The pre-reforms period of the Nigeria's Corporate Affairs Commission (C.A.C) was characterized by lack of standing system of tracking of companies' compliance and general gross inefficiency in the delivery of services by the Commission. In 2001 CAC experienced reform and re-organization processes; meant to make it more responsive to discharging its regulatory role and achieving good corporate governance practices and efficiency in service delivery. The question is, has these processes strengthened the quality of services delivered by the Commission? The objectives of this paper are to highlight the components of the re-organization exercise of C.A.C and see how the reform has impacted on the Commissions' performance. To achieve these, the paper employs the use of both empirical and secondary sources of data for analysis. The Service Quality Model was used as theoretical guide to the study. It was observed that the Commissions' reform and re-organization has impacted in computerization of company registration process, improved human resource quality and even the introduction of new services. The paper, therefore, recommends that for good corporate governance practices to be achieved in Nigeria, the C.A.C should continue to strengthen its compliance and enforcement processes and procedures and also ensure that all the registered companies are continually monitored and sanctions enforced on defaulters. When compliance and enforcement mechanisms are reinforced, the Nigeria's C.A.C would raise the confidence of investors and general public. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s4p110


Large European airports have now been forced to close several times due to the disruption of their protected area by drones. The biggest incident in terms of damage and restrictions clearly includes the attack of 19 and 21 December 2018 on one of the largest airports in Europe, London - Gatwick. All air traffic was interrupted, and flights were canceled and postponed. It was only a matter of time before drone technology was used by terrorist organizations and other criminals for their attacks. The article discusses the dangers that drones can cause. It describes the various basic categories of drones, their historical development, and the beginnings of the misuse of drones by terrorist organizations. The types currently used by the armed forces in the war in Ukraine are also mentioned. Furthermore, the article deals with systems that aim to eliminate this threat and which are available to companies and individuals financially. Thus, drone defense systems were selected and compared with a detailed description of their detection and destruction methods. The article concludes that a modern anti-drone defense for soft targets has already been developed and a set of recommendations for their combination and implementation follows.


A parental selection approach based on genomic prediction has been developed to help plant breeders identify a set of superior parental lines from a candidate population before conducting field trials. A classical parental selection approach based on genomic prediction usually involves truncation selection, i.e., selecting the top fraction of accessions on the basis of their genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs). However, truncation selection inevitably results in the loss of genomic diversity during the breeding process. To preserve genomic diversity, the selection of closely related accessions should be avoided during parental selection. We thus propose a new index to quantify the genomic diversity for a set of candidate accessions, and analyze two real rice (Oryza sativa L.) genome datasets to compare several selection strategies. Our results showed that the pure truncation selection strategy produced the best starting breeding value but the least genomic diversity in the base population, leading to less genetic gain. On the other hand, strategies that considered only genomic diversity resulted in greater genomic diversity but less favorable starting breeding values, leading to more genetic gain but unsatisfactorily performing recombination inbred lines (RILs) in progeny populations. Among all strategies investigated in this study, compromised strategies, which considered both GEBVs and genomic diversity, produced the best or second-best performing RILs mainly because these strategies balance the starting breeding value with the maintenance of genomic diversity.


In this work a first human-sized Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) scanner designed and specifically engineered for experimental (cardio)vascular interventions is presented. Based on a novel open design implementing the so called traveling wave MPI approach, the open iMPI system provides imaging of Tracers based on superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) with high sensitivity, optimal patient handling and would even allow hybrid imaging of magnetic tracers within gold standard x-ray based interventional angiography systems. In initial experiments, the feasibility of a human-sized interventional MPI scanner with real-time data reconstruction and image visualization is demonstrated.


Queen bee acid or 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA) is one of the main and unique lipid components (fatty acids) in royal jelly. Previous studies have demonstrated that 10-HDA has various pharmacological and biological activities. The present study aims to evaluate the anti-tumor effects of 10-HDA alone and combined with cyclophosphamide (CP), as an alkylating agent which widely used for the treatment of neoplastic cancers, against the Ehrlich solid tumors (EST) in mice. Methods: A total of 72 female Swiss albino mice were divided into eight groups. EST mice were treated with 10-HDA (2.5 and 5 mg/kg) alone and combined with CP (25 mg/kg) orally once a day for 2 weeks. Tumor growth inhibition, body weight, the serum level of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and carcinoembryonic antigen tumor (CAE), liver and kidney enzymes, tumor lipid peroxidation (LPO) and nitric oxide (NO), antioxidant enzymes (e.g. glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), catalase enzyme (CAT)), tumor necrosis factor alpha level (TNF-α), and the apoptosis-regulatory genes expression were assessed in tested mice. Results: the findings exhibited that treatment of EST-suffering mice with 10-HDA at the doses of 2.5 and 5 mg/kg especially in combination with CP significantly (p < 0.001) decreased the tumor volume and inhibition rate, tumor markers (AFP and CEA), serum level of liver and kidney, LPO and NO, TNF-α level, as well as the expression level of Bcl-2 in comparison with the mice in the C2 group; while 10-HDA at the doses of 2.5 and 5 mg/kg especially in combination with CP significantly (p < 0.001) improved the level of antioxidant enzymes of GPx, CAT, and SOD and the expression level of caspase-3 and Bax genes. Conclusions: According to the results of the present investigations, 10-HDA at the doses of 2.5 and 5 mg/kg especially in combination with CP showed promising antitumor effects against EST in mice and can be recommended as a new or alternative anticancer agent against tumor; nevertheless, further investigations, particularly in clinical setting, are required to confirm these results.


A field evaluation was carried out, by the Oxford Archaeoiogical Unit (OAU) at Frewin Hall, Oxford, on behalf of Brasenose Coilege, in respect of an application
for planning permission for student accommodation and car parking. The site is in the centre of Oxford, at grid reference SP 512062 In the area of trench 1 there were no archaeological deposits due to the construction of a post-medieval cellar. In trench 2 there were undated features cut into the gravel which were overlaid by earty garden or ploughsoils. These were cut by l3th and
14th century features that may date from the use of the site as the centre of an urban manor and which were overlaid by 14th-century garden soils. The wall of
a substantial building was cut into the l4th-century garden soils. The wall had been robbed. There may have been a parallel wall and the traces of a floor. An l8th-century cellar or large stone lined pit was found in the w of the trench.
18th- and 19th-century floor layers and robber trenches are from more recent buildings. There were 19th-century refuse pits cut into the garden soils and the later buildings.


It has been demonstrated that successful cavotricuspid isthmus ablation of typical atrial flutter combined with atrial fibrillation (AF) sometimes influences the preablation history of paroxysmal AF. However, the effectiveness of only isthmus ablation on AF itself is unclear. Endocardial catheter mapping during induced AF was performed around the tricuspid annulus using duodecapolar clectrode catheters in 39 patients with drug-refractory paroxysmal AF. Isthmus ablation was performed in 16 patients (41%) in whom catheter mapping during AF showed an organized activation pattern around the tricuspid annulus. During a mean follow-up of 12.3 months, isthmus ablation was successful in preventing AF in 12 (75%) patients, 8 without medication and 4 with a previously ineffective drug. This success group had a significantly higher F wave amplitude in lead V1 (0.29+/-0.10 vs 0. 15+/-0.04 mV, p < 0.01), a higher left ventricular ejection fraction (74+/-9 vs 58+/-2%, p < 0.05), and a smaller left atrial dimension (35+/-6 vs 43+/-4 mm, p < 0.05) than the failure group. Isthmus ablation may be effective in preventing paroxysmal AF with an organized activation pattern around the tricuspid annulus. F wave amplitude, left ventricular ejection fraction, and left atrial dimension were significant predictors of success.


PURPOSE: To provide a method and a device for automatically injecting an additive in a fuel tank of a motor vehicle from an onboard additive tank in which the additive can be correctly measured, and freely adjusted, and a mixture of the fuel and the additive which is homogenized to an optimum can be obtained. CONSTITUTION: The quantity of the additive to be withdrawn from an additive tank 101 is determined using an onboard computation unit 102, the additive of thus determined quantity is injected by the pulsed atomization, and the atomizing effect is directly implemented in a liquid volume of the fuel. This pulsed atomization is carried out by controlling a positive-displacement piston pump 112, by the number of strokes of the piston which is automatically determined as a function of the quantity of the additive to be withdrawn. COPYRIGHT: (C)1994,JPO


Focusing on single and multiple post-modification of noun phrase complexity in academic writing, this study adopted Berlage's (2014) types of single and multiple post-modification of noun phrase to investigate the types and distributionof noun phrase on 15 abstracts of accredited local journal and 15 international journal indexed by Scopus. Subjects, objects, and complements are coded manually and then extracted for noun phrases. The findings revealed that both groups of writers heavily relied on noun phrase involving prepositional phrase in single-post modification and noun phrase involving prepositional phrase(s) and coordination(s) in multiple-post modification. This finding may give contribution to EFL teachers and material developers in order to provide information and materials about NP post modifiers that can be used in academic writing.


Type 1 diabetes is a unique disorder, requiring constant and vigilant assessment of glucose levels, food/snacks consumed, activities and exercise, emotions and stress, hormonal influence, and illness. No other diagnosis is as intensive in terms of the "burden" of care that impacts the patient/family physiologically, cognitively, and psychologically. Several Do-It-Yourself (DIY) closed-loop systems currently exist and can provide options for patients and families looking to reduce the burden of type 1 diabetes. However, as the systems are not Food and Drug Administration approved, healthcare providers are faced with the decision of whether to support patients using DIY systems. This manuscript discusses the ethics of choice and patient autonomy from the perspective of patient/family and healthcare provider. A set of proposed guidelines for healthcare providers are also presented for consideration when interacting with a patient or family who desires to use a DIY system to help manage type 1 diabetes.


