor penetration contributed to wild-type biofilm resistance to ampicillin but not to ciprofloxacin. The increased resistance of the wild-type strain to ciprofloxacin and the mutant strain to ampicillin and ciprofloxacin could not be accounted for by antibiotic inactivation or slow diffusion since these antibiotics fully penetrated the biofilms. These results suggest that some other resistance mechanism is involved for both agents.


Social behavior is heavily influenced by the perception of the behaviors of others. We considered how perceptions (and misperceptions) of kindness can increase generosity in economic transactions. We investigated how these perceptions can alter behavior in a novel real-life situation that pitted kindness against selfishness. That situation, consumer elective pricing, is defined by an economic transaction allowing people to purchase goods or services for any price (including zero). Field and lab experiments compared how people behave in 2 financially identical circumstances: pay-what-you-want (in which people are ostensibly paying for themselves) and pay-it-forward (in which people are ostensibly paying on behalf of someone else). In 4 field experiments, people paid more under pay-it-forward than pay-what-you-want (Studies 1–4). Four subsequent lab studies assessed whether the salience of others explains the increased payments (Study 5), whether ability to justify lowered payments (Study 6), and whether the manipulation was operating through changing the perceptions of others (Studies 7 and 8). When people rely on ambiguous perceptions, pay-it-forward leads to overestimating the kindness of others and a corresponding increase in personal payment. When those perceptions are replaced with explicit descriptive norms (i.e., others' payment amounts), that effect is eliminated. Finally, subsequent studies confirmed that the effects were not driven by participant confusion (Studies 9A and 9B) and not limited by the specificity of the referent other in the pay-it-forward framing (Study 9C).


Inflation became a one of the serious matters over a period of time. It can be said that, throughout the past few years, Malaysia's inflation is caused by many factors. The aim of the paper is to determinants of factors that affecting inflation in Malaysia This paper consists of quantitative method and the econometric model is used for identify the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. It can be categorized two models in this paper namely mathematical model and econometric model. In this paper, it has been discussed the autocorrelation, multicollinearity and Heteroscedasticity. High inflation may cause negative impact to a particular country.


This Essay considers the legal propriety of the empathic responses of jurors to suffering plaintiffs. To that end, Part II first explicates the legal contours of a tension between what is experiential or physical (objective) and what is expressionistic or non-physical (subjective). This tension is a foundational jurisprudential concern in personal injury litigation because the subjective is seen to threaten the rule of law: the perceived primacy of reason and logic. Thus, this tension is also what the parties' attorneys seek to exploit and what the court seeks to constrain. Part III explores why an empathic identification is indeed a reasoned and moral response to pain, although it is this subjective response to pain that courts find most threatening. Not only do emotions such as empathy have cognitive and social roots, the anti-empathic Stoic philosophical tradition which informed the conception of the rule of law is incompatible with contemporary social conceptions of justice. Part IV shows how law incorporates subjectivity into personal injury litigation by creating an intensely moral consequence for plaintiffs who falsely claim to be in pain: the assignment of a malingering label. This Essay concludes in Part V that recognizing the relational connections made possible through the expression of pain is essential in a disjointed cultural present that is suffused by pain-full imagery.


I revisit the hotly debated topic regarding the possibility of introducing a common currency for East Asia from the point of view of shock symmetry. I first point out a serious problem of the existing studies which use the VAR method with long-run restrictions developed by Blanchard and Quah (1989) in that the signs of the impulse response functions to the same structural shock are not necessarily consistent across the countries. This means that the high (low) correlations of structural shocks do not necessarily imply low (high) costs of a common currency area. To overcome this problem, I apply the VAR method with sign restrictions developed by Uhlig (2005). I used the AD-AS model to impose sign restrictions on the responses of GDP and CPI to demand and supply shocks. One main finding is that demand shocks are significantly positively correlated among almost all East Asian countries. But overall, East Asia as a whole is not suitable for a common currency because correlations of supply shocks are low.


This study deals with two syntactic alternation patterns found in two languages of Nepal: differential object marking (DOM) in Nepali (Indo-European > Indo-Aryan) and differential object indexing (DOI) linked to differential agent marking in Chintang (Tibeto-Burman > Kiranti). The aim of the study is to conduct in-depth analyses of these two phenomena based on corpus annotations and including necessary methodological innovations, as well as to compare them in order to reach conclusions about alternations conditioned by properties of objects in general. The investigation of Nepali DOM showed that while this phenomenon is formally simple, it is functionally highly complex. It is conditioned by a plethora of properties of the object, many of which had not been noticed before, such as animacy, specificity, quantifiability, topicality, part of speech, focus, affectedness, and role ambiguity. A rule-based approach can neither cover the full range of variation found in this area in natural language nor can it model DOM in a conceptually sound way. For these reasons, a probabilistic analysis was conducted in the form of logistic regression and shown to be superior to the rule-based analysis. By contrast, Chintang DOI turned out to be functionally simple in being basically conditioned by a single factor (specificity) but to be formally intertwined in complex ways with many other areas of morphosyntax such as valency classes, non-finite clauses, raising, and marking of aspect. In addition, it could be shown that quantifiability is a pre-condition for specificity and that these two properties interact in various ways in Chintang. Most of the differences between Nepali DOM and Chintang DOI can be traced back to fundamental differences between case marking and agreement. The general picture emerging is that the main function of DOM is to mark objects with unusual properties, whereas DOI marks objects that are easy to track in discourse.


Instruction-grain program monitoring tools, which check and analyze executing programs at the granularity of individual instructions, are invaluable for quickly detecting bugs and security attacks and then limiting their damage (via containment and/or recovery). Unfortunately, their fine-grain nature implies very high monitoring overheads for software-only tools, which are typically based on dynamic binary instrumentation. Previous hardware proposals either focus on mechanisms that target specific bugs or address only the cost of binary instrumentation. In this paper, we propose a flexible hardware solution for accelerating a wide range of instruction-grain monitoring tools. By examining a number of diverse tools (for memory checking, security tracking, and data race detection), we identify three significant common sources of overheads and then propose three novel hardware techniques for addressing these overheads: Inheritance Tracking, Idempotent Filters, and Metadata-TLBs. Together, these constitute a general-purpose hardware acceleration framework. Experimental results show our framework reduces overheads by 2-3X over the previous state-of-the-art, while supporting the needed flexibility.


This study explored the benefits and limitations of mentoring relationships between pre-service and practicing K-12 teachers. Thirteen pre-service education students at a university in the southeastern United States and 17 practicing teachers from four states participated. The student participants were in their senior year in a teacher education program, during the semester just previous to their student teaching experience. Preand post-surveys, email exchanges and student email reflections were utilized to gather data concerning the effectiveness of the project. Results indicated that online mentoring was overall a highly positive experience that provided the student participants unique and practical insight into the field of teaching. The experience was not without problems however, as student participants voiced concern with the procedure for obtaining mentors, timely responses from some mentors and the degree to which their questions were addressed in some cases.


programs in the synthesis and development of these potential new propellants. The thermophysical understanding of HEDM propellants is necessary to model their performance in the conceptual design of liquid rocket engines. Most industry standard powerhead design tools (e.g. NPSS, ROCETS, and REDTOP-2) require several thermophysical properties of a given propellant over a wide range of temperature and pressure. These properties include enthalpy, entropy, density, internal energy, specific heat, viscosity, and thermal conductivity. For most of these potential new HEDM propellants, this thermophysical data either does not exist or is incomplete over the range of temperature and pressure necessary for liquid rocket engine design and analysis. The work presented is a technique for obtaining enthalpy and density data for new propellants through the use of a combination of analytical/computational methods (quantum mechanics 6 and molecular dynamics 7 ) and experimental investigations. Details of this technique and its application to an example HEDM fuel currently of interest are provided.


