Compaction can be a triggering factor for a process of soil degradation and formation of degraded areas. Understanding plant development in soils compacted is of fundamental importance, since they allow to identify species able to resist the limiting condition of the compaction, being able to be indicated to recover degraded areas that have compacted soils as limiting factor. The objective of this study was to evaluate the initial aerial and root growth of Erythrina velutina in soils subjected to different levels of compaction. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse located at UECIA/UFRN. A Yellow Latosol of Frankish-sandy texture, from an area of the Jundiai Agricultural School, was used in pots formed by three overlapping polyvinyl chloride (PVC) rings, 10 cm in diameter and 25 cm in height, with the central ring being compacted. The experimental design was a randomized block design, with six replications, and four levels of soil compaction (1.35, 1.45, 1.60 and 1.80 kg dm-³) were tested, and the following variables: diameter, height, number of leaves, dry mass of shoot and root system in each layer of the columns. The physical impediment in subsurface altered the aerial growth of the seedlings of E. velutina being this reduction more expressive for the dry mass variable of the aerial part. In relation to the root system, E. velutina showed to be a susceptible species to the effects of soil compaction and morphological changes were observed in the roots in soils with a density greater than or equal to 1.45 kg dm-³.

 Key words: Root system, soil density, soil management, recovery of degraded areas.


With the increasing interest in fiber sensors based on polymer optical fibers, it becomes fundamental to determine the real applicability and reliability of this type of sensor. The viscoelastic nature of polymers gives rise to questions about the mechanical behavior of the fibers. In particular, concerns on the response in the nonstatic regime find foundation in the viscoelasticity theory. We investigate the effects of such behavior via analysis of the mechanical properties under dynamic excitations. It is shown that for low strain (0.28%), the Young's modulus is constant for frequencies up to the limit set by our measurement system. A more detailed analysis shows that viscoelastic effects are present and that they increase with both applied strain and frequency. However, the possibility of developing sensors that measure small dynamic deformations is not compromised. A stress-relaxation experiment for larger deformations (2.8%) is also reported and a relaxation time around 5 s is measured, defining a viscosity of 20 ${\rm GPa}\cdot{\rm s}$.


The development of modern pipelined and multiple functional unit processors has increased the available instruction level parallelism. In order to fully utilize these resources, compiler writers spend large amounts of time developing complex scheduling heuristics for each new architecture. In order to reduce the time spent on this process, automated machine learning techniques have been proposed to generate scheduling heuristics. We present two case studies using these techniques to generate instruction scheduling heuristics for basic blocks and super blocks. A basic block is a block of code with a single flow of control and a super block is a collection of basic blocks with a single entry point but multiple exit points. We improve previous techniques for automated generation of basic block scheduling heuristics by increasing the quality of the training data and increasing the number of features considered, including several novel features that have useful effects on scheduling instructions. Our case study into super block scheduling heuristics is a novel contribution as previous approaches were only applied to basic blocks. We show through experimentation that we can produce efficient heuristics that perform better than current heuristic methods for basic block and super block scheduling. We show that we can reduce the number of non-optimally scheduled blocks by up to 55% for basic blocks and 38% for super blocks. We also show that we can produce better schedules 7.8 times more often than the next best heuristic for basic blocks and 4.4 times more often for super blocks.


This series reflects on the gap between policy as it is made in the centre and policy as it is lived in the trenches.


As a Physical Education (PE) teacher in both special and mainstream schools over a 15 year period, I witnessed the use of the teaching assistant (or Learning Support Assistant as they were known) for purposes which might be deemed to be related to a medical/welfare/care-giver role. In addition, previous small-scale research into the experiences of secondary-age disabled pupils in mainstream as opposed to special school PE showed that their experiences in an inclusive setting were restricted and that the presence of a TA did little to rectify this situation (Farr, 2005). Recently, the professionalisation of the role of the TA may have created a 'teacher-in-waiting' (Neill, 2002) and thus the nature of the TA's role in PE, and the ability of the specialist teacher to work collaboratively with them is complex.

This mixed methods study, inspired by critical ethnography (Thomas, 1993, 2003) incorporated five techniques of enquiry initially based on the work of Giangreco and Broer (2005). In keeping with a constructionist paradigm and integrating what I have termed a distorical theoretical perspective, I counted the interaction between people and the social structure in which they operated as important (Crotty, 1998, Broido, 2002) and drew on dominant participant voices (Lincoln and Guba, 2003). Adopting a theoretical perspective grounded in disability studies, I explored the perceptions of the role of the TA in inclusive PE through qualitative and quantitative data and presented a role definition which combines the humanistic with the instructional (or professional) after Reiter, 2000. I argued whether responsibility for the child's learning should be devolved through the TA. Do we use the TA to make the teacher's life easier or to support, collaboratively, the inclusion of the disabled pupil?

The impact of this study on professional practice relates to the clarity of role definition for TAs generally and for TAs specifically who work in PE; the collaborative nature (or otherwise) of the TA/teacher relationship and the implications of these findings for the future training and deployment of teaching assistants in PE with a physically disabled pupil in a mainstream secondary school. This study found that TAs in PE share many traits or characteristics with those TAs working in other subject disciplines, or across subjects. However, in PE they were inclined to rate a willingness and ability to 'join in' and participate in practical activities alongside pupils above pedagogical knowledge. Training either reinforces an instructional or coaching role, or it focuses on the caring or medical aspects. The reality for the TA in this study however, is that they neither define themselves as one or the other but see themselves as drawing on their own skills, empathy and initiative to facilitate a positive, inclusive environment, with or without the input of the PE teacher. They deem themselves to be both care-givers where appropriate as well as supporters of autonomous participation (as opposed to learning). That the professionalization of their role moves them towards the pedagogical places the TA between a rock and a hard place.


The vapour–liquid–solid (VLS) method is by far the most extended procedure for bottom-up nanowire growth. This method also allows for the manufacture of nanowire axial heterojunctions in a straightforward way. To do this, during the growth process, precursor gases are switched on/off to obtain the desired change in the nanowire composition. Using this technique, axially heterostructured nanowires can be grown, which are crucial for the fabrication of electronic and optoelectronic devices. SiGe/Si nanowires are compatible with complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, which improves their versatility and the possibility of integration with current electronic technologies. Abrupt heterointerfaces are fundamental for the development and correct operation of electronic and optoelectronic devices. Unfortunately, the VLS growth of SiGe/Si heterojunctions does not provide abrupt transitions because of the high solubility of group IV semiconductors in Au, with the corresponding reservoir effect that precludes the growth of sharp interfaces. In this work, we studied the growth dynamics of SiGe/Si heterojunctions based on already developed models for VLS growth. A composition map of the Si–Ge–Au liquid alloy is proposed to better understand the impact of the growing conditions on the nanowire growth process and the heterojunction formation. The solution of our model provides heterojunction profiles that are in good agreement with the experimental measurements. Finally, an in-depth study of the composition map provides a practical approach to the drastic reduction of heterojunction abruptness by reducing the Si and Ge concentrations in the catalyst droplet. This converges with previous approaches, which use catalysts aiming to reduce the solubility of the atomic species. This analysis opens new paths to the reduction of heterojunction abruptness using Au catalysts, but the model can be naturally extended to other catalysts and semiconductors.


Texas and E-government .........5 A defined by the World Bank, "egovernment" refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that can transform their relations with citizens, businesses, and other areas of government. These technologies offer better delivery of government services to citizens, improved interactions with business and industry, easier access to information, and more efficient government management. The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth, and/or cost reductions.


Abstract Objective Limited observational studies have considered habitual consumption of the general population to examine the relationship between the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet and obesity. The aim of the present study was to investigate adherence to the DASH diet in relation to general and central obesity among female nurses in Isfahan, Iran. Design Cross-sectional study carried out among 293 female nurses aged >30 years who were selected by a multistage, cluster random sampling method. Usual dietary intakes were assessed using a validated FFQ. We constructed the DASH score based on foods and nutrients emphasized or minimized in the DASH diet, focusing on eight components: high intake of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, low-fat dairy products and whole grains and low intakes of sodium, sweetened beverages, and red and processed meats. General and abdominal obesity were defined as BMI ≥25 kg/m2 and waist circumference ≥88 cm, respectively. Setting Isfahan, Iran. Subjects Female nurses (n 293) aged >30 years. Results Increased adherence to the DASH diet was associated with older age (P<0·01) and lower waist circumference (P=0·04). There was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of general obesity between extreme quartiles of the DASH diet score. After adjustment for age, energy intake and other confounding factors, DASH diet score was not significantly associated with obesity. However, with further controlling for other dietary factors, those in the highest quartile of DASH diet score were 71 % less likely to have general obesity compared with those in the lowest quartile. In addition, following a DASH diet was inversely associated with central obesity after adjustment for potential confounders (OR=0·37; 95 % CI 0·14, 0·96). Conclusions We found that adherence to the DASH diet was inversely related to central obesity among Iranian adult females. This association remained significant even after adjustment for potential confounders.