The study was conducted to assess the level of students' and lecturers' perception to soft skills, identify the difference in the perception of students and lecturers in soft skills and as well identify the difference in the perception of respondents in various colleges of education on the soft skills required of Business Education graduates in Oyo state. Descriptive design of survey type was adopted. The target population for the study were the students and lecturers of Business Education department and two federal and state owned colleges of education in Oyo town were purposively sampled. Forty students in the department of Business Education were randomly selected from each of the three levels in the institutions and ten lecturers were equally selected from each school making a total of 240 students and 20 lecturers. Out of the 240 questionnaires administered, 237 were duly returned. Three research questions were answered and tested at 0.05 level of significance. A questionnaire measuring the perception of students and lecturers was used to gather data from the respondents. Methods of data analysis that were used included frequencies, percentages mean and independent sample t-test. Findings indicate that majority of the students and lecturers are highly perceived on the required soft skills for graduates of Business Education. However, the lecturers had more perception than the students probably due to their level of experience. It was recommended that self-development should be encouraged by the students, schools should introduce acquisition of skills to their curriculum and lecturers should also involve their students in solving uphill tasks in a bid to enhance their practical ability.


Portal hypertension (PHT) often leads to collateralization of blood flow through variceal vessels that shunt blood from the portal to the systemic circulation. Life-threatening bleeding from esophageal and ectopic varices often complicates severe PHT. Increase in PHT occurs during the last stages of the second trimester of pregnancy and is associated with increased risk of PHT bleeding in the later stages of pregnancy. In this report, we present two rare cases of pregnant women with PHT, who had postpartum bleeding from very uncommon sites. The first had a rupture of an intra-abdominal varix and the second had two episodes of bleeding from abdominal wall varices, after two emergent cesarean sections, in two consecutive pregnancies. On the basis of a literature review, we constructed an algorithm that includes instructions on how to handle women with PHT during the various stages of pregnancy and labor.


This article briefly summarizes the extensive information now available, from recent experiments and theoretical models, addressing the enhanced tensile ductility of nanocrystalline (NC) and ultrafine-grained (UFG) metals. Special attention is devoted to the key strategies and procedures developed to concurrently optimize both the strength and tensile ductility of NC and UFG metals with an emphasis on the effects of basic deformation mechanisms, crystallographic structure, chemical composition and the presence of second-phase precipitates.


We propose a novel, fully explainable neural approach to synthesis of combinatorial logic circuits from input-output examples. The carrying advantage of our method is that it readily extends to inductive scenarios, where the set of examples is incomplete but still indicative of the desired behaviour. Our method can be employed for a virtually arbitrary choice of atoms - from logic gates to FPGA blocks - as long as they can be formulated in a differentiable fashion, and consistently yields good results for synthesis of practical circuits of increasing size. In particular, we succeed in learning a number of arithmetic, bitwise, and signal-routing operations, and even generalise towards the correct behaviour in inductive scenarios. Our method, attacking a discrete logical synthesis problem with an explainable neural approach, hints at a wider promise for synthesis and reasoning-related tasks.


Corporate sustainability has become an economic and strategic imperative with the potential to create opportunities and risks for businesses. The tension and possible link between economic sustainability performance (ESP) and non-financial environmental, social, and governance (ESG) sustainability performance have been extensively yet inconclusively debated in business literature. This paper attempts to fill this void by proposing a framework consisting of four integrated strategies of the sustainability theory integration, sustainable shared value creation, continuous performance improvements, and sustainability performance reporting and assurance. Propositions are advanced for each of these four strategies in promoting future sustainability research.


The appropriateness of applying drink driving legislation to motorcycle riding has been questioned as there may be fundamental differences in the effects of alcohol on these two activities. For example, while the distribution of blood alcohol content (BAC) levels among fatally injured male drivers compared to riders is similar, a greater proportion of motorcycle fatalities involve levels in the lower (0 to .10% BAC) range. Several psychomotor and higher-order cognitive skills underpinning riding performance appear to be significantly influenced by low levels of alcohol. For example, at low levels (.02 to .046% BAC), riders show significant increases in reaction time to hazardous stimuli, inattention to the riding task, performance errors such as leaving the roadway and a reduced ability to complete a timed course. It has been suggested that alcohol may redirect riders' focus from higher-order cognitive skills to more physical skills such as maintaining balance. As part of a research program to investigate the potential benefits of introducing a zero, or reduced, BAC for all riders in Queensland regardless of their licence status, the effects of low doses of alcohol on balance ability were investigated in a laboratory setting. The static balance of ten experienced riders was measured while they performed either no secondary task, a visual search task, or a cognitive (arithmetic) task following the administration of alcohol (0; 0.02, and 0.05% BAC). Subjective ratings of intoxication and balance impairment increased in a dose-dependent manner; however, objective measures of static balance were negatively affected only at the .05% BAC dose. Performance on a concurrent secondary visual search task, but not a purely cognitive (arithmetic) task, improved postural stability across all BAC levels. Finally, the .05% BAC dose was associated with impaired performance on the cognitive (arithmetic) task, but not the visual search task, when participants were balancing, but neither task was impaired by alcohol when participants were standing on the floor. Implications for road safety and future 'drink riding' policy considerations are discussed.


AIM
To examine fatigue among testicular cancer patients during the first year after diagnosis.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Fifteen patients treated with orchidectomy (group 1) and 37 treated with orchidectomy plus chemotherapy (group 2) were assessed within 1 month after orchidectomy, and 3 and 12 months later. Fatigue, sociodemographics, anemia, testosterone levels and trait anxiety were assessed.

RESULTS
At TI and T3, the groups reported similar levels of fatigue. Increased fatigue was found in group 2 at T2. A continuing decrease in fatigue was found in group 1. At T3, patients reported similar levels of fatigue as healthy individuals. Older age, trait anxiety and earlier levels of fatigue were predictive of fatigue, while anemia and testosterone levels were not.

CONCLUSION
Fatigue seems not to be an enduring problem for testicular cancer patients, with treatment only having an impact on fatigue levels shortly after treatment. Highly anxious patients and those who were fatigued after orchidectomy might benefit from a multidisciplinary intervention.


According to the latest EU regulations it is necessary to cut down the consumption of chemically based pesticides. Several research programmes are focussed on the study of secondary metabolites of plants, which have antimicrobial or antifungal activity against microbial phytopathogens. Other reasons for using of natural biocides are the growth of resistance of phytopathogens against several pesticides; broaden microbial attacks to significant agricultural product for food industry due to the climate changes. The presentation is focussed on the determination of the contents of secondary metabolitesleaves of several cultivars of hop - polyphenols and flavonoids. Methanol crude leaves extracts were tested on biocide effects against selected microbial phytopathogens.


Following a brief review of the fundamental principles of acoustic thermometry in the range 2-20 K, its systematic errors are analysed in depth. It is argued that the ultrasonic technique suffers from certain sources of error which are virtually impossible to assess quantitatively except on the basis of certain conjectures about the excitation of the thermometer's resonant cavity. These are essentially guesses as to the way in which the driving ultrasonic transducer vibrates. Since these conjectures cannot be checked experimentally and since we can show that no other decisive information on the size of these errors can in principle be found in ultrasonic data, there must always remain a fundamental uncertainty in ultrasonic temperature measurement. However, the most plausible types of transducer behaviour would result in negligible errors in an ultrasonic instrument such as that used by Plumb and Cataland in their recent work provided that the resonant cavity is sufficiently well aligned. But, unfortunately, it has not yet proved possible to derive quantitative criteria for good end reflector alignment in such a device. At sufficiently low frequencies none of these problems arise, but instead a correction has to be made for the effect of the acoustic boundary layer. It is argued that making this correction is a simpler matter than has usually been thought. Even in the absence of the information required to make a purely theoretical correction, a measured correction may be made relying only on a restricted set of theoretical assumptions which can easily be checked experimentally. The relative merits of different types of cavity are also discussed together with the various techniques of using them.


While we agree with most of what the authors report in this brief paper, we note that the process is already under way in Canada, challenge a few of the paper's assumptions and provide a few suggestions for and cautions in undertaking next steps. At the same time, we highlight the significant potential pay-for-performance may have in being part of the solution to the great concerns over the sustainability of our much-loved healthcare system.


Measuring the software reusability has become a prime concern in maintaining the quality of the software. Several techniques use software related metrics and measure the reusability factor of the software, but still faces lot of challenges. This work develops the software reusability estimation model for efficiently measuring the quality of the software components over the time. Here, the Rider based Neural Network has been used along with the hybrid optimization algorithm for defining the reusability factor. Initially, nine software related metrics are extracted from the software. Then, a holoentropy based log function identifies the normalized metric function and provides it to the proposed Cat Swarm Rider Optimization based Neural Network (C-RideNN) algorithm for the software reusability estimation. The proposed C-RideNN algorithm uses the existing Cat Swarm Optimization (CSO) along with the Rider Neural Network (RideNN) for the training purpose. Experimentation results of the proposed C-RideNN are evaluated based on metrics, such as Magnitude of Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Magnitude of the Relative Error (MMRE), and Standard Error of the Mean (SEM). The simulation results reveal that the proposed C-RideNN algorithm has improved performance with 0.0570 as MAE, 0.0145 as MMRE, and 0.6133 as SEM.


