We consider the classic scheduling problem of minimizing the total weighted flow-time on a single machine (min-WPFT), when preemption is allowed. In this problem, we are given a set of n jobs, each job having a release time rj, a processing time pj, and a weight wj. The flow-time of a job is defined as the amount of time the job spends in the system before it completes; that is, Fj = Cj − rj, where Cj is the completion time of job. The objective is to minimize the total weighted flow-time of jobs.This NP-hard problem has been studied quite extensively for decades. In a recent breakthrough, Batra, Garg, and Kumar [6] presented a pseudo-polynomial time algorithm that has an O(1) approximation ratio. The design of a truly polynomial time algorithm, however, remained an open problem. In this paper, we show a transformation from pseudo-polynomial time algorithms to polynomial time algorithms in the context of min-WPFT. Our result combined with the result of Batra, Garg, and Kumar [6] settles the long standing conjecture that there is a polynomial time algorithm with O(1)-approximation for min-WPFT.


This paper explores the automatic construction of a multilingual Lexical Knowledge Base from preexisting lexical resources. We present a new approach for linking already existing lexical/semantic hierarchies. The Relaxation labeling algorithm is used to select {among all the candidate connections proposed by a bilingual dictionary{ the right connection for each node in the taxonomy. We also propose several ways in which this technique could be applied to enrich and improve existing lexical databases.


When UNMIK took control of Kosovo, the mission was hampered by the slow deployment of UN Civilian Police (CIVPOL). While its main task was to establish law and order, CIVPOL also played an important role in enforcing human rights. This article analyses the performance of CIVPOL in the four stages of its work to enforce and promote human rights: executive policing; capacity building of the domestic law enforcement body, Kosovo Police Service (KPS); the transition of executive policing from CIVPOL to KPS; and monitoring of the KPS. In addition to its slow deployment, CIVPOL faced several problems in accomplishing its mission such as a lack of understanding of the local law and the participation of officers from countries with poor human rights records. Nevertheless, CIVPOL has made an invaluable contribution to promote and protect human rights in Kosovo.


FOCUS, CONTRAST, AND STRESS IN RUSSIAN Ad Neeleman University College London Elena Titov University College London Moravcsik, Edith. 1978. Reduplicative constructions. In Universals of human language. Vol. 3, Word structure, ed. by Joseph H. Greenberg, 297–334. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Raimy, Eric. 2000. The phonology and morphology of reduplication. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Shaw, Patricia A. 2005. Non-adjacency in reduplication. In Studies on reduplication, ed. by Bernhard Hurch, 161–210. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Urbanczyk, Suzanne. 2000. The bases of double reduplication. In WCCFL 19: Proceedings of the 19th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, ed. by Roger Billerey and Brooke Danielle Lillehaugen, 173–183. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.


Localized winter owl surveys have been conducted in Montana in the past, but a coordinated statewide effort had never been undertaken.  Eleven owl species were, therefore, listed as Species of Highest Inventory Need by Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks and the Montana Natural Heritage Program.  We coordinated statewide winter owl call surveys in 180 of the 185 quarter latitude/longitude (QLL) blocks that encompass Montana.  Call transects each consisted of 10 call stations spaced at 1-mile intervals along a 9-mile long road transect within a QLL block.  At each call station, observers alternately silently listened for owl calls and played owl calls for species likely to occur in the surrounding habitat.  A total of 1,829 call stations were surveyed and a total of 511 owls across 11 owl species were detected.  Detections during the 2014 surveys nearly, or more than, doubled the number of records with indirect evidence for breeding that have been gathered in Montana across all time for Eastern Screech-Owl, Great Horned Owl, Long-eared Owl, and Short-eared Owl.  We recommend that these species and the Northern Saw-whet Owl be removed from the Montana Species of Highest Inventory Need as a result of the information gathered during these surveys.


The aim of this paper is to explain Lontaan's views on the religious beliefs of the Dayak people in West Kalimantan as set forth in his book The History of Customary Laws and Traditions of West Kalimantan. It concentrates on the concept of traditional Dayak religion in Lontaan's work, which is still developing today even though the Dayak have embraced religions foreign to their island. In understanding, examining and explaining Lontaan"s monograph, this paper uses a descriptive hermeneutical method. The source of this paper is the book The History of Customary Laws and Traditions of West Kalimantan by Lontaan. The data of this paper is Lontaan"s field observations and interviews involving religious and traditional figures in West Kalimantan, which he compiled in The History of Customary Laws and Traditions of West Kalimantan forty-five years ago. The focus of this paper is the traditional Dayak religion (Kaharingan) and concerns the beliefs in God, spirits and ancestral spirits that it comprises. Based on the results of our research, it is clear that Lontaan succeeds in showing that the Dayaks" beliefs about spirits or gods and ancestral spirits can affect their daily lives. To connect with God, spirits and ancestral spirits, the Dayak hold various ceremonies. In contrast to other works on Dayak, Lontaan not only studied one of the Dayak tribes, but also examined the culture and religious beliefs of the Dayak Kenayatn, Kayan, Maayan and other Dayak tribes in West Kalimantan and its customs compared to each other.


The spatial distribution of forest canopy cover is a critical indicator for evaluating the forest productivity and decomposition rates. With the Wangqing Forest Region in Jilin Province of China as the study area, this study first estimated the forest canopy cover using spaceborne LiDAR IC- ESat-GLAS waveforms and Landsat-TM multispectral images, respectively, and then GLAS data and TM images were combined to further estimate forest canopy cover by using multiple linear regression and BP neural network. The results showed that when the forest canopy cover was estimated with single data source, the determination coefficient of model was 0.762 for GLAS data and 0.598 for TM data. When the forest canopy cover was estimated by combining GLAS data and TM data, the determination coefficient of model was 0.841 for multiple linear regression, and the simulation precision was 0.851 for BP neural network. The study indicated that the combination of ICESat-GLAS data and Landsat-TM images could exploit the advantages of multi-source remote sensing data and improve the estimating accuracy of forest canopy cover, and it was expected to provide a promising way for spatially continuous mapping of forest canopy cover in future.


Hidayati, Mayang Istnaini Ayu. 2019. "Social Reflections in Jason Ranti's Song Lyrics a Georg Lukacs's Social Realism Analysis". Thesis (S1) Indonesian Literature. Faculty of Humanities Diponegoro University. First adviser Drs. Mulyo Hadi Purnomo, M. Hum., and second adviser Khothibul Umam, S. S., M. Hum.
 The material objects in this research are song lyrics of "Bahaya Komunis", "Suci Maksimal", and "Kafir" by Jason Ranti. The purpose of this research is to describe the structure of Jason Ranti's song lyrics and social critics that contained on it. Theory of Roman Ingarden is used in this research to analyze the structure of Jason Ranti's song lyrics. This research was also conducted using Lukacs's reflection theory to analyze social critics and class contradictons in Jason Ranti's song lyrics. There are seven Lukacs's social realism ideas in Lukacs's reflection theory which help analysis in this research (revealing the invisible, looking at reality in its entirety, the total creation of human consciousness, artistic reflection on reality, emancipatory critical expression, de humanization: concern for social realism, humanist democracy: realist society order).
 The results of this research are Jason Ranti's song lyrics as a medium to convey critics of the social realities that occur in society. In "Bahaya Komunis" lyrics, critics was conveyed over the dialectics that occured between the community and the government in dealing with the issue of communism which rife in Indonesia. In "Suci Maksimal" lyrics, critics was given to dialectics between the community and officials regarding their social and political life. In "Kafir" lyrics, critics was given to dialectics between the religious groups and the non religious groups in dealing with religious life among groups in society.
Keywords: song lyrics, Jason Ranti, Roman Ingarden, Lukasc's social realism, social reflections, dialectics.


In vitro, the σs subunit of RNA polymerase (RNAP), RpoS, recognizes nearly identical −35 and −10 promoter consensus sequences as the vegetative σ70. In vivo, promoter selectivity of RNAP holoenzyme containing either σs (Eσs) or σ70 (Eσ70) seems to be achieved by the differential ability of the two holoenzymes to tolerate deviations from the promoter consensus sequence. In this study, we suggest that many natural σs‐dependent promoters possess a −35 element, a feature that has been considered as not conserved among σs‐dependent promoters. These −35 hexamers are mostly non‐optimally spaced from the −10 region, but nevertheless functional. A ± 2 bp deviation from the optimal spacer length of 17 bp or the complete absence of a −35 consensus sequence decreases overall promoter activity, but at the same time favours Eσs in its competition with Eσ70 for promoter recognition. On the other hand, the reduction of promoter activity due to shifting of the −35 element can be counterbalanced by an activity‐stimulating feature such as A/T‐richness of the spacer region without compromising Eσs selectivity. Based on mutational analysis of σs, we suggest a role of regions 2.5 and 4 of σs in sensing sub‐optimally located −35 elements.


This Paper presents a theoretical outline regarding the Emotional Well-being (EW) function as an extension of the economic utility function. EW includes habitual factors that are always present in everyday decision making. Firstly, an analytical-mathematical conceptualization of EW is carried out, followed by a study of the concept of emotional security, in order to define a new idea of emotional rationality as a complement to economic rationality. An explanation is put forth, as an application, of the concentration of wealth phenomenon according to the focus on economic and emotional rationality. The conclusion is that EW is a theoretical approach which can clarify the understanding of the decision making process in economics activities.


Intuitions relating to outcomes extended over time are examined. Utility integration is proposed as a normative rule for the evaluation of extended episodes. In Experiment 1, subjects explicitly compared aversive experiences of varying durations. By several measures, disutility was a marginally decreasing function of episode duration, even for experiences that were thought to become increasingly aversive. This pattern is a qualitative violation of the integration rule. In Experiment 2, subjects made global evaluations of a hypothetical person's aversive experiences, on the basis of a series of subjective ratings of discomfort made at periodic intervals. The results showed an extreme sensitivity to improving or deteriorating trend and a striking neglect of duration. The final moments of an extended episode appear to exert a strong influence on the overall judgment. This leads to violations of monotonicity when adding some moments of moderate pain reduces judgments of global aversiveness.