Abstract There is an urgent need for otoprotective drug agents. Prevention of noise-induced hearing loss continues to be a major challenge for military personnel and workers in a variety of industries despite the requirements that at-risk individuals use hearing protection devices such as ear plugs or ear muffs. Drug-induced hearing loss is also a major quality-of-life issue with many patients experiencing clinically significant hearing loss as a side effect of treatment with life-saving drug agents such as cisplatin and aminoglycoside antibiotics. There are no pharmaceutical agents approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the purpose of protecting the inner ear against damage, and preventing associated hearing loss (otoprotection). However, a variety of preclinical studies have suggested promise, with some supporting data from clinical trials now being available as well. Additional research within this promising area is urgently needed.


The classic diallel takes a set of parents and produces offspring from all possible mating pairs. Phenotype values among the offspring can then be related back to their respective parentage. When the parents are diploid, sexed, and inbred, the diallel can characterize aggregate effects of genetic background on a phenotype, revealing effects of strain dosage, heterosis, parent of origin, epistasis, and sex-specific versions thereof. However, its analysis is traditionally intricate, unforgiving of unplanned missing information, and highly sensitive to imbalance, making the diallel unapproachable to many geneticists. Nonetheless, imbalanced and incomplete diallels arise frequently, albeit unintentionally, as by-products of larger-scale experiments that collect F1 data, for example, pilot studies or multiparent breeding efforts such as the Collaborative Cross or the Arabidopsis MAGIC lines. We present a general Bayesian model for analyzing diallel data on dioecious diploid inbred strains that cleanly decomposes the observed patterns of variation into biologically intuitive components, simultaneously models and accommodates outliers, and provides shrinkage estimates of effects that automatically incorporate uncertainty due to imbalance, missing data, and small sample size. We further present a model selection procedure for weighing evidence for or against the inclusion of those components in a predictive model. We evaluate our method through simulation and apply it to incomplete diallel data on the founders and F1's of the Collaborative Cross, robustly characterizing the genetic architecture of 48 phenotypes.


This project investigates the labeling of third-world literature as national allegory.
It begins with a discussion of the concepts and ideas behind the loaded terms that fuel this
debate. A justification of my own use of the terms "third-world," "allegory," and
"nationhood" are necessary. My own definitions of the above vocabulary are largely
based on the insights of Frederic Jameson and Raymond Williams.
Chapter Two examines a so-called third-world piece of literature, Noor, through
an allegorical lens with the aim of concluding whether or not it is a reasonable piece to
represent the story of Pakistan and Bangladesh's nationhood. By the end of the chapter, I
find that though the piece is allegorical in nature, it cannot be as tightly defined as a
national allegory.
Chapter Three is a third-world reading of a supposed first-world text, Dracula.
What I attempted to do was establish that other works beside third-world literature can be
read as national allegories. In this investigation, I find that though this piece is also
allegorical in nature, like Noor it cannot be labeled as a national allegory.
The paper concludes with an explanation of my methods. I continue with a
further deconstruction of some of Jameson's ideas, mainly his thoughts on the purpose of
culture in a modern world and the role of nationhood during globalization. My final
thought is that a national allegory is an aesthetic representation of a culture's reaction to
its historical moment.


Abstract. To evaluate the frequency and distribution of landslides hazards over Japan, this study uses a probabilistic model based on multiple logistic regression analysis. Study particular concerns several important physical parameters such as hydraulic parameters, geographical parameters and the geological parameters which are considered to be influential in the occurrence of landslides. Sensitivity analysis confirmed that hydrological parameter (hydraulic gradient) is the most influential factor in the occurrence of landslides. Therefore, the hydraulic gradient is used as the main hydraulic parameter; dynamic factor which includes the effect of heavy rainfall and their return period. Using the constructed spatial data-sets, a multiple logistic regression model is applied and landslide hazard probability maps are produced showing the spatial-temporal distribution of landslide hazard probability over Japan. To represent the landslide hazard in different temporal scales, extreme precipitation in 5 years, 30 years, and 100 years return periods are used for the evaluation. The results show that the highest landslide hazard probability exists in the mountain ranges on the western side of Japan (Japan Sea side), including the Hida and Kiso, Iide and the Asahi mountainous range, the south side of Chugoku mountainous range, the south side of Kyusu mountainous and the Dewa mountainous range and the Hokuriku region. The developed landslide hazard probability maps in this study will assist authorities, policy makers and decision makers, who are responsible for infrastructural planning and development, as they can identify landslide-susceptible areas and thus decrease landslide damage through proper preparation.


Medication Management Counseling and Psychological Services provides medication evaluation and management services for people eligible for CAPS [1]. Medication evaluation often called "med eval" is a meeting with a psychiatrist who will provide recommendations for psychiatric medications if necessary. CAPS seeks to provide medication management to as many students as possible in a timely manner. Medication management is the monitoring of medications a patient takes to confirm that the patient is complying with a medication regimen, while also ensuring the patient is avoiding potentially dangerous drug interactions and other complications. In some cases it is determined that the student?s needs are better served by providing a referral to a provider in the community. There is a $65.00 charge for failing to cancel your appointment at least 24 hours in advance for all medication management appointments.


Rapid and significant developments in the science of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) have provoked serious social and ethical concerns as well as positive influences worldwide. This study created a social agenda containing 21 important issues regarding the relationship between ASDs and society and the development of the science of ASDs. The agenda was constructed with the input of a variety of Japanese people who were provided with scientific ASD information and engaged in discussions regarding ASDs. First, opinions were sought via a questionnaire from the attendees of six science café sessions. Then, additional important issues were put forward by attendees of a larger dialogue session regarding the relationship between ASDs and society, again via a questionnaire. The agenda covered a wide range of issues, including information regarding ASDs, people's understanding of ASDs, social support, education, the difference between ASD characteristics and individuality, ASD research, diagnosis, and social attitudes.


Policies to decarbonize heat provision involve the diffusion of low carbon thermal technologies (e.g. ground-source heat pumps and wood pellet boilers). In domestic buildings, such efforts presume the compatibility of novel technologies with practices of home-making, in terms of comfort, cosiness and sociability. However, research on engagement with low carbon technologies post-installation is limited, particularly with older adults, a growing social group in an ageing society. This study explores how older adults living with low carbon thermal technologies represent thermal comfort, drawing on in-depth interviews in diverse UK home environments (owner-occupied and rented; extra-care, sheltered and care homes; urban and rural). Findings indicate that cosiness and glow are highly valued by and for older adults, and achieved in diverse ways that may run counter to policy goals. In owner-occupied, rural homes, wood-burning stoves were retained after installation of under-floor heating/heat pumps to provide a visible glow and hospitality to guests. In care homes, fake fireplaces provide cosiness and glow without compromising concerns about risk. The research suggests that presumed emissions savings from the deployment of low carbon heating technologies may be overestimated, as home-making practices lead to the supplementing of these devices to provide comfort, cosiness and sociability.


Socially vulnerable populations are more susceptible to the impacts of natural disasters than other groups. An aspect of social vulnerability is lack of access to resources following a disaster. Distance is one barrier that prevents socially vulnerable populations from accessing services. Using 2000 U.S. Census Bureau data and current outpatient child and adolescent mental health facilities in post-Katrina Orleans Parish, Louisiana, this thesis seek to understand if those facilities are located farther from block groups with higher percentages of demographically disadvantaged residents than from block groups with lower percentages of demographically disadvantaged residents. Block group demographic disadvantage is defined in terms of the percent of residents who are African American, the percent of individuals living in poverty, and the percent of households headed by females with children under 18 years old. The sample had 483 block groups in Orleans Parish. Pearson's r and OLS regression were run comparing linear distance (dependent variable) with the independent variables of percent African American, percent poverty, and percent female-headed households with children under 18 years old. In the bivariate analysis, percent African American and female-headed households were not significantly correlated with linear distance. Percent poverty had a significant negative correlation with linear distance. While the negative association between poverty and distance remained in the in the multivariate analysis, percent African American and percent female-headed were positively correlated, as predicted. ArcGIS was used to create maps showing the percent African American, poor, and female-headed households in Orleans Parish. The location of the outpatient child and adolescent mental health services were mapped out as well. Analyzing the locations of these facilities showed that there is a lack of facilities in the east of Orleans Parish.


SUMMARY Nitrification inhibitors are used in agriculture for the purpose of decreasing nitrogen (N) losses, by limiting the microbially mediated oxidation of ammonium (NH4 +) to nitrate (NO3 −). Successful inhibition of nitrification has been shown in numerous studies, but the extent to which inhibitors affect other N transformations in soil is largely unknown. In the present study, cattle slurry was applied to microcosms of three different grassland soils, with or without the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD). A solution containing NH4 + and NO3 −, labelled with 15N either on the NH4 + or the NO3 − part, was mixed with the slurry before application. Gross N transformation rates were estimated using a 15N tracing model. In all three soils, DCD significantly inhibited gross autotrophic nitrification, by 79–90%. Gross mineralization of recalcitrant organic N increased significantly with DCD addition in two soils, whereas gross heterotrophic nitrification from the same pool decreased with DCD addition in two soils. Fungal to bacterial ratios were not significantly affected by DCD addition. Total gross mineralization and immobilization increased significantly across the three soils when DCD was used, which suggests that DCD can cause non-target effects on soil N mineralization–immobilization turnover.


Ubiquitous mobile devices have become a necessity in today's society, opening new opportunities for interaction and collaboration between geographically distributed people. With the increased use of mobile phones, people can collaborate while on the move. Collaborators expect technologies that would enhance their teamwork and respond to their individual needs.