For several decades people have been grappling with how to retain the material safety and cultural richness of indigenous non-capitalist societies and economies, but also gain the health, wealth, education and life opportunities the modern capitalist world offers. This book brings together examples of attempts to forge locally appropriate versions of modernity; development that suits the aspirations and circumstances of particular groups of people. Authors question how the market economy has been variously negotiated by groups who also have other systems through which they organize their social and economic life. What has worked for these people, what has not, and why? The volume addresses how ,as a social and economic system, capitalism has been very effective in generating wealth and technological innovation, but has also been associated with great social inequity and environmental damage. Its inherent flaws have been highlighted by the escalation of ecological problems arising from growth-oriented capitalism and various economic crises, the latest being the Global Financial Crisis and its ongoing fallout.


Modern critics often interpret ancient literature according to their own standards ad preoccupations, as if they were reading the works of a contemporary author. Most recently, feminists have applied their own criteria to the rich variety of female characters in Greek mythology. The Amazons are seen as representatives of an original matriarchy, Clytemnestra as a frustrated individualist, Antigone an oppressed revolutionary. The Greek myths reflect a world in which men dominate women, largely out of fear of women's sexuality. Mary R. Lefkowitz argues in this controversial book that this view is justified neither by the myths themselves nor by the relevant documentary evidence. Concentrating on those aspects of women's experience most often misunderstood-women's life apart from men, marriage, influence in politics, self-sacrifice and martyrdom, misogyny-she presents a far less negative account of the role of Greek women, both ordinary and extraordinary, as manifested in the central works of Greek literature. Lefkowitz shows that the darkness of Greek mythology suggests not the wretched lot of women in particular, but of mortals generally. Women in Greek myth, she contends, play a rather more enlightened role than their biblical or Christian counterparts. And what Greek men feared in women, if they feared anything, was not women's sexuality but their intelligence.


Context. In very young clusters, stellar age distribution is empirical proof of the duration of star cluster formation and thus it gives indications of the physical mechanisms involved in the star formation process. Determining the amount of interstellar extinction and the correct reddening law are crucial steps to derive fundamental stellar parameters and in particular accurate ages from the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram.
Aims. In this context, we seek to derive accurate stellar ages for NGC 6530, the young cluster associated with the Lagoon Nebula to infer the star formation history of this region.
Methods. We used the Gaia-ESO survey observations of the Lagoon Nebula, together with photometric literature data and Gaia DR2 kinematics, to derive cluster membership and fundamental stellar parameters. Using spectroscopic effective temperatures, we analysed the reddening properties of all objects and derived accurate stellar ages for cluster members.
Results. We identified 652 confirmed and 9 probable members. The reddening inferred for members and non-members allows us to distinguish foreground objects, mainly main-sequence stars, and background objects, mainly giants, and to trace the three-dimensional structure of the nebula. This classification is in agreement with the distances inferred from Gaia DR2 parallaxes for these objects. Finally, we derive stellar ages for 382 confirmed cluster members for which we obtained the individual reddening values. In addition, we find that the gravity-sensitive γ index distribution for the M-type stars is correlated with stellar age.
Conclusions. For all members with Teff <  5500 K, the mean logarithmic age is 5.84 (units of years) with a dispersion of 0.36 dex. The age distribution of stars with accretion or discs, i.e. classical T Tauri stars with excess (CTTSe), is similar to that of stars without accretion and without discs, i.e. weak T Tauri stars with photospheric emission (WTTSp). We interpret this dispersion as evidence of a real age spread since the total uncertainties on age determinations, derived from Monte Carlo simulations, are significantly smaller than the observed spread. This conclusion is supported by evidence of the decrease of the gravity-sensitive γ index as a function of stellar ages. The presence of a small age spread is also supported by the spatial distribution and kinematics of old and young members. In particular, members with accretion or discs, formed in the last 1 Myr, show evidence of subclustering around the cluster centre, in the Hourglass Nebula and in the M8-E region, suggesting a possible triggering of star formation events by the O-type star ionization fronts.


In today's world, connected wearable sensors became a delicate part of the imperative daily analysis and assessment to identify the urgency of the state of health. Recent advances in sensor designs and analysis techniques enable us to uniquely distinguish noninvasive wearable sensor technology with an exclusive integration to the body surfaces. In this regard, we have developed a low-cost wrist-worn wearable device called E-Vital that can monitor health conditions closely so that patient follow-up can access information directly and in a practical way. We aimed to design the system as a comprehensive and compact monitoring scheme by measuring physiological health parameters in long-term usage. In addition to the measurement of physiological signals such as an electrocardiogram (ECG), Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) and body temperature, it is possible to instantly display and store this health data with the E-Vital mobile application. Bluetooth technology is used to provide instant wireless data communication between the sensor device and the mobile application. Additionally, an SD card module attached to the sensor to prevent data loss against possible connection problems as a local buffer. The measurement performance of the proposed sensor device for capturing the electrophysiological signals, such as an ECG is compared with ECG obtained by a conventional gold standard data. The results indicate that the wearable sensor has an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Both the sensor device and mobile system have successfully been in terms of signal quality, continuous data transportation, and data storing performance during on-body trials.


Disorders of the spine are a substantial burden to the military health care system that degrades readiness in the overall force. Because treatment outcomes are affected by psychosocial factors, assessment of psychological distress is important for patients with spine complaints. The incidence of psychological distress in the unique military population is not well described. The purpose of this retrospective case-control study was to determine the rate of psychological distress and identify associated patient characteristics among many variables collected in the military health system. A consecutive cohort of active duty service members presenting to a spine specialty clinic was assessed as Normal, At Risk, or Distressed using the Distress and Risk Assessment Method. Of 74 active duty patients (63 male, 11 female), 43 (58%) had some level of psychological distress: 29 (39%) At Risk, 12 (16%) Distressed-Depressive, and 2 (3%) Distressed-Somatic. Multivariate regression analysis identified female gender (odds ratio [OR] 7.90), higher disability as measured by Oswestry Disability Index/Neck Disability Index (OR 8.0 per 13.8 point increase), and assignment to a Warrior Transition Unit or Medical Evaluation Board (OR 7.35) as statistically significant variables. The results indicate that active duty patients are subject to similarly high levels of psychological distress as their civilian counterparts.


Unemployment is one of the most important new features of the post-communist world of work. Following the collapse of the communist regimes, the socio-economic reorientation of these societies towards market democracy brought an end to the 'communist taboo against unemployment' (Baxandall). Apart from organisational matters, unemployment now needs to be dealt with as an integral element of many individual and family biographies, and indicates the re-consideration of criteria of social integration throughout the life course. Young people hold a particularly delicate position in both the transformation of society and the accompanying process of knowledge renewal. First, unemployment has become an additional option in their transition to the world of work, which used to be rather linear. Second, it is largely up to them to negotiate 'old' and 'new' meanings and to cany them into the new society. Against this background, the thesis, a qualitative-empirical exploration, studies emerging notions of work and unemployment among young people in the post-communist context of Lithuania, a country that represents a case of particularly rapid and radical transformation. In line with the two dimensions of unemployment mentioned above, the conceptual frame of reference consists of two sensitising concepts. On the one hand, the now available option of unemployment places young people in a situation of 'biographical uncertainty' CWohlrab-Sahr). On the other hand, unemployment has become a new dimension of the '(mis)recognition' (Honneth) of a person's status in society. These two main axes of research conceptualise unemployment as an ambivalent moment of 'danger' (Douglas) that accompanies young people on their way to the world of work. Altogether, the study intends to contribute to youth sociology and to research into post-communist transformations. The discussion of the empirical analysis, which is based on 30 in-depth interviews with young Lithuanians in linear and non-linear transitions to working life, is organised into three parts. The first discusses the reconstructed meanings of work and unemployment in the perspective of young people. The presentation of the findings follows the parties in an imagined triangle consisting of the individual, the state, and the 'other' (i.e. the unemployed), as well as their 'relations'. The second pan reflects on a snapshot of the currently imagined gender-work relations and their consequences for anticipated family transitions in the perspective of young women revealing the landscape of perceived options. Finally, the third part introduces three patterns of youth transitions to working life (continuation, liberation, and trajectory) together with associated time perspectives of biographical uncertainty. The conclusion reviews the main lines of argumentation against the background of the initial sensitising conceptual frame of reference and identifies issues for further investigation.