Currently, a number of disadvantages hampers the use of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA). The current review proves that concretes made with complete replacement of natural aggregate with RCA allow the production of high-quality concrete. One of the possibilities for improving concrete properties with RCA is the use of extended curing and pozzolanic materials with varying cement ratios. The potential use of RCA concretes is in the production of high-value materials that increase environmental and financial benefits. RCA have strong potential in the development of a new generation of concrete and stimulate economic activity in many countries in addition to optimizing natural resources. Economic benefits include minimal travel costs; cheaper sources of concrete than newly mined aggregates; reduction of the landfill area required for the placement of concrete waste; the use of RCA minimizes the need for gravel extraction, etc. The proposed strategy could be to sequentially separate demolition waste such as roof finishes, waterproof materials, interior and exterior materials, etc. Closing life cycles is the main approach used for efficient structures for the recycling and reuse of construction and demolition waste in the production and recovery of materials, especially when recycling and reusing materials. In the life cycle, the recycling of recovered materials allows them to be used for new construction purposes, avoiding the use of natural concrete aggregates. Government, design institutes, construction departments and project managers should be involved in the creation and use of RCA. In demolition and construction, the main players are the project owners. Their obligations, expectations and responsibilities must be properly aligned. For the past 20 years, recycled concrete aggregate from demolition and construction waste has been considered as an alternative to pure concrete in structural concrete to minimize the environmental impact of construction waste and demolition waste and the conversion of natural aggregate resources. It is now recognized that the use of RCA for the generations of concrete is a promising and very attractive technology for reducing the environmental impact of the construction sector and conserving natural resources. In the market, the selling price is not an obstacle for market applications of RCA, as there are scenarios in which their cost is lower than the cost of products made from conventional building materials. This is more of an acceptance factor in the market for recycled concrete aggregates. In this sector, the lack of identification, accreditation and uniform quality certification systems and their narrow application cause some marketing problems. With proper RCA preparation, concrete with standard physical and mechanical properties and performance characteristics can be obtained.


The pantograph‐catenary system, used for collecting electric energy in high‐speed trains should ideally run with low contact forces but without contact loss. Not only defects on the overhead equipment, environmental conditions become more important as the operational speed increases but also the flexibility of the pantograph components may play a role on the overhead contact. In this work a flexible multibody methodology using of the mean‐axis conditions, as reference conditions, the mode component synthesis, to reduce the number of generalized coordinates of the system and virtual bodies, to allow using all kinematic joints available for multibody modeling and application of external forces, are used to build flexible multibody pantograph models. The catenary model is build with linear finite elements in a stand‐alone code, which is co‐simulated with the multibody code to represent the complete system interaction, and the complete nonlinear dynamics of the overhead equipment. A flexible multibody model of the pantograph is described and proposed being the quality of the pantograph‐catenary contact analyzed and discussed.


The most important aim in terms of sustainable buildings is to deal with the relationship between environment and build-up environment in a new and integrated approach and in a way to enable sustainability. This approach means redefinition of the relationship among all of the urban environment, building and indoor building in the context of environmental (ecosystem), economic and social sustainability. In this context, performance measurement is carried out by creating different environmental assessment methods in many countries. Measurement results are presented as numeric values, and this situation provides easily understood, evaluated and compared results to be offered. In this study, the assumption that there is a complementary relationship among sustainable development, sustainable urbanization and sustainable buildings unlike a clear contrast is taken an essential


The FIFA Men's World Cup Tournament (WCT) is the most important football (soccer) competition, attracting worldwide attention. A popular practice among football fans in Brazil is to organize contests in which each participant informs guesses on the final score of each match. The participants are then ranked according to some scoring rule. Inspired by these contests, we created a website to hold an online contest, in which participants were asked for their probabilities on the outcomes of upcoming matches of the WCT. After each round of the tournament, the ranking of all users based on a proper scoring rule were published. This paper studies the performance of some methods intended to extract the wisdom of the crowds, which are aggregated forecasts that uses some or all of the forecasts available. The later methods are compared to simpler forecasting strategies as well as to statistical prediction models. Our findings corroborate the hypothesis that, at least for sporting events, the wisdom of the crowds offers a competitive forecasting strategy. Specifically, some of these strategies were able to achieve high scores in our contest.


The metal artifacts caused by metal copings in porcelain fused to metal (PFM) always impair MRI quality. This study aimed to compare MRI quality between common FSE T2WI with PROPELLER FSE T2WI for patients with various metal copings. Fifty-nine subjects with the most commonly used PFM were recruited and imaged at 1.5T MRI system. By comparing the image quality and artifact areas, we found PROPELLER technique was less sensitive to metal artifacts than common FSE. It can be proposed the PROPELLER FSE T2WI to be used as clinical MRI examination of oral cavity and maxillofacial part for patients with PFM.


The use of phase diversity homodyne receivers, which have excellent performance even when the laser linewidth is of the same order of magnitude as the bit rate, to construct coherent systems with semiconductor lasers and moderate bandwidth receivers is considered. Theoretical, experimental, and computer simulation results of a study of a linewidth homodyne phase-diversity receiver is presented. A 150-Mb/s system with an IF linewidth of more than 50% of the bit rate is investigated in depth and is experimentally shown to operate within 1.8 dB from its theoretical limit. >


The objective of this investigation is threefold. First, to assess the flight dynamics of an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) concept aircraft with a propeller-driven rotor. Second, to develop an automatic flight control system (AFCS) for this concept aircraft. Third, to verify the potential safety benefits of the concept aircraft by analyzing the autorotation performance following a total loss of power. The paper begins with an overview of the design of the aircraft and description of the simulation model, including a detailed discussion on the inflow model of the propellers that drive the main rotor. Next, the flight dynamics are assessed at hover and in forward flight. An AFCS based on dynamic inversion is developed to provide stability and desired response characteristics about the roll, pitch, yaw, and heave axes for speeds ranging from hover to 80 kt. Additionally, an RPM governor is implemented to hold the main rotor angular speed constant at its nominal value. Finally, simulations that make use of the AFCS are performed to analyze the autorotation performance following total loss of power.


As only a very limited number of earthquake strong ground motion records are available in southwest Western Australia (SWWA), it is difficult to derive a reliable and unbiased strong ground motion attenuation model based on these data. To overcome this, in this study a combined approach is used to simulate ground motions. First, the stochastic approach is used to simulate ground motion time histories at various epicentral distances from small earthquake events. Then, the Green's function method, with the stochastically simulated time histories as input, is used to generate large event ground motion time histories. Comparing the Fourier spectra of the simulated motions with the recorded motions of a ML6.2 event in Cadoux in June 1979 and a ML5.5 event in Meckering in January 1990, provides good evidence in support of this method. This approach is then used to simulate a series of ground motion time histories from earthquakes of varying magnitudes and distances. From the regression analyses of these simulated data, the attenuation relations of peak ground acceleration (PGA), peak ground velocity (PGV), and response spectrum of ground motions on rock site in SWWA are derived.


Copyright © 2017 by Journal of Korean Academy of Oral Health This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objectives: This study was conducted to determine whether Prunus mume extracts have an antimicrobial effect against Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) and Streptococcus sobrinus (S. sobrinus). Methods: The study used crushed and dried Prunus mume, to which 80% methanol was added to obtain extracts. The extracts then underwent a demarcation process, sequentially using hexane, chloroform, and ethyl acetate, all of which have different polarities, followed by a reduction in pressure . The disc diffusion method was then used to measure the clear zone diameter to identify the antimicrobial effect of Prunus mume extracts using the different solvents. The methanol extracts that presented antimicrobial activity against S. mutans and S. sobrinus were then selected, and their optical densities (3, 6, 9, 12, and 24 h after cultivation) were measured to identify growth retardation effects based on extract concentration (0.01, 0.1, 1, and 5 mg/ml). Results: A clear zone was observed in methanol and ethyl acetate for S. mutans when the antimicrobial effect of Prunus mume extracts of each solvent against oral microorganisms was measured via the disc diffusion method. A clear zone was observed in hexane, chloroform, methanol, and ethyl acetate, when the extracts were tested for antimicrobial activity against S. sobrinus. The extract concentration of 1 mg/ ml retarded growth with a statistical significance (P<0.05) from 6 h onwards, as determined when the optical density was measured hourly and the growth curves of S. mutans and S. sobrinus were plotted. Conclusions: Prunus mume extracts retarded the growth of S. mutans and S. sobrinus with increase in time and concentration. Therefore, Prunus mume extracts hold the potential to be used for developing an oral antimicrobial agent to control dental caries.


Automated large-scale retrieval of stereo photogrammetric DTMs of Mars fall into three categories: use of COTS software such as BAE-SOCET®; private software such as the DLR-VICAR software suite and open source solutions such as the NASA Ames Stereo Pipeline (ASP). We describe here a novel open source system developed on the back of ASP known as CASP-GO (Tao et al., 2018) which has automated and extended ASP to be able to be applied to all modern single-pass or repeat-pass stereo photogrammetric datasets from 21st century systems such as HRSC, CTX and HiRISE, CASP-GO also includes an automated co-registration system which employs HRSC (itself linked to MOLA) as the base-map upon which all other DTMs are co-registered. We show an example here of this automated co-registration system applied to multi-resolution stacks including CRISM images. Several thousand multiresolution 3D products, Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) and their corresponding orthorectified images (ORIs) have been generated and used in a wide variety of scientific studies, a few examples of which are shown here. Finally, a new method distributing these products providing long-term archiving and ease of access using DOIs is shown employing the ESA-PSA Guest Storage Facility and their corresponding display within the iMars webGIS system.