In a Pressure-Tube Heavy Water Reactor (PT-HWR) with conventional fuel bundles (49.53-cm bundle length,48-cm fuel pellet stack length), axial peaking in the neutron flux and power density at the ends of the fuel bundles occurs due to the axial gap (1.53 cm) in fuel pellets between adjacent fuel bundles. This axial gap is occupied by coolant, end plates, end plugs and a gas gap. Power peaking has the potential to cause fuel damage and failure, if the local linear element rating exceeds 57 kW/m, and may be of concern for advanced, higher-burnup fuels. Earlier studies using 3-D MCNP models of a 37-element PT-HWR fuel bundle made with 1.2 wt% U-235/U in the form of UO2 in the outer 36 elements, and ThO2 in the central element indicated that ThO2 could be used to dilute and axially grade the fissile content in the end fuel pellets to reduce power peaking in fresh fuel. This study extends the previous work by performing 3D neutronics and burnup calculations using SERPENT, to evaluate how power peaking changes with burnup. In addition, alternative dilution materials (such as DUO2, ZrO2 and MgO) were also evaluated. It was found that axial power peaking can be significantly reduced by using the ThO2 dilution material for fresh fuel, while ZrO2 or MgO are even more effective at higher burnup levels. Dilution materials have little impact on the exit burnup of the fuel.


STUDY OBJECTIVES
Although in situ thrombosis is a prominent finding in lung vessels from patients with primary and secondary pulmonary hypertension, to our knowledge, plasma coagulation factors that might contribute to a hypercoagulable state have not been fully investigated. We hypothesized that the local coagulation environment in the lung vasculature is important to progression if not initiation of pulmonary hypertension.

DESIGN
Quasi-experimental cross-sectional design with concurrent controls.

SETTING
Referral clinics and inpatient services of a University Hospital and a Veterans Administration Medical Center.

PARTICIPANTS
To investigate the role of plasma coagulation factors in severe pulmonary hypertension, we sampled plasma from patients with primary pulmonary hypertension, patients with pulmonary hypertension secondary to a discernible etiology, and normal adult control subjects.

RESULTS
We detected abnormalities of the thrombomodulin/protein C anticoagulant system, evidenced by a decrease in soluble thrombomodulin, in patients with primary pulmonary hypertension. In the patients with primary pulmonary hypertension, we found impaired fibrinolytic activity, with a rise in the fibrinolytic inhibitor plasminogen activator 1 and elevated euglobulin lysis time. Lower fibrinolytic activity correlated with high mean pulmonary artery pressure. In contrast, in patients with secondary pulmonary hypertension, von Willebrand factor antigen and fibrinogen levels were increased, and fibrinolytic activity decreased.

CONCLUSIONS
Different patterns of coagulation and fibrinolytic abnormalities are apparent in plasma from patients with primary and secondary pulmonary hypertension. Although we are unable to address causality with this study, we speculate that abnormalities of these coagulation mechanisms may initiate or play a role in perpetuation of pulmonary hypertension.


This paper explores the integration of Spanish verbs into Paunaka, a highly endangered Southern Arawakan language of Bolivia. As input forms, Paunaka predominantly uses Spanish past participles, but a difference in borrowability dependent on verb class can be observed. The borrowed participles are either verbalized or, more frequently, used as non-verbal predicates, which has extended the semantic scope of non-verbal predication. Borrowing of participles is not found with Paunaka's closest relatives, but possibly with a non-related neighbouring language. Integrating Spanish verbs as non-verbal predicates is also encountered in Besɨro, which has been the dominant indigenous language in the region for the last 300 years.


We propose a microscopic translationally invariant glass model which exhibits two-level tunneling systems, and shows the salient low-temperature anomalies of glassy systems. Results so far obtained are in good accord with experiment. Qualitative universality is due to the collective origin of the glassy potential energy landscape. However, we obtain a simple explanation also for the mysterious so-called quantitative universality that manifests itself, e.g., in the unusually weak dependence of values for the internal friction plateau on substance or system parameters.


Lymphocyte infiltration and microglial activation in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) are mainly centred on the spinal cord. However, a cryolesion to one cerebral hemisphere (cryolesion‐EAE) induces six‐fold enhancement of EAE in the cerebral hemispheres and removal of the cervical lymph nodes reduces such enhancement by 40 per cent. This study tests the hypothesis that lymphocytes from donor rats with cryolesion‐EAE will selectively target the brain rather than the spinal cord when transferred to naive recipients. Acute EAE was induced in 15 Lewis rats (donors); ten donors received a cryolesion to the left cerebral hemisphere 8 days post‐inoculation of antigen and adjuvant. Five rats with EAE received no cryolesion. Lymphocytes from cryolesion‐EAE donors or from EAE‐only donors were cultured for 72h in medium containing myelin basic protein and then injected into a total of 21 naive recipients, which were killed 8 days later. The severity of EAE in brains and spinal cords was assessed in immunocytochemically stained sections by quantifying the number of vessels showing lymphocyte cuffs (W3/13 antibody) and the level of MHC class II antigen expression by microglia (OX6 antibody). When compared with recipients of EAE‐only donor lymphocytes, the severity of cerebral EAE was increased 2‐ to 2·6‐fold in the recipients of crylesion‐EAE donor lymphocytes (p < 0·01); EAE in the spinal cord was reduced. These results suggest that lymphocytes from cryolesion‐EAE donors preferentially target the brain in recipient animals in preference to the spinal cord. By analogy with cryolesion‐EAE, focal central nervous system (CNS) damage with drainage of auto‐antigens to regional lymph nodes in man may play a role in determining the site and timing of initial and recurrent multiple sclerosis lesions. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Auxiliary lenses may be employed in a modified phase microscope to form additional images of the condenser diaphragm. The images of the condenser diaphragm are called multipupils. They can serve to increase the flexibility of the phase microscope because a diffraction plate may be placed at any one or at all of the multipupils. Multipupil systems serve as effective means for phase microscopy. The bipupil system is of most practical interest because it combines the required flexibility with simplicity. It is shown on general theoretical grounds that the multipupil system is equivalent to a single system of phase microscopy whose over-all magnification is equal to the product of the magnifications of the multipupil system and whose pupil function is the product of the complex pupil functions associated with each of the multipupils. The physical interpretation of the composite pupil function as a product is that the optical paths through corresponding areas of the multipupils are additive, while the corresponding amplitude transmissions are multiplied. The method of proof serves to extend the theory of phase microscopy to multipupil systems.


Statoil and CGGVeritas have developed a methodology to directly follow fluid and pressure changes across seismic vintages. During this R&D collaboration program on 4D Petrophysical Seismic Inversion, we have accumulated experience, and some of the results are presented here, extracted from two case studies on different North Sea fields: Troll West and Snorre. These mature offshore fields consist of sandstone reservoirs divided in large rotated fault blocks monitored by several seismic vintages. In both cases, the 4D seismic signal is strongly impacted by gas appearing in the oil leg and below the OWC. It is gas out of solution on Troll West and the injected gas on Snorre. There are significant differences between the fields in terms of reservoir depth, heterogeneities of the reservoir quality as well as the amount of pressure changes. On Troll West, only a limited and monotonous pressure drop has occurred, while on Snorre, significant and potentially compartmentalized pressure changes have taken place during production with gas, water and WAG injection, during the last decade. Setting constraints on dynamic property behaviour is a critical aspect for obtaining quantitative estimates. A comparison of implemented constraints and of results obtained in both cases is made.


Between 1875 and 1947, a period bookended, respectively, by the founding of the Theosophical Society and the death of notorious occultist celebrity Aleister Crowley, Britain experienced an unparalleled efflorescence of engagement with unusual occult schema and supernatural phenomena such as astral travel, ritual magic, and reincarnationism. Reflecting the signal array of responses by authors, artists, actors, impresarios and popular entertainers to questions of esoteric spirituality and belief, this interdisciplinary collection demonstrates the enormous interest in the occult during a time typically associated with the rise of secularization and scientific innovation. The contributors describe how the occult realm functions as a turbulent conceptual and affective space, shifting between poles of faith and doubt, the sacrosanct and the profane, the endemic and the exotic, the forensic and the fetishistic. Here, occultism emerges as a practice and epistemology that decisively shapes the literary enterprises of writers such as Dion Fortune and Arthur Machen, artists such as Pamela Colman Smith, and revivalists such as Rolf Gardiner.


Filopodia have been hypothesized to act as remote sensors of the cell environment, but many details of the sensor function remain unclear. We investigated the distribution of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (EGFR) density on filopodia and on the dorsal cell membrane of A431 human epidermoid carcinoma cells using a nanoplasmonic enabled imaging tool. We targeted cell surface EGFR with 40 nm diameter Au nanoparticles (NPs) using a high affinity multivalent labeling strategy and determined relative NP binding affinities spatially resolved through plasmon coupling. Distance-dependent near-field interactions between the labels generated a NP density (ρ)-dependent spectral response that facilitated a spatial mapping of the EGFR density distribution on subcellular length scales in an optical microscope in solution. The measured ρ values were significantly higher on filopodia than on the cellular surface, which is indicative of an enrichment of EGFR on filopodia. A detailed characterization of the spatial distribution of the NP immunolabels through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirmed the findings of the all-optical plasmon coupling studies and provided additional structural details. The NPs exhibited a preferential association with the sides of the filopodia. We calibrated the ρ-dependent spectral response of the Au immunolabels through correlation of optical spectroscopy and SEM. The experimental dependence of the measured plasmon resonance wavelength (λ(res)) of the interacting immunolabels on ρ was well described by the fit λ(res) = 595.0 nm - 46.36 nm exp(-ρ/51.48) for ρ ≤ 476 NPs/μm(2). The performed correlated spectroscopic/SEM studies pave the way toward quantitative immunolabeling studies of EGFR and other important cell surface receptors in an optical microscope.