Regulated secretion occurs in response to increases in intracellular calcium concentration [Ca2+]i and underlies synaptic transmission and hormone release. Andric et al. found that endothelin (ET), acting through at least two G protein pathways, produces a bidirectional effect on pituitary lactotroph secretion of prolactin. Lactotrophs spontaneously fire action potentials, promoting calcium-induced basal secretion of prolactin. Addition of ET-1 to single lactotrophs produced an initial transient increase in secretion followed by a prolonged suppression below basal levels. The bidirectional effect of ET-1 on secretion was matched by a similar effect on [Ca2+]i--initially increasing [Ca2+]i, then decreasing [Ca2+]i. This was only observed for nanomolar concentrations of ET-1; subnanomolar concentrations only suppressed basal prolactin secretion without initially stimulating it and did not affect [Ca2+]i. The stimulatory phase of ET-1 activity was inhibited by addition of a phospholipase C inhibitor, consistent with involvement of Gq/11. Although pertussis toxin (an inhibitor of Gi/o) converted the ET-1 effect on [Ca2+]i to one of prolonged elevation, the effect on prolactin secretion was still bidirectional. Thus, the inhibition of secretion by ET-1 was independent from its effects on [Ca2+]i. Addition of phorbol ester to stimulate protein kinase C-dependent phosphorylation (Gαz is one target) inhibited the coupling of ET-1 to decreased adenosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cAMP) concentration and prevented inhibition of prolactin secretion. Cells treated with antisense against Gαz showed a loss of suppression of prolactin secretion and an uncoupling from inhibition of adenylyl cyclase. Thus, ET-1 appears to regulate secretion using multiple G protein pathways. The Gαz pathway uncoupled secretion from [Ca2+]i, thereby inhibiting prolactin secretion without affecting pacemaking activity. S. A. Andric, D. Zivadinovic, A. E. Gonzalez-Iglesias, A. Lachowicz, M. Tomic, S. S. Stojilkovic, Endothelin-induced, long lasting, and Ca2+ influx-independent blockade of intrinsic secretion in pituitary cells by Gz subunits. J. Biol. Chem. 280, 26896-26903 (2005). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Copyright © 2016, MEJDS. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background and objective: Nonverbal learning disability as deficit in nonverbal information processing is associated with deficits in the executive functions. Children with nonverbal learning disabilities have deficits in visual-spatial perception, memory, motor-visual coordination, spatial precision, orientation skill. The weak performance of children with nonverbal learning disabilities in the executive functions result in academic problems. Such children have many problems in mathematics calculation, copying texts, writing texts and comprehension. The current study was conducted to study the effect of strengthening executive functions on academic achievement in children with nonverbal learning disability. Methods: The statistical population of this study consisted of all students with nonverbal learning disabilities under the auspices of Learning Disorders Center of Shirvan-Iran in 2015. A total of 30 participants were recruited from among the children with nonverbal disability from primary school in second grade to fifth grade. The research instrument was Lotf Aabadi ' reading test, a researcher made writing test and Mathematical Standard Learning Ability Recognition Test. The participants were examined by clinical psychologist of the Learning Disorders Center and were judged to meet the criteria for learning disabilities through interview according to the third edition Wechsler intelligence scale. It was decided that those who scored 10 marks away from verbal and practical intelligence quotient should be diagnosed as students with nonverbal learning disability. The participants were assigned to experimental and control groups. Every participant in the experimental group was matched with a peer in the control group in terms of age and gender. The control group received only the usual school training while the experimental group received routine training and in addition to tasks of coding, trial making, verbal and visual memory for strengthening executive functions. The exercises were held individually in 12 sessions of 45 minutes. These exercises are to improve verbal memory, visual memory, visual spatial coordination, sequencing motor skills, visual pursuit and attention. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyze the data. Results: The effect of pretest differences via analysis of variance was controlled. There were significant differences in the posttest scores of the experimental and control groups on reading, writing and mathematics (p<0.001). The effect sizes of strengthening executive functions method were 0.62, 0.79 and 0.49 for improving of the reading, mathematics and writing respectively. According to effect sizes, it can conclude that strengthening executive functions is more effective for improving mathematics calculation. Conclusion: The strengthening of executive functions could improve speed and correction in reading of the words, writing and spelling of the words and mathematics calculation. Trial making tasks strengthen psychomotor speed, abstraction, flexibility, ability for execution and correction of planning; coding tasks reinforce speed of information processing, perceptual organization processes and speed performance; tasks of verbal and visual memory strengthen attention, motor-visual coordination and memory. It can be stated that strengthening executive functions are beneficial to the academic achievement of students with nonverbal learning disabilities.


Introduction: While rural Australians receive much of their procedural medical care from local health professionals in local hospitals, the current workforce shortages, rural economic decline and poor rural health care status all pose challenges to the quality of care they receive. Rural doctors struggle to receive appropriate procedural skills training, rural hospitals struggle to maintain experienced procedurally skilled nurses and other health professionals, and medical equipment, and patients are increasingly referred by clinical protocols to larger urban hospitals. On the other hand, many rural communities value highly their local rural hospital, and advocate the maintenance of hospital services close to home, even though they will have to travel for more specialised services. This article reports an exploration of the quality of a range of clinical cases gathered from rural procedural medical practice.

Methods: The Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) approached all trained and procedurally practising rural doctors among their membership. A total of 49 agreed to participate, but only 24 were successful in the prospective recruitment of patients and contribution of patient material (operating theatre notes, anaesthetic records etc) from cases involving general surgery, anaesthetics and obstetrics, the three commonest procedural disciplines in rural medical practice. One of the researchers interviewed patients before and after their procedures and, where available, a family member and a nurse at the hospital. Thus a series of 91 detailed patient case studies was available for analysis These case studies were reviewed from up to four different perspectives: (i) rural doctor peers; (ii) regionalist specialists in the respective discipline; (iii) a medical administrator; and (iv) a rural consumer representative. A thematic analysis of transcribed interviews was conducted.
Results: The collected cases represented a range of procedures commonly provided in rural hospitals, although there were relatively few surgical procedures and there was a bias in all three specialty areas towards relatively simple procedures. No adverse outcomes were reported, although some comments, particularly from the rural doctor peers, were made about the need for further information and, in a small number of cases, possible variance from accepted practice. The views of the reviewers substantially agreed that the cases were of average to high quality, although the specialist reviewers were less likely to rate care as 'excellent' than other reviewers. While the comments of the medical reviewers were more technical in nature, the comments of patients and their families, and of the rural consumer reviewer, focussed more on issues such as accessibility, cost and interpersonal communication. Many patients and some nursing staff expressed concern about the sustainability of friendly and accessible local services in the face of workforce shortages and pressure to downgrade rural hospitals.

Conclusion: This study shows that, where staff and facilities in rural hospitals are accredited for procedural care, there is little evidence of any difference in the quality of that care provided when compared with care expected in urban hospitals.