Workflow is a widely used technology that supports collaboration and can be adapted for a variety of collaborative scenarios. Although the originally computer-based workflow technology has expanded also on mobile devices, there are still research challenges in the development of user-focused device-oriented collaborative workflows.

As opposed to desktop computers, mobile devices provide a different, more personalised user experience and are carried by their owners everywhere. Mobile devices can capture user context and behave as digitalised user complements. By integrating context awareness into the workflow technology, workflow decisions can be based on local, context information and therefore, be more adapted to individual collaborators' circumstances and expectations. Knowing the current context of collaborators and their mobile devices is useful, especially in mobile peer-topeer collaboration where the workflow process execution can be driven by devices according to the situation.

In mobile collaboration, team workers share pictures, videos, or other content. Monitoring and exchanging the information on the current state of the content processed on devices can enhance the overall workflow execution. As mobile devices in peer-to-peer collaboration are not aware of a global workflow state, the content state information can be used to communicate progress among collaborators. However, there is still a lack of integrating content lifecycles in process-oriented workflows.

The aim of this research was therefore to investigate how workflow technology can be adapted for mobile peer-to-peer collaboration, in particular, how the level of context awareness in mobile collaborative workflows can be increased and how the extra content lifecycle management support can be integrated.

The collaborative workflow technology has been adapted for mobile peerto- peer collaboration by integrating context and content awareness. In the first place, a workflow-specific context management approach has been developed that allows defining workflow-specific context models and supports the integration of context models with collaborative workflows. Workflow process has been adapted to make decisions based on context information. Secondly, extra content management support has been added to the workflow technology. A representation for content lifecycles has been designed, and content lifecycles have been integrated with the workflow process.

In this thesis, the MobWEL workflow approach is introduced. The Mob- WEL workflow approach allows defining, managing and executing mobile context-aware content-centric workflows. MobWEL is a workflow execution language that extends BPEL, using constructs from existing workflow approaches, Context4BPEL and BPELlight, and adopting elements from the BALSA workflow model. The MobWEL workflow management approach is a technology-based solution that has been designed to provide workflow management support to a specific class of mobile applications.


This study proposes a new evaluation method to improve the non-dominate sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II), which is a well-known algorithm for finding the Pareto-optimal set of multi-objective optimization problems. To further enhance the advantages of fast non-dominate sorting and diversity preservation in the existing NSGA-II, an evaluative crossover is introduced in this paper to incorporate with NSGA-II to retain superior schema patterns in each chromosome for solving multi-objective problems. Each crossover gene is mutually exchanged and evaluated by its contribution in the mutual-evaluation method. Experiments on five well-known benchmark problems of diverse complexities show that the proposed algorithm can find Pareto-optimal solutions in all test cases. Compared with four existing algorithms, the proposed algorithm can achieve better convergence and diversity qualities with a considerable effort reduction in explicit function analyses.


As multi-core trends are becoming dominant, cache structures are complicated and bigger shared level-2 caches are demanded. Also, in mobile processors, multi-core design is being applied. To achieve higher cache performance, lower power consumption and smaller chip area in multi-core mobile processors, cache configuration should be re-organized and re-analyzed. The MID (Mobile Internet Devices) which are embedding mobile processors are becoming one of major platforms and demanding to have a capability to run more general-purpose workload in new platforms (eg., Netbook). In this paper, we proposed a novel cache mechanism to provide performance improvement without increasing cache memory size. Most of applications (workloads) have spatial locality in cache behaviors which means small boundary of cache locations tend to be used in a given piece of time. Considering this concept of locality reversely, logically farthest sets will have relatively lower correlation in terms of locality. The possibility that these two sets are used in same basic block would be very low. With this observation, we investigate the feasibility of sharing two sets of cache blocks for data fill and replacement within a cache. By sharing the sets, certain amount of acceptable performance improvement could be expected without increasing cache size. Based on our simulation with sampled SPEC CPU2000 workloads, the proposed cache mechanism shows average reduction in cache miss rate up to 8.5% (depending on cache size and baseline set associativity), compared to the baseline cache.


This article considers how child pornography is defined in law. It explores the three elements of any definition – who is a child, what constitutes pornography and what material is covered – and notes the difficulty that legal systems have in producing an appropriate definition. The article considers existing international instruments and suggests that a new minimum standard should be adopted to ensure that there is at least basic protection offered to children as regards this form of sexual exploitation.


Discrete event simulation is now a well established modelling and experimental technique for the analysis of manufacturing systems. Since it was first employed as a technique, much of the research and commercial developments in the field have been concerned with improving the considerable task of model specification in order to improve productivity and reduce the level of modelling and programming expertise required. The main areas of research have been the development of modelling structures to bring modularity in program development, incorporating such structures in simulation software systems which would alleviate some of the programming burden, and the use of automatic programming systems to develop interfaces that would raise the model specification to a higher level of abstraction. A more recent development in the field has been the advent of a new generation of software, often referred to as manufacturing simulators, which have incorporated extensive manufacturing system domain knowledge in the model specification interface.

Many manufacturing simulators are now commercially available, but their development has not been based on any common standard. This is evident in the differences that exist between their interfaces, internal data representation methods and modelling capabilities. The lack of a standard makes it impossible to reuse any part of a model when a user finds it necessary to move from one simulator to another. In such cases, not only a new modelling language has to be learnt but also the complete model has to be developed again requiring considerable time and effort. The motivation for the research was the need for the development of a standard that is necessary to improve reusability of models and is the first step towards interchangability of such models.

A standard framework for manufacturing simulators has been developed. It consists of a data model that is independent of any simulator, and a translation module for converting model specification data into the internal data representation of manufacturing simulators; the translators are application specific, but the methodology is common and illustrated for three popular simulators. The data model provides for a minimum common model data specification which is based on an extensive analysis of existing simulators. It uses dialogues for interface and the frame knowledge representation method for modular storage of data. The translation methodology uses production rules for data mapping.


Boiling heat transfer results from a number of multiscale phenomena that are activated by the inception of a nucleating bubble which induces motion of the liquid and vapor phases. Heat is transferred by conduction and convection to the liquid from the heater surface, and subsequently by evaporation at different liquid-vapor interfaces. Nanoscale features on the surface lead to boiling heat transfer enhancement by influencing the surface morphology, nucleation characteristics, localized heat transfer processes, motion of the three-phase contact line, growth and departure of the bubble, and liquid flow over the heated surface. This paper discusses the intrinsic mechanisms associated with nanoscale features that are responsible for enhancement in critical heat flux (CHF) and heat transfer coefficient (HTC) in pool boiling. High wettability surfaces provide CHF enhancement through improved bubble dynamics. Improved contact line motion and liquid circulation around a bubble are responsible for enhanced bubble growth rate. High wickability of nanostructures or nanoparticles on the heater surface is able to supply liquid to the evaporating thin film underneath a bubble. Other techniques lead to enhancing heat transfer to liquid through roughness and lateral conduction in high thermal conductivity particles such as graphene and carbon nanotubes. Enhancement in contact line region heat transfer has been effectively utilized at both nano and micro scales. However, for refrigerants, the enhancement with nanoscale features is only modest at best in improving the heat transfer. These mechanisms are discussed in detail and areas for future research are identified.


The paper examines the evidence for Sri Lanka's economic growth in many sectors, over the past two decades, notwithstanding the setbacks witnessed during the period. This economic growth is, by and large confined to the urban sector, and within it, the western province. In the rural sector, poverty, accompanied by the alienation of the educated rural youth from the economic mainstream, the expanding private sector, presents the "flip side" of the economy. These trends are reflected socially in the emergence of a new urban middle class, which champions a consumerist ideology and a western ethos. The rest of the country, though influenced by the ideology, is unable to embrace it, given the lack of resources and access to the domain of the NUMC. The paper also argues that the formal private sector has, in the main, failed to go beyond its narrow urban focus and bias which has alienated the educated rural youth from the economic mainstream. Their social alienation or exclusion is likely to have far-reaching implications. 1. INTRODUCTION Sri Lanka's relatively early liberalization of its economy in the late 1970s and its sustained attempts to empower the private sector to spearhead the country's economic growth, have, inter alia resulted in the increasing polarization of the socially and economically advantaged, and the disadvantaged groups, accompanied by far-reaching social implications. The economic disparity between urban and rural segments of society has been exacerbated as a result of the enlargement of the private sector at the expense of the public/state sector. The formal private sector is largely located in urban areas. The urban-rural disparity spells deep-rooted social implications. The need for the establishment of social safety nets and social policy frameworks, in order to prop up the alienated rural poor in particular, is of growing importance to the country's social policy developers. 2. INCOME DISPARITY AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION The concept of inequality reflected in the distribution of income, finds expression among others, in cross-country inequality which refers to the inequality of average incomes. Average incomes of the advanced nations have continued to rise, while average income at the other end of the income distribution, particularly in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, have stagnated or fallen (Loungani, P, 2003). This, however, does not mean that inequality of incomes within countries has necessarily increased. Gini Coefficients in Japan, many European countries, and Canada have been stable over the past couple of decades, ranging between 0.25 and 0.3. In the continent, in other developed countries, the United States being the most notable example, the Gini Coefficient has increased to about 0.4 over the past 20 years. Importantly, emerging markets and developing countries defy easy characterization. Some like Korea, which has Gini Coefficient of 0.3, has experienced impressive growth without improvements to their already low inequality. Others like Brazil, which has a Gini of 0.6 have experienced slow growth and have not made a dent in the already high level of income inequality (Loungani P, 2003). The nexus between average income and equality of income distribution is viewed by Saunders, (1990) and Hedey et al; (1999) in terms of the mechanisms that produce inequalities. They argue that inequality per se is not necessarily unjust or unfair. Some people work harder; educate themselves and take better use of their resources etc. Therefore, it is justifiable that some people deserve more than others do. Rawls. J (1972, 1995) in his seminal work on distributive justice is nowhere near enthusiastic a proponent of greater equality as Scandinavian public opinion is. Graubard (1986) reports the Scandinavian's passion for equality. According to Rawls's concepts of justice, inequality under certain conditions is acceptable if inequality is based on factors that do not differentiate between people. …