The physiological function of GABA transporters and GABA receptors in retinal horizontal cells (HCs) under dark- and light-adapted conditions were studied by whole-cell voltage clamp and intracellular recording techniques in retinal slices and whole-mounted isolated retinas of the larval tiger salamander. Puff application of GABA in picrotoxin elicited a NO-711 (a potent GABA transporter blocker)-sensitive inward current that did not exhibit a reversal potential in the physiological range, consistent with the idea that these HCs contain electrogenic GABA transporters. Application of GABA in NO-711 elicited a chloride current in HCs; about half of the current was suppressed by bicuculline or I4AA (a GABAC receptor antagonist), and the remaining half was suppressed by bicuculline + I4AA or picrotoxin. In whole-mount retinas, NO-711, bicuculline, I4AA, or picrotoxin hyperpolarized the HCs and enhanced the light responses under dark-adapted conditions, and blocked the time-dependent recovery of HC membrane potential and light responses during background illumination. Based on the parallel conductance model, GABA released in darkness mediates a chloride conductance about three times greater than the leak conductance or the glutamate-gated cation conductance. About half of this chloride conductance is mediated by GABAA receptors, and the other half is mediated by GABAC receptors. These results suggest that GABA released from HCs through the NO-711-sensitive GABA transporters activates GABAA and GABAC receptors, resulting in chloride conductance increase which leads to a HC depolarization and reduction of the light response. Additionally, GABA transporters also mediate GABA release in background light that is responsible for the recovery of HC membrane potential and light responses.


INTRODUCTION
Endoscopic placement of ureteric stents was first described in 1967 by Zimskind. Few studies have evaluated the impact of double J ureteric stents on the patient's quality of life. This prospective study was designed to evaluate the safety and morbidity associated with ureteric stents.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
From February 2001 to June 2003, 115 patients (64 men and 51 women; mean age: 49.5 years [range: 19-90]) were included in this study. Ureteric stents were placed under general anaesthesia for urolithiasis (80 cases), ureteroplasty (25 cases) and extrinsic ureteric compression (10 cases). 28 cm 7F polyurethane stents were used in every case. Patients with double J stent for renal transplantation or pregnancy were excluded. The safety of stents was evaluated on the day of removal by a questionnaire based on a 100 mm visual analogue scale (VAS).

RESULTS
The mean duration of stenting was 91.8 days (range: 10-287). Macroscopic haematuria was reported in 56% of cases, dysuria was reported in 36% of cases and urgency was reported in 78% of cases. The mean score on the VAS was 44 (0-100) for global impression, 41 (0-100) for bladder pain, 41 (0100) for low back pain, 62 (2-100) for low back pain during micturition and 32 (0-100) for straining on the stent.

CONCLUSIONS
Double J stents are associated with high morbidity, which is sometimes underestimated by operators. Our study confirms that the duration of stenting must be as short as possible in order to improve patient comfort, which implies rapid organization of the aetiological management of these patients.


This study presents a method of using shadow-speckle correlation to reconstruct a 3-dimensional (3D) tooth model. Compared with other methods based on laser or optical geometric measurements, the shadow-speckle method overcomes their limitations by using a digital image correlation to reconstruct a 3D tooth model. Using plaster models 4 times the normal tooth size showed that the accuracy of the reconstructed model was estimated at roughly 30 microm, which potentially could be used in direct intraoral applications.


PERFORMANCE OF UPLAND RICE TO THE NITROGEN RATES AFTER DIFFERENT COVER CROPS IN NO-TILL SYSTEM The area cropped in no till system has increased very fast and upland rice can be included in rotation system with other crops. Another important aspect is the adequate fertilization and nitrogen is one of nutrients uptake in higher quantity by rice. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the performance of upland rice, IAC 202 cultivar, through combination of covering crops pearl (millet, grain sorghum, corn, pigeonpea, sun hemp, velvet bean and fallow) and sidedressing nitrogen (zero, 25, 50, 75, 100, and 125 kg ha-1) in Selvíria county, Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil, in 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 growth years. The grain sorghum is a good option to provide high dry mass and recovery the soil surface but no for increasing productivity of rice in succession in no till system; the situation is inverse to pigeon pea used as cover crop; the rice productivity, in succession, in no-till system on upland is influenced differently by nitrogen fertilization, in two followed years.


Let A: be a p-adic field and let G be a reductive group defined over k. Let G be a semigroup in <#, i.e. a multiplicative subset with the same unity as G We shall assume that there exists an open compact subgroup A of à which is contained in G. Let âë(G9 A) be the free Z-module generated by the double cosets of G modulo A, with a product defined as in [3, Lemma 6]. We have an associative ring with unity which we shall call the Hecke Ring of G with respect to A. Let A0 be a normal subgroup of A satisfying our conditions H-l and H-2 of §1. Our purpose is to find generators and relations for 0t(G9 A0) = 0t. There exists a finitely generated polynomial ring Z\G~\ which together with the group ring Z[A/A0] generates 0t\ moreover 0t is a Z[A/A0]-bimodule having Z\p\ as basis. Our hypothesis H-l and H-2 are verified for the principal congruence subgroups of most of the classical groups considered in [2]. We thank Mr. J. Shalika for the helpful discussions during the preparation of this work and also for pointing out some hopes that this might bring in solving Harish-Chandra conjecture on the finite dimensionality of the irreducible continuous representations of these rings.


This paper discusses how to select causal information from medical documents, in particular the information structured by verbal locutions in French. Causal relations are represented not only by verbs, X CAUSES Y, but also by other different information, for instance a temporal order between cause and effect, different meanings of the effect, and so on. With an example, we propose how to categorize causal relations in order to obtain much more detailed information from medical documents. This method is useful to experts to increase knowledge data base, and it could help students in Medicine to understand and organize their tasks.


The hardware implementation issues for an adaptive multialphabet arithmetic coder are discussed. A simple weighted history model is proposed to encode the video data. This model uses a weighted finite buffer to model the cumulative density function of the arithmetic coder. The performance of the weighted history model is evaluated together with several other well-known models. To access, search, and update the cumulative frequencies corresponding to model symbols in real time, we present a low complexity multibase cumulative occurrence array structure that can offer the probability information for high-speed encoding and decoding. For the application in video compression, the multialphabet arithmetic coding with weighted history model can be a good choice as the variable length coding of the video symbols.


To reduce springback in U-shape of high strength steel sheet, the present paper proposes a new process parameter in U-bending technique. This paper aims to present the effect of clearance between die and pressure pad on springback behavior. The process in this work consists of four steps: (1) clamping of a sheet between a punch and a pressure pad, (2) bending with constant clamping force, (3) pushing-up at bottom of the part by using the pressure pad, and (4) final release tool. From the experimental results, decreasing of bending moment by bottom pushing-up resulted in the springback reduction. An appropriate of the clearance between die and pressure pad combined with bottom pushing-up force can be reduced springback. Our results suggested that the Y-U model, an advanced kinematic hardening, is essential for accurate numerical simulation of springback behavior.


The study determined the work values and job commitment of the non-teaching personnel of a university in an urban community. Data were collected through a questionnaire with open-ended questions and administered to 109 non-teaching personnel. This was complemented with focus group discussions by selected personnel of the different servicing units of the University. A faculty member and an administrator were interviewed to expound on the data. The study revealed that the top five work values perceived to be important by the nonteaching personnel are the following; (1) honesty and integrity, (2) dependability, (3) professionalism, (4) loyalty, and (5) adaptability. Commitment to work, which was linked to possession of positive work values, acted as a driving force for employees to perform well in the workplace. Work values and commitment are influenced by the personal values of the employee and the environment where the employee is working. There is a tendency for the non-teaching personnel to develop perceptions which may or may not reflect reality, and consequently, influenced their value system. The stakeholders in the school should together realize how they affect each other in the formulation of work values.


Research has demonstrated that asking people questions about a behaviour can lead to behaviour change. Despite many, varied studies in different domains, it is only recently that this phenomenon has been studied under the umbrella term of the question-behaviour effect (QBE) and moderators of the effect have been investigated. With a particular focus on our own contributions, this article: (1) provides an overview of QBE research; (2) reviews and offers new evidence concerning three theoretical accounts of the QBE (behavioural simulation and processing fluency; attitude accessibility; cognitive dissonance); (3) reports a new meta-analysis of QBE studies (k = 66, reporting 94 tests) focusing on methodological moderators. The findings of this meta-analysis support a small significant effect of the QBE (g = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.11, 0.18, p < .001) with smaller effect sizes observed in more carefully controlled studies that exhibit less risk of bias and (4) also considers directions for future research on the QBE, especially studies that use designs with low risk of bias and consider desirable and undesirable behaviour separately. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 8 April 2016; Accepted 29 September 2016


Malware detection plays a vital role in computer security. Modern machine learning approaches have been centered around domain knowledge for extracting malicious features. However, many potential features can be used, and it is time consuming and difficult to manually identify the best features, especially given the diverse nature of malware. In this paper, we propose Neurlux, a neural network for malware detection. Neurlux does not rely on any feature engineering, rather it learns automatically from dynamic analysis reports that detail behavioral information. Our model borrows ideas from the field of document classification, using word sequences present in the reports to predict if a report is from a malicious binary or not. We investigate the learned features of our model and show which components of the reports it tends to give the highest importance. Then, we evaluate our approach on two different datasets and report formats, showing that Neurlux improves on the state of the art and can effectively learn from the dynamic analysis reports. Furthermore, we show that our approach is portable to other malware analysis environments and generalizes to different datasets.