While most machine translation systems to date are trained on large parallel corpora, humans learn language in a different way: by being grounded in an environment and interacting with other humans. In this work, we propose a communication game where two agents, native speakers of their own respective languages, jointly learn to solve a visual referential task. We find that the ability to understand and translate a foreign language emerges as a means to achieve shared goals. The emergent translation is interactive and multimodal, and crucially does not require parallel corpora, but only monolingual, independent text and corresponding images. Our proposed translation model achieves this by grounding the source and target languages into a shared visual modality, and outperforms several baselines on both word-level and sentence-level translation tasks. Furthermore, we show that agents in a multilingual community learn to translate better and faster than in a bilingual communication setting.


We used population-based, longitudinal data to investigate the relation between mathematics instructional practices used by first-grade teachers in the United States and the mathematics achievement of their students. Factor analysis identified four types of instructional activities (i.e., teacher-directed, student-centered, manipulatives/calculators, movement/music) and eight types of specific skills taught (e.g., adding two-digit numbers). First-grade students were then classified into five groups on the basis of their fall and/or spring of kindergarten mathematics achievement—three groups with mathematics difficulties (MD) and two without MD. Regression analysis indicated that a higher percentage of MD students in the first-grade classrooms were associated with greater use by teachers of manipulatives/calculators and movement/music to teach mathematics. Yet follow-up analysis for each of the MD and non-MD groups indicated that only teacher-directed instruction was significantly associated with the achievement of students with MD (covariate-adjusted effect sizes [ESs] = .05–.07). The largest predicted effect for a specific instructional practice was for routine practice and drill. In contrast, for both groups of non-MD students, teacher-directed and student-centered instruction had approximately equal, statistically significant positive predicted effects (covariate-adjusted ESs = .03–.04). First-grade teachers in the United States may need to increase their use of teacher-directed instruction if they are to raise the mathematics achievement of students with MD.


OBJECTIVE
To compare ground reaction forces (GRFs) measured by use of a pressure-sensitive walk-way (PSW) and a force plate (FP) and evaluate weekly variation in the GRFs and static vertical forces in dogs.

ANIMALS
34 clinically normal dogs and 5 research dogs with lameness.

PROCEDURE
GRF data were collected from 5 lame and 14 clinically normal dogs by use of an FP and a PSW. Peak vertical force (PVF), vertical impulse (VI), and velocity measurements (determined by use of photocells and PSW data) were compared between groups. Peak vertical force, VI, stride length, ground phase time (ie, contact time), and static body weight distribution data were collected on 2 occasions, 1 week apart, in 20 different clinically normal dogs by use of a PSW; week-to-week variation in values was evaluated.

RESULTS
Measurements of velocity derived by use of the photocells were not different from those derived by use of the PSW. For any 1 limb, values derived by use of the PSW were significantly lower than values derived with the FP. For values obtained by use of either technique, there were no differences between left and right limbs except for values of PVF measured via PSW in forelimbs. Values of PVF, VI, contact time, stride length, and static weight distribution generated by the PSW did not vary from week to week.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Values for GRFs varied between the FP and PSW. However, data derived by use of PSW were consistent and could be used to evaluate kinetic variables over time in the same dog.


 Abstract — The main objective of this experimental study is to assess the shear strength and the crack behavior of the triplets built of perforated brickwork masonry elements. In order to observe the influence of shear resistance and energy dissipating before and after retrofitting applications by using the reinforcing system, static-cyclic shear tests were employed in the structural mechanics laboratory of Sakarya University. The reinforcing system is composed of hybrid multiaxial seismic fabric consisting of alkali resistant glass and polypropylene fibers. The plaster as bonding material used in the specimen's retrofitting consists of expanded glass granular. In order to acquire exact measuring data about the failure behavior of the two mortar joints under shear stressing, vertical load-controlled cylinder having force capacity of 50 kN and loading rate of 1.5 mm/min. with an internal inductive displacement transducers is carried out perpendicular to the triplet specimens. In this study, a total of six triplet specimens with textile reinforcement were prepared for these shear bond tests. The three of them were produced as single-sided reinforced triplets with seismic fabric, while the others were strengthened on both sides. In addition, three triplet specimens without retrofitting and plaster were also tested as reference samples. The obtained test results were given in the manner of force-displacement relationships, ductility coefficients and shear strength parameters comparatively. It is concluded that two-side seismic textile applications on masonry elements with relevant plaster have considerably increased the sheer force resistance and the ductility capacity.


Transduction of the auxin stimulus in plants is thought to entail binding of the hormone to a soluble auxin-binding protein (ABP) outside the cell and subsequent interaction between this auxin-protein complex and an integral membrane receptor ("docking") protein that couples the signal across the plasma membrane. To explore the structural requirements for ABP function, synthetic peptides were prepared to the amino acid sequences of the predicted surface domains of ABPzm1, the dominant ABP from Zea. Biological function was assayed under voltage clamp, monitoring the ability of the peptides to evoke auxin-related modulations in inward- (IK,in) and outward-rectifying (IK,out) K+ channel activities of Vicia guard cells in the absence of added auxin. Only the peptide corresponding to the C-terminal domain of ABPzm1 was active. The dominant response was an inactivation of IK,in, although the peptide also evoked an activation of IK,out. Inactivation of IK,in was complete within 20-30 s and was fully reversible, was marked by a slowing of voltage-dependent activation and deactivation, and was dependent on peptide concentration (K1/2, 16 +/- 6 microM). Buffering cytoplasmic-free [Ca2+] with EGTA had no effect on IK,in response to the peptide. However, virtually complete and reversible block of the response was achieved when cytoplasmic pH (pHi) was brought under experimental control using the weak acid butyrate. Parallel measurements of pHi using the fluorescent dye 2',7'-bis(2-carboxyethyl-5(6)-carboxyfluorescein (BCECF) and dual-wavelength laser-scanning confocal microscopy demonstrated that the C-terminal peptide evoked rapid and reversible cytoplasmic alkalinizations of 0.4 +/- 0.1 pHi unit and confirmed the antagonism of the pHi response in the presence of butyrate. These, and comparable results with the auxins indole acetic acid and 1-naphthyleneacetic acid, implicate the C-terminal domain of ABPzm1 in auxin-ABP coupling to pHi and an associated intracellular signaling cascade.


This briefing shows how migration exacerbates the difficulties that many people already face in accessing formal social protection, such as additional income or food. However, it also shows how migration itself can facilitate access to an informal form of social protection for poorer households, even if this is risky and does not always lead to positive outcomes. It also argues that rather than focusing on improving migrants access to formal social protection, which in any case is often inaccessible to the poorest households, more could be done to ensure that the effects of migration on informal social protection are secured and enhanced. This include supporting those left behind, so that they can really benefit from the social protection effects of migration and improving living conditions for migrants while they are away.


Aim: Various properties of Houttuynia cordata Thumb. has been reported. However, few studies on its pharmacological effects have been documented. To elucidate whether there are more pharmacological effects of this plant, this study was therefore, carried out to determine the anti-hyperglycemic and anti-hyperlipidemic effects of 80% ethanol extract of H. cordata (HCE). Their antioxidant activity and acute toxicity were also conducted. Methods: HCE at a dose of 250 mg/kg was oral given to Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats daily for 8 weeks. DPPH assay and HCE at the doses of 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 mg/kg were employed in antioxidant and acute toxicity studies. Results: HCE lowered FBG in the diabetic, but not in the normal treated rats. HCE did not affect the body weight of all rats, but recovered TP, Alb, Glob, BUN, CREA, UA, TB, AST, ALT, ALP, and reduced the elevated CHO, TG and LDL in the diabetic rats. HCE possessed relatively low antioxidant activity with IC50 of 115.98± 0.82 μg/mL compared to Vitamin C (42.54+1.37 μg/ml), but did not produce any symptoms of acute toxicity. Conclusions: The extract of H. cordata may have beneficial properties and is a new agent for diabetic treatment and improve renal and hepatic functions.