A signed graph is a graph whose edges are labeled by signs. This is a bibliography of signed graphs and related mathematics.Several kinds of labelled graph have been called "signed" yet are mathematically very different. I distinguish four types:Group-signed graphs: the edge labels are elements of a 2-element group and are multiplied around a polygon (or along any walk). Among the natural generalizations are larger groups and vertex signs.Sign-colored graphs, in which the edges are labelled from a two-element set that is acted upon by the sign group: - interchanges labels, + leaves them unchanged. This is the kind of "signed graph" found in knot theory. The natural generalization is to more colors and more general groups — or no group.Weighted graphs, in which the edge labels are the elements +1 and -1 of the integers or another additive domain. Weights behave like numbers, not signs; thus I regard work on weighted graphs as outside the scope of the bibliography — except (to some extent) when the author calls the weights "signs".Labelled graphs where the labels have no structure or properties but are called "signs" for any or no reason.


There was never one Silk Road - but several. The route chosen by Colin Thubron passes through China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, taking in the most sterile desert on earth (the Taklamakan) and the strife-torn mountain valleys of today's conflicts, as he travels from the tomb of the Yellow Emperor (the mythic progenitor of the Chinese people) to the ancient port of Antioch, by local bus, truck, car - occasionally Landrover, horse or camel. He covers 7,000 miles in 8 months, and confesses that it is the most difficult, complex and ambitious journey he has undertaken in 40 years of travel. The Silk Road is a huge network of arteries and veins, splitting and converging across the breadth of Asia. Chinese silk has turned up in the hair of a 10th-century-BC Egyptian mummy; equally, the tartan plaids of 3000-year-old mummies in the Chinese desert echo those of early Celts. To be travelling the Silk Road, writes Colin Thubron, is to be travelling the history of the world: tracing the passage not just of trade and armies, but of ideas, religions and inventions. Yet - despite the lure of the history - this book is as much about Asia today. Its themes include different Islams (oppressed in China; fervent in Afghanistan and Iran; cautiously monitored in Uzbekistan); contrast (no cities could be more different than ancient Samarkand and modern Teheran); and the way that today's borders are meaningless because the true boundaries are made by tribe, ethnicity, language and religion. "Shadow of the Silk Road" is a brilliant account of an ancient world in modern ferment.


Professional caregivers have an important task in building a trusting relationship with parents and adolescents and in supporting parents in their parental roles. Our clinical experience of some 300 adolescents with obesity between 9 and 18 years of age and their parents has convinced us that consideration of parenting styles is fundamental in the treatment of children and adolescents with obesity. Typical case situations supporting the significance of parenting styles and illustrating the relationships between parents and adolescents with obesity can be identified. Group sessions with parents are the preferred mode for discussing typical parenting issues in the management of obese adolescents. The purpose of this paper is to describe different parenting styles, and to present a set of typical case situations and treatment strategies for nurses working with adolescents with obesity.


Spanning nine time zones from Norway to the Bering Strait, the immense Russian Arctic was mostly unexplored before the twentieth century. This changed rapidly in the 1920s, when the Soviet Union implemented plans for its conquest. The Conquest of the Russian Arctic, a definitive political and environmental history of one of the world's remotest regions, details the ambitious attempts, from Soviet times to the present, to control and reshape the Arctic, and the terrible costs paid along the way. Paul Josephson describes the effort under Stalin to assimilate the Arctic into the Soviet empire. Extraction of natural resources, construction of settlements, indoctrination of nomadic populations, collectivization of reindeer herding--all was to be accomplished so that the Arctic operated according to socialist principles. The project was in many ways an extension of the Bolshevik revolution, as planners and engineers assumed that policies and plans that worked elsewhere in the empire would apply here. But as they pushed ahead with methods hastily adopted from other climates, the results were political repression, destruction of traditional cultures, and environmental degradation. The effects are still being felt today. At the same time, scientists and explorers led the world in understanding Arctic climes and regularities. Vladimir Putin has redoubled Russia's efforts to secure the Arctic, seen as key to the nation's economic development and military status. This history brings into focus a little-understood part of the world that remains a locus of military and economic pressures, ongoing environmental damage, and grand ambitions imperfectly realized.


The presentation focuses on the gambling experiences of Finnish online gamblers. It studies the role of social interaction in the processes of learning to gamble, starting to play new games and adopting gaming as part of everyday life. For many players the first gambling experience has taken place in company of parents or grandparents. The role of friends is important in the introduction of new games and playing can be one way of maintaining social relations. Gambling is integrally connected with players? Social networks. Online gambling is often seen as asocial activity. However, different levels of sociality have been connected with online gambling in recent years. Players can interact with each other before, during and/or after playing. The first Finnish online gambling games, which enabled in-game social interaction, were opened in the year 2010. Veikkaus (Finnish Lottery) introduced a new game eBingo and Ray (Finnish Slot-machine Association) opened its online casino and online poker site. Based on the questionnaire data of 409 average players of the new Finnish online gambling games 16 players were selected for thematic interviews. The interviews focused on the social aspects of offline and online gambling. The analysis of interview data reveals that gambling is fundamentally social activity which is learned and experienced in specific socio-cultural frames.


Cognitive-motor interference may contribute to the risk of falling in people with stroke, as may be the associated phenomenon of inappropriate task prioritization. Examining dual-task walking could provide valuable insights as to how to best evaluate and treat walking in people with stroke. This study aimed to examine the effect of different walking environments on cognitive-motor interference and task prioritization in dual-task walking in people with stroke. Using a repeated-measures design, cognitive-motor interference and task prioritization were assessed in 30 stroke survivors, while walking in a plain environment and in two challenging environments that were enriched with either stationary physical context or suddenly appearing projector-augmented context. All three walking environment conditions were performed with and without a concurrent serial-3 subtraction task. We found stronger cognitive-motor interference for the two challenging environments than for the plain walking environment. Cognitive-motor interference did not differ between challenging walking environments, but task prioritization did: motor performance was prioritized more in the environment with physical context than in the environment with projector-augmented context and vice versa for cognitive-task performance. In conclusion, walking environment strongly influenced cognitive-motor interference and task prioritization during dual-task walking in people with stroke.


The Lagoons of Pom and Atasta are part of a natural protected area of flora and fauna lagoon of Terminos in the region of Campeche, Mexico. This is an important ecological area since it is a habitat of many native and migratory species. These lagoons have been affected by industrial activities and sewage water discharge. Monitoring of nitrogen, phosphorus and faecal coliform in surface waters were carried out along the length of both lagoons during the dry, rainy and north winds seasons during one year. The highest temperatures in the summer (31°C) and minimum in the north winds (25°C) were associated with values of dissolved oxygen (5.1 and 6.3 mg l-1, respectively) indicating also a probably relation of the phytoplankton activity. The pH (8.0-8.2) and the salinity (0.32 – 3.48 SPU) did not show any significant variation amongst the three climatic seasons. The level of ammonium did not surpass the suggested value to the eutrophication control (0.1 mg l-1), while the levels of phosphorus were of higher concentrations (2.0-3.5 mg l-1) to those considered safe (0.01-0.125 mg l-1) to the environmental. The highest concentration of N and P near the inhabitant areas suggest an important contribution of nutrients stemming from the sewage waters, associated with the decomposition of organic materials. The concentration of faecal coliform during the rains and the north wind season (8.0–26.0 MPN 100 ml-1) was greater than during the dry period (1.3–3.5 MPN 100 ml-1) suggesting an important access for the infiltration of rain water and sewage waters not treated coming from the nearest inhabited areas. The deforestation of the mangroves and uncontrolled agricultural activity would affect the quality of the water in both lagoons in the future.


Innovation activities in high technology industries provide considerable challenges for technology and innovation management. In particular, since these industries have a long history of radical innovations taking place through distinct industry cycles of higher and lower demand, firms frequently consider the option to use acquisitions as a means for technology sourcing. The paper investigates this behaviour for three high technology industries, namely semiconductor manufacturing, biotechnology and electronic design automation which is a specific sub-segment of the semiconductor industry. It analyses the association of firm characteristics with different aspects of acquisition behaviour with a particular focus being put on innovation-related firm characteristics. The paper confirms a substitutive relationship between acquisitions and own research activities as well as between own and acquired firm patenting, but also finds that firm size, financial conditions and geographical origin of the firm matter for acquisition behaviour.