The figure depicts a miniature cantilever-type anemometer that has been developed as a prototype of compact, relatively nonintrusive anemometers that can function at temperatures up to 600 C and that can be expected to be commercially mass-producible at low cost. The design of this anemometer, and especially the packaging aspect of the design, is intended to enable measurement of turbulence in the high-temperature, high-vibration environment of a turbine engine or in any similar environment. The main structural components of the anemometer include a single-crystal SiC cantilever and two polycrystalline SiC clamping plates, all made from chemical-vapor-deposited silicon carbide. Fabrication of these components from the same basic material eliminates thermal-expansion mismatch, which has introduced spurious thermomechanical stresses in cantilever-type anemometers of prior design. The clamping plates are heavily oxidized to improve electrical insulation at high temperature. A cavity that serves as a receptacle for the clamped end of the cantilever is etched into one end of one clamping plate. Trenches that collectively constitute a socket for a multipin electrical plug (for connection to external electronic circuitry) are etched into the opposite end of this clamping plate. Metal strips for electrical contact are deposited on one face of the other clamping plate. Piezoresistive single-crystal SiC thin-film strain gauges are etched in the n-type SiC epilayer in a Wheatstone-bridge configuration. Metal contact pads on the cantilever that extend into the clamping-receptacle area, are obtained by deposition and patterning using standard semiconductor photolithography and etching methods. The cantilever and the two clamping plates are assembled into a sandwich structure that is then clamped in a stainless-steel housing. The Wheatstone- bridge carrying SiC cantilever with the metal contact pads on the piezoresistors is slid into the receptacle in the bottom clamping plate. The top clamping plate is brought into contact with the bottom plate so that the narrow section of the metal strips on the top clamp plate aligns with the metal contact pads on the cantilever. When the parts are clamped together, the metal strips provide electrical connections between the Wheatstone-bridge contact points and the sides the trenches that constitute the socket for the multipin electrical plug. Hence, to connect the Wheatstone bridge to external circuitry for processing of the anemometer readout, one need only insert the plug in the socket. In operation, the cantilever end of the stainless-steel housing is mounted flush with an engine wall and the unclamped portion of the cantilever is exposed into the flow. The cantilever is deflected in direct proportion to the force induced by component of flow parallel to the engine wall and perpendicular to the broad exposed face of the cantilever. The maximum strain on the cantilever occurs at the clamped edge and is measured by the piezoresistors, which are located there. The corresponding changes in resistance manifest themselves in the output of the Wheatstone bridge.


The aim of this paper is to explore and document the racism experienced by the Vietnamese people in Australia. After presenting a brief review of the role that racism towards non‐Anglo immigrant groups has played in Australian society over the last century, it reports on a study in which 50 Vietnamese were asked to describe their experiences of racism. These experiences were categorised according to a taxonomy derived from the data, and interpreted with reference to those reported by indigenous participants in a previous study. It is concluded that, although the racism reported is less pervasive and frequent than that reported by Indigenous Australians, the tradition of racism toward non‐Anglo immigrants continues.


This work presents a framework for the automatic construction of large Web corpora classified by readability level. We compare different Machine Learning classifiers for the task of readability assessment focusing on Portuguese and English texts, analysing the impact of variables like the feature inventory used in the resulting corpus. In a comparison between shallow and deeper features, the former already produce F-measures of over 0.75 for Portuguese texts, but the use of additional features results in even better results, in most cases. For English, shallow features also perform well as do classic readability formulas. Comparing different classifiers for the task, logistic regression obtained, in general, the best results, but with considerable differences between the results for two and those for three-classes, especially regarding the intermediary class. Given the large scale of the resulting corpus, for evaluation we adopt the agreement between different classifiers as an indication of readability assessment certainty. As a result of this work, a large corpus for Brazilian Portuguese was built, including 1.7 million documents and about 1.6 billion tokens, already parsed and annotated with 134 different textual attributes, along with the agreement among the various classifiers.


The audiometric zero level of air conduction for 100 healthy youths was determined over a frequency range from 20 Hz to 10 KHz in 1971-1973 under the laboratory conditions. The results obtained have been further verified recently on a selected group of 12 persons. This paper also presents the transfer experiments from the original earphone TDH-39(MX-41/AR) to six other types of earphones. The deviation of our data thus obtained from the recommendation by ISO is discussed.


A Homeo(X)0-bundle is a fiber bundle with fiber X whose structure group reduces to the identity component Homeo(X)0 of the homeomorphism group of X . We construct a characteristic class of Homeo(X)0-bundles as a third cohomology class with coefficients in Z. We also investigate the relation between the universal characteristic class of flat fiber bundles and the gauge group extension of the homeomorphism group. Furthermore, under some assumptions, we construct and study the central S-extension and the corresponding group two-cocycle of Homeo(X)0.


BACKGROUND
Aim of the study is to evaluate the advantages of the surgical technique for the treatment of complex anal and rectovaginal fistulas by means of an endorectal mucosal flap and the removal of the fistular tract. The surgical removal of a fistular tract can lead to incontinence troubles, mostly for high complex transsphincteric fistulas. The endorectal mucosal flap technique involves the meticulous care of the sphincterial structures and of the mucosa of the anal canal, and is, in personal opinion, the best technique for the treatment of such fistulas.

METHODS
The procedure used involves: meticulous study of the anatomic characteristics of the fistula; excision of the secondary opening up to the sphincters level with an elliptic excision of the skin by avoiding keyhole deformities; excision of the primary opening from inside the anal canal, with the interruption of the muscular fibers and their reconstruction; the preparation of an endorectal mucosal flap that is transposed to cover the primary opening of the fistula. 21 patients were treated with this technique, 17 were complex anal fistulas, two were associated to Crohn's disease, and of two rectovaginal fistulas, one was found in a patient with Crohn's disease.

RESULTS
Recurrences were found in five patients (24%), after a median follow-up of 20 months. The delay of fistular healing, over a month, was found in 50% of the cases. No patient had continence troubles.

CONCLUSIONS
The mucosal flap technique is a simple procedure, adequate in preserving the sphincteric function and in preventing deformities of the anal canal. However, it has not demonstrated clear benefits in terms of recurrences compared to other techniques, but it is highly considered for the treatment of complex anal fistulas, in terms of continence and for the earlier and better healing of the wounds and for the better tolerance of the patient.


Abstract Existing performance models developed for interurban pavements are not applicable to urban pavements due to differences in traffic demands and deterioration trends. The objective of the study was to develop performance models for the management of urban pavement networks. Markov chains and Monte Carlo simulation were applied to account for the probabilistic nature of pavements deterioration over time, using data collected in the field. One of the advantages of this methodology is that it can be used by local agencies with scarce technical resources and historical data. Eight performance models were developed and successfully validated for asphalt and concrete pavements in humid, dry and Mediterranean climates with different functional hierarchies. The resulting models evidence the impact of design, traffic demand, climate and construction standards on urban pavements performance. Predicted service life of asphalt and concrete pavements in primary networks are consistent with design standards. However, pavements in secondary and local networks present shorter and longer service life compared to design life, respectively. Climate is a relevant factor for asphalt pavements, where higher deterioration was observed compared to that expected. Opposite to this, no relevant differences between design and performance can be attributed to climate in concrete pavements.


ABSTRACT The increasing need for controlled diesel engine emissions and the strict regulations in the abatement of diesel exhaust products lead to an ever increasing use of Diesel Particulate Filters (DPFs) in OEM applications. The periodic regeneration of DPFs (oxidation of soot particles) demands temperatures that rarely appear during engine operation. It is therefore necessary to employ direct or indirect catalytic measures. In the present work, the development and synthesis via aerosol-based routes, of nanostructured base metal oxides for direct soot oxidation, along with their characterization and their evaluation in engine exhaust is described. The synthesized powders were characterized with respect to their phase composition and morphology. XRD, SEM and TEM analysis have shown the nanostructured character of the powders, while Raman spectroscopy was employed for the preliminary characterization of the materials surface chemistry. The catalytic activity of the materials on soot oxidation was evaluated via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). It was found that they have increased soot oxidation activity at lower temperatures than materials synthesized through a liquid phase route (Liquid Phase Self-propagating High temperature Synthesis, LPSHS). Powders with best catalytic activities were deposited on porous filter structures and were subsequently tested on an engine bench for the evaluation of their catalytic activity under realistic conditions.


I have come to a similar conclusion as Emiliani [1994] in one main point: that marking time from the event of Christ's birth has no significance for many of the world's cultures; indeed, the ubiquitous spread of the common era count is a common error [Volk, 1995]. Thus perhaps Agnew [1994], who believes that "Emiliani is the only person who has trouble with our calendar," should talk to some Buddhists or Muslims.

Agnew, however, does damage Emiliani's proposed solution (to start a new great count at the beginning of the Holocene by establishing the birth of Christ at the year 10,000), which Agnew points out is too arbitrary. And, I might add, Emiliani's suggestion continues the essential cultural error—Christ's birth is now merely offset by a power of ten. This was also noted by Schaffer [1994].