Enzymatic biomarkers are sensitive to environmental changes and they respond by changing their activity. Barbus peloponnesius is considered a potential bioindicator to changes that can be caused in an environment by various pollutants. The results from the organs of the experimental group of fish from the aquaculture that were treated with a sublethal dose of insecticides (1 mg/L), showed a significant increase in the kinetic activity of the enzymes EROD and B(a)PMO compared to the group control. Whereas the group of fish treated with the same dose of herbicides did not show a significant increase, there was a kinetic activity alteration in these enzymes. A significant increase in the enzymatic activity (EROD and B(a)PMO) was also seen in the fish from the polluted Vardar River. The fish treated with sublethal concentrations (2 µg/L) of insecticides and herbicides showed haemolysis, coagulation, degeneration and cytoplasmic vacuolization of the hepatocytes, dilatation of the sinusoids, degeneration of the glomeruli and renal tubules, widening of the space between the basal membranes and the epithelial cells of the renal tubules, fracture and degeneration of the ovoplasm and disruption of the follicular epithelium in the hepatic parenchyma, kidney tissue, and the ovaries.


This report presents results from a pilot study of Manchester and Sheffield which have adopted contrasting transport policies in recent years. Sheffield's low fares policy (introduced in 1975) has resulted in much lower bus fares than those in Manchester. The report is based on 1971 and 1981 census data. Results show that there are a range of factors which influence mode choice including the spatial distribution of population and employment, the segregation of socio-economic groups, the patterns of residential tenure, the level of female employment (particularly in part-time jobs) and, above all, the level of car ownership. The two cities show marked contrasts in car ownership and modal share for the work journey. Car ownership and car use were similar for the two cities in 1966, but the growth in car ownership and car use has been faster in Manchester than in Sheffield over the period 1966 to 1981. In 1981, bus use was nearly twice as high in Sheffield as in Manchester even when the mode choice data was disaggregated by sex, socio-economic group and car ownership category. However, before the low fares policy was introduced. The main impact of Sheffield's low fares policy seems to have been to reduce the decline of public transport use for the work journey but mainly at the expense of car sharing and the use of minor modes (such as foot and two-wheelers). For a given level of car ownership, the proportions driving to work remain similar for the two cities. (Author/TRRL)


In South Africa, electricity is supplied through thousands-of-kilometers of overhead power cables, which is owned by Eskom the national energy supplier. Currently monitoring of these overhead power cables are done by means of helicopter inspection flights and foot patrols, which are infrequent and expensive. In this paper, the authors present the design of a prototype power line crawler (inspection robot) for the monitoring of these overhead power lines in South Africa. The designed prototype power line crawler is capable of driving on the wire, balancing on the wire and is capable of maneuvering past certain obstacles found on the overhead power cables. The prototype power line crawler is designed to host a monitoring system that monitors the power line as the inspection robot drives on it. Various experimental tests were performed and are presented in this paper, showing the capability of performing these tasks. This prototype inspection robot ensures a platform for future development in this area.


This research is based on the phenomenon of direct elections to choose the Governor of East Java. Election was conducted in two rounds, because in the first round when it declared that the winner does not reach the minimum threshold of 30%. According to Article 107 of Law No. 12 of 2008, said if no candidate obtained a regional heads of more than 30% of the total valid votes, the election must be made the second round, followed by winning the first and second. For the vision-mission campaign, the candidates using a variety of media, one of which is outdoor media (outdoor advertising). So this study are interested in knowing exposure to messages on outdoor media campaign against the preferences of society.
The theory used in this study is the effect of mass communication. Effects of mass communication consists of three effects on the audience, among others: 1. Cognitive (knowledge), in this study the individual (the public) exposed to inundation of the outdoor media campaign messages that are providing information about the picture of Elections Candidate and vision-mission. 2. Affective (emotional and feelings), here the outdoor media can lead to emotional stimuli in the audience, for example, more people liked or did not like the candidate elections. 3. Behavioral (change in behavior) In this case the community to act to select a candidate elections, which becomes a follow-up than just knowing, and then be like, and finally chose.
This research was ekplanatif associative, and basic research is the survey. With a population study of 133 prospective voters, obtained a sample of 58 respondents, through proportional stratified random sampling technique, because the number of stratified and large population. While the characteristic time voters are 6 people (aged 17-20 Th), 33 young voters (aged 21-40 Th), and 19 older voters (aged 40 year or more). Data collection techniques in this study were questionnaires and documentation. Analysis of the data used are: correlation coefficient, simple linear regression and t test
The results showed that there is a relationship between exposure to campaign messages on outdoor media with community preferences. This conclusion is based on test results of product moment correlation coefficient (rhitung) of 0.597 (rtabel amounted to 0.254) and interpretation guidelines are based on the correlation coefficient table is in the interval from 0.40 to 0.599 means that the category of "medium". The value of the determinant of (r2) equal to (0.356) 2 x 100% = 35.6% means that exposure to campaign messages on outdoor media contribute to public preference for 35.6% while the remaining 64.4% are influenced by variables other than exposure to messages campaign on outdoor media. Regression calculation results are known for Y = 15.235 +0.579 X, which means having a positive influence direction. In the t test is obtained t count = 5.566> t table = 2.0032 then the relations campaign message exposure in outdoor media with the public preference is significant. This means that Ho is rejected and accepted Hk.


Failure of statural growth is one of the major long-term sequelae of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in children. In recent years effective therapeutic strategies have become available that lead to evidence based practice recommendations. To assess the current growth performance of European children and adolescents with CKD, we analyzed a cohort of 594 patients from 12 European countries who were followed prospectively for up to 6 years in the 4C Study. While all patients were on conservative treatment with a mean estimated glomerular filtration rate of 28 ml/min/1.73 m2 at study entry, 130 children commenced dialysis during the observation period. At time of enrolment the mean height standard deviation score (SDS) was −1.57; 36% of patients had a height below the third percentile. The prevalence of growth failure varied between countries from 7 to 44% Whereas patients on conservative treatment showed stable growth, height SDS gradually declined on those on dialysis. Parental height, pubertal status and treatment with recombinant growth hormone (GH) were positively, and the diagnosis of syndromic disease and CKD stage were negatively associated with height SDS during the observation period. Unexpectedly, higher body mass index (BMI) SDS was associated with lower height SDS both at enrolment and during follow up. Renal anemia, metabolic acidosis, and hyperparathyroidism were mostly mild and not predictive of growth rates by multivariable analysis. GH therapy was applied in only 15% of growth retarded patients with large variation between countries. When adjusting for all significant covariates listed above, the country of residence remained a highly significant predictor of overall growth performance. In conclusion, growth failure remains common in European children with CKD, despite improved general management of CKD complications. The widespread underutilization of GH, an approved efficacious therapy for CKD-associated growth failure, deserves further exploration.


The thesis that follows is performed in collaboration with Nitator in Oskarstrom.The factory in Oskarstrom focuses on laser cutting, robotic welding and surfacetreatment of steel for the automotive industry.The project aims to streamline the flow of materials in production by automatingthe movements of the forklifts, running to and from the interlayer, and betweenworkstations.The project started with a systematic literature search. The literature searchshowed the research position around the AGV-system. Also a review of studentliterature was made, so that a suitable method for practical implementation couldbe developed and applied. Selected method uses both quantitative and qualitativeapproaches, which is analyzed by using triangulation.The work has resulted in a modified layout of the current facility in Oskarstromthat can be used for the implementation of the AGV-system. It has also resulted inthe tender documents and profitability calculation from several of AGV-suppliers.