This paper presents a meta-analysis of the "cluster literature" contained in scientific journals from 1969 to 2007. Thanks to an original database we study the evolution of a stream of literature which focuses on a research object which is both a theoretical puzzle and an empirical widespread evidence. We identify different growth stages, from take-off to development and maturity. We test the existence of a life-cycle within the authorships and we discover the existence of a substitutability relation between different collaborative behaviours. We study the relationships between a "spatial" and an "industrial" approach within the textual corpus of cluster literature and we show the existence of a "predatory" interaction. We detect the relevance of clustering behaviours in the location of authors working on clusters and in measuring the influence of geographical distance in co-authorship. We measure the extent of a convergence process of the vocabulary of scientists working on clusters.


We exploit a unique Swiss reform to identify the importance of passivity, claiming social security benefits at the Full Retirement Age (FRA). Sharp discontinuities generated by the reform reveal that raising the FRA while imposing small early claiming penalties significantly delays pension claiming and retirement, but imposing large penalties and holding the FRA fixed does not. The nature of the reform allows us to identify that between 47 and 69% of individuals are passive, while imposing additional structure point identifies the fraction at 67%. An original survey of Swiss pensioners reveals that reference-dependent preferences is the main source of passivity.


The effect on production, trade and well-being from the granting of market access, removing export subsidies, and eliminating trade-distorting forms of direct support to farmers in WTO member countries is analyzed from a world-wide general equilibrium perspective using the most recently available data. The results suggest that removing trade barriers, subsidies and support will cause aggregate world prices of agricultural commodities to rise by over 11 percent relative to an index of all other prices. Agricultural support and protection in the developed countries is found to be the major cause of low agricultural prices, and implicitly, a tax on net agricultural exporters in developing countries. Livestock product prices are likely to increase the most from the reform of agricultural policies. Reform increase world trade in agricultural commodities, but the level of total agricultural production is left almost unchanged. In the short to medium term, some net agricultural importing countries are likely to suffer a welfare loss due to an adverse change in their terms of trade that reform causes. However, in the longer-run, reform of agricultural policies is found to benefit almost all countries and developing countries in particular due to the change reform induces in their pattern of investment, growth in capital stock, and to growth in their total factor productivity.


Geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) are often used as lining materials for freshwater reservoirs. To irrigate agricultural land without depleting groundwater, surface water is stored in these artificial ponds. In this study, hydraulic conductivity tests were performed on GCLs placed in flexible-wall permeameters under hydraulic heads of up to 50 m in order to investigate the risk of internal erosion. In these tests, base pedestals made of Plexiglas with uniform circular voids were placed beneath the GCLs instead of a typical gravel subgrade. The voids in the base pedestal represented the voids between uniform rounded gravel particles. Different types of GCLs were tested. GCL-1 was reinforced using needle-punching technology whereas GCL-2, GCL-3 and GCL-4 were unreinforced GCLs that were assembled in the laboratory. The effects on internal erosion of the void size in the subbase; the geotextile component that was in contact with the subbase; the bentonite component, and the manufacturing process of the GCLs were investigated. Test results indicated that internal erosion was directly related to the void diameter of the base pedestal. The resistance of the needle-punched GCL to internal erosion was better than that of the unreinforced GCL. The degree of internal erosion was also related to the engineering properties of the geotextile in contact with the base pedestal. Higher tensile strength of the GCL reduced the possible potential for internal erosion within it. The type of bentonite did not have a significant effect on internal erosion.


The generation of hydrologic time series is the starting point of the systematic analysis for the study or the management of water resources developments. In general, the stationarity of the time series, at least to the second order is assumed. Hydrologic series are not necessarily stationary but may be made approximately stationary by the removal of the deterministic components that may exist, such as a trend, a periodicity, or persistence. The most common mathematical models for time series simulation are the autoregressive processes, the moving averages and the mixed processes. The auto- and cross-spectral analysis is a powerful method for the determination of mathematical models of hydrologic processes. The general appearance of the autospectrum indicates the type of process, for example, if a first or a second order autoregressive process is a suitable model, and the spectrum may also be used to determine the values of the model parameters. The crossed spectrum is useful to establish relationships between two time series such as the rainfall and runoff sequences. These series may be related, for example, by a simple regression. A continuous or a discrete linear system connecting the two series may be identified. With the latter model, the runoffs may be expressed as a weighed sum of antecedent precipitations. These techniques were applied to the study of rainfall and runoff in the Sioule basin, a tributary of the Allier River, in central France. The study was made for monthly, daily and bihourly data. A logarithmic transformation of the runoffs and a square root transformation of the rainfalls improved the relationships at the monthly and daily time scales. The periodicity was removed by normalization for the monthly data, and by filtering for the daily and bihourly data. Several mathematical models are proposed to simulate the time series of rainfall and of the runoff and the rainfall-runoff transfer in the Sioule basin for the three time scales.


The aim of this study was to characterize the brachyuran crabs living onSargassum cymosum C. AGARDH, 1820, with emphasis on seasonal variation of specimens collected on three different beaches inthe Ubatuba region (23Q 26' Sand 45Q 02' W). The algae were collected manually by snorkellingduring lowtide infourdifferentseasons, from January to December 1995, bagged and stored frozen.ln the laboratory, the samples were thawed at room temperature, transferred to a basin containing water and then carefully shaken branch by branch. The animais were sorted out under a camera lucida, counted and preserved in 70% alcohol. A total of 382 specimens were collected, belonging to three families, with seven genera and ten species. Epialtus brasillensis DANA, 1852was the most abundant and Constant species in ali areas, followed by Hexapanopeus schmitti RATHBUN, 1930 and Microphrys bicornutus(LATREILLE, 1825). Theoccurrence of Acantonyx dissimulatus COELHO, 1991-1992 in Sao Paulo State is documented at first time. Species frequency varied over the year at the sites sampled.ln general, ItaguaBeach presented a larger number of species. The highest and lowest densities occurred in the winter and summer, respectively. key words : Brachyura, composition, crabs, phytal, Sargassum.


This chapter presents the process of establishing a laboratory for mobile eye tracking focussing on real-world, open-space environments within the field of landscape architecture at the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences (D) as well as the latest results from the feasibility study 'Point de Vue', which defines the basis for qualitative interaction analyses in landscape architecture. Eye tracking is a tool that has been used extensively in the domains of psychology, marketing, usability and user experience in remote and mobile applications, but has rarely been used in real-world open spaces because of technical limitations. To check the possibilities of mobile eye tracking as a new application in open spaces, several exploratory tests and a feasibility study with long-term experiments have been carried out in urban settings as well as in world famous parks such as 'Grosser Garten' in Hannover (D) and 'Stourhead' in Wiltshire (GB). These experiments have shown extraordinary results that enable us to use mobile eye tracking as a new tool in open space research to gain knowledge about how people act, react and interact in open-space environments. Being able to see and understand what catches one's eye and the response to it will be a guide to better design.


Rapid urbanization and industrialization eventhough facilitate our lives, leads to various forms of environmental pollution. This paper presents the results obtained in a study on environmental noise pollution in the city of Salem. Road traffic noise has been a major contributor to the annoyance, which is substantiated by the result of continuous monitoring of noise equivalent levels (Leq) at a number of silence, residential, commercial, industrial zones and road intersections. In conclusion, the noise pollution of the city is wide spread throughout most of its area, where measured noise levels are similar to those commonly observed in cities that do not have mitigation programmes. Public participation, education, traffic management, structural designing play a major role in noise management


In this paper we demonstrate a potentiostat built with a single commercially available integrated circuit (IC) that does not require any external electronic components to perform electrochemical experiments. This is done using the capabilities of the Programmable System on a Chip (PSoC®) by Cypress Semiconductor, which integrates all of the necessary electrical components. This is in contrast to other recent papers that have developed potentiostats but require technical skills or specialized equipment to produce. This eliminates the process of having to make a printed circuit board and soldering on electronic components. To control the device, a graphical user interface (GUI) was developed in the python programming language. Python is open source, with a style that makes it easy to read and write programs, making it an ideal choice for open source projects. As the developed device is open source and based on a PSoC, modification to implement other electrochemical techniques is straightforward and only requires modest programming skills, but no expensive equipment or difficult techniques. The potentiostat developed here adds to the growing amount of open source laboratory equipment. To demonstrate the PSoC potentiostat in a wide range of applications, we performed cyclic voltammetry (to measure vitamin C concentration in orange juice), amperometry (to measure glucose with a glucose strip), and stripping voltammetry experiments (to measure lead in water). The device was able to perform all experiments and could accurately measure Vitamin C, glucose, and lead.


Anthony Reynolds' fascinating and detailed biography draws on scores of new interviews conducted with Cohen's band members past and present, his business associates, editors, friends, fans, producers, colleagues, enemies and peers. As well as their revealing accounts, the author has gained access to hours of previously unpublished interviews with Cohen as well as video archive recordings from several decades. The book also includes an authoritative summary of every Cohen album, with insights and recollections supplied from the musicians who appeared on the recordings. Gradually, despite Cohen's own good-natured evasiveness over the past 40 years, a surprisingly frank portrait begins to emerge of the legendary figure who commands unparalleled loyalty from his fans and followers, young and old. From the distant days of his penniless beginnings as a much-praised poet in Montreal, through the travels, affairs, religious crisis and drama of his latest tours. Cohen's extraordinary life and body of work is examined as never before. The book includes many previously unpublished photographs.