Hydraulic fracturing in tight rocks is a prime strategy in unconventional resources. A key parameter to determine the success of a Frac job is the Stimulated Reservoir Volume (SRV), a volume of a network of induced hydraulic fractures and natural fractures. Due to the low-permeable, micro fracture dense nature of tight carbonate shale, induced fractures can continue propagating in natural fractures, bypassing a large volume of unstimulated rock. Natural fractures have a variety of effects on hydraulic fracturing, including the stimulated fracture pattern, leak off, and the transport of proppants, etc. because some natural fractures may be reactivated or crossed during the propagation of hydraulic fracture. Therefore, adequate well spacing is essential to maximize SRV with the lowest number of wells drilled. Pressure monitoring a stimulation treatment from adjacent wells in the same formation and other layers can be utilized to estimate fracture propagation behavior and SRV extension. This allows for optimum well placements and intervention operations scheduling. Pressure monitoring was done using downhole measuring gauges (DHMG) and surface gauges to monitor the pressure response during several fracturing operations, such as Diagnostic Fracture Injection Tests (DFIT) and hydraulic stimulation treatments. The gauges can be installed with direct communication with the rock (open perfs) and in sealed wellbores. Multiple horizontal wells at different spacing with toe sections in communication with the rock are used to measure the pressure response from a stimulation treatment in an adjacent well. The monitoring wells are landed in the same layer and other formations to test the fracture propagation path.


Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS have reached such proportions worldwide that the development of civil societies is seriously endangered. Extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) is not well-known, but it is dangerous too. Material and methods: Estimates of incidence and spectrum of EPTB in Siberia are presented on the basis of the statistical reports for 1999 – 2009. Results: During the last decade the incidence rate of TB in Siberia increased up to 20% (from 116 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1999 up to 139 in 2009). Every year in Siberia there are about 1000 new EPTB patients. Within the last decade the spectrum of EPTB has changed significantly. TB of the central nervous system almost doubled from 4.9% to 8.5%, mostly due to co-morbidity with HIV. Bone and joints TB increased by about half from 20.3% to 30.8%, and among this group especially TB spondylitis with neurological disorders, the most debilitating form of the disease. The proportion of UGTB decreased from 42.9% to 33.9% with change in gender distribution from male: female of 1:2 in 1999 to 1:1 in 2008. In contrary, there was a decrease of peripheral lymph nodes TB from 16.7% to 11.0%, with fistulous disease still frequent. At the end of the last century ocular TB in Siberia accounted for 7.4% and in 2008 (in 2009 listed in "others") for 4.4% of the patients with EPTB. Accordingly, in 1999 other form of TB accounted for 7.8% and in 2009 for 15.8%. Conclusion: In Siberia there is still a severe epidemic situation now. Low living standard, poverty, as well as poor knowledge and ignorance of EPTB both by medical service and population lead to late diagnosis of EPTB with complicated multi-organ forms.


L2 motivation is considerably important factor which may influence the learning process and achievement (Gardner and Lambert, 1972; Oxford, 1996; Lasagabaster, 2011). This small-scale study focuses on potential differences that may prevail in language learning motivation based on gender particularly in the context of Sindh, Pakistan (Hashwani, 2008). This study used the quantitative approach to inquire the gender differences in the motivation level. The data was collected through a questionnaire, an adapted model of Attitude Motivation Test Battery (AMTB), from 103 participants - males (N=51) and females (N=52). The study used independent samples t-test in order to test the gender differences. Results of this study showed no gender differences in the motivational level of male and female English language learners.


We report results from a program of high-resolution spectral mapping of rotational H 2 emission from bipolar planetary and pre-planetary neb-ulae. Long-slit spectra obtained with the NOAO Phoenix near-infrared spectrometer allow us to probe the molecular kinematics of these nebulae at moderate spatial resolution. We find strong evidence of a component of rotation in the equatorial H 2 emission from the Egg nebula (RAFGL 2688). In this nebula and in the pre-planetary nebula RAFGL 618, the H 2 kinematics point to the recent emergence of high-velocity polar flows, which likely mark the fairly sudden terminations of the red giant phases of their central stars. The classical bipolar planetary NGC 2346 displays distinct kinematic components, which we interpret as arising in the morphologically distinct equatorial and polar regions of the nebula. The H 2 rings observed in the Phoenix position-velocity maps of this nebula support the hypothesis that ring-like planetaries that display H 2 emission possess bipolar structure.


The relationship between public health practice and the fulfilment of the right to health is often assumed to be synergistic. With the goal of understanding how exactly this relationship happens, I studied the everyday practice of epidemiology in Guatemala, seeking to understand how it shapes and is shaped by the notion of health as a human right. Here I present findings from my ethnographic investigation of the Guatemalan Centro Nacional de Epidemiología (National Epidemiology Center), created in 2004 with the explicit mission of contributing to fulfilling the right to health for the inhabitants of Guatemala. While the relationship between epidemiological practice and the right to health is influenced by the specific configuration of local and transnational flows (bureaucratic, economic, ideological, political, scientific, social, and symbolic), epidemiologists also play an important mediating role. There are four intermediate social mechanisms that shape the relevance of epidemiological practice to fulfilling the right to health in Guatemala. Given how the country's economic and social inequalities translate into enormous health inequities, an epidemiological practice committed to the right to health should aspire to transform, rather than reproduce, the social hierarchies underlying such inequalities. The mechanisms I identified shape how epidemiological practice contributes to the reproduction or transformation of such hierarchies. These mechanisms shape what I call 'neocolonial epidemiology', and include: institutional chaos, disciplinary conformism, global health international relations, and social relations at the national level.


Background: The process of tumor evolution has often been described as a single initiated cell propagating a tumor with subclones of that cell acquiring distinct molecular changes and competing for dominance within the tumor. However, colon tumors are now known to often be derived from multiple initiated progenitor cells. Distinct initiated clones might cooperate or alternatively compete during tumorigenesis, progression, and therapy. Methods: Mice carrying the Min allele of Apc and expressing an oncogenic form of PI3K in a subset of colonic epithelial cells develop multiple adenomas and adenocarcinomas in the colon. We utilized cell lineage tracing to follow the progeny of individual progenitor cells through tumor establishment, progression, and treatment with GDC 0941, a PI3K inhibitor. Results: Nearly half (44%; 30/68) of the tumors were derived from at least two progenitor clones, one of which expressed the oncogenic form of PI3K and one of which did not. The presence of both types of clones correlated to an increased frequency of either clone becoming invasive (p = 0.0002). Additionally, the presence of both clones appeared to protect susceptible clones from targeted therapy. Conclusions: Taken together, these data indicate that genetically distinct tumor progenitors can establish a single lesion, and moreover cooperation amongst diverse clonal populations provides a fitness advantage during tumor progression and therapy. Citation Format: Alyssa A. Leystra, Amanda M. Wisinger, Christopher D. Zahm, Kristina A. Matkowskyj, Chelsie K. Sievers, Alex Schwartz, Dawn M. Albrecht, Linda Clipson, Dustin A. Deming, Michael A. Newton, Richard B. Halberg. Discrete clones cooperate to promote tumor progression through a non-cell-autonomous mechanism in intestinal cancers. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 4143. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-4143


Erosion due to ephemeral gullies in cultivated areas contributes significantly to soil loss and sediment yield from arable watersheds. Despite this, no readily applied, automated method for mapping the potential for ephemeral gullies to form currently exists. This presentation outlines how the capability to perform these tasks within a GIS environment adds value to the utility of catchment erosion and sediment yield models, and demonstrates how the potential for ephemeral gully locations may be mapped within the USDA-ARS's AnnAGNPS model, to support prediction of the impacts of ephemeral gully initiation and subsequent growth. The approach adopted builds on the results of long-term research performed at the USDA-ARS National Sedimentation Laboratory that began in the 1980s and which used the manual, fieldbased calculation of a Compound Topographic Index (CTI) as a predictor of ephemeral gullying potential. More recently, joint research between the NSL and Nottingham University has examined the ability of a GIS-based version of the original CTI to correctly predict the locations of ephemeral gullies based gridded altitude data obtained by remote sensing. The new technique has been tested at the field scale through direct comparison with ephemeral gullies observed at a number of experimental monitoring sites. The results of the study demonstrate that the technique developed works effectively where gridded altitude data are available, and with the current rate of increase in the availability of such data the method should become nationally applicable it in the near future. On this basis, the alogorithms necessary to support prediction of potential sites for ephemeral gully formation have been programmed in to the latest version of the AnnAGNPS software.