This report was designed to investigate the selection process that was in place in Company X and to measure the staff turnover rate that could be seen as attributable to the selection process that was in place.
The first thing that was examined was the selection methods that were in use across each department in Company X. Interviews were used to determine this. It became apparent that Company X used the classic trio process.
All departments accepted bout CV's and application forms. Application forms were available on the company's website and could be printed off. However, many of the managers complained that application form was too broad and often provided them with many unsuitable candidates.
Following this applicants that were short listed in all departments were invited to interviews. All managers used some form of competency based interview asking both situational and behavioural typed questions. Each candidate was scored on a scoring matrix. In the sales, marketing and finance departments than invited the top two candidates for a second interview, while customer service only conducted one interview. The service department looked for an employee to perform a work sample.
Each manager then used pre-employment referencing before the job was offered to the candidate. One of the things that I noted from this was that some managers appeared to take referencing was something that they must do but held little weight in their selection decision. In the sales manager's opinion, "previous employers can be uncooperative" and "I do not feel like it holds (referencing) a lot of weight when it comes to choosing a prospective employee". Also managers only tended to use previous employment references and character references. Each manager also looked for a medical cert saying that the employee was fit for work.
A statistical analysis was then used to measure the staff turnover rate attributable to the selection process. The service department had the lowest turnover rate, something that backs up the view of Smith et al (1989) who says that work samples tend to be a more reliable method of hiring employees. In contrast to this,customer service had the highest turnover rate. On initial observation, this would appear to be due to the fact that they have the least in-depth selection methods in place i.e. they only conduct one interview as opposed to the two interviews conducted by the rest of the departments.


In this paper, a full field technique for mapping a latent fingerprint using a coherent gradient sensing (CGS) sensor is proposed. Collimated light from an He-Ne laser illuminates a specimen comprising a fingerprint implanted onto a reflecting surface. Reflected light from the specimen is analyzed using the CGS sensor comprising a pair of gratings. Reflected light carries information regarding the depth and orientation of furrows and ridges in the fingerprint. The topological information of the fingerprint is retrieved using four-step phase shifting interferometry. Well-defined 2D and 3D phase plots have been reconstructed to map the topography of the human fingerprint. The recorded slope data reconstructs the information regarding the separation and depth of the ridges in the latent fingerprint. The proposed technique is noninvasive and full field and does not require any kind of chemical or physical treatment. The sensor is very simple, yields interferometric sensitivity, and has the advantages of easy alignment, compactness, and low cost.


A comprehensive monitoring program for colonial waterbirds in North America has never existed. At smaller geographic scales, many states and provinces conduct surveys of colonial waterbird populations. Periodic regional surveys are conducted at varying times during the breeding season using a variety of survey methods, which complicates attempts to estimate population trends for most species. The US Geological Survey Patuxent Wildlife Research Center has recently started to coordinate colonial waterbird monitoring efforts throughout North America. A centralized database has been developed with an Internet-based data entry and retrieval page. The extent of existing colonial waterbird surveys has been defined, allowing gaps in coverage to be identified and basic inventories completed where desirable. To enable analyses of comparable data at regional or larger geographic scales, sampling populations through statistically sound sampling designs should supersede obtaining counts at every colony. Standardized breeding season survey techniques have been agreed upon and documented in a monitoring manual. Each survey in the manual has associated with it recommendations for bias estimation, and includes specific instructions on measuring detectability. The methods proposed in the manual are for developing reliable, comparable indices of population size to establish trend information at multiple spatial and temporal scales, but they will not result in robust estimates of total population numbers.


The pineal gland plays an important role in seasonal adaptation including variation in energy requirement. Animals exhibiting seasonal changes in their energy expenditure would be benefited if their cardiac and pulmonary systems respond to the pineal photoperiodic signal, melatonin, appropriately. Thus, we would like to hypothesize that melatonin receptors are present in the heart and lung. Using a specific labeled melatonin agonist, 2-[125I]iodomelatonin, binding sites were demonstrated in the lung and heart of birds and other animals. In the chicken lung, there were high affinity (equilibrium dissociation constant, Kd = 9.11 +/- 0.73 pmol/l) and low density (maximum number of binding sites, Bmax = 1.29 +/- 0.16 fmol/mg protein) 2-[125I]iodomelatonin binding sites that were highly specific to melatonin. Similar binding with lower density was demonstrated in the quail and frog lungs. In the duck heart, specific 2-[125I]iodomelatonin binding sites with a Kd of 30.5 +/- 3.5 pmol/l and a Bmax of 0.46 +/- 0.1 fmol/mg protein (n = 4) were demonstrated. Competitive studies suggested that these binding sites were specific to melatonin. Thus, saturable and reversible 2-[125I]iodomelatonin binding was present in the lung and heart membrane preparations of birds and possibly other animals. The picomolar affinity, femtomolar density and highly specific pharmacological profile of these binding sites suggest that they can be classified as ML-1 melatonin receptors. The 2-[125I]iodomelatonin binding sites described in the lung and heart as well as those binding sites demonstrated in other peripheral tissues suggest the ubiquitous direct action of melatonin on peripheral tissues.


This dissertation explores how the discourse of conspiracy shaped and was itself
shaped by the cultural and political landscape of the USA during the 1960s. It focuses
on the popular engagement with notions of conspiracy in four key areas, namely
postmodernism, feminism, the counterculture, and gay rights. Broadly speaking, it
traces the way those groups who had previously been the object of demonological
scrutiny began in the sixties to tell conspiracy theories about those in power-and
about each other. It is concerned with "plotting" both as a form of conspiratorial
organisation, and as a narrative device. Through close readings of the poetics of
conspiracy in both factual and fictional texts, this thesis aims to bring together "realist"
and "symbolist" approaches to the "paranoid style" in American culture.
It consists of four interrelated case studies, each of which examines key texts
from around 1963, in conjunction with works from the 1990s which rethink the earlier
representations. The first chapter explores how conspiracy theories have mounted a
challenge not just to the official "lone gunman" version of the assassination of
President Kennedy, but to the "authorised version" of the 1960s themselves. Through a
reading of Don DeLillo's Libra (1988) and Oliver Stone's JFK (1992), I argue that
narratives about the conspiratorial activities of the authorities have contributed to a
crisis in the authority of narrative, making the Kennedy assassination both a symptom
and a cause of a postmodern culture of paranoia. The second chapter considers the
figuration of conspiracy in popular American feminist writing, from Betty Friedan' s
The Feminine Mystique (1963) to Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth (1990). I argue that
conspiracy tropes have functioned not only to link the personal and the political, but
also to establish a series of implicit divisions within American feminism. The next
chapter traces the emergence of a self-conscious engagement with the culture of
conspiracy in the sixties through the career of Thomas Pynchon. I then examine what
has happened to the conspiracy culture of the sixties, through an analysis of Vineland
(1990). I argue that the earlier paranoid "depth" of secrecy has been flattened out by
the proliferation of the signs of mass culture. The final chapter concentrates on the
highly idiosyncratic paranoid fictions of William S. Burroughs. My aim is not so much
to diagnose him as to locate his writings within postwar discourses of homosexuality,
drug addiction and disease. I examine how his novels of the sixties rework the notion
of paranoia as an externalisation of private fears by highlighting the internalisation and
even the literal incorporation-of public surveillance. I then consider the
possibilities and pitfalls of reading Burroughs in the light of the HIV/AIDS epidemic,
and conversely, of reading his novels as a map of the contemporary culture of body
panic.