Abstract.
 Paleogene distribution of Enneadocysta (Dinoflagellata) in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean: paleoceanographic implications. The study of Middle to Late Eocene dinoflagellate cyst assemblages from subtropical Southwest Atlantic basins shows the presence of species of Enneadocysta, including E. dictyostila (Menéndez) Stover and Williams emend. Fensome et al., E. brevistila Fensome et al. and E. multicornuta (Eaton) Stover and Williams. The species Enneadocysta dictyostila has been widely recorded in middle Paleogene sections from Southern Hemisphere high latitudes. High representativity of Enneadocysta spp., along with other components of the Southern Ocean endemic dinoflagellate flora, have been observed in samples from Colorado Basin (∼38°S), Argentina and Punta del Este Basin (∼36°S), Uruguay. Previous research in the Tasman area has related the presence of these endemic taxa at mid-latitudes to the formation of a strong clockwise subpolar gyre ("cold trap") favoured by the continental blockage of the Tasman Gateway. In this paper we propose that the observed dinoflagellate cyst distribution in the Southwest Atlantic basins can be explained by a similar dynamical mechanism operating close to the present Weddell Gyre. The blockage of the Tasman Gateway and a partially open Drake Passage both contributed to the formation of a strong western-intensified clockwise gyre that may have transported the endemic flora components, mainly represented by Enneadocysta spp., from the Antarctic continent northward along the Southwest Atlantic Shelf during the Middle - Late Eocene.


Inflammation or dysbacteriosis-derived lipopolysaccharides (LPS) adversely influence the embryonic development of respiratory system. However, the precise pathological mechanisms still remain to be elucidated. In this study, we demonstrated that LPS exposure caused lung maldevelopment in chick embryos, including higher embryo mortality, increased thickness of alveolar gas exchange zone, and accumulation of PAS immature pulmonary cells, accompanied with reduced expression of alveolar epithelial cell markers and lamellar body count. Upon LPS exposure, pulmonary cell proliferation was significantly altered and cell apoptosis was inhibited as well, indicating a delayed progress of pulmonary development. LPS treatment also resulted in reduced CAV-1 expression and up-regulation of Collagen I, suggesting increased lung fibrosis, which was verified by Masson staining. Moreover, LPS induced enhanced Nrf2 expression in E18 lungs, and the increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was confirmed in MLE-12 cells in vitro. Antioxidant vitamin C restored the LPS induced down-regulation of ABCA3, SP-C and GATA-6 in MLE-12 cells. Furthermore, LPS induced activation of NF-κB signaling in MLE-12 cells, and the LPS-induced decrease in SP-C expression was partially abrogated by blocking NF-κB signaling with Bay-11-7082. Bay-11-7082 also inhibited LPS-induced increases of ROS and Nrf2 expression. Taken together, we have demonstrated that oxidative stress and NF-κB signaling are involved in LPS induced disruption of pulmonary cell development in chick embryos.


A historical survey of Dextran is given. Requirements of a satisfactory plasma volume expander are stated. The basic physiology and comparison of various substitutes already used, are discussed. The manufacture of Dextran and its essential chemistry is descriptionbed. Comparison is made with plasma and possible electrolyte disturbances are noted. The clinical uses and important effects in restoring adequate circulating plasma volume, increasing venous return and blood pressure, reduction of oedema, and alleviation of pregnancy oedemas are mentioned.


This dissertation explores capabilities o f high school science students for reasoning about representational displays of data. Like Galileo, the students were attempting to understand astronomical observations. On the one hand, the students had the advantage of using the latest tools and data of astrophysicists. These included high-resolution digital images created by attaching very sensitive digital cameras to telescopes, revealing objects far fainter and in greater detail than could be seen through Galileo's telescope. The students also used image enhancing computer software as a tool for displaying and analyzing the digital image data. On the other hand, these powerful tools have vastly compounded the potential for being deceived by appearances. Indeed, this is a problem not just for students and scientists, but all of us, whenever we try to make sense o f computer-generated displays of data. Recently, such displays have accompanied front-page newspaper articles, as shownin Figure1-1. So it is timely to explore ways for students to develop their capabilities for interpreting informative, but deceptive computer-generated representational displays o f data. The students' substantial capabilities for interpreting image displays made this study possible. When high school physics and astronomy teacher Richard Lohman and I first introduced image-processing activities, we were struck by the variety of interpretations that were invented by his students. Over the years, we sought ways to help students build upon their capabilities for interpreting image displays. We tried to create image-processing based activities where students' inventiveness was valued over their ability to learn any particular methods. We tried to find image data that could be interpreted in different ways. We often encouraged each student to create multiple methods. And we tried to ensure that students had adequate resources for creating and critically evaluating their methods. In these ways I learned how to engage students in articulating and evaluating interpretations o f a variety o f image data in the context o f various data analytic tasks. Analyzing a corpus of student-generated interpretations, I've identified intellectual resources that contribute to their interpretive capabilities.
Not surprisingly, students' perceptual capabilities may be their most fundamental resource for interpreting the visually rich image displays. In particular, students frequently focus their attention on particular visual attributes, such as those identified in Figure 1-2, and base their interpretations upon what the visual attributes suggest. A few examples will illustrate the range of students' capabilities for interpreting visual attributes. I begin with examples demonstrating the best of the students' work.


The increased incidence of the acute kidney injury (AKI) in the elderly is becoming a disturbing reality in our days, mainly with the aging of the general population, and the predisposition of old persons to chronic diseases, drug toxicity, and infections. The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiological, clinical, and biological features and to assess variant etiologies and outcomes of AKI in the elderly. Data were collected from the medical records of patients older than 65 years age having AKI admitted in the Internal Medicine Department of the Military Hospital of Tunis from January 2006 to June 2014. One hundred and seventeen cases were included in the study. The median age was 74.2 years. Male:female ratio was 1.6. Hypertension and diabetes were the most frequently found comorbidities seen in 69.2% and 48.7% of patients, respectively. The percentage of patients having acute-on-chronic renal failure was 13.7%. The AKI was manifested by nausea or vomiting in 33.3% of cases. One patient had hematemesis. The other symptoms were dyspnea in 14.5% of cases, uremic encephalopathy in 6.8% of cases, and oligoanuria in 16.2% of cases. The AKI was discovered fortuitously in 31.6% of cases and was diagnosed early within the 48 h after admission in 94% of cases and after this delay, in 6% of cases. It was ranked Acute Kidney Injury Network 1, 2, or 3, respectively, in 29.9%, 24.8%, and 45.3% of cases. Organic etiologies were observed more frequently (53.8%) followed by functional etiologies (37.6%) and then by obstructive ones (8.5%). Hemodialysis was performed for 9.4% of the patients. Of all the patients, 70.1% had favorable outcome, 49.6% of patients recovered totally. There was aggravation of the AKI in 29.9% of cases. Death occurred in eight cases (6.8%). The epidemiological, clinical, biological, and etiological profile of AKI in the elderly emphasizes the effect of aging of the human being on determining the pathology.


The aim of this study is to investigate a novel method for dealing with incomplete scale scores in longitudinal data that result from missing item responses. This method includes item information as auxiliary variables, which is advantageous because it incorporates the observed item-level data while maintaining the scale scores as the focus of the analysis. These auxiliary variables do not change the analysis model, but improve missing data handling. The investigated novel method uses the item scores or some summary of a parcel of item scores as auxiliary variables, while treating the scale scores missing in a latent growth model. The performance of these methods was examined in several simulated longitudinal data conditions and analyzed through bias, mean square error, and coverage. Results show that including the item information as auxiliary variables results in rather dramatic power gains compared with analyses without auxiliary variables under varying conditions.


This paper presents an overview and meta-analysis of the effects of water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions around the world. It is based on 136 impact evaluations (randomized and quasi-experimental studies) that explore the effects of water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions on health and non-health outcomes, ranging from behavior change -- such as the adoption of water treatment -- to school attendance rates, to a reduction in diarrhea. The selected impact evaluations were divided into five groups, and meta-regressions with fixed effects (at the regional level) and random effects were performed, controlling for each study's characteristics (implementing organization, sample sizes, type of publication, number of publication views, and so forth). All results are reported as changes in odds ratios, with respect to the standard deviation of reported effects. Water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions were found to increase the likelihood of behavior changes and the adoption of new hygiene practices by 17 percent. The smallest effects were observed from water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions aimed at reducing the rates of child mortality and non-diarrheal disease. Water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions implemented in schools showed statistically significant results in reducing school absenteeism and dropouts. Similarly, the results showed a statistically significant aggregate likelihood of increased access to safe water and improved water quality, as well as increased water treatment options -- a difference of one-fifth with respect to the standard deviation of the average effect size reported. Finally, the results showed that water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions reduced the likelihood of the incidence of diarrheal and enteric disease by 13 percent, which is consistent with findings in other meta-analyses of the same subject.


Asynchronous machines are considered nowadays the most commonly used electrical machines, which are mainly used as electrical induction motors. Starting the induction motor is the most important and dangerous step. The theory behind this project is based on representing the real motor by a set of equations and values in Matlab using the subsystem feature, forming a corresponding idealistic motor in a way where all the physical effects are similar. The motor is started under different loads in two methods: Direct and Soft starting. Each method is studied and discussed using supporting simulation of currents, torque, speed, efficiency and power factor curves.