G. H., aet. 17, father and mother living, several other children. Patient came complaining of difficulty in using her eyes. There was a large amount of photophobia, considerable blepharitis and some conjunctivitis, the two eyes being about equally affected. There was no entropion, but the upper lids were considerably swollen and there were practically no cilia on the lower lids, about three or four, stunted in growth on each under lid. On the upper lids the cilia were more abundant, but still there were few in number and stunted in growth. The supercilia presented, however, the most striking features. They were so short and stubby on both sides, especially towards the temporal region, that I could not be persuaded that she had not burned them either intentionally or accidentally. Whilst I was examining her, the Sister Superior of the institution came in the room and at once observing the supercilia


The informative value of genotyping Plasmodium falciparum populations in single blood samples was studied before and during treatment in 13 patients with P. falciparum malaria. Genotyping of the two merozoite surface proteins (msp1 [block 2] and msp2) and the glutamate-rich protein showed multiple genotypes in seven patients, and single genotypes in the remaining six patients. The same genotype profiles were detected in consecutive samples obtained every 12 hours during treatment from the respective patients, although some genotypes were cleared earlier than others. These patterns are in contrast to the extensive daily dynamics previously described in asymptomatic infections. The genotypes detected in one pre-treatment sample thus appear to reflect the parasite subpopulations of the clinical malaria infection during the following days, and additional sampling does not provide any additional information.


Throughout of its existence, the Catholic Church has always tried to protect the most vulnerable members of society. This is proven by the fact that even the earliest Church documents show how the new church tried to alleviate some acute social problems. The religious and secular legal regulations which govern the operations of Catholic charity organisations and the whole institutional structure of these bodies were created by a long historical process which led to the birth of the current web of multiple different Catholic charities. Furthermore, these institutions are not merely NGOs or humanitarian relief agencies. Instead their activities are based upon the activities of the Founder, Jesus of Nazareth, and upon the spirit of the Gospels. Catholic charitable actions are mainly motivated by theological concepts and the social teaching of the Church even if these activities are executed by formal institutions. The current Pope expects a more active participation of national and international Catholic charities in multiple areas like looking after the poor and the refugees and in the struggle for universal peace. International cooperation, partly because of the universal nature of the Church, is not an unknown concept for the Catholic Church. Therefore, its charities are willing to work with every national and international institution, including secular governments, which work to make life on Earth more bearable for mankind. Since many contemporary humanitarian catastrophes take place in war zones, Catholic charities must find acceptable ways of cooperation with the various armed forces operating in these territories. This paper demonstrates the legal framework governing the work of Caritas Internationalis, which is the official charity service of the Holy See and which also acts as an umbrella organization for the more than 160 national Catholic Caritas bodies. In this article I will only mention these national Caritas institutions and any other international NGOs if this is necessary for the better understanding of either the international nature or the international activities of Caritas Internationalis.


Undergraduate biology educators strive to understand how to best teach students the concepts of climate change. The root of this understanding is the establishment of what students know about climate change. This research aims to describe undergraduate biology students' conceptions of climate change and their argument practices and associated cognitive biases in how they think about the topic. We used qualitative conception interviews to obtain data from 26 American biology undergraduate students who predicted how climate change would affect a forested ecosystem after an average of 1° increase in Fahrenheit (0.5°C change) over 25 years. Through deductive coding, we found the majority of students' predictions agreed with expert ideas. However, the students used various argument strategies (i.e., Reasoning and Cognitive Biases) in defending their choices, including Ecological Explanations, Observations, Anchoring, and Contrast Effects.


Marine sediments are valuable source of industrially useful enzymes. Here, we attempted isolation, screening and identification of bacterial strains from marine sediments which produce industrially important enzymes amylase and catalase. Marine sediment samples were collected and cultured on zobell marine agar medium. After incubation, the isolates that showed amylase and catalase activity were selected for the assay. The strains AM01 and Ca07 showed the highest amylase and catalase activity, respectively. The selected strains were further sequenced for identification. Morphological studies indicated that the isolates were Gram  ve, rod shaped and non-motile organism. The phenotypic characterization and 16S rRNA of the strains AM01 and Ca07 revealed them to be Klebsiella pneumoniae and K. quasipneumoniae ,


At present, biosimilar projects are ruling the pharma market. This article aims to show that project management is crucialin developing biosimilars. Bad project management will give a bad reputation to the organization, project cost overruns, projectschedule delays, demotivation of the project team, sustainability risk to the organization, and more over huge loss. It is the main reasonmost companies are spending more on the training of employees, particularly on project management. Biosimilars are biologicalproducts that are highly similar to a reference product despite modest changes in therapeutically inactive components. Biosimilarshave no clinically significant changes in product safety, purity, or potency compared to the reference product. With the imminentpatent expiration of certain important high-cost biologics, biosimilar manufacture is becoming increasingly profitable for firms.However, the introduction of biosimilars necessitates the adoption of critical new rules. Because of the inherent differences involvedwith the production methods used by different companies and even different sites within the same company, the existing standardsthat regulate the approval pathways for generic pharmaceuticals are insufficient for biosimilars. Biosimilars are similar to but notidentical to the original. Due to the exclusive nature of the manufacturing line and the techniques employed by these competitors,basic variances in methodology may exist between competing organizations. Even modest variations in the manufacturing process canresult in micro heterogeneity, characterized by minor differences in molecular structure, stability, production cell line behavior, growthconditions, vectors, and purification methods. For these reasons, developing biosimilars takes a lot of work.1 CBER regulatesbiosimilars in the US Market. The reference Medicine's Patent status and market potential should be considered when developingbiosimilars. The main objective of this article is to show that the project management strategies and regulatory approval process areequally important to enter biosimilars into the market. Concerning quality in the project management of biosimilar products, budget,deadlines, and scopes are major constraints. A Gantt chart has been enacted to represent a graphical illustration of a schedule. Ganttchart helps to plan, coordinate, and track specific tasks in a project.


The effects of oral contraceptives on glucose tolerance are discussed. After defining the concepts of glucose tolerance glucose intolerance clinical diabetes chemical diabetes latent diabetes and prediabetes the author reviews the literature on the subject. He concludes that steroid contraceptives always have a deleterious effect on glucose tolerance although not usually to the point of causing diabetes. The diabetic-risk patient is typically older a multipara with a history of heavy birth-weight babies and overweight and a family history of diabetetes. (AUTHORS MODIFIED)


PURPOSE
To estimate the intraocular pressure (IOP)-lowering effect of prostaglandin analogs (PGAs) administered in combination with β-blockers.

METHODS
We searched the Medline and Embase databases for randomized trials comparing topical therapies with PGAs and timolol administered as monotherapy (Mt), or in fixed (FC) or unfixed combinations (UC) to patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension. The efficacy endpoint was the mean difference (MeD) in the reduction in IOP from baseline; the tolerability endpoint was the incidence of hyperemia.

RESULTS
The 18 eligible trials involved 23 comparisons of FC versus Mt, and 5 of FC versus UC. The FCs were less efficacious than UCs (MeD: 0.69, 95% CI: 0.29 to 1.08). In comparison with timolol Mt, the latanoprost/timolol FC led to a greater IOP reduction (MeD: -2.74, 95% CI: -3.24 to -2.23) than the bimatoprost/timolol FC (MeD: -1.49, 95% CI: -1.86 to -1.12) or the travoprost/timolol FC (MeD: -1.93, 95%CI: -2.98 to -0.88). The FCs led to a lower hyperemia risk than UCs [relative risk (RR): 0.70, 95% CI: 0.43 to 1.14] and PGA Mt (RR: 0.61, 95% CI: 0.53 to 0.70).

CONCLUSIONS
FCs are more efficacious than their individual components, but less efficacious than their respective UCs. FCs lead to a lower hyperemia risk than UCs and their respective PGA Mts.


Ni/Zn/Al hydrotalcites (Ni/Zn/Al-HT) with different Ni/Zn ratios have been prepared by a coprecipitation method. The properties and microstructure of Ni/Zn/Al-HT precursors and derived catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), H2-temperature programmed reduction (TPR), N2 physical adsorption analysis (BET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and particle size distribution. The results exhibited that the as-prepared samples consisted of a hydrotalcite phase and a ZnO phase, and Zn2+ was introduced into the layers. At the ratio of Ni/Zn = 1, the ZnAl2O4 phase emerged after calcination; Ni still remained in its original state after reaction, and ZnO always existed during the whole process. In aqueous-phase reforming (APR) of ethylene glycol, the H2 production rate over Ni/Zn/Al-HT was high, and the selectivity of H2 can almost reach 100% with a high conversion rate exceeding 99%.