The earliest ancient Greek text to narrate the resolution of a large-scale conflict by judicial means is Aeschylus's tragedy Eumenides, first performed in Athens in 458 BC. After explaining the historical context in which the play was performed—a context of acute civic discord and the imminent danger of an escalation of reciprocal revenge killings by the lower-class faction in Athens—this article offers a new reading of the play and asks if it can help us think about the challenges inherent in conflict resolution today. The prosecutors are the Erinyes (Furies), the archaic supernatural agents of murder victims; their responsibility, in predemocratic Greece, before the invention of law courts, was to punish murderers. The defendant is Orestes, who has killed his mother but argues that, since she had killed his father, he was acting justly. The judges consist of eleven Athenian citizen jurors plus the presiding god, Athena, whose twelfth vote carries slightly more weight than any of the others. The article concludes that some aspects of the procedure are exemplary, especially Athena's insistence on respecting each side's right to be heard, her sensitivity toward the grievances felt by the defeated Erinyes, and the compensation they are offered. On the other hand, the tragedy clearly shows how difficult it is for a fair legal judgment to be made without a view to larger issues of national expedience, security, and inherent power structures, especially that of patriarchy.


While there is mounting evidence that large income shocks, e.g. in the form of a job loss, may impact health and mortality, little evidence exist on the potential relationship between sustained income volatility, keeping average lifetime income constant, and health. This paper exploits rich survey data on the near-elderly in Canada paired with their administrative tax records to investigate whether a relationship exists between health and well-being on the one hand, and individual-specific volatility of income on the other, decomposing volatility into a permanent and transitory component. Controlling for average lifetime income, we find that a one unit increase in the standard deviation of the permanent component of (log) income experienced over the working life is associated with a lower probability of being in excellent (-23.9%) and very good health (-13.3%), to be satisfied with life (-34.9%), and implies the onset of 1.1 additional mental health issues. Similar results, albeit smaller in size, are found for the transitory component of income. These results have potentially important implications for public policy, as well as, understanding the relationship between the labor market and population health.


The Internet has grown into a powerful medium for information dispersion and social interaction that leads to a rapid growth of social media which allows users to easily post their emotions and perspectives regarding certain topics online. Our research aims at using natural language processing and text mining techniques to explore the public emotions expressed on Twitter by analyzing the sentiment behind tweets. In this paper, we propose a composite kernel method that integrates tree kernel with the linear kernel to simultaneously exploit both the tree representation and the distributed emotion keyword representation to analyze the syntactic and content information in tweets. The experiment results demonstrate that our method can effectively detect public emotion of tweets while outperforming the other compared methods. Keywords—Public emotion recognition, natural language processing, composite kernel, sentiment analysis, text mining.


We present
an attention-based Transformer model for automatic retrosynthesis route planning.
Our approach starts from reactants
prediction of single-step organic reactions for given products, followed by Monte Carlo tree search-based
automatic retrosynthetic pathway prediction. Trained on two datasets from the United States patent
literature, our models achieved a top-1 prediction accuracy of over 54.6% and 63.0% with more than 95% and 99.6% validity rate
of SMILES, respectively, which is the best up to now to our knowledge. We also
demonstrate the application potential of our model by successfully performing
multi-step retrosynthetic route planning for four case products, i.e.,
antiseizure drug Rufinamide, a novel allosteric activator, an inhibitor of
human acute-myeloid-leukemia cells and a complex intermediate of drug
candidate. Further, by using heuristics Monte Carlo tree search, we achieved
automatic retrosynthetic pathway searching and successfully reproduced published
synthesis pathways. In summary, our model has achieved the state-of-the-art
performance on single-step retrosynthetic prediction and provides a novel
strategy for automatic retrosynthetic pathway planning.


Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have bome him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for 1 am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her. John 20: 15-18 (AV)


Abstract The biomass within two Early Pennsylvanian (Langsettian [Westphalian A] equivalent) penecontemporaneous swamp communities was sampled quantitatively to obtain an estimate of the taxonomic contribution to each assemblage. Blocks of organic-rich shale were removed from a clastic parting within the Black Creek Coal, and ∼0.5-m2 siltstone quadrats were chain-sawed from a clastic swamp community directly above the Bear Creek Coal. Bedding planes were exposed, and the surface areas for each taxon per bedding surface were measured and used as proxies for biomass contribution in each locality. Biomass over a combined area of 5.47 m2 was assessed for the Black Creek Coal parting; biomass covering an area of 9.70 m2 was evaluated for the assemblage preserved above the Bear Creek coal. In addition to calculating standard diversity indices, this data set was analyzed using cluster analyses and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) to differentiate variations within the general flora. Low species diversity characterizes both floras. Diversity indices for both assemblages are very similar, indicating essentially no difference in assemblage composition, despite the difference in edaphic conditions. The Bear Creek Coal wetlands show greater variation in species content, while the mineral-enhanced peat of the Black Creek Coal overlaps this species diversity within a slightly more restricted range of variation. Cluster analysis produced 5 stable clusters, whereas three dimensions of the NMDS analysis provided the best fit to explain the variation among the samples. The dimensions are interpreted as representing abundance of (1) arborescent lycopsids, (2) arborescent and climbing sphenopsids, and (3) pteridosperms. The plant community preserved within the clastic parting of the Black Creek Coal is comparable to that of the community found above the Bear Creek Coal. Hence, vegetation that colonized mineral-substrate soils in Early Pennsylvanian coastal lowlands, whether in peat or non-peat accumulating settings, are very similar. The dominance of pteridosperms in these depositional regimes appears to remain stable throughout the Early and Middle Pennsylvanian and portends community replacements in the Late Westphalian D some 8–10 million years later.


A synthesis of work on integrating short‐rotation biomass plantings into existing mixed crop and livestock farming regimes with the biomass being converted to biofuels, including aviation fuel, is provided. This agroforestry system, based on mallee eucalypt species native to Australia, provides broader environmental benefits, including biodiversity protection. These species are suited to the edaphic and climatic conditions of rainfed farming systems in southern Australia. The study focused on the Great Southern region of Western Australia, with an average annual rainfall of 400–600 mm. Compared to other locations in Australia, significantly more research and development has been conducted in this region, with a mallee biomass‐to‐jet fuel business case and farmer cooperation providing reliable data for assessing the viability and sustainability of commercial supply chain development. The limited capacity of Australian agricultural systems to produce biomass due to the relatively dry climate means that the available biomass resources should be directed to strategically important energy uses such as aviation fuel. Technical, economic, and environmental insights gained from these long‐term studies have demonstrated that it is feasible to integrate this new production system into the overall farming enterprise and indicate strong prospects for a biomass industry in this region should political and economic uncertainties currently facing the renewable energy industry in Australia be resolved. WIREs Energy Environ 2017, 6:e221. doi: 10.1002/wene.221


Small mesopelagic fish are ubiquitous in the ocean, representing an important trophic link between zooplankton and tertiary consumers such as larger fish, marine mammals and birds. Lanternfishes (Myctophidae) are common worldwide as well as in the Southern Ocean. However, only 17 of the approximately 250 myctophid species occur exclusively in sub-Antarctic or Antarctic waters. It is unclear whether they colonized these latitudes once and diversified from there, or whether multiple colonization events took place in which multiple ancestral phenotypes entered the Southern Ocean at various times. Phylogeographic patterns have been investigated for individual myctophid species, but so far no study has compared species across the Southern Ocean. Here, we present a dataset with previously unpublished cytochrome c oxidase I (COI; n = 299) and rhodopsin (rh1; n = 87) gene sequences from specimens collected at various locations in the Southern Ocean. Our data extend the DNA barcode library of Antarctic mesopelagic fish substantially. Combined morphological and molecular taxonomy lead to confident species level identification in 271 out of 299 cases, providing a robust reference dataset for specimen identification, independently of incomplete morphological characters. This is highly topical in light of prospective ecological metabarcoding studies. Unambiguous sequences were subsequently combined with publicly available sequences of the global DNA barcode library yielding a dataset of over 1000 individuals for phylogenetic and phylogeographic inference. Maximum likelihood trees were compared with results of recent studies and with the geographical origin of the samples. As expected for these markers, deep phylogenetic relationships remain partially unclear. However, COI offers unmatched sample and taxon coverage and our results at the subfamily to genus level concur to a large extent with other studies. Southern Ocean myctophids are from at least three distant subfamilies suggesting that colonization has occurred repeatedly. Overall, spatial divergence of myctophids is rare, potentially due to their enormous abundance and the homogenizing force of ocean currents. However, we recommend further investigation of the phylogenetic position of Symbolophorus boops and highlight potential (pseudo-)cryptic or unrecognized species in Gymnoscopelus bolini, Lampanyctus achirus, and the non-myctophid genus Bathylagus.