Background: It is important to assess risk factors for the development of allergic diseases, primarily because these diseases are so common and affect one third of all children in the western world, sometimes with serious manifestations, and also because these diseases have continued to increase over the last few decades.Aims: To study the difference between the cumulative incidence of allergic diseases in 7-ycarold children in 1974 and 1994. To ascertain whether a/ urban as opposed to rural living, b/ maternal allergy, cl season of birth, and particularly, dl pertussis vaccination influence the development of allergic diseases.Material & methods: Two cross-sectional and two prospective studies were evaluated in regard to allergic diseases and their relation to various risk factors. Diagnoses of allergic diseases were obtained from questionnaires and intensive prospective clinical evaluations. Skin prick tests and analyses of IgE to common allergens and pertussis toxin were performed.Results: Allergic diseases increased from 15.1% to 26.1% with a relative risk of 1.7 (95% C.!. 1.4-2.1). The increase was attributed to the children having a heredity of allergic disease. Today, it is more common to have a family member with an allergic disease than not to have allergy in the immediate family. Bronchial asthma and allergic rhinoconjunctivitis in 7-year-old girls increased more than fourfold between 1974 and 1994 but the increase in 7-year-old boys was only 50%.Urban as opposed to rural living during the first two years of life was a moderate risk factor for allergic disease up to 13-14 years of age. The risk was particularly high for bronchial asthma with a relative risk of 2.1 (95% C.!. 1.2-3.7) associated with urban living during the first year of life and 2.1 (1.2-3.6) with urban living the second year. The increase in risk remained after adjustment for family history of allergy, gender, environmental tobacco smoking, smoking during pregnancy, pets indoors, damp indoors and living area. Smoking during pregnancy was an independent risk factor for asthma in the child. The two crosssectional studies both showed significant increase (I 0%) in children if the mother had an allergic disease. Allergic diseases were associated with birth during the winter and negatively associated with birth during spring time. The acellular pertussis vaccines did not influence the development of allergy significantly more than the whole cell pertussis vaccines, or placebo (with diphtheria and tetanus only).Discussion/Conclusions: The increased risk of allergic disease over the last few decades cannot be explained by genetic factors. The most plausible explanation is that there is some factor or factors that influence children with a genetic pre-disposition to allergy. Differences in microbial exposure and infections are conceivable reasons for the increase and may contribute to the difference seen between urban and rural areas. Other possible causes may be exposure to different adjuvants, e.g. nitrogen dioxide and diesel exhausts.The increase in family size in families with an allergic mother, would be a survival advantage of being atopic. This could explain a long-term accumulation but not the dramatic increase during the second half of the 20th century.The seasonal effect is moderate. One plausible explanation of the effect in relation to pollen allergy may be that the levels of maternal IgG to inhalants are dependent on the pollen season. However, the seasonal effects of IgE to egg in infancy may be attributable to the indoor environment.In spite of the fact that acellular vaccines induced more IgE to pertussis toxin and that the Th2-type cytokines increased more than Thl-type cytokines after acellular pertussis vaccines, these vaccines did not significantly increase the risk of allergic disease in the children. Acellular vaccines are therefore recommended owing to their documented safety as well as effectiveness. All in all, several risk factors for allergic diseases have been found but none of them is strong enough to explain the increase over the last few decades.


Through the development of the NSW node of the Australian Integrated Marine Observing System (NSW-IMOS). A mooring array of 4 moorings has been developed off the coast of Sydney, Australia, providing more than 2 years of timeseries data on the Sydney shelf. Parameters measured include velocity and temperature, salinity, fluorescence, dissolved oxygen and turbidity. This moored timeseries data complements the more than 70 year time series (since 1942) of physical sampling at the Port Hacking (Sydney, Australia) 50 m and 100 m sites, by providing spatial and temporal context. In this paper we investigate the relationship between the monthly vertical CTD profiles and the high temporal resolution moored timeseries, specifically the sub-monthly variability in the temperature and salinity observations. For the first time we have a timeseries of optical signals at two sites which can be used to give spatial and temporal context to the monthly biogeochemical and phytoplankton record from the physical samples. We assess the significance of sub monthly variability relative to the annual signal. We also identify issues with the optical signals obtained from the Wetlabs WQMS that appear as a result of moving to an operational phase of the program where instruments are rotated frequently.


The COVID-19 pandemic has largely impacted college students as they reported experiencing increased workload, stress, and fatigue in the remote learning setup, which could potentially affect student learning and academic performance. This study investigated the experiences of 3rd year Industrial Engineering students at the University of the Philippines Diliman in the remote learning setup for the 2nd Semester of the Academic Year 2021-2022. The study measured students' perceived workload (PWL), perceived stress (PS) and stress symptoms experienced, perceived fatigue (PF), and perceived academic performance weekly throughout the semester. Participant demographics and weekly activities were documented. Fifty-five (55) students completed the 17-week study with questionnaires administered through Qualtrics. The results indicate that the perceptions of workload, stress, fatigue and academic performance differed significantly between weeks in the semester, as well as between the participants' sex. Hours spent by students on different activities during the semester were shown to significantly affect their perceived workload, stress, fatigue, and academic performance. Finally, the perceived workload correlated with perceived stress and perceived fatigue, which were also significantly correlated with the student's perceived academic performance.


The neodymium substitution in yttrium iron garnet induces a large enhancement of the Faraday rotation although the magnetic moment of the Nd3+ ion in yttrium iron garnet is very small. A detailed theoretical analysis of both magnetic and magneto-optical (MO) properties in NdxY3-xFe5O12 using the quantum theory is developed. The intra-ionic electric dipole transitions between the 4f3 and 4f25d configuration split states are studied taking into account the spin-orbit, crystal field and super-exchange interaction perturbations. For the excited configuration, the coupling scheme of Yanase is extended to the Nd3+ ion. A good agreement between experimental and calculated values is obtained for the temperature dependence of both the magnetic moment and Faraday rotation, and the MO resonance frequencies. Attention is paid to the mixing of the ground state multiplets. It is concluded that the Faraday rotation is well described by the intra-ionic electric dipole transition model and is unambiguously of the paramagnetic type.


The density-of-states effective masses versus composition are calculated. The comparison between density-of-states effective mass and reverse mobility show that the variation of the mobility should be governed by the change in the effective mass.


This research sought to explore, understand and interpret community support for mega events in Cape Town, South Africa. Mega events have become popular because of their universal appeal, grandiose nature and capacity to engender lasting legacies that offer the host community an opportunity to unite in celebration, generate international exposure and develop the locale. As a result, developed nations are not the only countries seeking mega events: mega events have also become attractive to developing nations such as South Africa. Whilst positive social impacts can influence social unification, wellbeing and community development, negative social impacts can cause social division and marginalisation of community members. Those negative experiences influence event criticism and a reduced sense of support. Therefore, a host community's experiences of a mega event can either embolden community support, or encourage a reluctance to support future mega events; thus establishing the significance of community support to the development of mega events. This study undertook to explore community experiences to identify whether insight could show ways to foster support for mega events. The study collected narrative stories from the host community of Green Point. The respondents told stories from their lived experiences, revealing their individual outlooks on mega events. This helped the study to see the different ways that community members perceive the experience of a mega event over time, and the influence on community support. The resultant themes focused on the community's experiences of benefits from the event, also giving insight into their negative experiences. This showed how those experiences affected their feelings, and the influence on community support. The stories detailed the respondents' experiences of togetherness, thus enlightening the importance of a sense of community. The community's experiences of Ubuntu also emerged as significant to the location of Green Point. The data showed the different ways community members have diverse experiences, and their individual perspectives revealed a variety of feelings, including triumph, uncertainty, disappointment and frustration. Nevertheless, the stories demonstrated how the shared experience of a mega event could bring people together to form a sense of community in a particular place. Finally, the study contributed a timeline that takes into account the changing attitudes to mega events over time, and the influence on community support.


The transmissivity of the solar radiation by polyethylene cover used in plastic greenhouses was evaluated in the Central Region of the Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. The study was carried out inside a 10m x 25m greenhouse covered with low density transparent polyethylene with 100µm thickness, located at Federal University of Santa Maria. Incoming global solar radiation inside and outside was measured daily dunng July, 1991 to January, 1992. The effect of polyethylene cover on diffuse solar radiation was determined dunng 1993 year. The average transmissivity of global solar radiation was 56.2% early in the moming and 81.3% at near noonday. Diffuse solar radiation proportion was higher inside than outside the greenhouse and enhanced when water condenses on the inner surface of the film.


European history has no more persistent or troublesome problem than the relation between the Germans and the Slavs. At a time when these peoples have once more had recourse to arms to settle their differences, objective accounts of the underlying forces and issues are especially valuable. Relations between the Czechs and Germans have been treated by English and American historians, but the Polish-German question has not received adequate attention. In view of this, Dr. Tims' study of the organized efforts of German nationalists between 1894 and 1919 to assert German supremacy in the eastern marches is particularly noteworthy.


Due to sensors being distributed in an ad-hoc manner and their ability to sense different environmental conditions, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have become very popular in various real time applications and Internet of Things (IoT). The WSN is widely used in monitoring harsh environments and taking decisions on the basis of collected reports. Clustering in WSNs is a proven technique to avoid redundant transmissions to the sink. This allows for better utilisation of scarce network resources such as energy. Most of the clustering algorithms proposed in the literature involve a high number of message exchanges, which results in unnecessary energy consumption.
This thesis proposes a new cluster head (CH) selection protocol based on the average energy and the location of the nodes. Five different approaches for the CH selection were examined and were statistically analysed: (i) random selection; (ii) selecting the node closest to the arithmetic mean node coordinate; (iii) selecting the node at the medoid coordinate; (iv) selecting the node nearest to the region centre; (v) selecting node nearest the BS. The mean distance of all nodes to their local CH was the dependent variable. Furthermore, three node grouping schemes were further studied and compared to the k-means clustering: (i) all nodes in the same group; (ii) dividing the sensor field into four rectangular quadrants and allocating nodes accordingly; (iii) dividing the sensor field into eight sectors and allocating nodes accordingly. T-Test and one way ANOVA were used for the P-value analysis.
The sleeping mode technique was implemented. The residual energy level was then used as a main factor, for the CH selection. The average energy value and the minimum distance value both became the weighting factors to select the CH. The Assistant Cluster Head (ACH) technique was introduced to the LESMS to act as a backup system in case of the CH power levels reach critical levels or total loss of the CH node .
Finally, a new technique was introduced to perform a periodic CH health check-up to monitors the energy level of the CH. Simulations were performed using MATLAB and Network Simulator 2 (NS2). Results show that selecting the node closest to the arithmetic mean as CH has outcome other approaches. Also, the sensor field dividing scheme has a shorter distance of all the nodes compared to the k-mean. The LESMS, under a mixture of workload environments resulted in low power consumption, low delay, low packet drop, and low control overhead. It also showed high throughput, high packet delivery ratio (PDR) and an increase in the total residual energy.