By adjusting the amount of AgNO3, hollow and porous silver bismuth vanadate (Ag/BiVO4) composites were synthesized by a one-step method using ethylene glycol and water as solvents, and L-lysine as a surfactant. The as-synthesized samples were characterized by XRD, XPS, SEM, TEM (HRTEM), UV-vis DRS, PL and nitrogen adsorption–desorption techniques. The effect of the amount of AgNO3 on the morphology of the products was investigated and using the right amount of AgNO3 was essential to obtain the hollow and porous structure. A possible mechanism for the growth of the composites was proposed. The photocatalytic performance of the composites was evaluated for the degradation of methylene blue and rhodamine-B in an aqueous solution under visible-light irradiation. The Ag/BiVO4 composites showed excellent photocatalytic activity at a silver content of 6.5 wt%. The 6.5 wt% Ag/BiVO4 catalyst performed better than BiVO4 as well as better than the Ag-doped BiVO4 prepared by a photoreduction method. There is a strong relationship between photocatalytic performance and the structure of catalysts. It was deduced that the excellent photocatalytic activity of 6.5 wt% Ag/BiVO4 is due to its hollow and porous structure, large specific surface area, and Ag/BiVO4 interfaces.


The synagogue evolution of the West is part of a larger trend in synagogue history in the United States. Jews were historically a group with limited freedoms in Europe, but upon immigrating to America, they were able to express themselves more openly. One of the major ways in which they expressed themselves were the designs of their synagogues. Often meant to represent some larger value, such as democracy or a return to tradition, synagogues became focal points of both religious worship and Jewish identity. Congregation Har HaShem, a synagogue in Boulder, Colorado, was founded nearly two hundred years after the first Jews began innovating in the United States, but it represented a new chapter in the history of the synagogue: total freedom. The East Coast had offered Jews an inlet into a wider culture that had been closed to them in Europe, but the frontier allowed Jews to take their expression a step further. No longer did they have to buy into American culture to protect themselves, but rather they were able to shape American culture and themselves free of fear. Har HaShem was a small synagogue that represented a minority population in a frontier community, but it was a congregation that found a unique identity through its geography, ideology, and architecture.


The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between teachers' self-compassion, forgiveness, and resilience. For this purpose, a total of 410 volunteer teachers, 222 women and 188 men, working in schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education were reached. In the study, in which the relational screening model was used, the "Personal Information Form," the "Self-Compassion Scale," the "Heartland Forgiveness Scale," and the "Psychological Resilience Scale" were applied to the teachers. Pearson product moment correlation coefficient analysis, independent samples t-test, one-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Kruskal-Wallis H-test were used to analyze the data. According to the data obtained from the study, there is a statistically significant relationship between teachers' self-compassion, forgiveness, and resilience. In addition, it was found that the scores for self-compassion and forgiveness differed significantly depending on the variables of gender and birth order, forgiveness depending on the variable of marital status, self-compassion and psychological resilience depending on the variable of seniority, and psychological resilience depending on the variable of industry. The results of the study were discussed, and suggestions for future studies were presented.


Twenty-seven Suffolk castles were built between 1066 and 1200. This thesis summarises the modern multi-disciplinary surveys of six of them, with the objective of identifying their location, morphology, form and function. The majority of Suffolk castles were built between the late 11th and mid-H-century and reached their largest number during the civil wars cA 135-54. However, a few remained operational after c.1200 and those that did are characterised as either royal or baronial caput castles. Moreover, almost all Suffolk castles were originally earth and timber, whereas the surviving examples were rebuilt in stone before c.1300. Therefore, those castles that survived beyond or were established after c.1200 are unrepresentative. Instead this thesis focuses on the period 1066 to 1200, when the more common sub-baronial, earth and timber Suffolk castles were evidenced. Chapter one identifies the key issues. Chapter two critiques each of the current models in castle studies before rejecting them in favour of a modified Annates model. Chapter three identifies the constraints of the tongue duree, identified as the environmental factors, defined as the climate, topography, geology, hydrology and timber supply in the vicinity of the castle. Chapter four identifies societal constraints, which are sub-divided into structural, social and cultural, and focuses on the Abbey of St Edmund's, its cult, viceroyship, ecclesiastical autonomy and barony, its relationship with the new elite and how it influenced castle building. Chapter five focuses on three of the six surveyed castle earthworks to establish the evenement level of the model, which identifies the castle building agents and the specific historical and political context in which these castles were built. Chapter six brings the different sources and levels of data together to offer a new model, a more nuanced definition of a castle and a comprehensive assessment of the conflicting demands of the catalysts and constraints operating upon the construction of castles in Suffolk. In this it is supported by over two hundred figures and plans, numerous tables, a comprehensive set of appendices and an extensive bibliography.


A new couple of enantiomeric chiral cyclometalated platinum(II) complexes Pt(La)(CC–Ph) (1a) and Pt(Lb)(CC–Ph) (1b) (La = (−)-4,5-pinene-6′-phenyl-2,2′-bipyridine, Lb = (+)-4,5-pinene-6′-phenyl-2,2′-bipyridine) have been designed and synthesized. These complexes were found to undergo crystal transformation upon exposure to dichloromethane vapor, resulting in slight changes of vapochromism/vapoluminescence but very distinct chiroptical switching behaviour. Single crystal X-ray diffraction studies revealed that the two polymorphs (Form-Y and Form-O) of complexes 1a/1b display dissimilar molecular arrangements as well as inter-molecular interactions, which are responsible for the switching behaviour in electronic circular dichroism (ECD) and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra. The vapor-induced chiroptical switching behaviour in these platinum(II) complexes is unique and may lead to novel chiroptical sensing applications.


Kaiin EM, Prasetyo AT, Gunawan M, Setiatin ET, Ondho YS. 2020. Supplementation of follicular fluid into Garut sheep (Ovis aries) oocytes in vitro maturation media. Pros Sem Nas Masy Biodiv Indon 6: 532-536. The study was conducted to determine the effect of supplementation of sheep ovarian follicular fluid added to the oocyte maturation media on the rate of expansion of cumulus cells and the appearance of polar bodies I. Follicular fluid collected from the ovaries of Garut sheep and stored at -20°C before use. The treatment of adding follicular fluid with concentrations of 0 (control), 10, 20 and 30% in the M-199 maturation medium was used for in vitro maturation of sheep oocyte, then cultured in a 5% CO2 incubator with temperature 38.5oC for 22-24 hours. Sheep oocytes used were graded A and B with 7 replications. Data were analyzed by non-parametric statistical tests for Complete Random Design (CRD) and Duncan's follow-up test. The observation of the rate of expansion of cumulus cells showed no significant difference between treatments. Addition of Garut sheep ovarian follicular fluid in oocyte maturation media had a significant effect on the appearance of polar I bodies with the highest value (56%) in the treatment of 30% follicular fluid addition. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the addition of follicular fluid into the maturation medium influences the appearance of the polar I body which is the main characteristic of oocyte maturation.


In this paper, we proposed a novel approach for detecting cuts and dissolves based on the analysis of spatio-temporal slice obtained from videos. The approach consists of three parts: preprocessing, Hough transform and post-processing. In the part of pre-processing, a background image was obtained based on an assumption. And then mapped the background image into polar Hough parameter space. The experimental results indicate that our method is universal, efficient and robust.


Platinum-based combination chemotherapy has been utilized in the neoadjuvant setting in locally advanced inoperable cervical cancer with the aim of improving response and survival. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy can be followed by either radiation therapy (RT) or by surgery in cases in which it seems to be appropriate. Available data indicate that preradiation chemotherapy yields no survival advantage over RT alone. However, presurgery chemotherapy may increase resectability in women with locally advanced cervical cancer to around 70 percent. Nonrandomized trials of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by surgery have shown some improvement in the outcome. Prospective randomized trials are needed to evaluate this approach as compared with RT alone and to define its precise role in locally advanced cervical cancer.


This paper presents a new wavelet domain watermarking method, the carrier image using wavelet decomposition. After the Walsh transform low frequency wavelet coefficients, calculated by block adaptive embedding strength, modify the wavelet coefficients of each block, and then do singular value decomposition (SVD), repeat on embedded watermark in the singular value. Fractional part of the anti-transformed image is saved, correction of the watermarked image can be accurately extracted watermark. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can effectively resist cutting, scaling, translation and other geometric attacks, attacks in general are also robust.


Reliable and efficient estimation of the size of a dynamically changing cluster in an IoT network is critical in its nominal operation. Most previous estimation schemes worked with relatively smaller frame size and large number of rounds. Here we propose a new estimator named \textquotedblleft Gaussian Estimator of Active Nodes,\textquotedblright (GEAN), that works with large enough frame size under which testing statistics is well approximated as a Gaussian variable, thereby requiring less number of frames, and thus less total number of channel slots to attain a desired accuracy in estimation. More specifically, the selection of the frame size is done according to Triangular Array Central Limit Theorem which also enables us to quantify the approximation error. Larger frame size helps the statistical average to converge faster to the ensemble mean of the estimator and the quantification of the approximation error helps to determine the number of rounds to keep up with the accuracy requirements. We present the analysis of our scheme under two different channel models i.e. $ \{0,1 \} $ and $ \{0,1,e \} $, whereas all previous schemes worked only under $ \{0,1 \} $ channel model. The overall performance of GEAN is better than the previously proposed schemes considering the number of slots required for estimation to achieve a given level of estimation accuracy.


Abstract The β Pic disk of dust and gas has been regarded as the prototype of young planetary systems since the 1980s and has revealed over the years an impressive amount of indirect signs pointing toward the presence of at least one giant planet. We present here the recently detected first giant planet around this star. We show how this planet could explain some very peculiar features of the star environment (disk, spectroscopic variability), and how it constrains the scenarios of planetary system formation (timescales, mechanisms).