FePt nanoclusters have been implanted onto polyimide films and subjected to thermal annealing in order to obtain a special magnetic phase (L10) dispersed within the polymer. SQUID measurements quantified the magnetic features of the as-prepared and annealed hybrid films. As-implanted FePt nanoparticles in polyimide films exhibited a blocking temperature of 70 ± 5K. Thermal annealing in zero and 10 kOe applied magnetic field increased the magnetic anisotropy and coercivity of the samples. Wide Angle X-Ray Scattering confirmed the presence of FePt and L10 phase. All samples (as deposited and annealed) exhibited electron spin resonance spectra consisting of two overlapping lines. The broad line was a ferromagnetic resonance originating from FePt nanoparticles. Its angular dependence indicated the magnetic anisotropy of FePt nanoparticles. SEM micrographs suggest a negligible coalescence of FePt nanoparticles, supporting that the enhancement of the magnetic properties is a consequence of the improvement of the L10 structure. The narrow ESR line was assigned to nonmagnetic (paramagnetic) impurities within the samples consistent with graphite-like structures generated by the local degradation of the polymer during implantation and annealing. Raman spectroscopy confirmed the formation of graphitic structures in annealed KHN and in KHN-FePt.


This paper explores the presentation of black crime in Richard Wright's The Native Son, Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man and James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain. Apart from questioning the wisdom of projecting black people who display criminal tendencies in the above-mentioned texts, the paper places crime and black criminality in the broad discourse of race relations in America. In a society where black people are believed to harbour criminal tendencies, these writers' presentation of black characters is fraught with ambiguities. It is a truism to say that the writers may have intended to show black deprivation, poverty and the attendant immorality; however, in the process they produce images that justify black people's criminalisation, exploitation and further incarceration. It is perhaps needless to point out that the bulk of the images of the black family that we track in the three texts are pathological. One way of looking at these repulsive images is to claim that the three writers do not believe in them. Therefore, they use hideous images of black people as criminals in what amounts to critical realism so that the system will transform itself and stop reproducing such characters. Another approach is to look at the images in a clinical way, assuming that the writers exhort black people to shun criminal behaviour in spite of the stakes against them. The article puts a laser-sharp focus on the multipronged meanings that can be deduced from the societies we see in the three texts.


Increased basal and chronic low-level activation of inflammation in patients with autoimmune disease has prompted many research lines trying to unravel the genetic control of the inflammatory cascades, being located at the forefront of such physiological disturbances. Accordingly, several abnormalities have been identified in cytokine-signaling pathways and immune receptors conducting the inflammatory response that commonly characterizes autoimmune reaction. Among the molecules involved in this kind of pathologies we identify Jak/Stat (1), Jun/Fos, p38, ERK1/3, and many others serine/threonine kinases involved in the MAP kinase transduction signal (2), and the NFκB (3).


Despite intensive research, negation remains elusive. Its expression across languages, its underlying cognitive mechanisms, its development across time, and related phenomena, such as negative polarity and negative concord, leave many unresolved issues of both a definitional and a substantive nature. Such issues are at the heart of the present volume, which presents a twofold contribution. The first part offers a mix of large-scale typological surveys and in-depth investigation of the evolution of negation in individual languages and language families that have not frequently been studied from this point of view, such as Chinese, Berber, Quechua, and Austronesian languages. The second part centers on French, a language whose early stages are comparatively richly documented and which therefore provides an important test case for hypotheses about the diachrony of negative marking. Representing, moreover, a variety of theoretical approaches, the volume will be of interest to researchers on negation, language change, and typology.


Maize production plays a major role in the agriculture of Hungary. Maize yields were very variable in Hungary in the last few decades. Unpredictable purchase prices, periodical overproduction, the increasing occurrence of weather extremities, the uncertain profit producing ability, the soil degradation processes (physical, chemical and biological degradation) and the high expenses are risk factors for producers. Due soil tillage, there is an opportunity to reduce these risks. Based on the experimental database of the Institute of Land Utilisation, Regional Development and Technology of the University of Debrecen, Centre for Agricultural and the KITE Plc., various cultivation systems were examined with maize (Zea mays L.) as indicator plant in Jasz-Nagykun-Szolnok country in 2012 and 2013. The sample area can be found in the outskirts of Kenderes on a meadow chernozem soil. On the examined plot, strip-tillage, subsoiling and moldboard ploughing were performed, each on 4.5 ha, respectively.
In general, our findings show, that strip-tillage and subsoiling can be alternative tillage systems beside moldboard ploughing on meadow chernozem soils in Hungary.


Parekh's theory of multiculturalism offers a number of insights which are useful in analysing the role of neighbourhood governance in promoting social cohesion within culturally diverse small areas. The problems of neighbourhood governance are rooted in disjointed structural change across Europe over the past 25 years. In this context, the formation of a multicultural European polity risks creating a white European ethnicity which will institutionalise specific forms of racism within distressed neighbourhoods. At the same time, the shift from government to governance as a way to address the problems of governability in structurally reconstituted societies is associated with the top-down imposition of specific forms of neighbourhood governance which can then, unwittingly, become part of the institutionalisation of racism. Using Parekh's theory to construct a critique yields a set of principles which illuminate a number of key strategic elements which can be used practically in designing neighbourhood governance mechanisms and which illuminate the pre-occupations in the existing literature.


The problem of speaker detection in audio databases is addressed in this paper. Gaussian mixture modeling is used to build target speaker and background models. A detection algorithm based on a likelihood ratio calculation is applied to estimate target speaker segments. Evaluation procedures are defined in detail for this task. Results are given for different subsets of the HUB4 broadcast news database. For one target speaker, with the data restricted to high quality speech segments, the segment miss rate is approximately 7%. For unrestricted data, the segment miss rate is approximately 27%. In both cases the segment false alarm rate is 4 or 5 per hour. For two target speakers with unrestricted data, the segment miss rate is approximately 63% with about 27 segment false alarms per hour. The decrease in performance for two target speakers is largely associated with short speech segments in the two target speaker test data which are undetectable in the current configuration of the detection algorithm.


Micro-EDM has become an important and cost-effective method of machining extremely tough and brittle electrically conductive materials. It is most widely used in process of making dies and moulds and complex sections geometry and some intricate shapes. work piece material is choosed in this experiment by using AISI 304 Stainless steel. Today's world 304 stainless steel is contributes to almost half of the world's production and the consumptions for industrial purposes. The input variable parameters are pulse on time ,current and duty cycle. The effect of variable parameters that is mentioned above upon the machining characteristics such as MRR, SR and Overcut (OC) is studied.. The tool material is copper in this experiment. The results obtained showed that the current was the most significant parameter is followed by the pulse on time and the least significant was duty cycle for entire three responses namely MRR, Surface roughness(SR) and OC. With the increase in current and duty cycle MRR is increased but for pulse on time it increased only up to 100 micro second and then started to decrease. SR increased significantly with the increase in current; for pulse on time it increased up to 100 micro second and after that there was no significant increase; and in case of duty cycle SR increased up to 70% and then started to decrease.