Patients with hereditary hemochromatosis (HC) may present a plenty of clinical symptoms, thus are referred to various specialists and may prone a significant diagnostic dillema. The molecular basis of hemochromatosis is more complex than expected. In 1996 HFE gene was identified and its main mutations (C282Y and H63D) were described as well as their high frequency in population of European descent. Them: Most patients with clinical symptoms of hemochromatosis are homozygous for C282Y but it is also clear that some families are linked to rarer conditions, named "non-HFE hemochromatosis". Between 2000-2004 other genes involved in iron homeostasis were intensively studied, leading to recognition of hepcidin (HAMP) - the most important iron hormone, hemojuvelin (HJV), transferin receptor 2 (TfR2) and ferroportin. Recent findings led to novel hypothesis on potential digenic modes of inheritance or the involvement of modifier genes. Hepcidin plays a central role in mobilization of iron, HFE, TfR2 and HJV playing a modulating role in its production, related to the body's iron status. It has also been demonstrated that HAMP negatively regulates cellular iron efflux by affecting the ferroportin cell surface availability. The result of such a wide investigations is OMIM classification of hereditaty hemochromatosis, typing four types of the disease.


Carbon fiber glass fiber reinforced plastic (CFGFRP) is used in concrete structures as a reinforcement material. Appropriate materials design indicates that CFGFRP should be a hybrid of a conductive material with a small ultimate elongation value and an insulating material with a large ultimate elongation value. In the present study, we evaluated three types of carbon fiber tows used in CFGFRP composites. We observed a very clear and significant change in electrical resistance at the transition point where carbon fiber tows fractured, and found that this point could be easily controlled through the use of carbon fibers with different ultimate elongation values. The electrical resistance characteristics of CFGFRP-reinforced concrete change along with changing loads. Furthermore, a permanent residual electrical resistance could be observed after the removal of load, and its change was dependent on the maximum load applied. The information on the fracture position was obtained by the arrangement of the CFGFRP composites. Monitoring changes in electrical resistance during and after loading is thus a promising method for anticipating the fracture of CFGFRP-reinforced concrete.


Heart disease is increasing rapidly due to number of reasons. If we predict cardiac arrest (dangerous conditions of heart) in the early stages, it will be very helpful to cured this disease. Although doctors and health centres collect data daily, but mostly are not using machine learning and pattern matching techniques to extract the knowledge that can be very useful in prediction. Bioinformatics is the real world application of machine learning to extract patterns from the datasets using several data mining techniques. In this research paper, data and attributes are taken from the UCI repository. Attribute extraction is very effective in mining information for the prediction. By utilizing this, various patterns can be derived to predict the heart disease earlier. In this paper, we enlighten the number of techniques in Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The accuracy is calculated and visualized such as ANN gives 94.7% but with Principle Component Analysis (PCA) accuracy rate improve to 97.7%.


Among the tools available to implement the collaborative production of knowledge in organizations, the use of wikis has been gaining momentum and showing a low-cost and high efficiency. However, some difficulties still arise when attempting to introduce this kind of technology in an organization. In addition to technological limitations, the cultural issues inherent in companies can also origin problems and promising projects can be abandoned without achieving all the objectives planned. In this work, we study the motives, challenges as well as the more common problems that appear during the wiki implantation process in an organization and the purposed solutions on the literature. The main objective is to identify forms for the wiki to become a tool that everyone can use in the organization and identify the best practices related, so that the project of creating a functional wiki for an organization can aspire to befall a success and not simply abandoned.


For several years the BBC has been using speaker-independent speech recognition to assist television subtitling and dramatically reduce the time taken for a skilled subtitler to complete a programme. This paper describes recent developments in this technology. Our new system for robust generation of subtitles for live television is also introduced. This system uses speaker-specific speech recognition and novel networking software to allow subtitlers to work from home or other remote locations whilst permitting straightforward handovers between subtitlers or television services. This was an invited paper published by the Technological Advancement Organization of Japan in the Proceedings of the TAO Workshop on Universal Design for Information, Communication and Broadcasting Technologies, Tokyo, 7 June 2003


The bacterial tRNALys-specific PrrC-anticodon nuclease efficiently cleaved an anticodon stem-loop (ASL) oligoribonucleotide containing the natural modified bases, suggesting this region harbors the specificity determinants. Assays of ASL analogs indicated that the 6-threonylcarbamoyl adenosine modification (t6A37) enhances the reactivity. The side chain of the modified wobble base 5-methylaminomethyl-2-thiouridine (mnm5s2U34) has a weaker positive effect depending on the context of other modifications. The s2U34 modification apparently has none and the pseudouridine (Ψ39) was inhibitory in most modification contexts. GC-rich but not IC-rich stems abolished the activity. Correlating the reported structural effects of the base modifications with their effects on anticodon nuclease activity suggests preference for substrates where the anticodon nucleotides assume a stacked A-RNA conformation and base pairing interactions in the stem are destabilized. Moreover, the proposal that PrrC residue Asp287 contacts mnm5s2U34 was reinforced by the observations that the mammalian tRNALys-3 wobble base 5-methoxycarbonyl methyl-2-thiouridine (mcm5s2U) is inhibitory and that the D287H mutant favors tRNALys-3 overEscherichia coli tRNALys. The detection of this mutation and ability of PrrC to cleave the isolated ASL suggest that anticodon nuclease may be used to cleave tRNALys-3 primer molecules annealed to the genomic RNA template of the human immunodeficiency virus.


Purpose The quality of cerebral microperfusion (CM) is strongly related to vessel occlusion location and the robustness of arterial intracranial collaterals (IC) in patients with acute ischemic stroke due to large vessel occlusion (AIS-LVO). The venous microcirculation profile (VMP) may more accurately reflect tissue perfusion compared to arterial IC, but it is unclear to what extent the venous CM profile is affected by arterial clot localization. We determined, if the arterial vessel occlusion localizations predict VMP profile in AIS-LVO patients. Materials and Methods We performed a multicenter retrospective cohort study of consecutive patients who underwent thrombectomy for AIS-LVO treatment. Patient details were obtained from prospectively maintained stroke databases and the electronic medical record. Baseline CT angiography was used to localize vessel occlusion, which was dichotomized into proximal (internal carotid artery and proximal M1) and distal (distal M1 and M2) occlusions. The primary outcome measure was VMP, which was determined on baseline CTA by the cortical vein opacification score (COVES). COVES for the vein of Labbe, sphenoparietal sinus, and superficial middle cerebral vein were scored as: 0, not visible; 1, moderate opacification; and 2, full opacification. Results 374 patients met inclusion criteria. 196 patients (52%) had a proximal occlusion and 178 patients (48%) had a distal occlusion. Median COVES was 1 (range 0–5) for proximal occlusion and 3 (range 0–6) for distal occlusion patients. Mann-Whitney-U tests indicated a significant difference between proximal and distal occlusions (p Conclusion The distinct arterial clot localization in AIS-LVO patients affects the cortical venous microperfusion profile. Venous microperfusion was found to be impaired in patients with proximal versus distal vessel occlusions. Disclosures T. Faizy: None. R. Kabiri: None. M. Leipzig: None. G. Broocks: None. S. Christensen: None. F. Flottmann: None. M. Lansberg: None. G. Albers: None. J. Fiehler: None. M. Wintermark: None. J. Heit: None.


Continuous extrusion of metals using Conform™ machine [1] is a well-known process which has been used in industry for several decades as a technique for extrusion of soft metals (Al, Cu) and their alloys. New developments in continuous extrusion of metals include its use for high-strength materials and a utilization of its beneficial side effect, which is the microstructure refinement. This work describes 3D FEM modelling of continuous extrusion of high-strength materials (titanium) using the finite element method software DEFORM-3D [2]. The model traces temperature and strain fields which are then compared to experimental data obtained from continuous extrusion of titanium stock. The temperature of the wheel, the temperature of the titanium feedstock and the circumferential speed of the wheel have substantial impact on the entire forming process. The goal is to find adequate boundary conditions to make the mathematical model fit the real-world process as much as possible and to allow its optimization.


In this study, the investigator tired to find the correlation of hopelessness with four levels of depression, i.e. normal, mild, moderate and severe depression. Data was collected from a sample of 200 adolescents using two psychological tests and were evaluated as per norms mentioned in the manual; the sample was categorized according to the level of depression. Then correlation between hopelessness and the various levels of depression was calculated using Pearson's product moment correlation which concluded as, there exists a positive correlation between the hopelessness and mild, moderate and severe depression. In other words with the increase in hopelessness, the depression also increases and vice versa.


Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ocse_pubs Part of the Architectural Engineering Commons, Chemistry Commons, Clinical Psychology Commons, Construction Engineering Commons, Engineering Commons, Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons, Landscape Architecture Commons, Mathematics Commons, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Commons, and the Physics Commons


This article examines how compensation type and failure type explain the recovery effect of compensation, using a meta-analysis (Study 1) and an experiment (Study 2). Drawing on resource exchange theory, we propose new classifications for both compensation and failure type and find three major results. First, consistent with our matching hypothesis, the strongest recovery effect is generally observed when compensation represents a resource similar to the failure it is supposed to offset, that is, immediate monetary compensation for a monetary failure, exchange for a flawed product, reperformance for a failed service, and psychological compensation for lack of attention. Surprisingly, lack of attention may also be rectified by the other compensation types. Second, consistent with our intertemporal choice hypothesis, immediate monetary compensation is generally more effective than delayed monetary compensation. Yet, this effect also varies with failure type. Third, resource-based classifications explain the recovery effect of compensation better than current classifications of compensation and failure type. As a theoretical contribution, the resource-based classifications help to explain the fluctuating effect sizes of compensation reported in prior research. From a managerial point of view, practitioners can choose the appropriate compensation type for a failure, one that repays in kind what customers have lost. As a result, companies achieve stronger recovery effects without additional costs.