The present study attempts to determine the neutral technology, non-neutral technology and input use contribution differences between large and small sugarcane farms. Decomposition technique was used to achieve the study objectives. The contributions of neutral and non-neutral technologies were in favour of large farms. The input use contribution difference of large farms appeared to do better than small farms in sugarcane production. The study revealed that the highest input use contributing factor differences obtained by fertilizer followed by labour, pesticides with seed, and capital between large and small farms. The large sugarcane farms were more productive than small farms


This paper proposes an 'environmental friendly technology transfer model' (EFTTM) to facilitate the process of the transfer of environmental technology for the ASEAN countries. A survey was conducted to validate the proposed model in which four ASEAN countries participated. The result of the survey is discussed.


This paper presents a unique insight into the way acousticians, computing specialists and sound designers describe the dimensions of sound they use. Seventy-five audio professionals completed a detailed questionnaire created to elicit common definitions of the words noise and soundscape, and to establish common methods of reifying sound, architectural acoustics and hearing abilities. The responses in have contributed to a better understanding of sound from a practitioner's perspective, the impact of the physical environment on sound perception and also effects experienced by those with hearing difficulties. We report a method of data analysis and that is appropriate for use by diverse groups of professionals engaged in the design and evaluation of auditory displays for shared environments. This research suggests that a far simpler approach to the measurement and evaluation of sounds and soundscapes is practiced than might be assumed from studying the exhaustive lists of measures and methods detailed in current textbooks and published standards.


Color postcard of Japanese cherry blossoms in full bloom on Riverside Drive in Washington, D.C. The Washington Monument is in the center background, and the Potomac River is in the right foreground. The postcard is unused, but the message side has a printed note: "These beautiful Japanese Cherry Blossom Trees which line Riverside Drive, Potomac Park, are a gift of the Japanese Government to the United States Government. In the Spring of the year they are a most beautiful sight and might suggest to the traveler a scene in old Nippon itself." The front of the postcard has a white border.


This paper presents ongoing work toward the development of one-handed interaction techniques for mobile devices with a small touch-screen. This work comprises three main parts: the analysis of the state of the art, the development and the evaluation of novel interaction techniques, a proposal of tools that would help designing new techniques. This paper presents the work that has been already performed on the first two phases and some ideas for developing the last phase.


Haploid cells are useful for studying gene functions because disruption of a single allele can cause loss-of-function phenotypes. Recent success in generating haploid embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in mice, rats, and monkeys provides a new platform for simple genetic manipulation of the mammalian genome. Use of haploid ESCs enhances the genome-editing potential of the CRISPR/Cas system. For example, CRISPR/Cas was used in haploid ESCs to generate multiple knockouts and large deletions at high efficiency. In addition, genome-wide screening is facilitated by haploid cell lines containing gene knockout libraries.


Elliptical centric contrast-enhanced MR angiography of the cervical vasculature is a well-established technique that in many practices has replaced conventional angiography for several clinical indications, including atherosclerotic disease and dissections. Occasionally blurring or loss of signal intensity occurs in the vertebral arteries, especially in young patients with rapid circulation times. This ringing artifact, which we termed "feathering," results from rapidly changing signal intensity in small vascular structures during the sampling of the center of k-space.


In this paper it is presented an historical overview of the IEEE Spain section from 1968 to 2008 and the influence of the people of this Section in the Spanish scientific-technical system. The IEEE Spain Section was recognized inside Region 8 of the IEEE in April 1968. The section has had nine chairs from 1968 to 2008. Aspects as historical frames of reference in Spain and, data, facts and activities of the volunteers in different time intervals are remembered. These aspects are related with the membership, and student branches and your evolution, participation in Region 8 activities, meetings and conferences, and legal aspects affiliated with the recognized presence as professional institution in Spain.


Up to the cap-stage the lateral enamel strand extends from the dental lamina to the tip of the tongue-like projection of the enamel organ, forming there a swelling. It does not reach the free margin of the enamel organ at the bell-stage. The lateral enamel strand gradually becomes smaller in regard to the tooth germ, changing its relative position to the mesial half of the latter, and finally degenerates. In the molar germ, as the epithelial tongue-like projection at the cap-stage increases in length to become an interradical process, the lateral enamel strand extends as a crest on the buccal interradical process. The direction of the lateral enamel strand is inverse in the maxillary molar germs.


Current models of idiom representation and processing differ with respect to the role of literal processing during the interpretation of idiomatic expressions. Word-like models (Bobrow & Bell, 1973; Swinney & Cutler, 1979) propose that idiomatic meaning can be accessed directly, whereas structural models (Cacciari & Tabossi, 1988; Cutting & Bock, 1997; Sprenger, Levelt, & Kempen, 2006) propose that literal processing is crucial in the access of idiomatic meaning. We used a self-paced reading task to examine how contextual expectations influence real-time processing of phrasal verbs that are ambiguous between a literal and idiomatic sense (e.g., look up, turn in) and how comprehenders recover from expectations that are revealed to be incorrect. Our results suggest that when comprehenders expect a literal interpretation in a situation where the sentence turns out to be idiomatic, real-time processing is disrupted more than if comprehenders are expecting an idiomatic interpretation and the sentence turns out to be literal. We interpret our results in favor of models of idiom processing that propose obligatory literal processing (e.g., Cacciari & Tabossi, 1988; Cutting & Bock, 1997; Sprenger et al., 2006). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).


The serine/threonine protein phosphatase SLP2 is mitochondrial intermembrane space localized and redox activated by the oxidoreductase Mia40. Reversible protein phosphorylation catalyzed by protein kinases and phosphatases represents the most prolific and well-characterized posttranslational modification known. Here, we demonstrate that Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) Shewanella-like protein phosphatase 2 (AtSLP2) is a bona fide Ser/Thr protein phosphatase that is targeted to the mitochondrial intermembrane space (IMS) where it interacts with the mitochondrial oxidoreductase import and assembly protein 40 (AtMIA40), forming a protein complex. Interaction with AtMIA40 is necessary for the phosphatase activity of AtSLP2 and is dependent on the formation of disulfide bridges on AtSLP2. Furthermore, by utilizing atslp2 null mutant, AtSLP2 complemented and AtSLP2 overexpressing plants, we identify a function for the AtSLP2-AtMIA40 complex in negatively regulating gibberellic acid-related processes during seed germination. Results presented here characterize a mitochondrial IMS-localized protein phosphatase identified in photosynthetic eukaryotes as well as a protein phosphatase target of the highly conserved eukaryotic MIA40 IMS oxidoreductase.


Abstract: Aptroot, A. 2016. The first European Willeya (Verrucariaceae) on limestone brought from China. — Herzogia 29: 688–691. The new species Willeya tetraspora is described from a Botanical Garden in the Netherlands, where it grows on naturally shaped limestone that was imported from China. It differs from all other species in the genus by the 4-spored asci, and also from most species by the globose hymenial algae. It is the first species of the genus reported from Europe. Its natural distribution is in China, where this species remains to be found, but several similar taxa are known.


Four new species of Alloraphes Franz are described: A. opticus sp. n. (French Guiana), A. cayennensis sp. n. (French Guiana), A. iyonolanus sp. n. (Saint Lucia), and A. ecuadoranus sp. n. (Ecuador). They all represent the first records of Alloraphes in the listed countries. New records are given for A. jamaicae Franz, and A. yucatani Franz; the latter species, previously known to occur in Mexico (Campeche), is for the first time reported to occur also in Guatemala.


This paper argues that medical residents who do most of the hard work in big hospitals and medical colleges are overworked. A hierarchical organizational structure, staffing patterns, and fear of failure in examinations leads to overwork among residents going unreported. This can lead to poor academic performance and research work. Gaps in communication have serious implications on patient health. Undesirable practices like LAMA (leave against medical advice) also result from overwork. Issues of pay and contracts including mandatory service need to be looked into carefully. National and international recommendations on work hours have consistently been ignored. The solutions suggested are simple and easy to implement.


Abstract Drifting reefs of Sargassum (a brown alga) are used by a variety of pelagic seabirds in the western Atlantic Ocean. We examined gut contents from 964 individuals of 39 seabird species collected 5 to 60 km off the coast of North Carolina for evidence of Sargassum use. Sargassum pieces or Sargassum-associated prey were found in nine of 10 Procellariiformes species and less frequently among Charadriiformes (12 of 25 species). No Sargassum-associated prey was found in Pelecaniformes examined, but observational data indicated that Atlantic tropicbirds (Phaethon lepturus and P. aethereus) and Masked Boobies (Sula dactylatra) commonly foraged over Sargassum. Four species were considered Sargassum specialists, having frequencies of occurrence >25% and high volumes of Sargassum-associated prey: Audubon's Shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri), Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus), Bridled Tern (Onychoprion anaethetus), and Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus). Seven species fed in Sargassum to a lesser extent, and nine species had ingested Sargassum pieces, but contained no Sargassum-associated prey. It is likely that other seabird species forage regularly over Sargassum, as our conclusions are based on relatively small sample sizes taken during random sampling in the open ocean. Our conservative analysis and extensive observational data indicate the Sargassum community is critical for feeding for some western North Atlantic seabirds. Degradation of Sargassum habitats by oil development, harvest, and/or ocean acidification would undoubtedly have negative effects on fitness of these birds.