How do human beings react to the threat of impending catastrophe? What is the range of behavior in situations for which neither culture nor personal experience has provided the individual with an adequate repertoire of responses?This volume developed from the December 1962 symposium of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on human response to the threat of impending disaster. It brings together insights gained from more than a decade of empirical research. The focus of the work is on individual and group responses to catastrophic situations in which a disaster is expected but has not yet occurred. Although the contributors represent different disciplines and deal with a diversity of threatening situations, the work emphasizes a common conceptual framework. The first part of the book is devoted to theoretical perspectives which include systems theory, experimental analogs of stress, and theories of collective behavior. Some of the specific studies consider groups and individual responses to: nuclear threat and disaster, space flight, natural disasters, war and captivity, disease and death. Factors that influence individual responses to threat, ranging from personality variables, situational variables, group values, and cultural expectations are discussed.Although primarily directed to the student of the behavioral sciences concerned with reaction patterns in the instance of extreme stress, the book will also be of interest to organizations in civil defense, Red Cross workers, and communities and agencies entrusted with public safety. The nonspecialist interested in the psychology of stress or study of collective behavior will find this a fascinating volume.


Water storage tanks are widely used in the nuclear industry for safety purposes, chemical water control and primary volume water management. Under seismic load, the sloshing of water inside the storage tank can cause a strong dynamic response, which may also change some mechanical characteristics of the tank, for example the center of mass. The water sloshing analysis is therefore an important part of the modal and seismic analysis of water storage tank. However, the water sloshing effect contains a complicated fluid-structure interaction but structural analysts cannot afford the time to spend on the calculation. It is important to build up a simplified equivalent model for the simulation.
 EDF has been developing since 1989 its own in-house FEA code baptized code_aster, which is included in the SALOME-MECA mechanical package. In this paper two simplified fluid-structure interaction models are performed using SALOME-MECA. Firstly, an optimized Housner model is derived with formula and implemented with 3D finite model. Additionally, another 3D finite element model using added mass model assembled in code_aster, which can simulate more precisely the fluid-structure interaction of the water storage tank.
 Based on the theory of these two models, their natural modes results and seismic response results are carefully compared and analyzed. The results indicate Housner model can provide a precise value of the water sloshing frequency and its displacement value is not accurate enough due to the impulse mass and convection mass simplification. However, the added mass model in SALOME-MECA can provide a more accurate and reasonable result on vibration mode calculation, which may provide an interesting alternative method for seismic verification for the nuclear refueling water tank.


This paper describes the prediction of environmental loads on a typical three-leg jack-up platform under freak wave conditions. Considered were cases where the air gap is small and the hull is subject to impact-related wave-in-deck loads. The technique to predict wave loads was based on the use of a validated CFD code that solves the Reynolds-averaged Navier―Stokes equations. This code relies on the interface―capturing technique of the volume-of-fluid type to account for highly nonlinear wave effects. It computes the two-phase flow of water and air to describe the physics associated with complex free-surface shapes with breaking waves and air trapping, hydrodynamic phenomena that had to be considered to yield reliable predictions. The Stokes fifth-order wave theory initialized volume fractions of water, velocity distributions in the solution domain, and time-dependent boundary conditions at inlet and outlet boundaries. This paper demonstrates that this technique can be a valuable numerical tool for preliminary designs as well as subsequent safety assessments. In particular, it shows that effects of different operating and design parameters on wave-in-deck loads, such as wave direction, wave height, wave period, and wind speed, can be evaluated with an affordable computing effort.


Abstract: While most crossover fanfiction focuses on characters of different works interacting, fanfiction involving Shakespeare often involves characters from one work interacting with a particular Shakespeare text. By examining this phenomenon in three Harry Potter/Romeo and Juliet crossover fanfictions, it can be seen that Shakespeare's language and cultural capital are being used in fan communities in order to develop new interpretations of both Harry Potter and Shakespeare's work, especially when it comes to utilizing tropes like "star-crossed lovers" to develop relationships not present in Harry Potter's text. As such, Shakespeare has taken on a role in these fanfictions that is magic-like, and the fanfictions speak to how Shakespeare, rather than becoming lowbrow popular culture, has instead ascended to a role in literature no author has reached before.
Literature Review: Scholars that have studied Shakespeare in relation to fanfiction such as MK Finn and Michelle Yost have argued that Shakespeare's existence and prevalence on fanfiction sites is a sign of his descendance from a literary pedestal to existence on the same level as other "lowbrow" popular culture, such as Star Trek and The Avengers. A 2013 survey of high school English teachers showed that 93% of ninth-grade classrooms studied Romeo and Juliet, which fueled some scholars in their belief that Shakespeare, by becoming more accessible, has lost some of his highbrow reputation. However, I argue that rather than this accessibility resulting in the loss of Shakespeare's cultural power, this power has instead increased, and Shakespeare has taken on a role in culture unseen by any other author, and this can be seen most clearly in his impact on fanfiction and his popularization of tropes like "star-crossed lovers," which have moved beyond an existence in Shakespeare's plays and have now been used as an interpretive lens in their own right.


In spite of efforts of six and half decades, poverty reduction in the country is not in sight. Rightly therefore, the 11th and 12th Five-Year Plans focus on inclusive growth. In order to compare the performance of different states or regions, a comprehensive measure of financial inclusion is necessary which takes into account all its aspects. Review of literature on the subject reveals that measures so far suggested take into account only the supply side. This article suggests a measure taking into consideration supply, demand and infrastructure dimensions. It also takes into account the factors such as population growth, law and order situation and corruption, which have adverse impact on the factors which lead to financial inclusion. These adversely impacting factors are termed as drag. Separate indices are developed for three dimensions, namely, supply, demand and infrastructure, and a composite index of these three dimensions is computed. Also an index of drag factors is calculated. A comprehensive financial inclusion index is arrived at by modifying the former index by giving the effect of impact of drag. The index developed is comprehensive as well as flexible, in the sense that new parameters can be added to any of the dimensions including the drag, depending upon identification of parameter and availability of data. It is most suited to Indian conditions and can be used to measure comparative performance of Indian states or sub-regions of the states. It is also applicable to developing countries in general. The composite index is developed by using displaced ideal method which satisfies intuitive criteria of development index, namely, normality, anonymity, monotonicity, proximity, uniformity and signalling, collectively referred to with the acronym NAMPUS.


Transport-category or FAR/CS 25 certified airplanes may occasionally become braking energy capacity limited. Such limitation may exist when heavy airplanes are departing airports at high-density altitudes, on relatively long runways, and/or possibly with some tailwind component. A maximum braking energy VMBE speed exists which may limit the maximum allowable takeoff decision/action speed V1. The ever-existing possibility of high-speed rejected takeoff in such conditions may also limit the airplane gross weight for declared available distances. To gain deeper insights and acquire better understanding of the topic, a theoretical model of the maximum braking energy and the related VMBE speed for T-category airplanes was developed. The total kinetic energy of an airplane includes translational and rotary kinetic energy and the potential height-energy component for sloped runways. Time-dependent airplanes' mechanical power expression has been derived. Weight transfer during dynamic braking has been implemented in the full nonlinear model. Added mass due to rotary inertia of spinning components has been incorporated and assumed constant. The brakes thermal model is based on a lumpedparameter analysis of ventilated brake rotors and stators; the thermal model is based on a small Biot-number approximation and sufficiently well describes the physics of friction braking. The nonlinear differential equations of motion and the differential thermal model are coupled. A nonlinear model incorporating a set of ordinary differential equations with tire slip can be solved numerically. This model enables determination of the entire history of translational and angular accelerations and speeds, longitudinal distance, forces, torque, and disc temperature during braking. A simpler model assuming constant physical and thermodynamic parameters is solved analytically for constant negative acceleration. This linear analytical model has been used as a workhorse method in our calculations. A new semiempirical expression of temperature-dependent friction coefficient on brake rotor-stator pairs has been proposed. A theoretical model of maximum braking energy speed VMBE, which includes density-altitude, runway slope, and wind effects as parameters, has been developed for the first time to the best of our knowledge. A comparison of the theoretical VMBE model showed good agreement with measured and approved data for the B737-400 airplane at different density altitudes with and without, individual and combined, runway slope and tailwind effects. Results for new and fully worn brakes were obtained showing the effect of elevated temperatures on brake fade and consequently braking time and distance.