The purpose of this paper is to analyze and comment upon recent developments in the measurement and conceptualization of attitudes toward play, or "game orientation." Recent scholarly work has become critical of the traditional measurement instrument, the Webb Scale, focusing primarily on the issues of situational ambiguity and unidimensional artificiality. These critiques are analyzed in comparison with the conceptual and measurement approach offered by an alternative instrument, the Game Orientation Scale. It is concluded that the case in favor of the GOS and its Likert format is not as strong as it first appears. Until further research is conducted, the two competing approaches should be treated as of comparable methodological quality. Substantive and methodological recommendations for future research are offered.


Summary from only given. In recent years, many studies of the electronic states in self-assembled quantum dots (SAQDs) using single dot spectroscopy have been reported. PL spectra measured by single dot spectroscopy show discrete and sharp peaks which indicate 0D confinement of carriers. At higher excitation powers, PL spectra show the interesting phenomena where we see many peaks to be emerged. Delkel et al. (1998) calculated the excited states due to exciton interactions and the results corresponded well to PL spectra measured at different excitation powers. Landin et al. (1998) also reported the similar phenomena. However, these reports assume the ideal density of stares in SAQDs, and more precise measurements are still needed. In the paper, we performed single dot PL and PLE spectroscopy at various excitation powers. These results clearly demonstrate carrier interaction in SAQDs. We show the excitation power dependence of non-resonant PL spectra from InGaAs/GaAs SAQDs. This sample is island-etched, therefore the number of QDs excited is limited to about ten.


Abstract A new taxon of nanhsiungchelyid turtle, Jiangxichelys ganzhouensis n. g. n. sp., is described on the basis of a complete shell from the latest Cretaceous of Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, China. It is close to Hanbodgemys, but different from the latter in having a boot-shaped second marginal scute reaching the first vertebral scute, a larger first suprapygal, a large fifth vertebral extending onto the tenth peripheral, narrower lateral marginal scutes and a narrower posterior plastral lobe. This discovery adds a new element to the scanty record of nanhsiungchelyids from southern China and illustrates the diversity of the family in that area.


In this paper we study the behaviour of a micro-sized semiconductor device by means of a hybrid model of hydrodynamic equations. First of all, taking into account the quantum effects in the semiconductor device, we derive a new model called the hybrid quantum hydrodynamic model (H-QHD) coupled with the Poisson equation for electric potential. In particular, we write the Bohm potential in a revised form. This new potential is derived heuristically by assuming that the energy of the electrons depends on the charge density n and on ∇n just in a restricted part of the device domain, whereas the remaining parts are modeled classically. Namely, the device is designed with some parts that feel the quantum effects and some parts do not. The main target is to investigate the existence of the stationary solutions for the hybrid quantum hydrodynamic model. Since the quantum effect is regionally degenerate, this will also makes the working equation regionally degenerate regarding its ellipticity, and the corresponding solutions are weak only. This paper seems the first framework to treat the equation with regionally degenerate ellipticity. In order to prove the existence of such weak solutions, we first construct a sequence of smooth QHD solutions, then prove that such a sequence weakly converges and its limit is just our desired weak solution for the hybrid QHD problem. The Debye length limit is also studied. Indeed, we prove that the weak solutions of the hybrid QHD weakly converge to their targets as the spacial Debye length vanishes. Finally, we carry out some numerical simulations for a simple device, which also confirm our theoretical results.


My aim in this paper is to raise and discuss some philosophical questions about Virtual Reality (VR). The most fundamental problem concerns the ontological nature of VR: is it real or fictional? Is VR comparable to illusions, hallucinations, dreams, or worlds of fiction? Are traditional philosophical categories at all sufficient to give us understanding of the phenomenon of VR? In approaching these questions, I shall employ possible world semantics and logical theories of perception and imagination as my philosophical tools. My main conclusion is that VR is comparable to a 3-D picture which can be seen from the inside.


The relationship of serum albumin at baseline to mortality, and longitudinal changes of serum albumin were investigated in a 10-year longitudinal study of 421 (197 men, 224 women) community residents aged 69-71. The 10-year survival rate was the lowest in the first quartile of serum albumin at baseline, followed by the second quartile, and third and fourth quartiles (p less than 0.05). In both sexes, 10-year survival curves did not differ between the group with diseases or disabilities at baseline or over time and the group without them.


Evaluation is one of the major open problems in computational creativity research. Existing evaluation methods, either focusing on system performance or on user interaction, do not fully capture the important aspects of these systems as cultural artifacts. In this position paper, we examine existing evaluation methods in the area of computational narrative, and identify several important properties of stories and reading that have so far been overlooked in empirical studies. Our preliminary work recognizes empirical literary studies as a valuable resource to develop a more balanced evaluation approach for computational narrative systems.


Social network sites are present in a constant way in society. The manner people write in social network sites has their dynamism because of the speed information are replicated, the reach publications may have, network sites' peculiarities and the seek for fame. This generates linguistic constructions that are not in accord with the standard norm of the Portuguese language. This quantitative work aims to relate the use of colloquial constructions on Twitter with user's popularity, posts popularity and other specific factors of this social network. This analysis was made using regular expressions, dictionaries, and frequency distribution to identify colloquial constructions. A support system was developed to perform analysis, management, and mining.


Radiation-generated point defects in solids often experience dynamic annealing—diffusion and interaction processes after the thermalization of collision cascades. The length scale of dynamic annealing can be described in terms of the characteristic defect diffusion length (Ld). Here, we propose to measure Ld by a pulsed beam method. Our approach is based on the observation of enhanced defect production when, for individual ion pulses, the average separation between adjacent damage regions is smaller than Ld. We obtain a value for Ld of ∼30 nm for float-zone Si crystals bombarded at room temperature with 500 keV Ar ions.


In the decoding of received messages to transmitted messages, one of the usual assumptions is that the transmitted messages are sent with equal relative frequencies. In many practical situations this assumption is not valid. This paper is concerned with the investigation of the effects of removing the assumption of uniform input, on the optimum assignment of the received messages to a specific set of transmitted messages. The results show that if the deviation from uniformity is not too extreme, the optimum assignment will be one of the possible optimum assignments under the uniform input assumption. A measure of deviation from uniformity and a criterion for extreme deviation is included in the paper.


German Home Towns is a very forward-looking book. I say that not because it proved so influential—although it certainly had a profound impact on my generation of historians. My point is more prosaic, namely that German Home Towns occupies a set point in time and social milieu, the inaugural moment of an attenuated phase of stability for a peculiar type of human community in central Europe. That moment, of course, is 1648; the milieu is that of walled and privileged towns—large and differentiated enough for self-sufficiency in most economic functions, but not so large or so differentiated as to generate the degrees of stratification and anonymity that characterized larger commercial or manufacturing cities. In contrast to metropolitan centers, "home towns" embraced all inhabitants in a web of face-to-face relations, at once integrating, enabling, and controlling all inhabitants through guilds and the political systems built around them. Usually, almost all hometown inhabitants were citizens, too—again in contrast to larger cities, with their substrates of noncitizen residents. From the vantage of 1648, and within the stream of early modern German history, German Home Towns peers into a future of confrontation with "movers and doers"—those vanguards of the "general estate," as Walker called them, who trampled idiosyncrasy, leveled difference, and, with some help from Napoleon, replaced both local corporatism and the imperial "incubator" with provincial and national systems of general, liberal delegation.


While the number of mobile apps published by app stores keeps on increasing, the quality of these apps varies widely. Unfortunately, for many apps, end-users continue experiencing bugs and crashes once installed on their mobile device. Crashes are annoying for end-users, but they denitely are for app developers who need to reproduce the crashes as fast as possible beforefinding the root cause of the reported issues. Given the heterogeneity in hardware, mobile platform releases, and types of users, the reproduction step currently is one of the major challenges for app developers. This paper introduces MoTiF, a crowdsourced approach to support app developers in automatically reproducing context-sensitive crashes faced by end-users in the wild. In particular, by analyzing recurrent patterns in crash data, the shortest sequence of events reproducing a crash is derived, and turned into a test suite. We evaluate MoTiF on concrete crashes that were crowdsourced or randomly generated on 5 Android apps, showing that MoTiF can reproduce existing crashes effectively.


Fabrizio Nevola considers the form, function, and significance of shops and the other commercial spaces contained in the ground floors of the Renaissance palaces of Siena, Florence, and Rome. Home Shopping: Urbanism, Commerce, and Palace Design in Renaissance Italy also investigates the social interaction between the private environment of the home and the public space of the street. Contrary to much that has been written about the palaces of the fifteenth century, their designers did not abandon botteghe (shops), nor more broadly construed commercial functions. The resulting buildings are hybrid structures in which the proud individual facades of private patrons9 palaces were configured to serve the needs of trade. Today, urban space is largely experienced as a succession of shop fronts, and commercial activities overwhelm all other functions. Early modern Italy was not much different.


Twenty-two aromatic derivatives bearing a chlorine atom and a different chain in the para or meta position were prepared and evaluated for their in vitro antifungal activity against the phytopathogenic fungi Botrytis cinerea and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. The results showed that maximum inhibition of the growth of these fungi was exhibited for enantiomers S and R of 1-(4'-chlorophenyl)-2-phenylethanol (3 and 4). Furthermore, their antifungal activity showed a clear structure-activity relationship (SAR) trend confirming the importance of the benzyl hydroxyl group in the inhibitory mechanism of the compounds studied. Additionally, a multiobjective optimization study of the global antifungal profile of chlorophenyl derivatives was conducted in order to establish a rational strategy for the filtering of new fungicide candidates from combinatorial libraries. The MOOP-DESIRE methodology was used for this purpose providing reliable ranking models that can be used later.