In this paper, I show that traditional earnings related pay-as-you-go pension systems as we see them in many OECD countries subsidize human capital formation. The reason is that these systems come along with an implicit tax structure that features high tax rates at the beginning of working life and low tax rates toward the end. When the costs of human capital investment are mainly time costs, such an implicit tax structure lowers the costs of human capital investments and simultaneously increases the payoff. The fact that higher skilled workers tend to have steeper wage profiles over the working phase than the unskilled enforces this mechanism. I first show this result in a simple analytical model and then quantify the macroeconomic and welfare effects of making the implicit tax structure age independent in a large-scale overlapping generation model, in which households can invest in human capital both by going to college and through on-the-job training. In terms of welfare, such a reform comes along with a lot of intergenerational redistribution. Although the welfare of current retirees may increase by about 4.5% of their remaining life-time resources, current older workers will lose due to an increase in their implicit tax rates. The welfare of future generations slightly declines by 0.1%.


Background. Implementation of the Smart Grid concept in Ukraine is under consideration, and it should become an integral part of the electricity distribution systems planning. One of the outstanding issues is exchanging the information on the distribution systems development between all stakeholders using modern information and communication solutions.
Objective. The purpose of the research is to develop a generalized model of information platform for electricity distribution system planning and expansion of Smart Grid technologies in the energy system of Ukraine.
Methods. The experience of the European Union (EU) in electricity distribution system planning, and specifically, the organization of interaction between stakeholders was analyzed. With the help of a system approach, the requirements of the existing in Ukraine laws and regulations on electricity distribution system planning were investigated. The model structure of the proposed information platform was formalized by the graphical tools of the unified modeling language (UML).
Results. It is determined that the EU organizes the information exchange for the purposes of electricity distribution system planning, using different tools in parallel: specialized institutions for communication of stakeholders; cooperation of energy regulators; reports of scientific institutions about Smart Grid project implementation; information technology platforms for modeling the electricity distribution system in cooperation with its users. The existing in Ukraine scheme of interaction between all actors directly or indirectly involved in electricity distribution system planning was investigated; it was proposed to develop an information technology platform "Ukrainian Smart Energy – USE" to eliminate the identified negative aspects of information exchange between the actors. The generalized structure of the USE platform was formalized using a UML class diagram; it shows the content of data available for viewing and required for publication by different classes of the platform users, depending on their functions.
Conclusions. The proposed model of information platform USE is the basis for further investigations directed to develop an appropriate information technology platform.


The endothelial dysfunction is considered to be an initial step in atherosclerosis. Additionally, it was reported that the smooth muscle, which constructs the media of the artery, changes its characteristics owing to atherosclerosis. Therefore, it is essential to develop a method of assessing the regional endothelial function and mechanical properties of the arterial wall. To evaluate the endothelial function, a conventional technique of measuring the transient change in the diameter of the brachial artery caused by flow-mediated dilation (FMD) after the release of avascularization is used. However, this method can not evaluate the mechanical properties of the wall. We previously developed a method for the simultaneous measurements of waveforms of radial strain and blood pressure in the radial artery. In this study, the viscoelasticity of the arterial wall was estimated from the measured stress–strain relationship using the least-squares method and the transient changes in the mechanical properties of the arterial wall ware revealed. From in vivo experimental results, the stress–strain relationship showed a hysteresis loop and viscoelasticity was estimated by the proposed method. The slope of the loop decreased owing to FMD, which resulted in the decrease in estimated elastic modulus. The increase in the area of the loop occurred after recirculation, which corresponds to the increase in the ratio of the loss modulus (depends on viscosity) to the elastic modulus when the Voigt model is assumed. In this study, the variance in estimates was evaluated by in vivo measurement for 10 min. The temporal decrease in static elasticity after recirculation due to FMD was much larger than the evaluated variance. These results show a potential of the proposed method for the thorough analysis of the transient change in viscoelasticity due to FMD.


Channel pruning can significantly accelerate and compress deep neural networks. Many channel pruning works utilize structured sparsity regularization to zero out all the weights in some channels and automatically obtain structure-sparse network in training stage. However, these methods apply structured sparsity regularization on each layer separately where the correlations between consecutive layers are omitted. In this paper, we first combine one out-channel in current layer and the corresponding in-channel in next layer as a regularization group, namely out-in-channel. Our proposed Out-In-Channel Sparsity Regularization (OICSR) considers correlations between successive layers to further retain predictive power of the compact network. Training with OICSR thoroughly transfers discriminative features into a fraction of out-in-channels. Correspondingly, OICSR measures channel importance based on statistics computed from two consecutive layers, not individual layer. Finally, a global greedy pruning algorithm is designed to remove redundant out-in-channels in an iterative way. Our method is comprehensively evaluated with various CNN architectures including CifarNet, AlexNet, ResNet, DenseNet and PreActSeNet on CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100 and ImageNet-1K datasets. Notably, on ImageNet-1K, we reduce 37.2% FLOPs on ResNet-50 while outperforming the original model by 0.22% top-1 accuracy.


Anxieties, depression, fear, depressive disorders are symptoms, which may be the part of physiological feeling with incurable disease, especially when the diagnosis is informed. Sometimes, the assumption of difficult news, related to worsening of health and even risk to life can lead to fatal consequences. For family physicians and other professionals, who are involved in palliative care, it is important to be able to diagnose the worsening of patients' psycho-emotional state in time, in order to provide professional psychological support.
In this article, the results of research of level of difficulty of depressive disorders in palliative patients depending on different demographic and social data are presented, which can be modified with changing attitudes towards these patients (when ensuring correct communication and managing of the palliative patient by the family physician).
The research has shown that socio-demographic indicators significantly affect the forming of state of depression in palliative patients, and require appropriate communication between the family physician and the patient, and the organization of additional measures for managing these patients. Special attention should be given to some results of research when providing palliative care, in particular: depression of different level of difficulty, based on the PHQ-9 scale was found in 81 % of palliative patients; it was set that 90 % of people, aged of 75–90 years had depression of different level of difficulty; it was determined that all patients with high income had depression, among them 16.7 % of light and 58.3 % of moderate level of difficulty, that can be considered as a neurotic reaction of incurable disease. Depression was found in all unmarried patients, among them 35 % of light and 35 % of moderate level of difficulty, and 30 % of patients with high level as well, that significantly predominate over the number of married people (4.1 %) and widows 14 %), that may indicate character traits, which complicate the adaptation of behavioral reactions on stress factors , including to the disease. Depression was found in all unmarried patients, among them 35 % of light and 35 % of moderate level of difficulty, and 30 % of patients with high level as well, that significantly predominate over the number of married people (4.1 %) and widows 14 %), that may indicate character traits, which complicate the adaptation of behavioral reactions on stress factors, including to the disease. Such patients need additional psychological support for reducing their suffering, in particular for preventing of mental genesis pains.
According to the indicators of various socio-demographic parameters, the portrait of the most vulnerable palliative patients was determined: they are women of age group 75–89 years, living in the city, by civil state – single (additional depressive factor can be assumed – long-term loneliness), by social status – pensioners with Higher Education and high income, based on a scale of PHQ-9 >20 points, that corresponds to the diagnosis: depressive syndome of heavy level.


: In a three weeks study, efficacy and local tolerance of 0.05% diflorasone diacetate (Florone) cream and ointment were tested in 60 patients suffering from eczematous dermatosis or dermatitis. The results have been judged by 8 signs of improvement and are presented in a chart. Both formulations showed an efficacy of 95% during the 21-day duration of therapy. Side effects were rarely observed.


When it is desired to measure the temporal evolution of the flow of a river in torrential, kinematic methods (reel, electromagnetic current meter) are not appropriate, because of turbulent flow types. Dynamic for their methods (weirs, calibrated items) require fixed installations whose costs do not generally fall into the budgets allocated. The method of choice is the chemical gauging or dilution method. It involves injecting a known amount of chemical and continuously measuring the concentration in the water downstream of the injection point. The substance may be ionic in nature (salt). Its concentration is then deduced from the increase in the electrical conductivity of the water. But usually a fluorescent tracer is used as the sensitivity of the measuring device (the fluorometer) is much higher. Indeed, for equivalent signal to noise ratio, 1 gram of uranine is equivalent to 5 kg of salt. To study the temporal variation of a stream flow, we repeat the measurement at regular intervals. For this purpose, we developed a mechanical injection system based on the rain gauge bucket. This device periodically delivers a constant mass of tracer at a concentrated solution. A suitable distance from the injection site, we set a field fluorometer. At the end of work, successive measurements of the concentration of tracer are used to calculate the temporal evolution of the flow of the water.


Generally, the variation of meteorological conditions has a significant influence on the agriculture sector. In Tanzania, most of the existing automatic meteorological stations are not working, and during the data collection the surveyed manual meteorological stations record meteorological data in the cards daily, but cards are sent in a month to month time interval to the respective organs, this makes the concept of early warning difficult. Therefore, having near-real-time meteorological data will enable crop monitoring and forecasting systems to monitor crop development and provide early warning to the farmers and the government. The advancement of the Internet of Things (IoT) offers possibilities for developing an integrated sensors network to collect meteorological data on a near real-time basis. In his study, the developed integrated sensor network includes sensors, which record remote meteorological data such as rainfall, humidity and temperature, a communication network, and a web application that enhance data visualisation in both graphical and tabular format. In the communication system, the LoRa technology was used, which is preferable compared to other Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN), technologies such as NB-IoT and SigFox for this application. The developed system uses the LoRa Gateway Operating system which provides capabilities to build a private network, and make it more cost-efficient by reducing the operation cost for account subscription, in online platforms such as The Things Network (TTN), ThingPark, ThingSpeak, and Loriot to avoid free accounts limitations. Moreover, the developed system can work in remote areas with limited Internet access as the meteorological stations can communicate with the gateway at a distance of up to 25 km.