Poverty is almost being the characteristics that cannot be separated from fishermen life, recalling their uncertain daily life. It is because approximately of them only heavily rely their life on the fishes on the sea; whereas the revenue is not certainly sufficient to their daily life, especially they are in imbedded debt from capital holder or agents. Because of this condition, their income should be cut 2% from their yield. Moreover, fish cost is also manipulated by capital holder or agents. For fishermen who are not having tool (boat) and only work for the owner (capital holder), their revenue depends on the yield that the result is corresponding to the agreement between the owner of the tool and the fishermen, in this part fishermen suffer financial loss. Fishermen condition is also very terrible, because their income is unbalance to operational fee; it is because of many factors, the increment of fuel cost and the scarcity of fuel (BBM) and sea sources are more terrible then. Trap system that imbedded them, capital holder or agents playing to the fishermen by requirements that all yields should be sold to the capital holder or agents, by cut 2% and the cost also played by the agents. All these conditions cause fishermen suffer and trapped in poverty. In this thesis, the researcher has investigation in Labuhan village, Brondong, Lamongan. This study is qualitative with descriptive approach. Sampling in this study uses purposive sampling. Data collection in this study uses observation, interview and documentation. Data analysis used data collection, data reduction, data presentation and deduction. The purposes of this study are to know the condition of fishermen in Labuhan village and trap system trapped fishermen in poverty. The results of study show that: (1) Fishermen condition in Labuhan village cannot be regarded as prosperous, it can be seen from their education and lifestyle, their income that is depended on the result of yield from fishing; it is uncertain, depends on the season; (2) Trap system that imbed them in poverty (because, fishermen lifestyle tends to wasteful, the condition of sea ecosystem is worse, the decrement of fishermen revenue and 2% cut of revenue by the capital holder/agents and also buying-trading of fish cost played by capital holder/agents to the fishermen. This condition is concerned by the researcher. Keyword : Sitem Jeratan Yang Menggikat Masyarakat Nelayan Terbelenggu Dalam Kemiskinan


The development of integrated circuits has been governed by Moore's law for several decades. Through continuous advancements in CMOS technology, the industry has maintained exponential progress rates in transistor miniaturization and integration density. However, this technology scaling trend is only conditionally beneficial
for analog circuit performance. Compared with the analog circuits, digital circuits are cheaper, faster, more complex, and more power efficient. Due to these reasons, the researchers are undertaking a paradigm shift from high performance analog circuits to digitally assisted analog circuits. Adaptive impedance matching techniques are attractive because they provide resilience to antenna impedance variation caused by body-effects and several other reasons. In principle, they can preserve maximum radiated power, power amplifier linearity, receiver sensitivity, and power efficiency of a mobile phone simultaneously. However, achieving proper adaptive impedance control over a large impedance region is a challenge.
 Recent analog and RF circuits are increasing performance and efficiency with the aid of digital technology. To apply this technique to a reconfigurable antenna system, a fully integrated micro-controller based on AMS H35 technology has been designed. Digital calibration blocks wrapped around an analog core are capable of performing dead time and impedance matching schemes. Therefore, the intelligence and robustness of the system are improved significantly. Furthermore, compared with S11 controller (18.8mm2, 186mW), the silicon area of the digitally assisted circuit (4mm2, 62mW) is acceptable. In addition, this dissertation presents a set of convergence criteria for the tunable matching network, which leads to the finding of matching point with high probability. Furthermore, to accelerate the convergence speed, the binary search tuning algorithm has been proposed. In contrast to the single step method, the tuning speed is improved from O(N) to O(log(N)).


The thirteen CAS standards and guidelines for student orientation were applied to the results of a nationwide study on orientation practices by graduate schools. Results indicate that most of the practices adhere, in varying degrees, to the standards. Two of the standards were not applicable to graduate student orientation programs. New graduate students often face many of the same issues and concerns as undergraduates, including anxiety about a new environment and the need to feel welcomed by their institutions (Boyle and Boice 1998; Roscnblatt and Christensen 1993). They are challenged further by having to fit into the culture of their disciplines (Golde 1998; Tinto 1993; Weidman, Twalc, and Stein 2001). Attention to their needs has grown in the past few years with recent studies focused on ethnic diversity (Isaac, Pruitt-Logan, and Upcraft 1995), attrition (Golde 2000), retention (Washburn 2002), student services (Vlisides and Eddy 1993), and on another vital component, graduate student orientation. Researchers have analyzed the orientation activities offered by academic departments (Miller, Miles, and Dyer 2001; Taub and Komives 1998) or those provided campus-wide (Barker et al. 1997). In 2002, Poock examined orientations offered by the academic department, by the graduate school, and then by graduate schools nationwide (Poock 2004). Together, the current research offered a better understanding of what was going on around the country. The next step, then, was to evaluate the effectiveness of these practices against a national standard. In this analysis, the results of a nationwide survey of graduate student orientation practices conducted by the U.S. member institutions of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) (Poock 2004) were compared against national standards developed by the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) in The Book of Professional Standards for Higher Education (CAS 2001). The CAS standards and guidelines were chosen because they "have utility for institutions of all types and size and provide criteria to judge the quality and appropriateness of student orientation programs" (CAS 2001, p.221). However, the Council's thirteen standards, comprehensive in many respects, did not entirely address the unique nature of graduate student socialization and orientation. For the CGS survey, the highest ranking officials at all 446 member institutions were sent an individual e-mail and a follow-up message. They were directed to an online questionnaire, which a total of 191 participants completed, resulting in a response rate of 43 percent. For the purposes of their study, graduate students were defined as those in master's or doctoral programs (not first professional programs such as J.D., M.D., etc.). Orientation was described as "any efforts...to assist incoming students making the transition to graduate education. Orientation is limited to campus-wide activities and not activities that may be offered by an academic or administrative unit that are not available to all incoming graduate students (e.g., those offered by the Department of History or School of Business)." Each of CAS'S thirteen standards and guidelines, many abridged because of their length, are bulleted followed by an assessment of nationwide graduate student orientation practices, most of which met the standards. However, not all the CAS standards were addressed in the CGS survey, and some were not consistent with the organizational structure of most graduate schools. 1 Mission-The mission of the student orientation program must include facilitating the transition of new students into the institution, preparing them for its educational opportunities, and initiating their integration into its intellectual, cultural, and social climate. Of 191 CGS respondents, 72.8 percent offered campus-wide orientation sessions to their incoming graduate students. This may suggest that over a quarter of the respondents did not. …


Chaotic Signals in Digital Communications combines fundamental background knowledge with state-of-the-art methods for using chaotic signals and systems in digital communications. The book builds a bridge between theoretical works and practical implementation to help researchers attain consistent performance in realistic environments. It shows the possible shortcomings of the chaos-based communication systems proposed in the literature, particularly when they are subjected to non-ideal conditions. It also presents a toolbox of techniques for researchers working to actually implement such systems. A Combination of Tutorials and In-Depth, Cutting-Edge Research Featuring contributions by active leading researchers, the book begins with an introduction to communication theory, dynamical systems, and chaotic communications suitable for those new to the field. This lays a solid foundation for the more applied chapters that follow. A Toolbox of TechniquesIncluding New Ways to Tackle Channel Imperfections The book covers typical chaos communication methods, namely chaotic masking, chaotic modulation, chaotic shift key, and symbolic message bearing, as well as bidirectional communication and secure communication. It also presents novel methodologies to deal with communication channel imperfections. These tackle band-limited channel chaos communication, radio channels with fading, and the resistance of a special chaotic signal to multipath propagations. In addition, the book addresses topics related to engineering applications, such as optical communications, chaotic matched filters and circuit implementations, and microwave frequency-modulated differential chaos shift keying (FM-DCSK) systems. Insights for Both Theoretical and Experimental Researchers Combining theory and practice, this book offers a unique perspective on chaotic communication in the context of non-ideal conditions. Written for theoretical and experimental researchers, it tackles the practical issues faced in implementing chaos-based signals and systems in digital communications applications.


Abstract:China's ruling Communist Party is admired by specialists for its seeming ability to deliver all kinds of things without democracy-elite stability, good governance, legitimacy, capitalist growth, and a middle class. But in all these areas, durable achievements have proven elusive. A president for life, worsening governance, and ticking time bombs of slow growth and fiscal deficits threaten stability. The balance of forces still favors the status quo, but the regime worries about a tilt in the odds. Outside of top cities, meanwhile, China's growing ranks of disgruntled single males are slipping from the control of the Party's social-monitoring system.


Abstract Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) are very potential formulations for topical delivery of antifungal drugs. Hence, the purpose of this research was to formulate the well-known antifungal agent Fluconazole (FLZ)-loaded SLNs topical gel to improve its efficiency for treatment of Pityriasis Versicolor (PV). FLZ-SLNs were prepared by modified high shear homogenization and ultrasonication method using different concentration of solid lipid (Compritol 888 ATO, Precirol ATO5) and surfactant (Cremophor RH40, Poloxamer 407). The physicochemical properties and the in vitro release study for all FLZ-SLNs were investigated. Furthermore, the optimized FLZ-SLN formula was incorporated into gel using Carpobol 934. A randomized controlled clinical trial (RCT) of potential batches was carried out on 30 well diagnosed PV patients comparing to market product Candistan® 1% cream. Follow up was done for 4 weeks by clinical and KOH examinations. The results showed that FlZ-SLNs were almost spherical shape having colloidal sizes with no aggregation. The drug entrapment efficiency ranged from 55.49% to 83.04%. The zeta potential values lie between −21 and −33 mV presenting good stability. FLZ showed prolonged in vitro release from SLNs dispersion and its Carbapol gel following Higuchi order equation. Clinical studies registered significant improvement (p < .05) in therapeutic response (1.4-fold; healing%, 4-fold; complete eradication) in terms of clinical cure and mycological cure rate from PV against marketed cream. Findings of the study suggest that the developed FLZ loaded SLNs topical gels have superior significant fast therapeutic index in treatment of PV over commercially available Candistan® cream.