The Trusted Computing Group (TCG) has issued several specifications to enhance the architecture of common computing platforms by means of new functionalities, amongst others the (binary) attestation to verify the integrity of a (remote) computing platform/application. However, as pointed out recently, the binary attestation has some shortcomings, in particular when used for applications: First, it reveals information about the configuration of a platform (hardware and software) or application. This can be misused to discriminate certain configurations (e.g., operating systems) and the corresponding vendors, or be exploited to mount attacks. Second, it requires the verifier to know all possible ``trusted'' configurations of all platforms as well as managing updates and patches that change the configuration. Third, it does not necessarily imply that the platform complies with desired (security) properties. A recent proposal to overcome these problems is to transform the binary attestation into property-based attestation, which requires to only attest whether a platform or an application fulfills the desired (security) requirements without revealing the specific software or/and hardware configuration.Based on previous works, we propose a concrete efficient property-based attestation protocol within an abstract model for the main functionalities provided by TCG-compliant platforms. We prove the security of this protocol under the strong RSA assumption and the discrete logarithm assumption in the random oracle model. Our scheme allows blind verification and revocation of mappings between properties and configurations.


Prescription request applications (apps) have changed the way consumers can obtain prescription-only medications. However, there is a lack of research surrounding such apps and their potential risks to consumers. We conducted an Australian study to (1) identify and characterise prescription request apps available in Australia and (2) assess whether prescription request apps in Australia adhere to guidelines for safe prescribing. Three online platforms (iOS App Store, Google Play store and Google search engine) were searched using 14 different search terms. Prescription request apps were identified based on pre-defined inclusion criteria. To determine whether the prescription request apps adhere to a safe prescribing framework, five medications were selected, and their corresponding consultation questionnaires were assessed against the Australian National Prescribing Service MedicineWise 12 core competencies for safe prescribing. A total of seven prescription request apps were identified. Assessment of the prescription request apps revealed that none of the apps provided prescribers with sufficient information to meet all the competencies required for safe prescribing; rather, they inconsistently adhered to the safe prescribing framework. Thus, consumers and healthcare professionals should consider the implications and safety concerns of obtaining medications via prescription request apps.


This paper assesses agricultural household-firm unit models to determine a useful typology for agricultural policy assessment that draws upon their use. Both standard and bargaining models for analyzing household decisions, including production, consumption, labor, credit, fertility and child schooling, intergenerational transfer, among other key behaviors of households are discussed, as well as data and estimation issues often encountered with household models. Relevant dimensions of a country or region typology are then suggested, focusing on (1) the extent to which markets, particularly labor markets, are perfect, missing or mixed; (2) relevant intra-household and key demographic considerations; and (3) the differentiation of particular household-firm units that are particularly disadvantaged and may be of the most critical policy concern.


Patients with symptomatic endometriosis of the colon and distal small bowel usually present with crampy abdominal pain, pelvic and rectal pain, constipation, and dyspareunia. Superficial disease can be easily resected laparoscopically with scissors. Deeper lesions require full-thickness resection and closure of the bowel. Occasionally deep, large, or multiple lesions will require segmental resection for adequate control of the disease. Five patients with intestinal endometriosis underwent attempted laparoscopic segmental colon resection. Two patients required conversion to open laparotomy because of difficulty with the anastomosis. No operative complications or deaths occurred in this group. Those patients undergoing laparoscopic colectomy showed return of bowel function within 24 to 48 h and were discharged home on postoperative day 4.


: Erythrocytes loaded internally with FITC-BSA can be readily visualized in the microcirculation by using a television camera and a fluorescence microscope. Flow properties of the erythrocytes and their adherence to the vascular endothelium or erythrophagocytic cells can be observed. This procedure should also be useful to delineate the microcirculation under circumstances where infused free FITC-BSA can escape into the interstitial tissue.


Okazaki, Tuneko (Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo.), Jack L. Stominger, and Reiji Okazaki. Thymidine diphosphate-l-rhamnose metabolism in smooth and rough strains of Escherichia coli and Salmonella weslaco. J. Bacteriol. 86:118–124. 1963.—Logarithmic-phase cells of Escherichia coli O18, which have rhamnose in their lipopolysaccharide, contained only traces of thymidine diphosphate (TDP)-l-rhamnose. Extracts of this organism, however, catalyzed the synthesis of TDP-l-rhamnose from TDP-d-glucose. On the other hand, cells of E. coli R44, a rough variant of this strain which contains no rhamnose in its lipopolysaccharide, contained a large amount of TDP-l-rhamnose. Like the smooth form, this organism was able to synthesize TDP-l-rhamnose. The rough variant is apparently a mutant blocked in some manner in utilization of TDP-l-rhamnose for lipopolysaccharide synthesis. Similar studies of smooth (rhamnose-containing) and rough (rhamnose-lacking) forms of Salmonella weslaco showed that both organisms can synthesize TDP-l-rhamnose from TDP-d-glucose. In contrast to the smooth and rough forms of E. coli O18, only traces of TDP-l-rhamnose were detected in extracts of both forms. A second thymidine diphosphosugar compound isolated from E. coli R44 is similar or identical to TDP-X, previously isolated from E. coli Y-10.


Since the first oil crisis in early 70-ties, the electrochemists strive to develop a chemical power source able to replace the liquid fossil fuels in traffic. Noticeable success was achieved in the decade 1980-1990. Thanks to a new class of materials – intercalate compounds, a new battery called lithium-ion battery was commercialized, having much higher energy density than its predecessors. In this work the origin of its high energy density is explained. The emergence of new battery supported effectively the expansion of use and the development of portable electronics - mobile phones, lap-top calculators tablets etc. Since 2010, connected to the global intentions to prevent climate changes, the batteries received the role of the energy sources of electric cars. Recently, connected to the rising use of renewable energy sources known to suffer of changeable intensity, batteries take also the role of grid energy storage, having the function to smooth the disturbances in grid voltage. All this caused huge rise in batteries usage, and poses the question about the availability of global resources of lithium, cobalt and nickel needed for battery production. The recent forecast is that these resources will be exhausted very soon in the decade 2030-2040. Thus, there is a strong need to search for new battery types, to maintain, at least partly, available lithium resources for more demanding applications. As a part of solutions having real perspective, the development of sodium-ion battery is currently in progress. In that sense, some perspective anode and cathode materials were considered.


The board of trustees of medicine and food throughout Indonesia was keeping a routine check on cosmetics that ran from October 2014 to September 2015, there are 30 types of cosmetics that contain the dangerous materials of 13 types of cosmetic product and 17 types of domestic production. The harmful substances identified in such cosmetics as K3 and K10 red dye (Rhodamin B), retinoic acid, mercury and hydroquinine. Hydroquinone is a supposition or a device that ACTS to treat hyperpigmentation in the outer part of the body as skin. Hyperpigmentation is the process by which skin is exposed to such areas as pimples, scars, or brown spots from frequent exposure to sunlight. Excessive use of hydroquinone can cause ookronosis, namely the skin has nodules like sand and bluish-brown in color, people with ookronosis will feel the skin like burning and itching.  This type of research is descriptive, which aims to describe and describe the presence or absence of hydroquinone in facial whitening creams. The method used for laboratory testing is qualitatively using the thin layer chromatography method. Sampling using purposive sampling method, namely sampling where the sample taken is a cream that does not have a permit from the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency. From the results of research that has been carried out on three face whitening creams circulating in the Central Tompasobaru market and do not have a permit from the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency, one of which was declared positive for containing Hydroquinone, it is shown from the results of a qualitative test using the thin layer chromatography method which has the same value. with a standard solution of hydroquinone, which is Rf = 0.84 and under UV light 254 has a blackish fluorescence.


In this paper, we investigate the problem of identifying lossy links in the interior of the Internet by passively observing the end-to-end performance of existing traffic between a server and its clients. This is in contrast to the previous work on network tomography (e.g., [1]) that has been based on active probing. The key advantage of a passive approach is that it does not introduce wasteful traffic which might perturb the object of inference, i.e., the link loss rates. Moreover, our techniques depend only on knowing the number of lost and successful packets sent to each client rather than the exact loss sequence required by previous techniques such as [1]. While accuracy of link loss rate inference may consequently suffer, our techniques can still pinpoint the trouble spots in the network (e.g., highly lossy links). We have developed three techniques for passive network tomography: Random Sampling, Linear Optimization, and Bayesian Inference using Gibbs Sampling. We have evaluated these techniques using simulations and traces gathered at a busy Web server. In this paper, we focus on the Gibbs Sampling technique; more information on the three techniques appears in [3].


This paper uses my home institution, the School of Architecture and Building at Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia, as a case study of sustainability in context. Reflectively and critically it looks at three areas: the Waterfront Campus which houses the School of Architecture and Building; the underpinning pedagogy of the current curriculum in the School of Architecture and Building; and the challenges of implementing an integrated holistic transdisciplinary approach to ESD (variously defined as ecologically sustainable design or environmentally sustainable development) in the School of Architecture and Building. This paper examines: Where is it taught? What is taught? What guides the teaching? How are they related? and What would be a better way of teaching? The School of Architecture and Building is located in a restored, recycled and redeveloped woolstore, originally built during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, overlooking Corio Bay. As a living example of adaptive reuse it invites consideration of the ongoing cultural, social and civic values of heritage, and demonstrates aspects of sustainability, and unsustainability, in practice to students who use it every day. An exploration of the underpinning pedagogy and raison d'etre of the current curriculum in the School of Architecture and Building reveals an additive rather than an integrated approach to sustainability. The architecture profession's approach to ESD will be examined through the RAIA's policies and their impact on practice. The nexus between practice and teaching is revealed through the accreditation process. Traditionally aspects of ESD have been taught as separate units of study within the curriculum. This paper argues for a significant transformation in our thinking, in order to affect a change in our teaching/learning approach, such that current social, environmental and economic issues are addressed holistically. In a climate where we are doing "too little, too late" it signals a profound shift in the way we must address the issue of sustainability. Conference theme: teaching in architecture